Please check my spec ~£525-£600

Snax · 2 Dec 2009 at 14:55

Antec 300 Three Hundred Case

Antec TruePower New 650W Modular PSU - 80plus Bronze and SLI

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition 3.1GHz 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3

Asus M4A79XTD EVO 790X Socket AM3 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard

XFX HD 5770 1GB DDR5 DUAL DVI DISPLAYPORT HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card

G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 Ripjaw Memory Kit CL7(7-7-7-24) 1.65V

Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache

I have a dvd drive, OS, keyboard and mouse.

My budget is £525, which is why I have chosen the above. Would some kind genius please confirm whether:
- That motherboard has the correct bios to try and unlock the extra 2 cores of the CPU
- That motherboard can crossfire in the future effectively if needs be
- The RAM is compatible with everything

Also any alternative specs for up to £600 would be appreciated.

GobzzzMp3 · 2 Dec 2009 at 15:32

All seems pretty sound mate...

jms198 · 2 Dec 2009 at 15:41

The stock cooler on a 550 is really poor; if you do unlock and don't depend on it you'll need a new one.

If you can stretch to the 720 it is in my opinion a better investment for about £15 more. The AthlonII x3 and x4s may be ok. The 555 will be released early in the new year too as will the i3.

Gigabyte and MSI have the ability to slectively lock unlocked cores giving the chance of getting a tri at least.

Have a look on threads for people with the motherboard ulocking cores; usually you only need a 710 or 750 SB.

Snax · 2 Dec 2009 at 18:38

CPU cooler is a good point, I was thinking of a Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM2+ / 775 / 1156 / 1366)

The 720 has less L2 cache and is clocked lower. I was thinking of going am3 because I can shove a better cpu in at a later date. If I went i5, am I right in thinking the current crop of processors are as high as will be released?

jms198 · 3 Dec 2009 at 09:51

Being no expert you get a 1156 mobo for an i5. the 800 series i7s also fit this chipset as will some i3s(? integrated graphics may not make this possible). I think the processors will get better for the 1156.

I would have a look at peoples success at unlocking the x3 athlonIIs. you'll save yourself some cash if you are looking to upgrade later.

the tricore will overclock.

I would try and get a akasa nero or HDT 1283, they are worth about £23 new. they need a wide case though. check frostytech for heatsink reviews. They also rate teh two types of stock AMD heatsinks; the higher end one is rated very highly but is a little loud.