The Official Budget-Conscious Dream Machine!

I find that very surprising, Toughpowers are far better units, and cost twice as much in the US. I thought that was the case on the websites you linked me to as well.

 

yep, Thermaltake Silent PurePower cost more, much more money/watts.

what about Enermax Liberty DDX series, and the Antec psu's

 

"Silent" according to Thermaltake only means you can use it without needing ear defenders. Ignore thermaltake's sound branding, and ignore the purepower series. They're good budget models, but as you say, those are just too pricey to be realistic.
Enermax Liberties are supposed to be good, but I hear of a few problems with them, and pretty much the same with Antecs.

 

I like the Enermax Liberty units. Very good amperage and pretty quiet. My 620W is a solid unit and very high quality.

 

check this: Enermax Liberty DDX 620w ( 12v : 432w )

does it mean that this 620W only output 432w max?

 

Not exactly, only 432W on the 12V rail, the rest is made up of the 5V, 3.3V, -5V and -12V rails.

 

oh ok, i'm thinking of getting even lower watt PSU, the 550w Toughpower

 

I don't see why you should have any issues with one of those, provided it's the same unit underneath as the other Toughpowers.

 

uh huh, thats right, the issue is money, i'm very tight at the moment, and i can't wait until my birthday, i need a new pc very urgent...so i'm going for the best and the lowest product as possible.

 

Have you decided on the rest of your parts yet?

 

i still haven't sold my 8600GTS yet, so at the moment i'll be using the A-DATA 2GB DDR2 800 value ram, keeping my peripherals, case and maybe the 7600GS, i'll be getting a new PSU, CPU and the mobo

 

Thinking of building this rig this week not going to oc fsb just the multi and dont realy want sli / crossfire thus cheap mobo

ECS A770M-A - AMD770+SB600 AM2+ Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Black Edition 5000+ 2.60GHz (Retail AM2)
GeIL 2GB PC2-6400 C4 Black Dragon (2x1GB)
Sapphire ATi Radeon HD 3870 512MB PCI-E
Corsair 520W HX V2 Series Modular PSU
NZXT HUSH Black Silent case
320GB Samsung SATA - 16MB

Total £ 475.35 inc vat, just want to see what you think, not a bad rig for under £500, have cpu cooler/ dvd rw so not needed to be listed, plus as the mobo is cheap, I can upgrade that if i feel like it in the future when the amd 790 chipset gets cheaper

 

I would definitely change the CPU. AMD isn't worth it anymore. Get a E6750 and overclock it to 3.6 ghz easily.

 

The cpu is fine it will handle gaming / cubase, reason / protools with no problems, thats all its going to be used for, plus at the moment its about budget it keeps it in budget, plus with a mobo upgrade I will simply be able to upgrade via the phenom x2 processors and 2 x 3870 in crossfire. As I wont need to increase the fsb to oc it, the chipset wont require better cooling as it will still be running stock, thus not creating more noise than necessary, and ill be happy running it at a 15.5 multi at stock voltage for 3.1ghz if needed for any games but i doubt i will have to push it as most games are g/card dependant rather than cpu.

£500 is the max budget for this build due to other financial commitments at this time, going the intel route would just break the budget, and amd performs just as well as intel in gaming(minimal differences)

 

Yeah if it breaks the bank then obviously don't get it. Hope it all goes well. Everything else looks top notch. I fell bad for the people in the UK. With 500 pounds(1000 USD) here I could have built a Core 2 Duo or Quad machine. Hell my PC cost only 850 USD and I could have gone with a HD 3870 for maybe 80 dollars more.

 

ah but im waiting for the b3 phenoms as it fixes all the issues on the b2's improving performance by a further 20% and theyre doing black editions (unlocked), we need to keep amd in the game or we will have no competition in the future. =o)Im a bit phased by the name core duo, as I used to own a lexicon core2 soundcard, when i purchased it with the effects daughterboard it was just under £1000, only for them to drop it 2 years later leaving it only to work on windows 98/me as they didnt continue with driver support (

 

Maybe if they have a good enough product. Right now AMD makes nothing worth getting, except for the 3800 series video cards.

 

man, now you're making want to buy a AMD rig instead of Intel...but i'll be sticking with intel this year...i might change it to AMD next year when Phenom problems are fixed and more AM2+ motherboard choice, by the way nice rig you've got there

 

ECS board: Crap
Athlon X2: Slow
GeIL memory: Could be better
Sapphire HD3870: Excellent
Corsair 520W: Excellent
NZXT Hush: Excellent
Samsung SATA Drive: good

Going with an Athlon X2 is fine for a super-low-budget build, but most of them (particularly the 5000) are so slow that even the slowest core 2 duos can beat them, so you should really consider a proper CPU and Motherboard to deal with that powerful GPU, since you're presumably a gamer. Above all, ditch the ECS board, they're made by absolute chimps, more than half of all ECS boards fail before 12 months, and more than a third will fail in less than 6 months.
Get a proper motherboard like a GA-P35C-DS3R and a CPU like an E6750. You can keep the rest of the parts, but you may wish to consider Corsair XMS2 or Crucial Ballistix Tracers since they offer superior performance.

 

With the 5000 x2 black edition chuck the multi to 15.5 when its running at 3.1 ghz they match an e6420 at stock and beat them in a few areas, plus no need to add any voltage to achieve that and only a few more watts power consumption. I know it wouldnt beat the e6420 if it was overclocked too, but this isnt the overclocking thread =o)hehe

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/22/budget_overclocker/page13.html only realy in Warhammer Mark of Chaos is it behind the e6420.

GeIL 2GB PC2-6400 C4 Black Dragon(2x1GB)Cas CL 4-4-4-12 £35.19 (aria)
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Intel-E6750-Q6600-MSI-Gigabyte,review-29731-7.html - review on this memory even at reduced voltage overclocks brilliantly with little heat.

2x1GB Corsair TwinX XMS2, PC2-6400 (800),Cas CL 4-4-4-12 £43.45
(scan)

same standard timings and as its about budget thus in this thread Geil will do as with the 65nm 5000 x2 the memory wont be o/c just timings tightened.

motherboard ive changed to Gigabyte GA M56S-S3 as it keeps within the £500 budget, the ecs board had good reviews but then again a reviewer only checks it in the short term so ill move to the gigabyte.

so now including vat and delivery £484.54 ) should last until the 790fx boards drop in price )