AM3, 1156 or 1136 £1k limit

Skellz

Skellz

Skellz

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Tunbridge Wells
I made a Spec post at the beginning of the month but now the 5850 is out i've had a change of thought. Gona be gaming/overclocking CPU and wanted a cool system with good quality. Now my budget is £1000 but it would be nice to only spend around £900.

I'd like some feedback on these 3 builds which i have been looking at. Any advice on better cooling or case etc?

Intel 1366 i7 920 D0:

GPU -| XFX ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Case -| Coolermaster HAF 922 Case - Black (No PSU)
HDD -| Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Optical Drive -| Samsung SH-S223B/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA
Case Fans -| 3 x Scythe Kaze Jyuni 1900RPM Slip Stream 120mm Fan (1 to be used with CPU Cooler)
CPU -| Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz
MOBO -| Asus P6T Intel X58
RAM -| Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600MHz) Low Latency Tri-Channel
PSU -| Corsair TX 850W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply
CPU Cooler -| Corsair H50 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1366)

TOTAL: £1,020

Intel 1156 i5 750:

GPU -| XFX ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Case -| Coolermaster HAF 922 Case - Black (No PSU)
HDD -| Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Optical Drive -| Samsung SH-S223B/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA
Case Fans -| 3 x Scythe Kaze Jyuni 1900RPM Slip Stream 120mm Fan
CPU -| Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield)
MOBO -| MSI P55-GD65 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard
RAM -| OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
PSU -| Corsair TX 850W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply
CPU Cooler -| Zalman CNPS10X Extreme CPU Cooler

TOTAL: £920

AMD AM3 X4 PII 965 BE:

GPU -| XFX ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Case -| Coolermaster HAF 922 Case - Black (No PSU)
HDD -| Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Optical Drive -| Samsung SH-S223B/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA
Case Fans -| 3 x Scythe Kaze Jyuni 1900RPM Slip Stream 120mm Fan (1 to be used with CPU Cooler)
CPU -| AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition 3.40GHz
MOBO -| Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P (Socket AM3)
RAM -| Patriot G Series AMD 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-12800 1600MHz Dual Channel
PSU -| Corsair TX 850W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply
CPU Cooler -| Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme Rev.C

TOTAL: £890

Good thing about the AMD setup over 1156 is the 16x16 PCI slots for xfire if i wanted to get another 5850 sometime in the future. I know the i5 and X4 965 are pretty neck n neck though. £100+ more for Tripple channel, HyperThreading & SLi & Xfire support if i went 1366, worth it?
 
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Im in same position, im looking for something like you have above.:)

That PSU is overkill though, you could save a few quid going for a 700w/750w one. More than enough:)
 
Skellz said:
i Thought that about the PSU but a 750W corsair is only £10 cheaper than the 850W an £10 for an extra 100W seemed worth it but.. maybe 650W's enough?
Click to expand...

Well i read a very interesting article while back about PSU's & what watts you need. A quality branded PSU 600w would do for that system easily, 650w be more than enough.

I don't have the link for article, but it was saying don't let them fool you into thinking they use more power;)

650w is more than enough imo, and will be what im looking for.
 
nutter said:
Well i read a very interesting article while back about PSU's & what watts you need. A quality branded PSU 600w would do for that system easily, 650w be more than enough.

I don't have the link for article, but it was saying don't let them fool you into thinking they use more power;)

650w is more than enough imo, and will be what im looking for.
Click to expand...

If you're considering sli/xfire in the future i'd be looking at no less than 750w to give me that headroom as newer cards are inevitably going to need the extra power. However for what you've spec'd a 650w will be ample.
 
Nice specs there. However i know this is not what you asked but i've come up with a revision of your build for the I5/I7 which i would personally consider.


  • Changed the samsung f3 500gb for the 1TB version which is just £18 more for 500gb more!
  • Swapped the i5 750 for the i7 860 which has a higher stock frequency and has HT and from what im reading will hit around 3.3-3.5ghz easily using the Auto clock feature on the gd80 and 4 on proper cooling and overclocking.
  • The I7 860 1156 is smashing games apart in all benchmarks ive seen compared to the other CPU's youve listed
  • Changed the mobo for the GD80 which is a generally nice allround board and has 3 PCie slots 8X8X4 i believe for sli/crossfire
  • Changed the PSU to a modular OCZ 750w
  • Added some nice gskill memory with nice timings


    This leaves you with £48 exc postage of your £1k budget and i've left out the cooler for the moment for a reason.
    Run it stock for a few weeks until the 1156 bracket comes out for the Corsair h50 then spend the £59 on the h50 which brings the total build £11 over budget (exc postage).

    Im sure you could come up with the £11 ;)

15cbuwz.jpg
 
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Don't really see the point in that i7 860 and p55 mobo since you can get a 920/x58 and 6gb ram for about the same price or less.

Out of the three original specs, I'd still go for the i7 920 because of the 6gb ram specced and the Corsair H50.
 
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