Help building first gaming PC

[Pyromaniac]

Hi all. I have never built an entire PC before, but i have done some upgrading and i think i could just about build one now. Anyway, i have been asked to build a gaming PC for my friend for about £500 (not including labour) and i need some advice on what components to get. Here's what i've come up with;
AMD-Athlon-II-X4-620-Quad-Core-S-AM3-26GHz-2MB-Cache-HT-4000MHz-95W (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-Athlon-II-X4-620-Quad-Core-S-AM3-26GHz-2MB-Cache-HT-4000MHz-95W-Retail)
Is the quad core really worth it or should i save some money here and get the dual core one?
I'd like to get a graphics card to match the performance of the processor but i don't really know how good that processor is? I like the idea of running 2 ATI hd4770's as i heard from tom's hardware that these perform outstandingly in crossfire. Would this just be overkill with that processor though? The other option would be to go with a single card like the 4870 or 4850, or perhaps an Nvidia card? I really don't know.
Obviously i need a mobo to match the processor and have sufficient slots for two graphics cards if i go with two, but other than that my knowledge on chipsets and other things is almost non existant, so i need help in this area too. I'd also like it to support dual channel memory if possible.
I don't want to go too far into the 'secondary components' yet, but i'd like to get a basic idea of how much the RAM for this system will cost. Ideally i'd like to match the RAM to the processor, so what type and speed would i need for this? And how much RAM is enough? 4GB?
Lastly could someone explain motherboard types and sizes so that i can figure out what kind of case i should get.

Sorry for the mega long post, and thanks in advance for any advice.

Luke

[minus-sign]

This ain't twitter. more info is better as long as it doesn't become an infodump ;)

Okay: 500 euro is like $800 over here so...

Your processor is fine for any old desktop (that site is a little overpriced when I did a converion; newegg sells for $99--your site is selling for $124). For the money you're spending on it I would consider a Phoenom x4. You'll get L3 cache which will reduce bottlenecks.

In your budget...look at the M4A78T-E (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131366) for a benchmark. Its four slots so you'll end up dual channel but for budget rigs sacrifices must be made (and when you can OC your RAM to 1600 its not that big a sacrifice, neh?). You can splurge on a better board (and I recommend you do) but that should be a solid performer.

You won't get massive performance levels out of 4770s over the 4650s and they're cheaper. Don't get me wrong; a little faster processor and DDR5 is nothing to sneeze at but...they double the price on the buggers. If you're going to crack the $100 barrier then get a 1gig card. dual 5000 series is probably out of your price range for the initial build but it is worth considering. I'd go AMD/ATi to avoid teething troubles. And Win7 ofc.

If you dual card get at least a 750watt PSU.

[Pyromaniac]

yeah i have just been using the one site at the moment because i only want a basic idea of prices. Scan isn't all bad though, because newegg only ships within america and european prices tend to be about 15-25% higher.
SO going on the phenom x4 thing, this (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-Phenom-II-X4-955-BlackEdition-Sok-AM3-32GHz-8MB-Total-Cache-125W-Retail) wouldn't be a bad idea? I did wonder how big a sacrafice losing the L3 was on the athlon.
The mobo you suggested looks good, and i think that's about the max my budget can support with the added cost of the processor. Is there a version without onboard graphics that would save me some cash? Not too vital though.
Would 4GB of DDR2 be ok for the RAM? What speed should i go for?
For graphics, i think 512MB (or 512MB on each card for crossfire) will prob be sufficient because my friend only has a 1280X1024 monitor and as i understand it you don't really need that whole GB until you go into widescreen resolutions.
The PSU i will think about when i decide on the card(s), but corsair was my first thought. I'd love a modular one but i can't afford to bump the budget up any more.
And of course Win7 Professional 64-bit, which we both qualify to purchase for £30 with student discount.
Another question based on that actually;
If i buy the 64-bit upgrade boxed version of Win7 from software4students.com and use it to upgrade my 32-bit vista home premium (clean install), and he buys the download version of that same upgrade from microsoft (they have a £30 student offer at the moment), can he skip the download bit and just use his keycode and my CD to upgrade, rather than messing about with a 3GB download and that horrible exe file? He has a HD with vista on it too so again i can just do a clean install.

[ericj06]

If you go to newegg.com you can build a rig with an AM3 3.0 x4 processor 4 gig of DDR3 1333 RAM a 750 watt power supply a terabyte hard drive and an ATI 4870 1 GB card all for a little under $800. this will play every game currently out and will for the next couple years. also youll get a quality motherboard i recommend MSI or ASUS.

[ericj06]

also xp 64 bit is fine theres no rush to spend $250 on Windows 7. You actually get nothing better for gaming. Direct X 10 yeah its not that impressive at all.

[ericj06]

and that motherboard was not that great it did after all have onboard video. terrible.
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P AM3 DDR3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail


try one of those.

