Buying new system, any comments on my parts I'm ordering.

Hi.
So I finally managed to get some money.
I have around 840€ to spend.

So far, I have planned to buy these parts: (I'll link them to newegg as you guys seem to do so too):
AMD Phenom II 965BE (3.4GHz C3 Version)
4GB PC1600 (7-7-7-20) Patriot Viper Series
ASUS EAH5850 DirectCU TOP 1024MB
ASUS M4A89GTD Pro/USB3
Western Digital Caviar Black 1000GB SATA-III (6Gbs)

So that is my list, in my country this setup would cost 860€, so I need 20€ from somewhere, that's not a real problem.
But I'm not really confident I should spend 100% of my budget and not leave like 20€ for maybe some cables or other accessories I might need, what do you think?
I also have a couple of questions about the GPU and the memory.
Now the motherboard itself has an IGP, but the thing is that it supports Hybrid Crossfire, and combined with the HD 5850 it should get a slight boost by ~20% in fps, which is nice!
But there would be the same GPU just not "TOP" for 30€ less and I believe the difference is that the "TOP" version is overclocked by default.
The memory supports Intels XMP, and I'm not sure how this will work with my AMD setup.

So, I would appreciate if anyone would give me some comments, I'm open to any new suggestions, maybe the motherboard is bad? Should I go for the 700 chipset series and get an extension card for USB3 later, I would lack SATA-III though? Maybe I should consider the non-TOP GPU, or maybe something different?

 

Excellent system but you need a good cooler and set that CPU at 4GHz.

 

Turns out I might get some money off my (really) old system and some support from relatives, so I might have around 1.2k€
This would require to buy a new monitor and chassis and everything :s
So any suggestions?

 

I'd replace the Phenom II 965 BE with the 1090T BE since you got extra money to do so. If you want, you can change the board from the AMD 890GX chipset to AMD 890FX chipset. Maybe also add a soundcard like the ASUS Xonar D1 soundcard?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132007

Case, maybe get a Antec Nine Hundred Two and a Corsair TX-850 for the power supply and that should do. Double check the math, I think this fits your $1200 budget.

deltatux

 

Thanks, I'll be looking into that.
One thing that crossed my mind was intel i7 and 6gigs of ram, but I'm not sure if it will fit in my budget performance wise, amd tends to be a lot cheaper.

 

It depends on the platform difference. It's really up to you too. Generally for price/performance I usually go AMD, however, Intel's really putting pressure on AMD lately so you need to shop around a bit.

Goodluck,
deltatux

 

I read some reviews and benchmarks about the x6 phenom and seems it has only a slight advantage in applications while in games it's performance is worse than the x4 965, in some games there was a 1fps boost for the x6.
For my use, I don't think I would benefit anything if I'd get the x6.

As for Intels platform, my problem is that I don't know anything about intel :s
Must do some research if I consider going intel.

Edit:
Hmm, I have a problem, sort of.
You suggested to go 890FX maybe, for the 16x crossfire I guess, however if I wanted to go 890FX only option I can think of would be the MSI 890FXA-GD70 or ASUS Crosshair IV Formula, they however cost 65€ more.
I did some math, and if I'd go with the 890FX variant I'd have 310€ left for a GPU, and I would probably go with a single HD 5850, as dual 5770 is worse than that. So I would upgrade to 16x/16x for nothing basically.

With my current setup I would have 375€ for the GPU, and I could afford a HD 5870.
I think a crossfire solution is just out of my budget, I have to buy a completely new pc, now that I sell my old. Which means I need a case, PSU, monitor and what not.

I cant think of any chipset that would support 16x16x and be so cheap that I could actually afford a crossfire setup that would be worth it (I mean, like the 2x5770, its worse than a single 5850).

 

Woah, woah, woah, 1.9 V? I can see they have tight timings, but there are other CL7 PC12800 modules with lower voltages than that... Like, even down to 1.35 V. With lower voltages, you'll be able to run your RAM at tighter timings (since you'll have room for overvoltage), which is what you want on AMD platforms.

For the motherboard, I'd suggest an 870-based mobo instead if you're not looking for a dual videocard setup in the long run.

I'd get the Phenom II X4 too, as the Thubans are only good if you do a lot of rendering or transcoding.

 

i would suggest this case.its huge and its got excellent airflow

http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=2810

 

Good point I never thought of that, I was looking for a system that I can overclock in a year or so as I'm new to overclocking, thanks for telling me.
Have you got any suggestions?

Also I just noticed that a HD 5770 Crossfire is in some cases better than a HD 5870, but in some cases a bit worse, overall their almost the same.

 

I only suggested the 890FX for future upgrade man. Some people might actually just be happy with the regular 890GX as I'm sure there are people who are actually just happy without the extra bells and whistles that come with the 890FX chipset.

As for CPU, again, I'm looking in the future. Some people might want to do some stuff other than gaming, and I find that the 1090T would be a better multitasker. Also, games in the future (I hope) would be a lot more multithreaded than they are now. A quad core is still a great choice, but presented by these two choices, I might be more inclined to get a hexacore than a quad core.

As for Intel, there's really not that much difference. If you want a Core i7, I'd get the Socket 1366 solution over the Socket 1156 solution as you probably can get more out of the enthusiast boards in the Socket 1366 than the mainstream LGA1156 boards. Couple that with 3 x 2 GB RAM and you should be good to go. Right now the Core i7 920s are quite cheap in relation to the rest of the Core i7s. That and the Nehalem microarchitecture has shown that they are extremely overclockable.

You've got many choices here. Make sure you don't rush and regret your decision. Be sure to do sufficient research before purchase. Personally, all my rigs are designed with 5 year lifespan in mind so the ability to upgrade is very important. Looking at the current data via roadmaps, AMD has better upgrade paths since AMD seems to want to stick to the current socket even well into 2011 at the very least while Intel wants to change the sockets yet again.

deltatux

 

Try getting a XFX 5850? asus is good but the warranty/ customer service is horrid

 

I live in Austria and I'm originally from Finland, I don't really know anything else than some small hardware resellers, and the ones I know (well only 2) don't have XFX in their stock, I could ask though.

I was thinking about a PowerColor 5870, but I'm not sure because the voltage seems to be locked

 

How about Sapphire? Sapphire makes excellent ATi GPUs.

deltatux

 

I heard their core is locked at 725MHz iirc
About the memory, is 4gigs of Corsairs Dominator at CL8 @ 1.65V a bad idea, or are there better solutions?
It is the same price as the Patriot CL7 @ 1.9V

 

+1. Best bang for the buck if you want to overclock.

 

It's almost as fast at stock speed but it overclocks better so yes, it should be better if you want to overclock but it also depends on what CPU cooler you will be using. The top part of the Dominator's heat spreader does not fit under every CPU cooler, so choose wisely.

 

I'd rather take the Patriot over the Corsairs.

As for Sapphire, it depends on each card. Different Sapphire card has different overclockability. I'd suggest the Vapor-X models as they are meant for overclocking with an aftermarket cooler (or non-reference cooler).

deltatux

 

Sapphire is good..

Corsair is good but if you don't overclock your ram then why don't you get some thing a bit cheaper that runs fine at stock speeds?

 

The Patriot RAM has a lower CAS Latency so generally that's more desirable at the same price point.

deltatux