A little advice on a new setup please

[M4DM4N]

Hello all and thanks firstly for taking some time in reading my post.
I built a couple of computers a few years ago when AMD athlon xp's where good and a 6600gt was top of the line lol so maybe more then just a few yrs ago. After having kids and losing anytime to play games i kind of stopped caring about the home pc apart from using it for facebook and checking emails.
I have decided i want to well need to rebuild a family pc able to play games but must admit time has moved on and im clueless that 9800gt and x1900xt are not even classed as good and well dual core triple and quad are the new thing im lost.

i have looked for parts and want to know what some of you may think of them or wether i can get better for the same price etc. Some advice on wether my choices will run the latest games like cod black ops etc i used to be big fan of cod4:modern warfare battlefield 2142.

Processor: AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition 3.2GHz £80
Motherboard: Asus M4A785TD-V EVO 785G Socket AM3 £67
Memory: Kingston 2gb Ddr3 1600mhz Hyperx Memory Cl9(9-9-9-27) £50
Hard drive: Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Cache £35
Graphics: XFX ATI Radeon HD 4890 1024MB GDDR5 £110
Case: CM Storm Scout Case £63
PSU: Arctic Power 700W PSU £45

=£450

Will this be ok for gaming i will increse memory when i have more funds but this is stretching my budget already thanks.

[Hawker1986]

Looks fine in generaly, I would recommed you make a few changes though:

Samsung F3 500Gb drive, its the best on the market and not much dearer.
Antec 300 case - cheaper decent cooling case.
Spend whatever that saves on a better PSU, wouldnt touch that one with a barge pole. 500W should be more than enough for your needs. something like http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/530W-...n5xSata4xMolex

In the end that should work out a little cheaper.

Hawker

[Queelis]

I'd change the GPU from a 4890 (can you even get those anymore?) to a 5770 - in essence the same performance (well, maybe a bit slower), but it'll be quieter and consume less energy.

On the CPU note: you can take that, OR, you could take an Athlon II 640, which is £80 on Scan (currently out of stock, though), but it's a quad core (will make more of a difference than the L3 cache, which the Phenom has). Of course, you might be lucky and may unlock the two other cores in your Phenom, but it's a lottery.

[M4DM4N]

Thanks queelis and hawker

Hawker i was looking at the antex 300 looks like nice case was either that or the one i choose but i may make the change.

Queelis can you just confirm why to choose those differently i don't mean to seem rude just wonder why i should change. The quad core i was told would make no real difference as there is nothing that needs it also its 2.9g and 2mb cache compared to the phenom 555 black edition at 3.2g and 6mb cach, i was to understand more cache and faster processor was better. It would only be for playing games and going on the net. Also the graphics everywhere i checked (mainly toms hardware etc) say the 4890 is more powerfull the only thing it lacked was not having directx 11 but thats not out yet ?.

Thanks for your time

[M4DM4N]

Looking on here there is pretty big jump between 4890 and 5770 plus its about £30 more

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphics-cards-charts-2009-high-quality/compare,1814.html?prod[3660]=on&prod[3697]=on&prod[3652]=on&prod[3651]=on

[ehhhhhhh]

I consider tomshardware as one of the dodgiest sites...I wouldn't make any decisions depending on their articles.

if I were you I would stay with the x2...it's really easy to OC it and should do around 3.5ghz on stock vcore...

on the gpu (advice from a cheapskate): I wouldn't really buy anything new atm, as the new ati cards will push down the prices (q4/10?)...
I'm planning to buy a 5850 or nvidia equivalent when this happens..

I think you would be better off with a second hand card from the classifieds or from ebay in the time being, because a hd5770 or gtx460 is pretty much inadequate for 1080p...

[Pob255]

A 4890 for £110 (if you can find one) is good, it is a bit faster than the 5770 and at that price cheaper.
The price of the 5770 has come down, current around £120ish for the 512mb version and £130 for the 1gb version.
Which makes the choise tougher, depends on how much you want DX11
Sapphire HD 5770 512MB £112 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/199404

PSU: Arctic Power 700W PSU £45 = No, it's not a good psu, ps these are nothing to do with the well known company Arctic Cooling.
They are a "budget" brand that cannot supply the listed wattage.
All you'd need for what you're currently looking at would be a good 450w-500w psu
for a decent cheap psu
OCZ stealth 500w http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135159

Others to look at
Silverstone strider 500w http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/500W-...-pin-120mm-Fan
Be Quiet 530w http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/530W-...n5xSata4xMolex

Modular
Corsair HX450w http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/450W-...-year-Warranty
OCZ 500w http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152009

special mention
Be Quite sepcial edition 600w modular http://www.ebuyer.com/product/206053 for £60 it's a great price and has a good chunk of upgrade potential.

You might want to consider 4gb of memory
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/234975

Also if you're not planning on overclocking then lower latencie 1333mhz would be a better option.
2 of these http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169288
1333mhz@cas7 is actually slightly faster than 1600mhz@cas9, 1600mhz will give you more overclocking head room before you hit a memory wall.

[Queelis]

Queelis can you just confirm why to choose those differently i don't mean to seem rude just wonder why i should change. The quad core i was told would make no real difference as there is nothing that needs it also its 2.9g and 2mb cache compared to the phenom 555 black edition at 3.2g and 6mb cach, i was to understand more cache and faster processor was better. It would only be for playing games and going on the net. Also the graphics everywhere i checked (mainly toms hardware etc) say the 4890 is more powerfull the only thing it lacked was not having directx 11 but thats not out yet ?.

Thanks for your time

Well on the graphics front you have more replies so I'll let it sink, just stated my opinion.

On the processor part: well, even though you'll only be "playing games", two extra cores give you more performance than several hundred MHz and 4MB more of L3 cache. For example, Starcraft II already uses more than two cores (see here), which is why I would go for a quad core instead of a bit faster dual core.

Besides, when you feel you're limited by the clockspeed of your CPU, they overclock nicely (see here)

For example, by raising the processor Vcore 0.175 V above the nominal we managed to overclock our Athlon II X4 630 to 3.64 GHz by simply increasing the clock generator frequency to 260 MHz.

[M4DM4N]

Thanks everyone for your replies and time i will take it all into consideration much appreciated.

[kurosagi01]

Can probably change mobo or PSU but this a quick draft if your budget is £450.

[M4DM4N]

Thanks for all your help and replies i have taken most of it into consideration.
From (hawkers) advice i picked the antec 300 and Samsung F3 500Gb.

Pob thanks you i decided to get the OCZ stealth 500w and Kingston 2gb Ddr3 1333mhz Hyperx Memory Cl7(7-7-7-20) i will add another 2gb when funds are avail.

Queelis you said about the phenom 640 i think quad core i wanted 3.2 or above so instead i got AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz Socket AM3 8MB L3 Cache.

So i have listened to everything you have all said and would like to thank you all for your time. Graphics i choose radeon 4890 for £110 it was all i could afford also it seemed to just out perform 5770 i may be wrong but everywhere i looked it seems to be cheaper and a little better.

Item: Asus M4A785TD-V EVO 785G Socket AM3 onboard DVI VGA HDMI 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard

Item: Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache - OEM

Item: Antec 300 Three Hundred Case

Item: OCZ Stealth Xtream 500W PSU - 1x PCI-E 6/8pin, 2x SATA 12cm Fan

Item: Kingston 2gb Ddr3 1333mhz Hyperx Memory Cl7(7-7-7-20)

Item: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz Socket AM3 8MB L3 Cache 125W Retail Box Processor

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4890 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express £111.99

Thanks again i look forward to showing a picture of the complete thing soon.

[Queelis]

Wow, that's a jump on CPU part Looks good, have fun with yer new toy.

[kurosagi01]

I would of personally went with the casecom 6788 and a GTX460 instead of the 4890 and the antec 300.

[Hawker1986]

Glad to be of help, hope you enjoy the machine

Hawker

[sammorris]

The HD4890 clearly outperforms the HD5770. Even the HD4870 outperforms the HD5770, so wherever you heard otherwise, they're wrong

[kurosagi01]

I would of went with the GTX460 in my opinion instead of the 4890 and a 5770 overclock can beat a 4890 performance.