AMD Athlon II X4 + ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO system.

[Xeno]

Config (with prices in bracket):-

AMD Athlon II X4 620 (2.6 Ghz) [5,400]
ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO [6,900]
Transcend 2GB DDR3 (1333) Value RAM [ 2,500]
WD Caviar Green 500GB [2,500]
Sony Optiarc DVD RW 22x [1200]
Coolermaster Real Power Pro 460W [3,560]
Zebronics Bijli Cabinet. [1,600]

Additional:-
Coolermaster 120mm Green LED fan. [450]

Purchased from Ankit Infotech, SP Road, Bangalore. ( desiibond's recommendation ) , the prices were good and negotiable, and the fellas there know the stuff.


Assembling :-
The motherboard is really good, unlike the last experience of installing a heatsink on a cpu in a friend's intel original mobo, which was a pain honestly, the heatsink installation was a breeze. Didn't use any thermal paste, just used the thermal patch that comes with proccesor (attached below the heatsink with a plastic cover )


THE CABINET:
The board fit in just right in the cabinet. However its a bit of a hassle when you install the harddrives and you cant place a drive where the sata ports are. Quite inconvenient.

The cabinet has 4 USB ports and two Audio jacks at the front top panel. The cables however are a bit short and you can see the audio cable crossing a PCI slot. The case comes with 2x80mm fans and one Blue LED 120 mm fan. Didn't find the airflow to be impressive so I got the CM 120mm fan.

THE SMPS:
The PSU pleased me a lot as sleeved cables are welcome. However only problem I found that it has only 4-Sata power outputs, 2 on each line. So if you are using a Sata DVD RW its going to restrict you from having more than 3 HDD's as the 4th Sata power output will not reach the 3rd harddrive. I'd rather prefer if there were 2 more Sata power connectors, and the no.of peripheral connectors (normal 4 pin) isnt that necessary, two would do enough but there are like 6 peripheral connectors + 1 floppy drive type connector. So if you are looking for having more than two harddrives with Sata connection only then look somewhere else.

Cable management was tough as there's hardly any space in the cabinet. Somehow managed to route the motherboard 20+4 pin power connector from the back (see the pic) and then stuff the unused power lines atop the DVD RW.

Started the PC and Entered the BIOS. Whew loads of options which I kept exploring. Saw that all the devices were detected properly. Inserted the windows XP 32bit installation disk and exited bios. The fans are quiet and its below the noise level I find acceptable. Good thing.

Installing Windows was a breeze and encountered no problems at all. Upon start I installed the drivers and utilities that came with the ASUS Motherboard DVD. The EPU-4 utility is quite useful to adjust clock speed and save power when the workload isnt much.

Will post rest of the review soon need a write a lot more.

[Ypschita]

Hi
I am getting a Machine AMD Ath X2 Dual 64 7750 (2000 Mhz FSB, 2.7 GHz) 2 GB RAM, 320 SATA II, DVD Writer, Wireless Keyb and Mouse, 20'' LCD with 2.1 speakers for 21000. Is it good? I am not sure about the motherboard. I think it will be of Gigabyte
Any suggestions? I need it for general MS Office work, Internet and FIFA 2009 game.
Regards

[Xeno]

Hrm that config is okay, processor is good, although please mention the prices for motherboard, cpu and ram for the configuration you have listed. Also elaborate the different components (make, model, other info ) you are getting with their prices. I suspect that some components might be not that good You may need to shell out a bit more for a good system with reliability so here you go.


- AMD Athlon X2 7750: 3,100 /-
- ASUS M3A78-EM or MA78GM-US2H : 4,500/-
- 2GB DDR2 RAM ( Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C5 2GB Kit or Kingston, Transcend ) : 1,800

- 500GB WD (western digital) Green Caviar (Sata II ) : 2,500
- Sony / Samsung / LG DVD RW (Sata) : 1,100 + 100/200

- Coolermaster Real Power Pro PSU (power supply) : 3,500
- Zebronics Bijli Cabinet : 1,600 (you might get it cheaper if you can exclude the SMPS which is like 400 bucks, the dealer may allow it )
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total : 18,600 approx.

Now, Samsung 2033SW comes around 7,000 (good monitor for the price)
Keyboard + Mouse : 900 (wired)
2.1 Speakers : 1,100
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total : 9000

Total :27,000 for FULL system. Prices may be reduced somewhat (like 1,000 lesser for the overall system)

All the products listed above are very very reliable and come with warranties ranging from 1 year - 5 years. A good power supply , as I always keep stressing will ensure a stable system and future upgradability (adding a graphics card which demands stable power, more harddrives etc).

The motherboards listed have very good onboard graphics so ou will not have problems running fifa 2009 with medium settings.

I may have over shot you budget by a good 6000/- but this is the minimum good, full pc configuration I can suggest. Also you might want to post in this section to get more replies.

Hope this helps

Xeno