New Gaming System

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azzinoth

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Anyone have some last thoughts? I am about to order all the components (today). Reading final reviews of 4870 and GTX260 216... still dunno what shall I pick.
Prices at me are US prices +25%... -.- bastards :S I can list some of prices here... :(
 

rav3n

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Possibly look at a better mobo. As for the graphics card, you should probably get the cheaper one or the one that comes with the better accesories (eg free game, thats always a nice addition :D ) BUT the gtx260 is slightly faster then the 4870, so you probably wont notice the difference. Post your final build back here and how you go with it :)
 

azzinoth

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Will doit in an hour our so... Having hard time with dead HDs at work... restoring the data from dead drives is always pain in the a**.
 

azzinoth

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yey I am having a great time... with those dead HDs :D + one last question:
Is there any specific difference between this two: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R and Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P, the second one is my current choice... but the first one is cheaper and I wanna know why (no is not rabat..). I am really curious, since myself can't see the difference. The difference between thos two is 50$ at my place (45$ to be exact :p).

Thx
 

azzinoth

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Also to save additional money I got a really nice offer:
Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX+ 1GB GDDR3 DVI PCIe 2.0 for 150,00 EUR.
Since is in same range as Ge Force 260... for nearly half a price I think is a good deal for a least a few months until I try to CF two ATI GPUs.

Opinions opinions pls :D
 

rav3n

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Well if your getting the 9800gtx+ get an sli mobo so you dont waste money going to crossfire. Also the 9800gtx+ isn't in the same range as the gtx260, the 9800 is ALOT slower even though it has more gddr then the 260 (1gb compared to 896mb) i think the only difference between the 2 mobo's you mentioned is the more expensive one has advanced power saving options.(sounds like a bit of a con to me :??: )
 


9800GTX+ is a nice card, but it is not as good as the GTX260-216.

SLI/crossfire has been a poor upgrade path in the past. It should be used only by
those who will not currently be satisfied by the fastest available single vga card
which is currently the GTX295. The 4870, or GTX260-216
offer very good performance for the money now.
To get SLI. you have to spend more up front for a SLI capable mobo,a
more powerful SLI capable PSU, and better case cooling. Upgrading a single card later with a
second equal card does not get you 2x increase, it is more like 1.3x to 1.8x depending on the game.
At that time, you will still be paying top dollar for a card that is closer to
being obsolete.
It would be better to sell the old card and use the proceeds
towards a better new generation single card.

I think your upgrade plan would be better if you planned to sell the 9800GTX+ and replace it with a good jump to something like a GTX285.
If you just got a very good card like the 4870 or GTX260-216 up front you probably would be happy for a long time.

 

azzinoth

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Ok. No 9800GT+ for me, suggest SLI board for max 200$. I am getting 280GTX... I will get a good deal fopr one card. F*k ATI :D But only "good" board with SLI rhat I am aware of is XFX 750i (for that money) and then there are ASUS Striker and Striker II.

Suggest please, tomorrow at 12 I am ordering.

Build until now:
Case: Antec 300
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139006
MoBo: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P

or

SLI board that is gooood OCer!
CPU: E8500 + my old customized Thermaltake Sonic Tower cooler (with 3 RPM controllable fans for massive airburst :D ) http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spsho [...] at=0&page=
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820220335 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231192 (x2= 8 GB)
GPU: GTX280
HD: WD Black Caviar 1TB

This is mostly FINAl. Only mobo and GPU remains -.-
Let me hear your last thoughts.


Thx to you who are responding :)

(links are broken due to copy paste, look at my posting from before)
 


That gigabyte p45 is a fine board. The ud3L with one pci-e slot would do you as well, and be a bit cheaper.
Either you plan for sli and pay more for it up front, or you don't. I vote on planning on a single vga card.
When a gtx280 or 4870 is no longer good enough, you can sell it, and get a GTX295 or 4870X2. Most likely , by the end of the year, the 40nm parts will be out with single cards being more powerful and cheaper than either. Only if your gaming will use a 2540x1600 resolution does it make much sense to look at sli/crossfire today.
 

rav3n

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The GPU is fine, just look for a quality brand when buying it such as evga or inno3d. I'm not sure about the motherboard or that you really need sli anymore. Because your getting the gtx280 it will beat almost any sli setup out there. If you really want sli i suggest you switch to amd and get the same mobo and cpu as me: an Asrock K10N780SLIX3 and an AMD Phenom II 940. You still get very good performance and that way you have 3 way sli if you want. (I said switch to amd because intel can not and probably never will be able to beat amds price to performance ratio :D )
 

azzinoth

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I am sorry for very unreadable post before, I was in a hurry to LAN event...
I had discussion with some dudes there about GPUs. I played UT3 on system witn 2xGTX260 216. I was great, so I want that card badly, also price is very reasonable at my place. Before I was saying I am going for GTX280, I wasn't careful enough. I was only looking 1024 MB GPUs, so didn't even really notice 260 until 1 hour ago. Yay stupid me :D

Now I will post my final build, with only possible 2 variables:

Case: Antec 300 | Alternative for 75$ wanted|
MoBo: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P |Alternative XFX nForce 750i SLI or suggest cheap SLI OCer mobo, time is of the essence!|
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX |a few $$$ more for 100W|
CPU: E8500
RAM: Patriot Viper 4GB (4 x 2GB) |2x2 set|
GPU: GTX260 216
HD: WD Black Caviar 1TB

I really beg you dudes for some great SLI board. I really want to avoid nVidia chipset... and also wanna avoid 300$ mobos... if possible. Otherwise I'll be running nVidia GPU on CF certified board. ROLFMAO x)

Hmm alternative for a board is also GA-EP45-UD3R ( difference between GA-EP45-UD3P and UD3R is that UD3R have only 1x PCIe x16 (answering to my QQ from earlier today)

Also Thanks Geofelt for insight about performance gains of SLI/CF. I knew that wasn't x2. If I will get x1.5 performace gain in SLI I will be more than happy :)

Now help me find a suitable SLI board ... :D
 

rav3n

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Dont worry about the getting sli. The chances of you getting a x1.5 times performance gain are so low its not worth the extra dollars. Also the chances of you finding a sub $300 sli board without an nvidia chipset are very slim, come to think of it i have never seen an sli board with an nvidia chipset :(
 

azzinoth

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Man you are right again and again :D Well the only reasonable sruff I found:
http://www.xfxforce.com/en-gb/products/motherboards/7series/780.aspx#2

or her sister 750i. I guess, I will take 780i as testing subject, if I will not be happy with it I will simply takeit back and swap that mobo for Gigabyte with excuse " Our customer wants CF board, he will have 2x ATT GPU...". I can afford that since I am buying on company :)

Unless someone postes magical solution in 7 hours this is IT :)
 

xthekidx

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X58+i7 is the only way for SLI

Cheapest SLI X58 board is the GA-EX58-UD3R SLI, goes for $200.
 

xthekidx

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I know I am late coming to this discussion, but why not just get a 4870 1gb? Its just about equal to the GTX 260, in games that can use DX10.1, its actually better because ATI cards get a boost from it where Nvidia cards don't really. Then you can add another GPU later if you want. If you are ok with only getting 1 GPU and not going multi-GPU later, then take a look at some other options, since the GTX 275 and HD 4890 just got released today as well, both of which are a step above the GTX 260 and 4870 1gb. In the GTX 275 vs. 4890 comparisons I have seen, the GTX 275 seems to be a little faster, both are supposed to be in the same price range. The 4890 is a powerhog though, the GTX 275 is quite modest in its consumption for the kind of power it boasts.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-275,2266.html
 

azzinoth

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Case: Antec 300 | Alternative for 75$ wanted|
MoBo: XFX nForce 780i SLI|
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX |a few $$$ more for 100W|
CPU: E8500
RAM: Corsair 4GB (4 x 2GB) |2x2 set|
GPU: 1 x XFX GTX275
HD: WD Black Caviar 1TB

That was final build. I am waiting for components to arrive at my working place.
Now I only have to get some nice 12cm fans. Are Thermlatake A2029 still in or shall 'in' or something better on the market? ( I need 3 fans to further customize my Thermaltake Sonic Tower...)
 

azzinoth

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Man its cool :) If needed I will make additional holes into the case :) I am still hardware associative, 95% for HP workstations, but still I know what is need to be done.

Can I PM some of you guys when I will OC my new system?? Rav3n, xthekidx, geofelt, the t3h number guy 66576745 :D, ... :)

I really wanba push this system to the edge. I can get as manyfans as needed to aircool the sysem, also Al, Cu Coolers are easy to get at job.

BTW: What do you think about XFX GTX 275 cooling??
 

rav3n

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yeah you can pm me and i'll help as much as i can. If your going to be doing heavy overclocking i would suggest that you add in some extra fans to your case. I added an extra 6 fans to my case so i have a total of 12. :D
 

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