£750-900+ GamingRig Xfire

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mrmain

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Jan 30, 2009
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Hello there,

Looking for some advice on a £900 Gaming Rig. My hope is to leave myself room to upgrade when the need arises in about a year or so i guess.

It will be just for gaming, quiet is a consideration, 1680x1080 res, will be Oc'ing, Xfire in the future, buying most parts over this weekend.

I'm not totally sure of my maths but the £900+ was for the whole lot and not what i have to spend. Right now i'm looking at £600 without monitor, GPU or RAM as i have bought, borrowed (but not stolen) them all ready. I'm unsure of the make of the monitor i'll be borrowing but i think it's 1280x1024 res.

Here's what i'm considering so far.........

Computer Specs
prices in brackets from magazines

GPU:
Saphire ATI Radeon HD4870 1024mb (Bought) £145
on special from OCUK
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151334

Memory:
2x2GB Corsair 12-4-4-4 2.1v 1062mhz PC2-8500 (Bought) £35
on special, unable to find product link

Case:
Cooler master 690 £63.24
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coolermaster-CM-690-V2-Dominator-Black-Midi-Tower-Case-with-Mesh-Top-Panel-w-o-PSU

Optical Drive:
Sony Optairc/NEC AD 7200S-OB (£16),
or other similiar

HD:
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB £63.24
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-244-WD

PSU:
Corsair TX 750W £103.98
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-011-CS

Cooling:
Scythe Mugen £41.26
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158603

Keyboard&Mouse:
Basic £30

Other:
Thermal Paste, Cable Ties, etc £10

OS:
Vista Home Premium 64 £136
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142788

Monitor:
LG Flatron W2252TQ 22" Widescreen (£154.10)
or something in similiar price range at a later date

CPU and Motherboard:
??? About £200-300 for both


The advice i'm really looking on is x-fire mobo's, do i really need 2xPCIe2.0x16 at Dualx16 if i wanted to put in a 2x4870 with the single i got in a year?
Would an E5200 be enough for this setup for now intill Q9660 prices come down?
Should i bump the budget up or down? Or save money and plan on going i7 in a year? Not to mention AMD looking good right now.
Honestly, i have been looking into these questions a lot for a while now but the more i know the less i understand seems to ring true. :)

Thoughts?
 
You do not need dual X16, no. There is little to no difference if they run at x8 in crossfire... depending on board and drivers of course.

I would change up some things. Do you need dual or quad cores? Have a look at my guide at the top of the forum or in my sig, and read the part about quad vs. dual cores. See which is right for you... I'll make a few suggestions on other parts in the meantime.
 
From Tomshardware's tests, going dual x16 has a 5-15% FPS increase over x8/x8. Whether that's worth the money or not is your choice.

If you're on a budget, I'd grab a Phenom 720 or 940 and a decent motherboard. With the 720, as it's AM3 socket, you don't need a new mobo later on when you want to upgrade your processor, like you will if you invest in an LGA775.

I'd grab a Caviar Black instead of the Blue
 
Cooler master 690 Really excellent cooling at a good price. Unlike the Antec 300, no extra fans are needed up front.

Scythe Mugen CPU cooler Versatile top rated cooler that will work for any processor.

650W is technically enough, but 750W leaves more margin for crossfire and future expansion:
Corsair 750TX
Be Quiet! 750W You pay more for modularity, and honestly I only know these guy be reputation. Be Quiet may not make as high quality as Corsair or PC P&C... I have no measurements for them.

 



There may be enough difference in 790GX and 790FX to warrant the more deluxe board for crossfire, but for Intel boards it was concluded around the first of the year that there was no difference WITH MATURE DRIVERS between X48 and P45 boards. There was actually a great article done right here at TH on the subject, but I can't find it now.
 
Some good recommendations there, thank you very much. I shall edit my specs in due course.

With Intel, a Duo core would be what i needed. I'd be more inclined to buy cheap and save, so i can go i7 when its cheaper........

.........with going AMD socket 3, i wouldn't need to? I do like the look of the 790FX mobo's out there.

Cheery







 
From: Why_Me
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P iP45 Socket 775 7.1 channel audio ATX Motherboard
Memory

4 x *1.8V* DDR2 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory
Dual channel memory architecture

Would the voltage be an issue with my 2.1v memory?
 
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