Quick check before I go for it

amateur viking · 2 Apr 2010 at 18:39

Hello!

I've been floating around here for some time (as a guest a latterly a member) researching components for a new build.

This'll be my first for several years (last one was an athlon 3000+) so I've had a bit of catching up to do to find out where the technology is at

I already have keyboard, mouse and monitor (1680x1050) etc so just need the core unit. Unfortunately (and in the words of Mick Hucknall) money's too tight to mention, so I am limited to no more than £650 all in for this.

I plan to use it primarily for gaming, mild overclocking, 'general' use and some light computation/bioinformatics.

So anyway, here's what I've come up with. I've tried to focus on bang-for-buck whilst making it as easy as possible to upgrade in the future (by adding a second 5770, SSD/another HDD for Raid 0, Thuban etc as required). I'd appreciate any comments/suggestions, let me know what you think.

Thanks

stulid · 2 Apr 2010 at 18:48

Change the harddrive to the Samsung F3 (not ecogreen) its a few more pounds, but a class leader.

Your then good to go.

mattjd · 2 Apr 2010 at 18:53

You will also have the chance of unlocking your CPU to 4 cores with that motherboard

Like the above change your HDD to a Samsung F3 or WD Black caviar.

amateur viking · 2 Apr 2010 at 18:53

<nods> I wasn't too sure about the HDD to be honest. I basically picked a size and a name I recognised and went for it. Thanks for the advice!

amateur viking · 2 Apr 2010 at 18:58

mattjd said:
You will also have the chance of unlocking your CPU to 4 cores with that motherboard

That's the plan at least

not banking on an unlock of course but it'd certainly round off the system nicely!

Drake22 · 2 Apr 2010 at 19:01

wd black is class leader, not samsung.. and seagate 12 series are fine, theres no reason to change

stulid · 2 Apr 2010 at 19:02

Only the 64mb blacks.

Samsung is faster than seagate

amateur viking · 2 Apr 2010 at 19:06

Alas the F3 is out of stock, so I've substituted in the caviar black. I've gone for the 640gb 64mb sataIII one. Twas only £12 more (total now £633 plus p+p so still under budget) and I can make use of the 890gx mobo's 6gb/s sata doodad.

thingemajib · 2 Apr 2010 at 19:08

i got that seagate, and its perfectly fine (got it £27 b grade

). but ill keep out of that as i dont really know what the others are better or not.

if you're not planning any upgrades for a while, the 500w modxstream will power that lot fine (overclocking included) and save you a fiver whilst you're at it

edit:
http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

reckons that lot will use just shy of 300w (with 3.8ghz quad core overclock).
a second 5770 should add roughly another 100w onto that. More hardrives about 5-10w a pop

amateur viking · 2 Apr 2010 at 19:20

thingemajib said:
the 500w modxstream will power that lot fine (overclocking included) and save you a fiver whilst you're at it

Great, thanks for the link. I wasn't 100% on where to pitch the power so I guess I was erring on the side of caution with 600w.

stulid · 2 Apr 2010 at 19:22

I give thingys suggestion a +1

amateur viking · 2 Apr 2010 at 19:26

Bonza, ok I'm locked in now, order in. Thanks for the help folks. I shall hopefully be posting some build pics and OC data soon!

Thanks again

AV

thingemajib · 2 Apr 2010 at 19:28

just dont blame us if it all decides to go boom

amateur viking · 2 Apr 2010 at 23:51

thingemajib said:
just dont blame us if it all decides to go boom

worry ye not, I take full responsibility for any melty electronics