New spec help

[JoeBurn]

Hey guys, been following Hexus for a few years now and thought I'd come join and ask on your opinions on this new build. Been 4 years now since my last upgrade and can't really play half the games I'd like it to! These are the specs I've got for it so far:

AMD 965 - £118
MSI 890FX GD70 - £123
XFX 6950 1GB Dual Fan - £209
Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM - £37
Corsair HX650W - £95
Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit OEM - £75
Xigmatek Red Scorpion - £30 ish

Total price comes to around £680. I've set myself a maximum budget of £700 but I'd like to get it down as much as possible, so if you see something on my spec that I can get slightly better bang out of it then let me know

The cheapo CPU cooler is just to get a bit of an overclock out of the CPU while I wait for the Corsair H60. And even though I already have a 700W PSU, it cost £40 off ebuyer and my one before that was faulty and blew up 2 motherboards, so I'm pretty anxious about PSUs now and don't want to put this current PSU under a lot more pressure.

In the future I'm planning to get a much smaller case than my Antec 1200 for when I got to university later in the year, perhaps even a Lian Li PC-V354B but then my mobo wouldn't fit in there. Or I could just scrap that idea and get myself a laptop (chances are I'll probably do that).

Also, is the PSU on the spec powerful enough for a second 6950 for Crossfire?

Cheers

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

AMD Bulldozer is being released in Q2 2011 and is the first fully new AMD high end CPU architecture since the Athlon 64. I would probably wait until it is released TBH.
Also,the current AM3 motherboards will not work with Bulldozer. However,in a few months time the AM3+ motherboards will be released and these will work with both the current AM3 CPUs and Bulldozer.

If you get 20+ posts on Hexus you can get free postage from Scan:

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...-delivery.html

[JoeBurn]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Yeah I've been reading into that and thought that it wouldn't come out til the summer and at inflated prices so I thought to give it a miss. And as the AM3 CPUs will fit in an AM3+ socket, I could just gradually upgrade myself to Bulldozer starting with the mobo and then the CPU when they get a bit more affordable.

Also the way I see it, new technologies are always on the verge of being released and if I'm always waiting for something then I'll never get to upgrade, this way I think I'm breaking the ice for myself

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would get the Phenom II X6 955BE:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-p...hz-125w-retail

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164047

It also has unlocked multiplier like the 965BE.

This motherboard is based on the slightly older 790X chipset and lacks SATA3.0 and USB3.0 but can do symmetrical Crossfire at PCI-E 2.0 8X/8X:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...sata-3gb-s-atx

This Antec 650W PSU is made by Seasonic and should do the job IMHO:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-...-12v-120mm-fan

There is also this 750W Antec PSU for around £91:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-...-120mm-pwm-fan

[JoeBurn]

Sounds good, brought the cost down by about £80. I'm gonna assume the motherboard you recommended doesn't perform as well as the 890FX but should hold out until Bulldozer?

As for the PSU, would it be worth spending the extra £20 on an extra 100W to future proof my spec a bit more? Since the 750W is £4 less than the £95 I was prepared to pay for the HX650W.

Many thanks

[MSIC]

I'll happily defer to CAT on AMD motherboard/CPU matters, but I have some thoughts:
Do you need ATX size? Will mATX be sufficient?
Why is an 890 chipset needed?

So, can this motherboard be good enough:
Gigabyte 88gm for £65.
I'd also (given the possible mATX option) scrap any idea of dual-graphics options (i've never been a fan, in my view it's a triumph of marketing over reality).
This then means that you can scale down the case (the Lian Li suggested in the first post is clearly a great case, although expensive... consider the following as cheaper (but still good quality) alternatives:
Silverstone SG02B-F Evolution £56
Antec NSK-1380 £91.
Lian Li PC-V351B £86.

Also, in my view, people frequently tend to overspec the PSU needs (again, a marketing win for the manufacturers I feel).
This is absolutely not to say that you shouldnt buy good quality however, there is plenty of evidence to avoid a 'cheap' brand.
You could probably be fine with a 500W PSU, but 600W is great if you just want to be safe.
600W Coolermaster Silent Pro M, modular, £59.99 on today only (normally an extra £10).

Just some ideas to keep the quality, but save on size and cost.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The 790X and 790FX were the high end AMD chipsets before the 890GX and 890FX were released.

TBH,do you need to get a Crossfire capable motherboard?? You can get a decent 870 or 880G based motherboard with SATA 3.0 and USB3.0 for under £80.

I would suspect that the 650W PSU would be enough in most cases. With a single card setup it would be more than enough and even a decent 500W to 600W would do the job too as mentioned earlier.
However,with a pair of unlocked and overclocked HD6950 2GB cards and an overclocked CPU I am not sure.

