Help me build a new rig?

FoliorumViridum

FoliorumViridum

FoliorumViridum

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23 Sep 2009
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11
I gave myself £500 limit.
I want to get a lot of new releases running on high settings in 720/1080p, as well as getting a lot of older games running at my native resolution of 2048x1152.

CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Socket AM3 3.2 GHz 8MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor - £120.
GPU - Asus ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £225
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 AMD 770 Socket AM3 Gigabit LAN 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard - £80
RAM - Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1066MHz i5 Memory Kit 1.5V CL7 - £85

= £505

Three questions:

1) I have a case, m+k, DVD drive and monitor, but I still need a PSU and a fan. What would be good, cheap options for me?
2) I would like to cut a little bit of cost, but I don't want to do it with the cpu, gpu or ram. Could I get a mobo that's a little bit cheaper? I don't really know much about it.
3) Last, but definitely not least, are all of these parts a good match for each other? This is the first rig I've put together myself and don't want to find out I've bought something that doesn't work with another part, or be bottleknecked, etc. I've done my research, but you never know!

Thanks. :)
 
1) ocz make decent affordable psu, modstream 500w should do.

2) don't skimp on the motherboard, that ones fine.

3) a 1600mhz rated memory kit would be better, although not needed unless overclocking.
 
I won't be overclocking, but "Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 HyperX Memory Kit" is only £4 more, so would I benefit in any way of getting that instead? :)

Oh, also, when looking at PSUs, what should I be looking for in terms of pins, SATA, etc? I really don't know what would be good for the above parts. 500w still leaves me with a lot of options! Some suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
 
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I would get the Corsair 1333MHZ RAM which is on the same website for around £85. Another RAM kit to consider is the Kingston 1600MHZ HyperX kit for around £88.

The motherboard has an 8+2 phase VRM,USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 and all solid capacitors too. Many of the cheaper motherboards use only 4 or 5 phase VRMs.

The cheapest PSU from that website I would look to get is the Be Quiet 530W Pure Power available for £44.

Here are more details for the PSU:

http://www.be-quiet.net/be-quiet.net/index.php?StoryID=522&websiteLang=en

The PSU seems to be rated highly in this German review:

http://www.au-ja.de/review-be-quiet-pure-power-l7-6.phtml

The Phenom II X4 955BE comes with a decent cooler although it has been described as being noisy.
 
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If its only £4 more, then why not.

Any modern psu from, ocz, corsair, antec, enermax, coolermaster, seasonic or be-quiet will be fine, modular cables are always a nice option but always cost more than the same fixed cable psu at the same watts, how many connections you need depends on what drives you have or may want.
 
NO! avoid OCZ PSU's at all costs, they have a high fail rate!
I know 2 of my mates had to replace there OCZ PSU's within a year of buying them.

look on there forums, its rammed full of people having problems with there PSU's as well.
Poor product!
 
The 400W OCZ StealthXStream is made by CWT and uses mostly Japanese made capacitors. The other OCZ PSUs are made by FSP IIRC but usually use Chinese and Taiwanese capacitors AFAIK.
 
otis1337 said:
isn't most brands using Japanese capacitors now? thought that was old news
Click to expand...

Not with PSUs. Plenty of modern PSUs from even companies like OCZ still use capacitors from Taiwan and China. Check the reviews on websites like Anandtech, HardOCP, JonnyGuru and Hardware Secrets where they do teardowns of the PSUs. I personally think that OCZ PSUs seem to be well designed for the price although they do skimp a bit on the capacitors. OTH,unless you are really stressing the PSU at high temperature they still should be fine unless their quality control has gone down the hill recently.

OTH,Corsair uses OEMs like Seasonic and CWT and these tend to use better quality capacitors from Japanese companies like Hitachi and Nippon Chemi-Con. This is also why I think that the 400W OCZ StealthXStream is one of the better 400W units out there as it is a CWT unit. The Corsair CX400W is a Seasonic unit.
 
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I have the recentley purchased the 500W model OCZ PSU and it includes plenty of cables etc for your system. Comes well packaged and I can rally find no fault with it!!!
 
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