£600 Six Core MicroATX Build.

mattius1989 · 11 Nov 2010 at 11:05

OK. So I need to build a system in a MicroATX case for less than £600. This build with VAT comes to 597. It has to utilise the new AMD Six Core CPU and have a good ATI mid range graphics card. Will this bundle be compatible and will it perform well?

I already have the monitor, keyboard, speakers, mouse and Thermal Compound.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Liampope · 11 Nov 2010 at 11:14

Looks OK if you need a six-core. What is the reason you need a six-core, out of interest? That coolermaster PSU doesn't get good reviews for noise/ripple, and you dont need that much power anyway - go for a Corsair CX430 or 500 instead. That optical you chose is only a DVD ROM - do you not need a writer? Only a few quid more anyway. For only a fiver more than that 5770 you can get a 460 which is a much faster GPU. 1600MHz RAM is barely any more expensive than that 1333MHz, too.

mattius1989 · 11 Nov 2010 at 12:20

Well, is there a cheaper quad core alternative that surpasses the hexcore in terms of performance? Just seems that for a modest price you can get a six core monster. All the reviews I read on it seem pretty good. Plus, a friend of mine has the 2.8 clocked to 3.6 in his rig. Mind you, that is on a Asus CH IV.

Liampope · 11 Nov 2010 at 12:40

What's your intended use? Gaming? Encoding?

mattius1989 · 11 Nov 2010 at 13:01

Just gaming and general usage.

Liampope · 11 Nov 2010 at 13:28

Well no games use six-cores, and it's often said on here the phenom II quads actually do slightly better in games than the hex, for a significant saving. Having said that, I notice the 955be is no more, at least in this shop, and there is a good price currently on the 1055, so you dont actually save anything going for a quad. Hmmm. Even so the 965be should be easier to overclock being a be, but it's perhaps swings and roundabouts to be honest given the prices. You should also consider i5 760 for a tenner more as it's a good bit faster than phenom II clock for clock and overclocks better too. That would be my choice for gaming (in fact it was my choice

). With either three choices you can't really go too wrong, as in gaming you'll be GPU limited anyway with most current titles. More so if you dont upgrade that 5770 to at least a 460 768MB!

mattius1989 · 11 Nov 2010 at 13:33

Thanks for the input. I always go with AMD on principle reasons (don't ask lol). The above is a revised build. Is there that much of a gap between the 5770 and the 460? What is an ATI equivalent of the 460?

Liampope · 11 Nov 2010 at 13:50

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/172?vs=156

Ati equivalent to 460 is the new 6850 which is a little bit quicker, but costs more. Fact is nvidia are slightly better bang for buck than ati right now as they slashed 460 and 470 prices almost unbeleivably to compete with the 6850 and 6870. As much as I love AMD and my 5850, if I was buying now it would have to be nvidia.

I still think the 965be would be a better gaming choice and likely overclock better than the 1055t, but not a great deal in it - maybe see what others think. I've been AMD much more than Intel in the past, but for me Intel is the way to go currently, hence my i5. So I'm not the best expert on AMD CPU choices really.

Hagar · 11 Nov 2010 at 14:43

The 1055T is much cheaper than when I last looked. An overclock of 3.5-3.6GHz is easy, bus clock of 250+ 14x multi, -0.1v on CPU. More than that you have to be a bit more radical on voltages 3.8 is quite possible. I run mine with 3.5 as a 24/7 OC. You have a good basket there for the price.

andy.