Advice on a new spec

[ice_Cool]

Hi there,

I was told about this site for help with pc specifications and wanted to pick your brain on a spec i am looking at. This would be my first build as such, so please be gentle!

- CASE -Antec 300 (i prefer the nice black and simplistic look, and have no need for eSata or firewire ports).
- CPU - E7400 core 2 duo (a good mid range clockable cpu yes?)
- CPU cooler - Arctic Freezer Pro LGA775
- DVD - Pioneer DVR216 SATA
- HDD - Western Digital 640GB SATA (WD6400AAKS)
- MB - Gigabyte GA-EP43-S3L (no raid or esata as i have no need for that)
- Memory - OCZ Reaper 8500 (OCZ2RPR10664GK)
- GPU - ATI HD4670 or HD4870
- PSU - Be quiet Dark Power pro 450W or 550W?


I have been told the be quiet PSU are good, but have no idea if 450W or 550W would be enough to power the above system? I would be overclocking eventually, and the possibility of adding a 2nd or 3rd HDD.
The 2nd question is...would a HD4870 for example draw a lot of power, and are they noisy? I prefer a nice silent pc. I am only interested in a single GPU hence the P43 motherboard.

My main requirements are to watch videos, do a little encoding and no high end gaming (i.e not crysis or similar), but titles like WoW and C&C. I hope to grab a 1920x1200 monitor in the future, but am using 1280x1024 at the moment. Hence i go back to the question: is the GPU, and the PSU enough?

Any thoughts and advice would be most helpful!
Thank you.

 

[siumatfung]

get a 4890 at the res

and erm the corsair 650W Tx will be fine

tbh i wouldnt pay the extra for the E7XXX cos the E5200 just as good or pay the extra for a E8500/8400

 

[lynchy6789]

got the e7400 myself brilliant chip. Was my first evertime building and clocking so far i have got it to 3.8 Ghz stable at i think 1.31 V. Mine will easily be capable of 4ghz which i will be giving it a go in the near future. Btw i have my chip running under a Tuniq Tower in an Antec p180b with fans 2 fans set on low 2 on Medium temps are about 58/62 in prime95 after 5hours.

Cooler i would go for either- True, Tuniq, Noctua

Motherboard- Biostar t power i45 (what i am running), Asus P5Q-E Intel P45

G.C- 4870 ( I have the xfx 1GB 4870 myself (love it)

Ram- Kingston HyperX 4GB 8500C5 (2x2GB)

 

[icey_haj]

What is your budget?

I personally wouldn't go with the spec that you've posted, since it's essentially a dead socket. So not exactly future proof.

 

[95thrifles]

yeah agree with icey, for similar sort of price you can get an AM3 build which is more "future proof" (use the term lightly) if you post your budget then can do a spec, prob tricore as you do some encoding

 

[Dauthi]

From the look of the specs looks like your nearing the price range where phenom II could be viable if your interested in that route.

For 1900x1200 would recomend the 4870 as the GPU

For the PSU 450w is cutting it close espically with OC and extra hard drives and i personally would go Cosair HX520(modular) or TX 650(non modular)

 

[ice_Cool]

Thanks for all the replies, my budget is £400.

I would prefer a modular PSU as i like to keep things neat.

I have no idea about the AMD route, as have only use intel products before.

Thanks in advance.

 

[RJC]

How does this look:

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 "XXX Edition" 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail£85.99
(£74.77) £85.99
(£74.77)

Gigabyte GA-MA780G-UD3H AMD 780G (Socket AM2+/AM3) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard£79.99
(£69.56) £79.99
(£69.56)

AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £65.99
(£57.38) £65.99
(£57.38)

Corsair HX 450W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-450HXUK)£58.98
(£51.29) £58.98
(£51.29)

Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel (KHX8500D2K2/4G)£37.98
(£33.03) £37.98
(£33.03)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ)£36.98
(£32.16) £36.98
(£32.16)

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU)£28.99
(£25.21) £28.99
(£25.21)

Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM£17.99
(£15.64) £17.99
(£15.64) Sub Total : £359.04Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout)Shipping : £11.75VAT is being charged at 15%VAT : £55.62 Total : £426.41