Graphics choice for possible new system.

[Dave_07]

Hi, which of these three graphics set-up's would provide the best performance in the below new system:

1) - 2 x ATI Radeon HD 4850 - 1 GB - 2xDVI/VGA (Asus) CrossFireX Setup

2) - 2 x ATI Radeon HD 4870 - 512 MB - 2xDVI/VGA (Sapphire) CrossFireX Setup

3) - ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 - 2 GB - 2xDVI/VGA (Sapphire) Single Card, but faster.

They are all pretty much evenly priced, only £70/75 difference.

Would be part of new system:

[staffsMike]

Do you already have all those parts? If not there are some places you could save a lot of money and lose almost no performance.

I imagine the HD4870X2 would give the best performance but they do run extremely hot and suck power like nobodies business.

What resolution do you wish to game at because if it's 1920 x 1200 or below one HD4870 will be ample for gaming, two HD4850's is a nice setup but while most games scale well with xfire, not all do.

[Powderhound]

You've gone for a really weird hard drive configuration there, for which I can see no real benefit.

[moogle]

You've gone for a really weird hard drive configuration there, for which I can see no real benefit.

Isn't the RAID 0 a benefit?

[Dave_07]

Do you already have all those parts? If not there are some places you could save a lot of money and lose almost no performance.

No have not ordered the system yet, in what places could i save and lose little performance ?

I imagine the HD4870X2 would give the best performance but they do run extremely hot and suck power like nobodies business.
What resolution do you wish to game at because if it's 1920 x 1200 or below one HD4870 will be ample for gaming, two HD4850's is a nice setup but while most games scale well with xfire, not all do.

"but while most games scale well with xfire, not all do" does that mean that not all games would take full advantage of an cross-fire setup ?
I've never run a game at 1920 x 1200 lol, not on my current system anyway 1920 x 1200 would probably be a fine rez for me i think.

You've gone for a really weird hard drive configuration there, for which I can see no real benefit.

How so ? two raptors at 10,000rpm/16mb under at raid 0 should be fairly speedy should it not ?


**Also im trying to get all the components as evenly matched as possible, are there any possible bottle neck's in this spec ?

[moogle]

No have not ordered the system yet, in what places could i save and loss little performance ?

Won't lose performance just will save money. You've got 20+ posts so you qualify for Scan free delivery and they have good prices and a wide range of items (probably all) that are specified in your build.

[Dave_07]

Won't lose performance just will save money. You've got 20+ posts so you qualify for Scan free delivery and they have good prices and a wide range of items (probably all) that are specified in your build.

Yea Scan was first place i when to, however the site has changed somewhat since i last visited, they don't seem to have a Custom Builder Option anymore, just preset/predefined 3XS Systems.

[Powderhound]

Well I don't really see the purpose of the 160GB drive; if it's a storage drive, why not go for a larger capacity one?

Also, with a setup like that you may as well get Vista.

[moogle]

Yea Scan was first place i when to, however the site has changed somewhat since i last visited, they don't seem to have a Custom Builder Option anymore, jut preset/predefined 3XS Systems.

Ohh you're not building it yourself? Damn that would save you quite a bit. I'm not sure if you can get a custom made one from Scan but you could always PM one of them to ask. But if you are building it yourself then yeah getting the seperate parts from them and making it would be cheaper.

Well I don't really see the purpose of the 160GB drive; if it's a storage drive, why not go for a larger capacity one?

Also, with a setup like that you may as well get Vista.

Yeah I see it now I thought it was just a mockup page made by him and he was self building and that was an old leftover drive he's including in the build.

[staffsMike]

The main one was the Q9650. The Q9550 is about £100 cheaper and performs pretty much the same especially if overclocking is involved.

The 700W psu is good (I have one) but it could be a bit quieter. It's not up to the Corsair standards.

[Dave_07]

Well I don't really see the purpose of the 160GB drive; if it's a storage drive, why not go for a larger capacity one?
Also, with a setup like that you may as well get Vista.

160GB capacity will be ample for my meager storage needs.
With regards to Vista, I tried it for a while on a friends system, and i hated it, it's very far removed from the ease of use that it's meant to be founded on, also one or two of my main games would almost certainly experience difficulty's running under vista platform.

Ohh you're not building it yourself? Damn that would save you quite a bit. I'm not sure if you can get a custom made one from Scan but you could always PM one of them to ask. But if you are building it yourself then yeah getting the seperate parts from them and making it would be cheaper.

lol, im fairly tech savy, but no where near tech savy enough to be capable of putting together an entire system by myself, hopefully one day tho

The main one was the Q9650. The Q9550 is about £100 cheaper and performs pretty much the same especially if overclocking is involved.

yeah it's £128 cheaper, do you think i could get a stable overclock up to 3.0ghz on the Q9550 ?

[moogle]

lol, im fairly tech savy, but no where near tech savy enough to be capable of putting together an entire system by myself, hopefully one day tho



yeah it's £128 cheaper, do you think i could get a stable overclock up to 3.0ghz on the Q9550 ?

Damn, well if you ever need help on building a whole pc just ask everyone will help and explain things here.

As for the Q9550, check my sig I've got it at 4GHz at 1.28v which is quite awesome for my C1. If you can get an E0 stepping you'll be able to get it to 4GHz too but your 3GHz is just.. it's so easy you won't even need a voltage change. A Q9650 is usually gotten to reach 4GHz and beyond, as mike says it's a much better choice and saving you some money.

[Dave_07]

Damn, well if you ever need help on building a whole pc just ask everyone will help and explain things here..

Cheers mate, ^^ this is why hexus is my homepage

As for the Q9550, check my sig I've got it at 4GHz at 1.28v which is quite awesome for my C1. If you can get an E0 stepping you'll be able to get it to 4GHz too but your 3GHz is just.. it's so easy you won't even need a voltage change. A Q9650 is usually gotten to reach 4GHz and beyond, as mike says it's a much better choice and saving you some money.

Nice one ! well thats £128 saved straight away, anything else ?

[moogle]

Cheers mate, ^^ this is why hexus is my homepage



Nice one ! well thats £128 saved straight away, anything else ?

No probs,

What other options have you got for that heatsink, I'm sure there's others that are better unless this a new heatsink star that I haven't read about.

[Dave_07]

No probs,
What other options have you got for that heatsink, I'm sure there's others that are better unless this a new heatsink star that I haven't read about.

Hehe Yeah i was disappointed when i saw they didn't have the Titan Amanda one available.
These are the other one's available:

Cooler Master Hyper Z600 - Silent
Cooler Master V8 - Ultimate Silent Cooler