What Motherboard should I buy for Q6600 + HD4850 XF?

[strengthofmind]

CPU - Q6600 G0 (£113)
Cooler - Thermalright IFX-14 (£36)
Mobo?
PSU - Corsair HX620W (£77)
HDD - 150GB Raptor (£110)
RAM - 2x 2GB Corsair PC2-6400 (£53)
or 2x 2GB Corsair PC2-8500 (£82)
GPU - 2x HD4850 512MB (CF) (£112 each)
Chassis - Antec 900 (£67)
Optical - LG GGC H20L BD-ROM (£62)

~£745 + Mobo

Any suggestions or comments?

[Zhaoman]

X48 based board to use the full potential of XF but they are incredibly expensive.

Asus P5Q Pro or Asus P5Q-E should be just what you need. They don't offer the full x16 lanes but x8 lanes don't make any difference to performance on today's cards.

[richieuk]

GPU - 2x HD4850 512MB (CF) (£112 each)

Overkill mate... You don't need 2 at all!
Don't cave to big number, save the £30 on the ram and get the 6400... it'll overclock and the difference isn't great between speeds.

I personally been looking at the P5Q Pro but if your insistant on 2 grahpics card *WHY O LORD* then you'll need to look an an x series mobo to support full 16x/16x crossfire apparently.

What screen you using?

EDIT// Zhao you git, beat me to it lol

[Zhaoman]

Sorry

[Pob255]

Also a word of warning about the Thermalright IFX-14
I'm not sure if it will fit in that case, it's the back cooler part, you need 3 inches of clearence above the top right of the motherboard if I remember correctly, it's pritty much designed for a case where the psu sits above the motherboard which make for plenty of space above the top right of the motherboard.

[strengthofmind]

I'd just read that dual 4850s was the best setup going, and it didn't seem too expensive. So you recommend I should go for a single card? Stick with the 4850, or go for 4870 or 9800GTX?

I also read the IFX-14 was one of the best performing coolers. What should I get instead?

And you recommend the P5Q Pro (~£75) with the Q6600.

(The X48 mobo seem to start from £125.)

And I'll probably be using 1050x1680 or more.

[wzix]

Well if you have the money for 2x4850's just go for a 4870

[strengthofmind]

Thanks for the advice so far guys. I really don't mind changing any of the components.

So far

CPU - Q6600 G0 (£113)
Cooler?
Mobo - Asus P5Q Pro (£78)
PSU - Corsair HX620W (£77)
HDD - 150GB Raptor (£110)
RAM - 2x 2GB Corsair PC2-6400 (£53)
GPU - HD4870 512MB (£169)
Chassis - Antec 900 (£67)
Optical - LG GGC H20L BD-ROM (£62)

£729 + cooler.

[richieuk]

The Xigmatek stole my heart, I can't see alot of difference between itself and a high-end like the True (ThermalRiteUltraExtreme), with the Xiggy coming in at only £22 from SCAN...

Mind you,if you order before sunday midnight, most of that stuff is on offer on SCAN in todays offers... My build priced up about £40 cheapedr overall...

And I'll probably be using 1050x1680 or more.

I like the 4870 in that case

[richieuk]

CPU - Q6600 G0 (£111) (Sale + Free Skype speakerphone)
Cooler - Xiggy (£22)
Mobo - Asus P5Q Pro (£78)
PSU - Corsair HX620W (£75) (Sale on SCAN)
HDD - 640GB WD AAKS (£50) (320GB platters i've heard are very close to the Raptors)(Sale on SCAN)
RAM - 2x 2GB Corsair PC2-6400 (£51) (Sale on SCAN)
GPU - HD4870 512MB (£169)
Chassis - Antec 900 (£64) (Sale on SCAN)
Optical - LG GGC H20L BD-ROM (£62)

Price : £685 approximately (inc cooler, but exc monitor, headphone/speakers, mouse, keyboard - Assume you have these)
or £745 with Raptor instead

If you don't get free shipping from your other provider, you can get the other things there on sale at scan too, a little dearer but all with free shipping.

Similar setup, with some prices cheaper from SCAN sales. Also a suggestion about the HD

[strengthofmind]

Is that the Xigmatek HDT-S1283? It looks scarce but getable from google search (1 in stock, 1 on ebay.) Is the Zalman CNPS9700 (£33) still a good option? It was a while back when I last bought a cooler.

The 640GB WD looks good. There's not much news out on the 1TB, 334GB per platter WD10EACS 00D6B0, so for the moment it looks like a good bet.

Given I probably wont be running dual GPUs, is the 620W still advisable? My old rig ran a HD2900 Pro et al. on a Seasonic S12 550W. Although the HX520W is only £13 cheaper.

richieuk, I see you have a similar set up, but you went for a Antec 300 (£35), a 320GB HDD (£34), and you're already using the v. new 9800GT (£81). Were those purely for budget constraints / bang for buck, or another reason?

[wzix]

Price : £685 approximately (inc cooler, but exc monitor, headphone/speakers, mouse, keyboard - Assume you have these)

And the OS

[strengthofmind]

Yeah it would normally cost ~£50 for an OS but I got 4 legit Microsoft keys through MSDN AA.
I do have the rest (monitor, headphone/speakers, mouse, keyboard) but I'll probably upgrade them when I get the money.

[ikix]

Is that the Xigmatek HDT-S1283? It looks scarce but getable from google search (1 in stock, 1 on ebay.) Is the Zalman CNPS9700 (£33) still a good option? It was a while back when I last bought a cooler.

The 640GB WD looks good. There's not much news out on the 1TB, 334GB per platter WD10EACS 00D6B0, so for the moment it looks like a good bet.

Given I probably wont be running dual GPUs, is the 620W still advisable? My old rig ran a HD2900 Pro et al. on a Seasonic S12 550W. Although the HX520W is only £13 cheaper.

richieuk, I see you have a similar set up, but you went for a Antec 300 (£35), a 320GB HDD (£34), and you're already using the v. new 9800GT (£81). Were those purely for budget constraints / bang for buck, or another reason?

Get the TRUE (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=676579), a brilliant cooler and will allow for awsome temps.

I have the WD hard drive and its a good bet, go for it!

I have the Corsair HX620, if you're running any single card on the market it is fine, but if you have plans for dual GPU in the future maybe go for somewhere around 750W or 800W. Apart from that more than adequate, and its great being modular.

[jonh17]

Get the TRUE (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=676579), a brilliant cooler and will allow for awsome temps.

I have the WD hard drive and its a good bet, go for it!

I have the Corsair HX620, if you're running any single card on the market it is fine, but if you have plans for dual GPU in the future maybe go for somewhere around 750W or 800W. Apart from that more than adequate, and its great being modular.

agreed, very good, solid and reliable psu.

[amrit3568]

CPU - Q6600 G0 (£113)
Cooler - Thermalright IFX-14 (£36)
Mobo?
PSU - Corsair HX620W (£77)
HDD - 150GB Raptor (£110)
RAM - 2x 2GB Corsair PC2-6400 (£53)
or 2x 2GB Corsair PC2-8500 (£82)
GPU - 2x HD4850 512MB (CF) (£112 each)
Chassis - Antec 900 (£67)
Optical - LG GGC H20L BD-ROM (£62)

~£745 + Mobo

Any suggestions or comments?

For the mobo i would recommend the Asus P5Q Deluxe as i have one and its amazing = £129.02
My E8500 is running at 4.0ghz and i only had to alter 2 settings in the bios.
Cooler i would recommend Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro as its rated upto 4.4ghz and = £15.26.


Just my two pence worth.