Help with AMD gaming build

[ed^chigliak]

I am trying to select the core components for a mate who is wanting to stick with AMD and will be upgrading from socket 939/2500+@3200 & ati9800pro. He won't be wanting to spend a mountain of money. He will be expecting to play the latest games at decent frame rates on a 22" 1680x1050 monitor. Some upgrade potential is nice to have so I was looking at AM3 ready motherboards options. Overclocking on air is definite maybe but nothing extreme.

I don't think I'll be too far off the mark with the component selection below but I could be wrong so I thought I'd check with you guys.

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4870 1GB DDR5 DVI/HDTV Out PCI-E £215

Biostar TA790GX3-A2+, AMD 790GX, SAM2+, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2 1066/533/667, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £81.06

4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12, DHX £45.94

AMD Phenom™ X3 8750 Black Edition, Socket AM2+, 2.4GHz, 3.5MB Cache, Retail £96

Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±R, 12x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM - NEW! £17

640 GB Western Digital WD6400AAKS Caviar Blue, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms £55

seasonic/corsair/enermax PSU - min 500W and max 650W

[Hawker1986]

Ive not had an AMD machine since pre core2 but that rig looks like it will be fine for his needs, should be good.

Personally I would say also get a CPU Cooler of some sort thats better than stock, esp if your OCing at all, not sure what to recommend for AMD, and I would always recommend Samsung DVD drives as theyre nice and quiet. Other wise looks good, good choice of GPU, HDD and PSU.

Hawker

[staffsMike]

My phenom 9950 Black Edition came with such a nice cooler (Didn't realise it came with one as they are usually just a chip) it was a shame not to use it. Not sure if the X3's are the same.

It might be worth waiting for phenom II dual cores for gaming or tiding himself over with a £45 X2 etc.. which will actually do a bang up job I'm sure so he might not feel the need to change straight away.

If you want to save a bit of money and still get a decent PSU the Enermax PRO82+ 525W would be good.