Help me making the right choise.

I'm building a new AMD gaming rig.

Parts I already have:

Case: Cooler Master 690 II advanced + 2 140mm FANs
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro M 850W
CPU Cooler: Thermolab Baram + 120mm FAN.
RAM: 4GB Patriot Extreme Gaming Series 9-9-9-24 1333 Mhz
HDD: WD Black Caviar 1TB 64MB SATA3

Parts that I don't have:

Motherboard
CPU
GPU

Need help choosing a mobo and GPU setup.

Well I will go for Crossfire or SLI later so I have 2 GPU options.

2x 5850 Toxic ( 1 = 300€ )
or
2x GTX 470 ( 1 = 350 € )

and 2 motehrboard options

1. Gigabyte 890FXA-UD5 USB3 SATA3 ( 187 € ) for the Toxic shit.
3. Asus M4N98TD EVO AM3 NF980A SLI DDR3 ( 118 € ) for the GTX 470

I really like the SLI motherboard and It's price and GTX 470 SLI would be a kick ass setup.

What you guys think???

Admin Posts : 227 Join date : 2010-03-17

CPU = i7 930

Motherboard = no more ASUS for me - very bad suport(bios,drivers...)

GPU = ???

I would say Nvidia,but im not sure about the last series(price - performance).Now i have a ASUS HD5850.Must say that,the drivers for ATI sucks rly hard.I have black,blue,white screens of death in BBC2, black triangles over the screen in ETQW...since BBC2 came out, i tried 4 diferent drivers 10.1 - 10.5, and no improvement 4 me, cmon?!!!

I'm going AMD for sure. AMD mobos are cheap and I have some nice dual channel DDR3 @ home.
Latest AM3 PCI-e 16x + 16x SLI board for 118 € flower

can't beat that price.

OK whatever. Just pulled the trigger for the SLI board. bounce

Next month I'll order a GTX 470 and Aqua Computer waterblock. Cool

I'm sick of ATI drivers.

Posts : 254 Join date : 2010-03-17 Location : The Ark

needforWeed wrote:: Next month I'll order a GTX 470 and Aqua Computer waterblock.

Awsum. What about the rest of the Water Cooling components? U already have something setup or are buying all that as well.

I have to buy all. I wish I've bought a bigger case. It's going to be super tight in there. Cooler Master Cosmos would be perfect but that thing costs ~ 250 EUR Suspect

I'll put a 240 rad on the bottom and one 120mm on the back where usually a 120mm fan is ( I can put a 240 rad on the top as well but i don't trust those rads.) I'm going for a fully watercooled rig. Fuck the money. Need something cool before I get old and buy a console for gaming.

Gonna be something like this. But I'll put the pump under the hard drive cage.

@ Ethanol - Wanna buy my (never used) Thermolab BARAM CPU heatsink?

Posts : 254 Join date : 2010-03-17 Location : The Ark

needforWeed wrote:: @ Ethanol - Wanna buy my (never used) Thermolab BARAM CPU heatsink?

No, but maybe u wanna buy this (used but still good) Radiator.

Posts : 178 Join date : 2010-03-17 Location : Ummm, No idea

Heres a question that may seem stupid, but I always wondered:

If you go SLI with your GPU, does it double the power/performance, or does it just alow you to run 4 screens? because if you run on 1 screen, theres 3 open ports doing nothing.

How long is it. The website shows that it's 270. Is it. I was going to buy the Swiftech MCR220-QP. It's 285 mm long so it's going to be really tight to put in PSU cables. I have 300 mm max room for a bottom rad.

Polonium. wrote:: Heres a question that may seem stupid, but I always wondered:

If you go SLI with your GPU, does it double the power/performance, or does it just alow you to run 4 screens? because if you run on 1 screen, theres 3 open ports doing nothing.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/30999-nvidia-geforce-gtx-470-sli-review.html

Posts : 254 Join date : 2010-03-17 Location : The Ark

needforWeed wrote:: How long is it. The website shows that it's 270. Is it.

I measured it @ 272.

Nice. PM me your price and I'll think about it tomorrow. Good night.

Posts : 254 Join date : 2010-03-17 Location : The Ark

I will be on TS tonight, we can talk about it on there.

Ethanol. wrote:

needforWeed wrote:: @ Ethanol - Wanna buy my (never used) Thermolab BARAM CPU heatsink?

No, but maybe u wanna buy this (used but still good) Radiator.

After some digging on the web I found that I need 2 240mm rads. So I'm going to order 2 new rads.
http://www.alphacool.com/product_info.php/info/p148_Alphacool-NexXxoS-Xtreme-II-Radiator---Rev--2.html

How long did it take to receive the rads from there?

Edit: or I can get one from you and order the other one.

Posts : 254 Join date : 2010-03-17 Location : The Ark

needforWeed wrote:: How long did it take to receive the rads from there?

A little over a week if they have it in stock.

needforWeed wrote:: Edit: or I can get one from you and order the other one.

Sure you could, but mine is not the Xtreme version.

I found a nice website. It has everything I need.
http://www.aquatuning.fi/index.php/language/en/XTCsid/be99ck46hk91ir0amhrka1nhgj9rhfo5

Well the GTX 460 is out and it saves me a lot of money.

It's a perfect card for a sli setup and it doesn't need watercooling to overclock and run cool and quiet.

Now I have to rethink all my watercooling plans. Maybe only the CPU for higher overclock maybe I'm not going for water this time.

Anyway check this out. study

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3809/nvidias-geforce-gtx-460-the-200-king/4
Prices: 1 GB 230 €
768 MB 200 € Laughing

Case closed.

I'm on a budget now. I have to buy myself an apartment now and all my money goes there.

I will use my Thermolab BARAM air cooler and just ordered Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU (150 €) and MSI GTX 460 768MB (190€).
Will add another MSI GTX 460 later. Thats it.

Final specs are:

MOBO ASUS M4N98TD EVO SLI
CPU Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition + Thermolab BARAM + Nexus 120mm PWM FAN.
RAM 4 GB Patriot Gaming Series DDR3 1333 Mhz AMD Black Edition memory
GPU MSI GTX 460 768 MB
HDD WD Caviar Black 1 TB 7200 RPM 64MB
PSU Cooler Master Silent Pro 850W modular
CASE Cooler Master 690 II Advanced + 5 Enermax T.B Silence FANS
OS Win 7 Home

Total hardware cost ~ 1000 €

Tell me what you think!
I'll add some pics when I'm done.