Buying a new PC: It's a nightmare

[Letum]

It's done.Ye gods that was nerve racking.
Here's hoping nothing goes wrong now...

1 x AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Quad Core CPU 3.2GHz x4
512KB L2 Cache x4
6MB L3 Cache
Socket AM3 / 125W
Retail Boxed - Fan Included
Unlocked Multiplier For Easy Overclocking
£205.30 inc VAT


1 x Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P Motherboard
AM3 Socket
£159.74 inc VAT

1 x 4GB Corsair XMS3 DHX 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory Kit 1600MHz
CAS 9-9-9-24
4GB (2 x 2GB Sticks)
DHX Cooling Technology
£73.34 inc VAT


1 x Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 1GB Core Clock: 850MHz
Shader Clock: 850MHz
Memory Clock: 3900MHz
Stream Processors: 800
£219.95 inc VAT


1 x 750W Corsair CMPSU-750TXUK Power Supply x 1 24 Pin + P8/P4
x 4 PCI-e 8 Pin
x 8 SATA
x 8 Molex
x 2 Floppy
80+ Certified / 5 Year Warranty
£103.10 inc VAT


1 x 200GB Toshiba MK2051GSY 2.5" Hard Disk Drive SATA II
7200rpm
16MB Cache
OEM - Drive Only
Bulit In Free-Fall sensor
£38.49 inc VAT


1 x Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic 64 Bit (OEM)
£72.23 inc VAT


Coolermaster Centurion 590
£ 42.15

Shipping, and other little things like thermal paste etc


Total: £937.00 inc VAT

[NeonSamurai]

Heh nerve wracking When I do a build (even if its a laptop order) I do stupid amounts of research on every single little thing, even down to 20$ fans and the like. It usually takes me 2-3 weeks before I'm ready to buy anything

Anyhow good selection you should be very happy with that system.

However, I see an error in your selection, the hard drive you chose is a 2.5" mobile laptop type drive (free fall sensor is a giveaway) and your case doesn't seem to have any 2.5" drive bay slots (only 3.5"). You better buy a different one and cancel that one. I would suggest a bigger drive as well (200gb is tiny, heck my 16" laptop has 500gb).

[Letum]

Aww Crap!

I check the HDD size and then bought the wrong one!
Cancellation on it's way.

200GB is massive for me.
My current HDD is 10GB.

[Arclight]

Nice step up in CPU, well worth the money.

Going to stay with stock cooling? Not that it won't do the trick, just curious.

[Peto]

Originally Posted by Arclight

Nice step up in CPU, well worth the money.

Going to stay with stock cooling? Not that it won't do the trick, just curious.

I was talking to someone about CPU cooling today and we had some good debate. He was big on MMHPC (Major Mongo Humongous Power Coolers) where my stance is that stock does the job better today than it used to. If you look back at the history of CPU's you'll see that older ones typically ran hotter than todays multi-cores (ever touch a 486?!?!). "So", (I asked), "Why put money into a MMHPC?"

Video is another story though! Those babies run HOT! In either case--you will typically hear a cpu/gpu fan going out before it actually folds.

And then there was this guy who had a friend that......put a 3rd party cooler on a cpu. The cpu went out and the corporation who built it refused to warranty the failed part. Because it was dependant on cooling by a part they hadn't qualified... (I haven't heard of that being an issue lately though).

None-the-less, I've had good luck with stock cooling. Some 3rd party rigs do it better without doubt--but how cool does it really have to be. My stock cooler keeps my AMD below 40C typically.

My 2 cents (maybe worth less).

[Letum]

I'm going with the stock cooler because my budget is getting tight.
I may upgrade in the future if I find I need to.

[AVGWarhawk]

Cooling....I have one large side fan that blows on the CPU fan. There is one exhaust fan out the back of the case. Computer runs cool. My cooler set up is just above the standard cooler for AMD Phemons. Cost was about $23.00. Stock coolers are fine. Could you imagine the headaches CPU manufactures would create for themselves if stock coolers for their CPU's were subpar? Man, talk about recalls... You will be fine with a stock cooler. These have been working fine on off the shelf ready to go computers for years.

[Peto]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Cooling....I have one large side fan that blows on the CPU fan. There is one exhaust fan out the back of the case. Computer runs cool. My cooler set up is just above the standard cooler for AMD Phemons. Cost was about $23.00. Stock coolers are fine. Could you imagine the headaches CPU manufactures would create for themselves if stock coolers for their CPU's were subpar? Man, talk about recalls... You will be fine with a stock cooler. These have been working fine on off the shelf ready to go computers for years.

Companies make Big Cool looking coolers for one reason. Some people will buy them.

[NeonSamurai]

True though many of them are a decent amount more efficient then stock coolers, but you only really need one of those if your going to be overclocking, or if your operating it in a fairly hot environment.

[Arclight]

Originally Posted by Letum

I'm going with the stock cooler because my budget is getting tight.
I may upgrade in the future if I find I need to.

I did the same thing.

From what I spied of the stock-cooler for that AMD chip (Phenom II 955), it looks very capable. The stock cooler for my E6750 did the job, but let the temp rise above 60C while stress-testing. Still not problematic since the chip can handle 60C, and under normal use it would not get that hot, but it was enough reason for me to go with a better cooler.

I overclocked the thing from 2.66GHZ to 3.2GHZ and idle-temps went up by (barely) 1C. Wouldn't have tried that on stock-cooling, I can tell you that.

I was talking to someone about CPU cooling today and we had some good debate. He was big on MMHPC (Major Mongo Humongous Power Coolers) where my stance is that stock does the job better today than it used to. If you look back at the history of CPU's you'll see that older ones typically ran hotter than todays multi-cores (ever touch a 486?!?!). "So", (I asked), "Why put money into a MMHPC?"

I don't think stock coolers got much more efficiënt, the decrease in idle temps can be attributed to more efficient chip designs. However, they all used to be all aluminum. Nowadays you'll see copper bases on stock coolers, and the cooler for that AMD even uses heatpipes. They did become more efficient through design evolution.

Sometimes they'll even refuse waranty because you took the thing apart to apply better thermal compound. Ridiculous.

[Letum]

It's all plugged in and read for the first power on...
Hope this goes well....

[AVGWarhawk]

Cool, let us know how it goes.

[Arclight]

Gonna kick ass and take names.

I'm not even in the same country, and I still have a grin from ear to ear.

I'm such a geek.



Letum, you build it yourself or ordered the parts and had it pre-build?

[Letum]

First post form the new PC.
Whoo!

I DIDN'T **** UP! (Yet - Touch wood. ed: Better still - touch a anti-static ground again.)

(I built it my self.)

ed2: OS and drivers in. This is nice and smooth.
Now to sort out file sharing with my old XP machine.

[AVGWarhawk]

Great to hear! Nothing like the smell of new hardware warming up