Hi OcUK,
As my PC recently died while I was moving house, my original plans to upgrade in October have been brought forward to July. Now, I haven't really kept up with the hardware upgrades over the last few years (my last build was in ~'07) but I've spent the last few weeks researching the current hardware available, and trying to figure out whats hot and whats not.
Predominantly, the system will be used for gaming but I will also use it as a home workstation where I can work on my PhD thesis (lots of dataset analysis, lots of simulations etc.). I have a budget of £900+/-£50, could potentially stretch to around £1000 if deemed necessary (although I won't be informing the girlfriend!
). I already have a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit, a mouse, a keyboard and an optical drive. The monitors, which I intend will be 2x22'' (haven't decided on make/model), will be acquired from a separate budget so don't need to be included here. Obviously, I will dabble with some overclocking - who run's everything at stock these days anyway? 
Given my current reading about, I've come up with the following:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 OR AMD Phenom II X6 1055T
Cooler: Corsair H50-1 OR Noctua NH-D14
Motherboard: Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 OR Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H
RAM: Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual-Channel Kit
PSU: Corsair HX 650W
HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32mb Cache
GPU: Asus ATI Radeon HD 5850 DirectCU 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Case: Coolermaster CM-690 II Advanced OR Fractal Define R2
Note there are some uncertainties in whats best to go for, so I have listed both/all options where I am unsure. I'd appreciate any comments and suggestions on the build, In particular I'd like to know if there are any potential compatibility issues, and whether there is anything that could be changed to enhance performance vs price. If I come up with any further questions I'll drop then in this thread as and when I think of them!
Thanks in advance!
As my PC recently died while I was moving house, my original plans to upgrade in October have been brought forward to July. Now, I haven't really kept up with the hardware upgrades over the last few years (my last build was in ~'07) but I've spent the last few weeks researching the current hardware available, and trying to figure out whats hot and whats not.
Predominantly, the system will be used for gaming but I will also use it as a home workstation where I can work on my PhD thesis (lots of dataset analysis, lots of simulations etc.). I have a budget of £900+/-£50, could potentially stretch to around £1000 if deemed necessary (although I won't be informing the girlfriend!


Given my current reading about, I've come up with the following:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 OR AMD Phenom II X6 1055T
Cooler: Corsair H50-1 OR Noctua NH-D14
Motherboard: Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 OR Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H
RAM: Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual-Channel Kit
PSU: Corsair HX 650W
HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32mb Cache
GPU: Asus ATI Radeon HD 5850 DirectCU 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Case: Coolermaster CM-690 II Advanced OR Fractal Define R2
Note there are some uncertainties in whats best to go for, so I have listed both/all options where I am unsure. I'd appreciate any comments and suggestions on the build, In particular I'd like to know if there are any potential compatibility issues, and whether there is anything that could be changed to enhance performance vs price. If I come up with any further questions I'll drop then in this thread as and when I think of them!
Thanks in advance!