About to click buy... does this setup look ok ?

Blurgh

Blurgh

Blurgh

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Hi

Im about to buy the following setup. but before i do can anyone tell me if it looks ok or not ? Its purely for gaming... nothing else.

setupfpf.jpg


Will anything cause bottleknecking ?

Is the power supply powerful enough... would i need a more powerful one if i was to add another 4890 in crossfire at a later date ? The processor/mobo/ram bundle comes with a "1 X Titan Fenrir CPU Cooler" is this good enough or will i need a better one ?

Don't worry about the monitor/speakers/keyboard/mouse... i just want to know if iv got everything that is needed to put together a functioning computer (this is the first time iv put together a pc) and and if it looks like a good setup spec-value wise.

Cheers :)
 
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The titan fenrir cooler is one of the best - a definate keeper.

As for PSU, I think 600W is on the limit for adding a 2nd 4890. With an overclocked machine I would play it safe and go for a 700W PSU if you plan on crossfire 4890.

That hard disk you chose is not the fastest, If you invested in something like this your day-to-day performance will be better - and you will have double the storage.

Normally I would laugh and point fingers at AMD X4 955 specs - but overclocked to 3.8Ghz and under £400 is quite a deal. A decent i7 rig would cost you at least £50 more and you would have to overclock it yourself - would you be interested in such a system?

One crucial thing I don't see there is an operating system. Do you already have one/downloading windows 7 RC or will you need to buy a new one? If you do need to buy a new one, Vista 64bit is here for £82. However, If you want to be really up to date get the windows 7 Release candidate from here. It will work fully until March 1st 2010, then you will need to buy it.

In that system - the component causing bottlenecking will be the graphics card. However, that's fine as most people are in this situation. Fortunately for you, that 4890 is very powerful - so even though the card is limiting performance, your performance will be very high indeed.
 
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cmndr_andi said:
The titan fenrir cooler is one of the best - a definate keeper.

As for PSU, I think 600W is on the limit for adding a 2nd 4890. With an overclocked machine I would play it safe and go for a 700W PSU if you plan on crossfire 4890.

That hard disk you chose is not the fastest, If you invested in something like this your day-to-day performance will be better - and you will have double the storage.

Normally I would laugh and point fingers at AMD X4 955 specs - but overclocked to 3.8Ghz and under £400 is quite a deal. A decent i7 rig would cost you at least £50 more and you would have to overclock it yourself - would you be interested in such a system?

One crucial thing I don't see there is an operating system. Do you already have one/downloading windows 7 RC or will you need to buy a new one? If you do need to buy a new one, Vista 64bit is here for £82. However, If you want to be really up to date get the windows 7 Release candidate from here. It will work fully until March 1st 2010, then you will need to buy it.

In that system - the component causing bottlenecking will be the graphics card. However, that's fine as most people are in this situation. Fortunately for you, that 4890 is very powerful - so even though the card is limiting performance, your performance will be very high indeed.
Click to expand...

Hi

Im already on the limit of my budget tbh. how much performance increase would i get from spending the extra £50 and going I7 ? can you post a link to the I7 setup you were thinking of ? im not really into the idea of overlocking myself (im a complete noob to it).

Operating system is not a problem, im going to use the 64 bit version of Windows 7.

Also do i need to buy the weird gel stuff which i attach the cpu cooler with ? that seems kind of daunting (never done it before). my mate said that there were these tear off strip things which make attaching cpu coolers very easy... do you know what he's talking about ?

Cheers for the quick response btw :)
 
Here is what I was thinking about -

463i7core.jpg


There are many advantages to this i7 setup compared to the X4 955, the only downside is the price (£463 when delivery is taken off)- so £63 more than the AMD setup.

The i7 is faster clock-for-clock compared to the AMD Phenom 2, so a 3.8GHz Phenom 2 is not as fast as a 3.8GHz i7. The i7 also used hyperthreading - which gives 2 threads per physical core (8 threads total), in the future when multithreaded games become more popular to produce - this technology will give the i7 extra advatages (also many applications are already multithreaded). The i7 also uses triple channel memory - so its memory bandwidth is much larger than the phenom 2s.

Furthermore, most X58 motherboards (including the one I indicated) support both SLI and Crossfire, so graphics choice is increased. Another very nice thing about X58 boards is that overclocking them is very simple. You only need to change about 4 BIOS settings to get a heavy, stable overclock (3.8GHz+) and there are MANY threads on this forum showing you how to do just that.

That all said - it is more expensive. And in games - the graphics card will limit your performance more than the CPU/motherboard/RAM will. However, if you added a second graphics card in the future - the graphics card bottleneck will be alleviated - leaving a CPU bottleneck. In this situation - having an overclocked i7 will yield much better performance than a Phenom 2 for the reasons stated above.

In conclusion, if you can find the money for the i7 setup - it is a worthwhile investment and is more futureproof that the phenom 2. However, if you can't stretch to it - you will still have a very fast computer and it will game very well.

Edit: As for the "gel stuff", thats Thermal Interface Material (TIM) it is usually silver-containing grease which is a very good conductor of heat. It is spread over the top of the CPU heatspreader (where it contacts with the cooler). It is used to provide a good thermal connection between the CPU and cooler. A tube of the stuff should come with the Titan Fenrir cooler, as should some application instructions (simple really - add a rice grain amount to the top of the CPU - then spread it out evenly with a finger covered by a sandwich bag). I think the tear off strips work in a similar way - but melt when heated, I suggest just using the included stuff or buy some of this.
 
