[ShyWillow]

This will be my first time building a pc. My main use will be for gaming. I play all types of games,from mmo fps like plantside 2 to minecraft. While gaming I typically have live-stream's podcaster running along with either skype for voice calls or teamspeak or ventrilo or Mumble.

In games I don't have to have ultra or even high settings graphically, though it is nice sometimes... Right now my screen size is only 1440 by 900 witch is the max my monitor can handle, I will be upgrading it at a latter date to something with a resultion of 1920 x 1080. I do not plan on playing across multiple monitors, but I will be adding a touchscreen at a latter date for art. I use gimp for drawing. I also livestream while drawing and also have skype running.

From my last pc I will be keeping the power supply, case, keyboard n mouse, and the monitor. The power supply is Zephyr 750, the case is Enermax Chakra ECA3050.

I do not plan to overclock anything and will likely be using this pc for the next two or three plus years.

Also I will be buying in the us, seeing I see that asked a lot.

Budget is 850 bucks.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DAp9

So far from the research I have done. I picked the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 mainly for its usb flashback, witch from my understand will let me update the bios without a cpu or ram. Of witch I belive I have to update the bios for the cpu I picked?

After much reading on amd motherboards that only seem to come with PCI Express 2.0 x16 and not PCI Express 3.0 x16 witch a lot gpu cards are marked as.. It seems from my understanding very few gpu cards fulling use 2.0 x 16 bandwidth and while I would see a little drop in performance do to the 8b/10b encoding on 2.0 vrs the 128b/130b encoding on 3.0 it wouldn't be that noticeable... though like all things I am not sure upon this and would love some input.

Hopefully I will be going with windows 7 64 bit of some kind. Not sure if Home, Professional, or Ultimate. Nor of witch would be good for my needs, or maybe windows 8 would be better. Though from what I have read it seems Windows 8 sucks for gaming, but then again I heard the same for Windows 7 when it was still new. So I don't know what the [bleep] I am going to do there. Either way witch ever I end up going with my girlfriend will be buying for me as a early gift for my birthday. So it shouldn't be a part of the build cost.

Thanks in advance for any help.

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Gday ShyWillow.
Great Mobo, USB Flashback available on these boards, compare carefully, does the $135 board do everything you want? > http://www.newegg.co...-131-874-TSBOIS

flashing. It does not matter what Board or in what method you are using, there is some slight risk of doing damage, >server error. http://www.asus.com/...25W,rev.C0,AM3+)

Your PSU was a fairly cheap model and being old and with capacitor ageing, may struggle to run your new system properly. I advise you to monitor your voltages to make usre things are correct. > http://www.hec-group...y/zephyr_power/


Can't comment on Windows8, not used it. Memory Limits for Windows Releases> http://windowsadmincenter.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/physical-memory-limits-for-windows.html

[iammykyl]

Gday ShyWillow.
Great Mobo, USB Flashback available on these boards, compare carefully, does the $135 board do everything you want? > http://www.newegg.co...-131-874-TSBOIS

flashing. It does not matter what Board or in what method you are using, there is some slight risk of doing damage, >server error. http://www.asus.com/...25W,rev.C0,AM3+)

Your PSU was a fairly cheap model and being old and with capacitor ageing, may struggle to run your new system properly. I advise you to monitor your voltages to make usre things are correct. > http://www.hec-group...y/zephyr_power/


Can't comment on Windows8, not used it. Memory Limits for Windows Releases> http://windowsadmincenter.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/physical-memory-limits-for-windows.html

[iammykyl]

Double post.

[ShyWillow]

The 2nd link you had listed comes up with a 404 - File or directory not found. Server Error. Not sure what damage it was about other than the risk of updating a bios?

The 135 board does everything I need.

I am not sure how to monitor my voltages, its running a AMD Phenom™ X4 9950 125w processor and Radeon HD 5750... idk if that helps any. I had planed on replacing my psu at a later time to save money on the build. The pc it is in survived a home getting struck by lightning.. but it is what I am on now and have been. The lightning strike was about two years ago. Though the on board sound never worked after that.. I don't think that has anything to do with the psu.

How do I go about testing/monitoring my voltages?

