Yet another new build thread...

[Shev]

I'm sure people are bored of reading through these, but I've been researching what to stick in my new computer for a while now and have finally got to the stage of really progressing to buy it.

Just wanted to see if people had any opinions/improvements on anything, or just advice about the parts in general.

PSU - Corsair VX 550w - £70

Case - CoolerMaster HAF932 - £90 - I must admit, I've been shamelessly in love with this case ever since I saw it, but I may hold off and get a 922 when they are released as I really don't need the space the 932 gives me.

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4 - £90

CPU - AMD Phenom II X3 720 BE - £105 - I may have got the wrong end of the stick or confused it with the 940 BE, but is the heatsink/fan good enough on this not to bother with a third party one?

HD - 1TB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1 - £65

Memory - 4GB Corsair (2x2GB) TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 - £35

Optical - SATA DVD RW etc - £20

GFX - 512MB Sapphire HD 4870 - £132 - This one is probably most up in the air, since my opinion tends to change daily based on the prices I can find and various models getting cheaper all the time. This deal seemed pretty good for today, but I'm also tempted by various GTX260 deals and not totally adverse to looking at a good 4850 either.

Total - £607 - This is pretty close to my budget, but I'm not locked down to this number completely. If I think I get a much better deal by changing things I might be able to spend a little more, but this is the general ballpark figure.

Any thoughts?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I'm sure people are bored of reading through these, but I've been researching what to stick in my new computer for a while now and have finally got to the stage of really progressing to buy it.

Just wanted to see if people had any opinions/improvements on anything, or just advice about the parts in general.

PSU - Corsair VX 550w - £70

Case - CoolerMaster HAF932 - £90 - I must admit, I've been shamelessly in love with this case ever since I saw it, but I may hold off and get a 922 when they are released as I really don't need the space the 932 gives me.

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4 - £90

CPU - AMD Phenom II X3 720 BE - £105 - I may have got the wrong end of the stick or confused it with the 940 BE, but is the heatsink/fan good enough on this not to bother with a third party one?

HD - 1TB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1 - £65

Memory - 4GB Corsair (2x2GB) TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 - £35

Optical - SATA DVD RW etc - £20

GFX - 512MB Sapphire HD 4870 - £132 - This one is probably most up in the air, since my opinion tends to change daily based on the prices I can find and various models getting cheaper all the time. This deal seemed pretty good for today, but I'm also tempted by various GTX260 deals and not totally adverse to looking at a good 4850 either.

Total - £607 - This is pretty close to my budget, but I'm not locked down to this number completely. If I think I get a much better deal by changing things I might be able to spend a little more, but this is the general ballpark figure.

Any thoughts?

IIRC the AMD Phenom II 9** series do come with a decent heatsink and not the 7** series.

You should be able to get a decent heatsink though for under £20:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Arcti...LL-AMD-Opteron

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AKASA...-side-blow-fan

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...939-940-socket

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Xigma...AM2-Cpu-cooler

I would also change the power supply too and get the following Enermax modular PSU instead:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/525W-...uard-SafeGuard

Also this HD4870 1gb is better value for money:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-X...VI-I-HDTV-HDCP

There is also this 216 shader GTX260 for a similar price:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/896MB...-DL-DVI-I-HDTV

[sammorris]

I would stick with the Corsair PSU, it's much better value for money, and slightly more reliable.
Agreed on the graphics, a 1GB HD4870 can be had for under £140.

[Shev]

So basically needing an extra cooler for the 720 over the 940 brings the price difference between them down to around £25. Will I see enough of a benefit - I pretty much just do gaming at 1600x980 with a bit of Photoshop stuff - to make it worth the extra?

[sammorris]

You can survive without one, but it's recommended you get a better one. You probably won't see a huge difference in gaming between the two (though the 940 is faster), but Photoshop is likely to be substantially faster with the 940.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

So basically needing an extra cooler for the 720 over the 940 brings the price difference between them down to around £25. Will I see enough of a benefit - I pretty much just do gaming at 1600x980 with a bit of Photoshop stuff - to make it worth the extra?

Actually the stock cooler of the X3 720 in hindsight is not too bad!

Here is a review of the stock cooler of the X3 720:

http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/cpu/phenom-2-cnq-p1.html

On the second page there is a picture of the Phenom X4 9** cooler.

I would read the review TBH as it is quite interesting!

I hope this helps!

[Shev]

Cool, thanks. Really interesting stuff on the cooler, yeah. Basically means I can fiddle about with some simple overclocking without worrying too much, and upgrade the cooler if anything I do puts it into higher temps than I really want to run full time.

