Buildng a AMD/intel System with a £1.1k budget.

Sharpsilver · 6 Nov 2009 at 02:37

Greetings,

I currently in the planning stages of purchasing the complete components to build my first ever Non Pre-made PC, and my first PC to be used for over 2 years..since then I've been using a iMac.Never built a PC before, mind you, it's about time I learned.

The system is going to be designed for gaming and a bit of work, but more specifically gaming.

A problem I've been having is feedback or advice I've asked others elsewhere, I've had Intel v AMD thrown about and honestly it's quite difficult when you can't decide. I've had arguments with AMD's value and Intels power. I was one time swayed towards more so the value for power of the ATI card and processor I put down.

Here is what I've come up with so far, but having problems filling in the blanks or whether what I've come up with are competent choices.

CPU: AMD Quad Core Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition 3.4GHz Socket AM3 - Retail
GPU: Sapphire ATI Radeon 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - Retail
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2, Intel P55 Express, S1156, DDR3 2200, SATA 3Gb/s, SATA RAID, ATX
RAM: ????
Optical: ????
Hard Drive: ????
Case
CPU Cooling

Any advice or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Spam101 · 6 Nov 2009 at 05:33

u cant use that motherboard Its for Intel. And they can only be for one or the other.

look for am2+ or Am3 sockets

and if you get a DDR3 motherboard You will need DDR3 ram

with a budget like that you should probs go for an i7 anyway.

GK7 · 6 Nov 2009 at 06:26

Go for any of the Samsung Spinpoint F3 range for the hard drive.

SMAndy · 6 Nov 2009 at 07:53

either samsung spinpoint, or western digital caviar Black. Both very good performance.

For an AM3 board, the Asus ones are mostly terrible (i've used one...) go for the gigabyte one. for £105, you can get the GA-MA790XT-UD4P. Its a very good board, and increased my overclock headroom by 200+MHz over the Asus one. (going by Prime failures)

As for RAM, make sure you get at least 4GB. In one dual channel kit. AMD memory controllers have a problem in that they can only run one set of memory at high speed. Get 1600MHz or 1333MHz. You're not going to notice a huge difference between them.

Case: I just bought a CM Storm Scout, and I love it. Temps dropped by about 18% over my old Antec Three Hundred (No joke... Idle temp for my GPU in the antec was 49. Now its 42)

Nothing wrong with going Intel as Spam101 suggested. But get an i5 rather than an i7, unless you're going to be doing LOTS of encoding. Hyperthreading on an i7 makes it worse for gaming. The motherboard in the OP is socket 1156, which is i5, so you can just change the CPU for that.

RAM for 1156 socket is dual channel DDR3, but the memory controller doesn't have the limitation, so if you want, you can get 4x1GB sticks... but its still much better for you to have 2x2GB sticks.

CPU Cooling... I upgraded my old Freezer Pro 64 to a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme. Not the copper one though... and my temps again dropped by about 18%. I'm not even using a fan on it! Idles at 22° on my overclocked Phenom II X3 720 BE.

Hope this helps!

Sharpsilver · 6 Nov 2009 at 16:17

I've so far come up with the following, which falls under my budget, using an Intel CPU over the AMD and sticking with the same GFX card and Mobo as I listed before.

CPU: Intel Core i5 750, S 1156, Lynnfield, Quad Core, 2.66GHz, DMI 2.5 GT/s, 8MB Cache, 95W, Retail
GFX: 1GB Gigabyte HD 5850, PCI-E 2.0(x16), 4000MHz GDDR5, GPU 725MHz, 1440 Cores, DP/ 2x DL DVI-I/ HDMI
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2, Intel P55 Express, S1156, DDR3 2200, SATA 3Gb/s, SATA RAID, ATX
RAM: 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3, PC3-12800 (1600), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP
Monitor: 23" Samsung SM2343NW Widescreen LCD 2048x1152 Resolution 300cd/m2 Brightness 5ms 1000:1
Optical: Samsung SH-S223B/BEBE 22x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM
HD: 1TB Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache
CPU Cooling: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme
Power Supply: 650W TX Corsair PSU, single 12V rail, energy efficient, quiet & cool, fully compatible, 5yr warranty

Thoughts? I think it's a solid setup which falls under my budget by about £100, which the remainder could be used to purchase Speakers since the Samsung Monitor above does not include inbuilt speakers, and also Keyboard/mouse/Headset.

SfnX · 6 Nov 2009 at 16:31

CPU: Intel Core i5 750, S 1156, Lynnfield, Quad Core, 2.66GHz, DMI 2.5 GT/s, 8MB Cache, 95W, Retail
GFX: 1GB Gigabyte HD 5850, PCI-E 2.0(x16), 4000MHz GDDR5, GPU 725MHz, 1440 Cores, DP/ 2x DL DVI-I/ HDMI
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2, Intel P55 Express, S1156, DDR3 2200, SATA 3Gb/s, SATA RAID, ATX
RAM: 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3, PC3-12800 (1600), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP
Monitor: 23" Samsung SM2343NW Widescreen LCD 2048x1152 Resolution 300cd/m2 Brightness 5ms 1000:1
Optical: Samsung SH-S223B/BEBE 22x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM
HD: 1TB Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache
CPU Cooling: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme
Power Supply: 650W TX Corsair PSU, single 12V rail, energy efficient, quiet & cool, fully compatible, 5yr warranty

That all seems absolutely fine if its in budget, btw id strongly advise you to buy a fan for that cpu cooler as youll get much better cooling potential.

Sharpsilver · 6 Nov 2009 at 22:34

One question as well for anybody who's had experience in the many many cases that purchasable, the case I have chosen, how is the future-upgrade potential like? will I have enough space to combine two 5850/70/90 in the future? or is it cramped?

Sharpsilver · 7 Nov 2009 at 02:34

I have several other questions I would be greatly appreciative of being answered (in addition to my last post)

I've currently got the i5 750 listed as a possible purchase, however the i7 920 costs about £50 more and is the more powerful chip, but is the gap between the two worth those extra funds?

I've seen high appraisal for the value for cooling on the Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler, and doesn't seem difficult to work with. Is the cooler worth the performance? comparing it to Air coolers such as Thermalright Ultra 120 extreme fan, and if I was to purchase the i7 920 instead of the i5 720, would this be more sufficient for cooling and overclocking potential?

Thanks.

Here are the two possible setups so far,

i7 920

i5 750

GK7 · 7 Nov 2009 at 06:26

I'd go for the i7 setup - but there are a few problems.

For the i7 setup, you have chosen an socket motherboard when you need a socket 1366 motherboard.

Also change the hard drive to a WD Caviar Black or a Samsung Spinpoint F3.

Sharpsilver · 7 Nov 2009 at 13:44

Ah, in that case I think I will stick with the i5 build, If I was to i7 it would go over-budget and I'm thinking the i7 maybe would've been better if I had wanted to run xfire with another 5850 which I don't want.