Advice on my build

[intense.ego]

Hi all,

I am building a new computer and I wanted to know what you thought about it since I have been out of the loop for a while. I know the graphics card is no good, so if you could suggest a better one for me that would be great.

I plan on watching HD videos and playing some new games on this computer, so keep these two things in mind.

BTW, I am trying to keep everything (besides monitor) to about 450 pounds.

Also, I am not 100% sure if all the parts work together. Could you confirm, please

Thank you

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Here are two builds I can suggest:

AMD based build

AMD Athlon II X3 440 ~ £56

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=39499

OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit ~ £67

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=37540

ASRock 880GXH/USB3 ~ £73

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=40954

OR

Asus M4A785TD-V Evo ~ £73

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=37387

OR

ASRock M3A770DE ~ £55

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=37777

The ASRock 880GXH/USB3 has the newer SB850 southbridge and supports both USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0! However some Samsung F3 hard drives need a firmware update to work with the SB850. Both motherboards have the ability to unlock the Athlon II X3 to an Athlon II X4 or Phenom II X4 although this is not guaranteed.

VTX ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card ~ £68

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...roductId=40735

Corsair CX Series 400W ATX2.2 Power Supply ~ £35

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...roductId=34003

OR

OCZ OCZ400SXS-UK StealthXStream 400W Silent ATX2.2 Power Supply ~ £27

https://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...roductId=39205

OR

OCZ StealthXStream 2 500W Power Supply ~ £45

https://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...roductId=40958

Any of these PSUs would be powerful enough to run an Athlon II X3 and an HD4850.

NZXT Hades Midi Tower Gaming Case ~ £61

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...40135&context=

Samsung HD103SJ SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 3.5" Hard Drive ~ £44

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...37726&context=

Samsung SH-S223C 22x Internal DVD±R/RW SATA Drive ~ £14

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...38547&context=

Edimax Wireless NIC PCI 150Mbps MIMO Network Card ~ £20

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Netw...roductId=37828

The total comes to around £428 to £460 including postage.

Intel based build

Intel Core i3 530 2.93Ghz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) Processor~ £76

https://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...roductId=39240

OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit ~ £67

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=37540

Asus P7H55-M Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 PCI-Express Micro-ATX Motherboard ~ £66

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...roductId=40151

This is one of the cheapest socket 1156 motherboard available and is also mATX. The AMD motherboards around the same price have better specifications.

VTX ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card ~ £68

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...roductId=40735

OCZ OCZ400SXS-UK StealthXStream 400W Silent ATX2.2 Power Supply ~ £27

https://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...roductId=39205
NZXT Hades Midi Tower Gaming Case ~ £61

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...40135&context=

Samsung HD103SJ SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 3.5" Hard Drive ~ £44

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...37726&context=

Samsung SH-S223C 22x Internal DVD±R/RW SATA Drive ~ £14

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...38547&context=

Edimax Wireless NIC PCI 150Mbps MIMO Network Card ~ £20

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Netw...roductId=37828

The total comes to around £458 including postage.

[intense.ego]

Wow! Thanks for all the advice. I've actually decided to use the exact parts you suggested since they seem to provide much better value for money. The only concern I have is with the graphics card. Is the 4850 enough to handle most new games? Would I be better off spending a bit more to get a 1gb card? Also, I read that Nvidia's video decoding technology is superior to ATI's (this would be good for watching HD video); is there any truth to this/does it make a difference? Would the GT240 be a better card?

Thanks a lot for your advice. Appreciate it greatly

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I modified my post to include an Intel based build in case you prefer an Intel processor. However, since the processor costs more you would need to go for a cheaper H55 motherboard and the OCZ 400W psu.

I have no issues watching HD content on my computer and I have an HD4830. Also the HD4850 512MB is a signifcantly faster graphics card for gaming than a GT240 or even an 8800GT.

The HD4850 512MB is still a decent graphics card for playing modern games at 1440x900 and 1680X1050. The HD4850 512MB is also similar in speed to the GTS250. The HD5750 512MB which is around £90 is slightly faster than an HD4850 512MB and can run DX11. The HD5770 1GB is the next card upand costs around £110 to £120 and is 20% to 30% faster than an HD4850. It can also run DX11.

Aria do sell the HD4890 1GB for around £110:

https://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...roductId=37323

Even though this lacks the ability to run DX11 and has much higher power consumption than an HD5770 1GB it will be faster in most current games. However, I would get at least a decent 450W or 500W PSU for this graphics card due to its relatively high power consumption.

[intense.ego]

Pardon my ignorance, but wouldn't a card such as this one perform better. I read that GDDR5 has a considerably higher memory bandwidth and that this is important. Otherwise, wouldn't a 1gb GDDR3 card perform better than the 4850 512mb? Once again, sorry for my lack of knowledge - not really clued in when it comes to graphics cards.

[kalniel]

Pardon my ignorance, but wouldn't a card such as this one perform better. I read that GDDR5 has a considerably higher memory bandwidth and that this is important. Otherwise, wouldn't a 1gb GDDR3 card perform better than the 4850 512mb? Once again, sorry for my lack of knowledge - not really clued in when it comes to graphics cards.

Graphics performance is not just (or not even mostly) about memory bandwidth. The processor is the most important thing, the memory just has to be fast enough not to bottleneck it really. The product you link has a slow processor compared to the 4850 that Cat V mentioned.

[intense.ego]

Okay, I've done some research and it turns out everything I thought about graphics cards was wrong. But let me ask you this: would getting the 1gb version of the 4850 provide a significant performance increase over the 512mb version for only £14 more?

[watercooled]

It would depend on what resolution you'd be running it at really, more VRAM generally helps with higher resolutions.

[intense.ego]

It would depend on what resolution you'd be running it at really, more VRAM generally helps with higher resolutions.

From what I've just read, it appears the 1gb version is not worth it. It would provide better performance at higher resolutions but running the game at those kind of resolutions would be hard for my build as it is - the extra performance would be wasted. I'll stick to the 512mb. In the future I could always get another one and run them in SLI, right?

[kalniel]

In the future I could always get another one and run them in SLI, right?

It's called Crossfire for AMD cards, but yes.

[Iron Sights]

just out of interest what resolution will you be running your games at?

[intense.ego]

just out of interest what resolution will you be running your games at?

Not sure. Ideally I'd like to run them at full HD (1920x1080) but I could run them at 1650x1050 if its incapable of handling the former properly.

[dcwt2010]

I'm just curious, have you factored in the cost of the OS?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

None of the motherboards I have suggested will do symmetrical Crossfire. If you want to do Crossfire I would look at one of the following motherboards:

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=41129

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=37386

Also a pair of HD4850 graphics cards would need a decent PSU too. A 400W one would not be a good choice and I am uncertain whether a 500W PSU would be enough either.

[intense.ego]

I'm just curious, have you factored in the cost of the OS?

I already have a copy of Windows 7 that I can use.

None of the motherboards I have suggested will do symmetrical Crossfire. If you want to do Crossfire I would look at one of the following motherboards:

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=41129

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=37386

Also a pair of HD4850 graphics cards would need a decent PSU too. A 400W one would not be a good choice and I am uncertain whether a 500W PSU would be enough either.

In that case, nevermind. I was just wondering about that in case I ever wanted to upgrade in the future. In that case I would just get a new graphics card. Thanks once again.

[intense.ego]

ASRock 880GXH/USB3 ~ £73

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=40954

This mobo is currently out of stock. Is this one any good? I'd rather not have to wait for them to get back in stock (who knows how long that will take), but I don't want to compromise on quality either.