New to building custom pcs

[Big.Wayne]

Ok but can I still use that processor with the motherboard I've chosen and is DDR2 ram compatible with it.

DDR2 is not compatible with the motherboard you have listed.

Hey californiadream,

the AM3 processor can be used in *either* a DDR2 motherboard or a DDR3 motherboard, the board you have choosen is for DDR3 but you can get an almost identical board (same chipset, features etc) that uses DDR2 instead!

AMD Boards that run with DDR2 memory here (£45.99 - £85.99)
AMD Boards that run with DDR3 memory here (£57.99 - £143.98)

Most people in the General Hardware forum are quite uninformed, some are very informed and knowledgeable . . . . the problem for you my friend is knowing which is which!

I would like to help you if I can and my contribution would be helping you choose the hardware that will give you *maximum* value for money while at the same time giving you an impressively fast system.

I think your budget is very realistic and not OTT like a lot of these other threads, this tells me your a real person who doesn't have a personal money tree growing in the garden!

If "half life 2 and counter strike" are the most demanding tasks your gonna be running then your needs are *very* modest!

 

[californiadream]

Hey californiadream,

the AM3 processor can be used in *either* a DDR2 motherboard or a DDR3 motherboard, the board you have choosen is for DDR3 but you can get an almost identical board (same chipset, features etc) that uses DDR2 instead!

AMD Boards that run with DDR2 memory here (£45.99 - £85.99)
AMD Boards that run with DDR3 memory here (£57.99 - £143.98)

Most people in the General Hardware forum are quite uninformed, some are very informed and knowledgeable . . . . the problem for you my friend is knowing which is which!

I would like to help you if I can and my contribution would be helping you choose the hardware that will give you *maximum* value for money while at the same time giving you an impressively fast system.

I think your budget is very realistic and not OTT like a lot of these other threads, this tells me your a real person who doesn't have a personal money tree growing in the garden!

If "half life 2 and counter strike" are the most demanding tasks your gonna be running then your needs are *very* modest!

Ok I've managed to cut it down a bit to this:

BenQ G2420HDB 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - £142.99
Corsair 4GB (2X2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMV4GX3M2A1333C9) - £74.58
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £72.99
Asus M4A78LT-M LE AMD 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard - £57.99
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 245 2.90GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail - £49.98
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black - £42.99
OCZ StealthXStream 500w Silent Power Supply - £39.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) - £39.99
Sony Optiarc AD-7240S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM - £17.99
Logitech X-140 2.0 Speaker System (970264-0120) - £17.99
Saitek Eclipse K140 Slimline Multimedia Backlit Keyboard - £11.23
Logitech S96 PS/2 Optical Wheel Mouse Black - OEM (953688-1600) - £5.99

Total- £574.69

Sorry to be a pain again but is this hardware all still compatible with each other and also able to run windows 7. I decided to keep a DDR3 RAM and board, just the lower spec ones, because there doesn't seem to be much of a price difference between these and DDR 2 anyway.
I also changed the processor to an x2. Is this still fast and able to deal with what I want or would keeping the x4 be better?
Do I need extra fans, cooling stuff? Someone said I have to squirt something on the processor before attaching to the board (thermal paste? )- what is this and do i need it?

I'm also curious as to what hardware you would use for a similar price as you seem to know heaps about pcs.
I just hope to God that I don't screw this up and total all this stuff.

 

[Big.Wayne]

BenQ G2420HDB 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - £142.99
Geil Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel (GV34GB1333C7DC) £88.99
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £72.99
Asus M4A78LT-M LE AMD 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard - £57.99
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 245 2.90GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail - £49.98
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black - £42.99
OCZ StealthXStream 500w Silent Power Supply - £39.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) - £39.99
Sony Optiarc AD-7240S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM - £17.99
Logitech X-140 2.0 Speaker System (970264-0120) - £17.99
Saitek Eclipse K140 Slimline Multimedia Backlit Keyboard - £11.23
Logitech S96 PS/2 Optical Wheel Mouse Black - OEM (953688-1600) - £5.99

Total- £589.10

Hey californiadream,

that looks like a seriously impressive build for the money. I have adjusted the memory to something more suitable to the AMD system, its not much extra price but should help speed up the latency of your system!

I use a very similar set-up and my mate has that exact same board, that cannot fail to impress! . . . I also have an idea about the graphics card to run by you but I will address that at the end of the post . . .

Sorry to be a pain again but is this hardware all still compatible with each other and also able to run windows 7

Oh yes, looks great!

I also changed the processor to an x2. Is this still fast and able to deal with what I want or would keeping the x4 be better?

A 2.9GHz Athlon II x2 is gonna deal with your tasks with no effort at all, the amount of power you are getting for your money there is a total steal. Extra cores are slowly becoming more useful but unless you are doing a lot of very processor intensive tasks there is no real point. It maybe the case in 12 months you become more of a power user and find you want to rip and encode a lot of DVD's and what not at that point it will be quite easy for you to look at the latest chips and maybe pick up a even newer 2011 quad core for like £45 with even better features than whats available today. That's the fun bit making little upgrades every now and then, the tough part you are going through right now which is too get the main Meat&Potatoes of your build together. I totally understand where your are because I was there myself 15 years ago although it must be even harder for you right now because there is so much more choice! . . . it can be quite over-whelming at times!

Just relax your in good hands, I been doing this a long time so am here to help you avoid any uneeded stress and worries!

Do I need extra fans, cooling stuff? Someone said I have to squirt something on the processor before attaching to the board (thermal paste?

Yeah maybe. the Antec 300 comes with two fans pre-installed, a 120mm Tri-Cool exhaust fan and a 140mm Tri-Cool Roof exhaust fan. The hardware you are using runs amazingly cool and won't need a ton of cooling, luckily for you aircooling is my special subject. The chassis you have selected in a great pick and very Thermally advantaged. I have found it works best with something called Positive-Air-pressure which basically means there is more air being pushed into the system than extracted. As it stands the Antec 300 ships in a Negative-Pressure set-up which obviously means there is more air being sucked out the system than is being blown in . . .this is not ideal because it means the system will *pull* air inside the case from every gap, crack possible which is not good . . .

If you want to adjust this issue on the cheap then I suggest you unscrew the 120mm Tri-Cool exhaust fan that is supplied and attach it to the front/upper 120mm fan slot, so this will be 1x120mm fan blowing air in and 1x140mm fan sucking air out, still not perfect but a lot better. The ideal set-up on that case is having 2x120mm fans at the front with just the single supplied Tri-Cool Roof exhaust fan sucking air out i.e:

As you can see the airflow is so good that I don't need a fan on the CPU heatsink! . . . as already mentioned though all the hardware you are gonna be using is very cool running so your not going to need to worry really but jusy thought I'd share! . . . .also since taking that picture I have removed one of the front exhaust fans and everything is still running nice and cool and thats with a overclocked system and a HD4870 graphic card!

I would just also add that the front two 120mm fans have their own neat fan-filter which helps keep dust out your system and the postive air-pressure means you get to control how the air enters your system and your doing just that, directing the air straight through your fan filter heh!

SO basically either swap the supplied 120mm fan from back to the front or buy yourself an extra 120mm fan to attach as an intake. No matter which way you go make sure you have an intake fan pushing cool air in!

Regading the "squirt something on the processor" lol . . . . don't worry about that for the moment, the supplied retail heatsink has already been 'Pre-squirted'

What they are talking about is actually called TIM (thermal interface material) which is a compound that helps remove any microscopic gaps between the processor and the heatsink and therefor helps the heat pass quick from a-b . . .really don't worry about that for the moment. The onlt reason you may need a tube of TIM is if for when you want to service your PC in 12 months or swap out your processor, the TIM that comes with your heatsink is one use, once you remove the heatsink you normally need to clean off the gunk and re-apply some fresh TIM.

I'm also curious as to what hardware you would use for a similar price as you seem to know heaps about pcs.
I just hope to God that I don't screw this up and total all this stuff.

I've got pretty much the same system as you except I am using an Athlon II X3 425 (triple Core) and the same board as you except the DDR2 version (I already owned the ram so it was the obvious path for me). The Athlon II X3 chips are the same as what you are getting but one extra core, costs about an extra £10 but OcUK don't stock them yet although I think they will get some soon . . .

Now the one thing that is worth considering here is your graphics card. I'm not sure if you checked out the details of your motherboard but it has a nice built in graphics card (IGP) although its not strong enough to play your games as well as a seperate graphics card but it will do everything else perfectly. On top of this AMD/ATI are due to release some updated cards in the next few weeks I think so there may be a good reason for you to start your computer project now but leave out the Radeon HD 5670 512MB £72.99 and see how the new cards are in a few weeks. Your money could go a lot further that way, the Radeon updated tend to drive the price of their earlier card s down a lot, you will have no troubles starting with the IGP, get everything running nice etc and then in a few weeks you will be ready to buy an absolutely brand new card with the money you didnt spend today heh! . . . . out of everything in your shopping basket that will lose its value the quickest its the graphics card!

I take advantage of this myself by only buying 2nd hand/used cards, I would rather wait 6 months to pay £60 for a £120 pound than the other way around

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Ok I've managed to cut it down a bit to this:

BenQ G2420HDB 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - £142.99
Corsair 4GB (2X2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMV4GX3M2A1333C9) - £74.58
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £72.99
Asus M4A78LT-M LE AMD 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard - £57.99
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 245 2.90GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail - £49.98
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black - £42.99
OCZ StealthXStream 500w Silent Power Supply - £39.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) - £39.99
Sony Optiarc AD-7240S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM - £17.99
Logitech X-140 2.0 Speaker System (970264-0120) - £17.99
Saitek Eclipse K140 Slimline Multimedia Backlit Keyboard - £11.23
Logitech S96 PS/2 Optical Wheel Mouse Black - OEM (953688-1600) - £5.99

Total- £574.69

Sorry to be a pain again but is this hardware all still compatible with each other and also able to run windows 7. I decided to keep a DDR3 RAM and board, just the lower spec ones, because there doesn't seem to be much of a price difference between these and DDR 2 anyway.
I also changed the processor to an x2. Is this still fast and able to deal with what I want or would keeping the x4 be better?
Do I need extra fans, cooling stuff? Someone said I have to squirt something on the processor before attaching to the board (thermal paste? )- what is this and do i need it?

I'm also curious as to what hardware you would use for a similar price as you seem to know heaps about pcs.
I just hope to God that I don't screw this up and total all this stuff.

I would consider changing 4 things in your build:

1.)I would get an X3 425 or X3 435 instead of the X2 245.

The X3 435 is better than an X2 250 for gaming and much faster for other tasks:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=112&p2=96

The X3 425 is usually around £55 or thereabouts.

2.)I would get a Samsung F3 500GB as this is a single platter hard drive and is very fast.

3.)I would get a better graphics card if you are gaming.

I would wait for the HD5750 to drop in price further.

4.)If you intend to overclock I would get the following RAM:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-026-PA&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

 

[Big.Wayne]

I would consider changing 4 things in your build

Try not to confuse things to much Cat!

I mentioned already about the Triple-Core but OcUK don't have them in stock, I do agree with your sentimant though and I am using one myself but poor old californiadream is probably wanting to get an order in soon from OcUK no? . . I also mentioned to him about the GPU, probably better to get started without it but thats his choice . . .


I'm also not 100% about that memory because it says Tested on Intel®P55 chipset, are you sure and confident thats a suitabke option as we don't want to cause any problems, if it is good then good call as its £8.00 cheaper than the ones I suggested but I know 100% they work great with that set-up!

 

[Elfmeister.]

I'd go with Big.Wayne about the GPU, RAM and Case but would definatly consider at least a Tri-Core setup in this day in age.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Try not to confuse things to much Cat!

I mentioned already about the Triple-Core but OcUK don't have them in stock, I do agree with your sentimant though and I am using one myself but poor old californiadream is probably wanting to get an order in soon from OcUK no? . . I also mentioned to him about the GPU, probably better to get started without it but thats his choice . . .


I'm also not 100% about that memory because it says Tested on Intel®P55 chipset, are you sure and confident thats a suitabke option as we don't want to cause any problems, if it is good then good call as its £8.00 cheaper than the ones I suggested but I know 100% they work great with that set-up!

It should hopefully be OK from I have read:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/272708-10-antec-430w-basiq-power-athlon

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/273843-10-phenom-black-edition

I know that the Athlon II and Phenom II can run low and high voltage DDR3 RAM fine. Set the speed to 1333MHZ and use manual timings and voltage. The 1600MHZ RAM has the advantage of having more headroom when you overclock IMHO.

If this too much trouble for the OP it would be better to stick with the 1333MHZ RAM.

 

[californiadream]

..

