Can I get your opinions on these two offers please?

[Blitzen]

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.

QuadGT was FSB1600 ready out of the box. There was no bios flash to enable it

Thanks for the quick reply.

Thinking about the PSU then...what should I try and swap it for, but still be able to run 2 crossfire HD4870s?

I can ask them to swap the cooler too - or should I change the case? Maybe I don't need one quite so big?

Just got another quote, everything's the same except for:

Motherboard Asus P5N-D NF750i Socket 775 Motherboard
Asus GeForce GTX 280 1GB PCI-E 2.0 Retail

Total price for this one is £1,197. I'm quite tempted, for an extra £100.

I know it's a Nvdia chipset, but just in case I want to SLi 2 GTX280s in the future...

Of the 4 options which would you go for?

My Crossfire setup runs fine using the Enermax MODU82+.
That TT is overkill (and they arent that good of a unit anyway tbh)

[thegame]

Okay...

Here we go again...

2 more quotes, with a different motherboard...although I'm not sure about it, cos it seems to be pretty old...

Grateful for your advice on this, the manufacturer is offering to crossfire 2x 4870s in one of the systems, but will the motherboard hold them back?

System 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
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe - Intel® 975X Chipset- Core™ 2 Duo - 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 = £1032


System B

Xtreme Q9 Fireblade
System Base Price: £ 637.45
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
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe - Intel® 975X Chipset- Core™ 2 Duo - 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
2x 512MB ATi 4870 Graphics accelerator (CrossFire for Ultimate Gaming)
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 = £1225

At the £1200 price I guess that makes it a toss up between...

the GTX280 with the 6600 and the ASUS P5W DH Deluxe motherboard
versus
the crossfire 2x4870s with the 6600 and the Asus P5N-D NF750i motherboard

Which would you go for (and why)?

[Noxvayl]

Okay...

Here we go again...

2 more quotes, with a different motherboard...although I'm not sure about it, cos it seems to be pretty old...

Grateful for your advice on this, the manufacturer is offering to crossfire 2x 4870s in one of the systems, but will the motherboard hold them back?

System 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
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe - Intel® 975X Chipset- Core™ 2 Duo - 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 = £1032


System B

Xtreme Q9 Fireblade
System Base Price: £ 637.45
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
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe - Intel® 975X Chipset- Core™ 2 Duo - 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
2x 512MB ATi 4870 Graphics accelerator (CrossFire for Ultimate Gaming)
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 = £1225

At the £1200 price I guess that makes it a toss up between...

the GTX280 with the 6600 and the ASUS P5W DH Deluxe motherboard
versus
the crossfire 2x4870s with the 6600 and the Asus P5N-D NF750i motherboard

Which would you go for (and why)?

Neither of your options have the GTX280 in or the Asus P5N-D NF750i motherboard... did you mean you could replace the spec you posted with a GTX280?

You can't run crossfire in an nvidia chipset, it only supports SLI so having the Asus P5N-D NF750i won't be able have the 2 HD4870 cards. You need an Intel chipset for crossfire, preferably X38/48 because of the extra PCI-E lanes it has.

Also am not sure why you are considering the old and incumbent 975 chipset of intels instead of the X38/48 or even the newer P45 all of which are better. I'd personally get the Gigabyte EP45-DS3R or if you want to use crossfire go for the Gigabyte EX38-DS4. The X38 chipset offers 2 full x16 PCI-E2.0 lanes which improves crossfire performance over the dual x8 PCI-E2.0 lanes in the P45.

As for a choice between the GTX280 and HD4870(CF/X2) I would choose the ATI option without hesitation. Offers far better performance for a small amount extra in price. If you have time to wait the HD4870X2 looks to be a slightly better option to crossfire because it takes up less space in a case so is easier to cool. It performs almost identically to 2 HD4870's in crossfire and should be around the same price if not cheaper as well.

[richieuk]

You'll find that buying a Q6600 will invalidate a 24 month warranty when overclocked to run at speeds comparible to the Xtreme Yorkfields... You should either drop the warranty, or fork out even more money to put at least a Q9450... If the memory was better quality, I'd advise dropping the Warranty and overclocking the lot, as is, I'd be torn...

I haven't read the whole thread but you not thought of building your own? Then the manufacturer warranties are intact. You can bang in some quality parts for a cheaper price if doing a home build.

I liked the original setups you posted, not so much these new ones, but I suppose you have reasons already to drop those

GTX280 is overkill for anything atm, 4850 and 4870, or 9800GTXor GTX+ are good right now for value and work at good resolutions. SLi is not worth it from all the reviews, research and feedback in this forums. Upgrades in future are much cheaper and more effective.

I personally was looking at the P5Q Pro iP45 motherboard, apparently a sweet overclocker on par with iP35s. You have the 4870 in mind, you can crossfire these later if you wanted too but one is plenty for now.

Just for saying sake, if you have a monitor already, and speakers. You can buy a neat machine for £700 in parts from SCAN with free shipping. Most things will come with at least 2 Year warranty, 5 years + for Corsair products. You could save £3-500 this way and help a brother out

[thegame]

Thanks both of you for your replies.

There are a few questions for me to reply to:

ExHail
Sorry, I should have been more clear, the nvidia motherboard/280 combo is in an earlier post, but comes in at roughly the same price. So for around £1200 I could either get 2x4870s or a single 280.

There are bad points to both deals:
- The old 975 motherboard in the one with the 2x4870s (thanks for confirming my suspicion that it was out of date)
- The nVidia chipset mainboard (Asus P5N-D NF750i) in the one with the 280.

I think I'm going to go back to the manufacturers (there are a few of them I'm getting quotes from) and ask them to change the 975 board for a x38 board and see what that does to the price.

Thanks for your advice on the 2x4870s v the 280. Unfortunately I don't have time to wait for the 4870x2 but I think I am leaning towards the crossfired 4870s rather than the single 280.


RichieUK
I wasn't aware that buying a Q6600 would invalidate the warranty, I'll check this out. In fact one of the manufacturers has agreed to overclock the CPU to 3.0Ghz before sending it out.

In one of the earlier quotes you'll see that I have the option of the Q9450, and I may go for this after all.

Thanks for the comments on the previous systems I posted, I haven't actually dropped anything, but during my explorations and learning experience on this site, I've generated about 20 quotes!!!

I think I'm going to go back to the quote with the single 4870 and the Abit x38 mainboard and the Q9450 and see what happens to the price if they put another 4870 into the system.

I have specced a similar (almost identical) system in Scan, that comes out at £1,186, so it looks like I'm getting a pretty good deal from the system builders to me. I can't find any way of getting a significant (in the 100s of pounds) reduction in price by building my own, and I'm not that confident in doing so - so I think I'll stick with the pre-built (although if anyone from Scan reads this and can offer me the configuration for £900 I'm right there!!!

As I'm close to buying now, I thought it may be worth getting your opinions on some system builders. I know I'm on dangerous ground here as many will get ripped apart and I'll be worried about buying from any of them, but better to know in advance!

Grateful for views on:
Mesh
Gladiator
Cyberpower
Chillblast

Thanks!

[Noxvayl]

I haven't used a systems builder before on account of me building my own PC but a thread came up with some guy going to town on a PC(£2.5k+) and he was getting it from BEAST Computers.

Lots of people had good things to say about them and one of there employee's is signed up to the forums. TunnelRat is his forum name if you want to talk to him.

[richieuk]

I was looking at Overclockers UK earlier, they seem like a decent company with dirt cheap prices, they will overclock and use good quality parts if requested.

I think that quote you mentioned sounds the bee's knees, but you wouldnt need that second card yet Just make sure the board can take it in full crossfire for future.

People like Mesh and Dell wont touch overclocks, OCuk and SCAN are much more realistic and friendlier with this. If you can spec a PC up for £1100 on SCAN yourself, you'll find with a bit of help you'll knock 1/200 pound off with recommendations from the forums and offers on the site itself (Which is how I got to an £800 build )

[thegame]

Okay, finally I've managed to reach a decision (I think!)

Final spec as below...

Case Antec P182 Advanced Super Midi Tower Black
PSU Thermaltake W0131RE 850W Modular PSU
Motherboard Abit IX38 QuadGt Socket 775 Motherboard (set up for 7.1 channel audio)
Processor Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz (OEM 775) – overclocked by supplier
(expected to be approx 3.4GHz)
Heatsink Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO CPU Cooler (Socket 775)
Memory Patriot 4GB PC6400 C4 Extreme Performance (2x2GB) Total Memory: 4096 MB
Graphics Sapphire HD 4870 512MB PCI-E 2.0 Retail (in a Crossfire setup)
Graphics 2 Sapphire HD 4870 512MB PCI-E 2.0 Retail
Hard Drive 1 Samsung SpinPoint HD501LJ 500GB Serial ATA II
Hard Drive 2 Samsung SpinPoint HD501LJ 500GB Serial ATA II
Optical Drive LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray/HD DVD-ROM Kit
Keyboard Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 110
OS Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM
Misc1 24 months Collect and Return PC Warranty
Misc2 Belkin 125MB Wireless Desktop PCI Network Card
Software Ghost Recon 2, Spellforce 2, Tomb Raider Anniversary, Company of Heroes 2
Assassins Creed
Cyberlink Power DVD (and other software in the Cyberlink package)
Nero DVD writing suite

Total Price inc VAT and Delivery £1265

I specced all this (not including the software) at Scan and it came out at approx £1190, and I'm not confident about building myself (mainly because of the amount of hassle if any of the parts are wrong)...so...I think I've done pretty well to get it around this price. This is mainly down to you guys on this site, so thanks again for helping me through the maze of PC speccing.

If there are any last comments now's your chance - before I charge my credit card tomorrow morning!

