Spec a 2k gaming rig, would be great !

[Eliminos]

im a newbie when it comes to psu, but i no the basics, what is modular ???

It means you can unplug cables from it.

A normal PSU will just come with a bundle of cables attatched to the actual unit, and more times than not you have way too many molexes etc. With a modular PSU you only need to plug in cables that you need. In mine I only have a 2x SATA cable, a PCI-E cable and a 2x molex cable plugged in. Along with the mandatory ATX cable. It means the inside of my case is relatively clutter free.

 

[saboy]

ahh , cool, i think i would rather get one of those, so the spec that i mentioned above, would anyone regard that as a excellent system ? or just basically fine ? Is the crossfire edition card that i mentioned in my spec excellnet, i do plan on going crossfire later one anyway.

 

[Eliminos]

I would consider it an excellent system (considering its similar to mine). As for the graphics card, you might aswell just buy an XT/XTX and if you plan on crossfiring later, buy the crossfire edition then. Who knows, ATI might have a higher clocked Crossfire X1900 by then.

 

[ACESHIGH]

ahh , cool, i think i would rather get one of those, so the spec that i mentioned above, would anyone regard that as a excellent system ? or just basically fine ? Is the crossfire edition card that i mentioned in my spec excellnet, i do plan on going crossfire later one anyway.

have to agree with above posters, onboard sound should be good enough with standard speakers.

as for the HDD space, its easy enough to get another later if you need the space.

the X1900 crossfire edition master card is a top performing card

so yeah, thats a damn fine system spec allright.

 

[saboy]

have to agree with above posters, onboard sound should be good enough with standard speakers.

as for the HDD space, its easy enough to get another later if you need the space.

the X1900 crossfire edition master card is a top performing card

so yeah, thats a damn fine system spec allright.

Same here, I could add a sata hdd later on, they are cheap enough for sure.

Has anyone here got the motherboard in my spec ?? how is it, and what sound does it have, does it have at least 5.1 surround sound?

 

[saboy]

Question, which are master cards and which arent ?? Im new to ati cards, I only really know nividia stuff,

also , would i be better going with a X1900 XT-X rather than the x1900 crossfire edition ?? it says that its the faster card

and its cheaper, than the crossfire edition one

 

[Eliminos]

The master card is the very top one [on the page], the rest are all slave cards [ie: paired with a master card will give crossfire]. It would be better to get an XT/XTX than a crossfire card. And considering you have £2k to spend, you might aswell make it the Sapphire X1900XTX.

 

[saboy]

which out of all the xtx ones would you reccomend i buy ?

 

[Eliminos]

The Sapphire - I don't think there is much difference [or any at all] between all of the XTXs, but The Sapphires clock a little better and come with a bit more kit than the others. So out of all of them, it would be the Sapphire.

 

[ACESHIGH]

This card is the fastest of the lot....
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-113-SP) ... later on then you can get a master card to run in tandem.

The ... Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-129-AS) ... is a good mobo. It runs 2 x cards in crossfire very well with the newest bios.

Enjoy

 

[Dr Who]

If you can get one single card thats as fast as 2 sli cards within your budget tahts the best bet for a number of reasons...

1. Less noise

2. Less space taken up in the case

3. Lower case temps

4. Less chance of conflicts irqs etc (which slows the system down)

REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
MB-032-GI Gigabyte K8NF-9 nForce4 (Socket 939) PCI Express Motherboard (MB-032-GI)
£57.95 £57.95
GX-046-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3055) (GX-046-CO)
£329.95 £329.95
CP-129-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4800CDBOX) (CP-129-AM)
£399.95 £399.95
HD-069-WD Western Digital Raptor 150GB WD1500ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-069-WD)
£174.95 £174.95
CA-038-LL Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Silver Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-038-LL)
£49.50 £49.50
MY-093-CS Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3500LL Pro TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 (MY-093-CS)
£199.95 £199.95
HD-000-MI Mitsumi FA 404M 7in1 USB 2.0 Floppy & Media Drive - Silver (HD-000-MI)
£13.95 £13.95
CD-048-SO Sony DWG120A 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Silver) - OEM (CD-048-SO)
£24.95 £24.95
KB-001-SL SpeedLink Ultra SL-6466 Flat Illuminated Metal Keyboard (KB-001-SL)
£29.95 £29.95
KB-056-MS Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000 - Retail (KB-056-MS)
£19.95 £19.95
MO-029-SA Samsung SM-930BF 19" LCD Monitor - Silver/Black (MO-029-SA)
£204.95 £204.95
SW-022-MS Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition inc. SP2 - OEM (SW-022-MS)
£79.95 £79.95
CA-001-SK FSP Sparkle FX700-GLN Epsilon 700W ATX2.0 PSU (CA-001-SK)
£96.95 £96.95
Subtotal £1,682.90
VAT £294.51
Total £1,977.41

 

[Eliminos]

4800x2: really no point in getting it, even less point than getting the 4400x2.
Why the Connect3D XTX? Its already been established that the Sapphire is the best.
Why a 150GB Raptor? He would definitely feel the difference between a 19" (which you have specced) and a 20" (which we have specced). Whereas the difference beween a fast 250GB and a Raptor, although noticeable, isn't worth sacrificing 1600x1200 for.
There is much better OCing RAM for that price. Redline/EB anyone?

