Another "Check this build" thread

CSMonkeh · 5 Jul 2011 at 20:20

Think I posted this a while ago but the person who this build was for went to work in Spain........and now hes back.
This really is kinda geared for playing flight sims and ideally a budget of £800.
Heres what I came up with:
- MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £219.98
- Asus Crosshair IV Formula AMD 890FX (Socket AM3/AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
- AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 555 3.20GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3) - Retail £69.98
- Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £62.39
- Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus' Certified Power Supply (CMPSU-600CXV2) £59.99
- Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £59.99
- Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £38.99
- Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £33.98
- Akasa AK-FN059 120mm Ultra Quiet Viper Cool Fan - 3/4 Pin £13.99
- IC Diamond 24-Carat Thermal Compound (4.8g) £12.98

Including shipping and delivery that comes to: £797.26

Any thoughts/feedback for improvement?

Cheers

hbk123 · 5 Jul 2011 at 20:22

Looks good but it might be better to go down the intel route with a i5 2500k and perhaps downgrade the GPU instead?

CSMonkeh · 5 Jul 2011 at 20:35

hbk123 said:
Looks good but it might be better to go down the intel route with a i5 2500k and perhaps downgrade the GPU instead?

Aside from my current system (long story) i've always had AMD, don't know too much about Intel. For example, whats the difference between the P67, H67 and Z68 chipsets???)
As for the GPU, mainly future-proofing (hes also eagerly awaiting BF3) and also flight sims seem to be SOOO graphics heavy!

scrlk · 5 Jul 2011 at 20:40

The first box represents the P67 chipset and the bottom one is the H67 chipset. Z68 combines the features of both.

I'm presuming you want to play FSX so the more CPU power the better.

pastymuncher · 5 Jul 2011 at 20:42

Intel 2500k with a P67/Z68 motherboard murders anything that AMD currently has to offer.

If you still want to stick with AMD at least go for a 900 series chipset so that you could drop a Bulldozer cpu in if they turn out to be any good.

DJ_Martin · 5 Jul 2011 at 20:42

I think some definite improvements could be made, getting a dual core Athlon in an £800 budget is kind of ridiculous. The difference between the chipsets are:
P67 - Allows Overclocking
H67 - No overclocking but onboard graphics
Z68 - Overclocking and onboard graphics plus other features

Also I think Nvidia cards are better for flight sims, FSX at least.

And Intel are a lot better than AMD at the moment so probably better to go AMD. I will start making a spec and will post it but there is every possibility Stulid is already on it.

pastymuncher said:
If you still want to stick with AMD at least go for a 900 series chipset so that you could drop a Bulldozer cpu in if they turn out to be any good.

He did include an AM3+ mobo but why gamble on bulldozer being good when Intel is already amazing.

Essentially something like this would be better:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £178.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £173.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £29.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus' Certified Power Supply (CMPSU-600CXV2) £59.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £59.99
1 x Corsair Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit £23.98
1 x Antec Kuhler Box High Performance CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3) £16.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £788.78 (includes shipping : £13.75).

And for a bit over budget you could fit in a 570

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 570 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £263.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £173.99
1 x Asrock Z68 PRO3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £105.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £29.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £59.99
1 x OCZ StealthXStream 2 600W Power Supply £50.99
1 x Corsair Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit £23.98
1 x Antec Kuhler Box High Performance CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3) £16.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £825.78 (includes shipping : £13.75).

CSMonkeh · 5 Jul 2011 at 20:57

Good shout that! lol was gonna donate one of my optical drives but just looked and haven't got one. Oops
Yeah, looks good think we'll go with that.
Many thanks

Jony27 · 6 Jul 2011 at 08:37

DJmartin's first build looks good but i would save £40 and get the Asrock Z68 Pro3 instead as 600w wouldnt be able to support SLI 560Ti