AMD Gaming rig - thoughts plz

Cronus4771 · 9 Aug 2009 at 13:12

Thoughts...

ANTEC Midi Three Hundred Black
AMD Phenom II X4 955 (4 x 3.2 GHz) 8MB - Black Edition
Asus Crosshair III Formula 5200MT/s (AMD 790FX) AM3 DDR3
Corsair 4GB XMS3 PC3-12800 1600MHz (2x2GB) - Lifetime Warranty CAS 9 (DDR3)
ATI Radeon HD 4890 - 1 GB - 2xDVI/VGA (XFX)
OCZ 700W Game XStream - Low Noise
500 GB SATA-II HDD UDMA 300 7200 16MB (Maxtor Diamondmax 21)
Samsung (S222A) DVD PLUS/-RW 22x Dual Layer - Black (IDE)
Motherboard Integrated 5.1 Sound
10 X USB 2.0 Ports
ThermalTake Blue ORB II - Low Noise
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-BIT (Genuine DVD & COA Included) & Windows 7 Upgrade Voucher

£860 (inc delivery)

whiskycycle · 9 Aug 2009 at 13:17

Nice, balanced system.

Get a decent hard disk in there and you'll be fine. No Maxtor or Seagate if possible and either Samsung or Western Digital instead. Had too many failures on the first two named to ever suffer the misery again.

whiskycycle · 9 Aug 2009 at 13:17

adwol48 · 9 Aug 2009 at 13:21

i've heard a few good things about the MSi 790fx GD70, if you wanna consider that at all. it's got quad pciex16 lanes and a very good overclocker apparently. i'm still deciding myself between that and the crosshair 3.

BigBruiserAl · 9 Aug 2009 at 13:28

The AMD 965 is due aug 16th i read somewhere not fancy waiting for a 955 price drop?

hp7909 · 9 Aug 2009 at 13:36

Get a (better) upright cooler like this

PermaBanned · 9 Aug 2009 at 13:39

Or if it's low noise you're after the Scythe Zipang (or 2 if it's available soon).

PwnDirect · 9 Aug 2009 at 14:10

Ok the cpu ram & mobo are great choices the rest sadly is not :

The antec 300 is very cheap in both cost & build I would recommend a:

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case

Or

[URL="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-184-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=29”] Coolermaster Elite 334 Midi Case[/URL]

Or a

[URL="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-145-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=29”] Coolermaster CM-690 Dominator Case[/URL]

Also a 4890 with stock cooling will make you go deaf go for:

[URL="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-210-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1403”] Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X 1024MB[/URL]

get this psu instead

[URL="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-044-OC&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1098“]OCZ ModXStream 780W SLI Ready Modular Power Supply[/URL]

HDD wise I would avoid Maxtor at pain of death & go for ether

[URL="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-206-SE&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=940 “]Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache[/URL] budget choice

Or

[URL="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-244-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=940 “]Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM[/URL] Speed choice

Why on earth are you going for a IDE drive …………… SATA!
Also Samsung drives are very noisy I would recommend a

[URL="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-038-OT&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=951 “]Sony Optiarc AD-7240S 24x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM[/URL]

And lastly that cooler isent much better than stock

My advise would be ether the trustly old

[URL="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-000-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=“]Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro PWM CPU Cooler[/URL]

Or

[URL="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-020-SY&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395“]Scythe Mugen 2 CPU Cooler[/URL]

PermaBanned · 9 Aug 2009 at 14:32

Most of those links are broken. But yeah, if you're not doing any serious overclocking and you want low noise then go for a Scythe Zipang or Scythe Zipang 2.

Cronus4771 · 9 Aug 2009 at 15:10

Thank for the replies and the advice. The build is a custom system so I was limited to the choices, I've been on a little while ago and got some great advice about components to find for a self build, but I'm still not convinced on self build. All the parts would come to around the same price, although some a little better IMHO (HDD -WD cavair black 500GB, scythe cooler (cannot remember which, built for small cases tho and low noise), corsair 750 PSU)

I thought the 965 was out, so thought prices would be stable.

Wanted the PC by early Sept and a safety net just in case anything went wrong, hence the non-self build.

Anyway I'll have a think, especially about the possible price drop with the AMD

thanks again

PermaBanned · 9 Aug 2009 at 15:19

The 965 should be out... not sure what's going on there.

Nelly · 9 Aug 2009 at 15:27

Superewza said:
The 965 should be out... not sure what's going on there.

Should be out this Thursday, not sure when retailers will have it in stock though.

moppy89 · 9 Aug 2009 at 15:40

Dunno much about the mobo, but the MSI 790 GD70 has very good reviews.

whiskycycle · 9 Aug 2009 at 16:28

moppy89 said:
Dunno much about the mobo, but the MSI 790 GD70 has very good reviews.

Seen many great reviews and a few duff ones. The one on [H] stands out in particular as saying the board isn't all that, and that they had grief clocking it, but most other reviews have all been positive.

Myself, I ended up getting the Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P as I wasn't bothered about the 4 PCIe slots and preferred the pile of SATA ports and Gigabyte over the MSI.

MSI seems to be the current golden boy though.

PermaBanned · 9 Aug 2009 at 16:38

The Crosshair III is a great board, but it's overpriced imo. Of course, the sound card that comes with it is a huge bonus, but it's up to you if that's important or not.

arc@css · 9 Aug 2009 at 18:19

Nice spec there imo. I would agree though and grab one of the quieter / cooler running 4890's like the vapor-x.