Can I get your opinions on these two offers please?

[moogle]

the cards are already out on pre-order from scan

[Noxvayl]

the cards are already out on pre-order from scan

Awesome that means reviews are bound to come out at the end of this week

EDIT: Correction BFG GTX280 review posted by hexus, just went through it and OMG what a waste of money that card is. Less than 10% real world gaming performance gains over the GX2 and in some cases even being beaten by the GX2 which is cheaper...

[Thorsson]

Wait for the ATI launch. I'm hoping for a one GPU card that gives 3870X2 performance at the same price, and isn't a monster.

Anyway to the OP, get Vista64 for sure - you'll get more use of the 4Gb.

[thegame]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all your help so far. I've been waiting for the new cards and asked a few manufacturers what they could do and they came up with the spec below.

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor(2.4GHz,8MB Cache,1066MHz)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium 64-bit Edition with SP 1
Coolermaster Cosmos S Ultra Performance Aluminium Chassis with 1000W PSU
PCI-Express Mainboard - SLi nForce 750i SLi - Intel Core2Duo/Quad Core - ATX
4GB DDR2 800MHz Memory (2x 2GB)
1TB (1000GB) Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer
Blu-ray ROM Player Dual layer DVD Writer 24 x CD Writer
1GB NVidia GeForce GTX280 -DVI HDTV TV-Out, PsyX
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Sound Card
Logitech Cordless Keyboard & Cordless Optical Mouse
Free Microsoft® Works® 8.5 + Limited Microsoft Office Trial
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Suite - 7 titles (oem)
6x USB 2.0 Ports (8x possible on motherboard)
2x IEEE1394 Firewire (onboard)
1x Gigabit LAN (onboard)
2 Year Hardware Warranty - Back to Base (UK Mainland only)
Wireless network card

Total Price (inc VAT and delivery) £ 1272.72

This seems a pretty good price to me. I'm thinking I can get this a bit lower again...by downgrading the case a bit and switching the GTX280 for a ATI 4870 (and maybe changing the motherboard). Any thoughts on these ideas? And what do you think of the price?

Thanks again for all your help!

[staffsMike]

Deffinatly lower the case and graphics imo.

Don't get that mobo either, something like an Abit IP-35 PRO

[Noxvayl]

Yeah definitely ask for an Intel chipset motherboard... P45 is a good buy

I'd also see if the HD4870 knocks a bit off the price, can easily crossfire the HD4870 to give you a boost in the future and its gives a SIGNIFICANT boost over the single card(quiet a bit faster than the GTX280).

Other than those 2 suggestions It looks good

[Nemz0r]

Yeah definitely ask for an Intel chipset motherboard... P45 is a good buy

I'd also see if the HD4870 knocks a bit off the price, can easily crossfire the HD4870 to give you a boost in the future and its gives a SIGNIFICANT boost over the single card(quiet a bit faster than the GTX280).

Other than those 2 suggestions It looks good

If going crossfire though, he'll need to make sure on getting X38 / X48 mobo - significant difference between 2x 16x PCIE and 2x 8x PCIE for crossfire performance .

I'd downgrade case a bit; skip the XFi - onboard is pretty damn decent these days (in fact P5E's isn't even onboard - it has it's own little card xD); crossfire two 4870s. Two can be had for £360 inc. VAT + (free) delivery from ebuyer; and grab a P5E or IX38 Quad GT (the quad gt has bigger space between second PCIE and end of mobo, so 2nd card has more space to breathe if bottom of case is just after motherboard edge).

[thegame]

Thanks again guys, this is excellent information. I've written back to the manufacturer asking them what they can do with GFX card and motherboard. I am still tempted to keep the GTX280, it looks like I'm getting it pretty cheaply anyway.

For most of the components I'm happy that I understand enough to make a fairly informed decision, but I'm still a bit confused about motherboards.

I'd appreciate it if someone could help me understand a bit more.

Basically, I want a motherboard that will allow the following:
- run 2 graphics cards in SLI or Crossfire (maybe not immediately, but good to have the option)
- get the maximum out of the SLI/Crossfire (I know this has something to do with being able to use both PCI-E slots at 16x, but would appreciate more info here)
- allow me to overclock the processor up to around 3.2 GHz (is this to do with voltage and front side bus?)
- accept up to 8 Gig of memory
- I have a 7.1 speaker system, so I need a motherboard with onboard sound that has 8 channels, if I am to leave out the soundcard.
- Anything you think I've missed!

There seem to be so many different motherboards out there, I'd really appreciate it if you all could recommend some, and also give (fairly basic) explanations of why you are recommending them.

For example, what's the difference between x38 and x48? And are they becoming obsolete next year (because of the socket changes) anyway?

You can see my confusion!!! Please help!!

BTW: Has anyone put something like this configuration together themselves? Is the price very far from the individual components prices when all added up?

[Thorsson]

You won't find many SLI/Xfire users here. Generally speaking these days you have dual GPU cards around if you really need that power (a 4870 x2 won't be far away I guarantee), and you save quite a bit on the motherboard front (and PSU) by not going that route. There are better things to spend the money on unless you want to play Crysis on highest possible setting on a huge monitor and damn the cost.

