Shed's New Build

[scaryjim]

it was a budget option, so I suppose you have to be careful at the low end range.

Very much so - when things appear significantly cheaper than equivalent items, there's usually a reason for it. For monitors I would personally veer away from anything without DVI nowadays - if you don't have DVI on your computer it's probably time to upgrade

[Shedlife]

Thank you guys very much for you time! I noticed that a 4770 has been suggested as a graphics card, I was going to go for a £100 GTX260 (192 cores) but would you say get a 4770, then save up to buy another later on would be a good idea?

I've been looking around and I've not been as impressed with Phenom II's overclocking as I'd hoped (as I said I was hoping for 4GHz). The maximum overclock I've seen on a 720 @ 1.45v is 3.6GHz do you think I'd have more look with a slightly cheaper E7400?

I can get a 19" Iiyama Prolite Widescreen LCD Monitor 1680x1050 5000:1 and 5ms response rate for £86

[Blaineoliver]

3 cores at 3.6 is far better than 2 cores at 4ghz tbh,a nd it gives you a futureproof upgrade path.

[shaithis]

3 cores at 3.6 is far better than 2 cores at 4ghz tbh,a nd it gives you a futureproof upgrade path.

1. There is no such thing as future-proof in computing.

2. 3 x 3.6GHz or 2 x 4GHz is dependant on what you are going to use it for.

[Shedlife]

1. There is no such thing as future-proof in computing.

2. 3 x 3.6ghz or 2 x 4ghz is dependant on what you are going to use it for.

gaming ...Crysis, Call of duty (4,5,6), Farcry 2, Battlefield 2, Star Wars Battlefront so 3 cores at 3.6 probably will be better

[Blaineoliver]

Well, AM3 is a direct upgrade path, so yes it is more futureproof than Core2.

[scaryjim]

I'll refer you once again to a favourite site of mine, Anandtech's processor benchmark comparisons, not because it's necessarily the best set of tests but because it lets you put two processors side-by-side in as close as possible to identical systems, and see what difference it makes.

The comparison I've linked is with an E7500, the nearest they have to the E7400. The X3 710 holds its own at stock speeds, generally winning on multi-threaded tests and losing out on single-threaded (shocking ). In the gaming tests the variation is around 5% except in Far Cry 2, where the X3 710 pulls out an ~ 10% lead. And those figures are against a processor that's *already* clocked 133MHz higher than an E7400

Also don't forget that percentage-wise getting an E7400 to 4GHz is the equivalent of getting an X3 710 to 3.7GHz, because the X3 710 has a lower clock speed to start with...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If you want to get an impression of how an overclocked E7*** processors does against an overclocked X3 7** processor look at this review:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...ii-x3-720-be/6

Basically an E7500 at 4.2ghz is beaten in most applications by an X3 720 at 3.7ghz.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thank you guys very much for you time! I noticed that a 4770 has been suggested as a graphics card, I was going to go for a £100 GTX260 (192 cores) but would you say get a 4770, then save up to buy another later on would be a good idea?

I've been looking around and I've not been as impressed with Phenom II's overclocking as I'd hoped (as I said I was hoping for 4GHz). The maximum overclock I've seen on a 720 @ 1.45v is 3.6GHz do you think I'd have more look with a slightly cheaper E7400?

I can get a 19" Iiyama Prolite Widescreen LCD Monitor 1680x1050 5000:1 and 5ms response rate for £86

I would get the X3 720 and the GTX260(if it is only £100) and be done with it. I would also budget in a better PSU too.

This should bring the total build cost to around £600 but in the long term this would be money well spent.

[Shedlife]

I think for £550 I should be able to get:

Phenom II 720
Sapphire Pure Crossfire X 790GX Motherboard
4GB OCZ DDR2 800MHz CL5
896MB GTX260
19" 1660x1050 Monitor 5000:1 5ms
ACF 64 PRO Cooler
250GB Samsung F1
OCZ 500W StealthXstream
Coolermaster Elite 335

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I think for £550 I should be able to get:

Phenom II 720
Sapphire Pure Crossfire X 790GX Motherboard
4GB OCZ DDR2 800MHz CL5
896MB GTX260
19" 1660x1050 Monitor 5000:1 5ms
ACF 64 PRO Cooler
250GB Samsung F1
OCZ 500W StealthXstream
Coolermaster Elite 335

Looks a good build to me. Make sure that you get the AM2+ version of the motherboard not the AM3 version as the latter only takes DDR3.

[Shedlife]

It says its AM2+...truth be told, its actually coming up on ebay, in couple of days, how much do you recommend I bid on it? I can't make my mind up I'm thinking between £60-£80

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It says its AM2+...truth be told, its actually coming up on ebay, in couple of days, how much do you recommend I bid on it? I can't make my mind up I'm thinking between £60-£80

If it is new I would look at paying at least 10% to 20% under the retail price and if it is secondhand at least 30% less than the new retail price.

There are some Biostar AM2+ 790GX motherboards for under £80 and one AM3 790GX motherboard for arond £90:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=790gx

There are some nice AM2+ and AM3 motherboards for under £100:

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?sort=pr...imit=10&page=1

[Shedlife]

If it is new I would look at paying at least 10% to 20% under the retail price and if it is secondhand at least 30% less than the new retail price.

There are some Biostar AM2+ 790GX motherboards for under £80 and one AM3 790GX motherboard for arond £90:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=790gx

There are some nice AM2+ and AM3 motherboards for under £100:

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?sort=pr...imit=10&page=1

I've always been told that if you want to overclock then the board should have large heatpipes to radiate away the heat. You say them boards are good, is using a decent chipset much more important than heatpipes?

I say this because, basically I'm not bothered about fancy heatpipes aslong as without them I don't get a reduced life of a motherboard, the main thing is that it overclocked really well and does crossfireX

[Blaineoliver]

Yes chipset over heatpipes, the amd chipset use so little power anyways.

[Shedlife]

Hey, just a quick update (for anybody that cares ) just bought a new ASUS M3A79-T DELUXE SOCKET for £62 off ebay