Is building right for me?

ralph09 · 1 Aug 2009 at 14:40

hmmmm I see. Well I think I can stretch to an extra £20 to fit in an optical drive, and I do like the sound of a more powerful system!

How does the 4890 compare to the 4850? What would be the first component of your suggested setup that you would updrage/downgrade?

EDIT: These tales of unlocking an extra 2 cores in your Phenom X2, does that ever really happen? I'm guessing that busts the warranty straight out right?!

Hairybudda · 1 Aug 2009 at 14:47

ralph09 said:
hmmmm I see. Well I think I can stretch to an extra £20 to fit in an optical drive, and I do like the sound of a more powerful system!

How does the 4890 compare to the 4850? What would be the first component of your suggested setup that you would updrage/downgrade?

EDIT: These tales of unlocking an extra 2 cores in your Phenom X2, does that ever really happen? I'm guessing that busts the warranty straight out right?!

I'm pretty sure it doesn't ruin your warranty because it is a BIOS setting, nothing physically changes in any of the hardware so nobody will ever know you were using the locked cores. In a worst case scenario the cores will be faulty and you wont be able to use them, best case scenario you will have four cores for the price of two!

With regards to the graphics cards, this should answer your questions:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17998562

And personally the first thing I would upgrade if I had a choice on this machine would either be a standalone sound card (you would be using onboard which is perfectly acceptable) or a bigger HD. Everything else is pretty solid imho, and the parts are good for playing with and tweaking. Downgrading all I really see room for is a less powerful PSU, would not recommend that though!

bifday2k · 1 Aug 2009 at 14:58

Thought id add this to give u more headaches, i mean choices lol.

I chose the 4770 due to its ddr5 memory which i think would help more in cad then the ddr3 on the 4850's, but hairy budda's post is a nice setup, if u can unlock the other 2 cores.

Kennysevenfold · 1 Aug 2009 at 15:02

Quad option

Bang on

Product Name Qty Price Line Total

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £145.98
(£126.94) £145.98
(£126.94)

Viewsonic VA1926w 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor £78.99
(£68.69) £78.99
(£68.69)

Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P AMD 770 (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £76.99
(£66.95) £76.99
(£66.95)

OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent SLI Ready Modular Power Supply £64.99
(£56.51) £64.99
(£56.51)

PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 4730 PCS 512MB PCI-Express Graphics Card £63.99
(£55.64) £63.99
(£55.64)

OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel (OCZ3G16004GK) £56.98
(£49.55) £56.98
(£49.55)

Western Digital Caviar Green 750GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD7500AADS) £48.99
(£42.60) £48.99
(£42.60)

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU) £31.99
(£27.82) £31.99
(£27.82)

Sony Optiarc AD-7240S 24x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£14.77) £16.99
(£14.77) Sub Total : £509.47 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £78.30 Total : £600.27

Hairybudda · 1 Aug 2009 at 15:03

Here is a good thread to look over with regards to unlocking these processors, there seems to be a fairly decent rate of successful unlocks!

ralph09 · 1 Aug 2009 at 15:11

OK choices choices - ow my head!

It feels like I have to sacfrice quite a lot in order to afford the quadcore. I will probably use CAD a bit, and have multiple applications running, but if its only for CAD, and doesn't benefit other things like gaming, then I'm not sure its worth it

Opinions?

Also what difference does it make which manufacturer you go for on the GPU? Why can't I just buy one from ATI?!

toblarone45 · 1 Aug 2009 at 15:15

How about this: Quad bundle is on special so would have to order by Wednesday

Edit: Damn PSU is not in stock could drop the monitor and use the one in Kennysevenfold spec and up the PSU to the 600W and damn no optical

so near yet so far

Hairybudda · 1 Aug 2009 at 15:19

ralph09 said:
OK choices choices - ow my head!

It feels like I have to sacfrice quite a lot in order to afford the quadcore. I will probably use CAD a bit, and have multiple applications running, but if its only for CAD, and doesn't benefit other things like gaming, then I'm not sure its worth it Opinions?

Also what difference does it make which manufacturer you go for on the GPU? Why can't I just buy one from ATI?!

I'd go for the dual core and pray you get a good one that you can unlock. When it comes to graphics cards basically ATi make the chips up and then set a reference design, a rough spec for the cards and layout etc, and then companies like BFG/XFX/EVGA/ASUS fabricate the actual cards. Sticking with a good brand normally means a longer warranty, a better than reference design, a better cooler, quieter, faster clock speeds, things like that.

ralph09 · 1 Aug 2009 at 15:25

Well my head is bulging right now - you guys were right I'm certainly learning a lot! I'm going into town for a bit so I'm gonna mull over everything and come back tonight, for hopefully an epiphany!

@Hairybudda I do like the thought of buying a dualcore and getting a quad. They seem to have a really high success ratio on that link, but wo it sounds technical!!!

Hairybudda · 1 Aug 2009 at 15:32

It's a lot easier than it sounds, just read plenty beforehand and don't forget to ask questions if you have them

Good luck with the system whatever it ends up being!

jamesgoss · 1 Aug 2009 at 15:39

Seriously, it seems very daunting, but having just done my first build (technically a REbuild...) you just put in one screw at a time and it all comes together. These guys have put some nice potential systems together for you

ralph09 · 1 Aug 2009 at 19:09

OK, I've put together a system, which I think is around the minimum mark I'd want to aim for, cos I've still got plenty left for a screen. I don't know anything about monitors yet so haven't put one on. What do you think is the most important comparison spec for monitors? I think I might be alright with a 20" monitor, thats still pretty big right?

If this was my starting point, what changes would you recommend to this setup?

I've been looking at the 4850 card from XFX: HD-485X-YDDC - 512MB XFX HD 4850 XXX, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), 2100MHz GDDR3, GPU 650MHz, 800 Cores, 2x DLDVI-I/ HDTV, HDCP. Would that be slower or faster than the one in this basket, cos its only 512mb instead of 1024.

Thanks

EDIT: Its £408.94 inc VAT

toblarone45 · 1 Aug 2009 at 19:16

the only things i would change are the HD to WD and RAM to the Kingston - however, this really is a personal preference as I've had no problems with them.

as far as the GPU goes a 4850 should handle 1680x1050 no problem but others might have more info

and the only other difference is a 2 year warranty with XFX rather than the 1yr with HIS

ralph09 · 1 Aug 2009 at 21:45

Thanks toblarone, I'm taking it all on board, trying to at least!

I feel like I'm getting somewhere. I feel like I really wanna build myself a desktop! I've tweaked my working setup as shown here:

I've looked around at some monitors and found good things said about that Samsung, and the price is good for that size too. Plus bifday2k's already recommended me it so double bonus.

The one piece I've left out this time is graphics card, v. important but I was hoping for some opinions on whether its worth the jump from £85 to £145 to get the 4890, or if you think I should spend my money on something else?

All comments on this setup welcome!

baroniuk · 1 Aug 2009 at 23:01

Ok Just looking at the mobo and its am2+ and the CPU is am3 will this socket be ok?
As for the Monitor I have one and its a lovely screen, I run it with a 1Gb 4870 now after upgrading from a 1Gb 4670 and it burns through all games at max resolution!
Enjoy the build.

ralph09 · 1 Aug 2009 at 23:21

Thanks, yeah I will.

I chose that mb specifically because Hairybudda suggested it cos it can unlock the 3rd and 4th cores of the X2, and reading up on it a bit sounds like its a fully intentional design by gigabyte, and is succesful a large amount of the time, so fingers crossed.

I also read earlier that AM3 chips fit into AM2+ sockets, but not the other way round, so it should be compatible. Will I lose out any functionality of the chip because of the older socket?

ralph09 · 2 Aug 2009 at 14:32

OK I've done some more looking round and I think I'm gonna go with this setup:

Coolermaster RC-330 Elite Blk/Silv Midi Tower Case w/o PSU £28.97
500 GB Western Digital WD5000AADS Caviar Green, SATA 3Gb/s, IntelliPower, 32MB Cache, NCQ £38.53
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition, Callisto, S AM3, 3.1GHz, 7MB Total Cache HT 4000MHz, 85W, Retail £74.75
Sony AD-7241S-0B 24x DVD±R, 12xDVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RWx6 ,12xRAM SATA, Black, Lightscribe, OEM £17.02
OCZ Stealth XStream 600W PSU - SLI Ready ATX2.2 12cm Fan £52.93
Crucial 4GB (2X2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Ballistix Memory CL4 2.0V £34.99
XFX HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card £129.99
Acer V223WBBD 22" TFT Monitor 1680x1050 250cd/m2 10000:1 (dynamic) 5ms 16:9 DVI-D/VGA Matte Black £109.48
Gigabyte GA-M720-US3 AMD Nvidia 720D Socket AM2+ 7.1 channel audio ATX Motherboard £48.51

I've stretched to the 4890 cos it feels good

Do you think I'm ready to go?

Hairybudda · 2 Aug 2009 at 17:03

You look like you're good to go, glad to see you spent the extra to get the 4890! Let me know when your gear arrives or if you have any issues!

ralph09 · 2 Aug 2009 at 18:04

Thanks for all your help mate, I like the feel of the spec I've got, now I just have to sort out that buggering delivery!

I'm gonna try unlocking the extra cores in the CPU. I think it has a really high success rate generally, but if no luck then its OK

Not that I know anything about it yet, but if I were to start thinking about overclocking, would I need to buy a third party CPU cooler, and/or a second fan for the case?