Micro Center in store only. Not sure if they still have it on sale.

www.microcenter.com

Ok, interesting

So this would be good: AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz @ 3.30GHz Black Edition? This is only Dual Core though and the others are Quads, so how is this faster? EDIT: sorry just clicked on your link and you are referring to the X4 which is a Quad, so this one not so good? See below, found an X4 setup with an HD 5870...

The setupps I have posted previously are made up ones from OverclockersUK as I am not bothering building my own up anymore. The CPU I have just mentioned comes in this setup:

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD3P AMD 790X PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz @ 3.30GHz Black Edition
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 TwinX Dual Channel
Titan TTC-NK85TZ Fenrir CPU Cooler
Coolermaster Elite 334 Case - Black
High Definition 7.1 OnBoard Sound Card
Optical Drive LG GH22NS30 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter

which is considerably cheaper than the i7 setup and I would be able to change the 4890 for the HD 5850 and maybe an extra 6Gb of RAM or the 500Mb HD to 1Tb, I have £1k to spend but it's getting eaten up quite quickly on these builds lol.


And just searching further, found this:

- AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz Overclocked to 3.80GHz!
- Sapphire ATI HD 5870 1024Mb
- Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
- Corsair XMS3 DHX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600C9DHX
- Gelid Silent Spirit CPU Cooler CPU Cooler
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
- LG CH08LS10 8x Blu-Ray Reader/16x DVD±RW - Black
- Coolermaster Elite 334 Case - Black

Just over my limit but worth the extra if it's good....? My head hurts now, so many choices!

I have been searching all night and found a decent sounding company that I can get a lot more for my money. I put in what I thought was daft and OTT and would be too expensive but came out at £1,035 for the following...

AMD PHENOM II X4 965 SOCKET AM3 (3.40GHz/8MB CACHE) - BLACK EDITION
4GB CORSAIR XMS3 DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY
ASUS® CROSSHAIR III FORMULA: DDR3 - Republic of Gamers, CrossfireX
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
1.5TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 32MB CACHE
22x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
1GB ATI RADEON HD 5750 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
1GB ATI RADEON HD 5750 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
COOLERMASTER HAF 922 MID TOWER BLACK GAMING PC CASE
600W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER

I thought that seemed pretty good and 2 5750's on a Crossfire mobo, i'm see some benefit there right?....

I would get a quad core. More and more programs will use it in the future, so it is more future proof (I think so at least). You can also overclock it if you feel like it.

Quad core helps a lot in things like video rendering and heavy multitasking. I am sure more and more games will utilize it in the future.

As for your last build, that is very fast. Really, you could probably max anything out with that PC.

IMO, I wouldn't go with dual video cards unless I really had a lot of money. One 5870 should max out just about anything. Then in a year or two, spend another $300 or so and buy yourself a card that is even faster than dual HD 5870s. Seems like you get the best $$$ for performance this way. But this is personal preference and depends on how much you can spend.

With Crossfire/SLI, you have more heat, use more power, takes up more space (can be an issue when working inside your case), and it is nosier. So games might not even utilize dual video cars that much (though this might not be much of an issue anymore).

Might want to post a link to your PSU model. I don't see a brand name there.

And who are you buying your PC from? Assuming they are good, then that is a great deal. Very fast PC. I would spend the extra money to get it if I could.

But research the rest of the parts though.

I'd say that it looks like a pretty good spec for a grand, although I concur with Flogger23m's comments about SLI not being value for money.

Also, in terms of PSU, you might want to see if you can get some predictions on wattage - I don't have much experience with modern systems (heck, I'm using a dual-core AM2 system with a 7600GT) but with modern graphics cards, I don't know how marginal 600W will be.

Who is your vendor anyway? Dabs, ebuyer?

It's PCSPECIALIST.CO.UK.

They have a power checker when you are specing your machine and I did originally have an 800W PSU and it said I didn't need more than a 600W and they don't want to over charge me! Pretty good but I may go for 800W anyway to future proof it, and yes I will need to find out what brand PSU's they use because I too only use good ones and have had cheap ones blow on me.

I will also change the CPU cooler to a Coolermaster V8 Extreme and thanks for the info on Crossfire I will more than likely just go with the one. The 58XX's though seem not to be available in the UK yet as they are listed as Preorder on all the sites I have looked at but then I will not be buying until a week or so.

Jolly good. If you were advised for 600W in an SLI/Crossfire configuration, then just running the one card ought to give you an additional 150W of headroom or so, in which case you may very well be able to get by with the original 600W-rating.

In that regard, Seasonic do a VERY good 650W PSU (assuming you can get them from your supplier); I got two of them, one of which has been running well for what must be 2-3 years; the one in the server replaced a failed Akasa server-grade PSU and is about a year old. Not to sound like a fanboy, but... well, you get the picture.

That's an awesome build.

Like other said, SLI or crossfire is still not a cost effective solution. For double the cost, you do not get double the performance. It is better to use the money to get a single more powerful card.
If you want to save money, you can go with DDR2 instead of DDR3, last time I check, it doesn't make much (if any) different for now.

Anyway, it is an awesome build!!!

I appologize for the slight hijack



Is this true...and if so does this mean that DDR2 can be used on a DDR3 motherboard. I am looking at upgrading myself and hate to get rid of 6 GB of ram if it doesn't make much of a performance increase and I can use it on the new board (I am looking at a P55 system)

I found this:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/245145-30-ddr2-ddr3