Spec my new build (~£800)

[woody_294]

Ah right cool, well seeing as you're moving from a mighty Q6600 I'd go for a Phenom II 955 X4 Black Edition.

3GHz and fairly overclockable, don't worry about the 8Mb of cache being low, it's used differently than on intel chips.

Then there's the 965, same chip, just 3.4GHz, oh, and I'd recommend a good 790FX board if you want to clock it.

They perform on a par with Intel equivalents for less money, unless you're looking at media editing, where Intel has the edge.

[666moe666]

Ah right cool, well seeing as you're moving from a mighty Q6600 I'd go for a Phenom II 955 X4 Black Edition.

3GHz and fairly overclockable, don't worry about the 8Mb of cache being low, it's used differently than on intel chips.

Then there's the 965, same chip, just 3.4GHz, oh, and I'd recommend a good 790FX board if you want to clock it.

They perform on a par with Intel equivalents for less money, unless you're looking at media editing, where Intel has the edge.

Ok, thanks.

How about this for the cpu;
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-P...he-125W-Retail

and this for the mobo;
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...-SATA-RAID-ATX

Looks fairly reasonable.

Also, I'm upgrading from an E6600 so I expect to notice more difference...

[woody_294]

Yep that'd do it The 955 will clock and I've read some very good reviews on that gigabyte board, although the MSI one is slightly faster and a little better at clocking, not a lot of people have given MSI their trust back after some terrible boards in the past. BUT Gigabyte have an excellent track record.

[Will404]

Errrrm, I need to hard drives to run at 7200rpm really, at least.

The cheapest (reputable) 1TB options are:
Seagate Barracuda ~ £65 == £195

Samsung Spinpoint F3 ~ £67 == £201

WD Caviar Black ~ £71 == £213

The cheapest (reputable) 1.5TB option is:
Seagate Barracuda ~£89 == £178

So supprisingly going two "fast" 1.5TB drives is cheaper.
*Remember to check today only as well if buying from scan:
http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx
**Remember also your free shipping

EDIT: Today only have the 1.5TB 7200RPM Seagate for £85 == £170. Every little helps

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Out of interest do you need Crossfire or SLI?? If you don't then you can decrease the cost of the build even more!!

You could always go with a 790X motherboard:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/GIGABYTE-GA-MA790X-UD3P

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...SATA-3Gb-s-ATX

These still do Crossfire but PCI-E 8X and not 16X like the 790FX.

You may want to consider the C3 stepping X4 965 too:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/186428

Unlike current 955BE processors the 125W 965 is a C3 stepping which means it can run 4 DIMMs of DDR3 at 1333MHZ.

[666moe666]

The cheapest (reputable) 1TB options are:
Seagate Barracuda ~ £65 == £195

Samsung Spinpoint F3 ~ £67 == £201

WD Caviar Black ~ £71 == £213

The cheapest (reputable) 1.5TB option is:
Seagate Barracuda ~£89 == £178

So supprisingly going two "fast" 1.5TB drives is cheaper.
*Remember to check today only as well if buying from scan:
http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx
**Remember also your free shipping

EDIT: Today only have the 1.5TB 7200RPM Seagate for £85 == £170. Every little helps

Cheers bud, I'm thinking about buying the two Seagates @ 1.5TB now because I'm going to need them and it'll beat the VAT hike. I'd rather get two of those, than three 1TB drives, as they are cheaper and there will be less messing about if there is only two of them.

[666moe666]

Out of interest do you need Crossfire or SLI?? If you don't then you can decrease the cost of the build even more!!

You could always go with a 790X motherboard:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/GIGABYTE-GA-MA790X-UD3P

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...SATA-3Gb-s-ATX

These still do Crossfire but PCI-E 8X and not 16X like the 790FX.

You may want to consider the C3 stepping X4 965 too:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/186428

Unlike current 955BE processors the 125W 965 is a C3 stepping which means it can run 4 DIMMs of DDR3 at 1333MHZ.

I'm not going to need Crossfire or SLI I don't think.

EDIT: Those board look pretty good for the cash. I mean, they are a lot cheaper considering they are almost the same.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

There is a very nice Gigabyte 770 based motherboard which would do the trick for under £70 but it lacks any sort of heatsinks on the VRMs meaning that they would get very hot if you wanted to overclock the CPU.

This is a possible alternate build I would look at getting:

AMD Phenom II X4 965 125W C3 stepping ~ £134

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/186428

Asus M4A79XTD EVO ~ £79

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...SATA-3Gb-s-ATX

4GB DDR3 ~ £80

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

2xSamsung F2 1.5TB ~ £145

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

Samsung F3 500GB ~ £34

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

Antec 900 ~£78

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/72Ant...op-Fan-w-o-PSU

650W Antec Signature Modular ~ £76

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

SATA DVD rewriter ~ £15

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

The total comes to under £650 using free postage from Scan.

If you get a cheap copy of Windows 7 you could probably be able to get another HD4890 card and put it in Crossfire.

[666moe666]

I've already ordered the two Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB as they were only £178 together and run at 7,200rpm.

Really want the second Antec 900 so won't budge on that but I'm pretty much getting everything else you say, cheers bud, you always come up with the goods.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I've already ordered the two Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB as they were only £178 together and run at 7,200rpm.

Really want the second Antec 900 so won't budge on that but I'm pretty much getting everything else you say, cheers bud, you always come up with the goods.

I just thought of one more thing though!! Have you considered upgrading your current CPU as you could plonk in a Q9550 in your motherboard:

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_I...mAc&templete=2

It is available for under £160:

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

If you do go for the AMD build only go for the 125W version of the 965 and not the 140W version.

[666moe666]

I just thought of one more thing though!! Have you considered upgrading your current CPU as you could plonk in a Q9550 in your motherboard:

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_I...mAc&templete=2

It is available for under £160:

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

If you do go for the AMD build only go for the 125W version of the 965 and not the 140W version.

I think i'd have to flash the bios to get that and it's just more hassle. Under £160 is pretty good, but considering this pc is basically going to be in my sisters room, and pretty much only used by her, it doesn't need to have anything decent.

Yeah cheers, I bought the exact one you linked

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Make sure you go for the Asus motherboard as the Gigabyte one is a DDR2 one. The Phenom II X4 965 can use both DDR2 and DDR3 so you could always re-use the RAM from your current build if you wanted to save money.

[666moe666]

Make sure you go for the Asus motherboard as the Gigabyte one is a DDR2 one. The Phenom II X4 965 can use both DDR2 and DDR3 so you could always re-use the RAM from your current build if you wanted to save money.

Yeah I did

Cool, need new RAM anyway because my current build would still need RAM which I'd then have to re-buy anyway.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Are you buying 4GB or 8GB??

I assume you are going to reuse your HD4890??

Edit!!

The RAM I linked to is the 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3, PC3-12800 (1600), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP set.

I would run the RAM at 1333MHZ using low latencies:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ddr3,2319.html

[666moe666]

Are you buying 4GB or 8GB??

I assume you are going to reuse your HD4890??

4Gb at the moment. When I have more cash I may upgrade. Luckily RAM is retaining value really well at the moment.

Yeah, I'm reusing it, and just buying a semi decent card to put into the pc I am taking it from

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Yeah, I'm reusing it, and just buying a semi decent card to put into the pc I am taking it from

Scan have an XFX 9600GT for around £52:
http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx