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Ant84

Ant84

Ant84

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Joined
20 Feb 2007
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Hi, so I managed to stretch my budget to £500 for a new system, and this is what I've come up with so far. Any advice is very welcome.

i3 530
Gigabyte UD2H H55 mobo
4gb Corsair XMS3 DDR3
1tb Samsung F3
Zalman Z7 case
Corsair 450w modular PSU
Pioneer DVR S18L drive/writer

Don't need any dedicated graphics yet as I don't play games. Also plan to upgrade to an i5 750 plus P55 mobo in a few months, hoping the rest would be perfectly compatible with that set up?

Any thoughts?
 
Any upgrade would likely be at least 6 months away. i5 plus P55 was the original plan but I just can't stretch to it yet.

I was planning to keep a look out on the members market for any cheap, low end graphics cards.
 
Don't really have any graphics in mind at the moment. I'm aware that when I do add a dedicated graphics card, I'll likely need a bigger PSU.

Just some more food for thought, I've had another look and an x4 Phenom 955 is only an extra £30 over the i3. Coupled with the (usually) cheaper AM3 boards, would this make a much better alternative at very little extra cost?

Also, would the Phenom require a bigger PSU than the Corsair 450w, even without the graphics card, or would it be ok?
 
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Well those comments have certainly thrown a spanner into the works! I assume the general consensus is that the i5 is well worth the extra expense?

Edit: Mr Krugga - would that board plus i5 be ok for integrated graphics? Probably a stupid question, but I'd hate to make a glaring mistake!
 
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Thanks to everyone for your replies so far. i5 seems like a non starter given the lack of integrated GPU, unfortunately.

Which leaves the i3, H55 UD2H and 1tb Samsung F3. On the other hand is the Phenom x4 955, AM3 UD3H and 500gb Barracuda. AMD certainly seems the future proof and marginally more powerful choice, falling somewhere between the i3 and i5 in terms of performance. I was, however, quite surprised at how well the i3 fared against the 955 in those benchmarks.

Which of the two combos do people think is the logical choice?
 
As tempting as the 1055T is, I think that's one for a future upgrade when 6 cores are more widely utilized.

Few more questions before making a final decision...

1 - Is the 965 worth the extra £15 over the 955?
2 - Would that 500w Antec PSU be enough even if I were to overclocking either of the above chips?
3 - Stulid, is that configuration fully compatible and ready to go out of the box? I only ask as I vaguely remember reading the other day about some AMD BIOS issues and needing an older chip to update the BIOS before the new chip would work with the mobo. Not sure if these were the components in question, however.

Cheers for the advice to you both.
 
Does this stuff affect the parts I've decided on? Will it definitely work out of the box?

Need to order first thing tomorrow, that's all.
 
Crappy developments. Due to unforeseen financial circumstances, I've had to knock the budget down to £420.

Still, with all the suggestions posted for alternative components, I should still be able to scrape the i3 build without a problem.

Big thanks to everyone for the tips and advice posted.
 
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