Will this work?

Twixx

Twixx

Twixx

Associate
Joined
19 Oct 2011
Posts
18
Hi!

Id just like to know if my setup will fit together without any compatability issues, and what wiring etc will i need to buy?

EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.00

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.40GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £91.99

Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 AMD 760G (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £49.99

Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £39.99

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £34.99

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C8 1333MHz Dual-Channel (CMX4GX3M2A1333C8) £31.99

Cooler Master Elite 330 Midi Tower Case - Black £29.99

OcUK Swift 650W V2 Silent Power Supply £22.98

Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B3ST - Retail (Black) £20.99

TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Adapter (TL-WN851ND) £19.99

x2 Xigmatek 120mm Crystal Purple LED Fan £13.99



I can spend up to £510, so any minor improvements are welcome!
 
Welcome,

to answer your question; not really. There a few little issues. Firstly the HDD you have picked is SATAIII (6gb/s) were as your motherboard only accomidates SATAII (3gb/s). You either need to upgrade you motherboard to SATAIII or down grade your HDD to SATAII.

The PSU looks a bit cheap, i would make sure you go for an 80+ Power supply. A bit more expensive but well worth it.

Id also change the cooler to a cheaper corsair A50.

I wouldn't go for a PCI wireless card, i had one that failed. I'd use a USB one. I have This one., works great.
 
 
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That HDD will be perfectly fine. SATA III branding with mechanical drives is a selling ploy, it is backward compatible and you won't max the SATA II bandwidth with it.

As above, I would avoid a cheap and nasty PSU such as the OcUK ones but go for something with more quality. Have you considered i3 Sandy Bridge, it beats the AMD Phenom II 955 in most benchmarks and is quicker in most games.

How about something along the lines of the following.

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
HIS ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with DIRT3 & Deus Ex PC Games HIS ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with DIRT3 & Deus Ex PC Games £128.99
(£107.49) £128.99
(£107.49)
Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £94.99
(£79.16) £94.99
(£79.16)
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
(£45.82) £54.98
(£45.82)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £34.99
(£29.16) £34.99
(£29.16)
BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA160A) Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA160A) £21.98
(£18.32) £21.98
(£18.32)
OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.98
(£11.65) £13.98
(£11.65)
Sub Total : £394.08
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £19.10
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £82.64
Total : £495.82

Have included a Z68 motherboard, so when Intel's next generation of CPU's are released, Ivy Bridge, you could potentially sell the i3 and pop in one of those after a BIOS update. Also has a 6870 which is faster than the GTX460. A PCI wireless card should work prefeclty fine, I use a few of them an they've never failed on me.

edit

All the cables you need will come with the motherboard, mains lead should be with the PSU.
 
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It is backward compatible but i have seen thread where issues have been highlighted, though the motherboard chipset should work out HDD speed issues.

I see no point in buying a SATAIII HHD if you cannot utilise it (unless it is cheaper than the SATAII offerings).
 
basically im looking for a good gaming machine for about £500, if anyone can make a better one than my novice attempt, please :D sorry for the double post

*edit* i only do Nvidia

*edit again* and i also need cables, im not sure which, or how many
 
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i think i'll stick with the AMD, might upgrade to a faster speed if i can afford it, or the motherboard will hold it, thanks anyway though :)
 
Twixx said:
Sata III is slower than sata II? or am i just being stupid?
Click to expand...

The SATA 3 interface has more bandwidth than SATA 2.

SATA 2 bandwidth is ~280MB/s and SATA 3 double that.

But as the fastest mechanical HDD can't transfer data any quicker than around 140MB/s it doesn't really matter which interface it uses.
 
Twixx said:
i was looking forward to a quad core :( lol

Sata III is slower than sata II? or am i just being stupid?
Click to expand...

As you can see from this review the i3 2100 performs better in most games than an AMD Phenom II 970. Stick with NVIDIA if you prefer them, the 1GB GTX460 is a solid card. Remember the i3 2100 as has turbo boost so adds another 200MHz. Finally, in terms of upgradability, when Ivy Bridge is released you could buy one of the new CPUs or even get a second hand i5 2500K as plenty of people will sell to go Ivy Bridge. I wouldn't go AMD at this point in time.
 
ok im sold :P i only want a new pc to play games from the last 10 years, will the i3 handle newer games? (im not into graphics so i dont mind running games at 800*600)
 
Twixx said:
ok im sold :P i only want a new pc to play games from the last 10 years, will the i3 handle newer games? (im not into graphics so i dont mind running games at 800*600)
Click to expand...

:D The i3 will be perfectly fine playing most new games when paired up with a 1GB GTX460 at 1920x1080 @medium/high settings! Have a read of some reviews of Sandy Bridge too.
 
If you want upgrade potential, stick with the z68 and i3 route as people have said. The upgrade path on AMD isn't a great one at the moment, and you will have to buy a new mobo etc.

The whole number of cores thing is a bit of a red herring. If the cores don't perform, then having more of them wont help.

The set up shadow boxer posted up is great to be fair. If my budget was £500, mine would look similar to that.
 
ah, i come from the land of IDE hard drives and AGP x4, so im not as updated as i once was, i think im going to go with Shadow Boxers suggestion but keep the GTX 460.

Will i need any sata cables or extra power leads? not sure what comes in the boxes nowdays. Cheers guys :)

Also, is the stock cooler any good or will i need to upgrade for heavy gaming?
 
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