Advice on new system

crimsonfire

Item|Price
AMD FX-4100 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€98.77
ASUS M5A99X EVO, AM3, ATX|€103.95
SAPPHIRE HD 7770 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E HDMI / DVI-I / DUAL MINI DP OC VERSION (Lite Retail)|€137.54
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9|€46.87
Super-Flower Gamer Edition 600W|€53.99
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€460.11

That's what I have so far. I already have an optical drive and HDD. I'm open to suggestions on the case. I would prefer something with built in cooling fans and some noise reduction features so would be willing to spend up to E80 on the tower.

What I'll be using it for: Nothing too intensive. I don't play the latest games so once it can handle Minecraft and Mass Effect I'm happy. I'm studying IT at night so I need it for programming, web design, testing and general productivity.
The main keywords here are reliability, silence and value. I don't want to have to replace the whole system for at least two to three years.

I'd also appreciate suggestions for an after-market CPU cooler. Something quiet. I'd even try my hand at liquid cooling if the price is right.

Thanks for any help you can give me guys!

Eboggles

crimsonfire wrote: »

Item|Price
AMD FX-4100 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€98.77
ASUS M5A99X EVO, AM3, ATX|€103.95
SAPPHIRE HD 7770 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E HDMI / DVI-I / DUAL MINI DP OC VERSION (Lite Retail)|€137.54
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9|€46.87
Super-Flower Gamer Edition 600W|€53.99
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€460.11

That's what I have so far. I already have an optical drive and HDD. I'm open to suggestions on the case. I would prefer something with built in cooling fans and some noise reduction features so would be willing to spend up to E80 on the tower.

What I'll be using it for: Nothing too intensive. I don't play the latest games so once it can handle Minecraft and Mass Effect I'm happy. I'm studying IT at night so I need it for programming, web design, testing and general productivity.
The main keywords here are reliability, silence and value. I don't want to have to replace the whole system for at least two to three years.

I'd also appreciate suggestions for an after-market CPU cooler. Something quiet. I'd even try my hand at liquid cooling if the price is right.

Thanks for any help you can give me guys!

I'd change everything; get an i3 2120 with a H61 motherboard, 8GB of G.skill RAM, a 450 watt Super Flower Amazon PSU and a HD6850. Also, it might be worth your while to get a Z77 motherboard instead.

crimsonfire

See, I definitely don't want a high-end system but I would like to have some oomph. I'd like to have options further down the road.

Thanks for your suggestion though. I'll look into some of those parts.

Do you think a 450w PSU is enough? My last PSU frying (and leaving a delightful burnt plastic smell all over the place) is the reason I'm replacing the system.

Procrastastudy

Many years ago - so many in fact we were using P90s although they were crap at the time... I was programming. Not this messing about with boxes you people do now a-days no this was proper programming... Any way what was I talking about...

Oh yes - many years ago it wasn't a good idea to get AMD CPUs if you were programming as they could behave oddly - very rarely its probably all changed these days... you yung uns

I dont know why I couldn't have just said that I think my Catleap is making me giddy!

Buy a Catleap btw!

crimsonfire

Heh I'll keep that in mind

Procrastastudy

On a serious note - I love AMD as a company its just their current round of CPUs just don't stack up against Intel.

crimsonfire

I'll save so much if I go with AMD though. I love getting into the nitty gritty of clock speeds and caches as much as the next guy but AMD are just cheaper at the end of the day. I doubt I'll see a whole lot of shortfall in performance given what I'll be using this system for. Plus AMD sockets make it a whole lot easier to upgrade.

Eboggles

crimsonfire wrote: »

I'll save so much if I go with AMD though. I love getting into the nitty gritty of clock speeds and caches as much as the next guy but AMD are just cheaper at the end of the day. I doubt I'll see a whole lot of shortfall in performance given what I'll be using this system for. Plus AMD sockets make it a whole lot easier to upgrade.

It's not cheaper .

Item|Price
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€37.24
Intel Core i3-2120 Box, LGA1155|€113.29
MSI R6850-PMD1GD5, 1024MB DDR5, PCI-Express|€124.94
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€42.18
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€93.44
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€430.08

That's a much better upgrade path, too.

Procrastastudy

Aye thats the issue AMD always used to be cheaper for the similar performance. They simply aren't anymore.

Supermensch

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

Many years ago - so many in fact we were using P90s although they were crap at the time... I was programming. Not this messing about with boxes you people do now a-days no this was proper programming... Any way what was I talking about...

Oh yes - many years ago it wasn't a good idea to get AMD CPUs if you were programming as they could behave oddly - very rarely its probably all changed these days... you yung uns

I dont know why I couldn't have just said that I think my Catleap is making me giddy!

Buy a Catleap btw!

I would hazard a guess that the funny-ness was down to the different microarchitecture. Bulldozer, the microarchitecture of the OP's processor, implements most of the instructions sets that previous AMD processors lacked. Anyway, unless the OP is a low-level C or Assembly programmer I don't think it should matter much

Procrastastudy

Supermensch wrote: »

I would hazard a guess that the funny-ness was down to the different microarchitecture. Bulldozer, the microarchitecture of the OP's processor, implements most of the instructions sets that previous AMD processors lacked. Anyway, unless the OP is a low-level C or Assembly programmer I don't think it should matter much

You're not a programmer unless you know assembly! :P

Skylinehead

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

You're not a programmer unless you know assembly! :P

Mips64 assembly at that :cool:

Procrastastudy

I only ever knew it for the ZX80 'knew' being the operative word.

crimsonfire

Eboggles wrote: »

It's not cheaper .

Item|Price
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€37.24
Intel Core i3-2120 Box, LGA1155|€113.29
MSI R6850-PMD1GD5, 1024MB DDR5, PCI-Express|€124.94
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€42.18
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€93.44
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€430.08

That's a much better upgrade path, too.

Yeah, in terms of performance Intel seem like the better buy. I was looking at the i5-3550. Basically a stripped down 3570K without overclocking (which I won't be doing). E198 on HWVS. 20 euro cheaper and no real performance hit apart from integrated graphics which isn't that important.

I've done some research and I think you're right about the 6850. Thanks for the suggestion. Might go with that.

I'm completely paranoid about the PSU so might spend a few extra quid on that. Super-Flower seem very reasonable though.

Gah! That's the trouble with computer shopping. You only do it once every few years and the markets completely changed since the last time you did it!

Eboggles

crimsonfire wrote: »

Yeah, in terms of performance Intel seem like the better buy. I was looking at the i5-3550. Basically a stripped down 3570K without overclocking (which I won't be doing). E198 on HWVS. 20 euro cheaper and no real performance hit apart from integrated graphics which isn't that important.

I've done some research and I think you're right about the 6850. Thanks for the suggestion. Might go with that.

I'm completely paranoid about the PSU so might spend a few extra quid on that. Super-Flower seem very reasonable though.

Gah! That's the trouble with computer shopping. You only do it once every few years and the markets completely changed since the last time you did it!

The thing is the PSU you picked originally (While it still is a Super Flower) is a poor model. If you really want to know, your system will draw about 250 watts in maximum gaming load.

crimsonfire

Aye, good point.

I rang the company that originally sold me my old system and they said they could give me a 700w PSU haha. I'll admit I'm relatively clueless about power requirements. There seems to be a push towards lower power consumption in components these days which I hadn't considered before.