appraise my build? please?

Diol

Hey everyone, putting a build together, and I'm just wondering if anybody with a more extensive knowledge than my own, very basic, knowledge of PC parts, could have a look at it, and maybe point out any huge glaring flaws they notice.
Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated.

Heres the list.

Mobo
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard

CPU
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.40GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail

RAM
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9)

GPU
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5870 "AVP Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

PSU
OCUK Swift 750W Silent Power Supply

Case
NZXT Apollo Gaming Case - Black

Hard drive
Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB SATA-II 64MB Cache - OEM (WD15EARS)

Dvd drive
Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM

Thanks a million guys

Icyseanfitz

seems all good, what you using it for gaming? also is there any reason your going with a micro atx mobo instead of a regular atx mobo?

Diol

Haha, no, I didn't even realise it was micro :L See thats what i mean :P

Gaming and recording/audio production mostly, and maybe a little bit of video editing. Will change that motherboard to ATX, I know they're generally better boards... right?


Edit: think I'll use this one instead

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-410-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1782

Icyseanfitz

well they generally have more features because they are bigger boards people buy micro atx boards if they have a small amount of space (if im wrong let me know as im definitely not the most informed guy here) you should be good with that build for gaming anyway as an 5870 is a very powerful card as for the other stuff you mentioned i wouldn't really know much about that side of computing but i cant imagine your build would be bad at anything

Icyseanfitz

Diol wrote: »

Haha, no, I didn't even realise it was micro :L See thats what i mean :P

Gaming and recording/audio production mostly, and maybe a little bit of video editing. Will change that motherboard to ATX, I know they're generally better boards... right?


Edit: think I'll use this one instead

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-410-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1782

are you looking to buy another card to crossfire in the future? (two GPU's)

Diol

I had looked into it, but I figured that card is powerful enough to run most games on fullish settings, and I wouldn't really gain much from crossfire.
I mean I like playing games... but i'm no rabid online shooter fanatic who needs to be pumping out a million fps non stop :L

Icyseanfitz

Diol wrote: »

I had looked into it, but I figured that card is powerful enough to run most games on fullish settings, and I wouldn't really gain much from crossfire.
I mean I like playing games... but i'm no rabid online shooter fanatic who needs to be pumping out a million fps non stop :L

the hd 5870 is a great card for gaming so you should have absolutely no problems unless you end up getting three 1900x1080 screens while trying to max crysis out (actually even then you would probably do alright) just out of interest whats your budget for this rig?

Overheal

Diol wrote: »

I had looked into it, but I figured that card is powerful enough to run most games on fullish settings, and I wouldn't really gain much from crossfire.

True but even by todays standards if you crossfire the older HD 3xxx and 4xxx cards you can still get a lot of bang for your buck. The ability to do crossfire is something worth considering, as while you may not do it right away, it's something to consider when your GPU becomes your bottleneck in 3 years and a duplicate card is available on the market for very cheap.

Your PC case makes me wary, only in that the reviewer states it lacks cable management. Something which you'll probably regret not having later - so its worth finding a case with good cable management, as well as looks.

Also your motherboard doesnt appear to support the ram specified. Nor does it have any of those snazzier new features like USB3. Never hurts to read up on the Northbridge chip either. Find one that will suit your intended use. I picked the 890gx for a layer of redundancy but then again I probably would have been happy or happier with the FX. That 890gx is great in itself though and its integrated graphics will do at least as good at gaming as any laptops out there, but if youre adding a card theres not much if any point: the IGP shuts down once you install one.

Chuck Finlay

What's special about the BEs ('Black Edition') is that they have an unlocked multiplier for overclocking. Keep in mind that the Phenom II X4 955 BE and 965 BE are basically the same CPUs with just a different EXW-set-multiplier. A 955 BE will give you the same performance with just 1 keystroke in the BIOS away (set multiplier from 16 to 17) and will save you 18£ on ocuk.
This money can be spent directly on a good cooler on a budget, on ocuk that would be a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus at the moment.

When looking at the PSU, every alarm bell starts to ring.
It's a complete blender, it doesn't say anything useful about its PFC, its efficiency, its power distribution or even the number of its PCIe connectors, which would be at least a hint. The PSU is the most important part of any rig, and that unit reads like ... imminent failure after 50% load.
There is no good quality on a 750W PSU in that price range. Never, ever.
Currently good PSUs on ocuk are the Antec TruePower New 550, Cooler Master Silent Pro M500/600, Corsair TX650 / HX650 / VX550, Seasonic X-650, even BeQuiet! StraightPower E7 600. But please, please, spare yourself the certain doom of that hardware frying pan called 'OCUK Swift'

Overheal

Dont overlook Corsair PSUs either. Or Theraltake.

Solitaire

Do overlook Thermaltake, unless it starts with "Toughpower"