But if you want full Xfire then X38/X48 are the best chipsets, and ASUS and DFI make the best iterations. For SLI you want the 790i/780i/750i (high to low), with EVGA being the maker of choice for 790i and also 780i/750i with ASUS/MSI also good. 750s are not such good OCers, but the 780/790s are pretty expensive.

Overclocking is never guaranteed (unless the builder will do it) because it depends partly on the chip, and some just don't OC as well as others. The other thing you need is a good aftermarket cooler, and a good case helps too (airflow).

[thegame]

But I'm sure that, whether or not you guys use crossfire/SLI, that you'll know a lot about them...

Does that mean that you personally would go for the 280 rather than the 4870? Given the price I've been offered, it looks like I can get a system with top level performance for the same money as other manufacturers are offering mid-level performance.

Thanks for your comments on the motherboards, and recommendations re: manufacturers. I'm still keen to learn what the differences are between the chipsets etc (as per my last post).

Anyone else fancy helping alleviate the confusion?

[aidanjt]

The 4870 is the better buy IMHO. I know I've been beating the AMD drum for quite some time, but nVidia are still finding it hard to compete with them on priceerformance.

[Thorsson]

X48 is an updated version of X38, just like P45 is over P35. As already noted the former offer 2 PCIE x16 solts, whereas the latter have only 1. The difference between the newer boards and the older is largely in what FSB they support. X48 supports 1600, X38/P45 1333, and the P35 1066 (although 1333 is possible). You will never make use of the X48's FSB with a Q6600, and next year we will have Nehalem.

The NVidia chipsets are 750i (low level), 780i/790i high level, with the 790 being an updated 780 offering 1600 FSB (although again some 780s can achieve that as well). The 750 only supports DDR800, the others support DDR1066. Also the 750 has only 1 x16 PCIE slot, like the P35/P45, the others have 2.

Generally speaking the NVidia boards haven't proven to be as stable or good OCers as the Intel ones and usually are a bit more expensive too.

[Blitzen]

Thats not true regarding the X38 fella.
I dont know about the other brands, but mine (iX38 QuadGT) is fully FSB1600 compliant

http://www.abit.com.tw/page/uk/mothe...775&DEFTITLE=Y

[thegame]

Can any one else help me out?

[Thorsson]

Thats not true regarding the X38 fella.
I dont know about the other brands, but mine (iX38 QuadGT) is fully FSB1600 compliant

http://www.abit.com.tw/page/uk/mothe...775&DEFTITLE=Y

Well that's the problem as I already intimated on a couple of the other chipsets. They're not native to the chipset, but with the right BIOS they can be made available. Which is why it's hard to justify paying the extra money, except for the step to 2 x PCIE16s if you want two video cards.

[thegame]

Okay guys, I think we're almost there!!!

Here are the latest offers from the manufacturer...

Offer A

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor(2.4GHz,8MB Cache,1066MHz)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium 64-bit Edition with SP 1
Aluminium ATX Midi Tower + 1000W PSU
PCI-Express Mainboard - SLi nForce 750i SLi - Intel Core2Duo/Quad Core - ATX
4GB DDR2 800MHz Memory (2x 2GB)
1TB (1000GB) Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer
Blu-ray ROM Player Dual layer DVD Writer 24 x CD Writer
512MB ATi 4870 Graphics accelerator DVI, DirectX 10.1 PCI Express 2
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Sound Card
Logitech Cordless Keyboard & Cordless Optical Mouse
Free Microsoft® Works® 8.5 + Limited Microsoft Office Trial
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Suite - 7 titles (oem)
6x USB 2.0 Ports (8x possible on motherboard)
2x IEEE1394 Firewire (onboard)
1x Gigabit LAN (onboard)
Belkin Wireless G USB Network Adapter - External (F5D7050UK)
2 Year Hardware Warranty - Back to Base (UK Mainland only)

Total price (inc VAT and DEL) = £1045

Offer B

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q9450 Quad Core Processor(2.66GHz,12MB Cache,1333MHz)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium 64-bit Edition with SP 1
Aluminium ATX Midi Tower + 1000W PSU [upg £ 150.00]
PCI-Express Mainboard - SLi nForce 750i SLi - Intel Core2Duo/Quad Core - ATX
4GB DDR2 800MHz Memory (2x 2GB)
2x 500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer (1TB Total)
Blu-ray ROM Player Dual layer DVD Writer 24 x CD Writer
512MB ATi 4870 Graphics accelerator DVI, DirectX 10.1 PCI Express 2
5.1 High Definition onboard sound card - 6 Channel Cinema sound
Free Microsoft® Works® 8.5 + Limited Microsoft Office Trial
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Suite - 7 titles (oem)
6x USB 2.0 Ports (8x possible on motherboard)
2x IEEE1394 Firewire (onboard)
1x Gigabit LAN (onboard)
Belkin Wireless G USB Network Adapter - External (F5D7050UK)
2 Year Hardware Warranty - Back to Base (UK Mainland only)

Total price (inc VAT and Del) = £1079

They still need to sort a couple of things out...like the motherboard being switched for an Intel one, but assuming this doesn't change the price too much, which of these would you go for...and am I getting a good deal?

Also, I have a set of Creative 7.1 speakers. If I go for option B (with the onboard 5.1 sound) can I set the speakers to "upscale" the sound to the 7.1? Am I going to run into any problems?

I don't know how many times I can say thanks in this thread, but I'm going to keep saying it! Thank you all.