Yet another spec check - Cross Fire System

[XtAsY]

CP-127-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM)
£264.95 £264.95
MB-019-DF DFI LanParty UT CFX3200-DR RD580 Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-019-DF)
£139.95 £139.95
MY-094-CS Corsair 2GB DDR XMS4000PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS3 (MY-094-CS)
£134.95 £134.95
CA-008-HP Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Red UV (CA-008-HP)
£54.95 £54.95
HD-058-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 250GB ST3250824AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-058-SE)
£53.95 £53.95
GX-045-CO ATI Radeon X1900 ***Crossfire Edition*** 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-045-CO)
£259.95 £259.95
GX-046-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3055) (GX-046-CO)
£269.95 £269.95
HS-020-ZA Zalman CNPS9500-AT Aero Flower (Socket 775) CPU Cooler (HS-020-ZA)
£25.95 £25.95
SC-032-CL Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS Edition - Retail (SC-032-CL)
£115.95 £115.95
CM-011-GE Akasa AK-178-UV 12" Cold Cathode - Ultra-Violet (CM-011-GE)
£4.95 £9.90
FG-023-AK Akasa AK-182-L2B Ultra Quiet 80mm Fan - 3 pin (FG-023-AK)
£3.95 £11.85
Subtotal £1,342.30
VAT £234.91
Total £1,577.21

EDIT: - Do I have the correct graphics cards there for crossfire? I do need the master card right?

 

[NightmareXX]

TBH I've read around the forums and some people don't seem too impressed with the DFI for OC'ing (Thats if your doing anything). I'd personally go for the Asus A8R32-MVP

NEW PSU! That one'd be cutting it a bit close with your system (Or not work at all). I've got the FSP 700W Epsilon and tis absolutely wonderful

 

[XtAsY]

TBH I've read around the forums and some people don't seem too impressed with the DFI for OC'ing (Thats if your doing anything). I'd personally go for the Asus A8R32-MVP

NEW PSU! That one'd be cutting it a bit close with your system (Or not work at all). I've got the FSP 700W Epsilon and tis absolutely wonderful

I'm going for DFI purely because ive always had their boards and everyone I've had has been excellant. Hmmmm, a 700 W PSU... not sure.. what about the 600 W seasonic? I dont want to run up the power bill too much ya see

 

[hp7909]

I'm going for DFI purely because ive always had their boards and everyone I've had has been excellant. Hmmmm, a 700 W PSU... not sure.. what about the 600 W seasonic? I dont want to run up the power bill too much ya see

Your building a power hungry system and your worried about the elec bill

Anyway, 700W does not necessarily mean it will consume 700 WATTS! Just that it will be a more capable PSU to run your system. See here to get a rough idea. Then from that, get a good (Tagan ) PSU with good +12v Rail AMPS - bear in mind the Calculator might give you a high figure but that (i've come to find out) is not realistic because you can not have all the components drawing 100% (someone correct me if wrong).

 

[NightmareXX]

hp7909 has a point with the power thing Anyway, your PSU will only give as much power as your system is demanding. Same way that any appliance will only take the power it needs (I think).

On the PSU note, the one I suggested and have has a combined total of 60A on the 12V rail so it should keep you going for long enough.

Here's a run down of what the PSU comes with....

6 molex conectors
2 floppy connectors
8 SATA power connectors
3 PCI-E connectors (For GFX card(s))
Motherboard thingy 20pin with extra 4pin for EATX (I think thats what its called)
2 * 4pin 12V ATX power supply for mobo


TBH I think that lot should keep you going for more then long enough

 

[XtAsY]

sounds good, guess I'll just have to go for either the FSP or a Tagan PSU then.Thanks for the replies

 

[hp7909]

{snip}Zalman CNPS9500-AT Aero Flower (Socket 775) CPU Cooler (HS-020-ZA)
£25.95 £25.95{snip}

That HSF's for an Intel Socket 775 Motherboard! You want Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower (Socket 939/754/478/775) CPU Cooler (HS-015-ZA) instead.

