Is this build sensible?

MichaelM

MichaelM

MichaelM

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Okay, so the last desktop I built was before the ATX form factor was released so some stuff is a little new to me.

Here is what i'm thinking:
parts.jpg


I will be using two WD Raptor SATA drives which are from an old desktop.
Are there any parts i'm missing or that are just not compatable?


*note* - The 8 pin extension cable is for the mobo power cable to be routed behind the mobo, which people talked about in this forum.
 
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do you need win7 ultimate?, home edition will do what you want.

you have picked a motherboard that does crossfire, yet only a psu that has two pci-e connectors, this psu - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-002-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1497 has four pci-e connectors and long cables for that large case.

do you want a motherboard that does crossfire? or will a single card suffice?

and the ram is really expensive when this corsair ram will be fine - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-203-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

your missing a harddrive?

here it is re-specced, but without a harddrive still.

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card ***Supplied Assasins Creed Game*** £193.86
(£164.99) £193.86
(£164.99)
Corsair Obsidian 700D Full Tower Case - Black £163.99
(£139.57) £163.99
(£139.57)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £105.74
(£89.99) £105.74
(£89.99)
ASRock 890GX Extreme3 AMD 890GX (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £99.99
(£85.10) £99.99
(£85.10)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £80.99
(£68.93) £80.99
(£68.93)
Corsair Dominator 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMD4GX3M2A1600C9) £79.99
(£68.08) £79.99
(£68.08)
XFX 650W XXX Edition Modular Power Supply £69.99
(£59.57) £69.99
(£59.57)
Scythe Kaze-Master 5.25" Fan Controller - Black £32.00
(£27.23) £32.00
(£27.23)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.91) £13.99
(£11.91)
Sub Total : £715.37
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £14.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £127.77
Total : £857.89

still does crossfire, psu has long cables and four pci-e connectors.
 
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Here is my thinking.
With the retail win7 I get 32 bit and 64 bit so I can use the 32 bit version on older pc's.

I originally spec'd two 4890's in crossfire but that is no longer on the site so the 5850 with the possibility of another later on seemed reasonable.

I'm not sure I can argue about the ram, I think in my mind I had the concern of future overclocking.

I edited my post to include the HDD i was going to use.
 
well I done a re-spec above, you can only use that retail windows on one pc at a time, so being able to use 32bit on a older pc and 64bit on this new one may not be possible.
 
You can't put 32 bit on the other machines, it's still only one license, and you can get retail version of home premium anyway
Agree with Stulid you should change psu if you're thinking of adding 2nd card later
 
I can confirm that you cannot split the installs legally.

Stulid's suggestions are good. The RAM is very expensive considering the alternatives and I doubt that you would see any meaningful difference if you go down to the 12600 range where you can find some brilliant pieces for a lot more reasonable prices.
 
Hi there,

Unfortunately with a windows retail licence, you may have two disks (32bit and 64bit) but you can only use the single licence on one PC at a time. Therefore I strongly suggest you go for an OEM copy, it may be tied to the motherboard, but it is a fair bit cheaper. Also (to echo what stulid said), do you need the features of Win 7 Ultimate, or will Home Premium do?

As for graphics cards, I strongly suggest you wait till November if you possibly can as AMD are releasing the new graphics generation then in the form of the HD 6000 series cards.

This is the PSU I would go for.

Finally, unless you need the features of the Crosshair IV, you might want to go with a much cheaper 890FX board like this. Also, this is the RAM I would go for instead.
 
cmndr_andi said:
As for graphics cards, I strongly suggest you wait till November if you possibly can as AMD are releasing the new graphics generation then in the form of the HD 6000 series cards.
Click to expand...
Cheers for all the info so quickly, especially this ^

I think I will wait for these new cards to hit the market and then see what is on offer and prices but i'm sure the system will look very like the solid suggestions you guys have made.

Special thanks to stulid for going through the effort of the re-spec :)
 
show me "nowhere near" benches please

Add: you also have to remember this chip is new tech so it will only get better with new drivers.
 
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This is a January review of the MSI Big Bang Fusion (uses the same Hydra 200 chip) running multiple dual ATI graphics cards (another review here). For reference, the CrossfireX scaling is currently around 60% I believe (varies depending on game).
Edit: Here is a review (again from january) comparing the Hydra directly to crossfire performance in a range of games.

Hopefully the drivers have got better since then, but the overclock3d review doesn't show hydra scaling in real games, so I guess it would be best to wait until more complete reviews come along before passing judgement - but I certainly wouldn't recommend it yet.
 
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its been 9months since them benches. very good chance its better, and no doubt it will be better again in another 9months. i guess its down to weather your an eairly adapter or not.

compared to the formula
- overclocks far better
- £50 less
- lucid chip (can run any GPU and has the potential to be "as good" as crossfirex and sli)

if i was going AMD id get this board no problem.
 
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I suppose I am not an early adopter, I generally wait to see what the problems with bit of technology are, whether it works or not and whether it is better than the competition before I buy something or recommend someone else buy something.

I will certainly give you that the board is a good overclocker - the AMD 800 series chipsets are rather nice. However, I wouldn't say it overclocks any better than any other high-end AM3 board - 4GHz with a 1090T is pretty standard for these chips. And the graphs showing the CPU performance at 3.2GHz is pretty even with the competition.

But in terms of the lucid chip - I bet the performance is better than it was 9 months ago too. However, I would need to see benchmarks comparing a dual ATI GPUs in Hydra vs dual ATI GPUs in CrossfireX in a range of modern games and the hydra being at least as good as crossfireX before I would buy into Hydra or recommend the technology to anyone. To do otherwise does not make a lot of sense to me as you are banking on driver updates to solve an issue with new piece of technology. Hopefully these tests will come in soon, it seems that only overclock3d got a test sample.
 
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fair enuff.

i dont think buying into potential is wrong but waiting till its tryed and tested is safer. i guess its down to the individual.

wots the chances that lucid takes off and these boards are no longer uncut diamonds?:) the £50 less might be no more?
 
I bet it is odds on to work properly - its just a matter of time. The core idea of working as driver agnostic load balancer is a clever one and certainly seems more intuitive than alternate frame rendering currently used by SLI and Crossfire. However, its all about implementation. Hopefully with the backing of big companies like MSI and ASUS they will get more work done on the software front and bring the scaling up to (and hopefully above) SLI and CrossfireX levels.

What they were saying in January was that games required a hydra profile to use the technology properly however they were only releasing hydra software updates quarterly - so playing newly released games using the tech is a minefield. Hopefully with the money and support from their big partners Lucid will increase the rate of update and make this tech a real player.
 
defo, i cant see a chip like this being developed to play 2nd string. no chance, this is a gamebreaker in the making. eairly adopters will get bargins the rest will pay the premium.

Add: its funny seeing the possibility of eairly buyers getting a bargin. its usually the other way around.
 
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I don't see the sense of going for a hydra board over an established and supported technology like Cros.... SLI and a semi supported one like Crossfire. Hydra still doesn't properly work with a great number of games and its up in the air if it will ever really take off.

For a sensible build I would seriously suggest:

GTX470 (Unless your hardcore AMD)
Corsair TX or HX PSU
Saving some money on the case and going with something like the Antec 300? unless your dead set on that case it is quite nice.
Going the intel route for CPU? pushes up the price a bit but gives you SLI capabilities with the 470, better overall performance if your overclocking.
 
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