[Pyromaniac]

yeah, normally i wouldn't get Win7 but like i said, i can get it from microsoft for $30 which has got to be worth it.

[Pyromaniac]

Time to revive this thread XD
Different friend, same idea, but perhaps slightly higher budget.
This is where i'm at so far, not sure how 'balanced' this is?
http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww190/PyroBoy92/comp.jpg

[123456]

2 things - get DDR3 1600 and preferably a SATA DVD burner.

[hackerballs]

also xp 64 bit is fine theres no rush to spend $250 on Windows 7. You actually get nothing better for gaming. Direct X 10 yeah its not that impressive at all.

I beg to differ with ya there......DX 10 or DX 11 is much better and if it can be in the budget go with win7 x 64 (OEM, cheaper).....sells for about $150

but save for it as you will have the CPU and RAM and GPU all set up for it...game on

[Pyromaniac]

if it can be in the budget go with win7 x 64 (OEM, cheaper).....sells for about $150
Yeh, as i have said, Win7 is a lot cheaper for me since i can get it from www.softwareforstudents.com for just over £30
So you guys think this system is balanced?

[hackerballs]

see you in the game......will be a nice rig

[Pyromaniac]

Would i be able to use a lower power PSU on that rig? I have a fairly new corsair 650W but i suspect that's too low, since i now plan to buy a second HD4870 instead of the HD4890 and run them crossfire.

[hackerballs]

very iffy if that will be ok for 2 x GPU....probally will not have enough power plugs for you.....go here and calculate the power suppy you need

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

[Pyromaniac]

well that thing gave me a reccomendation of 570W, so perhaps i'll be ok with the 650W one?

[Pyromaniac]

the newegg one reccomends 730W, not sure how reliable that is.

[Pyromaniac]

ok, on holiday now so i should finally have time to build this one. :D
This is where i'm at with the components so far;
http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww190/PyroBoy92/Capture2.png
+1x Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1GB (i already have one of these, I will be trying crossfire.
Let me know if anything is missing. I can scavenge a lot of stuff from my current PC, like cables, DVD drives and stuff.
The one thing i'm not sure about is whether or not i need a network card or if the mobo has it onboard? I'm not really sure what i'd be looking for.

[Pyromaniac]

oh and i'm also gonna add a multimedia card drive thingy.

[hackerballs]

power supplies like to run well below their rated maximum so 750 sounds more like it

[Pyromaniac]

power supplies like to run well below their rated maximum so 750 sounds more like it

So i should get the 750 instead of the 850?
And also i was wondering what the difference was between the 3.2GHz and the 3.4GHz versions of the processor i've got on my list. Is one just overclocked or is there an actual difference?

[Pyromaniac]

2 things - get DDR3 1600 and preferably a SATA DVD burner.
Just read that the fastest speed RAM that processor supports is 1333MHz. Is that right. If so, is there any point in getting 1600?

[123456]

Then forget it. 1333 isn't bad.

[Pyromaniac]

hmm, the 1600 is only £5 more so i guess it wouldn't hurt.

[Pyromaniac]

ok here is my final buying list. Have i missed anything or chosen something really stupid?
http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww190/PyroBoy92/Capture4.png
+ 2x Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1GB
+ DVD burner w/IDE cable
+ 320 GB HDD w/sata cable
taken from my old PC

[123456]

THat 500GB HD only has 16mb cache. Go for 32mb.

[Pyromaniac]

how about this;
http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww190/PyroBoy92/Capture5.png

[Pyromaniac]

updated;
http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww190/PyroBoy92/Capture6.png

[123456]

Really nice.

[Pyromaniac]

lol i just noticed how i changed all that stuff and the price only changed by 1p :D
I'll go ahead and buy all this tonight, though i can see a lot of tortured waiting ahead since i'll have to wait for the case before i start and that's not yet in stock.

[Pyromaniac]

Changed it again :rolleyes:
Didn't see that samsung, was in a different section.
http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/d72e2350126c438f93140df56b4e3443

[hackerballs]

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=552

this HDD is better...buy this one

[hackerballs]

ah u keep changing it to the good lol didn't see your new selection on hdd's

[Pyromaniac]

lol yeh my list of saved baskets goes
new build
new build 2
new build final?
new build final 2
new build final 3
gonna have to just take the plunge and buy all this stuff today :P

[Pyromaniac]

finally got to build this (almost) yesterday. Everything went together ok although i'm still waiting for the second 4870 before i can call it done. Managed to overclock the CPU to 3.8Ghz at 1.5V after some trial and error. The only problem i'm having so far is the on-off button. It turns on fine, but pressing it while it's on cuts the power and immediately reboots. I hear this is a common issue with the m4a79xtd evo, does anyone know how to fix it so pushing it while windows is running triggers a shutdown?