{snip}Akasa AK-178-UV 12" Cold Cathode - Ultra-Violet (CM-011-GE)
£4.95 £9.90{snip}

Are you really worried about power bill/s Get some LED-FANs, that's more practicle in that it looks good while actually doing something!

 

[XtAsY]

I didn't want LED fans cos I want the rig to be ideally as quiet as it can be, which is obvously tough has its a crossfire system

 

[hp7909]

I didn't want LED fans cos I want the rig to be ideally as quiet as it can be, which is obvously tough has its a crossfire system

With those two X1900 cards in there, I doubt any 120mm fan (up to 2400RPM) can be heard over them. All I'm saying is, your expectations don't add up, e.g. Crossfire = low power consumption + quite on the latter maybe unless water-cooling For reference, see here.

Anyway, all that aside - that will be one sweet build - enjoy (both the build & end results = playing games maxed out)

Hope you noted the earlier comment about the Heat Sink & Fan (HSF)?

 

[XtAsY]

Hope you noted the earlier comment about the Heat Sink & Fan (HSF)?

yes, I saw that thanks Well, I am now considering water cooling, which means I am going to have to do a little more research and spend more money I'm gonna have to wait till I get paid now though

EDIT: - Another thing I am concerned about are my PCI slots being take over by the rathger large x1900 cards. I should obvoisly be able to fit the X-FI card in but next year I want a PhysX card for UT2007. Got a feeling that theres not gonna be space for it s:

 

[hp7909]

Regarding water cooling, I'd research if you can really get the block and tubbing in, especially on the card above the other. If can't, it would just be a waste of money because everything else would be silent except those two noisy 'kids'

Regarding space for another PCI card, it shouldn't be a problem -see here

 

[XtAsY]

worried abouit my case, its an Antec Plusview 1000 SOHO file server case. It is quite spacious inside, but I fear there might not be enough for a full blown water cooling system. I would be going the full nine yards.. CPU, graphics cards and northbridge..

EDIT: - it seems here > http://www.chillblast.com/product.php?productid=17352&cat=0&page=1

that they have manged to do it. The case doesnt look anymoire roomy inside than mine does so I guess I would be alright. They even have an X-FI card in there too.

The next question is watercooling components to go for. If it is going to bring my costs to over £2000, I'm just going to have to leave it and stay with air cooling. I could always replace the stock coolers on the x1900's with on of these things > http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=192&code=013

They are quieter but not ideal for overclocking mind... I shouldnt be doing any of that anyway.

 

[turbotoaster]

dont go for the tagan psu as it wont give u enough power, to be honest if your doing any overclocking to gfx and cpu even a fsp will struggle, u really need a 850w or 1kw psu, running ati tool 100% gfx load=44amp thats a lot, plus cpu and other stuff, cpu will be quite a lot if overclocked as well

 

[barney]

definatly get an epsilon FPS 700W psu. i tried loads of PSU's with my crossfire system and none of them could cope except the FPS one.

The x1900 cards are not loud unless you overclock them or manually set the fans to high (then they are very loud). Also make sure you have side fans blowing air over the voltage regulators on the graphics cards as without that they can go as high as 90degrees, a couple of 8cm fans on the side of the case over the pci-e slots knocks it down to about 75 degrees.

 

[NightmareXX]

Well I have my X1900 without any fans blowing on it and the core gets up to about 85 ish. Drops 10 degrees the instant I stop gaming and cools down really quickly. It has to be safe otherwise ATi wouldn't be able to sell em.

 

[barney]

yeah thats the core temp, use ATI tool to check the voltage regulator temp. Fair enough it is probably well within tolarance but i dont like any part of my system to be running that hot

In general with electronics the cooler it is the better it runs and the longer its lifespan.