need advice on building new amd machine

[safwan0308]

BUDGET RANGE: $500-$800 Before / After Rebates

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: vmware, pinnacle studio, adobe photoshop, dreamweaver, ms visual studio, internet, movies. A lot of multitasking and very little gaming.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: speakers, OS

PARTS PREFERENCES: i would prefer to use amd 955 cpu and 785g amd3 mobo

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: i am thinking of building AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2GHz with 785g amd3 mobo. The reason I chose this mobo because it has an onboard graphic card. since i don't play lot of games, i don't want to spend a lot of money on graphic card.

i am a computer networking student. i will be using this computer for school work. i do a lot of multitasking and will be installing virtual machine on this computer. i prefer mid tower case with side panel window (i love to see the components while they are running! LOL). one more thing about the ram, should i go with 4gb or 6gb? it would be good be if this machine will cost me less than $700. hope you guys can give suggestions and advice.

thanks in advance!

[BryanFury]

Core i5
P55A-UD3P
4GB (or 8GB) DDR 1333
Radeon HD4890 1GB (or HD 5870 if you can afford)
For other components, it depends on your remaining budget.

[Psycho101]

Photoshop is accelerated by your GPU so a decent card is a good idea. That said, all 4800 series cards will perform the same. A 4830 would be more than acceptable, a quater of the price of a 4890 etc. On board would be an option but good OpenGL 3.0 support would be required to accelerate Photoshop.

An i7 would be nice if your budget could stretch. VMWare will use as many cores as you can throw at it. If not then a decent Quad core will be fine. The 955 Black is a fine CPU.

4GB of GSkill Ripjaw 1600 @7-7-7-24 is cheap at about $80 and fine RAM indeed. Amazing for the price. Consider 8GB if you research and find the motherboard reacts well to having all DIMM slots filled. Again, VMWare will benefit from a lot of RAM. You can have multiple Virtual PC's running and maintain smoothness with 8GB.

The most important thing not to skimp on is the PSU. A quality one will protect your investment. At that spec, 500-600W will suffice, with room to spare. 300W would be around the power draw from the business end of the PSU at moderate to full load. I'd recommend a CorsairHX520. It's super quiet and one of the most stable you can buy. If you do want to go cheaper, spend no less than £50 or the equiv in your currency and go for a brand name you can trust like OCZ, PC P&C, Tagan, Be Quiet, Corsair, Seasonic etc.