Bit of advice: Phenom II 965

[zain]

So I've bought the AMD 965 BE (£135 delivered so couldn't resist!) and an OCZ PSU (again a bargain so couldn't resist thanks CAT!), plus a Coolmaster case (another bargain!) now before I go ahead with these other parts I just need a bit of advice.

My main aim is working applications with a bit of gaming, wanting complete silence and good cooling. I'm still on XP so I can't go above 4gb of memory.

I'm looking at the following parts:

Motherboard

GA 785GMT USB3 £75.00 or Asus M4A785TD-V EVO £73.00, I'm torn between the two and from what I have read I don't need to go above a 785G.

Graphics card

Asus 1GB DDR3 HD5450 80 cores £50.00 or 512MB Asus HD 4670 GDDR3 320 Cores £55 - I keep thinking the 512mb will perform much better?

Memory

Corsair DDR3 DHX XMS3 2GB £60.04 or 2GB(2x1GB) Corsair XMS3 Dominator DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) £65.00 or 3GB (3x1GB) Corsair Dominator, DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) £90.00 - am I getting anything better by getting the 3GB model?

CPU Cooler

I can only think of Arctic 7? My aim is complete silence.

120mm Fan

So many say silent, how true is this? I just want silence.

HDD

Western Digital 500GB SATA II £46.00

Monitor

22" Digimate - DGM L-2262WD Black, Widescreen LCD, 5 ms, DVI/VGA, 1680x1050, 700:1, Speakers £100.00

DVD/CD-RW

Again not sure? They all boast silence and quality but how true is it? what is best?

I just want to make sure these are good parts before I buy them for my new build

[Terbinator]

£46 on a 500GB hard drive ???

Also the F7Pro only uses a 92mm fan that will probably running at a high RPM when using it with a Phenom II - your best bet would be to use a Titan Fenrir or similar as they use the quieter and better performing 120mm fans.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hi

What sort of budget do you have??

Is integrated graphics a must for the motherboard??

Are you going to overclock the processor or not??

[zain]

I think 450-550 is the most, no oc'ing and yeah must be integrated as if the graphics card fails at least I have a back up.

[Ulti]

The 3x1GB sticks are triple channel RAM, designed for the X58 boards (socket 1366). The system you're looking at runs dual channel RAM so that's out of question. I'd advise you to get 4GB now and upgrade your OS later as IMO even in XP there's a noticeable performance increase from 2GB to 4GB.

The arctic 7 cooler uses a 92mm fan so when temperatures get high (which they will for the 965) the fan will be louder than a 120mm tower based cooler. However, you'd definitely need to look at how much space you have in your case as 120mm tower based coolers need around 160mm or so from the board to the side of the case. A good choice here would be the Hyper 212 Plus as it's only £18 from Play with free P&P.

Like I said, 120mm fans will be the most silent fans. It's hard to see which fans are silent but the ones that spin slower (800RPM-1200RPM) tend to be quieter than the "performance" fans that spin at 1500RPM+.

With the DVD/CDRW drive they're pretty much silent when there is no CD in but I think all drives will be loud when there is a CD inside but I've only tried the cheapest drives so I can't really comment on that.

[zain]

The 3x1GB sticks are triple channel RAM, designed for the X58 boards (socket 1366). The system you're looking at runs dual channel RAM so that's out of question. I'd advise you to get 4GB now and upgrade your OS later as IMO even in XP there's a noticeable performance increase from 2GB to 4GB.

I thought the 2x2GB was dual?

The arctic 7 cooler uses a 92mm fan so when temperatures get high (which they will for the 965) the fan will be louder than a 120mm tower based cooler. However, you'd definitely need to look at how much space you have in your case as 120mm tower based coolers need around 160mm or so from the board to the side of the case. A good choice here would be the Hyper 212 Plus as it's only £18 from Play with free P&P.

I have the coolmaster 335 case, will that Hyper 212 be pretty quiet?

According to the review I will get 1mm spare....bought it - bargain price!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I think 450-550 is the most, no oc'ing and yeah must be integrated as if the graphics card fails at least I have a back up.

Is that the money you have left or does that include the X4 965 you just bought for £135 and the OCZ PSU??

[zain]

Includes, I really like the prospects of that cooling fan. Just the memory, MB and graphics card now if you can help! Scan just sold out of the dominator dhx and they just got stock in today!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would probably get the following parts:

Asus M4A785TD-V EVO ~ £71

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169532

OR

Asus M4A89GTD PRO ~ £100

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

Has SATA 3.0,the SB850 southbridge and an HD4290 integrated graphics.

HD5750 512MB~ £93

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/179681

OR

1GB Asus HD 5770 CuCore ~ £127

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

Crucial Ballistix 1600MHZ DDR3 RAM ~ £100

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/191175

The OP should use their free postage from Scan.

[Pob255]

Ok to start with 4670 (ddr3 version) over the 5450, for slient this passive 4670 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158546
That's also not great for games but will be ok esp at the lower resolutions.
If you can go a bit higher then the 9800gt eco version is the card to go for http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169143 not passive but a heck of a lot more grunt.
On the 5series the 9800gt comes in between the 5670 and 5750 performance wise (if I remember correctly) and is closer to the graphics level you're looking for for games on 1650x1080

For motherboard look at the 770chipset +710sb
Cheapest option here is the MSI 770-G45 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/185913
ALthough the Gigabyte GA-770T_UBS3 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/196300 (USB3 and firewire) or the Asus M4A77TD Pro U3S6 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190021 (Sata 6Gb/s and USB3 via add in card) are also worth looking at.
Depends on if you will use these extra features or plan to in the future.

Ebuyer also have the new Zalman cooler for £27 which is a decent price http://www.ebuyer.com/product/198976

[zain]

There truly is a lot of information to intake and to be aware of so you don't get sucked into a marketing con and end up paying more for nothing.

Thanks for the help, this is what I have now bought:

120mm AKASA APACHE Black Silent fan HDB bearing PWM fan w/4 pin connector & Rubber Pins – 120MM CASE FAN

1TB Western Digital WD10EARS, Caviar Green, Intellipower, 64Mb Cache 8ms - HDD

43cm Scan Serial ATA Cable SATAII (RB-404) - CABLE

4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 Classic, DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V - RAM

ASUS VH222D 22" Widescreen, 1920x1080, 300cd/m2, 1000:1, 5ms, D-Sub, Black - MONITOR

Coolmaster 335 Case – CASE

Gigabyte GA-785GMT-USB3 AMD 785G Socket AM3 DVI VGA HDMI Out ATX Motherboard – MOTHER BOARD

Hyper 212 Cooler CPU - COOLER

OCZ Silent PSU - POWER

Sapphire HD 4670 Ultimate Edition 512MB GDDR3 HDMI DVI VGA PCI-E Graphics Card – GRAPHICS CARD

Phenom II 965 Black Edition 3.4GHZ – CPU

Target: £550.
Actual: £623.09 (due to monitor (£114), which I didn't budget for!)

I hope it achieves what I want

[Pob255]

Well for a case fan I'd not of bought the Apache, it is a very good PWM fan and great for a cpu cooler.
However the 212 come with a decent PWM fan.
If you want to use it as a case fan without PWM control then it's not the best, it shifts a good amount of air at full speed but it's not exactly "silent"
As I said before the 785g chipset is great if you want onboard graphics the 770 is a better bet for low cost if you're using a seperate card.