Help me choose what I need

Blacked Out · 14 Dec 2010 at 23:27

Guys, I am looking to make my first personal build. [Noob Alert]
This will be for my own personal use, mainly because i'm looking to migrate from playing games on my Xbox - to playing on PC. I will also need it for the minor repair jobs that I get. I am also looking to learn how to overclock, in the past few months I have built quite a few middle - high end PCs for customers at work, but I have no experience with overclocking.

I have now settled on an AMD build

AMD:
Phenom II X4 965 Black (Thanks stulid)
Corsair H70 CPU Cooler
4GB Dominator GT @ 2000 (as advised by Blue160)
Asus Crosshair IV Formula (Extreme is great but I really won't need the Hydralogix, can't justify the price)
MSI Radeon 6870 (Twin Frozr, Stock OC) - (the intent will be to CrossFireX another identical card after the build is done)
Antec TruePower New Modular 650W (stulid does it again)
Coolermaster Storm Scout (Love this case)

The AMD build would look better, red and black is so hawt.
HDD if you are wondering will be a WD Caviar Black 640GB.

I am more than welcome to being schooled. I am fairly new to the price to performance, which is why I need you guys' experience.

Blacked Out · 14 Dec 2010 at 23:45

stulid said:
Intel Sandy Bridge comes out in January, wait till then, also for gaming you just need a quad core cpu.

For example - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=146 at the bottom you will see the game graphs, the 965 is faster than the more expensive 1090T

Oh my.
My first lesson.

I am very interested in the AMD stuff, just have no clue about their GPUs. But the price of that Phenom II 965 is well worth it. Thanks dude.

Also, the system won't be ordered by the time SB comes out - so we still have time to see what it has in store.

Blacked Out · 15 Dec 2010 at 17:45

*EDIT*
Settled on an AMD build, just need to choose what PSU I need.
Anyone got any suggestions?

Blacked Out · 15 Dec 2010 at 18:20

stulid said:
Can you afford this? - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-117-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1088

If so, buy it.

Notice how I haven't even asked for the specs of your purchase to make this decision.

Definitely, the one I quoted was about £90.
I saw you recommend that on that other thread for the £1000 build.

Why do you recommend this PSU?

Blacked Out · 16 Dec 2010 at 13:05

Blue160 said:
You really don't need 8GB of RAM, 4 is plenty for gameing.

Yeah I've actually toned it down to 4GB @ 2000
Needs to be Dominator GT though, have heard good things, and they'll go perfectly with my aesthetics.

Thanks for your help.

Blacked Out · 16 Dec 2010 at 13:48

stulid said:
Built by Seasonic, who make top class PSU's, great price, two 6pin pci-e and two 6+2pin pci-e connectors so two graphics cards are well catered for(depending on the cards used, wont power two GTX480 for example), modular cables(only the important ones are hardwired), long cables too.

Yeah watched this video review from one of my YouTube subscriptions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvuhTl5MHmo

All great news (long cables, huge fan, 2 high end GPU support) except for the thinnish sleeving, which will be hidden away anyway.
And it is Black and Red! Wewt. This build is going to look so sexual.

Thanks for your help man, you've been a great aid.