Please commit my rig which will be built soon!!!!

[unreal104]

Hi there,

I'm from singapore and i'm buying a new com soon... my budget is around S$1600.

Spec:

AMD Phenom II X4 965 C3 Stepping (Willing to overclock to 4.0GHZ)

Gigabyte GA-MA790XTA-UD4 AMD790X/AM3/SATA3/USB3.0

TeamElite DDR3 1333 kit 2x2GB

WD BlackCaviar 500GB 32MB Cache

PowerColor Radeon HD 5770 in CorssfireX

OCZ ModXtreme 600W PSU Modular

Lian-Li LanCool Metal Bond K7

CoolerMaster Hyper212 Plus


Please give commit and will the PSU i chose can handle the system ?

 

[ares1214]

CPU: good, but might want to consider either the 955 or i5.

MOBO: good, but realize usb 3 gets disabled in crossfire, or vice versa, that doesnt happen the the asus version of usb 3 and sata 6

RAM: makes sure the ram is below 1.65 volts, and below 8-8-8 timings.

HDD: get the samsung f3 500 Gb instead, faster, cooler, cheaper, safer.

GPU: since crossfire disables the usb 3 stuff, and since 2 5770s equals about 1 5850, you might want to save up a lil extra for the 5850, since the 5770 isn't terribly strong, but depending on what games you play it might be plenty.

PSU: that one should be good, but for something thats crossfire and future proof, you might want to get a 750 watt corsair, or the 700 watt version of that.

CASE: that one is ok, but i would more highly recommend the azza solano, nzxt temptest, or lian li pc k62.

COOLING: great cooler...

very good build, only a few minor adjustments or recommendations

 

[MadAdmiral]

Switch the HDD to a Samsung Spinpoint F3 500 GB or Seagate 7200.12 500 GB. Both of these are faster drives.

What's the CAS Latency (timings) on the RAM? Also, if you're overclocking, you should look into 1600 mhz kits. Try to keep the CL at 7 or 8.

Your PSU would easily handle the system, but might not be enough for Crossfiring later.

 

[unreal104]

there is no samsung f3 in singapore..so between WD and Seagate which is more faster ??
And for PSU..is Antec True Power new series 750W good enough for the rig ?

 

[MadAdmiral]

Seagate. By a lot.

Yes. The True Power series is above the Earthwatts, but is only sold in the larger sizes.

 

[saint19]

Hi newcomer and welcome to the Tom's hardware forum.

I would get one of THIS

And +1 to MadAdminral, change the HDD for a Spinpoint F3 500GB $54.99 or 1TB $89.99

What CL is the RAM? and for the X-Fire, you need a 700W PSU.

 

[ares1214]

yeah, the seagate is faster, better, cooler...although i have had some very bad experiences with seagate, so if speed isnt important, just the storage you might want to stick with a WD.

 

[MadAdmiral]

The old Seagates were bad. These are newer ones. Usually with tech, everything moves so fast, the past doesn't really matter.

 

[unreal104]

RAM CL is 9.
Further more is there any USB 3.0 and SATA 6GB AMD motherboard from Asus..becoz as i'm going for crossfire, usb 3 will not work in giga mb..

so any MB recommandation ?

 

[saint19]

Hi, get a RAM with CL7 or CL8. And see the list that I post up.

 

[ares1214]

theres a new asus 785g board with usb 3 and sata 6, looks pretty good but i believ it has 1 slot at x16, and one at x4, but that probably wont affect performance tooo much. there are like 50 boards for 1156 with usb 3 and sata 6 though, if you wannna go i5...

 

[MadAdmiral]

x4 on a PCIe 2.0 slot REALLY affects performance. So much so that it's virtually useless for Crossfire.

 

[ares1214]

but i believe you can set them both to x8, which doesnt affect performance that much...or you can get a 790fx board so you get 2 x16 slots, but theres only one with sata 6 and usb 3, but thats a gigabyte board...

 

[MadAdmiral]

No you can't. If you could, it would say 8x/8x, not 4x. When it says one operates at 4x, it really means that in Crossfire, both drop to 4x/4x.

For reference, the performance loss from 16x/16x to 8x/8x is 4%.

I'm not positive that the USB 3/Crossfire problem with Gigabyte is on the AM3 socket as well as the LGA1156. Generally, the specs will mention something to that effect, but they don't for the AM3 boards. I'm still looking for third party information that would confirm it either way.

Keep in mind that you can add a SATA III/USB 3 card later. They'll be about $30-50. So it's not a big deal to get a board that doesn't have it included right now.

 

[ares1214]

agree with the add the card thing, agree with the 4% performance loss, not usre about wether it affects am3 as much or at all as 1156, but i dont think that both drop to x4, or it depends on the board...

 

[unreal104]

So shall i go for single hd 5850 or still crossfire 5770 because i have read many reviews for 5770 crossfire and they outform single 5850, even mighty 5870 in some games

And btw, is PC power and cooling silencer 750W good ? Shall i go for antec true power series 750w or PC power ?

Currently, I have Asus Lion Square cooler. Will it be able to handle overclocking the processor to 3.8 GHZ at least or shall i buy hyper 212 plus ? and what thermal paste will you guyz recommand ?

Thanks!

 

[ares1214]

i would get 1 5850...look at these benchmarks:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5770,2446-7.html

now that isnt always the case, but the 5850 can overpower 2 5770s. also, crossfire/sli is a hassle, and requires a lot more power. the 5850 is plenty powerful, so i dont really see a need for 2 5770s. if you really feel like you need that power, then just get a 5870 anyway, but from what ive seen, the 5850 is a beast in its own right. pcpc makes great psus, and that is no excpetion, but if you throwing around 750 watters, then the corsair 750 watt needs to be mentioned, its better and about the same price:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010

the hyper 212 is so cheap and so good that you really might as well buy it. any thermal paste is more or less the same, just get artic silver, although most are made out of the exact same thing...hope this helped

 

[MadAdmiral]

Go with the 5850. You don't lose an upgrade path that way.

That PC Power & Cooling would be good. So would the Antec. Either go with the more efficient one (save later) or the cheaper one (save now).