[staffsMike]

Looks very nice to me If the overclock runs hot though the freezer might get annoying so I would get the big typhoon if thats the best they have to offer. Still looks good though.

[Zhaoman]

I would suggest Beast Computers up and over every other PC manufacturer you have mentioned and possibly every other PC manufacturer out there. One look at their forums will cast away all doubt as to whether they are good builders or not.

http://www.beastcomputers.co.uk/comm...ead.php?t=1952

This is an example of their customer service and dedication.

[Noxvayl]

That looks like an amazing PC m8... you'll no doubt be very impressed with the PC

[Thorsson]

I would say that the PSU and CPU HSF could be better. TT are definitely not in the top rank as far as PSUs are concerned and the Arctic is relatively noisy and not as efficient as the 'towers'.

[thegame]

I don't think I have much choice with the PSU to be honest - they seem only to offer Thermaltake PSUs. I've seen some reviews where it's rated okay, even if it isn't the very best. I've put a link to one of them below.

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid...e=expert&pid=6

If you could recommend another 850W power supply, I can see if they can change it. I'm particularly interested in any quieter PSUs for around the same money.

As far as coolers go, most of the reviews I've seen say the arctic is pretty quiet. The other options are:
- Zalman CNPS8000 Ultra Quiet
- Akasa AK-961 Intel Socket 775 Cooler
- Thermaltake CL-P0114 Big Typhoon Heatpipe Cooler

Are any of these significantly better (especially quieter)?

[aidanjt]

I was looking at Overclockers UK earlier, they're a company with some cheap prices, they will overclock and use good quality parts if requested.

Fixed.

Agreed with the rest though.

Personally I don't bother with overclocking anymore, in real-world use the performance gains range from minimal to less, and the problems outweigh any perceived benefits. Plus the modern CPU is already silly fast, well beyond the actual needs of the average user.

But each to his/her own.

[Thorsson]

I don't think I have much choice with the PSU to be honest - they seem only to offer Thermaltake PSUs. I've seen some reviews where it's rated okay, even if it isn't the very best. I've put a link to one of them below.

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid...e=expert&pid=6

If you could recommend another 850W power supply, I can see if they can change it. I'm particularly interested in any quieter PSUs for around the same money.

As far as coolers go, most of the reviews I've seen say the arctic is pretty quiet. The other options are:
- Zalman CNPS8000 Ultra Quiet
- Akasa AK-961 Intel Socket 775 Cooler
- Thermaltake CL-P0114 Big Typhoon Heatpipe Cooler

Are any of these significantly better (especially quieter)?

Maybe that PSU will be OK. I would like to have seen some comment on the components used, because what these reviews can't tell you is whether the PSU will blow up after 12 months of hard use. Nevertheless I agree that it sounds like it might be OK. None of the mentioned HSFs are particularly good. Probably best is the Typhoon, which keeps things quite cool on high fan speed and is quiet on low. Better are Thermalright or Scythe jobbies.

[thegame]

I had a bit of a chat with the guys who are putting this together and ended up agreeing the following (changes in bold):

Case Antec P182 Advanced Super Midi Tower Black
PSU Corsair 620W HX V2 Series Modular PSU
Motherboard Abit IX38 QuadGt Socket 775 Motherboard (set up for 7.1 channel audio)
Processor Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz (OEM 775) – overclocked by supplier
(expected to be approx 3.4GHz)
Heatsink OCZ Vendetta 2 CPU Cooler (All sockets)
Memory Patriot 4GB PC6400 C4 Extreme Performance (2x2GB) Total Memory: 4096 MB
Graphics Sapphire HD 4870 512MB PCI-E 2.0 Retail (in a Crossfire setup)
Graphics 2 Sapphire HD 4870 512MB PCI-E 2.0 Retail
Hard Drive 1 Samsung SpinPoint HD501LJ 500GB Serial ATA II
Hard Drive 2 Samsung SpinPoint HD501LJ 500GB Serial ATA II
Optical Drive LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray/HD DVD-ROM Kit
Keyboard Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 110
OS Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM
Misc1 24 months Collect and Return PC Warranty
Software Ghost Recon 2, Spellforce 2, Tomb Raider Anniversary, Company of Heroes 2
Assassins Creed
Cyberlink Power DVD (and other software in the Cyberlink package)
Nero DVD writing suite

Total Price inc VAT and Delivery £1238

Does that look a little bit better?

I did ask whether the 620W PSU would be okay for the Crossfired 4870s and was told that it would be fine. I won't be adding anything else I don't think.

I wanted to keep things as quiet as possible, and read some good things about the Corsair in that regard.

The Vendetta 2 heatsink seems to have got good reviews from what I've seen and the builder said it would go better with the Antec case than the Arctic Freezer Pro.

As ever I'd appreciate any thoughts you have on these final tweaks - hopefully they make it a little bit better? It's being built and tested as we speak (the builder is sending me email updates) so if there are any potential issues I can flag them with them now.