[ PC Gaming ]

Building a rig with an AMD Phenom X4 9950

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief August 24, 2008 · 2 min read

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Received an AMD Phenom X4 9950 for review last week which came with a Gigabyte motherboard and a huge ATI Radeon HD4870 X2 graphics card. I thought I’d build a gaming machine with this test unit and compare it with my own Intel Code 2 Quad X6600.

The Phenom X4 9950 is currently the fastest CPU coming out of AMD. Codenamed, Agena, the quad-core CPU runs at 2.6GHz built from a 65nm process.

The graphics card is a Palit ATI Radeon HD4870 X2 512-bit GDDR5 with 2GB of memory, dual-link DVI and TV-out/HDMI. This monster is a power-guzzler that you will need at least 650watts or higher for your power supply.

ATI Radeon HD

I checked around with several local online PC shops and couldn’t find any price listing. It costs $550 in the US so expect to shell out more than Php25,000 when this one becomes available in the Philippines.

The motherboard is also a fresh new one out of Gigabyte. Part of the S-Series, the MA790GP-DS4H mobo supports Dual Channel DDR2 1066MHz, has an integrated ATI Radeon HD3300 graphics as well as a built-in 128MB DDR3 1333MHz SidePort Memory.

Gigabyte motherboard

My problem now is that the PSU I bought for building this rig is only rated at 600watts. Haven’t seen any power supply higher than that.

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Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and is considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines.

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29 Comments

jOEM · 17 years ago

is AMD phenom available in the philippines????

vaughn · 18 years ago

yeah dont ever pair a dynamo power supply with high-end components. a decent branded 600w power supply should do (corsair/silverstone/pc power & cooling etc) even though it says 600w as long as you run just the bare components. 1200w is overkill :D i guess there’s no problem with that though since you will be able to borrow it for free :)

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief · 18 years ago

@Viril – was thinking of that as well but was worried I might fried the parts. :D

@Anonemus – thanks for the tip. I already asked if I could also borrow a Gigabyte Odin PSU. I’m not willing to spend more money to finish this review. Already bought a CoolerMaster casing, RAM and extra peripherals for this.

Btw, I think that was The Beat at QTV. ;)

Anonemus · 18 years ago

The HD4870X2 really needs a quality, beefy PSU. One option is Fortron’s Everest 700W at only P5,750 by pc_reform of tipidpc.

OT: I saw Yuga at a local TV show the other night. Nice monitor! :)

Viril Calimlim · 18 years ago

Just an idea: you could always buy a separate power supply and connect the hard drive / optical drive, video card, fan, etc and leave the internal one for the motherboard / processor. It may look awkward though. :)

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief · 18 years ago

@GM Tristan – will sure try that one out! ;)

@jun, yeah, pretty expensive. Asked them if they could also lend me a Gigabyte Odin 1200 PSU. Hopefully, they have one in stock.

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief · 18 years ago

@lloyd, yeah, saw the Gigabyte Odin 1200 at Rising Sun. It costs Php12k!

Lloyd Lopez · 18 years ago

Corsair are good. Another option is Gigabyte’s Odin PSUs

Andrew · 18 years ago

yep. my problem always is PSU before, i’ve replaced twice and even got a memo for not being online cuz my rig is dead. Ive bought on my 3rd replacement an HEC550, so far it gives great result and ive seen my pc specs true performance. So i recommend a branded PSU for high-end rigs.

GM Tristan · 18 years ago

Hey Abe! Just chek if it can play Crysis at full resolution. That’s my benchmark…

Enjoy!

jun · 18 years ago

hehe, bad idea abe. get a corsair hx620 for about 5,900 at pchub.

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief · 18 years ago

Yup, it says 650 watts or higher in the front of the box. Uh-oh, I bought the cheap Dynamo Pro 600.

Andre Marcelo-Tanner · 18 years ago

Does it say you specifically need a 650W+ Power Supply? You can probably find one at PC Hub, though I haven’t checked there lately, usually though its not about the watts always, even a lower wattage power supply can run it if has enough voltage in both power lines, I forgot where I read it but the cheap power supplies can be bad even if they have high wattage because their power is not stable, but then spending like 4-5k on a branded power supply can get you a reliable power supply that will run any video card.