Quick Check My Spec Before Purchase Please!

Monster

Monster

Monster

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Hey all,

I've not really looked into PCs and hardware for ages but feel like a new pc now, currently I have an AMD 4400+ system, 2gig ram, Rad 9800Pro etc. I've already got Hdds, CDroms and a case. Anything I've missed? Possibly artic silver or do coolers come with this nowadays? From the spec listed at the bottom I have a few queries:

1. Is there a better motherboard, or one as good for my system that is possibly cheaper? I'm not really into overclocking and if I did its most likely to be a simple multiplier clock to 3.6ghz for example. The current one in the bundle seems pretty expensive!

2. The cooler selected, the Zalman, is there a better cooler for the chip/mobo combo? I'd like something that does a good job and is not overly noisy if possible.

3. PSU wise - I'm looking to get something around 800-900W to future proof as my current is 600W and dont think it could cope. Are there any other decent PSUs of this capacity at better prices?

4. Finally, I generally play games like WOW and the odd FPS, is the 4870x2 a good pic, I want it to last a while but worried about apparent recent compatibility issues with some games? WOW in particular.

Thanks in advance.

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 940 Black Edition 3.0GHz (Socket AM2+)
Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe AMD 790FX (Socket AM2) DDR2 Mobo
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500C5 TwinX (2x2GB) Bundle. £359.97 (£413.97)

Asus ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (90-C3CGS0-S0UAY00T)
£309.99 (£356.49)

Corsair TX 850W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU
£99.99 (£114.99)

Zalman CNPS9500-AM2 CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2)
£34.99 (£40.24)

Sub Total : £804.94
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DHL @ Home Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.99
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £122.09
Total : £936.02
 
looks OK togethre, but you dont need an 850Watt PSU, thats overkill, other thing Id say is if youre looking at spending 1K you could look at an i7 system, have you thought about that?
 
I've not really looked into an i7 really, how much would I get for a similar amount of money? How much performance difference would I see when gaming, if any?

What benefits would it give me? I've had AMD for ages now as always seemed to have best value.

What PSU would you recommend?
 
NOOOOOOOOOOO DONT GET THAT MOBO IT HAS THE SB600!

You want a mobo with the SB 750

such as :

Asus M3A79-T Deluxe

Asus M3A78-T AMD 790GX

DFI Lan Party DK 790FXB-M2RSH AMD 790FX
 
The Asus M3A78-T is a very nice mobo. I know for sure that you'll get ExpressGate with it, and it runs stable as far as I've seen.

I'd get a 1gb 4870 or a GTX260 instead of the X2.
 
That mobo is about £25 cheaper so that works out pretty nicely and gives me some more moolah!

Why would you suggest the other graphics cards? I guess I'm likely to want to run games in something about 1900x1200 (or whatever it is) and as high res as possible. I'm not sure the others could cope at high details from what I've seen.
 
not an AMD man myself, so will let others advise you on CPU and motherboard

GPU: what res are you running. 4870x2 is good for big monitors +24", otherwise as above a 4870 1gb or gtx 260 should be optimal

PSU: are you planning on running crossfire or SLI? if not a 500w to 600w PSU is more than enough

CPU cooler: get a better one, Zalman is small so it doesnt cool as well and will be loud when at high speed. Get a Tuniq, Noctua or TRUE, will lower temps (and noise) allowing higher OC
 
GPU: I'm just about to buy a new monitor, something around the 24-26" style. So would like to future proof and be able to run high detail/resolution etc. Also would like it to last a long time.

PSU: Not planning on running CF or SLI really, id probably just get a new card. My current PSU is http://www.pureoverclock.com/review.php?id=8&page=1, would this have all the correct connectors to run the newer motherboards, processors and a 4870x2?

CPU: Could you link to a decent CPU cooler? Do they alter depending on what mobo, regarding connections and resistors close etc?

Great advice so far, keep it coming!
 
GPU: 4870x2 is very good if you are goind to get one of those monitors

PSU; that PSU has enough watts, not familiar with that specific model, the 4870 x2 needs 2 power connections a PCI-E 8 pin and a 6pin. it seems that PSU has PCI-E 6 pin only. But that means you will need to use 2 x 4 pin molex to 8pin adaptors, but these should be provided with GFX card, my Sapphire did. not pretty for tidy cable management, but it works.

CPU Cooler: again not familiar with AMD but i think the CPU intend to get has an AM2 socket - please double check. these will work with AM2 sockets
Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775) (includes everything: fan and thermal compound is great)
Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) (includes fan, not sure how good thermal compound is, you may want to buy some artic silver 5 thermal compound)
Thermalright Ultra-120A CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775) (no fan, so you will need to buy at least 1 120mm fan. not sure about passive cooling without a fan. it works but fan is my recommendation + not sure how good thermal compound is, you may want to buy some artic silver 5 thermal compound)
 
You'd have to push the boat out a little more in fact for i7, another 150 would get you this though, much better set up than your specced Phenom II, if you want to keep price down I agree you could lower your gfx card

1150i74870x2.jpg
 
95thrifles said:
You'd have to push the boat out a little more in fact for i7, another 150 would get you this though, much better set up than your specced Phenom II, if you want to keep price down I agree you could lower your gfx card
Click to expand...

How much better would this system be, specifically for high res/detail gaming? I wouldn't have thought there was much in it?

Pretty sure of most of what I want to get now, although that 650W PSU just doesnt sound very meaty and future proof, are there any well priced 700-800W ones?
 
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I wouldn't go for the AMD setup because I think you can get far more performance with an Intel system
I wouldn't go for the X2 as a 4870 1GB is enough
I wouldn't go for that PSU as it's overkill

But that's just me :p
 
pcspecko7.jpg


Am I right in thinking then that the system pictured above would be significantly better all round, especially gaming, than my original idea?

I've decided I definately want the 4870x2, but the rest I'm still unsure on. I still need to know if the i7 system is going to be so much better or not? If the mobo I picked with the i7 is good or if any cheaper decent ones?

Also the PSU is still confusing me :(

Too many options nowadays!
 
I don't think it's fair to say that it'd be as huge a difference as some people are implying. Yes, it'd be faster, but I'm not sure how noticeable it would be, even in gaming.

That PSU in your spec would be enough. I would think that 650w would be enough, but I can't remember how much the X2 draws at load - probably better to be safe.
 
Looking into it a bit more I'm more loving the idea of 6GB of triple channel ram, should be pretty noticeable I'd have thought.
Last question left in my mind about the i7 system now is the mobo, it doesnt look overly great and doesnt have much in the way of specs on the OCUK site, would one of the cheaper DFI ones be better, some of them are only £15/20 more I think.
 
you could get the UD5 version of the gigabyte, thats meant to be very good, or you could look at the asus p6t, again meant to be very good, unsure on the DFI boards tbh, I've always tended to steer clear due to the complicated BIOS's
 
Extra noob question I'm sure but on the i7 mobos I've just had a browse at it has 2 power connectors - 1 x 20/24 connector and then 1 x 8 connector? Do all new psus have the right plugs for this?
 
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