What to go with BFG GeForce 7900 GTX ?

gtabomber · 9 Apr 2006 at 23:56

Hi Guys! Long time buyer, first time poster!

Im looking for a bit of advice on what motherboard to get to go with a pair of BFG GeForce 7900 GTX OC 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-017-BG) .

Im looking for a pretty high-end board, any suggestions? It needs to feature SATA RAID.

Plus, I recently baught some of this Kingston HyperX - 400MHz, the new mobo is probably going to be DDR2 so looks like ill need some new'er RAM aswell.

Ive got a new Seasonic S12 600W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply (CA-002-SS) so I think it should be able to take the weight of the GFX cards.

Ill need a CPU to go with all of the above, any suggestions also appreciated!

Obviously id prefer Overclockers to supply the hardware, but if they cant its not the end of the world.

Cheers guys.

gtabomber · 10 Apr 2006 at 00:00

Meths said:
What processor are you using?

For the upgrade ill want a new one, but if you're wondering what ive got at the mo, its a Barton 3000+.

gtabomber · 10 Apr 2006 at 00:07

Cheers, looks like a good mobo according to the reviews ive seen.

While trying to not sound daft, do you know off the top of your head what the EXPERT mobo above it is all about?

Before anyone thinks this thread is pretty much closed, still looking to see what RAM i need, a suggested CPU and if my PSU will take the strain!

My ref: £1016.20 so far.

gtabomber · 10 Apr 2006 at 14:21

Thanks Kamakazie.

The FX-60 is over £200 more than the 4800+. In my opinion thats allot of money for 0.2ghz difference. Ill probs be going for the X2-4800 then.

The Kingston HyperX ive got, im pretty sure i baught the DDR 400MHz (PC3200) so that should do fine.

This is what im currently looking at, if anyone see's any incompatibilities, let me know!!

£434.69 - BFG GeForce 7900 GTX OC 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-017-BG)
£434.69 - BFG GeForce 7900 GTX OC 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-017-BG)
£146.82 - DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR EXPERT (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-018-DF)
£109.86 - Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740GD 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-015-WD)
£109.86 - Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740GD 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-015-WD)
£109.86 - Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740GD 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-015-WD)
£109.86 - Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740GD 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-015-WD)
£458.19 - AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4800CDBOX) (CP-129-AM)
£000.00 - DDR 400MHz (PC3200) - Currently own it anyway!
£1913.83

gtabomber · 10 Apr 2006 at 14:28

frisp said:
Crossfire board?

lol, i copied the wrong one, changed!

gtabomber · 10 Apr 2006 at 14:39

Noni said:
Hi there
I would not go for SLI, its not really worth it in my opinion. With the money saved, go for a big monitor.

The reason im going for SLi is i run everything at 1680 x 1050 with my Dell 20.1" monitor. (If anyone is looking to buy a new monitor, i very highly reccomend these!)

The ram, is it DDR2?

Nope.

I would go for a Nforce 4 SLI board instead of a crossfire one

That post was there for about 11 seconds and the whole world has noticed! Its changed now!

I think there was a SAMSUNG SPINPIONT than performed the same as raptor for half the price

Hmm.. interesting... I clicked striaght on the Western Digital drives because ive allways liked them (raptor sounds nice too

). Ive allways associated Samsung with washing machines, thats why ive never been a fan of their PC gear. Ill see what else is on the market. Oh, im planning on running RAID 0+1 if anyone is interested.

Thanks for the feedback!

gtabomber · 10 Apr 2006 at 15:40

Thanks Explicit for the suggested setup. however im pretty set on an nvidia system. Im not going to get into the arguement on why, we would be here for a while!

Hard drive wise, im fine for storage, ive 300GB of storage on an IBM eServer full of my bits and bobs.

Ive got a thing about hard drives - they perform extremely bad. Its the year 2006 and we can get multi-core hyperthreading processors and other extremely high performace parts, yet we still rely on non-solid state mechanical hard drives - glorified vinyl really. </rant>

Hard drives have allways been the bottleneck on everything I do, thats why im after a RAID 0+1 config with 10kRPM drives. Not sure on how im going to fit all them hard drives in my PC-61 but ill find a way!

Ive also got to find out if my Reserator 1 Plus will work with a Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+. Not sure if ive still got the manual....

Oh, the BU-001-WD RAID bundle, whats that all about? Do you get a few hard drives? It doesnt say, or im being blind!

gtabomber · 10 Apr 2006 at 16:32

Noni said:
I hate you! I want a 20.1 inch monitor! my 17inch is becoming small!

I paid over £800 when it first come out. I was waiting for a widescreen TFT for sooo long and i couldnt be arsed with any apple mac ones. now you can get them for £400 so do yourself a favour and buy one! Sell your body on the street if you have to!!

Getting off topic now so ill shush!

gtabomber · 10 Apr 2006 at 22:09

Thanks everyone for your input! £2000 has just gone from my bank account!

Goods Ordered (prices in GBP)
£369.95 x 2 - BFG GeForce 7900 GTX OC 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-017-BG)
£124.95 x 1 - DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR EXPERT (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-018-DF)
£93.50 x 4 - Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740GD 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-015-WD)
£389.95 x 1 - AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4800CDBOX) (CP-129-AM)
£4.95 x 4 - Western Digital Secure Connect Serial ATA Cable (CB-000-WD)
£1.95 x 4 - Akasa 80mm UV Fan - DAYGLO Orange (FG-018-AK)
£22.95 x 1 - AcoustiPack Deluxe v2 Acoustic Material Kit (CM-001-AF)

Sub-Total: 1679.35
Shipping: 9.95
VAT: 295.63
Total: 1984.93

Lets see how this performs!

gtabomber · 11 Apr 2006 at 10:31

Noni said:
Woo!
Also, why the 80mm fans? If you have a ATC 201 DO NOT put dampening material on it, it reduces the value. Give it to me instead

The stock fans that come with the LianLi PC-61 are crap and the temps inside my case are going to rise a tad more with 4 raptors and 2 GFX cards!

The AcoustiPack Deluxe v2 Acoustic Material Kit is mine, all mine!!

I'm sure SLI is getting better but some games, at least a month or two back ( not seen any reviews recently to show any thng is different), just plain don't work with SLI

One of my main games is Call of Duty 2. I get pretty naff framerates (to my standards anyways) in 1680 x 1050 and I know it works well with SLi

. Check this out. Ive just noticed that guys sig has a very similar system to what i (will) have!

Cheers guys.

gtabomber · 13 Apr 2006 at 16:16

Well if i get sick of the RAID 0+1 ill just change it

The noise aint too much of a problem. The computer gets used for loud games and thats about it. If i have to leave a PC on over night ive got either my IBM eServer or a couple of cardboard box PC's that do the job

Your order has been sent to our warehouse but not yet printed.

Taking too long! I want my beast!

gtabomber · 17 Apr 2006 at 17:18

As i said before, i dont need storage space. That all goes on a server.

Yea, the GFX is still out of stock. Everything has been shipped apart from the GFX cards. They havent arrived yet because of easter and everything.

So... ive got a nackerd machine still sitting here waiting for its beasty upgrades. The waiting is killing me!

I may as well show you were its all going. Take a look.

Cheers guys.

gtabomber · 2 May 2006 at 20:00

Got it all set up and it definately does fly!

Need to get the memory settings input properly though. Thats a task and a half. This mobo goes waaaay in depth with the settings.

One problem with the pooter though, see here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=6964506#post6964506

Thanks everyone for the help so far!