Hi guys this is my first thread on these forums, i need a bit of help because im looking to build a pc for internet surfing, a bit of gaming and maybe a little bit of video editing and generally much quicker performing pc, i am going to list the parts i have chosen, i would like to know if i can get anything more powerfull/cheaper than i have already got personally i am happy but i want to hear your opinions. my budget is 550/600 £'s. New hardware AMD Phenom II X4 955 BlackEdition Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H, AMD 890GX 500 GB Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar Blue Antec 650 W TruePower New Modular PSU Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro v2.1 Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit, Single Coolermaster CM 690 II Advanced Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound for CPU and Chipset Coolers 2GB crucial memory DDR3 1066(i think) This all comes to £522.98 on scan(iscan sure worth it) plus crucial memory = £559 altogether The hardware im re-using Lg optical dvd drive xfx 8800 gt 256mb My pc is - http://www0.dealtime.co.uk/xPF-Hewlett-Packard-HP-Presario-SR1619-Athlon-3200-512MB-160GB-XPH - does it warrent upgrading spending that much, i thought with the new set up it would be much quicker and could even get it to tun faster also easier to upgrade in the futuer. what will be the perfromance of the new pc compared to this one. I have been having issues on what case to use i chose this one becuase its got good cooling for the price but it doesnt seen to have good cable management is their a better option ? also have i missed anything and last thing is there a better intel set up like the i5 for the same price if so would that perfrom better? If i do buy the new set up i will be wanting to play cod4, world in conflict nd gt iv(maybe) all at high settings will it cope ok, also will be using a 19'' moniter which i am happy with, also watching hd video etc on the internet eg. youtube. Thanks for you time who ever reads this i hope i did not bore you too much thanks again.
Welcome to the forums. A couple of comments & questions about your build... 1. Your graphics card is a very old one and not really up to any of the latest games. You might have to stretch your budget a little if you want any kind of "future proofing". You could also skip a new graphics card now and get it at a later date once you can afford it. I don't think a 256mb 8800 GT is going to be up to World in Conflict on the highest settings, even on a 19" monitor. 2. Get 4GB of RAM. Games love RAM and you don't want to restrict the ability of a good build to play them. 3. Are you going to be overclocking? It will help determine whether you will actually need a 650w PSU or whether you can utilise a cheaper one such as a 520w. 4. Re: the airflow of the CM690...it is a very good case but may need an extra fan or two to get the best airflow out of it. It has great cable management - here is a review of the case by bit-tech: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2010/02/18/cooler-master-cm-690-ii-case-review/1. It really depends on how hard you are going to push the rig (e.g. overclocking) as to whether you will need another fan(s) or not. If you want a good value case with good airflow, have a look at the Antec 300, it is only around £40 but the same fan question may arise, depending on your usage. 5. Your old PC (the HP Compaq Presario) is not worth upgrading in my opinion. 6. If you buy an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, you will not need to buy thermal paste for a first time install as some comes already on it. 7. An i5 750/760 is a good CPU but will stretch your budget more than you want it to, especially if you decide that you want a new GPU (see question 1). It costs more than the 955. Here is an example of an i5 build: 520W Seasonic S12II-520 Bronze 12cm Silent S2FC Fan, 80+ (85%) Eff. A0TX12V V2.3 PSU 1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 BX80605I5760 - Intel i5 760, S 1156, Lynnfield Quad Core NE5TX460FHD79 - 768MB Palit GTX 460 CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 - 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 Antec 300 Three Hundred This is a spec I did for another forum poster recently. It came to roughly £630 but note that it doesn't include a copy of Windows 7. Here is an example of AMD build I spec'd for another forum poster recently: LN15216: 520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU, ATX, EPS12V £70.03 LN22762: Antec 300 Three Hundred, Black Midi Tower Ultimate Gaming Case £42.86 LN28227: AMD Phenom II X4 945, Deneb Core, Socket AM3, 3.0GHz, 8MB Cache £110.98 LN28456: 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) £76.52 LN28632: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro v2.1-S1366/S1156/S775/AM3/AM2+/AM2/939 £16.43 LN28751: 500GB Samsung HD502HJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm £32.77 LN28876: MSI 770-C45, AMD 770, AM3, PCI-E 2.0(x16), DDR3 1600(OC) £52.64 LN34608: 1GB EVGA GTX 460, 3600MHz GDDR5, GPU 675MHz, Shader Clock 1350MHz £170.92 Grand total = £573.15. I am not an AMD CPU expert so I am not 100% sure of that CPU choice but others seem to think it is okay. It may be a wise choice to go for a better motherboard with a 955 (and more expensive) than the 770-C45. Note that this build doesn't include Windows 7. You could reduce it a liitle by going for a 768mb GTX460 but it would be false economy in my opinion, the 1GB is only £20 more. By the way, have you had a read of this: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2010/08/09/pc-hardware-buyer-s-guide-august-2010/1 ?