[iammykyl]

?Add mor infor.

The 2nd link you had listed comes up with a 404 - File or directory not found. Server Error. Not sure what damage it was about other than the risk of updating a bios?

Yes, was about how to flash and the risk, can be found in the Motherboard user manual.

The 135 board does everything I need.

Great, saves a little money that you might use elsewhere. Below is a link to the Motherboard website. Download the User Manual as it could be more upt to date tyhan the one supplied in the box.
Download, > http://www.asus.com/...#specifications then go > Support, > Downloads, > choose OS, > Manuals, > M5A99X EVO R2.0 User's Manual (English)

How do I go about testing/monitoring my voltages?

You can find it in the BIOS under PC Health, or similar, but will only show the Temps/volts/fans with the computer in idle mode. There should be monitoring utilities in the Asus software, use while testing/playing game. You can also download free tools like Speedfan and HWMonitor.

I have changed the link for info about the quantity of physical memory that each version of windows can recognize, ie. Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit is 16gb.
> http://windowsadmincenter.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/physical-memory-limits-for-windows.html

***** Edit.

Testing your psu.

I would not do so for the moment. Try it in the build, see how it goes. The only way to test a PSU correctly is when it is under load. Many local computer stores/repairers have such test equipment and will also perform the service for free or a nominal sum.

[ShyWillow]

Started on reading the User Manual and I will finish it latter tonight. The short desc upon that manual on the usb bios flashback is a bit lackluster. Not sure if it does or doesn't require cpu. Guess I will have to read the manual for the other motherboard as well to see if perhaps its different with its hardware-based update solution or maybe its farther into the manual than I got. >.<

It sounds like it would be easier to just take my power supply in to have it tested when I take apart this computer to build the new one.

Out of curiosity what signs would I see in normal computer use or gaming if the voltage was low? Does it just run slower than it should, shut down, or perhaps one of them lovely blue/black screens.

I will get back to reading after I finish taking care of the cows n horses.

[iammykyl]

Out of curiosity what signs would I see in normal computer use or gaming if the voltage was low? Does it just run slower than it should, shut down, or perhaps one of them lovely blue/black screens.

No, it would not run slower but, all the rest, + some, RAM problems, screen artefacts random shut down, and over voltage, damage too or parts burn out, depends on what part of the PSU is defective. There can be many other problems with a PSU besides low/high voltage. With computer problems the PSU is nearly always the first part to look at and eliminate as the cause.

Why do you feel comfortable with a MB that can upgrade the BIOS without a CPU installed?

phone store before taking the PUS for test.

Are you on a Farm?

[ShyWillow]

The motherboard I am on now required a bios update before it would post with my cpu and basically the guy who built my computer made me buy a cheap cpu so that the bios could be updated. So that he could install my cpu in it. Though that was four years ago. From looking at the cpu support on the motherboards support page the /Since BIOS/ for my chip was 1006 while most all the others where 0211. I thought I would have to go through the same thing and update my bios, witch last time meet buying a 2nd cpu to be used once... idk maybe that has changed in the last four years. Last time it was an extra 120 bucks for the 2nd cpu witch could not be returned and 100 buck service charge added to the build cost..

Yes we live on a farm here. ^^ Had hay and feed to go buy, unload, and baby goats to feed as well. I read through most of the manual for both the ASUS M5A99X EVO R2.0 and the ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 Both are listed and talked about the same and in neither does it say anything about it not requiring the cpu chip. Witch makes me wonder about new egg's over view displaying "USB BIOS Flashback A truly revolutionary hardware-based update solution. USB BIOS Flashback offers the most convenient way ever to update the BIOS! It allows users to update new UEFI BIOS versions even without hardware such as a CPU or DRAM installed into the motherboard. " Although its going to take a long time to get used to calling a Bios a UEFI.

