Help on choosing CPU and well pretty much everything else :(

Willie Sawyer · 4 Jul 2010 at 22:38

Good Morning/Afternoon children

. I’ve been thinking about building a PC for a while now but have never had any source of income to support this ideal, nor have I had any idea where to get parts, however I now have a job and been directed here by a lot of friends from college and even some lecturers. Now being new to building computer I’d be wanting some advice, ideally I want to build a machine that’ll be good for gaming/programming/watching films on but not costing a lot of money and well I have a tendency to buy the most expensive thing just because well in my mind more money = better, although this is not necessarily true is it ☺.
Now I‘ve been advised but a fair few people that the two most important choices to make when building your own machine is the motherboard and the CPU, and well I’m not really sure which ones to go for,

I’ve considered:
AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1090T Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3)
with Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 AMD 890GX (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard.
Now I’m sure that I want USB3.0 on my motherboard but I’m unsure if dishing out money for the 6 core black (drool) is worth it or should I go a 4 core processor. I’m also really unsure about all these number and stuff and as such have no idea what ram to get.

I also have a few old laptops that I can strip down to the basics and take the HDD out of but will these be compatible?? Also in terms of OS how should I go about getting one??

I know there’s A LOT of questions and I’m sure that there something that someone will know about in there so can anyone give me and feedback??
Thank you very much ☺

On a side note I don’t really want to be spending more that about 700 pound in total on the build as I have rent insurance to pay etc. so keep that in mind on the olde feedback

Thanks again.

stulid · 4 Jul 2010 at 22:41

do you have a monitor? what resolution is it?

need speakers , keyboard and mouse?

Willie Sawyer · 4 Jul 2010 at 22:43

Got a razer Habu mouse a keyboard and a samsung P2250 monitor no idea about its resolution though i only really use it for my xbox and ps3 atm

stulid · 4 Jul 2010 at 22:46

Willie Sawyer said:
a samsung P2250 monitor no idea about its resolution (

nice monitor, http://www.samsung.com/au/consumer/...r/LS22LRZKUV/XY/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail

Willie Sawyer · 4 Jul 2010 at 22:47

stulid said:
nice monitor, http://www.samsung.com/au/consumer/...r/LS22LRZKUV/XY/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail

Yeah thats the one got it for 100 pound at xmas

stulid · 4 Jul 2010 at 22:48

hows this?

and it sounds like your a student? so you get cheap software from microsoft, but i dont know anymore than that about it.

Willie Sawyer · 4 Jul 2010 at 22:51

yh i can get cheap software but not full installation OS otherwise im sure microsoft would be getting rinsed by students parents buying hundreds for dirt cheap prices

Willie Sawyer · 4 Jul 2010 at 23:03

quick question is 2gb enough for gaming or does the Cpu's clock speed compensate?? Also whats the difference between the x6 and x6 black?? and if at some point i wanted to upgrade to said x6 black would it be possible with that motherboard?? sorry i really don't understand to much about these things

stulid · 4 Jul 2010 at 23:09

Willie Sawyer said:
quick question is 2gb enough for gaming or does the Cpu's clock speed compensate?? Also whats the difference between the x6 and x6 black?? and if at some point i wanted to upgrade to said x6 black would it be possible with that motherboard?? sorry i really don't understand to much about these things

that build has 4GB (2X2GB) plenty for gaming.

the difference between the two cpus, is speed and a unlocked multiplier, making overclocking easy.

and that board will take anything

Willie Sawyer · 4 Jul 2010 at 23:11

ahh sorry yh i just read the 2GB didn't see the 4gb well thanks that looks pretty good to me, on another note im gunna have to buy fans and stuff yh else its gunna just blow up in my face isn't

stulid · 4 Jul 2010 at 23:14

review of the 1055t and 1090t cpus, http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/phenom-ii-x6-1090t.html

what a 1055t can do at 4ghz, http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-phenom-ii-x6-1055t-overclocking.html

and it wouldnt hurt to get another 120mm fan

Willie Sawyer · 5 Jul 2010 at 15:51

I have another question relating to the build, whats the primary difference between Asus and other Motherboards like Gigabyte? and also is USB 3.0 worth it at the moment are there any utilities that actually use it??

Mason- · 5 Jul 2010 at 17:02

Currently not many things do but they are backwards compatible. They are definitely going to be used in the future though, the data transfer rate is 10x faster than USB 2.0

Muel · 5 Jul 2010 at 17:39

The 1090T is pointless IMO. With a bit more work the 1055T can be overclocked nearly as high, but costs a lot less.

I'd strongly recommend a Gigabyte board, in particular the 890GPA-UD3H. I just got one and the build quality and features seem much better than my previous Asus board (an M4A79XTD EVO), the bios is easier to use and it's laid out much better IMO.

1234543212345 · 5 Jul 2010 at 18:45

Been looking at that case, whats the airflow like compared to say the antec 300, that case can only take 3 fans max (front 120mm, rear 120mm, and top 140mm).

Willie Sawyer · 5 Jul 2010 at 19:32

I'm thinking of going for this maybe... im not too sure if i should change up the motherboard graphics card etc. and will i be needing cables etc. as these are things im gunna need to consider