 

[californiadream]

AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9GHz Socket AM3 1.5MB L2 Cache Retail Box Processor - £64.37
Asus M4A78LT-M LE AMD 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard- £57.99
BenQ G2411HDA 24" TFT Monitor 1920x1080 300cd/m2 40000:1 (dynamic) 2ms 16:9 VGA Glossy Black - £134.99
Sony AD-7240S 24x DVD±RW DL & RAM Internal SATA Black Bare Drive - OEM - £16.65
Logitech X-140 Black 2.0 PC multimedia speakers - 5W RMS- £15.82
Logitech Black Ultra-Flat Keyboard - USB/PS2 - £13.61
Geil Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel (GV34GB1333C7DC) - £88.99
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black - £42.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS)- £39.99
OCZ StealthXStream 500w Silent Power Supply - £39.99
Logitech U96 USB Optical Wheel Black Mouse - OEM (931646-0000) - £6.99

Total: £522.38

Final questions I promise

I've made the changes is this all ok
- Is this still compatitble with the ram and other components etc
- Do I need a CPU fan or another heatsink?
- What 120 fan do I need to get, is there a specific type?
- Also someone has said the motherboard is micro atx and won't take graphics cards + is limited in connections. Is this true and is there another good motherboard I should get instead of this that will allow this upgrading of graphic/components in future.
- Is a 500w power supply enough for what I'm getting now as well as future upgrades in graphics etc or would I have to get a more powerful one. What do you recommend?

 

[Big.Wayne]

Total: £522.38

Sweet!

Final questions I promise

Not a problem!

I've made the changes is this all ok

Looks good to me!

Is this still compatitble with the ram and other components etc

Yeah, you lucky sod, nice swish set of DDR3!

Do I need a CPU fan or another heatsink?

Not to begin with, the chips run cool and they come with a standard heatsink which will even be ok for a little overclocking. It's very hard to get every single thing ordered straight away . . . there is no problem at all in the slightest with the stock heatsink fan . . . . in a few months maybe you can buy a colossus heatsink but don't worry for the moment!

What 120 fan do I need to get, is there a specific type?

You just want a 120mm 3-pin fan, preferably quiet

Akasa AK-191-SM Smoke Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan looks ok but people can discuss a fan for days, even fight over which is best. The most expensive 120mm fan I have *ever* bought is £8.00 . . I would feel sick to spend £15 on a fan!

120mm fans here

Also someone has said the motherboard is micro atx and won't take graphics cards + is limited in connections. Is this true and is there another good motherboard I should get instead of this that will allow this upgrading of graphic/components in future

Who you been speaking too? . . . bring him here and I will spank him!

Look at the picture of my system above, see the cards fits just fine! (that's a fat double slot one too).

You have no idea what a technologically advanced piece of kit those ASUS uATX motherboards are, they have got *everything* built in, PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot for a big mama PCI-E express graphics card and its really affordable . . .just a few months ago people were happy to spend £150-£200 on a motherboard, think about the value your getting! . . . It's got spare PCI slots, PCI-E x1 slot, is there anything you have to plug in? apart from a graphics card?

The board even has IGP graphics built in, very crisp but not strong enough to play Crysis! . . . the problem you are having is you are speaking with people who know a little truth and a little chinese whispers, its very hard for you to know what is what, uATX is a very popular form factor, fits in antec 300 with room to spare but can also fit in tiny case should u need i the future . . if you buy full ATX for no reason you can never shrink the board down . . . The only really good reason to go for a regular ATX board is on the CrossFire models where you going to plug in two graphics cards!

The board u picked above is a nice value board but 760G (not 785G) please check if it has SB710 south bridge please?

Asus M4A785TD-M Evo AMD 785G
I have this one but DDR2

Asus M4A785TD-V Evo AMD 785G
This is basically the same but full ATX
No great Crossfire

Asus M4A79XTD Evo
790X Crossfire 8x/8x

Is a 500w power supply enough for what I'm getting now as well as future upgrades in graphics etc or would I have to get a more powerful one. What do you recommend?

What graphics card are you using? . . . are you starting with the IGP then waiting for the new radeons?

 

[californiadream]

It's got spare PCI slots, PCI-E x1 slot, is there anything you have to plug in? apart from a grapics card?

