FIRST New PC Build. HELP PLEASE! :)

[jv2907]

OLD THREAD

Thanks for everyones help!!

 

[eddie86]

Unless I am being blind, I can't see a CPU cooler on the list?

I don't know Phenoms but I would imagine that overclocking on the stock cooler is not a great idea if you want to run a 24/7 overclock.

Also, if you are ok with spending £100 on 4Gb RAM then I would look around to find a C8 kit with tighter timings and faster speed, ie 1600MHz than the C9 kit you have listed there.

In terms of your motherboard, I don't think you can get hold of a much better AM3 board and I don't see any bottlenecks in your system either.

 

[jv2907]

Unless I am being blind, I can't see a CPU cooler on the list?

I don't know Phenoms but I would imagine that overclocking on the stock cooler is not a great idea if you want to run a 24/7 overclock.

Also, if you are ok with spending £100 on 4Gb RAM then I would look around to find a C8 kit with tighter timings and faster speed, ie 1600MHz than the C9 kit you have listed there.

In terms of your motherboard, I don't think you can get hold of a much better AM3 board and I don't see any bottlenecks in your system either.

Sorry, forgot to add the watercooler. I have also updated the RAM (see above in yellow). Is that better now?

Baring in mind the kit I have and am intending to buy, is that £700 well spent?..In terms of numbers and kit above, how overclockable is the CPU and graphics? (numbers help please )

Many thanks for your time!!

 

[MeMeMeMe]

Personally, I'd swap out the mboard and ram to these:
Asus M4A79XTD Evo ~ £86
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-366-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

4GB 1600MHZ DDR3 ~ £83
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-026-PA&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

That saves you £80, which is almost enough to change that 5770 to a 5850 - a bigger improvement than any amount of overclocking will give you.

You can probably get that CPU to around 4GHz on air, and I don't think watercooling (especially with that unit) won't take you much further - the main advantage of that unit over good aircooling is its silence. If that isn't an issue, you could just as easily get a £30-40 air cooler, and now afford the 5850 without spending any more money.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The OP could also get this cheaper 1600MHZ DDR3 RAM too:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-041-GS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

I second going with the Asus M4A79XTD Evo!

I would also get this PSU instead of the OCZ one:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-117-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

It has 4 PCI-E power connectors instead of the 2 the OCZ has!

 

[jv2907]

Personally, I'd swap out the mboard and ram to these:
Asus M4A79XTD Evo ~ £86
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-366-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

4GB 1600MHZ DDR3 ~ £83
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-026-PA&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

That saves you £80, which is almost enough to change that 5770 to a 5850 - a bigger improvement than any amount of overclocking will give you.

You can probably get that CPU to around 4GHz on air, and I don't think watercooling (especially with that unit) won't take you much further - the main advantage of that unit over good aircooling is its silence. If that isn't an issue, you could just as easily get a £30-40 air cooler, and now afford the 5850 without spending any more money.

Thanks a lot for your help, much easier talking to people who know what theyre talking about. What does your system run at normally (CPU Speed)? Had any problems with anything??

 

[arknor]

if you are going to spend almost 300 quid on amd you may aswell get an i5 750 instead

 

[BIGBC]

You can probably get that CPU to around 4GHz on air, and I don't think watercooling (especially with that unit) won't take you much further

Are you sure? Ive not clocked one of these chips myself - and I think Ive read about a new C3 revision - but a common achievable clock seems to be 3.7-3.8GHz.

I too would be looking at i5.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Many of the cheaper P55 motherboards can only do asymmetrical Crossfire at 16X/4X and the more expensive ones at 8X/8X.

This article has a list of P55 motherboards to avoid for Crossfire and why there is this limitation for the cheaper motherboards:

http://www.hardware-revolution.com/p55-motherboards-crossfire-sli-performance-problem/

These are the cheapest symmetrical Crossfire capable P55 motherboards available on OcUK:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-208-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1495

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-204-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1495

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-359-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1495

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-359-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1495

If you are not going for a Crossfire setup then this does not matter!

The newer C3 stepping Phenom II X4 955BE and X4 965BE tend to overclock a bit higher then the older C2 stepping too. If you intend to get the X4 965 get the 125W version. TBH,the X4 955BE is the best value for money option.

Here is the overclocking thread for the Phenom II X4 on OcUK:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18108943

 

[MeMeMeMe]

Are you sure? Ive not clocked one of these chips myself - and I think Ive read about a new C3 revision - but a common achievable clock seems to be 3.7-3.8GHz.

As Cat says, that's true of the old 965; the new stepping breaks 4GHz.