First time build - what do you think?

[pyrothrax0x]

I am building my first computer intended as a fairly good gaming unit but with a top budget of £800 including screen, so about £610-£630 is the budget for other parts. my question, is their any improvment that any one can think of whilst staying within the budget or equivalent parts have a better power for money than what i have chosen?

Motherboard
ASUS sabertooth 990FX AMD AM3+ DDR3 £130
Quite like this as its good for overclocking if your a noob (which i am).

Prosesser
AMD bulldozer FX-4100 3.6GHz black edition £91

Case
T9 Sharkoon value green case £50
looks awsome especaly in my room, does any one know of any improvments that can be made to this case regarding cooling.

Ram
Kingston 8GB (2x4GB) 1600MHz £40


PSU
OCuk 750W V2 Swift with one 6xpin pci-e connection £35
i think the GPU i have selected only needs one 6xpin PCI-e connector

GPU
ATI 6870 1GB sapphire GDDR5 £130
friend said ATI were unreliable with their drivers but eqivelent card is more expensive

cooling
stock

other nessasery parts:
Arctic silver themral paste
150 GB/s network card
22x DVD-rw
500GB spin point F3 samsung HDD

Thank you in advance, any help or advice is greatly apreciated.
Tom

 

[r0aringdrag0n]

1. You do not need thermal paste, the Stock fan already has some pre-applied, you only need it if you're going to be using an aftermarket Heatsink and Fan.
2. Watch out, if you're buying locally, ask what BIOS version is installed. Some AM3+ motherboards don't support the FX CPUs out of box, and you'll need to flash the BIOS, which requires an AM3 CPU...so be aware...the newest BIOS is 0705:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3Plus/SABERTOOTH_990FX/#CPUS
3. Your friend lies. I have a Radeon 6870 and everything works, it's fantasic and I can run most modern games at 60FPS at max and 1920x1080.
4. I would not buy that PSU, since I've never heard of that company, and chances are, they make unreliable PSUs. An unreliable PSU could fry your whole system, so I recommend you invest some money into the PSU. I would go with brands such as:
OCZ, Corsair, Seasonic, Antec, FSP

 

[pyrothrax0x]

Thanks for your reply

yes i had picked up on the BIOS revision, i have sent a message to the retailer to ask if they can definatley supply the newer mother board. no reply at the moment. part of their company builds ready made computers to sell so they should be ably to find out.

The retalier is Overclockers UK in case any ones interested

now looking at the BeQuite 530W L7 '80plus' PSU which someone else recomended on another forum.

i would have eventuly bought a aftermarket CPU cooler as i plan to overclock the bulldozer, make it better value for money, but it won't happen for the first few months.

 

[pyrothrax0x]

Regarding the thermal paste, do they dry out if left within their origanal packaging.
and how often should you replace them.

Tom