New rig - need a bit of info.

[inu22]

After 4yrs its time to get something new - well I have the basic list, but need some advice.

It should look like dis:

BIOSTAR
TA790GX A3+

AMD
Phenom II X6 1075T 3.0GHz

SEAGATE
SV35.5 Series 1TB 7k 32MB SATA300 (maybe get a faster disc for my system partition later on)

KINGSTON
6GB (3x2GB) 1333MHz DDR3 KVR1333D3N9K3/6G

SAPPHIRE
Radeon HD 6870 (Crossfire later on)

COOLER MASTER
Silent Pro RS700-AMBAD3-EU 700W

(PC case probs a chieftec midi tower and some LG BR optics)

Thing is - the motherboard (stats HERE) even tho being an a3+ with the 790 chipset does not include the phenom x6 series - not compatible? Is there something I'm missing here or is it simply an oversight. I love Biostar boards - so far I have built round 6 pc's based on them (including my own) - all working great.

 

[TriplexDread]

If you are going crossfire with all that get up in the future I will make a suggestion that you spend a few more pennies and get a higher wattage PSU to start with

Make sure its 12v rails suit the needs of the gfx cards


FYI;

500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for AMD CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)

Certified power supplies are recommended. Refer to http://ati.amd.com/certifiedPSU for a list of Certified products

 

[Reefsmoka]

Everything looks good, if your unsure about the motherboard though i'd just go with Asus that you know will be compatible. I've always used Asus boards and loved them, to be honest I've not heard of biostar in a long long time! Also I'd change the memory to Corsair or OCZ as there more gaming orientated ram with a higher reputation than Kingston.

That PSU is a good un, the cooler master silent pro series are supposed to be the best on the market at the moment.

I have a saphire 6870 and its a beast, very low tempratures and fan noise with the benefit of low power consumption aswell, dont install the 10.11 drivers though, go for 10.10 all the way, for some reason the 10.11 drivers dont support the 6800 series but the older 10.10 do.

 

[inu22]

Thanks for the feedback guys

@Triplex - the listed PSU is 700W and modular - I think its perfectly sufficient for the job. The 6870 is great on power management too! ^^

@Reef

U stole my avy ._. //joke

ASUS - eh, I had quite the opposite experiences with ASUS. Hardware incompatibilities among the worst - but that was about 2-3 yrs ago. Don't know how they stand today. I will do some more digging on the Biostar. And I highly recommend those boards - just go and read a few reviews - you will be surprised! The best "bang for buck" out there.

About the RAM - I ran some tests before, speeds and all of that - and came to a conclusion that it makes little difference on what you have if you dont plan to OC your system. I currently have 2 gigs of Elixir ddr2 800 ram - never heard of it? Neither did I, but its pretty good! I am aware that Kingstone is...well middle core to the best, but their ddr3 series are quite good from what I read. They also have some good deals - but I will still see Wont get the pc for about 15-20 days anyway (Looking to snatch one of those Christmas price cuts ).

And thanks for the driver advice

 

[TriplexDread]

I know its a good PSU. I know its good for the job.


Check its rails especially if you want to add another card in near future

 

[floppybootstomp]

Memory - it's who makes the chips that counts, Samsung are highly regarded chip-makers and you'll find their logo on lots of known makes.

All of these, in my experience, are ok: Crucial, Kingston, Corsair, OCZ.

MSI (Biostar) are not market leaders atm and I've personally never liked them (had a couple go wrong on me) but others here like them a lot.

Favoured motherboard brands at the moment are Asus and Gigabyte, little to choose between both from what I can see.

Other than that, looks good to me

 

[inu22]

I know its a good PSU. I know its good for the job.


Check its rails especially if you want to add another card in near future

Me knoz And will do ^^

@Floppy
I am considering Gigabyte, they too have some nice and cheap AM3, ddr3, crossfire boards. I'll start consulting reviews on each one of those boards during the weekend ^^

 

[inu22]

Looked this baby up: GA-890XA-UD3

Thoughts? Experiences?

 

[TriplexDread]

I love Gigabyte boards, I have been using them for about 10years or so now

However it does not support x16 traffic over both PCI-E lanes unfortunately

"(Note 3) For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot. The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When PCIEX8 is populated with a PCI Express graphics card, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode."

Thats how that reads to me anyway

 

[inu22]

Damn. Thought so much. Well, theres only this then: GA-890FXA-UD5

The cheapest 2x x16 motherboard I chould find. If anyone has a suggestion - feel free to tell

@Triplex - Thanks ^^

 

[floppybootstomp]

inu22: The board you selected is aroud £140.00.

If you're budget concious This board is £81.00 and has a pair of 16 x pci-e slots.

 

[inu22]

Yeah, but the 2nd "16x" one is actually 4x.

1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
2. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4) (Note 3)
3. 2 x PCI Express x1 slots (The PCIEX1_1 and PCIEX1_2 slots share bandwidth with the PCIEX4 slot.) (Note 3)
   (All PCI Express slots conform to the PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
4. 3 x PCI slots

 

[floppybootstomp]

My apologies.

I think you're doing very well by yourself then

Good luck with the build.

Personally speaking I wouldn't entertain either sli or x-fire, from what I've read neither setup works as well as a single high-end graphics card. Some of which, of course, are twin gpu, which is the twin card concept contained in a single unit but which probably works better.

Add to that you're paying what looks to be almost twice as much for a motherboard that handles twin cards and the economics of the setup start to get a little hazy.

 

[inu22]

No worries, thanks for the help! ^^

Add to that you're paying what looks to be almost twice as much for a motherboard that handles twin cards and the economics of the setup start to get a little hazy.

True that, I have the whole weekend of googleing and reviews ahead of me, so hopefully I will make the best out of my budget.

 

[inu22]

The final rig is going to look something like this:

Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD5
Phenom x6 3.2
Transcend 8 gigs ddr3 1333
Cooler Master Silent pro Gold 700w
Gigabyte/sapphire/whatever 6870
WD 1TB 64mb

Makin' progress, and might even catch a 15-20% Christmas pricedrop.