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ok so its possible to overclock that 2.6ghz I7 processor to 3.8ghz ? is the 2.6ghz I7 unclocked still better than the phenom ?

just how noob proof is overlocking the I7 ? im borderline computer retarded... ok im not that bad but words like Bios etc scare me and when i look at a bios page i instantly think "i shouldn't be going anywhere near this"

lol
 
Blurgh said:
ok so its possible to overclock that 2.6ghz I7 processor to 3.8ghz ? is the 2.6ghz I7 unclocked still better than the phenom ?

just how noob proof is overlocking the I7 ? im borderline computer retarded... ok im not that bad but words like Bios etc scare me and when i look at a bios page i instantly think "i shouldn't be going anywhere near this"

lol
Click to expand...

you will be fine, I overclocked my first intel cpu in 07, I was really scared, shaking even! I followed a guide though, made sure I bought the same cpu & motherboard as the guide.

Try finding an overclocking thread for the i7 system in the forums.

TBH: £65 is a lot of money, the AMD comes overclocked, with warranty, all parts already selected. I think this is the best route for you tbh. Its worry and hassle free.
 
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if you are already spending that much money on a new system then an extra £65 is not really much more at all, especially if you arent going to be upgrading for about 2 years.
 
Tbh I think that AMD bundle is pretty good value anyway.

Heavily clocked it performs nearly the same as an i7 and in some cases it beats it in relation to games.
 
Hold on to that F1 too, it's single platter, cheap and quick. You'd be hard pressed to find a noticably faster drive at that price point.
 
Blurgh said:
ok so its possible to overclock that 2.6ghz I7 processor to 3.8ghz ? is the 2.6ghz I7 unclocked still better than the phenom ?

just how noob proof is overlocking the I7 ? im borderline computer retarded... ok im not that bad but words like Bios etc scare me and when i look at a bios page i instantly think "i shouldn't be going anywhere near this"

lol
Click to expand...

Thats the beauty of i7s - the multiplier may be unlocked - but It doesn't matter. On i7 the clockspeed is arrived at by taking the product of the multiplier (x20 for a in i7 920) and the base clock (standard of 133Mhz but most boards can easily do 190MHz+) - hence at least a 3.8GHz clockspeed. i7 920s (2.66MHz stock can definately reach these overclocks) I have mine sitting at 3.6Ghz (just wanted a very cool chip for the time being) while my flatmate has his sitting happily at 4.0GHz, and most forum members I have seen who have overclocked theirs have them running at similar speeds.

Also, when you look at reviews for games - remember that when they compare a 3.2GHz phenom II 955 with a 2.66GHz i7 920 - they are tied or the phenom 2 just wins. If both chips were sitting at 3.8GHz - the i7 would win by a mile.

A stock i7 compared to that phenom II (the one you have there is already clocked to 3.8GHz) will certainly lose- but its hardly a fair comparison. The i7 is really not difficult to overclock - and when it is overclocked it is a beast.
 
id advise against those speakers. you can get the step up logitech speakers for 30 quid if you look around, its a shame overclockers dont sell them though.

edit: theya re called: Logitech X 230 2.1 Speakers - 32W RMS

well worth the little extra.
 
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So iv decided the I7 is out of my price range, i was already pushing it with the first setup i posted.

How much performance would i lose if i was downgrade the quad core phenom II bundle to the tri-core one http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-002-OB ?

It's noticeably cheaper which is tempting but i don't want to go with it if it's going to result in a significantly worse gaming system. bare in mind the pc will be used 100% for gaming and nothing else.
 
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 940 Black Edition 3.0GHz (Socket AM2+) - Retail
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Corsair XMS3 DHX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600C9DHX Twin3X (TW3X4G1600C9DHX)
Only comes to £334 if you buy them separate then overclock them yourself(People on the forums can help you overclock)
 
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really not to fond of the idea of overclocking myself... i know it blatantly seems easy to most of you guys but for someone like me it's a very unappealing prospect. would save me £65 though...

Hmm
 
I'd oc get that, save the money and oc it yourself, the 940 has got unlocked multiplier, making OC much easier!
 
Cheers for the responses, im def not going with the I7 tbh, too expensive.

I phoned up overclockers today and the guy on the phone actually suggested that i should get a dual core processor instead of a tri/quad core one if i was only going to use it for gaming... sound like good advice ? would save me a nice sum of money. any recommendations for dual core processors/mobo/ram combo's ?

If i was to ignore that advice is it worth me getting the quad core over the tri core ? is the extra core worth the extra money for gaming ? are games in the future definetley going to require 4 cores ? will this happen relatively soon ? i don't want to a buy a quad core processor and then find its outdated by the time most games finally start using all 4 cores.

Stuarts said:
Hmmmm.... Not to tempt you or anything to change your mind.... but here is an overclocking tutorial to get the i7 920 to 4ghz :-)

http://images.tweaktown.com/imagebank/Core%20i7%20920%20oc%204G%202008.12.12_(ENG).pdf
Click to expand...

I just had a quick glance at that tutorial and it's pretty much 100% put me off overclocking myself, lol.
 
I just had a quick glance at that tutorial and it's pretty much 100% put me off overclocking myself, lol.
Click to expand...

Yeh. I know what you mean.

I ended up getting the 4ghz overclocked package, because I figure that the guy doing it must have a pretty good idea from experience what is going to work or not in the overclocking area.

Whilst I would probably fry its arse whilst figuring it out!

That said, the 920 seems pretty good value at £215. And if it is overclocked, then as far as I can see, there really isn't anything faster at the mo.

As you said though, a cheaper one will probably also get the job done just fine. And we will all likely be upgrading in a while when they introduce Quantum 8 Core chips or something :-)
 
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