 

[BigDom]

Not to mention not having a Crossfire board which we established he MAY do in the future.

 

[Dr Who]

A. Because the Board Specced is a pile of dog dirt... When a decent Crossfire Board comes out it can be purchased then, for minimal cost, in the mean time he gets a decent mobo... and saves enough over the other specs to buy the corssfire board when a decent one comes out...

B. The 4400 X2 will become more and more utilised now that dual core CPU's are being taken advantage of and it will make multi tasking when not gaming a joy, if he choses the other cpu then he can save even more

I have 2 connect 3d cards and the VFM is good... if he wants to spen more then thats fine... I was just getting it UNDER budget...

C. The monitor I specced has a 4ms response time, much better for high frame rate gaming... 1600x1200 is barely useable in games on that spec of machine unless you turn the detail down greatly, and I prefer the detail and AA maxxed on 1280x1024...

The spec I gave was my opinion of which I am just as much entitled to as you are to yours...



PS. Everyone of the other specs neglected an OS, unless he is keeping his existing one

 

[saboy]

OH , about the OS, i would want to try windows x64 ?
if its good of course

 

[BigDom]

ROFL - Asus over a gigabyte.. Mmm think I'd choose an asus any day ..

Anyhow the Asus is a damned good mobo, sure at extreme voltages it has some issues but most mobo's have some kind of issue somwhere. Great sound, stable, Crossfire, SATA2. All round good board.

 

[Dr Who]

Down to experiences I guess... My last 4-5 giga mobos have NEVER had a problem....

ALL my previous ASUS mobo's have had... but Giga dont make a crossfire Board...

As for stable, thats a bit luck of the draw from what I can see...

IRQ sharing is poor, and as such, it stutters in some games at random moments...

I cannot run Any USB storage (PDA/Ipod etc) on the mobo, along with masses of others as it just freezes the system...

http://vip.asus.com/forum/bbs.aspx?...214023115899^filter=5^elite=0^SLanguage=en-us has more info about the problems with this mobo and the dissappearing and reappearing bios's while Asus try to fix it

 

[BigDom]

I run a Ipod fine off mine. Not seen any stuttering to mention.

 

[Major_hangover]

I too have had some reliability probs with asus boards in the past, thats why after reading some posts I 've taken of my list and replaced it with an Abit crossfire board.
Has anyone got any thoughts on these, I'm currently running an Abit board (NF8)and am very pleased with it.

My spec so far...

KB-015-SK Saitek PZ30AU Eclipse Illuminated Keyboard (KB-015-SK)
£24.95 £24.95
KB-020-RA Razer Copperhead SK Edition 2000dpi High Precision Gaming Mouse - Retail (KB-020-RA)
£39.95 £39.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£14.95 £14.95
CD-046-LO Liteon SHM-165P6S-02C 16x DVD±RW/RAM (Beige/Black/Silver) - Retail (CD-046-LO)
£27.95 £27.95
CA-006-SV Silverstone Temjin TJ05 - Silver (No PSU) (CA-006-SV)
£69.95 £69.95
CA-002-SK FSP Sparkle FX600-GLN Epsilon 600W ATX2.0 PSU (CA-002-SK)
£69.95 £69.95
GX-045-CO ATI Radeon X1900 ***Crossfire Edition*** 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-045-CO)
£379.95 £379.95
CB-014-AK Akasa Serial ATA 45cm Blue EL Data Cable (CB-014-AK)
£9.50 £9.50
MO-045-VS Viewsonic VP930 19" LCD Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-045-VS)
£299.95 £299.95
CP-127-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM)
£289.95 £289.95
MB-091-AB Abit AT8 ATI RD480 Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-091-AB)
£74.95 £74.95
HD-048-WD Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 200GB 2000JS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-048-WD)
£54.95 £54.95
Subtotal £1,356.95
VAT £237.47
Total £1,594.42

 

[Eliminos]

Why are you putting a single crossfire edition card in? When you have crossfire set up (2 cards) you need one crossfire master card and one series (x1900) slave card. When you have single cards, there is no point in putting in the slower and yet more expensive crossfire edition master card. Substitute it with the Sapphire X1900XTX.