Hey thanks brill reply. Wouldn't the new cpu make a differnce to the gfx of the games or is it solely down the the gfx card ? Iv see the mods to the antec 300 hundred they look well gd im sold on it now lol, i think ill change the case defo. in reguards to the psu, i put 650 down because i think i might over clock the cpu to 3.8 - 4 Ghz, can i still have good gfx card with a 520 ? I thought i may get lower temps applying new thermal compound, i was going to replace the stuff that came with it but ill leave if then if it comes already on it.
Check the edits I made to my original post whilst you were replying. Mainly I am not sure about the gaming performance of the 955 vs the i5 750/760. The 955 is cheaper and quicker at some video tasks but it may give up some gaming performance to the i5 - this is the bit I am not sure on as I have neither CPU - I don't know how noticeable the difference between the two would be in real life. Depending on the game, you are usually fine with most modern CPU's. Here is an article that basically summarises the fact that at a certain CPU speed, you will be graphics card bound rather than CPU bound in the current crop of games: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/balanced-gaming-pc-overclock,review-31895-16.html. Another way to compare would be to look at this: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/109?vs=88 and decide for yourself, based upon your usage requirements, which CPU would be best for you. EDIT: Just found this direct comparison: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Core-i5-vs-Phenom-II-X4-CPU-Review/819/1. If you are going to overclock and run a new GPU, I would suggest sticking with a 650w. If you weren't overclocking but still buying a new GPU, a 520w would suffice. The 650w would give you some headroom when overclocking.
I have been thinking today about upgrading to the x4 1055t cpu, would that extra bit of cash spent see a worth while increase in multi-tasking, gaming and overall performance ?
This is the point I was trying (badly) to make in my previous posts. If you look at the links I posted comparing the i5 750/760 with the 955, I am not sure if you would notice the difference in real world usage between the two. As I don't have either CPU, I can't offer any real world experience of them. With an AMD 1055T CPU, the AMD build is going to be around the same ballpark price as the i5 750/760 build, give or take a few quid.
Here is the conclusion of the i5 750 vs the X4 CPU, linked in my post above: <snip> In most scenarios Core i5 and Phenom II X4 achieved the same performance level and in most cases when one particular CPU was faster than the other the performance difference was practically negligible. There were three important exceptions, however. When converting a full-length movie from a DVD (MPEG2) to DivX format Core i5-750 was 16% faster than Phenom II X4 965 and 20% faster than Phenom II X4 955; rendering a sample project on After Effects CS4 Core i5-750 was 22% faster than Phenom II X4 965 and 26% faster than Phenom II 955; and compressing files with WinRAR Core i5-750 was 19% faster than Phenom II X4 965 and 22% faster than Phenom II X4 955. So for the user working professionally with video editing, Core i5 is the CPU to go and there is no question about it. For the average user picking the “right” CPU will depend on the brand he or she likes best, although the results move the tip of the scale towards Intel. Another item that may help decide the best CPU to choose from is the cost of the motherboard, which was not analyzed in the present review. One very important discovery made during this review is that if you have a high-end video card, the CPU has almost no influence in the system gaming performance. So if you are building a high-end gaming machine, maybe it is better to pick a cheaper processor and invest the price difference on a faster video card. <snip> I don't know what the 1055T is like compared to the i5 750. will have more time later to try and find out.
Hi There - another welcome from me I think that you mean the X6 1055t - that's a 6-core processor. This processor will be somewhat better than the X4 at multi-threaded applications like video editing/encoding however you won't notice any differences in games or general desktop performance in the near future. Fingers is spot on as usual, the i5 processor will be faster than the X4 at most things. The frame rate in games is definitely one example. Games won't max out the phenom X4 however - and certainly not when overclocked. What this means is that using the phenom would not drop you into uncomfortable frame rates and the bottleneck would primarily rest with your GPU. EDIT: I see that there have been two posts while I was writing this Too slow.