[sammorris]

Exactly, as is the case with most CPUs. I wouldn't recommend raising the voltages by any more than an insignificant amount on any stock cooler, especially with the heat that AMD CPUs put out, but whatever you can achieve with stock (or close to stock) volts should run fine.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Exactly, as is the case with most CPUs. I wouldn't recommend raising the voltages by any more than an insignificant amount on any stock cooler, especially with the heat that AMD CPUs put out, but whatever you can achieve with stock (or close to stock) volts should run fine.

The stock cooler on the Phenom II X3 will be fine for moderate overclocking as the article I linked too investigated this. As long as you monitor the temperature everything will be fine TBH. As long as you don't exceed 60C at maximum load you should be fine.

The 45nm Phenom II processors run far cooler than the previous 65nm Phenom.

[Blitzen]

I would stick with the Corsair PSU, it's much better value for money, and slightly more reliable.
Agreed on the graphics, a 1GB HD4870 can be had for under £140.

I don't know where the PSU advice came from but it's certainly incorrect
Better value? How seeing as it's very over priced.
Slightly more reliable? How can you qualify that statement?

The Enermax that was given as an alternative is a far better unit in every way.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Corsair units are decent(I have an HX520w myself) but I would probably go for an Enermax unit if I had to make the choice again as I mentioned earlier.

TBH,I would look at getting a modular unit as there is far less mess with cables.

[sammorris]

It's pleasing to see that the X3s are using sub 80W at load when running stock, I assume they were closer to the 95W TDP than the Core 2s. The overclocking results seem about right for a normal overclocking standard (though clearly, the Intel is likely to have seen a bigger result for the same increase in voltage. That's not to say the Intel is leagues ahead, but the Motherboard's FSB limit is the main factor for the Core 2s, whereas with AMDs the sky is the limit but you need more and more volts for each step, and quite a lot of them)

Blitzen: The Enermax is £79, The VX 550W is £70, and for that £9 you get modular cables and a slightly quieter fan. The VX550 may be a CWT instead of a Seasonic, but I see no reliability issues with them. The Modu82 units had loads of DOA units I spotted on various forums, certainly initially, and I see next to no Corsair units fail, whereas replacing bad Enermaxes in various ends of the market is relatively common discussion. I'm not saying Enermax are unreliable, certainly not compared to other units out there, but there is that degree of uncertainty. Personally, I'd take neither of those units and buy the HX 520W for £78. It's quiet (a couple of dB noisier than the Enermax, but very little noticeable difference in the real world) and can remain so while powering a near 4Ghz Quad core, a 4870X2 and three hard disks for several months without complaint.

[Cornholio]

Go with the enermax PSU, recently bought one for a mates build, excellent quality.

[Blitzen]

It's pleasing to see that the X3s are using sub 80W at load when running stock, I assume they were closer to the 95W TDP than the Core 2s. The overclocking results seem about right for a normal overclocking standard (though clearly, the Intel is likely to have seen a bigger result for the same increase in voltage. That's not to say the Intel is leagues ahead, but the Motherboard's FSB limit is the main factor for the Core 2s, whereas with AMDs the sky is the limit but you need more and more volts for each step, and quite a lot of them)

Blitzen: The Enermax is £79, The VX 550W is £70, and for that £9 you get modular cables and a slightly quieter fan. The VX550 may be a CWT instead of a Seasonic, but I see no reliability issues with them. The Modu82 units had loads of DOA units I spotted on various forums, certainly initially, and I see next to no Corsair units fail, whereas replacing bad Enermaxes in various ends of the market is relatively common discussion. I'm not saying Enermax are unreliable, certainly not compared to other units out there, but there is that degree of uncertainty. Personally, I'd take neither of those units and buy the HX 520W for £78. It's quiet (a couple of dB noisier than the Enermax, but very little noticeable difference in the real world) and can remain so while powering a near 4Ghz Quad core, a 4870X2 and three hard disks for several months without complaint.

You are trying to qualify a unit by things you have read.
If you look there are plenty of DOA Corsairs also. Its an 'electronics' thing. I am sorry, but you are reading selectively.

I actually own both a Corsair (HX520) and an Enermax (625 MODU) and i can safely say, through first hand experience, and not from others, that the Enermax is comfortably the better unit, both in quality and value.

[Grymdawg]

Regardless which PSU he picks, both mentioned seem to be a good standard.

I would recommend going for a modular PSU just to echo what Cat said. Less clutter is always a bonus.

Good luck with your build

[Shev]

Yeah, the PSU discussion seems to be one that has divided people. Looks like I'll probably spend the little extra and go with one of the modular ones though.