Build Advice Need some advice on AMD build £600 - £650

Hi all,

I've been thinking about a PC spec for a while now and can't decide on certain aspects of the build.
I've had a look at the builds on the site and I think I'm looking for something not as expensive as the enthusiast build but at a similar performance, hence my original idea of going with AMD.
I'd appreciate any help.

Budget:
£600 - 650

Main uses of intended build:
Mainly gaming but also other general activities & programming

Parts required:
All parts except case & ram
I already have these parts: Antec 300 & this ram
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-165-OC&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

Previous build information (list details of parts):
Too old to salvage (athlon xp 2200+)

Monitor resolution:
1920x1200

Storage requirements:
1 TB

will you be overclocking: yes/no (delete as required)
Possibly

Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers):
Not exactly, but was thinking of USB3 for future proofing?
I chose the below motherboard because it had usb3/sata3 (in case I want to use this functionality later) and also supports crossfire (for the same reason).

Is this a good idea or should I just opt for the Asus M4A79XTD Evo? (saves about £20)

Extra information about desired system:
A build I put together before; prices are from scouring the internet but wont post all the links here to save time:

Phenom II x4 965 BE ~£140
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H ~£105
Sapphire 5770 vapor-x ~£140 (cheaper card possibly?)
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB ~£58
DVD RW Drive ~£15
OCZ Modstream 600w ~£57
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 ~£18

Case was £43
Ram was £80

Total : £656

Thank you for reading

 

Does this look ok then?

Thanks.

 

I just read a review and apparently the ASUS board does not have an unlocked northbridge mulitplier which might make it difficult to overclock non-black edition processors. If you can squeeze the money, try to get a cheaper dual or tri-core, preferably black edition with the asus board and spend that money on a radeon 5850. the 5770 would not be able to handle your monitor's native resolution of 1920X1200. and dont worry about the processor too much for the 5850. At that resolution games are gpu dependent anyway.
Also the ASUS mobo cannot take an EPS12V connector as pointed out here http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/825/4 (figure 9). So make sure your power supply is ATX12V
The mobo seems to have very useful features as well like solid caps, an 8+2 voltage regulator circuit and over voltage/under voltage protections.

 

Looks good, not sure on that motherboard, but I have run both a Gigabyte MA790XT-UD4P and a 790XTA-UD4 and they are both great boards at good price. The XTA has both USB3 and SATA3 although I use neither yet.

Other than that looks good.

My 4870, which is about the same as a 5770, handles 1920x1080 with no problems even on high settings, so can't see 1920x1200 being too much of a worry

 

Thanks for the replies

 

Should be a great pc, post some pics/benchmarks when you build it.

 

Taking that reply into account, I would say that my recommendation of a 5850 depends on the kind of games you play and the levels of antialiasing(AA) and anisotropic filtering(AF) you use for these games. If these levels are not too high, then I suppose the 5770 should not give you a problem. Make sure to check out a few benchmarks before making a decision.
and yea, dont forget to post benchmarks when you are done building

 

Skip the AC7 and get a CM212 or HDT-1283 for the same money. If they fit in your case (20cm wide usually) the full tower cooler is by far a better option.

Consider a 955 to save some pennies. It should overclock to the same level as the 965. I would imagine you are not going to go for a full time max OC all the time.

I would skip the 5770; i tend to try 2nd hand. Perhaps a 2nd hand 4870 (60-70) or 260 (80-90) would save some cash. Even xfire 4850s or SLi gts250's will come in at £100 or less.