A Bundle to match my 4870.

The Jaded Raver · 28 Apr 2010 at 16:24

Hello. I have been looking to up grade for a while now. And iv decided to ditch DDR2 and get with the times.

So which of the 2 bundles would best suite my Radeon Sapphire 4870 512GB card, for maximum compatibility an stability. Baring in mind, that I will probably go cross fire too.

These are my options -

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-015-OB&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=

and

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-007-OB&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=

Also, do you think I would need a new power supply for all this? As my current PSU is a OCZ Xstream 650w (currently powering standard hardware components and a Antec Twelve-hundred case)

Cheers for all your help

Redmint · 28 Apr 2010 at 16:31

If you really want to buy a pre-OC bundle I'd go for option number 2. Your current PSU will be fine for that setup.

If you build yourself however you'll be able to afford something much nicer such as:

AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1055T 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £166.99
(£142.12) £166.99
(£142.12)
OCZ Gold Low Voltage 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3G1600lV4GK) £91.98
(£78.28) £91.98
(£78.28)
Asus M4A79XTD Evo (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
(£76.59) £89.99
(£76.59)
Sub Total : £296.99
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £53.64
Total : £360.13

That motherboard will let you do symmetric (8x/8x) crossfire when you get a 2nd card, it's one of the cheapest motherboards with this feature.

Marine-RX179 · 28 Apr 2010 at 17:10

I have to disagree on the recommendation of the AMD X6 for gaming. While heavy threaded application such as encoding or games like Battlefield Bad Company 2 the more expensive 1090T is keeping up with i7 920, however for general games that are light to medium threaded or don't use the extra cores well, it gives lower frame rate than even the Phenom II X4 965BE.

Considering even the more expensive Phenom II X6 1090T is only managing around the same frame rate as the Phenom II X4 965BE, the Phenom II X6 1055T would be slower and more expensive than the Phenom II X4 965BE for gaming.

And then there's the desasterous results for Crysis with the Phenom II X6 1090T:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-phenom-ii-x6-1090t-890fx,2613-9.html

mame · 28 Apr 2010 at 17:16

When you say ditch DDR2, What spec are you using? I'm not sure it's worth ditching Core2Duo for i3.

Redmint · 28 Apr 2010 at 23:59

I think disastrous is something of an exaggeration there, and the difference between the 1055 and the 1090 after overclocking isn't going to be huge in terms of gaming performance.

Marine-RX179 · 29 Apr 2010 at 00:42

Redmint said:
I think disastrous is something of an exaggeration there, and the difference between the 1055 and the 1090 after overclocking isn't going to be huge in terms of gaming performance.

I was referring to the 1090T with Crysis results.

Davedree · 29 Apr 2010 at 01:19

Marine-RX179 said:
I was referring to the 1090T with Crysis results.

one game as an example,
Do you still play this game then and so this game is the decider for all decision makings????

I stopped playing it over a year ago.

the x6 is like the old socket 939 4000, vs socket 939 dual core debate,,

At the time the faster clocked 4000 core offered better performance than the dual core as software couldn't utilise the extra core. over time the dual core gained performance and investing in it paid off one the software made use of it.

Granted we have only just started to see software using all 4 cores,
and so we have a repeat of the socket 939 days.
I'm not disagreeing with what your saying about the x4 vs x6, but can could you provide more evidence that stock for stock the x4s offer greater performance.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 29 Apr 2010 at 01:23

Davedree said:
one game as an example,
Do you still play this game then and so this game is the decider for all decision makings????

I stopped playing it over a year ago.

the x6 is like the old socket 939 4000, vs socket 939 dual core debate,,

At the time the faster clocked 4000 core offered better performance than the dual core as software couldn't utilise the extra core. over time the dual core gained performance and investing in it paid off one the software made use of it.

Granted we have only just started to see software using all 4 cores,
and so we have a repeat of the socket 939 days.
I'm not disagreeing with what your saying about the x4 vs x6, but can could you provide more evidence that stock for stock the x4s offer greater performance.

It is hard to say ATM. You do have a point there.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 29 Apr 2010 at 01:25

The X4 960T also looks an interesting processor too. OTH, I don't know when it is being released.

Davedree · 29 Apr 2010 at 01:30

I'm on a 770 ud3 am2+ using an athlon x4 620 @ 3.6ghz.

I'm quite tempted to get the 1055t but theres so many reviews that offer varying results.

Fallen god · 29 Apr 2010 at 01:44

Well its still very new, maybe you could wait a week or 2 and find a really good review.

The Jaded Raver · 30 Apr 2010 at 17:42

Thanks for all the comments (some slightly irrelevant).

I just want to upgrade my current system, so it could run my 4870 512 and another crossfire in the future (to run high end games).

The bundles i quoted earlier were an example of what I was looking for at that price.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...id=339&subcat=

and

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...id=339&subcat=

But atm i'm well and truly out of sync with new hardware today!

So if there are cheaper alternatives with perhaps better performance for gaming, any ideas would be greatly appreciated

OpenToSuggestions · 30 Apr 2010 at 17:50

Davedree said:
one game as an example,
Do you still play this game then and so this game is the decider for all decision makings????

I stopped playing it over a year ago.

the x6 is like the old socket 939 4000, vs socket 939 dual core debate,,

At the time the faster clocked 4000 core offered better performance than the dual core as software couldn't utilise the extra core. over time the dual core gained performance and investing in it paid off one the software made use of it.

Granted we have only just started to see software using all 4 cores,
and so we have a repeat of the socket 939 days.
I'm not disagreeing with what your saying about the x4 vs x6, but can could you provide more evidence that stock for stock the x4s offer greater performance.

I agree with you, but by the time programs and games started using more than one core, these 939 cpu's were outdated by core2duo.
I am sure I had my core2duo for a year or so before I came across any multicore programs!

Yes the AMD x6 has 6 cores, but by the time mainstream apps use it, the cpu will be out of date.

pcAnywhere · 30 Apr 2010 at 18:41

The Jaded Raver said:
Thanks for all the comments (some slightly irrelevant).

I just want to upgrade my current system, so it could run my 4870 512 and another crossfire in the future (to run high end games).

The bundles i quoted earlier were an example of what I was looking for at that price.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...id=339&subcat=

and

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...id=339&subcat=

But atm i'm well and truly out of sync with new hardware today!

So if there are cheaper alternatives with perhaps better performance for gaming, any ideas would be greatly appreciated

It would make more sense if you posted what your current spec was - otherwise people may recommend a new system that is not significantly better than your current system...

And also - how much are you planning to spend? Does that include all peripherals or just CPU. mobo and ram? Do you play modern games @ high resolutions (say, 1080p and above res)?