BTW,I would also get an HD6950 2GB for around £220:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-m...-dvi-mhdmi-mdp

[JoeBurn]

I *wouldn't mind* having a Crossfire capable motherboard simply because it gives me the option to add a second card in the near future. I feel quite comfortable with the mobo you showed me, and I can always upgrade to AMD3+ later in the year.

I'll take your word with the 650W, I plan to experiment with OCing but nothing really extreme. Even though the XFX card in my spec is factory overclocked, I'll try and see how much I can get out of it.

I have seen the 6950 2GBs before but I haven't really heard excellent things about ATIs reference coolers. I know there is the potential to flash the bios to that of a 6970 but TBH, I've seen the comparisons between the 1GB and 2GB version and it only really applies if you're going to be using a multi-monitor setup, something I won't be doing. £210 ish for a custom cooled card that comes pre-overclocked seems like a steal in my eyes!

[JoeBurn]

Found this 870 chipset motherboard for a couple of quid more than the 790X. Crossfire capable and still pretty good, this'll be alright won't it?

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...-sata-raid-atx

EDIT:

It'd be nice for the mATX case to support the H60 when it comes out, so I can get a little overclock out of the CPU while still being silent. I'm assuming it will support it since it's not a big cooler at all. And no ATX is not required but I guess that is was I'm used to, I assume ATX will be the better performer but I think I need to get myself an mATX and prove myself wrong

Yeah I now doubt I'll get a second card, SLi for me doesn't really work and having a smaller case will make for more room on the desk. I'll have a quick respec and see how I go.

As for the PSU, I'll go for a 600W one no problem after hearing that MISC, cheers!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Found this 870 chipset motherboard for a couple of quid more than the 790X. Crossfire capable and still pretty good, this'll be alright won't it?

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...-sata-raid-atx

I know someone who has that motherboard and it is a very user friendly motherboard when it comes to overclocking.

However,it does not do symmetrical Crossfire as the second slot runs at PCI-E 2.0 4X.

[JoeBurn]

I'm starting to question whether going AMD for the mATX board is a good investment or not, since Intel seem to have more quality boards (on first glance) than AMD. Will this change after Bulldozer comes out?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I'm starting to question whether going AMD for the mATX board is a good investment or not, since Intel seem to have more quality boards (on first glance) than AMD. Will this change after Bulldozer comes out?

Actually,the motherboard quality is the same. However the AMD processors tend to have a higher TDP so overclocking of a 125W TDP would be more limited in the case of a mATX AM3 motherboard IMHO although I could be wrong.

For example here is the Asus M4A87TD EVO for £79:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...-sata-raid-atx

It has all solid capacitors. a split 8+2 phase VRM,USB3.0,SATA3.0 and buttons on the motherboard for core unlocking and overclocking.

The Asus P7P55 LX is the nearest socket 1156 motherboard in price:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...-sata-raid-atx

It has a 4 phase VRM,only solid capacitors in the VRM,no USB3.0,no SATA3.0 and lacks the easy overclocking features of the Asus M4A87TD EVO.

Here is the equivalent Asus socket 1155 P67 motherboard:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...-sata-raid-atx

It costs £111. BTW,H67 motherboards cannot be used for overclocking like the 870 and P67 chipsets.

Here is the Asus M4A89GTD PRO which has a similar feature set to the Asus M4A87TD EVO but has additional cooling for the VRM section and can do symmetrical Crossfire at PCI-E 2 2.0 8X/8X:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...-sata-raid-atx

It costs £97.

Now,if we look at Gigabyte the different ranges are usually identified by a code at the end of the motherboard name.

Now the UD3 or Ultra Durable 3 range has the following features:

http://www.gigabyte.com/microsite/19...-power-ud3.htm

The Gigabyte UD3 870 motherboard costs £81:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...-sata-raid-atx

The Gigabyte socket 1155 UD3 P67 motherboard costs £104:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...-sata-raid-atx

The Gigabyte socket 1156 UD3 P55 motherboard costs £106:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...aid-usb-30-atx

[JoeBurn]

Sorry CAT, I probably should've made it more clear that I'm heading down the mATX route now. But I'm still thinking of getting a minor upgrade now so that my X2 CPU doesn't bottleneck the 6950 I intend to get, and refresh when Bulldozer gets released.

I'm currently looking at this MSI mATX AMD board to hold me in with the 955 until BD comes out. What I meant in my previous post was why there is a lack of boards similar to the Intel Gene mATX's, do AMDs mATX's work just as well?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

There are 890GX mATX motherboards:

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/prod...90GMPRO3&af=50

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/255176...edium=products

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/200479

However,they do not do Crossfire.

[JoeBurn]

And you reckon these will hold out until the new chipset is released?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The motherboards should be fine but TBH if you need a smaller PC later in the year I would wait until then to do an upgrade.

I assume this is your motherboard:

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2077

It maybe worth checking if with a BIOS update you can get a new processor.