Anyways geting back to reading the ASUS M5A99X EVO R2.0 manual. ^^

[iammykyl]

I can see why you would not want to go through that again.
Problems as you had before, seem on the ASUS EVO date back early 2012, can't find anything resent. So I would think boards on sale now have the later BIOS and do not need flashing to support a FX CPU. Contact the site you are buying from, ask them to find the BIOS ver. Should be on the BOX close to the SN. Number.
Here is a How to Build Tutorial thanks to Troy, & Artellos. > http://www.geekstogo...r-own-computer/

I know how time consuming the animals can be and when it's time, it's time. Done the horses, sheep, bull, worm farming, thoughts goats would not be to hard, they were just about the hardest especially trimming nails, just a few chooks now. Had a problem with snakes for a while but seemed to have cracked it now.

[ShyWillow]

We run an interesting mix of animals horses help keep some of the larger cats away from where they are. They also help spot other predictors and run away, witch gets everything else to run as well. We have goats who eat weeds and small trees that would otherwise need taken care of by us. We have pigs as well, not many but a few. If you didn't know most pigs will go out of there way to hunt down and eat snakes. For the goats we built a ramped route to where they eat that has lots of metal strips and concrete. It wears away there hoofs fairly well. Some of the older ones who don't play on it, we still have to trim as well as any who get hoof rot. It makes it so much easier to manage there hoofs. Oh and ant eating chickens to help with the fire ants and guineas to eat the fleas, ticks, and such.

Is that hard drive ok for running an os on?

[iammykyl]

Is that hard drive ok for running an os on?

Yes, the Seagate Barracuda 1TB Is good although very large, but is the most economical way to buy You can, if you wish, when installing the OS, create a 500GB partition at the start of the drive and leave the rest as unallocated space. This will confine use to the fastest part of the disk giving you better performance, plenty of room and should you every need more space, doubtful, you can extend the partition. It is not however best practice to have two partitions on the boot drive as this will degrade performance.
You might look later at using your old drive for DATA or backups.

Two items I recommend adding to your list. An anti sttic writ strap like this, > http://www.newegg.co...N82E16899261005
A internal system speaker like this, > http://www.cwc-group.com/casp.html

Your farm sounds like a well set up eco system. Are you, out in the wild?

[ShyWillow]

After trying to contact newegg about the bios version I got redirected to ASUS. Of witch I am waiting still for a reply.. though after some digging it seems there are new motherboards to be released the middle of next month witch support PCI Express 3.0 x16. I am thinking that might be worth waiting on.

I get that a lot, its half a mile to our nearest person around here so it's nice and peaceful. We are only 12-15 mins drive away from 3 fair sized cities. So we kinda are out in the wild, but unlike most farms we are close enough to the city that we can go out and do things like anyone else in the suburbs.

I have been out to so many other farms to help rehabilitate rescued horses and train them, where the closest place they could go for shopping, movies, or a nice sit down restaurant was a 3-4 hour drive just to get there... I always feel bad for them.

We have set up our farm so that we could keep most things natural. It leads to less stressed animals with a much lower bug count. As a result we don't have to feed antibiotic/steroid feeds like most farms do to keep sickness down and growth up. We also have a very low worm count here do too the use of live water vers ponds. It all started as a hobby of mine to reduce our need to tend to the land and the animals, but it became so much more when a doctor approached us to buy a few of our cattle at almost four times market value..

[iammykyl]

As far as know, there are no new Motherboards for the Socket AM3+ to be released. If you have a link, please post. You may see mention of Mobos for the Intel Haswell.

[ShyWillow]

Well I guess I shouldn't have said new, its the 3rd Gen of the Sabertooth https://www.asus.com...#specifications

>.< so many arguments found on PCIe 3.0/2.0 with this board's name in it, that I can't find the post that had the release date in it again.

Edited by ShyWillow, 19 February 2013 - 12:26 PM.

[iammykyl]

Referring to AMD board with Generation in the description is just market speak, they say "Gen3" or similar where as 1st/2nd/3rd generation actually refers to the Intel chip set.Second Generation was for z68 Sandy Bridge+ bits(some early boards required BIOS update) Third Generation z77, PCIe 3.0 x 16+ bits. Any NEW release desktop boards would still be 3rd generation with possible a new Rev number, Ie. Rev 3.0 and have enhancements like Thunderbolt. The next 4th generation chip set from Intel will be Haswell. Much of the information is speculation rumour, > http://www.gamingbui...ntel-processor/

Are you thinking of switching back to use the Sabertooth?