Post-NY budget gaming rig.

Hey everyone !
I hope this is in the right place first of all.

Decided to switch from laptops to desktops after being burgled (who would have thought that I'd stop seeing portability as an advantage :P) and going right into building my own rig, so after finding a ton of useful info here, thought I'd sign up and see what people with more experience think about what I've come up with so far.

The budget is approximately £600 (British pounds) for rig itself and £800 for complete desktop.
Main uses - gaming (priority) , browsing, a lot of word processing.

I'm not too fussed as to where I get components from and considering the fact prices will fluctuate I will probably be picking bits here and there. I have linked the components from aria atm just for the sake of showing what I've picked so far.


So here it goes:

CPU: MD Phenom II X6 1055T (95W Edition) 2.80GHz OEM (considering OCing it eventually, so went for slightly more expensive 95w option - I have heard of it being OCed as high as 4Ghz with proper cooling). £145
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...roductId=40787

MoBo: Asus M4A87TD/USB3 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 PCI-Express Motherboard. £69
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...roductId=40261

RAM: G.Skill RipJaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel. £65
https://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...roductId=37609

PSU: Antec TruePower New Series 650W Modular Power Supply. £62
https://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...roductId=40313

GPU: Palit GeForce GTX 460 Sonic 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card. £135
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...roductId=40861

CD/DVD: Sony Optical DVD Writer, AD-7260S-0B, SATA, Black, OEM. £14
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...roductId=40871

Storage: 1TB Western Digital WD10EARS Caviar Green 3.5" SATA II Hard Drive
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...roductId=40315

This gets me to 543 pounds with delivery, while I am still to pick a case and CPU cooler. After getting windows (£70 oem) and monitor (100-150) and sorting peripherals I should be just about over budget.

At this point I'd appreciate any opinion, but I am still unsure whether this RAM is the best option and obviously case, CPU cooler and monitor are still to be picked so any suggestions regarding those would be particularly appreciated.

Thanks in advance and merry xmas.

P.S. I am looking at getting this during the first 2 weeks of January. If there is something outstanding worth waiting for for a shortish period of time I am also happy to do so.

P.P.S. I'm aware sandy bridge should be available shortly but I am unsure I would get better value for money than with what I've picked so far + budget restrictions, so I would also really appreciate someone's opinion on that (value for money/pricing vs AMD I linked/motherboard pricing)

AK

Spec looks good, you may want to consider a faster drive for the OS etc. Such as the f3 500gb. What games do you play?
I have a gigabyte 460 OC which is very quiet , not sure about the palit

I definitely agree about the os drive comment, however as I said I have to be rather careful now.
In order to sort that I am planning to get a SSD when next student loan comes and till then last couple of months on one drive. (Should be ok I think).

Palit got rather decent reviews - it can also be pushed just a bit further with Afterburner (there is also a Platinum OC version of it which can be pushed even further for 10 quid more - considering if that would be worth it atm)

What don't I play really -.- MW2, Total Wars, Dawn of War 2 etc. I tend to pick up pretty much everything once it's reviewed and I'm sure it's not awful. Once I sort this I would expect to pick up SC2 and new Shogun when it's out among other things. How is your card handling things so far ?

Edit: Can't see where the thank you button is :P So gonna have to edit it in here - thank you very much :)

You may fall foul of Windows licensing by using an OEM license twice if you are considering an SSD install in the future. Never had the problem myself mind, maybe others have.

I'd hang fire on any decision regarding the graphics component. Your planning this for the new year and we suspect the GTX 560 to be appearing about then. As AMD and nVidia finish mucking about with their new product lines, we should see some movement in pricing at least.

Thanks a lot ajones !
To be honest with you, it's this kind of knowledge that I'm genuinely lacking - what comes out where and if it's worth waiting for. An article here on hexus (looked up after reading your post) says it's likely to come out early in the year - do you know more accurately when that would happen by any chance ? As I said I really don't mind waiting if it's a reasonable time.
Is there any info about the pricing as well since, as I said, the only way I won't have to eat bread and beans till next student loan is if I avoid spending all my cash on this :P

Cheers for the OEM warning as well - I will definitely do some research about this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Molotov

An article here on hexus (looked up after reading your post) says it's likely to come out early in the year - do you know more accurately when that would happen by any chance ? As I said I really don't mind waiting if it's a reasonable time.
Is there any info about the pricing as well since, as I said, the only way I won't have to eat bread and beans till next student loan is if I avoid spending all my cash on this :P

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The only date I've heard is 20th Jan, but that is not official from nVidia.

As to cost... no idea, but it may impact the GTX460 price tag given that is the GPU it'll be replacing.

aha so even if I can't afford it, i'll still reap some benefits from its release.
I'm seriously considering waiting a tiny bit anyway and checking the prices for SB, which should be cool by mid month (and exactly same even if I can't afford it perhaps it will save me some money anyway).
was also considering this as other gpu option btw:
Asus HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 OC Graphics Card
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...roductId=42291

better ? worse ? crossfire seems like an attractive option

Thanks for the swift reply !

I've just bought that card for my sons PC, but it's currently sat under the xmas tree so I can't comment on how good it is. It reviewed well enough to be worth me splashing out my hard-earned mind! :)

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=27537

Make sure you check out Software for Students. You can get some good deals there

http://www.software4students.co.uk/

Just beware the upgrade versions if you don't already have an OS to upgrade from!

If you are going for a single card setup Sandy Bridge maybe worth considering. OTH,the prices of the existing Core i5 and Phenom II X4 and X6 processors will probably go down on its release.

The Phenom II X4 also has more L3 cache per core than the Phenom II X6 so in games which use four or less cores(which is most current games) the Phenom II X4 will be faster.

AMD Bulldozer maybe released in April it seems:

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...nch-april.html

For Crossfire though an AMD Phenom II based system will be cheaper than a Core i5 or Sandy Bridge Core i5 based system as the equivalent Intel motherboards will cost more.

The HD6850 1GB also consumes 30W to 50W less at load than a GTX460 1GB and also requires only a single PCI-E power connector too.

Now that's a good piece of news - 6850 was my second option and the fact I can whack another one in with xfire eventually is rather attractive !
Checked the soft site, and while they only seem to have upgrades of w7 the prices for office are unbelievable - I'm certainly gonna be remembering it.

Thank you yet again - just further proves the point knowledge is power !
Very glad I ended up trying to discuss things like that before purchasing stuff - really does help !

Hey cat.
Most of my cash will be coming through between end of 2nd beginning of 3rd weeks of January so SB will be out by then and yeah - even if I don't get it bcz of finance it should still help. Considering your advise about mobo prices I have to be modest so I guess I'd stick to phenom II but wait for SB to come out bcz of pricing plus I could invest into one more gpu when next loan comes so xfire is a good option.

Will amd quads still perform better if I OC ? Purely hypothetical 2.8 hex oced to 3.8 vs 3.2/3.4 quad oced to ~3.6

6850 appears like more and more of a good option - I might just consider it my primary option but as said above might still wait for 560 to come out if I find out that it will be out before 20th or so of Jan.

Thanks for the input and reinforcing my newly raised opinion about 6850.

p.s. as good an option as bulldozer may be I can't wait that long - as I said my laptop got stolen so I need to have a computer again.

Temptation is too much... Forget XFire.

By the time you have enough cash to buy the second card, you'll be able to buy a single card that's better than the xfire solution! I game on an 8800 at 1920x1200, but whilst I can't crank up all the eye candy, the 6850 kicks my card into touch.

XFire also has some board dependencies; that Asus board only has single PCI-Ex x16, x4 and x1 slots, which is not ideal for an xfire solution in any case.

Listen to Cat... he can come up with some cracking setups!

heh ajones I listen to pretty much everyone :) silly not to ...
fair enough about xfire and realistically I won't NEED it anyway so just thought of it as an option.
I am slightly spoilt - the old laptop I used handled most things at 1920x1080 with mid/max settings.

As for setup alterations if anyone atall was to suggest as much as even changing everything I would still think hard about what they suggest so long as I can actually afford it. Hopefully these couple of weeks I have till I'm buying components will let me listen to enough opinions nearly perfect options all around.

This is what I would look at getting:

Phenom II X4 955BE ~ £116

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190673

Asus M4A79XTD EVO ~ £78

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172846

Does symmetrical Crossfire. If you want SATA3.0 and USB3.0 an 890GX based motherboard would be worth looking at for around £20 more.

4GB 1600MHZ DDR3 ~ £38

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173122

Antec TruePower New 650W ~ £70

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159920

Samsung F3 1TB ~ £43

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804

SATA DVD rewriter ~ £12

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145450

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176026

Coolermaster Elite 430 ~ £37

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/233740

Sapphire HD 6850 1GB ~ £136

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/244431

The total comes to around £530 excluding a copy of an OS.

Here is an alternate specification which has no Crossfire ability:

Phenom II X4 955BE ~ £116

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190673

Asus M4A87TD EVO ~ £76

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/206151

Has USB3.0 and SATA3.0!

4GB 1600MHZ DDR3 ~ £38

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173122

Antec 520W High Current Gamer PSU ~ £56

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/245671

Samsung F3 1TB ~ £43

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804

SATA DVD rewriter ~ £12

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145450

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176026

Coolermaster Elite 430 ~ £37

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/233740

PowerColor HD 6950 2GB ~ £221

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/250399

The total cost is £599 excluding a copy of an OS.

ok so by the sounds of it getting hex isn't such a good idea with my budget bcz I end up sacrificing in other important departments for questionable gain. not sure about sata and usb 3.0 benefits gonna research it now
this is definitely an interesting build and I guess spending a bit more on mobo is a good idea seeing as how this will be worth it in the future.
only question is ram you linked cat - isn't it supposed to be orientated on working best with intel cpus ?
thank you for your time cat - gives me slightly different pov on the whole thing but it is perfect price wise since I believe after NY i'll save a tiny bit on some components and get to improve mobo like you suggested without going over budget.

Come back to this thread on the 7th.

As for GPU, a GTX460/ Radeon 6850 is capable of playing everything game at around or above 60FPS @ 1080p.

Yeah this seems to be the idea - depending on the prices after 7th a lot of things can change.
and I am pretty sure on the GPUs now and like you said I will be mainly picking between those two.
Thanks for contributing Terbinator

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Molotov

ok so by the sounds of it getting hex isn't such a good idea with my budget bcz I end up sacrificing in other important departments for questionable gain. not sure about sata and usb 3.0 benefits gonna research it now
this is definitely an interesting build and I guess spending a bit more on mobo is a good idea seeing as how this will be worth it in the future.
only question is ram you linked cat - isn't it supposed to be orientated on working best with intel cpus ?
thank you for your time cat - gives me slightly different pov on the whole thing but it is perfect price wise since I believe after NY i'll save a tiny bit on some components and get to improve mobo like you suggested without going over budget.

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The AMD AM3 CPUs can work with both high voltage and low voltage DDR3 DIMMs so they are less picky than the Core i5 processors.

ok guys
thank you so much for all the advise - as suggested by most people I will update this after SB comes out around mid Jan

I hope you have a lovely Christmas and New Year.