Spec me a build

Scone said:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-210-OK&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=1713

wat about this with a 460
Click to expand...
No. At stock speed the 3.00GHz Athlon II X4 is much slower than the i3 530 at 4.00GHz for general usage and games, not to mention architecture wise Athlon II is fair bit slower than the i3 dual-core and even the Phenom II. The only benefit would be two extra cores...which I doubt would be too useful for you, considering you are only getting a entry level graphic card, not a pair of mid-range/high-end graphic cards... A i3 530 at 4.00GHz will walk all over the Athlon II Quad in games that use no more than two cores (i.e. WOW, Crysis) especially when it's 1.00GHz higher in clock. If you want to get a Quad, the Phenom II 955BE should be the bare minimum you should get.

Athlon II Quad is usually for people who do video encoding besides just gaming, but can't afford the higher price better quality Quad or Hex.
 
Last edited:
I've only just noticed you're spanking 130 quid on C7 timing ram! Dont bother - the C9 version is £50 cheaper! Use that to get a quad core Phenom II.
 
Scone said:
Corsair Dominator GT 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMG4GX3M2A1600C7) £129.98
(£110.62) £129.98
(£110.62)
Asus GeForce GTX 460 Direct CU TOP 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £124.98
(£106.37) £124.98
(£106.37)
Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
(£76.59) £89.99
(£76.59)
AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 555 3.20GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3) - Retail £70.49
(£59.99) £70.49
(£59.99)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £35.24
(£29.99) £35.24
(£29.99)
Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-400CXUK) £32.99
(£28.08) £32.99
(£28.08)
Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case - Black £26.99
(£22.97) £26.99
(£22.97)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.91) £13.99
(£11.91)
Sub Total : £446.52
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £80.20
Total : £538.47

this is looking good so far
Click to expand...
Base of your above list, I have made an alternative for you to consider:
i3530.jpg
 
Last edited:
For example...

Asus GeForce GTX 460 Direct CU TOP 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £124.98
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £111.61
Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £86.99
Corsair Dominator 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMD4GX3M2A1600C9) £76.36
Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-400CXUK) £32.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £32.99
Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case - Black £26.99
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Sub Total : £431.42
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £77.55
Total : £520.72
 
My choice would probably be:

speck.jpg


Used cheaper ram and put the saving towards a GTX460 1gb.

*EDIT* or that Intel bundle 3 posts up is a lot of performance for the money.
 
Last edited:
Liampope said:
For example...

Asus GeForce GTX 460 Direct CU TOP 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £124.98
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £111.61
Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £86.99
Corsair Dominator 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMD4GX3M2A1600C9) £76.36
Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-400CXUK) £32.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £32.99
Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case - Black £26.99
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Sub Total : £431.42
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £77.55
Total : £520.72
Click to expand...


steve258 said:
My choice would probably be:

speck.jpg


Used cheaper ram and put the saving towards a GTX460 1gb.

*EDIT* or that Intel bundle 3 posts up is a lot of performance for the money.
Click to expand...
You guys forgotten about a decent CPU cooler...
 
Scone said:
is a cooler really needed as im over budget as it is
Click to expand...
Depends if you are overclocking or not. Also, stock cooler that comes with the CPU can be quite loud under load.

The Phenom II 555 at stock would become a limitation in some CPU demanding game scenes...if you pair it with a half-decent CPU cooler, you should be able to overclock it from stock speed 3.20GHz to 3.8-4.0GHz no problem. Both the Phenom II X2 and the i3 530 would perform deliver similiar frame rate in games at the same clock speed, however the Phenom II X2 would only max clock to 3.8GHz-4.0GHz, whereas the i3 530 would do average max clock 4.2GHz-4.4GHz...possibly because of it being 45nm process vs 32nm process, or just Intel's architecture clocks better. I also recall that the Phenom II require higher vcore (1.4~1.5V) for stable max overclock than the i3.
 
Last edited:
Marine-RX179 said:
You guys forgotten about a decent CPU cooler...
Click to expand...

Stock HSF is fine for stock speed or a modest overclock. He can always get it later.

Scone said:
does the 1gb make that much of a difference
Click to expand...

It's an improvement across the board according to the anandtech gpu chart. And depend on the resolution you're gaming at the extra memory and mem bandwidth can really come in handy.

Tbh that intel bundle looks like much better value for money if you're not planning to upgrade for a while, because your upgrade path will be limited to i5 700 series. But I doubt there's anything in the next few years that an i3 4.4Ghz won't be able to handle anyway. As for the GFX you can always upgrade later.

If you really can't go over 500 quid go for the 4.2Ghz bundle instead that will save you 35 quid.
 
Before too long a dual core will be struggling in games compared to a quad, which is why I suggested the Phenom II X4. But that's not really the case right now or for some time to come, so Marine's i3 overclocked bundle spec would be a great choice too, comfortably outperforming a Phenom II X4 in current games.

The 4.2 GHz bundle for £35 cheaper than the 4.4GHz bundle would get you down closer to your budget, but imho the 4.4GHz bundle is worth the extra for the better mobo (USB3, mosfet heatsink to better withstand overclocking) and better cooler, as well as the 200 extra MHz. Either bundle is barely any more expensive than the sum of it's individual parts, so you are getting a professionally setup warrantied overclock for next to nowt!

If a quad ever becomes neccessary for gaming, you can upgrade to an i5 7xx or even i7 8xx on the same mobo.

That's the option to go for imho.
 
The GTX 460 is definitely a better buy at the moment... ATI 6xxx series soon though, If you are not in a hurry you could wait for that.

I would stick with the Quad core, newer games especially make better use of 4 cores.

I would recommend replacing that Zeus case/PSU bundle with a some better quality kit - AFAIK, they are only really meant for low-end systems. No-brand PSUs get a lot of hate, and for good reason. Just my 2p.

Other than that, looks fine.

BTW, Members Market is 90 days registration and 250 posts - its in the FAQ ;)

Edit: Epic inb4 :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom