going to build my first gaming pc. will this work?

[gary2010]

i have been looking at the gigabyte ga-ma785gm-785g socket am2+ matx motherboard and the processor is an amd athlon 2 x4 630 socket am3 2.8ghz 2mb l2 cache. will this processor work with the am2+ socket?

i will also need a psu but i could only find a 300w micro atx psu. will the atx psu work with the gigabyte board?

iv never built a pc before so this will be my first im just looking to get a motherboard and processor first with a new case and psu.

the gigabyte board is £79.99
the processor is £109.99
and i was looking to spend about £40 on a case and £50 or £60 on a psu.
i have a dual layer burner that i can use and a 200gb ide hdd, but i was thinking of getting a 1tb sata hdd.

any help would be nice thank you.

 

[adaeon]

Well, as for the processor, I'd like to have that lol. I have
a 2.4 GHz Celeron Dual Core. But... for an AM3 processor
to work, the board has to support it. If your board is just
AM2/AM2+ then it's not going to work. However, there are
some cheap boards that do all 3. (AM2, AM2+, AM3).

As for the PSU, you might want 450w or higher, depending
on the video card you want.

I didn't see you mention a video card, but surely you aren't
going to play games with integrated graphics. If you're going
for Nvidia, I'd recommend a GeForce 9800 or better. As for
ATI, I'd recommend at least a Radeon HD 4670.

RAM... I'd recommend at least 2 GB, depending on your
gaming style. If you're a hardcore gamer, you may want
4 GB or more, of at least 1066 MHz speed. You can go
DDR2 or DDR3 for 1066 but make sure your board supports
that type of RAM. Note that only Socket AM3 AMD processors
support DDR3 memory.

Now, for the case. I'd recommend getting a little bit more
expensive of a case... it'll pay off in the end; you don't want
your components overheating due to lack of air flow. My
case has a 80mm fan in the side, a 120mm fan in the front,
and a 120mm fan in the rear, plus an exhaust fan on the
power supply. I haven't had any problems with overheating
yet, even with overclocking.

DO NOT use an IDE hard drive. They are getting to be VERY
slow compared to all the hard drives out there now. Also,
if you are just gaming, you may not need a full 1 TB. I'm
doing fine with a 500 GB 7200 RPM SATA hard drive.

The dual layer burner is fine; I don't think you would need
an upgrade there unless you want to watch Blu-Ray's on
your computer, in which case a Blu-Ray player for an HDTV
is cheaper.

Good luck building your computer!

 

[gary2010]

yeah il be getting a graphic card but thats last on my list at the minute how much is the graphic card that you suggested?

il have a look for a mobo with the am3 socket tomorrow or i might just look for a processor to fit the am2+ board if its cheaper .

i might even just get a dual core or triple core if there such thing, i wil just be buying the parts every other week and il put it together when its all there. il just have to see what happens.

thanks for the help im sure il have more questions tomorrow when im doin more research.

 

[patonb]

Why do you need a micro psu? Micro mobos don't need micro psus. This'll open up your choices alot.

Welcome to TF.

 

[95BlackGA]

Well, as for the processor, I'd like to have that lol. I have
a 2.4 GHz Celeron Dual Core. But... for an AM3 processor
to work, the board has to support it. If your board is just
AM2/AM2+ then it's not going to work. However, there are
some cheap boards that do all 3. (AM2, AM2+, AM3).

RAM... I'd recommend at least 2 GB, depending on your
gaming style. If you're a hardcore gamer, you may want
4 GB or more, of at least 1066 MHz speed. You can go
DDR2 or DDR3 for 1066 but make sure your board supports
that type of RAM. Note that only Socket AM3 AMD processors
support DDR3 memory.

Now, for the case. I'd recommend getting a little bit more
expensive of a case... it'll pay off in the end; you don't want
your components overheating due to lack of air flow. My
case has a 80mm fan in the side, a 120mm fan in the front,
and a 120mm fan in the rear, plus an exhaust fan on the
power supply. I haven't had any problems with overheating
yet, even with overclocking.

DO NOT use an IDE hard drive. They are getting to be VERY
slow compared to all the hard drives out there now. Also,
if you are just gaming, you may not need a full 1 TB. I'm
doing fine with a 500 GB 7200 RPM SATA hard drive.

My board is AM2/AM2+, but with BIOS updates, it supports AM3. Even if a board doesn't say it's AM3, doesn't mean it can't/won't support an AM3 processor. Just check the Manufacturer's site for CPU compatibility.

My board : Newegg.com - ASUS M3A76-CM AM2+/AM2 AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

It can support all AM3 processors up to the Phenom II 965.

My ram is 800Mhz (DDR2-800), and it works great, and is quite fast. Whichever is cheaper, is what I would suggest going for.

You can buy nice cases for his budget. Not sure if he can find them in EU (I suppose that's where he's from), but in the US, you can get an Antec 300 for less than that.

IDE hard drives are fine, especially if he's wanting to reuse one he already has. I haven't seen a huge performance gain between SATA II and IDE drives. This is TOTALLY dependent on the hard drive's internal configuration.

If he were to setup a raid 0 on SATA and IDE, then yes SATA would be the choice.

OP - Welcome to TF!!! Yes, that board you listed will support the 630. It will support all AM3 CPUs up to the 1090T Phenom II X6

 

[gary2010]

i have just been looking at Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 AM3 / AM2+ / AM2 ATX Motherboard, but this says it doesnt have windows 7 driver which i would like. could anyone advise a am3 socket motherboard for around a £100 something with space for 4 ram cards alot ive seen only have 2.

so the atx psu will work on the matx and atx motherboards? because there are alot more atx psu iv seen

thanks

 

[Muffin Man]

so the atx psu will work on the matx and atx motherboards? because there are alot more atx psu iv seen

atx and m-atx mobos use the same connections, a 20 or 24 pin mobo connection and a 4 or 8 pin cpu power connection; get an atx psu.

they are just different size form factors, with m-atx being the smaller one. if you go with a more commonly used mid tower case, just about all of them support both atx and m-atx mobos, so it shouldn't be a problem.

i have just been looking at Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 AM3 / AM2+ / AM2 ATX Motherboard, but this says it doesnt have windows 7 driver which i would like. could anyone advise a am3 socket motherboard for around a £100 something with space for 4 ram cards alot ive seen only have 2.

what do you mean? if you look at the manufacturer's spec page for tha mobo, you will find win7 drivers, both 32 and 64 bit.
GA-MA770-UD3 (rev. 1.0) - GIGABYTE - Support&Download - Motherboard - Driver

 

[gary2010]

so i found out the gigabyte board i was looking at didnt support windows 7, so iv been looking around at asus motherboards for around £80-£120. and iv found this "Asus M4A77D Skt AM3 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard" it sounds a good enought board to me so il think this is what il be getting.
im planning on getting a amd athlon 2 x4 630 socket am3 2.8 ghz 2mb l2 cache for the processor, will this work well?

im just going to worry about getting the right motherboard and processor at first then the case and psu. so if anyone can suggest a better mobo or processor for a nice price or any info on how these two would work together would be nice.

 

[adaeon]

Thanks 95black... I was not aware that you could do a BIOS
update to make AM3 work. I do agree that 800MHz is fast
RAM but I really like my 1066 lol.

By the way, I believe the Sapphire Radeon HD 4670, if it is
still there on Newegg.com... is about $90.00 USD. You could
always get a cheap version of it but your performance
would severely suffer, as it would likely be a 64-bit architecture
and would have slower memory. The Radeon HD 4350 512 MB
I used was slower than my 256 MB Radeon HD 2600 from my old
computer so I sold it on craigslist. I'm assuming it's because
the 4350 was 64-bit and the 2600 was 128-bit. Also, the
core clock was faster on the 4350 (650 MHz vs. 600 MHz) but
the memory was slower (650 MHz effective vs. 800 MHz effective).
I should not have bought that card in the first place.

Here's a motherboard that supports AM3, AM2+ AND AM2, just
in case you have never updated BIOS before and don't
trust yourself with it:

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-M68M-S2P AM3/AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 7025/nForce 630a chipset Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

I was lookin at it for a while and I think it would be an OK board,
but keep in mind, as I read in one of their reviews, that even
though it says DDR2 1066 MHz that you cannot change the
voltages to work as 1066 and it will only recognize it as 800 MHz.
So just buy 800 MHz RAM and save yourself a little bit of money.
A very cheap board too.

Good luck again, and thanks again 95Black you helped me too.