Last minute paranoia

[scaryjim]

I'm building a new computer for a friend - mainly for Guild Wars and Sims currently, with Diablo III (when it comes out) and no doubt some other RPGs etc. I've specced and ordered the following, which is the absolute limit of her budget - I just wanted to check that I hadn't made any major faux-pas with regard to the spec. What do you all reckon?

Asus GeForce 7025 mobo
Athlon X2 5050e
2GB OCZ DDR2-800 CL4
ASUS HD4850 512MB
Samsung Spinpoint 640GB
SATA DVD writer
Hiper 425W PSU

My only real concern is the Hiper PSU, but I've already stretched the budget as far as possible and that seemed like a reasonable compromise between price and quality? Any thoughts would be appreciated (I think I can still make changes if there's anything obvious...)

[Fraz]

I'm building a new computer for a friend - mainly for Guild Wars and Sims currently, with Diablo III (when it comes out) and no doubt some other RPGs etc. I've specced and ordered the following, which is the absolute limit of her budget - I just wanted to check that I hadn't made any major faux-pas with regard to the spec. What do you all reckon?

Asus GeForce 7025 mobo
Athlon X2 5050e
2GB OCZ DDR2-800 CL4
ASUS HD4850 512MB
Samsung Spinpoint 640GB
SATA DVD writer
Hiper 425W PSU

My only real concern is the Hiper PSU, but I've already stretched the budget as far as possible and that seemed like a reasonable compromise between price and quality? Any thoughts would be appreciated (I think I can still make changes if there's anything obvious...)

How much is the Hiper PSU?

[scaryjim]

How much is the Hiper PSU?

It's £28.50 from ebuyer (see what I did there ). Chosen largely for the 6-pin PICe connector, tbh...

[Hawker1986]

http://www.scan.co.uk/product.aspx?ProductId=22926

Its in today only for £32, absolute bargain, get that instead.

Hawker

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would go for this instead:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/400w-...2V-6Serial-ATA

Here is a review:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16073/11

Edit!

The FSP mentioned will also do the job but the Today Only offer is ending in the next few minutes so you will need to be quick!!

[djglenn]

I'm building a new computer for a friend - mainly for Guild Wars and Sims currently, with Diablo III (when it comes out) and no doubt some other RPGs etc. I've specced and ordered the following, which is the absolute limit of her budget - I just wanted to check that I hadn't made any major faux-pas with regard to the spec. What do you all reckon?

Asus GeForce 7025 mobo
Athlon X2 5050e
2GB OCZ DDR2-800 CL4
ASUS HD4850 512MB
Samsung Spinpoint 640GB
SATA DVD writer
Hiper 425W PSU

My only real concern is the Hiper PSU, but I've already stretched the budget as far as possible and that seemed like a reasonable compromise between price and quality? Any thoughts would be appreciated (I think I can still make changes if there's anything obvious...)

If you are buying a 4850 from Ebuyer I am guessing that a 4870 is the same price in Novatech (as the ebuyer 4850).

Its hard to argue with that price for the PSU....though i do not have any experience why Hiper...I love corsair psu's...but they are twice the price.

Only comprimise that I would suggest would be the cpu...only reason to buy that cpu is for a media center....the AMD X2 7750 is £8 more and from what a read, its a mile better... surely your friend can stretch £8...

[Fraz]

Get that FSP one on today only like the man Hawker says.

[scaryjim]

I'm afraid my friend can't stretch another £8 (she's 18 and unemployed!), so both the 7750BE and the silverpower PSU are out! As far as the 7750 goes, you can say it's only £8, or you can say it's 15% more - and will it actually give a 15% performance increase in games? Quite apart from the fact that it pulls twice as much power at load... That PSU looks nice though CAT - I might keep an eye on that and consider getting it for my next mid-range build!

The 4850 is the ASUS one that novatech has for £114.95, price from ebuyer £112.99 (per the ebuyer reviews they're now shipping the one with the custom cooler rather than the reference)!

[Thorsson]

With PSUs you generally get what you pay for. I wouldn't buy a cheap Hiper myself. Who built it?

[djglenn]

I'm afraid my friend can't stretch another £8 (she's 18 and unemployed!), so both the 7750BE and the silverpower PSU are out! As far as the 7750 goes, you can say it's only £8, or you can say it's 15% more - and will it actually give a 15% performance increase in games? Quite apart from the fact that it pulls twice as much power at load... That PSU looks nice though CAT - I might keep an eye on that and consider getting it for my next mid-range build!

The 4850 is the ASUS one that novatech has for £114.95, price from ebuyer £112.99 (per the ebuyer reviews they're now shipping the one with the custom cooler rather than the reference)!

15% better? It probably is yes...but I was 18 and unemployed once to do fully appreciate the arguement.

I didnt realise ebuyer had them for so cheap...was looking at them 2-3 weeks ago and novatech where a mile cheaper.

[scaryjim]

Thanks for all the advice guys, but despite me ordering yesterday afternoon and selecting free 5 day delivery, they've dispatched this morning! So it's too late to change the PSU - I'll just have to hope it does the job!

[scaryjim]

15% better? It probably is yes...

I was thinking about that after I posted. From the reviews I saw it's give and take between the 7750 and the X2 6000+. Given they have the same architecture, the 3GHz 6000+ *should* be about 15% faster than the 2.6GHz 5050e. So from that, I reckon that if you're looking at CPU alone it probably would be worth it. On the other hand, if you're playing games at a resolution where your CPU is limiting your frame-rates, you're probably getting more than 100fps anyway, so does it matter?

Good call though, from a CPU POV: again, I'll have to seriously consider it for my next build (assuming I don't go Phenom II X3, or that the new Phenom II based Athlons aren't available by then!)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You can go for this motherboard instead:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141239

This will save you £4 to £5. I would put this towards the PSU. The Hiper is not the best PSU and the Silverpower is far better.

Have you considered going for an HD4830 instead?? It is not far behind an HD4850!!

There are two under £90 at Novatech:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/d...ml?s=HD4830&d=

I would spend the money saved on the Athlon X2 7750+,the Silver power PSU and a better motherboard. The 7750+ is faster than an Athlon X2 6000+ IIRC!!

[scaryjim]

Thanks CAT - I appreciate the advice but unfortunately they've despatched already (4 days early!) so I'm stuck with what I've got!

I considered the Foxconn, but my understanding was that the SB600 on the 690 chipset had poor peripheral performance, particularly wrt USB. I also considered the 4830, but my friend's current monitor is on the way out, and the 4850 should give her a bit more resolution leeway when picking a new one!

[djglenn]

I was thinking about that after I posted. From the reviews I saw it's give and take between the 7750 and the X2 6000+. Given they have the same architecture, the 3GHz 6000+ *should* be about 15% faster than the 2.6GHz 5050e. So from that, I reckon that if you're looking at CPU alone it probably would be worth it. On the other hand, if you're playing games at a resolution where your CPU is limiting your frame-rates, you're probably getting more than 100fps anyway, so does it matter?

Good call though, from a CPU POV: again, I'll have to seriously consider it for my next build (assuming I don't go Phenom II X3, or that the new Phenom II based Athlons aren't available by then!)

It wont make any difference for the games you mentioned when your using a 4850.

In fact my AMD 64 3200 (s939) didnt give an problems for current games, when coupled with my 8800GT...and the 5050e is alot better than it.

It is still a very good build for the money....and I would imagine it will meet 100% of her needs.