AMD Build Advice

marco_polo

Hi guys,

Haven't done this for quite a few years could one or two of you fine gents scan a quick eye over this and make some comments. Perhaps where I could get the parts cheaper or improve some aspects of the build. I suppose the bit I am wondering about the most is the Motherboard and the Graphics Card.

The board is a little expensive as it has DDR3 RAM (I could get a similar DDR2 board a fair bit cheaper, is DDR3 worth it?).

Also in terms of the Graphics card is it pretty good? I am not a huge gamer so it doesn't have to be able to play the absolute latest and greatest games, just something pretty decent will do, mostly Media but perhaps the odd game here and there (I could probably stretch another 20-30 Euro at most without cutting back on something else ).

Solitaire

Komplett fails at AM3. High prices and most of their "AM3" boards are actually AM2! Twats. :mad:

If you want to go AM3 get the X3-720BE - faster, can be OCd by flipping a (software) switch, and yet not much more than the X3-710.

Not much in the way of good value 2*2GB DDR3 kits on Komplett at the moment. Where'd all the cheap DDR3-12800 go all of a sudden?

Graphics card is fine if you have a monitor resolution of 1680*1050 or less (i.e. <19" or a cheapie 22"). If you have 1920*1080 or higher you might want something with just a little more grunt. If you're not gaming then all of this is utter overkill :P

You're a bit shy on the PSU front especially if you intend to OC (and if you get the 720BE then why not? ). I'd say go for a TX550 or equivalent (e.g. Akasa 550W) but all the good mid-range PSUs are ludicrously overpriced on Komplett at the moment (WTF are they up to?!) Case is attractive and very solid and fairly quiet to boot but is limited to 2 120mm fans (both supplied)

Off the top of my head I'd EDIT say HWVS has also gone down the crapper and you're going to be slightly raped no matter who you go to for this build.

marco_polo

Solitaire wrote: »

Komplett fails at AM3. High prices and most of their "AM3" boards are actually AM2! Twats. :mad:

If you want to go AM3 get the X3-720BE - faster, can be OCd by flipping a (software) switch, and yet not much more than the X3-710.

Not much in the way of good value 2*2GB DDR3 kits on Komplett at the moment. Where'd all the cheap DDR3-12800 go all of a sudden?

Graphics card is fine if you have a monitor resolution of 1680*1050 or less (i.e. <19" or a cheapie 22"). If you have 1920*1080 or higher you might want something with just a little more grunt. If you're not gaming then all of this is utter overkill :P

You're a bit shy on the PSU front especially if you intend to OC (and if you get the 720BE then why not? ). I'd say go for a TX550 or equivalent (e.g. Akasa 550W) but all the good mid-range PSUs are ludicrously overpriced on Komplett at the moment (WTF are they up to?!) Case is attractive and very solid and fairly quiet to boot but is limited to 2 120mm fans (both supplied)

Off the top of my head I'd EDIT say HWVS has also gone down the crapper and you're going to be slightly raped no matter who you go to for this build.

Trying to cheap it on the PSU I was hoping to get away with it might look at other options you mention. Also was thinking of getting 22" 1920*1080 monitor as it happens, what would you recommend for a graphics card (not much dearer ideally

Solitaire

Sorry. If you have the money to get a 1080p screen you won't be able to cheap it out on either graphics card or PSU :rolleyes: As far as graphics is concerned get a HD4890 or GTX275 if you find a decent offer on them, or a HD4870 1GB or GTX260+ (55nm only!) if you can't. There's a big jump in price and power consumption over the HD4850 I'm afraid You'd be best off going the whole way and getting a decent brand 650W PSU in this case (TX650 ftw - they're nearly the same price as 550W units at the moment anyway!) If you did find a cheap TX550 (or Odin, or Akasa, or a similar spec Seasonic or Enermax...) you might get away with it.

