The reason I'm spending a lot on a case is that I dont want to have to buy another one soon. The rig is mainly for gaming. Went for a black edition so I can overclock in the future if I need too and I'm also going to buy some more 120mm fans to fill in the gaps in the case.
I would go intel
This motheboard
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/DFI-L...00-SATA-II-ATX
CPU
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Intel...-8MB-Cache-OEM
And i would overclock, It would also allow you to get a better CPU cooler of choice, too.
CAT-THE-FIFTH (28-01-2009)
I would also consider looking ate the HD4850X2 2gb too:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152204
Some reviews:
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/...iew/page12.asp
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.ph...=16914&page=13
http://www.cpu3d.com/review/6408-13/...onclusion.html
Also some of the DFI 790GX motherboards can be head for a similiar price as the MSI one.
It maybe a good bet to look for a better cooler for you CPU too as an overclocked quad core can produce a lot of heat.
Some parts can be much cheaper on Ebuyer when compared to Scan and vice versa. The HD4850X2 2GB for example is 30 quid cheaper on Ebuyer than Scan.
Perhaps a cheaper way to do it but the Phenom II 940 according to many reviews at stock challenges a Q9500 or Q9550 in games yet costs much less. Overclocking a Q6600 is not a given anymore as I have a later revison Q6600 and it needs much more voltage than earlier examples to even reach 3ghz to 3.5ghz. This has been noticed by many people recently as the VID of many newer Q6600 processors is much higher than earlier ones.Originally Posted by Blackmage
Most Phenom II 940 processors will hit 3.5ghz to 3.8ghz on air with a decent 790GX motherboard and air cooler. The Phenom II also has lower idle power consumption stock than most of the Intel Q9*** series too.
Looking at many reviews the gaming performance of Phenom II 940 is pretty decent:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/16147/4
http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-ph...review-test/17
Blackmage (28-01-2009)
From what I have seen the Phenom II 940 is better than the Q6600 and has more OC potential. As for the CPU heatsink I would change it if I were to Overclock (which i would not do till I needed the extra power). As for getting a HD 4850x2 instead of the GTX280 how much performance difference is there? I have heard that the 4850 can be better but also a lot worse when it does not scale correctly.
As for AM2+ mobos in the same price range what DFI board would you recomend and is the MSIK9A2 Platinum better than the Asus I have selected? Sorry but I do not know what really makes a good motherboard when selecting several of the same chip and Ram support.
Yes, i agree that AMD CPU is a champ. I was just looking at saving him/her a few Pounds, as they are willing to overclock. Due to the 940's ablity to overclock and scale well, it can't really be beaten.
I ask this question, why not get a 920 then?
That is a very good suggestion indeed.
I was thinking of the DFI DK 790GX-M2RS but according to the reviews I have seen the Asus motherboard seems pretty decent too! The 940 should be easier to overclock than the 920 due to its unlocked mutiplier.
The reason not to go for the 920 I must admit may be somewhat uninformed. But previously I have been told that non black editions have locked configurations in the Bios and do not overclock as well. If this is untrue I shall consider the 920 over the 940 which would in turn open up the budget a little to look at the HD4850x2.
Did you look at the links in my first post BTW?? The HD4850X2 actually costs less from Ebuyer than the GTX280 you have chosen!! For £250 it has excellent performance!!
Sorry I thought you linked the 1gb version. Will the HD4850x2 scale fully on mainstream FPS games or is it likely to bottleneck, I remember reviews of the HD4870x2 having real issues with scaling on some titles so will the HD4850x2 be the same?
Hrm, the ebuyer site doesn't state clearly if its the 1gb or 2gb version..
According to the reviews it seems to scale realatively well from the reviews I linked too . The problem is that with any multi GPU setup there is the possibility that a game may not scale well initially. However with the frequent driver releases from ATI this should be less of a problem in theory. For some games you may need to wait a few weeks for a suitable drivers to come out perhaps? If this worries you then a GTX280 is still a good choice.
???
It says the following in the heading:
Sapphire HD 4850 X2 2GB GDDR3 Quad DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card
It also says the following in the description:
Section Specification Value
General Device Type Graphics adapter
General Enclosure Type Plug-in card
General Interface Type PCI Express 2.0 x16
Processor / Memory Graphics Processor / Vendor 2 GPUs - ATI Radeon HD 4850
Processor / Memory Clock Speed 625 MHz
Processor / Memory RAMDAC Clock Speed 400 MHz
Processor / Memory Video Memory Installed 2 GB
Processor / Memory Technology GDDR3 SDRAM 256-bit
Processor / Memory Memory Clock Speed 993 MHz
Processor / Memory Features Avivo HD Technology, integrated HD Audio controller, ATI CrossFireX Technology
Video Output Max Resolution (external) 2560 x 1600
Video Output Supported Display Graphics VGA (640x480), XGA (1024x768), SVGA (800x600), SXGA (1280x1024), UXGA (1600x1200), HDTV (1920x1080), QXGA (2048x1536), 1152x864, 1920x1200, 1920x1440, 2560x1600
Video Output API Supported OpenGL 2.0, DirectX 10.1
Video Output TV Interface HDTV out
Video Output Digital Video Standard Digital Visual Interface (DVI), High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)
Video Output HDCP compatible Yes
Expansion / Connectivity Interfaces 4 x DVI-I - 29 pin combined DVI ¦ 1 x HDMI - 19 pin HDMI Type A ( with adapter ) ¦ 1 x HDTV output
Expansion / Connectivity Compatible Slots 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16
Miscellaneous Cables Included 1 x HDMI-DVI adapter
Miscellaneous Compliant Standards RoHS
Miscellaneous Package Type Retail
Software / System Requirements OS Required Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows XP 64-bit Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, Microsoft Windows Vista
Software / System Requirements Peripheral / Interface Devices Two additional power connectors, adjacent PCI slot
Manufacturer Warranty Service & Support 2 years warranty
Manufacturer Warranty Service & Support Details Limited warranty - 2 years
The manufacturer product code 11139-00-40R is for the 2gb model. You can always confrim this from Ebuyer though.
Go for a 640GB drive instead of the 500GB one, better performance for much the same price.
~'Armaments, universal debt, and planned obsolescence--those are the three pillars of Western prosperity'~ Aldous Huxley
Also on the same page was the bit I quoted which threw up the confusion on my end.
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