€500 AM3+ Upgrade

IrishMetalhead

My mate is looking to upgrade his old ass AM2+ system to a newer one.
He basicly wants a whole new set-up but he'll be carrying over his SSD and CPU which is a Phenom 1090T which is still a good CPU by todays standards and will save him a good bit on the next build.
The rason he wants a new set-up rather then updating the mobo, ram and gpu is because he still has his old Athlon x3 which he's going to throw into his old build so he can give it to his wife.
He uses his comp for abit of gaming but mainly for work tho with multi-threaded apps. He would also like to have a MATX format case cause he has limited desk space and would like it to be alot smaller then his current one.

Heres what I had in mind so far:
Item|Price
Total build cost: €485.36 + €18.99 shipping
LG GH24NS bare schwarz|€16.47
Thermaltake BigWater A80(Sockel 775/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1)|€42.99
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse Core 1000 black|€32.16
HIS HD 6870 IceQ X GDDR5 1024MB Native HDMI 2xDVI 2xMiniDP|€146.55
ASRock 960GM/U3S3 FX, Sockel AM3+, mATX|€49.20
be quiet! PURE POWER CM BQT L8-CM-630W|€71.13
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-12800U CL9|€47.93
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 3 6GB/s|€78.93


and heres what he's upgrading from:
CPU: AMD Phenom X4 1090T (being carried over)
SSD: 256GB OCZ Vertex 2 (also being carried over)
HDD: 320GB SataII (can't remember what make or model it is even tho I builded it lol)
RAM: 4GB OCZ Reapers DDR2 1066MHz
GPU: 1GB EVGA Geforce GTX 260
Motherboard: Gigabyte MA790X-UD3P
CPU Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper TX
Case: Coolermaster CM690
PSU: 600W Seasonic (can't remember which model)

Sholden

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

My mate is looking to upgrade his old ass AM2+ system to a newer one.
He basicly wants a whole new set-up but he'll be carrying over his SSD and CPU which is a Phenom 1090T which is still a good CPU by todays standards and will save him a good bit on the next build.
The rason he wants a new set-up rather then updating the mobo, ram and gpu is because he still has his old Athlon x3 which he's going to throw into his old build so he can give it to his wife.
He uses his comp for abit of gaming but mainly for work tho with multi-threaded apps. He would also like to have a MATX format case cause he has limited desk space and would like it to be alot smaller then his current one.

Heres what I had in mind so far:
Item|Price
Total build cost: €485.36 + €18.99 shipping
LG GH24NS bare schwarz|€16.47
Thermaltake BigWater A80(Sockel 775/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1)|€42.99
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse Core 1000 black|€32.16
HIS HD 6870 IceQ X GDDR5 1024MB Native HDMI 2xDVI 2xMiniDP|€146.55
ASRock 960GM/U3S3 FX, Sockel AM3+, mATX|€49.20
be quiet! PURE POWER CM BQT L8-CM-630W|€71.13
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-12800U CL9|€47.93
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 3 6GB/s|€78.93


and heres what he's upgrading from:
CPU: AMD Phenom X4 1090T (being carried over)
SSD: 256GB OCZ Vertex 2 (also being carried over)
HDD: 320GB SataII (can't remember what make or model it is even tho I builded it lol)
RAM: 4GB OCZ Reapers DDR2 1066MHz
GPU: 1GB EVGA Geforce GTX 260
Motherboard: Gigabyte MA790X-UD3P
CPU Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper TX
Case: Coolermaster CM690
PSU: 600W Seasonic (can't remember which model)

I wouldn't get that water cooler. It has bad reviews. I would get one of the Corsair H series like the H80 but it is €80. And i would get this PSU instead.

IrishMetalhead

might change it to a h40 or an antec 620 then cause i've worked with both of them before and was very pleased with the results, would love to change it to a h80 but he is on a tight budget. also i did consider the amazon originally but since this is a matx case with a top mounted psu i thaught that a non-modular psu wouldn't be a good idea might swap the 630w for a 530w tho:
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=50970&agid=1628

also might add an excaust fan since a quiet 92mm fan are fairly cheap:
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=36164&agid=42

Tij da feen

I would change the RAM to the Corsair Low Profile for about 2 quid more. Those large heatsinks just get in the way.

smileyj1987

I would seriously consider re-using the PSU as Seasonic make some of the the best PSU's in the world . But its your call .

IrishMetalhead

cheatest seasonic psu's on hardwareversand ar those ones they made for xfx, i have one myself and it's really good but it's non-modular, but be-quiets psu's are fairly decent anyways so not really a huge sacrifice for a modular psu

smileyj1987

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

cheatest seasonic psu's on hardwareversand ar those ones they made for xfx, i have one myself and it's really good but it's non-modular, but be-quiets psu's are fairly decent anyways so not really a huge sacrifice for a modular psu

That is very true but the way i would look at it is , with the money saved you could get him a really and truly awesome graphics that would last him a few years . I mean i would rather have a 7850 because it will give some much more performance over a 6870 .

IrishMetalhead

wouln't save any money tho the xfx psu's are actually a tad bit dearer but i might make a few changes else where to fit a 7850 into the budget

IrishMetalhead

was just able to squeeze a 1gb 7850 into the budget by cutting on the cooling and lowering the psu to a 430w since the 7850 uses alot less power, shame it's out of stock atm tho:

Item|Price
Total build cost: €480.25 + €18.99 shipping
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse Core 1000 black|€32.16
Xigmatek Loki SD963 Heatpipe Cooler 92mm|€14.82
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-12800U CL9|€47.93
ASRock 960GM/U3S3 FX, Sockel AM3+, mATX|€49.20
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 3 6GB/s|€78.93
LG GH24NS bare schwarz|€16.47
be quiet! PURE POWER CM BQT L8-CM-430W|€49.46
Club 3D Radeon HD 7850 royalQueen, 1GB GDDR5|€191.28

Tea_Bag

looks like a nice psu, but its really wasted there. I'd throw the 600W back into the primary, and a cheap antec basiq 350W into the missus's PC. that's got your 2gb 7850 on the table. far more future proof.

is the DVD drive actually necessary?

IrishMetalhead

it is cause his old one is ide and he needs to burn alot of disc for archieving for work

edit: also is a 350w a good idea to run a 260 gtx? cause if i remember correctly they were very power hungry