Would like advice, and thoughts on this setup that I may purchase.

Hi there, as my current PC is quickly dying due to the cheap pre-built parts inside straining thanks to the upgraded parts i've put inside (would also appear that the PSU I put in is also dying so yeah), I have decided to get myself a new PC and essentially tear my old PC apart, and use it to upgrade and enhance my new purchase.

As I am presently a 17 year old unemployed IT student my budget for this is no more than around £1,000 (inc VAT) - I can't go over it. Any advice on what I could do to improve this setup would be greatly appreciated, I intend to use it for gaming aswell as general tasks.

NOTE: I've put a * against parts or things I intend to rip from my current PC.

Case: Coolermaster Elite 310 BLUE
PSU: 1010W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate *
Processor: AMD PHENOM II X6 1090T (3.20GHz/9MB CACHE/AM3/) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard: ASUS® M4A87TD/USB3: DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
RAM: 4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
* - I intend to upgrade the RAM to 6GB with an additional 2GB DDR3 stick I already own.
GPU #1: 1536MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 480
GPU #2: ZOTAC Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 AMP! (OC) 1GB.. (* - Even though it can't be used in SLi, I have other intentions for it. OR perhaps I should get rid of the 480 and just use the card I already have?)
HDD #1 250GB SATA
HDD #2 500GB Western Digital 7200 RPM *
HDD #3 1.5TB Samsung 7200 RPM *

Everything else is the standard default, as my budget is thin.

Welcome to our forums

Generally you've put together a great specification. My advice is as follows:

1. Downgrade the PSU to a Corsair 750W or 850W, because for the GTX480 the Corsair PSU's have a single rail, which will give the card better power.

2. Alternatively keep the 1010W PSU and use the GTX285, which the 1010W will power no problem. The GTX285 is still a great card and with you being a student I'm sure you could put your budget into other things. If you want the best however, go for the GTX480 but put the GTX285 on eBay - it won't do a lot sat in your PC...

I see, to be honest though I doubt anyone would want to buy a used GTX 285. Additionally, as i'm not as tech savvy as I would like to be in regards to power, could you please explain as to what this 'rail' business is?

Gishank said:

I see, to be honest though I doubt anyone would want to buy a used GTX 285. Additionally, as i'm not as tech savvy as I would like to be in regards to power, could you please explain as to what this 'rail' business is?

Click to expand...

You are mistaken about the GTX 285, there are many many ATI users out there who would love a 285 as a dedicated Physx card.

The PSU rail issue is explained in detail here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply_rail

Didn't you make the stickied thread that states having a dedicated PhysX card makes no difference to performence though?

Also there are even more people out there that want as many cards as possible for GPU farm folding.

i'll take the gtx285 off your hands

Steve

Just a thought: a recent magazine article I read today didn't seem to rate the 1090T (or it's cheaper sibling the 1055T) as great for gaming but it is good for other tasks which can use the extra cores. Depending on how much gaming use your setup will have compared to other activities, would an Intel i5 be more suitable? (I know - I am a fine one to be pointing this out considering my other recent thread asking for advice between i7/i5/1090T ;-) )

Id take the 285 too Its a good folder

@Astro...

I think that is more or less a matter of opinion than hard core fact. People (often Intel fans) complain that AMD's Phenom range is inadequate in comparison and rubbish for gaming rigs. Yet I have had a first-generation Phenom x4 9600 (2.3Ghz) in my PC for almost coming up to 2 years without any hinderance. (sadly my PC's PSU died yesterday which I have already had to replace once before, and the motherboard in it isn't far away from death either, cheap stock-built thing)...

Naturally as formerly stated. I am a student and lack the neccessary budget to go for silly things like Intel's overpriced processors. From my experience AMD has always offered a value for money approach.

To summarise the AMD/Intel discussion - both Intel and AMD processors will give you a great gaming computer for years to come, and they both have their advantages and dis-advantages. At the moment Intel is leading the race with faster processors, but only on the 1366 Core i7 (930/950/960/980x, etc). Anything below this and you can find an AMD CPU that will roughly match an Intel for most tasks.

Most of the time it's down to personal preference and customers who have previously had an AMD PC for example are likely to be loyal and continue down this route, unless they've had a bad experience. We try to be un-biased in our advice and will offer our support and advice which ever processor you choose.

Hi Gishank

I wasn't trying to start a flame war about whose processors are better, especially since I have had PCs based on both and having beein considering both for my next PC and from my own comparison of simlar systems they came out pretty much equivalently priced for similarly specced machines. I merely pointed out a potential alternative based on a review and the fact that gaming was a usage that you stated. I suppose that it depends on what else you are using the PC for and whether the app can use the extra cores of the 1090T.

Imo, there's always been a lot of silly arguing over which is better blah blah blah, they're both great, you only see differences between the 2 in different aspects when you utterly stress them out. Which...for 90% of us, happens rarely. As most games don't stress them, folding@home kind of does, prime95 probably does, thats about it.

Gishank said:

Didn't you make the stickied thread that states having a dedicated PhysX card makes no difference to performence though?

Click to expand...

Yes i did, It benefits those with an ATI card.

The sticky was to clarify wether using a dedicated Physx card made any difference to a rig already using a high end Nvidia GPU, which there seems to have been a bit of confusion about.

Adding the 285 to a 5xxx series of ATI GPU's will give ATI users the Physx they need for games like Mafia 2, epic Physx bar shooting up bottle bits flying everywhere tommy-gun toting goodness.

One quick question, when you installed the latest Nvidia drivers, is there any Physx software I have to download, or do I have to enable something in the control panel? I think I have my GTX 470 set to do Physx in the Nvidia CP, but not sure if that is all that needs doing?

Latest Nvidia drivers include the latest Physx drivers, set it in the Nvidia control panel to enabled, job done.

Ritey O, thanks for that

I have a few questions before I make my purchase. Specifically hardware related, firstly is the 1090 (3.2GHz) really worth the pricetag? Considering the 1055 (2.8GHz) is significantly cheaper in comparison and offers relatively the same speed?

Secondly - As for RAM. Are there any prime differences between Corsair's 1600MHz XMS3 DDR3 RAM and Samsungs 1333MHz DDR3 RAM aside from speed? (Does that speed really even matter for gamers/average users? Considering my old rig only has 4.5GB of DDR2 RAM clocked at 400MHz and I do quite alot of gaming. Is the difference in performence noticable?)

The 1090T is AMD's flagship CPU, hence the pricetag. The 1055T is not too far behind in most cases, here's an interesting review here: http://www.guru3d.com/article/phenom-ii-x6-1055t-1090t-review/1

For the RAM, the speed difference between 1333MHz and 1600MHZ is very minimal, and you probably won't notice the difference when using most applications. In most cases you'll only notice the difference when your PC is pushed to its extremes, such as when benchmarking or overclocking. I'd go for the Samsung 1333MHz.

Ok, thanks for the info.

Also, one last question (slightly offtopic) - I am attempting to order the setup I have made from its quote however I am on step 2 and it has a field asking for 'Delivery Details', as I have already entered my name, phone & address on the page before what does this field require? Seeming as I apparently cannot progress without filling it in.

Apparently it won't progress at all for some reason when attempting to click proceed. Damned useless PS3's webbrowser. =|