New build: Opinions, laughing and pointing encouraged!

dylanblues

dylanblues

dylanblues

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Joined
27 Apr 2010
Posts
28
Evening folks,

I wonder if you'd be kind enough to cast aspersions on my suggested build. Budget £600(ish)

OS
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition

Processor
PHENOM II X2 555 3.2GHZ BLACK

Motherboard
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO AM3

Graphics Card
XFX/ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB

Power Supply
Corsair VX 450W Power Supply

Hard Disk
1 x SAMSUNG 1TB - F3 SATA-II

Memory
G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz

Cooling
Titan Fenrir

Case
Using my old Antec SX1000II which has definitely seen better days!! :p

I plan to try unlocking the cores and then OC'ing to 3.7Ghz (he's says with fingers firmly crossed. I'm going for the the 555BE as even without the cores unlocked I'd still be happy with the CPU notched up; I'm building for the first time in a long while so will see a huge difference in processing speed from my Sempron 2800+!!

My needs are fairly simple - mostly browsing and WP, quite a lot of movie watching and a very small amount of gaming but with enough encoding and compressing to warrant a mention! I like the board as it seems like a great way to go for the 'future' and the OC'ing options seem great for a newboy like me.

The GPU seems like the way to go for a lot of this range of builds but can anyone explain the different models available: ZNDA/ZNFV etc?

Anyway, hope this is enough info.....? Thanks a million!
 
Looks OK to me. I'd try and stretch to a quad core though, maybe the 955 BE ? and instead of 1 x 1tb HDD , I'd go for 2 x 500gb instead. That way you've got a back up drive incase either one fails.

I just finished my new build, went from a delapidated Pentium 4 with a gig of RAM to a Phenom II quad 955 with 4 gigs of RAM. To be honest you probably wont see all that much improvement until you start gaming/encoding. My operating system feels pretty much the same as it did with the P4 but I reckon it's probably down to the crappy HDD I'm using as a stop gap (got 2 Samsungs on the way)

Good luck on the build

EDIT : I'd try and get at least a 500-700 watt PSU too. I think 450 may be pushing it with the 5770, not sure though but it's always good to have more than enough incase you want to cross fire at some point in the future.
 
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Looks like a nice build. Good luck with the unlock :)

The PSU will be fine with with a quad unlocked Phenom II and a 5770, but as Darksr4r says - if you plan on crossfiring in the future a bigger PSU would be needed (i'd suggest a 650W from either Corsair, Antec or Seasonic).

As for the best 5770 to go for, this would be my pick.
 
Darkst4r said:
I'd try and stretch to a quad core though, maybe the 955 BE ?
I have thought and pained about this, in the end I can't resist the chance of unlocking the 555 and I figure if I'm really gutted when it doesn't work (note I am not counting my chickens :p) I can sell it and buy the quad a few months down the line?

....and instead of 1 x 1tb HDD , I'd go for 2 x 500gb instead. That way you've got a back up drive incase either one fails.[/I]

This is a sensible idea, however it may have to be another TB in a few months as I'm quite a hoarder! I'll just hope to God I don't get a duff drive! I have my old SATA 160gb that I can throw in to backup essentials and if worst comes to worst I can even throw in an old 320GB IDE - probably won't do an awful lot for performance!

I'd try and get at least a 500-700 watt PSU too. I think 450 may be pushing it with the 5770, not sure though but it's always good to have more than enough incase you want to cross fire at some point in the future.

I sort of thought this as well but the chances of me wanting to crossfire are pretty damn slim; I haven't chosen the best board for that option either I don't think. I guess I'm building a reputation for not being terribly safety concious am I?? :eek:
Click to expand...


Thanks a million for your feedback!
 
cmndr_andi said:
Looks like a nice build. Good luck with the unlock :)

The PSU will be fine with with a quad unlocked Phenom II and a 5770, but as Darksr4r says - if you plan on crossfiring in the future a bigger PSU would be needed (i'd suggest a 650W from either Corsair, Antec or Seasonic).

As for the best 5770 to go for, this would be my pick.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the positive comments Andi :)

As I've mentioned above I don't think crossfire is going to be much of an option for me but if it does turn out that way, as life so often does, I''ll make sure I pick up another PSU at the same time.

Do you mind clarifying why you think that 5770 is better, is it down to the manufacturer or is that a slightly different model?

Thanks again!
 
dylanblues said:
Do you mind clarifying why you think that 5770 is better, is it down to the manufacturer or is that a slightly different model?
Click to expand...

Its a bit of both. This model uses a cooler that is a bit better than the standard 5770, but crucially it uses a BIOS that is great for overclocking and allows you to increase the core voltage - amazingly all within the warranty.

The warranty offere by ASUS is the other reason, it is 3 years long - compared to the others that only offer 2.
 
cmndr_andi said:
Its a bit of both. This model uses a cooler that is a bit better than the standard 5770, but crucially it uses a BIOS that is great for overclocking and allows you to increase the core voltage - amazingly all within the warranty.

The warranty offere by ASUS is the other reason, it is 3 years long - compared to the others that only offer 2.
Click to expand...

SOLD! :D
 
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