Check this rig for me

Associate
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OK. I'm building another beastly rig for a friend.

The budget is £1500 and he would like the awesome feature that is dual graphics, especially with that actually helping performance now.

Here are the current part choices:
dualbitchin.jpg


Incase I have missed anything, or made a bad component choice, let me know.

It would be good to hear any other related thoughs, as this is the most ambitious build I have partaken in.

I am certainly going to critique every part more tomorrow, but for now that is the base selection.

edit:
Would xfire require a better motherboard to get 16x on both cards?
edit:
its advertised 2x 16x lanes
 
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Soldato
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The ASUS Maximus III Gene runs 1 GPU at x16 and 2 at x8x8. My suggestion would be to get this board instead, it has the same graphics configuration, is full-ATX, overclocks well and is cheaper.

However, if you are planning to run a crossfire system immediately - then you may want to consider an i7/X58 rig. All X58 boards run 2 graphics cards at x16x16 speeds and some like the P6TD/P6T Deluxe have triple spaces x16 slots for good cooling of dual cards - this board is a ridiculous deal. Alternatively, this is a good board that overclocks even better (but the main x16 slots are reasonably close).

As for the i7 CPU, if you have a look around the web you should find new i7 920 chips for ~£160-180.

The rest of the spec looks excellent, but you may want to go for a meatier cooler like the megahalems if you go for an i7 and of-course triple channel RAM is an option.

The XFX 5870 is great, but the ASUS one is better. It has longer warranty and a much more overclocking-friendly BOIS. It is also a bit cheaper.
 
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OK, thanks for the comments guys. Recently I had pondered the i7 option, and it would also probably be worthwhile getting a 5970 instead of 2 5870s, also wondered about 2 gtx465 cards.

I've a lot to think about before I make purchases this coming monday, so I will post newer decisions here.
 
Soldato
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Looks really good, there isn't going to be a game you can't play with this setup. If they are just using it for gaming then the i5 chip (overclocked) will provide more than enough power for them however if they want to use it for encoding/photoshop/video editing then maybe the extra power of an i7 chip would be better suited.
 
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OK this is where I am:
bitchin.jpg


Oh er, that will fit in the case right?

Want to shave off a bit of money though, would a 750W corsair psu be good enough? (with 5850s, deffo).

I don't want to compromise gaming performance if at all possible, and I can't see how 2 5850s can match 2 5870s. I can see now that going for an i7 is the only real option for xfire or sli, due to the mobo chipset. If I ever reverted down to single card (5970), would i5 be a better option to save money?
 
Soldato
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If you want to save £60 - got for the ASUS P6T Deluxe board suggested by myself and frozennova.

A 750W corsair PSU will easily handle that system.

One thing you may want to consider is getting just one 5870 now. One of these cards is more than powerful enough to blast through all games at high res and high framerates, using 2 will be wasted in most instances.

Out of interest, what monitor will you be running this system with?

If I ever reverted down to single card (5970), would i5 be a better option to save money?

Usually, It would. However, if you can get an X58 board for £120 and an i7 920 for £185 then you really should go for that - the i5/P55 system will not be much cheaper at all.
 
Soldato
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Here's an attempt with peripherals, depending on what they have now it may lead to a better overall experience.

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £319.99
(£272.33) £319.99
(£272.33)
Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366) - OEM £221.99
(£188.93) £221.99
(£188.93)
Samsung B2430H 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor £169.99
(£144.67) £169.99
(£144.67)
OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel (OCZ3G1600LV6GK) £122.99
(£104.67) £122.99
(£104.67)
Asus P6T Deluxe OC Palm Edition Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard £119.99
(£102.12) £119.99
(£102.12)
Antec TruePower New Modular 750W Power Supply £96.98
(£82.54) £96.98
(£82.54)
LG CH10LS20 10x BluRay-ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (OEM) £81.99
(£69.78) £81.99
(£69.78)
Coolermaster CM-690 II Advanced Dominator Case - Black £80.99
(£68.93) £80.99
(£68.93)
Altec Expressionist Plus 2.1 Speaker System - Black £55.99
(£47.65) £55.99
(£47.65)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £55.99
(£47.65) £55.99
(£47.65)
Noctua NH-U12P SE2 Dual Fan Quiet CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM2+/AM3) £54.99
(£46.80) £54.99
(£46.80)
Logitech G500 Gaming Mouse (910-001262) £39.99
(£34.03) £39.99
(£34.03)
Zalman VF3000-A Graphics Card Cooler (ATI 5830/5850/5870) £32.99
(£28.08) £32.99
(£28.08)
Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard (967929-0120) £25.99
(£22.12) £25.99
(£22.12)
Sub Total : £1,260.30
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £17.60
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £223.63
Total : £1,501.53
 
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