Hi Hoping for some advice here. After reading the excellent article "Build a £410 future proof PC" in this months CPC mag. got me thinking of my sons birthday next week being a biggy (18) and as he has expressed a wish to give a build a go,and his computer is frankly pretty horrible going to order the bits tomorrow. Finances are pretty tight at the moment but can stretch very slightly. The list of some components in the article are: Processor 3.2GHz AMD Phenom 11 X4 840 Motherboard AsusM4A88T-M Ram 4GBCorsair Vengeance 1,600MHz. Case Antec One Hundred Upgrades for " more grunt"are Sapphire HD5850 Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 cooler For some overclocking. Would it be worth spending a couple of pounds more on the processor and get the AMD Phenom 11X4-955 black In the article it suggests that 3.8GHz overclock is about the limit with the mobo but that is fine. The computer will be used mainly for gaming so wondered if this small upgrade would help. Also instead of the Antec One Hundred he would rather have Coolermaster storm scout Maybe for the bling but also for portability. Are there any issues with this case?. Thanks for reading, any comments much appreciated Chris.
The 955 is a BE-series CPU so overclocking it will be easier (just up the multiplier) and less demanding on the mobo. I believe the Storm Scout is OK, but it can't house very long graphic cards, so just make sure there's enough room for what ever you end up buying (same applies to the Antec). Can't really see anything wrong with the build. Not sure how Intel compares, but if those are the parts specified in the CPC then I think it's all good
Hi Jipa Thanks vm for your input. The graphic card will be a little tight but will go. A little confused at the price though ,the 5850 seems to be twice the price at scan than either Yoyotech or overclockers going to give them a ring ,maybe got something wrong. The power draw on the 955 is 30w higher, is the only benfit an easier overclock? was hoping also for a little better performance. Thanks again Chris.
That looks like a good build for the money but i think you can both save and get more juice if you switch a couple of things. Jipa's dead on about the BE chip, it makes for much easier overclocking. The Phenom II X4 840 you've listed is a Propus core and, as such, is a beefed up Athlon and not a 'proper' Phenom. The 955BE, being a full Phenom, has 6MB of L3 cache which can make a big difference to performance where as the 840 has none. For the sake of £7-£8 i'd say it's well worth having the 955 for the L3 cache as well as the OC potential. The Antec 100 is a great case but with budget being the primary concern there other options such as this which would save about a tenner and provide comparable cooling. The Antec 100 really is an awesome case but i just feel it's priced too high for its target market. There's also something like this which is £50 and has the PSU already in, admittedly not the top PSU makers but its a long way from being a generic OEM piece of crap and would be plenty for your build saving a good £30-£40 from both case and PSU budgets. Just a few thoughts.
Overclockers have got a deal (so to speak) on the Sapphire Extreme HD5850 hence why it is cheap relative to the other shops. The cards from other places are simply old stock that needs price adjustments badly. The TDP of the 955BE is 30w higher but the actual power draw will be siilar in most normal use scenarios. The TDP is only listed as some AMD based motherboards are not compatible with the higher BE TDP's (125 & 140w). Personally I am little confused why CPC chose the Athlon II X4 840 (it isn't a Phenom II as it is missing the required L3 cache) over the Phenom II 955BE. Price reductions on the latter makes the 840 a pointless buy. For your budget and assuming you don't need a OS I would build the following: All prices are estimates Case - Antec 100 - £42 PSU - BeQuiet L7 530w - £40 MB - MSI 870A-G54 - £70 CPU - Phenom II X4 955BE - £80 RAM - 4GB (2x2) DDR3 PC12800 (1600MT/s) - £35 GPU - HD5850/HD6850 or GTX460 1GB - £120 HD - Any decent 1TB 7200rpm HD - £40 DVD - 24x DVD-RW - £15 Total spend - £442 (say £450 as I use estimate prices rather than exact ones). Potential upgrades: CPU Cooler - Either Gelid Tranquillo, Freezer 13pro or Corsair A50 would be a decent budget upgrade. TBH I would leave the CPU cooler for now and focus on getting the machine up and ready at stock clocks. If you want to dabble in overclocking down the line there is nothing stopping you adding a better CPU cooler at that point. Case - Personally for this budget I would get a case that has good cooling, is functional / tidy and allows scope for future upgrades. The Antec 100 fits this bill perfectly. The Zalman Z9 may also be worth a look but I don't really know much about that case. Overall this would be a decent all round system with plenty of grunt in the areas that require it. The motherboard supports all of the latest connectivity (bar BT) and has plenty of SATA and PCI-e connectors for future upgrades. According to MSI it will also take a Bulldozer CPU with a simple bios update - specifics havn't been ironed out yet but it is still a bonus.
Thanks to Throbbi and xaser04 For the helpful information it all helped to sort stuff out in my head There was no budging on the case he wanted the scout! The 955 was pre order at Scan by the time of ordering, found it elsewhere. The high prices of the ATI 5850 was due to old stock ,not going to drop prices until all sold and new stock in,wonder who is going to buy them at those prices.? Had a Antec true psu 650 spare already and a spinpoint in the old machine along with an optical drive,so saved a bit there. Did change the motherboard as suggested. Thanks to all. Chris
sounds like you have it all sorted...just going to chime in on the card. the extreme is a regular 5850, and shorter than a stock 5850, so fit shouldn't be a concern. only issue is whether or not it oc's is a mixed bag. some have said it oc's like a champ and other's have said it is crap. regardless for the money it is head and shoulders above anything else in it's price range.
I'd like to chime in with the choice of CPU coolers, too; the astounding Thermaltake Frio has dropped to about £37 in price, putting it cheaper than most coolers that perform in the same range, I really do recommend going for that on the 955, it'll keep it cool no matter what happens.
Hi ppl, first time here - after reading this thread any checking out reviews, prices etc i went ahead and bought the setup mentioned by you guys :- Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** 1 £97.49 AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail 1 £74.99 MSI 870A-G54 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard 1 £58.32 Corsair Vengeance 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ4GX3M2A1600C8) 1 £49.99 Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) 1 £36.66 BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply 1 £34.99 Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black 1 £34.99 LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM 1 £14.16 Sub Total: £401.59 Total Vat: £82.82 Total inc Vat: £484.41 Arrives Monday 20/06/11. If you guys would like me to run any tests and post the results i would be more than happy to. After all this site gave me the confidence to go ahead and try what will be my first build - again thx for all the valuable info.
