Dual or Quad?

[Beanburger]

In my experience Gigabyte boards are great!

My last two have been Gigabyte and they have been good value, high performing bits of kit with lots of stable OC ability.

Recommended - sorry Garf!

I have to agree. I have a very stable overclock running on a Gigabyte board at the mo.

 

[Jackobi]

That's because Nvidia won't let you have your PSU certified for SLI and Xfire, which means most manufacturers go for SLI, last I heard anyway. Look at the ratings on the PSUs they've got, you can save at least a tenner by going with a 450W Corsair.

I'm not sure that 450W will be enough. Minimum system requirements for the 4870 state 500W, which is probably overcompensated, but I will have two, possibly three hard drives, two DVD drives, a PCI soundcard and USB peripherals connected. I'm reluctant to buy less than a decent 500w PSU.

I'd go with the cheaper RAM, £65 isn't a bad deal but going up to £80 gains negligible advantages.

I agree, I am going to stick with cheaper RAM. I may have found a good deal on 4GB OCZ DDR3 1333MHZ for £60.
A good deal on a PSU and RAM means I may stretch to a Phenom II X4 955 quad core 3.2GHz Black Edition.

Anything over £500 and I start to feel a bit nauseated.

Have the price drops from the 58XX serries hit yet? The 5770 should be out today so waiting till the start of next week is a good idea, it'll push down the prices of the 4XXX range even more.

No price drops yet, but hopefully next week. It's a bad time to buy a 4870 as stocks are low for the models that I want. Hopefully prices will drop soon once the 5770 stocks start arriving.

 

[Bob_the_lost]

Looks like I was wrong and the 4870s are going to dry up soon, a lot of GPU releases have seen the last gen one go up in price as supply dries up and Xfire / SLI users buy up the last few expensive models.

I wouldn't bother going with a black edition, it's a 6% increase over the 3Ghz model for how much more money?

Consider a 5870, if you're like me and have your machine on for most hours of the day then the power savings with 5870 vs 4870 are considerable and would cover the purchase price in less than a year.

 

[Jackobi]

I wouldn't bother going with a black edition, it's a 6% increase over the 3Ghz model for how much more money?

It works out at a tenner extra for the BE.

Consider a 5870, if you're like me and have your machine on for most hours of the day then the power savings with 5870 vs 4870 are considerable and would cover the purchase price in less than a year.

Heart says yes, head says no, a 5870 is around £300. A lot of which will be a price premium for the latest and greatest GPU. I considered a 5850 for £200 but I think that with the remaining budget, the system available would bottleneck it. Build so far, getting finalised;

Asus motherboard M4A78T-E 790GX AMD AM3 integrated VGA DDR3 DVI HDMI ATX £98.99

AMD CPU AM3 Phenom II X4 955 quad core 3.2GHz x4 Black Edition £149.49

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £113.48

Corsair 550W VX PSU £58.30

OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz PC3-12800C9 £65.99

£486.25

Both PSU [saved a tenner, Bob] and memory are approved!

 

[Jackobi]

I just spent a couple of hours getting all the best prices and put this together for under £500.
I decided to invest in a fast CPU now as I am more likely to upgrade the card in six months than the CPU, I can sell the 4870 and buy a 5870 once the premium on it drops.

Asus motherboard M4A78T-E 790GX AMD AM3 integrated VGA DDR3 DVI HDMI ATX £94.96

AMD PHENOM II X4 965 AM3 Black Edition £155.19

XFX ATI Radeon 4870 HD 750Mhz 1GB £116.10

G.SKILL DDR3 1333 PC10666 4GB (2GB x 2) 7-7-7-21-2N £66.64

Corsair 550W VX Series PSU £62.63

Total £495.52

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I just spent a couple of hours getting all the best prices and put this together for under £500.
I decided to invest in a fast CPU now as I am more likely to upgrade the card in six months than the CPU, I can sell the 4870 and buy a 5870 once the premium on it drops.

That makes a lot of sense. I don't know what res you play at, but the 4870 should last you longer then 6 months. At 1680x1050, I've yet to find anything it struggles with on high, other then the later levels of Crysis (that's with a duel core o/c'd to 3.8ghz).

That PSU should be sweet as well, can't believe I've never gone modular before, but it makes the build that much nicer.

 

[Jackobi]

That makes a lot of sense. I don't know what res you play at, but the 4870 should last you longer then 6 months. At 1680x1050, I've yet to find anything it struggles with on high, other then the later levels of Crysis (that's with a duel core o/c'd to 3.8ghz).

I use 1280x1024 with an AGP XFX 7600GT, it's past it, a 4870 will make a huge difference in FPS and quality settings[BF2, rFactor,]. I doubt that this PC would even run Crysis.

That PSU should be sweet as well, can't believe I've never gone modular before, but it makes the build that much nicer.

I had to double check the Corsair site to make sure, but it isn't modular. It's a VX series, the HX series are modular. Loads of cable ties here though.

Damn, I just noticed the RAM is DDR3 1333 not DDR 1600, that needs sorting out.

