kris23

best place to start looking for a new heatsink is at the place where you got your computer components..... i cant find any place that sells stuff in africa so its a little difficult....

the K9A2 as far as i know has no mounting issues with even the biggest heatsinks.... so as long as your memory modules are standard height (not like Corsair DHX) you should have no issues....

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Cow_160483

Thanks for the heads up kris, i shall begin my epic adventure into the realm of heeatsinks will let you guys know what i have decided to buy.

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Decode!
Muhahahahah!

J.Walker

Hey kris, great work in you posts.I'm about to embark on my first pc build. It will be revolved mainly around gaming but as its going to be amd and ati based theres more of a general entertainment system edge. Budget is the key but i'm very realistic about my choices and unwilling to imbalance the system on a whim. Can i have some feedback from you on my choices, which were based on yours and others advice. Also no Intel for me.

AMD PHENOM X3 8750 3.5MB SKT-AM2+ 3600MT/s BLACK EDITION RETAIL @£90

or

Phenom X4 Quad-core 9750 2.40GHz Processor (95w version) @£90

both the same price but which is better? Q3 benchmark tests show the 125w quadcore 9750 just topping (barely in gameing grades) the triplecore 8750 in most suites but with the triple being a black editon and the quad reduced to 95w which will be the better pick?

Corsair XMS2 DHX 4096MB Dual Channel PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory (2 x 2048MB) TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX @£60

couldnt find your recommended ram in the the 'higher entry' build here in england.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3320613AS) @£41.11

read review saying it marginally outpaces samsung f1 and wd caviar.

Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM @£15.26

one of your tips and other reviewers seem to say the same.

Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H AMD 780G ATI HD3200 Video Socket AM2+ mATX Motherboard @£69.33

amd's quads are unstable so am not keen on pushing it with crossfire (full) and the 125w/140w version/s in the quad core have issues with standard mobos, so decided on the above coupled with the low demand cpu. Although its not very future proof, but at just over £500 for a base, its not an investment worth losing sleep over plus my budgets very tight. (ahh, the student class)

Coolermaster Centurion 590/Coolermaster Dominator 690 @£52.17/£57.81 respectively.

690 has more fans (well one more) but will i need it in my budget power range?

True Power Trio 550W P/S @£41

amd recommended and cheapest of there recommendations, which is just as well. however i did notice when attempting the build your own function on ati's site that your choosing between pentium 4's, 3's and athlon 64's not to mention 290gtx's, needs an upgrading itself, lol.

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM @£71.48

and the next piece is an up an upcoming (21/10/08)

Radeon HD 4830 ?£90?

can you also see about these, this may prove crucial with the 4800's heat issues

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) @£17.61

this little connector;

Lian Li CR-36B Multiple Card Reader @£17.49

finally if you've got time.

Dell UltraSharp 1908WFP 19-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor @£150

with my graphics card 1400 x 900 comfortable rendering and with ati's brilliant full AA capability i'll just get by on 19" and its fine by me especially when upgrading from 15.4" on my lappy, but just incase i'm missing something, nobody in their right mind would pass up are bargain or upgrade.

It would be great to have some advice on this setup before i take the plunge altough the gpu is'nt out yet but what with all the delivery times and all and even though i've done a few nights of research I class myself as an enlightened noob and maybe missing something.

p.s. yoyotech has mixed reviews from customers and in this current financial climate where gambling financially has left nations inept i have moved my search to companys with competatively low prices with negligible critical reviews, these are;

Ginger6 - Custom Built Gaming PC Base Units
Pc Option - Technology For Everyone - Index
http://www.overclock.co.uk*
PC Mods | PC TV cards | PC cases|Specialtech.co.uk -
Computer Supplies and PC Components from Novatech

*I found most of my stuff here

and again thanks for your initial post and i hope to hear from you soon.

kris23

hello there J.Walker and welcome to DH!

with the CPUs, a Quad is ALWAYS better, especially if they're the same rated speed, you get more cache and the extra cores. a Black Edition is only really favorable if you want to overclock heavily

ever since the B3 revision of Phenom, there have been no stability issues whatsoever so unless you NEED to save money on the board, you probably would be better off with a 790GX as they have no issues with any current CPUs or future phenoms as far as i know, you have better support for the 45nm Quads

also, get a full ATX board, not an m-ATX, you have the space in the 590/690 cases, you should use them

the 320GB 7200.11 is lacking in performance to the 32mb cache 7200.11s, i HIGHLY recommend them as the system will feel alot snappier

lastly, the PSU...... dont get the PSU, dont buy antec, theyre cheap but thats it, they dont perform well at all, try getting a Corsair PSU at a similar price, even a 430w one would perform better than the trio

everything else is good, but its up to you if you want to change it around to the above components, if you specify your price range i may be able to get a machine together myself

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J.Walker

Thanx very much for the response kris. This is exactly why I needed an eye of an experienced builder to scrutininze my build options. For instance I wouldn't have a clue what the difference was between m-ATX and ATX (and to be honest still dont, possibly m, meaning mini) but now wouldn't want to risk being caught short in the future (or possibly the present).

