Am I close?

Mercian · 14 Mar 2009 at 16:28

My first attempt at building a system - just within my £750 budget. I'm unsure about the choice of AMD over i7 but I'm only looking to get a gaming rig good enough for the next 3 - 4 years is possible. Please advise if this works and is best choice for the money? Apologies for format

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 940 Black Edition 3.0GHz (Socket AM2+) - Retail £197.79
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (21133-04-20) £164.99
Asus AM3 M4A79 Deluxe AMD 790FX (Socket AM2+/AM3) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £152.94
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B 1TB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (0A38016) £73.99
Akasa Ultra Quiet 500W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.2 Power Supply - Black Nickel £54.98
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU) £50.59
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-8500C5 TwinX (2x2GB) Dual Channel Kit (Twin2X4096-8500C5) £40.99
(Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.09
Sub Total : £654.22
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £13.75
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £100.20
Total : £768.17

OzZie · 14 Mar 2009 at 16:32

If you can afford it, i'd go with 8gb of RAM for an extra £40 if you plan on keeping the system for many years without upgrading.

Most with i7 are using 4gb or in most cases 6gb, so two or three years down the line, 8gb wont be uncommon.

Mercian · 14 Mar 2009 at 16:40

Thanks, am I right in thinking I wouldn't need additionally cooling with Antec 300?

OzZie · 14 Mar 2009 at 16:44

Are you planning to overclock?

If no, the answer is no really. The Antec 300 comes with two case fans pre-installed and ready to go. In all honestly, i'd try and get a better CPU cooler (i use a sunbeam) and then not have to worry about temperatures at all, especially during the summertime.

Mercian · 14 Mar 2009 at 16:47

I wasn't planning to (unless performance is less then expected). I imagine that's something to add later if I needed to overclock. Thanks for the advice.

Linx · 14 Mar 2009 at 16:52

I would go i7 personally it'll only cost an extra 100-200, then your current build and is definitely worth it, in terms of future proofing.