What do think about my spec??

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2 Apr 2011
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Hi guys and gals,

I used to build computers quite regularly but havent done it now for a bout 4-5 years!!!

I am soooooo out of touch!

What do you think of the kit that i am about to order?

AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1090T Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3)
Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AMD 880G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9)
Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI)
Zalman CNPS10X Flex CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1155/1156/1366)
Akasa AK-FN057 Apache Super Silent 120mm Fan - 4 Pin PWM

i don't need graphics or sound cards have quite new versions, also already have a 750w quality PSU

Really only going to use the machine as a media centre

Thanks
 
Have you thought about Sandy Bridge 2500k?

What are you going to use the Media Center for, watching movies and anything else?
 
No complaints, but:D

For a media centre the CPU is a bit OTT and do you have another HDD or a SSD as the Samsung F4 is a bit slow at 5400rpm, makes a good storage HDD.
 
For a media centre this is huge overkill!

Personally I'd be looking along the lines of AMD fusion or for a bit more power i3 2100T. Again 8GB of RAM is completely wasted. 4GB is more than enough for your needs. The whole lot could easily be done for £300 or less.
 
thanks guys, OTT has always been my style!!!

Would be great to save a few bucks though.

I have an old Raptor 10,000rpm drive for the operating system.

The HD above is only for storage.

Yes, would only be watching HD Movies TV etc

Thanks
 
In that case AMD Fusion or a low end AMD cpu would be fine, my HTPC was E2200 and a 4550 gpu and 4gb of ram.

This played blu-ray without any issues.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus AMD E35M1-M PRO Hudson M1 Integrated Dual Core Zacate 18W APU SATA-600 DDR3 mATX (Fusion) £109.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI) £53.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £34.99
Total : £210.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).

As a starting point. Much less lower hungry and it'll play movies at full HD perfectly fine. Consider a small SSD as a boot drive. (Putting in a Crucial 64GB M4 was the best thing I ever did to my HTPC, boots into XBMC in 12 seconds).

Case is personal preference but Antec have a few media style mATX cases. Also worth looking at are Zalmans and Silverstone cases.

As RJC mentioned above, if you think you need a bit more grunt then an Athlon II X2 or an Intel i3 would be better suited.
 
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Yeah, CPU & cooler come pre-fitted I believe. The GPU or APU (accelerated processing unit) is built in and also cooled by the same HSF. These are ideal for dedicated media systems that won't be pushed too hard at all and have very lower power consumption too. Worth having a read on but if on the other hand you're likely to be using it as a general web browsing/work/office machine more then I'd go with something with a bit more grunt. The integrated APU will play blu-ray/23.976fps video fine too where as otherwise you'd need a basic dedicated graphics card to prevent/reduced frame skipping and stuttering.
 
Nice review. Interestingly, the i3-2100T seems to do very well at power consumption. If you have a budget, which you have, I'd look further into a i3 platform. 2100 undervolted and H67 / H61.
 
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