I guess one of the main reasons I wanted to go with the 980G was the 'bang for buck' angle as the 980GX is £35 more and I wanted to keep my budget at £550 for the base (if coolers and peripherals are included the better). I think if i keep my options realistic and dont expect anything to fancy I should be alright, although buying sub-standard gear to save a few pennies now, only to have problems in the near future isn't favourable.

It would be much appreciated if you took the time to configure a (amd based) system for me it would help me buy in confidence and limit any possible issues I may face later on. I did find your mainstream setup very helpful (converting Q6600 to amd 9950 and same with motherboard setup) but racked up a total of £729 so keeping that in mind wanted a config around the upcoming HD 4830 (premium entry level if there is such a thing).

Finally could you have a look at this article, because this is where I got my info about the higher wattaged quads AMD Phenom X4 9750 Quad Core CPU Review - Page 19 - Hardware Canucks they are testing the B3''s and still encounter problems, but if I decide on a 9750-95w(bar any better amd suggestions from you, but at £90 seems very reasonable) there shouldn't be a problem. Thanks again.

J.Walker

update

Changed some components as you suggested, bit pricier (if thats a word) but better in the long run.

M3A78-T ATX AM2 790GX 8Gb DDR2 VGA 3 x PCI-Ex 16 Hyrbird Corssfire SATA2 Raid 2x1394a Audio GigaBit LAN @£100

changed mfr, bcoz of possible compatability issues (according to a couple of reviews) with gigabyte.

Corsair VX 550W CMPSU-550VX ATX2.2 Silent PSU @£54.99

comes amd crossfire recommended to boot and look rather fetching IMO.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM @£44.64

couldn't find smaller sizr than 500gb but not much difference in the price (althoughh the little increases can add up).

As for the cpu, i'm still unsure which to go for as you threw in the over-clockability angle (which i was unaware of ). If in the future i wanted to OC would i be better off with the '8750 BE. Thanks in advance.

P.s. that isn't my real name, lol.

kris23

with AMD, overclocking isnt something thats easy, they are hard to overclock and are more likely to get damaged than any Intel counterpart... with intel CPUs you can get to 3-4GHz rather easily. and can go up to around 6GHz if you are (very) good.. per clock, intel beats AMD as well....

with AMD, youre lucky to get to 3Ghz, and thats with a black edition

you cant gain more cores no matter what you do so the Quad is better

just wondering, why do you want to get an AMD system so bad vs an intel system?

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J.Walker

Hey.
Lets just say i'm not too keen on Intels politics and am unwilling to put my money in their coffers. I'm currently using intel (dual core) and haven't any problems with it, it's basically doin what it should but it shouldn't be hard to configure a reasonably efficient rig based around my budget (shoe string) and their amd's prices. A 2.5 Ghz 9850 BE might be in order for a bit of kick, so i'll probably include that (@£110). Don't knoe if I should go for an OC BFG geforce 9800 @£100 or wait for the HD 4830. The HD 4850's already lost to the 9800gtx+ (didn't see it comin) so am waiting to see how it holds up against its 'nvidian' counterpart upon release. Have you got any ideas on a slightly cheaper(yet adequate) version of case to the centurion 590. Ciao

kris23

ahh so your like OldBuzzard (other DH member who hates intel)

anyways, for your build, im trying to find a 790FX board with SB750 southbridge
with one problem... i cant find it on any UK site

Newegg.com - ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards

thats one that im looking for

also, its pretty inaccurate to say the 9800GTX+ is better than the HD 4850.... overall theyre equals, with one card leading a bit more ahead of the other. it all depends on which game is better optimized for which card, (eg. Crysis + Nvidia)

the 9800GTX+ is a quieter, cooler running card while the 4850 is a louder, hotter card.

the 4850 does use a good chunk less power though (note the lack of a second PCI-E connector) and is a single slot design, you can also use 4 cards in a 790FX platform vs 3 in an SLI platform

Nvidia also has PhysX which is a useful feature for games that support it, it all depends on what is important to you, FPS or Ai..... the only negative is that very few games support PhysX as most games use the CPU for physics processing

if all you want is pure performance its probably better to go for whichever one you can find for the lowest price.

and for the 590 case, no case i seen is as good as the 590 case for the same price

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lstmysock11

Hi


Looking for a list of a good computer to build, amd quadcore for gaming ie world of warcraft. Something that will give good graphics and be under 900 dollors. If you could please include link for cpu heatsink also.

thank you in advance

kris23

hello and welcome to DH! ill get right to work on your request.

when you say computer, do you mean a whole system with tower, monitor, speakers and keyboard/mouse? or just a tower?