 

[Jackobi]

The three main choices for an AM3 DDR3 1600 790GX motherboard. They are almost identical specs;

MSI 790GX-G65

Asus M4A78T-E

Gigabyte MA790GPT-UD3H

The Gigabyte is around £10-15 more expensive than the MSI with the Asus in the middle.

It shows in the build quality too, notice that the MSI has plastic snap screws holding on the bracket around processor socket.
The build quality of the Gigabyte stands out even against the Asus.

 

[Xanadu]

Anyone remember the days when you used to have something like 2 PCI slots and 5 ISA slots?

 

[grit]

Anyone remember the days when you used to have something like 2 PCI slots and 5 ISA slots?

Using kermit terminals to read news groups and 9600 baud modems dialing direct into BBS.

Fun times, i miss them.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

The Gigabyte is around £10-15 more expensive than the MSI with the Asus in the middle.

I wont get another MSI board after I had problems with the machine I found out that rather then letting you know what was wrong by beeping, it had a backplate with LEDs, which wasn't included and you couldn't get for love nor money.

 

[Bob_the_lost]

I have loads of Asus boards and they've been a pain in the arse on several occasions. If you're overclocking then check out the BIOS options and some writeups on the boards, it does make a difference and might be worth going for the Gigabyte, they tend to do very good OC boards.

 

[DarthSydodyas]

I've just put a new core i7 system togather based on the MSI X58 Platinum and the board is ace. Not the cheapest but the features and stability (so far) reflects this.

 

[Jackobi]

I can hear my wallet creaking and am ready to start this build next week, finally;

Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P (Socket AM3) £123.01

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition 3.40GHz £148.99

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express £113.99

OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel £80.99

Antec PSU EarthWatts 650W 80+ £65.99

£532.97

All ready for CrossFireX 5870s when the prices drop a bit (currently £600).

 

[Jackobi]

Surely this must be a typo from Amazon?

Usually dispatched within 1 to 3 months.

Up to 3 months for delivery? Are they taking the piss?

 

[Jackobi]

Parcel just arrived;

I'm feeling quite pleased with myself, but still have to wait for delivery of the GPU and Memory tomorrow, and source a PSU, hopefully the build will be finished by Friday.

 

[Jackobi]

Looks like I purchased this just in time;

Monday;

Today;

It seems RAM is set to get even more expensive.

Should hopefully arrive today, the GPU was out of stock so order was delayed until I cancelled the GPU.

So, just a GPU and PSU to source now.

 

[Jackobi]

Memory arrived;

Now hovering over the purchase button for the graphics card and PSU in the checkout basket.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Blimey, you've got more patience then me, I tend to order it all from the same people at the same time, as wants its starts arriving I just want to have it up and running!

 

[Jackobi]

I haven't built a PC for a few years, so it has been a bit of a learning curve catching up with the latest tech.

If I can save a fiver or a tenner by buying from a different outlet, I will do that. I ordered the GPU and PSU today, but rather than pay £10 for delivery tomorrow, I chose free delivery and will recieve the goods next Thursday. I could have chosen 3 day delivery for £6, but it is 3 working days, so I wouldn't have recieved the goods until Tuesday anyway.

I have saved around £40 on the build by shopping around, phoning customer services and asking for free delivery, or waiting a day or two longer, which has made the difference between a sub £600 build and a £600+ build.

That £40 will now get me a 500GB Sata II drive.

 

[Jackobi]

I have chosen all of the hardware now and this is the final build, all components are either recieved or waiting for dispatch.

I managed to source all of it with no shipping costs.

Thanks for the help and suggestions in this thread.

-----

Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P £129.00

AMD Phenom II x4 965 Black Edition £146.04

Corsair Dominator XMS3 4GB DDR3 1600MHz C8 £86.99

Corsair TX 650w £70.99

XFX ATi HD 4890 1GB £134.50

-----

Total £567.52

-----

 

[Jackobi]

Two unexpected arrivals, their due date was not until Thursday.

I added a Samsung F3 500GB for the OS - £35.

 

[Jackobi]

Guess what I am doing this evening.

 

[Jackobi]

I did some cable tidying first, but this was all ready to boot for the first time;

Reminds me of a cylinder block on an engine;

All stuffed in a ten year old, generic biege case.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

All stuffed in a ten year old, generic biege case.

Heathen.

 

[Jackobi]

Heathen.

I'm almost too ashamed to post this, complete with coffee(?) stains.

I never see it because it is under my desk, but it is a pathetic looking thing.

Still sporting the Voodoo 'sticker', bottom left, that I meticulously cut out of PC Pro and stuck on with selotape.

I need a new case.

 

[Jackobi]

The crap case really isn't up to the job of cooling, so it's a transplant job next week into a Coolermaster 335.

 

[Jackobi]

It should look well cool after my custom mods.

 

[Clair De Lune]

Every time I see this thread title I think someone is challenging Quoad to a duel

 

[Jackobi]

Nothing that exciting, just me rabbiting on about building a PC.