New Build, Which Do I Choose?!?!

wentalong

wentalong

wentalong

Associate
Joined
3 Mar 2011
Posts
626
hey guys,,

ive got enough for a new build and im wondering what i should get,

i've found a bundle on fleabay for £140 which consists of: 4GB DDR2 ram, Intel Q9450 + Cooler & ASUS P5N-D motherboard,

OR i can get this from ocuk:

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £88.99
(£74.16) £88.99
(£74.16)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £27.98
(£23.32) £27.98
(£23.32)
Sub Total : £214.12
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £44.72
Total : £268.34

its a bit expensive but which is better pprice to performance?
 
Neither.

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2300 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £143.99
(£119.99) £143.99
(£119.99)
Gigabyte HA65M-D2H Intel H61 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £79.98
(£66.65) £79.98
(£66.65)
G.Skill RipJawsX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-4GBXL) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Sub Total : £216.63
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £45.23
Total : £271.3

The CPU runs cool so dont need a big heatsink, the stock item is fine.

Not the cheapest H61 board, but it has USB and SATA3.0

CPU performance - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300.html
 
Last edited:
wentalong said:
ahh, but idealy i want to overclock and in the future il definatley be running crossfire,
Click to expand...

It doesnt need overclocking, its fast enough as it is.

Also for crossfire you need a 790GX/FX or 890GX/FX chipset motherboard if you go the AMD route.
 
so whats with it saying it has crossfire support? :O not false advertising?

also im going to need to keep this as long as i can, most likely 3-5 years so i would need to OC at a later date,,
 
wentalong said:
so whats with it saying it has crossfire support? :O not false advertising?
Click to expand...

It runs the second slot at a 4X speed while the top slot remains at 16X as there is not enough pci-e lanes to go around, the chipsets mentioned above have more lanes built in.

so the 790/890GX do it at 8X/8X for the two slots

The 790/890FX do it at 16X/16X for the two slots

So both cards get an equal slice of the pie.
 
It does have crossfire, but it's probably 16x and 4x, which means one card will be slightly held back depending on what card is used. Something like 5770 crossfire would probably not be affected, but using 2 high end cards wouldn't get the performance of a proper crossfire board.
 
ahh i get it, so is the deal i found worth it? both slots run a x16 and ill be crossfiring two 6950's, will there be any bottleneck with the system? or am i better off getting the phenom build???
 
Last edited:
ahh brilliant! :D so hows the new rig looking? i figured ill keep the cooling stock untill i can afford a a50 with a push, pull delta fan setup with a fan controller :D

Total
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H AMD 890GX (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £106.99
(£89.16) £106.99
(£89.16)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Sub Total : £205.80
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £42.96
Total : £257.76
 
stulid said:
If you want to get a AMD system, this motherboard does crossfire right - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-251-GI - and hopefully it will also support Bulldozer too.

EDIT!!! - which it does - http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3785#ov - AM3+ support!!!:)
Click to expand...

I don't think so - the AM3+ boards have black sockets. I'm not certain AMD is planning backwards compatibility for AM3 boards.

Gigabyte boards with AM3+ sockets are revision 3.1 - I don't think anyone's got them yet.

Boards for sale are older revisions unless the retailer says they are Revision 3.1 AFAIK.
 
Grimley said:
I don't think so - the AM3+ boards have black sockets. I'm not certain AMD is planning backwards compatibility for AM3 boards.

Gigabyte boards with AM3+ sockets are revision 3.1 - I don't think anyone's got them yet.

Boards for sale are older revisions unless the retailer says they are Revision 3.1 AFAIK.
Click to expand...

How do MSI promise to support AM3+ cpu with older motherboards then?

http://event.msi.com/mb/am3+/

ditto with ASUS.

http://event.asus.com/2011/mb/AM3_PLUS_Ready/
 
Last edited:
I think I saw a possible answer over at Xtremesystems, theres more than one type of bulldozer, some with and some without the extra pin

Plus there are ver3.1 boards on the market, and have been for a while in america, you will find info here - http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=268039

there has to be some truth in this rumour if current white sockets without the extra pin hole can support a AM3+ cpu with just a BIOS update.
 
Last edited:
ahh thanks, as i'e found a foxcon A79A-S with 790FX chipset and 2 PCIE-S AT X16 and 2 PCI-ES at 8X, for like £60, it supports am2 & am2+ so does it support phenoms as in this vedeo he claims a simple bios update gives it support for Phenom 2's which means i can easily upgrade to a 955 BE later on and i wont need to fork out on ram as i already have 4GB lying around,
 
wentalong said:
ahh thanks, as i'e found a foxcon A79A-S with 790FX chipset and 2 PCIE-S AT X16 and 2 PCI-ES at 8X, for like £60, it supports am2 & am2+ so does it support phenoms as in this vedeo he claims a simple bios update gives it support for Phenom 2's which means i can easily upgrade to a 955 BE later on and i wont need to fork out on ram as i already have 4GB lying around,
Click to expand...

Looks like a crummy old DDR2 board - http://www.foxconnchannel.com/product/Motherboards/detail_overview.aspx?ID=en-us0000401

And DDR2 prices for 4GB of ram are shocking.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom