Windows 7 Building a PC for win 7

[kevin from Chi-town]

I have a little money designated to build a cheap pc.
Going with...
-MB GIGABYTE GA-MA78G-DS3HP AM2+ RTL -Mobo
-VGA EVGA 256-P2-N733-LR 8400GS 256M-vid card
-MEM 2Gx2|GSK F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ R-4 gig GSkill Ram
-CPU AMD|A64 X2 5000 2.6G AM2 65N R-cpu
using with a Antec case w/500 watt ps and a 250 gig HD I already own. Last PC I built was on a 939 board. I like gigabyte boards. I used to like crucial RAM, but recent experiences have made look elsewhere. This Rig will only set me back 200 dollars...but should be alot faster than the Athlon 64 on the 754 board I'm using now. This will be used strictly for this beta, and testing many other MS products with it. The Video card is cheap and will be replaced in the future along with probably the power supply. What do you think?

 

[Kyle]

Looks like a pretty solid test rig.
Only thing is, I might not go with GSkill RAM, people have been having problems with their PC2-6400 RAM and the 7 Beta.

But other than that, it sounds like a decent build.

 

[Radenight]

I second that.. It does sound like you've got a good test rig in mind there.. I agree with Kyle on not using the Gskill ram though.. I've built test rigs with that ram before and never had much luck with it.. for just a $200 test rig I'd even use Kingston Value Ram.. But if your looking for something with a bit more power/speed to it I'd go with Crucial or the Corsair Value line (being that it's just a test rig, top of the line ram wouldn't be a necessity I'm assuming.. ) Other than that I think you'll find some solid performance out of that rig for testing purposes... Let us know how ya make out with the build.. there's ALMOST nothing more satisfying than the feeling ya get after a successful comp build...

 

[jimbo45]

Hi Guys --not sure what the problem is with Kingston RAM --I've used this stuff for "Donkeys Years" without any problems --and it's usually cheaper than other options.
Choose a decent Video card --and ensure if you are using an onboard LAN that the LAN card works with W7 --this is my main issue with W7 some wretched Lan cards just don't seem to work even though drivers install fine and device manager reports no errors.

If you are building your own system then ensure you can fit at least 8GB (preferably 16 GB) of RAM in it -- although for testing even W7 X-64 runs quite OK on as little as 2GB of RAM. I'd put 4GB in as a minimum - if your MOBO only has 2 memory slots fill up 1 slot with a 4GB module so you don't waste 2GB when upgrading later.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[kevin from Chi-town]

hey guys

thanks for the input. I'm going to have to try the Gskill...kyle replyed after I ordered it from newegg. At least now I know what to look for. If it doesn't work, theres a tigerdirect 15 minutes away and I'll just sent back the gskill to newegg. Theres 4 slots on the mobo, so I'm going with 2 gig sticks. As far as the LAN goes, I have a pretty healthy supply of NICs around in case of onboard failure, as well as a few Nvidia 84 to 8600s around . This is being built tonite when I get home. The only question i have is do I go with the newer 32bit build or the 64 bit 7000?

I'm partial to the 64, but what use will it be if some of the legacy prograns still don't work, especially on 7.

 

[loathe]

Im using G.SKILL not the PC6400 but the PC8500 though. Ive had no problems at all. In fact it is the best RAM Ive used in a while and these things can take the volts.
AMD have just released a bunch of new Phenoms and those triple cores this are dirt cheap. But I guess thats too late now.
Lastly if I was you with that setup Id go the new 7022 x86 build, but Ive been using x64 for a while now and there hasnt been alot that wont run on it.

Good luck with your new rig

 

[nbkp]

get better graphics like a 9600gt