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i am building a new gaming rig using the AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2 as the CPU, i am almost decided on the mother board as the MSI 785G-E53 (LINK), with 4 gb of ram and the ATI Radeon 4670 1g card (LINK[/URL]) to go with the hybrid crossfire. if there are any adjustments you would make or know any reason i shouldn't match this system please let me know as i am on a budget and tho i have done my homework there are always things that are overlooked. thanks in advance killer kittens
An HD4670 cannot work in hybrid crossfire with an HD4200 IGP as the HD4200 IGP has 40 stream processors and you can only use hybrid crossfire with a similar graphics card such as HD3450 which also has 40 stream processors.Quote:
Originally Posted by Killer_kittens
Also unless you need integrated graphics an AM3 770 chipset based motherboard would be a better bet as they tend to have slightly better performance than the 785G chipset based motherboards.
The Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P is a good motherboard to have a look at:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/...ProductID=3096
If you are intending to overclock the Phenom II X4 955 I would be looking at a motherboard with 8+2 phase voltage regulation for the CPU as most of the cheaper motherboards use 4+1 phase voltage regulation although if you are not going to be overclocking or intend to do so only on stock volts 4+1 phase should be enough.
Also I would make sure that you get the GDDR3 version of the HD4670 as this faster than the DDR3 version. I would get a 512MB GDDR3 HD4670 over a 1GB DDR3 HD4670 as the former would be faster.
The HD5670 is also being released early next year too.
This thread has more details:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1471938
OK thanks for the info, would you say its worth getting a HD3450 so as i am able to use the hybrid crossfire or is it generally speaking not something to work around. also with the motherboard over clocking was not something that i had in mind for the outset however something that i would eventually wish to do, that being said would the GA-MA770T-UD3P offer the support needed or would a newer/more expensive mobo be worth the investment? as i understand it AM3 is the budget gamers way forward as the I7 equivalent is at least 2 X the price. the Phenom II 955 seems like the right CPU for what i want to be doing (gaming generally) however finding a cheapish mobo and g card that features the options i want is a much harder thing to find. thanks again for the responce.
If it's a gaming system it's usually better to spend more on the graphics card than the processor as you'll see more benefits from a better graphics card than a better processor. Perhaps go for a AMD Phenom II X2 550 BE one.
The AM3 770 chipset motherboards have roughly the same performance as a 780/785 chipsets (only it does not have IGP) and only slightly lower performance than the 790 chipsets for a very good price. So in the end, I don't think it's worth picking a newer/more expensive mobo.
It is not worth spending the extra money on the HD3450. The 770 chipset tends to have similar performance to the 790 series chipsets and the 785G is slightly behind both in performance. However the main reason for going for a 770 or 790 series motherboard is that most AM3 versions have enhanced voltage regulation which means a better overclock. If you really don't intend to do overclock or do it on stock voltage(increasing the voltage increases the power load on the motherboard) then the MSI motherboard would do the job fine.Quote:
Originally Posted by Killer_kittens
If you want to do some gaming the HD4670 512MB GDDR3 is not too bad a choice. OTH I would be looking at the following graphics cards in order of increasing performance:
1.)HD4830/9800GT GDDR3
2.)HD4770 GDDR5
3.)HD4850/HD5750/GTS250
4.)HD4870/HD5770/GTX260 216 shader
5.)HD4890/GTX275
Also you need to have at least a decent 400W to 500W PSU too and not anything cheap. Perhaps if you could link to the stores you intend to use and the budget you have I could suggest the parts you could look at.
No - not even vaguely. HD3450 + HD4200 hybrid crossfire will be easily beaten by a HD4670. It's only really a feasible gaming option @ 1024 x 768 running DX9 (in DX10 the crossfire overhead actually *lowers* performance) - any higher resolution and your game will slow to a slideshow. Far better off to get a "real" graphics card - CAT's list is the one to pick from, but if you can wait a few months ATIs 5670 shouldn't be too far off and should be a good contender too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Killer_kittens
Thanks guys for the reply. i have already ordered the PSU its an Apevia 500w (link) and i am happy with the combo of the AMD Phenom II 955 3.20Ghz with the GA-MA770T-UD3P, i am also looking at the M4A785TD-V-EVO (link) as a posable alternative to the GA-MA770T-UD3P. what do you think? as it is with the graphics card i would like to ensure i get a good without getting ripped off (referring to the N videa 250 series with the relaunch of the 8800 GT) so i will ponder over the list that has been provided and will let you know what once i decide on. any suggested choices?
Watch out for the PSU! I could not find a review for the specific model but if Apevia market something like this I would steer well clear of them.
The motherboard is going to be down to your preference; as budget sounds to be your driver then get the cheapest you can find.
Posting an overall budget would help immensly. Especially on the GPU.
If it's this psu http://www.apevia.com/ProductsInfo.asp?KEY=WIN-500XSPX
Then it's an older design, passive pcf, 70% effecincy, in a pritty black housing and big fan.
Looks like it's a cheaply made psu in a pritty outter skin, I'd not risk that on a quad core cpu & mid range graphics card.
PS that link you posted is not working and http://www.megabuy.com.au/ just gives and Apache test page
Yeah the PSU does sound pretty bad :/
Try to return it as it could end up taking out your whole system.