Gaming PC for younger brother

death_looms

death_looms

death_looms

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4 Oct 2007
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Having played for a while on my rig (see sig), my younger brother has decided its time to upgrade his rig (a socket A platform I gave him ages ago!). As I have no plans to upgrade my C2D rig for a long time yet, he's going to need almost the whole schebang (I'm swapping out my 512MB 4870 for the 1024MB version, so he's getting that :p).

Picked this out for him, any comments; savings/better investments/probs etc?

Antec 300 Gaming case £49.44
Corsair VX 550W ATX PSU £72.44
Samsung F1 640 GB HDD £54.04

Asus P5Q-Pro mobo £114.99
Intel E8400 C2D proc £151.79
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX RAM £39.09
(and the ATI 4870 512MB Powercolor GPU)

Sad thing is, it was cheaper for me to get the CPU, mobo and RAM in the summer last year. But that's his problem, not mine ;)
 
have a look at the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L mobo, i'd go with the case Geckovich linked too, maybe drop the processor to the 7400.
 
Good call. Never even bothered to check the RAM, just assumed the higher freq would be more expensive, and I know the corsair works (it's what I'm running).

You had any teething problems with the kingston?
 
Could go for a AMD PII rig.
Your basket

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
MB-053-DF_60.jpg
DFI Lan Party DK 790FXB-M2RSH AMD 790FX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £143.74
(£124.99) £143.74
(£124.99)
CP-237-AM_60.jpg
AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 710 2.6GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £109.24
(£94.99) £109.24
(£94.99)
CA-010-SS_60.jpg
Seasonic Silverpower 500W Power Supply £57.49
(£49.99) £57.49
(£49.99)
HD-059-SA_60.jpg
Samsung SpinPoint F1 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD642JJ) £54.04
(£46.99) £54.04
(£46.99)
MY-039-KS_60.jpg
Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 X 2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX8500D2K2/4G) £39.99
(£34.77) £39.99
(£34.77) Sub Total : £351.73 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DHL @ Home Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.99 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £54.11 Total : £414.83
You also need a cd drive and cooler if you wish to overlcock, it would be a shame not to.
Once overclock it will perform just like your E8400 and also have one extra core.
 
Was thinking about that, again chose the intel route as that's my rig.

Is there much difference between the 7400 and PII 710?

Are they easier to clock that the A64 X2's (couldn't make much headway with that!)

Liking the price on the PSU as well, I'll check that out now. Appreciate all the advice so far guys.
 
death_looms said:
Good call. Never even bothered to check the RAM, just assumed the higher freq would be more expensive, and I know the corsair works (it's what I'm running).

You had any teething problems with the kingston?
Click to expand...

Only ordered it yesterday and it hasn't arrived yet. I was excited so I prematurely changed my signature :D

But Kingston have been producing memory for years! From the reviews I've read this is very good ram.

Be sure to check your motherboards QVL just in case though!
 
I am more than pleased with my Phenom, and so glad I didn't spend on one of its Intel rivals. This has been my first time with AMD. I am very impressed, they have finally taken some steps. The Phenom II is vastly superior to the original Phenoms.

In regards to the 720, many people are regarding it as one of the worlds greatest gaming chips. They are definetely no worse than any Core 2 Duo, beginning to outperform some Core 2 Quads and even saying hello to i7 territory (only when overclocked high though against a stock i7 920.) (i7 only really comes a long way on top when paired with 2 or more gpus to stop a gpu bottleneck.)

I'd say get a PII 720 and a decent cooler, then clock the nuts off of it. Most are hitting 3.8 - 4.0 GHz. And it's a bit more interesting than going for the old socket 775, seeing as 720 is brand new AM3..
 
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I'm quite willing to put money on it that a 720 would beat an E8400. Not sure about that motherboard though. It would need a BIOS flash even with the AM2+ PII's, so what you'd have to do with an AM3 chip like the 720, I have no idea! But yes you can get a 720 going on an AM2+ board. Possibly an AM3 board which is as much as a P5q except you'd have to spend more on DDR3 memory, but at least your futureproofed, overclocking is better and it works straight from the box no hassle..
 
Yes that motherboard looks brilliant. PII tri-core will definitely provide improvements over a E7400, hands down, you even get an extra core! Just get a nice clock on it. Bringing the multi up to say 18.00x and you're sorted. IMO, go for it! :D
 
AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £123.99

Asus M4A78 PRO AMD 780G (Socket AM2+/AM3) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£90.84

Seasonic Silverpower 500W Power Supply
£57.49

Samsung SpinPoint F1 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD642JJ) £54.04

Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 X 2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX8500D2K2/4G)
£39.99

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU)
£28.99

Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro PWM CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2) £17.24


This is where it's at now, a fair distance from the original specs (and price too), sitting at a £594.80 after delivery, over £60 off the original spec I was thinking.
<£20 between the 710 and 720, it seems a good choice of proc, the mobo is the cheapest AM3, PSU is the cheapest id be happy him spending to power the thing, HDD is a good price for the size, RAM is a good deal, the case... well I'm sure he'll like it. I'll put it to him tomorrow and see what he thinks.
 
Yeah that's a good spec, the PII 720 really is a great CPU, it overclocks really well and you get an extra core over the intel duals :).
 
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