And if you don't go that route (cheapo 22" non-1080 TFT ftw!) you might improve your odds with a good 450W PSU if you dropped down to a HD4770 - nearly as good as a full-blown HD4850 but cheaper and a lot less thirsty

marco_polo

Solitaire wrote: »

Sorry. If you have the money to get a 1080p screen you won't be able to cheap it out on either graphics card or PSU :rolleyes: As far as graphics is concerned get a HD4890 or GTX275 if you find a decent offer on them, or a HD4870 1GB or GTX260+ (55nm only!) if you can't. There's a big jump in price and power consumption over the HD4850 I'm afraid You'd be best off going the whole way and getting a decent brand 650W PSU in this case (TX650 ftw - they're nearly the same price as 550W units at the moment anyway!) If you did find a cheap TX550 (or Odin, or Akasa, or a similar spec Seasonic or Enermax...) you might get away with it.

And if you don't go that route (cheapo 22" non-1080 TFT ftw!) you might improve your odds with a good 450W PSU if you dropped down to a HD4770 - nearly as good as a full-blown HD4850 but cheaper and a lot less thirsty

Cheers for that, it seems I have plenty to think about.

Solitaire

If you were willing to put up with some reduction in quality you could easily get away with HD4850 or HD4770 at 1080p, its just that people with the cash for a true 1900*1080/1200 monitor (most 22" are 1650*1080) usually have the cash for a graphics card to complement it. And said graphics cards are very power-hungry - HD4870 can happily gobble down 150W+ compared to ~50W for the HD4770.

On another note, I just read the HD4770 article on XBit and, bias aside, I've been giggling all the way through dinner. Both ATi's and nVidia's mid-range just got vaporized :eek::P:D Now all we need is some stable drivers and proper OCing in Catalyst and the HD4850 will fall... owwwww...

marco_polo

Solitaire wrote: »

If you were willing to put up with some reduction in quality you could easily get away with HD4850 or HD4770 at 1080p, its just that people with the cash for a true 1900*1080/1200 monitor (most 22" are 1650*1080) usually have the cash for a graphics card to complement it. And said graphics cards are very power-hungry - HD4870 can happily gobble down 150W+ compared to ~50W for the HD4770.

On another note, I just read the HD4770 article on XBit and, bias aside, I've been giggling all the way through dinner. Both ATi's and nVidia's mid-range just got vaporized :eek::P:D Now all we need is some stable drivers and proper OCing in Catalyst and the HD4850 will fall... owwwww...

The thing is I was going to hold off on getting a really good monitor for a few months and make do with what I currently have for the moment. I think I am really going to have to bite the bullet and put the extra cash in to this up front.

marco_polo

Pretty much decided on the following I think:

Going with komplett for most of it as I can't source the main components much cheaper elsewhere TBH

Gigabyte Triton 180 Black 59.24 komplett.ie
OCZ 600W StealthXStream Gamers PSU 71.38 memoryc.ie
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P, Socket-AM3 133.01 komplett.ie
AMD Phenom™ II X3 720 Black Edition 139 komplett.ie
4GB OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz Platinum 64.4 memoryc.ie
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA2 81 komplett.ie
Sony NEC Optiarc DVD±RW 20.9 komplett.ie
Radeon HD 4870 1GB 159.9 pixmania
ACER P224WAbid 22'' wide TFT Screen 185 pixmania
OCZ Alchemy Series Elixir Keyboard 19.44 memoryc.ie
OCZ Behemoth Laser Mouse 21.87 memoryc.ie
Total 955.14

Solitaire

Case: Not bad, but not great either. Its quite old, has only basic ventilation (by today's standards) and isn't that big actually (good luck fitting longer video cards!) Plus I recognise those cheapie side panels... It IS a solid, well-made case with great screwless fixtures but there's a known issue with many dual-slot cards not fitting in the screwless PCI(e) clamps unless you break out a HandiSaw...

