Cheap Phenom II build

[zaphox]

Following on from earlier thread (now defunct as I've changed the CPU).. this system needs to be cheap but fast. It will be running Win7 & Visual Studio 2010. Onboard graphics card is important to keep the price down.

I'm basically happy with the system and the price, just want to check it's all compatible and I haven't made any silly mistakes/forgotten anything.

FYI: don't worry about DVD drive/floppy drive/VGA/Mouse/KB/OS... all taken care of.


AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition, Sok AM3, 3.2GHz, 8MB Total Cache, Retail - £94.95 Ex VAT
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-P...l-Cache-Retail

Asus M4A88T-M, AMD 880G, S AM3, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 1866(OC), SATA RAID, mATX, On Board Graphics - £55.98 Ex VAT
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...Board-Graphics

Corsair Memory XMS3 4GB DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) Dual Channel Desktop - £52.95 Ex VAT
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-(...9-9-24-DHX-16V

1TB Western Digital WD1002FAEX Caviar Black, SATA 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 64MB Cache, 8 ms - £57.59 Ex VAT
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1TB-W...4MB-Cache-8-ms

550W Corsair CMPSU-550VXUK, ATX, PS/2, 5 year Warranty - £56.54 Ex VAT
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/550W-...-year-Warranty

Total: £318.01 exc VAT

+ any case.. yet to be decided

Stupid Questions

Excuse my paranoia, but I'd rather not second guess on these things...

- That is a 64bit processor isn't it? I think I read all Phenom CPUs are 64 bit, but it doesn't actually confirm that on the Scan page.
- That WD HD is "SATA 6Gb/s" and the MOBO's SATA rating is "SATA 3Gb/s" .. the disk will be ok running at 3Gb/s though right?
- Will a 180 x 363 x 370 (WxHxD mm) micro ATX case be big enough to house the above equipment?

Thanks

[nibbler]

uATX case will be big enough yup. Yes, it's a 64 bit processor. I wouldn't get that HD. Save about £25 and get a samsung f3.

[Ulti]

Looks pretty good to me but you may be better off getting the Phenom II 1055T for only slightly more than the 955 if you use a lot of cores.

To answer your questions, yes the processors do support 64 bit. I can't say anymore than that as I've only been around tech for the last 1 or 2 years and the ones I've used (from Intel Pentium dual core onwards) have supported 64bit.

The HDD will indeed be running at 3Gb/s but no HDDs use up the bandwidth of 3Gb/s anyway, it's only SSDs that will/do gain from the 6Gb/s "SATA rating".

As microATX is a standard form factor, pretty much every microATX case that supports ATX PSUs will be able to fit the stuff you mentioned. You may want to link the cases that you're looking at here to make sure they support ATX PSUs as some microATX cases only support SFF or pico PSUs.

EDIT: As nibbler suggested you could save quite a bit of money with a Samsung F3, performance will be only slightly slower but probably not noticeable in the real world.

[nibbler]

For a good uATM case have a look at the case I have, an antec p180 mini

[jimbouk]

550W Corsair CMPSU-550VXUK, ATX, PS/2, 5 year Warranty - £56.54 Ex VAT
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/550W-...-year-Warranty

Are you planning on buying a high end graphics card later? If not then this is probably overkill, a decent 400W PSU will be fine.

[zaphox]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will take them all into consideration.

Admittedly, I do automatically look at WD HDs and Corsair PSUs because I've always found them to be of a very high standard & reliable over a long term (and I don't have much time to look around for this system) but I will definitely look into your recommendations.

Thanks again.

[Ulti]

There is a Corsair CX400W for around £30 inc VAT that will easily power the rig you listed and is still a very good PSU for those on a budget.

[scaryjim]

Corsair CX400W £28 ex vat

And here's a 1TB WD Caviar Green for ~ £42 ex vat

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Asus M4A88T-M uses the earlier SB710 southbridge BTW.

You might want to consider this 790GX based motherboard which has the SB750 southbridge:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166041

This motherboard also uses the SB710 southbridge:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/179183

Both motherboards have 128MB of dedicated DDR3 RAM for the IGP.

You might want to consider the Coolermaster Elite 340 or 341 cases:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...X-Case-w-o-PSU

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...X-Case-w-o-PSU

[Pob255]

Rats!
Cat has beaten me to it again and so has sacry jim with the CX400w (that's a great psu for a basic system like this)
I'd not get a Caviar Green on it's own, ok as an additional backup/storage drive but not great as a main OS/programs drive, the Caviar Blue or samsung F3 would be a better bet for this.

The CM Elite 340 & 341 are great low cost mATX cases and are actually better than the newer Elite's IMO

[scaryjim]

... so has sacry jim with the CX400w ...

to be fair, Ulti beat me to that one. I was looking for a hard drive link and figured I might as well find the PSU while I was browsing scan

[c.ruel]

I have a CM 341 elite ... it is an ok case for the money. Bear in mind it is very cramped inside and there is very little room between the psu and top opticial drive bay making it a pain in the arse with all the cables espicially if you have a non modular psu. It also isn't the most quiet case either, although that problem can be solved ... best setup i found for it in terms of a balance between noise and temperature is to buy an additional fan and have it as and intake in the front and use the included fan as an exhaust and put some foam or something over the two empty fan bays on the side. I have managed to make mine pretty quiet doing that plus a fan controller but the cabling is still a nightmare. If you're ok with that it is a good case for the money and often on the today only section of scan for like 20 quid.

good luck!

EDIT: I also have a 500g caviar green as my only hard drive and I think it is really great. Performance is average but it is so quiet i never hear it unlike my gf's barracuda (latest one) which makes here case rattle.

[zaphox]

Thanks for further recommendations.. I went with the Samsung f3, Corsair 400W, ASROCK A790GMH/128M 790GX, and Coolmaster 340 (341 was out of stock) in the end.

Cheers for reminding me about case fans too c.ruel - can't believe I forgot about those!

[jimbouk]

Looking forward to the pics when it's together