I have no idea what even goes in them so basically youre saying I'm sorted with the board I've already picked.
I think these are the specs:
CPU AMD Socket AM3 ;Phenom™II /Athlon™II /Sempron™ 100 Series Processors
Support 45nm CPU
AMD Cool 'n' Quiet™ 2.0 Technology (by CPU type)
Support CPU up to 95W
*Refer to www.asus.com for the AMD CPU support list
Chipset AMD 760G/SB710
(AMD 780L/SB710)
System Bus Up to 5200 MT/s ; HyperTransport™ 3.0
Memory 2 x DIMM, Max. 8 GB, DDR3 1800(O.C.)/1600(O.C.)/1333/1066 ECC,Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
*Due to OS limitation, when installing total memory of 4GB capacity or more, Windows® 32-bit operation system may only recognize less than 3GB. Install a 64-bit WindowsWindows® OS when you want to install 4GB or more memory on the motherboard.
*Refer to www.asus.com for the memory QVL (Qualified Vendors List)
Expansion Slots 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16
1 x PCIe x1
2 x PCI
VGA Integrated ATI Radeon 3000
Maximum shared memory of 1 G
Supports DVI-D with HDCP compliant with max. resolution 2560x1600(@ 60Hz )
Supports RGB with max. resolution 2048 x 1536(@75Hz)
Hybrid CrossFireX™ Support (For Windows Vista or later versions)
*Refer to www.amd.com for the Hybrid CrossFireX selected GPUs.
Storage Chipset
1 xUltraDMA 133/100/66
6 xSATA 3 Gb/s ports Support RAID 0,1,10,JBOD
LAN PCIe Gigabit LAN
Audio VIA VT1708S Support 8-Channel High Definition Audio
*Please update audio driver to the latest version
*Choose the chassis with HD audio module in front panel to support 8-Channel audio output

- Support Multi-streaming,Single SPDIF Out,Anti-pop Function
- Support S/PDIF out interface
USB 10 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 4 ports at back panel)
ASUS AI Lifestyle Features Express Gate
EPU-4 Engine
Turbo Key
Anti Surge
ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
ASUS EZ Flash 2
ASUS MyLogo 2
ASUS Q-Fan
ASUS AI NET2
Overclocking Features Intelligent overclocking tools
- ASUS Turbo Key
SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection)
- FSB tuning from 200MHz up to 550MHz at 1MHz increment
Overclocking Protection
- ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)
- Adjustable DRAM Voltage
Back Panel I/O Ports 1 x DVI
1 x D-Sub
1 x PS/2 Keyboard
1 x PS/2 Mouse
1 x LAN(RJ45) port
4 x USB 2.0/1.1
3 x Audio jacks
Internal I/O Connectors 3 x USB connectors supports additional 6 USB 2.0 ports
1 x IDE connector
6 x SATA connectors
1 x CPU /Chassis Fan connector
1 x S/PDIF Out connector
1 x High Definition Front panel audio connector
1 x COM connector
1 x Printer port
1 x System Panel connector
1 x Internal speaker connector
1 x 24-pin ATX Power connector
1 x 4-pin ATX 12V Power connector
BIOS 8 Mb Flash ROM , AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI v2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS V2.5, ACPI V2.0a
Form Factor uATX Form Factor
9.6 inch x 8.2 inch ( 24.4 cm x 20.8 cm )

WHat graphics card are you using? . . . are you starting with the IGP then waiting for the new radeons?

I was either going to wait for the price of this to fall: XFX ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £72.99

Or wait for new ones like the suggestion was but I have no idea how to tell which ones will be supported by the board and if the psu is powerful enough to run everything properly

Also how long is this likely to take me to put together? I guess I can just follow the instructions on the forum sticky but I was just wondering if I had to bung everything in at once and just turn the system on or do I have to do more intricate stuff to get it all to work- what's the process, do I need to do something when its all in and turned on or will it all work straight away and just let me load windows 7?

I don't need the graphics card yet do I + does it have anything to do with the monitor + ability to display hd??

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The motherboard you have chosen has a PCI-E 2.0 16X slot and hence will support any modern PCI-E card.

Your 500W PSU will be enough for a graphics card upto an HD4870 or HD5850 easily.

 

[Big.Wayne]

Cat my little nerdling can you impress me with that huge brain of yours and let californiadream's know roughly when the new Radeons are coming out please!

Thanks in advance!

 

[californiadream]

Thanks a lot everyone for your help its been much appreciated. I think I'll order all this tommorrow evening and then get whatever graphics card is suggested at a later date.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Cat my little nerdling can you impress me with that huge brain of yours and let californiadream's know roughly when the new Radeons are coming out please!

Thanks in advance!

Well the HD5830 is coming out in the first week of Feburary and after it the suspected HD5890 will come out when Fermi is released.

 

[californiadream]

Well the HD5830 is coming out in the first week of Feburary and after it the suspected HD5890 will come out when Fermi is released.

Ok thank you. Can you tell me what I do about drivers for my hardware? Once I stick everything together and power it up will I need to get drivers for stuff and change bios? Will I need to keep updating throughout the time I have the unit or is a one off update ok?