complete amature with some questions

NoNameNoNumber

NoNameNoNumber

NoNameNoNumber

Soldato
Joined
25 Nov 2009
Posts
5,366
hi first post here. decided a month or two ago i was gonna build a pc from scratch. been trying to gather as much info as i can on all the different bits and bobs and so far have bought:

amd phenom xII 550 be

gigabyte ma770t ud3p

corsair dominator dual channel ddr3 1600mhz

arctic cooling 64 cpu cooler

so 1st question is, have i bought a load of rubbish?
2nd q is, what psu should i buy? im intending on using an antec three hundred case with one optical drive and 1tb hdd.

thats about it for now i think,
any help much appreciated
luke:)
 
Welcome to the forum :). From what I can tell everything seems fine, though you would probably have been better off going for a new intell i5 system. As for the psu, buy a nice reliable one which is going to stop the rest of your components been fried if something goes wrong. Id recommend a 550 or 650 watt corsair.
 
alright then thanks i was thinkin corsair vx 550...
can you shed any light on the unlocking of the other cores? im intrigued...
also im gonna want to oc it-just because i can- is this a bit of a black art with dire consequences or is it pretty fool proof?
luke :)
 
puma luke said:
alright then thanks i was thinkin corsair vx 550...
can you shed any light on the unlocking of the other cores? im intrigued...
also im gonna want to oc it-just because i can- is this a bit of a black art with dire consequences or is it pretty fool proof?
luke :)
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1. The corsair is a good choice, dont be fooled by it only saying its 550 watt, it can handle a little more then that :P, though dont push it to far.
2. There was a thread on here about how to unlock the other cores, ill be honest im pretty clueless when it comes to this. Though I do remember a guy saying it was hit and miss if the CPU actually allowed the unlock :S.
3. Its a wise choice, just make sure that the cpu is cooled well enough, not only on desktop but when under the pressure, as in check the temps whislt in game etc.

Is the machine for gaming ?
 
OCing is pretty straightforwards if you follow the sticky in that forum. As long as you don't exceed the max temps or put any crazy voltages through your CPU you'll be fine. I was completely new to this stuff and have managed to follow it with very good results (barring my rubbish board holding me back :( )
 
id like it to be capble of gaming although the xbox takes care of that. to be honest i just want a bloody good computer that doesnt struggle all the time. not to say i wont change my mind tho and use it primarily for gaming.
whats the deal with hard drives? i dont need massive amounts of storage so would i be best to have the os on the same drive as the rest of my files or have a designated drive just for the os and program files then another hdd for storage?
luke:)
 
puma luke said:
id like it to be capble of gaming although the xbox takes care of that. to be honest i just want a bloody good computer that doesnt struggle all the time. not to say i wont change my mind tho and use it primarily for gaming.
whats the deal with hard drives? i dont need massive amounts of storage so would i be best to have the os on the same drive as the rest of my files or have a designated drive just for the os and program files then another hdd for storage?
luke:)
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Safety wise its allways best to have 2 drives, especially if you have important documents that you must/want to keep. The samsung 1TB drive is a good value.
 
You're fine running everything on one drive if budget is an issue, but performance wise you'll get the most out of them if you have one drive for programs/OS and one for storage. As long as you have one to back it all up to you're grand. That's the upgrade by the looks of it, so would be worth getting a full copy off overclockers (or use your student contacts to get it free off MSDNAA). For gaming, graphics card is the main factor. You're spec so far is fine for that (even 2Gb of RAM would work, though 4Gb would smooth things out for you) so it's just a matter of what you want to spend on a graphics card. It's worth spending a decent amount on gfx if you plan on gaming at all.
 
Devrij said:
You're fine running everything on one drive if budget is an issue, but performance wise you'll get the most out of them if you have one drive for programs/OS and one for storage. As long as you have one to back it all up to you're grand. That's the upgrade by the looks of it, so would be worth getting a full copy off overclockers (or use your student contacts to get it free off MSDNAA). For gaming, graphics card is the main factor. You're spec so far is fine for that (even 2Gb of RAM would work, though 4Gb would smooth things out for you) so it's just a matter of what you want to spend on a graphics card. It's worth spending a decent amount on gfx if you plan on gaming at all.
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Very true words, with the influx of new cards coming out next year id personally hold back from spending anything above 150 as its just going to be a waste. The 4890 and 5770 are both excellent bang for buck :P
 
puma luke said:
right ok then ill bear that in mind thanks :)
im all clued up now on unlocking the other cores... hopefully i wont have a cpu with two dud ones tho :/
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To be fair even if they dont unlock you still have a good CPU there for gaming. Not many games use the four cores right now anyways so you will still get a good performance out of the machine :) Fingers crossed they will unlock post back when you have done it :)
 
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