Building a new Computer for my Dad

[d3fu5i0n]

I'd advise you to read this: Sandy Bridge Faults before going into sandy bridge. Just thought I'd give you a friendly warning

Hey, I was just going to post some information and say, I've reconsidered going AM3

I know, I watched the video by Linus on LinusTechTips on YT.

The SATA 3G ports degrade

Intel have surely mucked up this

 

[d3fu5i0n]

Aside from whether I decide to go Intel or AMD, what manufacturers should I go for?

Take note that I live in England.

I need TRUE experience here, nothing less.

Of course my dad won't need to OC, but I'd like to know which companies offer the very best support. Considering how many threads I've looked at on the net, all I get is mixed opinions or experiences with a multitude of companies. ASUS (I've heard good and bad. For general support (never had to RMA) they were above satisfactory for me), MSI (I've heard great and terrible), Gigabyte (I've heard good and disasterous) etcetera.

And my dad also said he's happy to play games like GRID on my computer etcetera.

So I was thinking of going for either a GT 430 or a GT 440, as long as NVidia still does better at that de-interlacing. As it'll of course be a media/streaming PC.

So I was thinking:

7 Pro (or Home Premium) x64

2X2GB DDR3 1333 DIMMs

Phenom II X2 550 BE

Motherboard - Not yet chosen

Corsair CX430 PSU

GT 430 or GT 440

Cheers guys,

hope you can get me some answers. If you don't know, ask someone who does please

 

[Luger718]

why not a athlon ii quad core? sounds like a good trade up 2 moe cores but no unlocked multiplier...and if its just for general use itll be a great cpu for about the same price

EDIT: sorry i didnt read enough.....didnt your post about the athlon ii x4 640...... i think its better compared to the phenom ii x2..... the L3 cache doesnt make a whopping difference...only a few percent from what ive seen

i say quad core no L3 > dual core with L3

 

[d3fu5i0n]

why not a athlon ii quad core? sounds like a good trade up 2 moe cores but no unlocked multiplier...and if its just for general use itll be a great cpu for about the same price

EDIT: sorry i didnt read enough.....didnt your post about the athlon ii x4 640...... i think its better compared to the phenom ii x2..... the L3 cache doesnt make a whopping difference...only a few percent from what ive seen

i say quad core no L3 > dual core with L3

Ugghh... I've explained all this (sorry if I sound rude, I'm not planning to). I've used the top Athlon II quad core before - the 640. It doesn't deliver a highly 'snappy' responsiveness. The cache is only 2 or 4MB over the whole of the AM3 chip. The 550BE has 6MB on it. That means not only can I unlock more cores and cache (a possibility, and if I go for a good MB), but it's also a Black Edition/BE with an unlocked multi. etcetera.

I'm planning for my dad to go, MicroATX on the 880G chipset. The 550BE or 555BE, depending on the price when the purchasing time arrives. Unlock it to quad. have a GT430 or GT440 (if the de-interlacing and advantages on Media Centre are still true). CX430 PSU and 2x2GB of 1333 RAM (with heatspreaders).

 

[Luger718]

Ugghh... I've explained all this (sorry if I sound rude, I'm not planning to). I've used the top Athlon II quad core before - the 640. It doesn't deliver a highly 'snappy' responsiveness. The cache is only 2 or 4MB over the whole of the AM3 chip. The 550BE has 6MB on it. That means not only can I unlock more cores and cache (a possibility, and if I go for a good MB), but it's also a Black Edition/BE with an unlocked multi. etcetera.

I'm planning for my dad to go, MicroATX on the 880G chipset. The 550BE or 555BE, depending on the price when the purchasing time arrives. Unlock it to quad. have a GT430 or GT440 (if the de-interlacing and advantages on Media Centre are still true). CX430 PSU and 2x2GB of 1333 RAM (with heatspreaders).

yea just disregard my old post meant to edit it even more... should of read everything before posting...and yea a phenom x2 will most likely unlock extra cores and give better performance then an athlon

youve actually inspire me to build a similar pc...for my uncle though

hes been trying to get me to fix a 10 year old pc (athlon 64 1.6Ghz)

its surprisingly hard to explain to people the idea of obsolete tech

oh and do you need to go nVidia for the media center advantages or does either company's gpu do that?

 

[d3fu5i0n]

oh and do you need to go nVidia for the media center advantages or does either company's gpu do that?

Well... that's my question. But I've looked at the Sapphire 5570 XtendTV. It's a 5570 with 1GB GDDR5 (Good for high-res displays). It has a TV-IN so you can plug a "bog-standard" TV aerial cable in to it to view really high quality TV through media center. Essentially it's a great HTPC/Multimedia card and a TV tuner in one. It also allows you to record the TV broadcasts through the TV aerial to your storage device (HDD, SSD etcetera).

That's on my mind at the moment.

 

[Luger718]

Well... that's my question. But I've looked at the Sapphire 5570 XtendTV. It's a 5570 with 1GB GDDR5 (Good for high-res displays). It has a TV-IN so you can plug a "bog-standard" TV aerial cable in to it to view really high quality TV through media center. Essentially it's a great HTPC/Multimedia card and a TV tuner in one. It also allows you to record the TV broadcasts through the TV aerial to your storage device (HDD, SSD etcetera).

That's on my mind at the moment.

that card sounds BA you should look more into it and lemme know

 

[d3fu5i0n]

that card sounds BA you should look more into it and lemme know

Sure.

I think the only part I need help with now is the motherboard. Support IS a MUST! And in general a stable board, with stable unlocking of cores.

I did ask Tom Logan if he could check my post, but I know he's busy with OC3D all the time and general life etcetera. So I don't blame him xD

 

[Fez]

Hope it all goes well