Can I do this any cheaper?

skippy2421 · 30 Jan 2011 at 17:44

Well after my motherboard of my pc decided to give up the ghost (see here) I have decided I may as well upgrade as I don't think I am going to get an RMA on my old mobo (bought from a place that only offers 1 year warranty). I have a sunbeam CCF (old i know) but this used to fit AM2+ boards so i see no reason why it would not fit AM3 thus saving me buying a cooler. So can any of you do any better? My requirements are it must support atleast x8x8 crossfire and allow me to go 6 core when everybody sells them for bulldozer. It must not exceed £350, I will sell me old remaining components to part fund this so hopefully the financial cost should not be too bad. Only need mobo, CPU, RAM and an SSD would be nice, I don't mind taking second hand parts (except mobos).

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £109.99
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1) - £94.99
Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard - £86.99
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £37.99

Sub Total : £274.97
Total : £329.96

stulid · 30 Jan 2011 at 17:46

that motherboard doesnt support 8X/8X crossfire.

this does - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-025-FC&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=1481

skippy2421 · 30 Jan 2011 at 18:00

stulid said:
that motherboard doesnt support 8X/8X crossfire.

this does - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-025-FC&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=1481

If that is so they might want to change this statement on the product page:

"Based on the AMD 880G chipset, the 880GA-UD3H supports the latest 45nm AMD AM3 Phenom II/Athlon II processors, integrated DDR3 memory controller, HyperTransport 3.0 technology links and dual PCI Express 2.0 graphics interfaces (running at x8 and x8) for ATI CrossFireX/ATI Hybrid CrossFireX support."

Was looking at that mobo would the SSD make use of sata 6gb/s on the gigabyte mobo? If not there is little sense in picking the Gigabyte over the foxconn. Also can anyone confirm that AM2+ coolers use the same bracket as AM3? I am pretty sure they do but would be nice for peace of mind.

stulid · 30 Jan 2011 at 18:02

The only chipsets that do crossfire right are.

8X/8X - 790GX, 890GX

16X/16X - 790FX/X, 890FX

a AM2/AM2+/AM3 is the same mounting.

and the Crucial SSD will max out the SATA2 connection of a motherboard, a SATA3 connection will work better.

AtaRo · 30 Jan 2011 at 18:20

Stulid is right according to Gigabytes site the second pcie x16 slot only run at x4

1 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
2 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)

skippy2421 · 30 Jan 2011 at 18:31

Well noticed guys, I wouldn't of known that.

hmmmm that's not good them listing it wrong like that. Well it looks like this is now the cheapest mobo option. Hmmm AMD don't seem so cheap now. Guess it's the price i pay for wanting crossfire, may have to drop the SSD as it's getting a bit costly now.

skippy2421 · 30 Jan 2011 at 19:44

If i didn't get an SSD and continued to run a mechanical HDD what would I be able to manage then? I see sandybridge is pushing the budget somewhat, but i7 seems possible using a second hand cpu or perhaps even a hexcore AMD setup. hmmmm AMD with 1055T and this mobo weighs in at 284 quid.