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kris23

well i have a list of components that will work well for the price of $905 at newegg, not including shipping. needless to say, its VERY powerful, the CPU comes with stock heatsink but if you plan to overclock, a CM Z600 should do nicely

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103047

Newegg.com - LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe - CD / DVD Burners
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases
Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500410AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives
Newegg.com - EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
Newegg.com - PC Power & Cooling Silencer PPCS500 500W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies
Newegg.com - G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 900(PC2 7200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory
Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders - Operating Systems
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

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lstmysock11

just the tower and prefer a amd over a intel and a quad core

kris23

ok good, well i have what you asked for above, its fast, very fast...

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lstmysock11

does the cpu come with the heatsink or do I have to buy that also?

kris23

yes it comes with its own heatsink so you dont need to worry

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lstmysock11

thank you for your help

kris23

you are very welcome if you have any other questions or need help putting everything together, you can always post real quick for help

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lstmysock11

I know you listed windows vista, is vista better then xp? I have had issues with vista in the past like it not letting both my external speakers and headphones to work at the same time.

kris23

i have used it and noticed no stability issues especially since SP1

the issue with the external speakers and headphones is probably a settings issue rather than an issue with the OS itself.

how exactly are you running the speaker setup? are you using a dedicated sound card or onboard sound chip?

also, dont get the 32 bit version of vista, its practically worthless.... get the 64 bit version i linked to.... it allows use of 4GB+ of RAM

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lstmysock11

I am not having this problem with my current computer as it is still running xp. I had that issue with a computer I rented for a short time from rent a center that had vista. I beleive it was a dell and not to familure with the specs. Just hoping when I build this new computer I wont have this problem.

kris23

ill probably be able to test your issue for you, but i need you to be more specific.

with your current XP system, do you use the standard integrated audio chipset? if so, can you tell me what it is? or do you use a dedicated sound card? eg. soundblaster audigy or similar.

when you say you connect both your headphones and speakers, do you connect the headphones to a jack thats mounted on the case somewhere or is there a back port as well?

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lstmysock11

With my current computer that is running xp I do not have this issue. I only had this issue on a dell system that I had for a short time fron rent a center. I believe it had intergrated sound. Each time I would enable the headphones the speakers would not work and vise versa. I had the speakers plugs into the back of the machine and the headphones into the headphone jack on the front of the machine. Would I have this issue with the computer i am going to build?

Also would I be better going with a intel cpu and mother board that could take a intel quad core cpu? over a amd?

kris23

it may be a unique issue with the dell system but ill see if i can test it sometime during the week. right now, i suggest ordering every component EXCEPT the OS and ill PM you the details.

the AMD/Intel debate is not worth very much anymore.... the Phenom II 920 is considerably better than the Q6600 but may not be able to compete with the Intel Q9XXX series.

but within the price range, its the best.

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lstmysock11

ok no rush i am not ordering anything untill at least friday. It might just be a dell issue

kris23

ok, but i do not recommend buying Dell desktops, just not worth the future frustration

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lstmysock11

i have no plans on buying a dell desktop. I am planing on ordering what you listed and building that system. I had that dell for a very short time and just wanted to know if that problem was only a dell thing or something with vista for all machines

kris23

it may just be a Dell specific issue, but if you read the PM (Private Message) i sent you you can see for yourself if you have the time.

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lstmysock11

I am pleased to say most of the parts showed up today minus the hard drive. Seems they had to ship that from some where down south so I wont have that untill wednesday. Anywho I put everything together that I do have and it boots up with out any kind of issues.

OldBuzzard

Hey Kris,

Haven't checked this thread out for awhile, so thought I'd see what updates you've made.

I notice that there are a couple of instances where you recommend 2X 4850's in Xfire. I'd recommend the 4850 X2 instead. It's cheaper, and there are other advantages as well. Less power used, easier install, less cluttered case, more flexability in MB choice, etc, etc.

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When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY