New system not far away, any thoughts?

[Deathwing]

Well it's getting near that expensive but exciting time... new system.
It's going to used primarily for gaming. I'm trying to balance the elusive speed/cost/upgradeability equation.

Chip: The Core i7 option is a little too pricy right now, not so much the chip itself but the necessary compatable DDR3 motherboard, not to mention the cost of the DDR3 RAM itself. I've read that DDR2 vs. DDR3 doesn't make much difference in today's games. So, looking at a Phenom II X4 955 Black Quad Core Processor AM3 (3.20GHz, 8MB Cache, DDR2/3). Fast enough by any standards, unlocked multiplier for overclocking leaves headroom in future if needed. The beauty is the backwards compatibility with AM2/AM2+ motherboards and DDR2 RAM which avoids the 'hidden' costs of going the i7 route as outlined above.

Mobo: ASUS M4A78-E Mainboard. It's a £30 upgrade from the ASUS M4A78 Pro. The primary difference as far as I'm concerned is the spare PCI-E slot and Hybrid CrossFireX capability. It's AM2+ rather than AM3 and doesn't support DDR3, but the trade-off in cost allows.....

Graphics card: AMD HD 4890 1G. I thought about going 'green', the obvious competitor at the price is the Nvidia GTX275, but there's a strong appeal (to me) in sticking with the AMD family given choice of processor.

RAM: 4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM. Don't see much benefit from going for any more at the moment, see futureproofing below.

At least 700W PSU to allow headroom for second graphics card. Might even go higher yet, I'm a big believer in plenty of watts!

Monitor: 24" Iiyama Prolite E2407HDS-B1 (1920x1080) Full HD Monitor (HDMI,DVI,VGA,WS,Spkrs-2ms).

HD:750GB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer

7.1 onboard surround sound.

OS: It's going to come with Vista home 64 bit. I think I can live with that for a while and see what windows 7 brings. The alternative is to get hold of XP64, XP32 is just going to waste the RAM, probably more hassle than it's worth at this point not to mention extra cost.

Futureproofing: Option to drop in a second 4890 when prices fall and run in crossfire. Probably unnecessary for a while, I'd need a higher res. monitor to really take advantage.

Option to go to an AM3 motherboard and DDR3 if and when it becomes worthwile and cost effective. Plenty of overclocking headroom with the chip.

Comes in around £1000 (UK) all in including monitor. For that it comes pre-assembled and with a year's RTB warranty. I could get something quicker out of the box at that price (O/C E8500 or E8600 with 4870X2 maybe?) but with less 'upgradeability' or a base i7 system that'd require compromising on the graphics card/PSU and probably add the extra for a monitor.

I think I've hit a nice balance, but would welcome any comments, thoughts or advice.

Footnote: It has been solely BoB that's finally tipped me over the edge. 2.10 ground update with max objects? Drool....
I love BoB on the humble settings I use now... taking everything up a notch or three will be like a whole new (dark blue?) world.
God damn and god bless you BDG!

[stalkervision]

Thoughts. You won't be able to tear yourself away from this game with that rig!

[Toonsis]

I upgraded for 2 flight sims, this was one of them. Its is wild at the "top end" your going to love it

[JJB17463rdBombGroup]

I've heard very good things about the new Phenom II's especially the 3.2 Ghz Phenom II X4 955.
It seems to be on par with the Intel Quad Core 9550.In fact just a couple of days ago I was looking at a chart and for the price per performance of a new custom build there were 3 CPU's that would make for a new custom build that were the most economical for price per performance for the total system build.
They were the Intel Core i7 920,Intel Quad Core Q9550 and the AMD Phenom II X4 955.
The Core i7 920's do perform so much better in video encoding though.
Here is the chart.I would look at the lower chart though because it represents a total system price.
The article is about the Phenom II X4 955 so you can read the rest of the article.
It seems that in gaming the Phenom II X4 955 does quite well.
These prices are in U.S. Dollars so be aware of that.
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/16796/14
Myself I have a compatible AM2+ motherboard with an updated BIOS that supports the new Phenom II X4 955 so I also am considering upgrading to this CPU (It would be far cheaper than building a new system).

[Buddye]

BoBII should really love your new PC and as we increase the processing and graphic rquirements you should be ready for super game play for a long time to come.

[Deathwing]

Its is wild at the "top end" your going to love it

Wow. You weren't kidding. Almost speechless and I haven't even flown any combat yet. Fine tuning to do yet but so far all up and flying smooth as silk after checking through the Vista/widescreen threads and a bit of configuration.
Absolutely stunning visually. It's a whole new world!
Top work gentlemen.

[Buddye]

You are just going to love 2.10 with your new PC on full setting.

Congrats and enjoy.

[heinkill]

Such as . . .



Ah, the things you see when you don't have an axe,

[BoxMike]

Its is wild at the "top end" your going to love it

Wow. You weren't kidding. Almost speechless and I haven't even flown any combat yet. Fine tuning to do yet but so far all up and flying smooth as silk after checking through the Vista/widescreen threads and a bit of configuration.
Absolutely stunning visually. It's a whole new world!
Top work gentlemen.

Our steam rig brotherhood has ended Great change there I read. I will follow some day, this thread is excellent example where to go next thx all
Rgds,
- box

[marine]

Deathwing
That will be a very nice system.
Only one thing i think you should alter is,to get a PCI sound card,instead of using the onboard sound,as that is never up to the quality of a s/c.
I know most motherboards these days dont have many PCI slots,but there should be at least 1 or 2.
Imho,the sound is just as important as the speed of the comp,also to have a surround speaker system,4 small speakers,and the big bass speaker,they are brilliant.
They say the "Creative PCI X-FI Extreme Gamer" s/c is brilliant.Also there are numerous surround speaker systems on the market.
As regards to the CPU and to o/c it,that will depend on how good the Bios is,(on the mobo)and more so,whether the CPU heatsink and fan will allow you to that,in regards to keeping it cool enough,as the sellers usually only put on a stock cooler,and generaly they are pretty noisy,so i would inquire about the fan it will come with.

[Deathwing]

Deathwing
That will be a very nice system.
Only one thing i think you should alter is,to get a PCI sound card,instead of using the onboard sound,as that is never up to the quality of a s/c.
I know most motherboards these days dont have many PCI slots,but there should be at least 1 or 2.
Imho,the sound is just as important as the speed of the comp,also to have a surround speaker system,4 small speakers,and the big bass speaker,they are brilliant.
They say the "Creative PCI X-FI Extreme Gamer" s/c is brilliant.Also there are numerous surround speaker systems on the market.
As regards to the CPU and to o/c it,that will depend on how good the Bios is,(on the mobo)and more so,whether the CPU heatsink and fan will allow you to that,in regards to keeping it cool enough,as the sellers usually only put on a stock cooler,and generaly they are pretty noisy,so i would inquire about the fan it will come with.

Actually I opted for the cheaper motherboard in the end. The thinking was to upgrade the mobo in future when DDR3 drops some in price and then go for DDR3 and crossfire capability, kill two birds with one stone so to speak. The trade off got me 8 rather than 4G of RAM and 1TB rather than 750GB HD. I'll probably go for a higher quality CPU cooler at the the same time.


I've got some surround speakers, dedicated sound card is next on the list. Yet to get the speakers plugged in and set up, how good the on-board sound proves to be will dictate the urgency!

But for now I'm very happy as it stands, drop in a sound card in the near future then the next major upgrade will be mobo/DDR3/CPU cooler.

As for 2.10, it's quite exciting, yet for the moment it's like a whole new 2.09 for me with higher end settings. Just as I become acclimatised... 2.10 is going to raise the bar again.
Good times.

[marine]

Deathwing
That will be a very nice system.
Only one thing i think you should alter is,to get a PCI sound card,instead of using the onboard sound,as that is never up to the quality of a s/c.
I know most motherboards these days dont have many PCI slots,but there should be at least 1 or 2.
Imho,the sound is just as important as the speed of the comp,also to have a surround speaker system,4 small speakers,and the big bass speaker,they are brilliant.
They say the "Creative PCI X-FI Extreme Gamer" s/c is brilliant.Also there are numerous surround speaker systems on the market.
As regards to the CPU and to o/c it,that will depend on how good the Bios is,(on the mobo)and more so,whether the CPU heatsink and fan will allow you to that,in regards to keeping it cool enough,as the sellers usually only put on a stock cooler,and generaly they are pretty noisy,so i would inquire about the fan it will come with.

Actually I opted for the cheaper motherboard in the end. The thinking was to upgrade the mobo in future when DDR3 drops some in price and then go for DDR3 and crossfire capability, kill two birds with one stone so to speak. The trade off got me 8 rather than 4G of RAM and 1TB rather than 750GB HD. I'll probably go for a higher quality CPU cooler at the the same time.


I've got some surround speakers, dedicated sound card is next on the list. Yet to get the speakers plugged in and set up, how good the on-board sound proves to be will dictate the urgency!

But for now I'm very happy as it stands, drop in a sound card in the near future then the next major upgrade will be mobo/DDR3/CPU cooler.

As for 2.10, it's quite exciting, yet for the moment it's like a whole new 2.09 for me with higher end settings. Just as I become acclimatised... 2.10 is going to raise the bar again.
Good times.

Deathwing
Looking good,sounds to me you have the Black Edition AMD CPU,if you have that one,it has the unlocked multiplier,and can be o/c to 3.8ghz,that will be brilliant,you wont have the cpu holding you back then.
I also like your choice of the ATI 4890 1gb,,is there any problems with the graphics,as it is a pretty new v/c?
Goodluck with the new system,hope it works out okay