Custom Build.

Reo · 12 Dec 2011 at 19:14

I'm looking to upgrade everything set from the PSU and case. I'm moderately experience with upgrading but have never gone to the extent of almost a full rebuild.

Could someone just give their expert eye a scan over these components that I'll be ordering soon to make sure there isn't any incompatibilities that I may have missed.

AMD Bulldozer FX-4100 3.6GHz AM3+ Black Ed Processor
XFX 1024Mb ATi Radeon HD 6850 PCI-Express VGA Card
or (Still trying to make my mind up on which one to get)
XFX 1024Mb ATi Radeon HD 6870 PCI-Express VGA Card
1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm SATA3 32mb Cache HardDrive
Corsair Vengeance 8Gb DDR3 1600 (2x4Gb) CL8 Dual-Chan Kit
Asus M5A88-M AM3+, DDR3,GBLan,7.1Snd,mATX

Thanks for any help.

GTO656 · 12 Dec 2011 at 19:26

What's yout budget???
looks good but I would swap the CPU to an 960T. if you have a higher budget think about i3 or even i5.

95thrifles · 12 Dec 2011 at 19:27

Whats your intended uses for the new computer? As that can effect recommendations really

fowler002 · 12 Dec 2011 at 19:37

if you have an old sata hard disk/s you can use it would save you £100 which you can use elsewhere.

intel is the way to go at the moment.

new graphics cards due out very soon, and no they wouldn't all cost £500+

Reo · 12 Dec 2011 at 20:57

GTO656 said:
What's yout budget???
looks good but I would swap the CPU to an 960T. if you have a higher budget think about i3 or even i5.

Did you mean a 970?

I'm looking at a 980 but is the 0.20 extra clock speed make that much of a difference for the money?

Also is there something wrong with AMD's bulldozer range?

Btw it's for gaming.

Reaper 392 · 12 Dec 2011 at 21:22

Reo said:
Did you mean a 970?

I'm looking at a 980 but is the 0.20 extra clock speed make that much of a difference for the money?

Also is there something wrong with AMD's bulldozer range?

Btw it's for gaming.

no he meant a 960T. its a phenom II X6 with two cores disactivated. sometimes this will be because of faulty cores, but sometimes it will be to shift old stock that just isnt moving, so you might be able to unlock it to an X6

there is a massive problem with the bulldozer. its about as fast as its name suggests. its actually slower for gaming than equivalent phenoms

*edit*
you say you have a PSU, what make/model is it? theres a huge difference between brands and models even at the same power rating

Reo · 12 Dec 2011 at 22:12

Reaper 392 said:
no he meant a 960T. its a phenom II X6 with two cores disactivated. sometimes this will be because of faulty cores, but sometimes it will be to shift old stock that just isnt moving, so you might be able to unlock it to an X6

there is a massive problem with the bulldozer. its about as fast as its name suggests. its actually slower for gaming than equivalent phenoms

*edit*
you say you have a PSU, what make/model is it? theres a huge difference between brands and models even at the same power rating

Ahh ok, But would a Phenom II x4 980 be just as good or better?

As far as I knew Clock speed and cache is more important then how many cores.

beejjacobs · 12 Dec 2011 at 22:36

If it's for gaming, I'd get:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £95.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
Total : £192.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).

a great CPU. They don't have the FX CPU on there, but this comparison shows you don't need 4 cores for gaming and this i3 is a great CPU:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/88?vs=289

Also you have a much better upgrade path with the possibility of adding an i5 at a later date

Reaper 392 · 12 Dec 2011 at 22:51

Reo said:
Ahh ok, But would a Phenom II x4 980 be just as good or better?

As far as I knew Clock speed and cache is more important then how many cores.

the phenom II X4 980 is a massive rip off. literally the only difference between it and a 955 is a the default multiplier value. this can be changed in the bios incredibly easily. some of the higher end phenoms will be cherry picked for higher clocks, but we're not talking very much here.

however, if its gaming i'd agree with the poster above and suggest the i3 2100. it may have fewer cores, but it does so much more per clock that its actually faster. depending on the prices you may want the i3 2120, since the i3s cant be overclocked