Proposed new rig.. opinions?

[Forsell]

Hey all, long time reader, first time poster.

I have been out of the game (so to speak) for a fair few years, and now currently to build a new system. These are what I'm look at so far, so if I could have opinions on if they work well etc, I would be grateful!

I'm looking to do the build in three phases, as I still have a few bits from my current PC I can use for a while.

I currently have a XFX 5770 1GB XXX, which I will use.

Phase One
CPU AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE 3.4ghz £143.30
MOBO Gigabyte GA-790FXTA-UD5 £147.80
PSU 650W Powercool Dual Rail £45.80
RAM 2x2GB Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800 (1600mhz) £76.52
Total £413.42

Phase Two
RAM 2x2GB Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800 (1600mhz) £76.52
HD 1TB WD Sata III 64mb cache £72.81
HD 1TB WD Sata III 64mb cache £72.81
OPTI LiteOn SATA DVD-RW DL SATA £14.91
OPTI LiteOn SATA BLU-RAY / DVD SATA £41.99
Total £279.04

Phase Three
VGA 1GB XFX HD 5770 XXX £138.14
TV LG 42LD420, FullHD 1080p 1920x1080, 60,000:1 £509.70
Total £647.84

Advanced thanks,

[Jasp]

Motherboard is a bit dated tbh, i'd go with the newer 890FX chipset, simply because your getting sata 3 and USB3 for the sake of £8. Im guessing your gonna be running the two 5770 in Xfire? otherwise you could go with a cheaper board thats not based on the FX set. Just noticed the Sata 3 HDs, so your gonna need a 800 series chipset.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...-SATA-RAID-ATX £155

Also scrap the PSU use a decent known brand.

Rest of the build looks fine, just remember its not 100% certain the ram is gonna run together at 1600mhz if your adding more down the line.

[Forsell]

Thanks for the info Jasp. I'll certainly go for that motherboard instead.

Could you expand on the memory issue? If I was to purchase four of those sticks, they won't all run?

Also, any recommendations on PSU brands? Are Coolermaster and Corsair still at the higher end of the table? I heard that a dual-rail is better than a single rail. I assume that's correct?

[Jasp]

The sticks are only rated to run at that speed together as their matched pairs, in theory they should run fine in 4s but their not 100% certain, you may need to up the voltage or drop the speed to make them run. If you bought a matching set that wouldn't be a issue as they have been tested together. Either way i'd just stick with 4gig unless you really do need 8gig.

As for the PSU yer corsairs still up their with the best of them, the dual v single rail is a long running debate, antecs view is that by running single rails you have to remove the safeguards to get the ampage required by the GPUs which you don't have to with dual rail setups. Ive built 3pcs using corsairs TX650 and non of them have blown up yet..touch wood.

[Forsell]

So basically, on the RAM front, I'd need to get a pack of four if I wanted to be certain of them running fine?

I'd like to get a modular PSU, to get rid of all the wires. Would this one be ok? Single rail upto 62A, 750w.

750W-Corsair-CMPSU-750HXUK-SLi-ATX-EPS12V-Modular-UK-Version-7-Year-Warranty

(Can't post a link yet I'm afraid)

[Jasp]

Looking at hexus's review of the 5770s they pull about 266 watts under full load in quite a power hungry rig, so anything over about 600w should be fine, corsair PSUs tend to run best at about half load so a HX650 would probably do ya, but would limit you further down the line if you wanted to say stick 2 GTX480s in their.

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.ph...=9&search=5770

[Forsell]

Thanks.. Back when I was building, you rarely had to worry that much about the PSU, so this is all new to me.

I don't plan to upgrade the graphic card(s) 'that soon', but of course I don't want to be too limited in my options. I'm now thinking on either the 750HX or 850HX, as an extra £15/£30 now, may well save me £100 in a few years time!