Help required for first time build please.

John Doe

John Doe

John Doe

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Joined
17 Apr 2009
Posts
118
This is where I've got to so far:

Gainward GeForce GTX 260 "Core 216" Golden Sample 896MB GDDR3 Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £160.99

AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £120.74

Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £114.99

Corsair HX 620W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-620HXUK) £108.99

Samsung SpinPoint F 750GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD753LJ) £65.54
£65.54

LG GH22NS40 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.99
(£16.51)

Total : £601.73

In relation to this, I need several questions answered. Please forgive me if they seem ignorant. They are as follows:

1) Does the voltage of the dual channel DDR3 memory (I've yet to decide which brand etc.) matter a lot.

2) I've heard good things about the Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775), but was wondering if it will be suitable for an AM3 motherboard, as it only states Socket AMD2?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-002-NC&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=

3) Is that motherboard acceptable for a good overclock of the cpu.?

4) Is that graphics card reasonably quiet, or should I be looking elsewhere?

Many thanks again for any help.
 
1) Not particularly. Higher voltage will run slightly hotter, but they tend to have a better heat-spreader too.

2) If it doesn't say AM3 it's probably not suitable, although I may be wrong on this!

3) The gigabyte boards in general at the moment seem to be overclocking well - in fact, so do most things

4) Comparable to other cards for a similar price. You basically want to look for cards with an after-market cooler; the reference ones tend to be louder.
 
Thanks very much for the advice. Looks like I need to buy a different CPU cooler and then I should be ready to go. It needs to be quiet, good for overclocking and fit a Silverstone FT01. Could someone please suggest one?
 
Excellent, I can now shave a bit more off the price of the pc. The BeQuiet PSU and the Sunbeam CPU cooler it is then. Thanks very much guys. Fingers crossed for the build.
 
Will I need one or two fans for my Thermalright Ultra cooler (sorry about my ignorance)? Could you also recommend some quiet fan choices for it? I should be covered then, and won't have to pester you all. :)
 
I think I will go with two fans then, just to make sure. I will also look into the Noctuas before I make a decision. Although I imagine it's not to everyones taste, I really like the colour of the Noctua fans.
 
There's a pretty comprehensive article on coolers in Custom PC this month; they recommend the Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ (no idea if OCUK stocks them, but the results for it look very impressive) with the TRUE scoring pretty high - got an "approved" anyway.

The Titan got (temps in "above ambient", high and low refer to fan speed)
775 idle - low 17c, high 19c
775 load - low 42c, high 38c
1366 idle - low 17c, high 15c
1366 load - low 48c, high 44c

The TRUE got
1366 idle 16c
1366 load 45c
Which is pretty comparable to the high speed on the 1366 for the titan. It doesn't give scores for the 775 TRUE, but it's pretty well documented elsewhere and likely is fairly similar to the titan.
 
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