PSU: C- to D+. Those are B-grade Fortrons with known ripple and stability issues. Not worth the lowish price given a tenner more gets a TX550. Shame there's no 610W Silencers reduced on MemoryC - B-grade PCP+S units are the best OCZ can manage (yet are pretty decent units actually)

Mobo: Solid, there's cheaper AM3 out there (MSI) but you'll save about a tenner so its no biggie.

CPU: Win.

RAM: Epic win. Best value you're gonna get and those OCZ modules have very aggressive timings to boot

HDD: Fine.

DVD: Not too pushed on those TBH, almost any other brand (except Asus. Maybe.) is better. NECs are known to be noisy but the killer is anything with Sony optics is guaranteed to be unreliable and short-lived (sooo many bad experiences with them over the years...). Teh Sony Lazar = NO

GPU: Depends on monitor and desire for perfection. HD4870@1650*1080 is a good start. But I just wonder if that €179 HD4850X2 would be sooo much better under 1900*1200...

Monitor: I see you've changed your mind and gone for a decent non-1080p

Keyboard: Excellent for gaming and ergonomics, not so hot for touch-typing or lifespan. Just make sure you get the "real" Elixir with the macrokeys - the "lite" version fails on all counts :eek:

Mouse: Excellent, if a little bulky. Some complain about low responsiveness at low DPI so try to keep your DPI and your screen resolution reasonably high

marco_polo

Thanks for your help so far. I think I will go back to a full HD monitor I only realised afterwards that it was only a 1050 (considering they are not much different price wise.

Could you reccomend a good case and PSU for that setup (for not too much more), assuming I go back to a full HD monitor? (I presume the 4870 would do the job, not looking for absolute perfection )

Now thinking I may get the bulk of this build off HWVS, excepting perhaps the card off pixmania.

uberpixie

marco_polo wrote: »

Could you reccomend a good case and PSU for that setup

Have a look at an Antec 300/900 or a P182.
Do not skimp on the case: biggest factor on noise and heat reduction.

P182 is an excellent case, it is a bit pricey, but is worth it though as the cable management is good and airflow and noise reduction in the case is excellent.

PSU: any corsair PSU 500W + is a very safe bet and usually not too pricey.
Do not skimp on the psu. (many people here learn this the hard way when their gear gets fried by cheapie PSUs. A Good psu is always worth the money, it's cheaper in the long run.....)

Got a very very bad case + psu for my first build and wondered why the PC was running hot and loud and kept cutting out.... Luckily replaced the case and PSU for something MUCH better after 3-4 weeks before any lasting damage was done.

Do it right first time, even if you go a little over budget. It really is much cheaper than having to replace crap parts for much better ones down the line.

marco_polo

marco_polo wrote: »

Pretty much decided on the following I think:

Going with komplett for most of it as I can't source the main components much cheaper elsewhere TBH

Gigabyte Triton 180 Black 59.24 komplett.ie
OCZ 600W StealthXStream Gamers PSU 71.38 memoryc.ie
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P, Socket-AM3 133.01 komplett.ie
AMD Phenom™ II X3 720 Black Edition 139 komplett.ie
4GB OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz Platinum 64.4 memoryc.ie
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA2 81 komplett.ie
Sony NEC Optiarc DVD±RW 20.9 komplett.ie
Radeon HD 4870 1GB 159.9 pixmania
ACER P224WAbid 22'' wide TFT Screen 185 pixmania
OCZ Alchemy Series Elixir Keyboard 19.44 memoryc.ie
OCZ Behemoth Laser Mouse 21.87 memoryc.ie
Total 955.14

Switched the OCZ for a Corsair 650 and the Triton for a Anzec 300 Case. Order placed for the main components so its too late for any more suggestions .

Well not quite, still have to decide on a Full HD Monitor the 4870 will is a bit of overkill for my current 19" There is a Full HD LG on pixmania for 169. Other options around the 180-190 mark seem to be Acers or Benq. Any suggestions?