New Upgrade

JHONO

JHONO

JHONO

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Joined
8 Feb 2004
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865
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Hi all im planning on building a New Rig soon (about another 3 weeks), i have about £1300-1400 to spend but im not too sure on what to upgrade to.

Heres an idear of what ive choosen so far:

Asus Rampage Extreme Intel X48 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.83GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail

Enermax Galaxy 1000W EGX1000EWL ATX2.2 Modular PSU

Corsair 4GB DDR3 DHX 1600C7DHX Twin3X (2x2GB) (TWIN3X4096-1600C7DHX)

HIS ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Antec Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case

Total cost £1415 inc VAT

Would it be a good idear to ditch the Motherboard since its just far too expensive, and replacing it with an ASUS Maximus Extreme X38 Motherboard?

What are the main differences between these boards? Does the X38 support PCIe 2.0 and does it also support 2 16x PCI express port that both support 16 lanes to each PCI-E port? I think i ve heard that this board only supports 8x to both ports when your using crossfire?

Also thinking of changing the ram to the Corsair DDR3 DHX 1600 modules to the same ones but with a lower latency so i can save about £100. Thing is though will i notice a big performance decrease, unlike the memory ive choosen which is about 7-7-7-20 i think, Is it also worth going for DDR3 at the moment as well?

Thanks
 
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As far as ive read ddr3 is a bit of a waste of time at the moment! What will the pc be for? Im guessing you've got quite a lot of money to spend on this!
 
I would keep your current PC and buy the 4870, then see if you need to spend more on a new PC.

Also, whats the PC actually for?
 
Hi the PC is for gaming, want to able to play the latest such as farcry 2 etc.

I do have 1400 to spend but that only if its needed. I just dont want to waste my money on things like DDR3 and motherboards with more power and features that i dont need basicly. But im willing to spend the lot if you recommend it.

What do you both think of the X38 Maximus Extreme motherboard by Asus compared to the X48 Rampage would i notice much difference in performance?

Also would it be ok to keep the Current Corsair DDR2 800 Modules i have now since as you say DDR3 isnt worth it yet?

Thanks:)
 
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I would keep your current memory yes. What is your current PSU?

I dont think you really need an X48 or an X38 board, a Asus P5Q Intel P45 would do you fine and its much cheaper. Also if you really must have a new CPU I think it would be better to get an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400.
 
agree with the e8x00 suggestion you're prob best of buying that and spending the rest of the money on gfx cards if you wanna spend a lot! 2 4870x2's :D
 
Thanks for your help lads. :)

The Power Supply i have is an Enermax Liberty 620W. Its just not powerfull enough to run the spec i want realy, thats why ive gone for the Enermax galaxy 1000W since i want to be able to run two 4870s in the future.

Definatly want the Q9550. Its got so much power and that 12Mb Cache sounds great! Its not that much realy about £220 which i can afford.

As for motherboard Definatly a good idear but im thinking of getting the X38 or X48 still just to be future proof (or will it be?). Im sure its backwards compatable with DDR 2 Memory right? If thats the case then il save nearly £300 since im keeping the DDR 2 800 memory?

Would there be a performance decrease though if i kept the DDR 2 Memory?

Thanks :)
 
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apart from one, cant remeber where it is, where you can use either types of memory but i dont think it got good reviews
 
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