Spec check, gaming bang for buck?

Nutbusta

Nutbusta

Nutbusta

Associate
Joined
4 Oct 2004
Posts
790
Was thinking about building a little gaming rig based around some of the new budget parts available.

I don't really have a budget just the best bang per buck parts be it £400 or £800 although I hope to recycle some old spares. I was thinking about the Phenom II 550 BE but understand I'm very unlikely to be able to unlock any cores, what are my chances???

Otherwise:

Phenom II X3 720 BE
5850 or 5870 depending on recommendation & stock
Enermax Noisetaker II 600w (2 x 18amp 12 volt rails)
Old cheap nasty case with plently of cooling
60GB OCZ Vertex stolen from my other machine
randon 250GB Seagate from my draws :eek:

Phenom 720 BE or 550 BE. Any thoughts on which?

Motherboard:
I usually tend to spend about £100 on mobo. I like Gigabyte, MSI & Asus (have had gudduns of each), I wouldnt mind one that has some chance of unlocking the last core however unlikely.

Recommend me some reasonably prices ram, DDR3 I suppose and 4GB (bit of overclocking headroom essential)

Enermax PSU. Does the device listed above sound like its upto the duties? I have actually run the quad machine in sig below on this PSU with 5 disks & OC'd but thought it best to change it before I broke something. What sort of power converter doohickies will I need for mobo GPU? 20pin to 24pin & 4pin to 8pin?

I'm not a bad overclocker and usually get pretty good result by being methodical so which card (5850/5870) would be the better match? I don't want to spend the extra £100 if it spends its time twiddling its things. Having said that my monitor is 1920x1200 so that seems unlikely.
 
Last edited:
I dont know about the cpu as never had it before :p
I recommend this motherboard. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-366-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481
I would get this memory as it has headroom for over clocking. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-043-GS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517
From what i have seen, people have been overclocking there 5850's past 1000+mhz which is 5870 terrorary. I'de say go for the 5850 and overclock, and other people would say the same.
 
So another vote for the 720 but which motherboard? there seem to be so many choices.

My only concerne is that it has good chance at unlocking/overclocking and maybe crossfire.

Anyone in a possition to say "You want this one because...."
 
I could! Im really starting to get that 'bug' people have been talking about that I want to upgrade and make builds all the time!

I'd go for the 5850, unless you can justify the extra £100 make sure everything fits in your case.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom