Need Help - Who would of funk it

[Darkeagle]

OK so i guess everyone already knows that i am, lets say easily led, anyway, im looking for a new computer before i37 with my price range around 700-800. So i have asked several people to get different opinions.

So im going to show the different specs and i would like people to tell me witch one i should go with, or to make up there own.

Ok first off:

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £149.98
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4890 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.98
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £107.99
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK)
£71.98
Lian Li PC-A07B Aluminium Midi-Tower - Black (No PSU)
£66.69
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM
£53.99
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel
£46.99
Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £679.96

2:

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail + World In Conflict PC Game £208.99
£208.99
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4890 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.98
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
£143.99
Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600MHz) Low Latency Tri-Channel (PVT36G1600LLK)
£75.99
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK) £71.98
£71.98
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD6401AALS)
£53.99
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU)
£44.99
Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £782.28

3:

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £149.98
Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4890 Plus 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics £149.98
MSI 790FX-GD70 AMD 790FX (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
Samsung 64GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (MMCRE64G5MPP-0VA00) £90.99
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK) £71.98
Coolermaster Storm 'Scout' Gaming Case - (No PSU)
£66.99
OCZ Platinum AMD Edition 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Dual Channel (OCZ3P1600LVAM4GK)
£54.99

Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM )
£43.99


Pioneer DVR-217FBK 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM
£17.99

£791.25

4:

http://i513.photobucket.com/albums/t333/piers1989/DEultimate.jpg
But with this instead of that motherboard http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/38077/Gigabyte-motherboard-EP45C-DS3-LGA775-P45-1600FSB

I know its allot to read, but i really want this buy to be right, so thanks, if you could make a even better spec then, i would very much appreciate it

[Colonel Mitch]

OK so i guess everyone already knows that i am, lets say easily led, anyway, im looking for a new computer before i37 with my price range around 700-800. So i have asked several people to get different opinions.

So im going to show the different specs and i would like people to tell me witch one i should go with, or to make up there own.

Ok first off:

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £149.98
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4890 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.98
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £107.99
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK)
£71.98
Lian Li PC-A07B Aluminium Midi-Tower - Black (No PSU)
£66.69
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM
£53.99
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel
£46.99
Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £679.96

2:

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail + World In Conflict PC Game £208.99
£208.99
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4890 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.98
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
£143.99
Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600MHz) Low Latency Tri-Channel (PVT36G1600LLK)
£75.99
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK) £71.98
£71.98
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD6401AALS)
£53.99
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU)
£44.99
Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £782.28

3:

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £149.98
Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4890 Plus 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics £149.98
MSI 790FX-GD70 AMD 790FX (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
Samsung 64GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (MMCRE64G5MPP-0VA00) £90.99
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK) £71.98
Coolermaster Storm 'Scout' Gaming Case - (No PSU)
£66.99
OCZ Platinum AMD Edition 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Dual Channel (OCZ3P1600LVAM4GK)
£54.99

Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM )
£43.99


Pioneer DVR-217FBK 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM
£17.99

£791.25

4:

http://i513.photobucket.com/albums/t333/piers1989/DEultimate.jpg
But with this instead of that motherboard http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...75-P45-1600FSB

I know its allot to read, but i really want this buy to be right, so thanks, if you could make a even better spec then, i would very much appreciate it

The only 1 with crossfire is the last one, also youll get a grilling for the AMD processors, but in my opinion they're ok.

If you want to save a bit you could drop down to DDR2, but tbh id keep the DDR3 for the future proofing.

[Vicious Horizon]

Buy all of them, then you won't be wrong.

In all seriousness, go with Mitch, he generally gets it right ;D

[VoX]

He doesn't VH, if he knew about i7, he would know EVERY i7 board supports CrossFire, and that board by GB also supports SLI (With a BIOS update I think.)

Also, EVERY motherboard there supports CrossFireX, infact, they should all support QuadFire, with the MSI also supporting TriFire with 3 single AMD GPUs and all doing TriFire with an X2 GPU board and a single GPU.



See, Mitch isn't always right :p.


In terms of the AMD CPUs, they're all the black edition ones, so grab an Arctic Freezer 64 (http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/11432/Arctic-Cooling-Freezer-64-Pro-AMD-64-upto-5000---) (If it supports AM3, will do some research into that) as the unlocked multiplier = awesome OC potential. (Although to hit mega speeds, the Freezer64 won't cut it, but I'm trying to keep the costs down here)

For the i7, the D0 920 (What is in spec #2) can hit 4Ghz easily on air (providing you get a good chip) but you will need to spend around £30 or so on a cooler such as the Titan Fenrir (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Titan-Fenrir-TTC-NK85TZ-120mm-PWM-17dBAplus-HDT-CPU-Cooler-(775-1366-K8-AM2-AM3)) (not stocked on MD) or the Prolimatech Megahalems (que the schoolgirl giggling, also not stocked on MD) but that is expensive and doesn't come with a fan (The Fenrir comes with a decent-ish fan.)


(Also, edited post so that the mobo link works, must be something to do with the spoiler tag messing long links up...)

[Colonel Mitch]

He doesn't VH, if he knew about i7, he would know EVERY i7 board supports CrossFire, and that board by GB also supports SLI (With a BIOS update I think.)

Also, EVERY motherboard there supports CrossFireX, infact, they should all support QuadFire, with the MSI also supporting TriFire with 3 single AMD GPUs and all doing TriFire with an X2 GPU board and a single GPU.



See, Mitch isn't always right :p.


In terms of the AMD CPUs, they're all the black edition ones, so grab an Arctic Freezer 64 (http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/11432/Arctic-Cooling-Freezer-64-Pro-AMD-64-upto-5000---) (If it supports AM3, will do some research into that) as the unlocked multiplier = awesome OC potential. (Although to hit mega speeds, the Freezer64 won't cut it, but I'm trying to keep the costs down here)

For the i7, the D0 920 (What is in spec #2) can hit 4Ghz easily on air (providing you get a good chip) but you will need to spend around £30 or so on a cooler such as the Titan Fenrir (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Titan-Fenrir-TTC-NK85TZ-120mm-PWM-17dBAplus-HDT-CPU-Cooler-(775-1366-K8-AM2-AM3)) (not stocked on MD) or the Prolimatech Megahalems (que the schoolgirl giggling, also not stocked on MD) but that is expensive and doesn't come with a fan (The Fenrir comes with a decent-ish fan.)


(Also, edited post so that the mobo link works, must be something to do with the spoiler tag messing long links up...)

I was in a rush when i picked that msi mobo, i told de id quickly run a system up. when he showed me the gigabte 1 i aggreed that was the one i'd been looking for.

Also he said he doesnt want to overclock, and for gaming having 2 4890's is going to make a much bigger difference than the cheapest i7 rather than a E8500. Also the E8500 runs so cold and starts at 3.16ghz, its a breeze to get past 4GHz (i no thjis isnt the same as an i7 @ that spped vox, but how much difference is it going to make in any game when compared to twice the graphics).

I never disputed that the i7 boards were crossfire compatible, but they dont have crossfire on in that system, and would be significantly more expensive if they did (£140 ish i believe).

[Colonel Mitch]

As difficult as this may be for you to grasp, I'm not saying any of the other builds are bad (apart from the waste of monry on the corsair psu), just that to meet what DE wants to do with his computer having a decent processor and 2 mega graphics cards will perform much better than an awsome cpu and 1 card at gaming tasks.

Have you ever monitored your cpu in game, even in crysis? On vista x64 with 6gb ram it loads up 85% og the ram, but even when playing the cpu flails around 10-25%, and in terms of fps doesnt change with overlocking. If i disable crossfire on my 4870x2 it drops to about 25 fps but when its enabled i get 40+. (everything maxed out (16x aa etc) @ 1680x1050 ofc).

This is the difference between unplayable and perfect, and im pretty sure a better processor isnt going to bridge the gap.

[ez64]

But then there the is the problem of fiddling with crossfire/sli for certain games that you wont even get huge performance differences out of.

I still think its worth buying one decent card instead of two lower end ones and fussing about.

[Colonel Mitch]

But then there the is the problem of fiddling with crossfire/sli for certain games that you wont even get huge performance differences out of.

I still think its worth buying one decent card instead of two lower end ones and fussing about.

Crossfire is less than sli for setup, basically its check 1 box in catalyst and turn off the Catalyst AI and done.

Also this isnt buying 2 low end cards Ez, its buying 2 Top end cards.

[VoX]

Mitch, in most games my CPU goes up to 100% load, especially one that involves any type of AI. Admittedly this is not all cores, normally only core 0 and 1.


I'm also with ez on the amount of GPUs. Although most new games and pretty much all new releases support CrossFire/SLI, although some handle it in ways that are not the best.

A single 4890 will beat a fair amount of things atm, and when it starts to struggle and prices are low, you could pick up another one. 2x 4890s and the i7 setup will be unstoppable (until the 5xxx and GTX3xx series are out ofcourse, but then it will still hold its own against them, and I doubt there will be many games that will fully utilise the power of the GPUs.)

[Colonel Mitch]

Mitch, in most games my CPU goes up to 100% load, especially one that involves any type of AI. Admittedly this is not all cores, normally only core 0 and 1.


I'm also with ez on the amount of GPUs. Although most new games and pretty much all new releases support CrossFire/SLI, although some handle it in ways that are not the best.

A single 4890 will beat a fair amount of things atm, and when it starts to struggle and prices are low, you could pick up another one. 2x 4890s and the i7 setup will be unstoppable (until the 5xxx and GTX3xx series are out ofcourse, but then it will still hold its own against them, and I doubt there will be many games that will fully utilise the power of the GPUs.)

What games are you running that can max out a core on your processor???

[Vicious Horizon]

Yeah, I haven't played games that crunch my laptop's processor 100%, other than RTW with everything maxed.

[VoX]

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/1729/photo0103i.jpg

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/1324/photo0105s.jpg


They a bit blurry, but you can clearly make out the %s.

[Colonel Mitch]

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/1729/photo0103i.jpg

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/1324/photo0105s.jpg


They a bit blurry, but you can clearly make out the %s.

23 people playing, maxed out settings (only 1 gfx core running, hence fps)
as you can see lots happening and cpu at 65%.

Processor at stock speeds 3.16ghz. runnig at 35-38* when cooled, if i turn off my pump so its jsut disipating latent heat into the cooler (which has no fins for air) it went up to 65* but no more than 67*.

http://i513.photobucket.com/albums/t333/piers1989/tf2.jpg

This bitch runs damn cold xD

[Deri]

Windowed Mode.

Semi-raged :D

[Colonel Mitch]

Windowed Mode.

Semi-raged :D

without dual screens i cudnt screenshot tf2 and taskmanager.