The Smith Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 maybe go for a better mobo? This one is good. The Gigabyte isn't bad either, and it has the option in the BIOS to unlock the fourth core if you're lucky on the CPU. You can check what the option is on the fourth page, third paragraph & picture. BTW I would still choose a 3.7GHz PII X3 over a 4GHz E8400... Almost all recent games are multi-threaded anyway. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
:Renegade: Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 (edited) This one is good. The Gigabyte isn't bad either, and it has the option in the BIOS to unlock the fourth core if you're lucky on the CPU. You can check what the option is on the fourth page, third paragraph & picture. Yeah im pretty set on getting the PII X3 now, thanks alot for the suggestion Although the Gigabyte gives the option to unlock the 4th core, in CrossfireX it only supports (x8 ,x 8) The Asus M4A78T-E has the 790GX chipset, and an integrated ATI Radeon HD 3300 GC, which makes Hybrid CrossFireX an option with the 4890 I will be using? Just trying to weigh up the pros and cons here... Enabling the 4th core with the Gigabyte is not guaranteed, hybrid Xfire is not an option, uses 790FX/SB750 chipset... The asus doesent allow 4th core enablement, but AFAIK hybrid Xfire is possible, uses 790GX/SB750 chipset... edit{ The asus actually does allow the 4th core to be enabled with a bios update! And hybrid Xfire is possible with vista x64 From the reviews ive read, the only problems seem to be lack of support for windows 7, a high failure rate with the IGP, So I think if I am fortunate enough to get a fully functional board, this is the best option? } Considering I may Xfire two 4890's in future, which mobo would be better? Im finding it hard to find a clear distinction between the 790FX and 790GX... Edited June 19, 2009 by :Renegade: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexvision Posted June 20, 2009 Posted June 20, 2009 Im finding it hard to find a clear distinction between the 790FX and 790GX... GX is the one with onboard graphics (Radeon 3300), but this means that it has less PCI-E lanes so Xfire will be running at x8/x8 rather than a FX which doesnt have the intergrated graphics taking up bandwidth is able to run 2 full x16/x16 PCI-E so it should be faster Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
:Renegade: Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 Ah apologies, I meant to ask the difference between GX and X... AFAIK both run at x8,x8 in Xfire... Does anyone think its worth spending the extra Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glow of fire Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 Have you considered i7? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
:Renegade: Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 Have you considered i7? I have considered it but with the release of i5 I think its best to wait before investing so much in an i7... There is a pretty big price jump between the phenom2x3 720BE and i7... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
damian Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 I was in the same boat as you, planning on buying the 720 until I read a few reviews on the X2 550. Both perform roughly the same, at times one being better than the other and vice versa. As you can see from this review the x2 550 has some pretty impressive results considering the 720 is around $20-30 more. http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/phenom2x2_athlon2x2/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
:Renegade: Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 (edited) Ah yes but if i were going for a dual core I would probobly go for an E8400, Afaik in mult-threaded tasks an OC'ed 720BE would greatly outperform an OC'ed x2 550... Edited June 21, 2009 by :Renegade: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott.w.polk Posted June 22, 2009 Posted June 22, 2009 My suggestion was more for running 2 smaller drives in RAID 0 than it was towards using raptors. But, to each his own. If you look at speed tests done between non-RAID, RAID 0, Raptors in non-RAID, and Raptors in RAID 0, you will see a huge difference (again, just using raptors in an example). You are right tho. For a low-cost system, i wouldnt recommend raptors, but i would still recommend 2 smaller drives in RAID 0. You will get a bit of a performance boost for doing at least that and the cost shouldnt change much. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
:Renegade: Posted June 23, 2009 Posted June 23, 2009 RAID will may be an option in the near future but atm im just going for storage, is the performance increase in RAID 0 really significant? and if so is it worth the higher likelihood of curruption/failure? Just trying to decided on a mobo so i can make the order! atm its an Asus M4A78T-E VS a Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P or possibly a GA-MA790FXT-UD5P... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
:Renegade: Posted June 25, 2009 Posted June 25, 2009 Sorry to double post but this is looking to be the final order (unless anyone sees any problems!) Antec Nine Hundred Excellent cooling, will mod to improve cable management Corsair 650w Chances are I wont be xfiring, an upgrade to a better single card is more likely AMD Phenom II 720 Black Edition Excellent bang for buck vs intel counterpart, unlocking 4th core possible Asus M4A78T-E new bios updates have fixed many of the problems it had, seems to have more/better features than the GB UD4P OCZ Reaper HPC DDR3 1333MHz 4GB Great reviews, recommended by many people, slightly expensive but good ddr3 for future builds Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATAII Great reviews, 32mb cache, relatively low cost Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 "VAPOR-X", Excellent reviews Samsung DVD Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVIYTH0S Posted June 27, 2009 Posted June 27, 2009 if you want to save more money you could drop the DDR3 and goto DDR2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now