I have heard about this site for a while and the reviews and what not are growing on me so i decided to ask you forum guys a question you seem nice enough. http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/880W...UK-plus-EU-Crossfire-X-and-Quad-SLI-Certified http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1TB-...int-F1-SATA-300-7200-rpm-32MB-Cache-89-ms-NCQ http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Ther...00BWA-Black-Aluminum-Case-with-Window-w-o-PSU http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pion...x-DVDDL-DVDplusRW-x8-RW-x6-SATA-Black-OEM-NEW! http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/24-S...screen-LCD-1920x1200-10001-300-cd-m-5-ms-VESA http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Intel-i7-920-Socket-1366-(B)-Nehalem-266GHz-Cache-8MB-OEM http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/6GB-...600)-240-Pin-Non-ECC-Unbuffered-CAS-8-DHX-EPP http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Akas...0-AM2-AM2plus)-Heat-Pipe-cooler-120mm-PWM-fan http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Bios...-(x16)-Triple-DDR3-1866MHz-(OC)-SATA-RAID-ATX What graphics card (£0<220) 260 OR 4870? Is the case sufficient? I'm building this to last quite a long time (im in 6th form year 1 and would like it to last [in some form] till the end of uni)
Damn boy, for a 17 year old you have a lot of money :O lol I would go with a 4870 1GB and probably change the case for something LianLi based!
Dunno about that Biostar board - I haven't used that one yet (one of only few I dont seem to have in the office ) You do seem to have a ****-ton of cash for a guy your age haha Why tempted by a Core i7 and not something like a Q9550? Tbh - I found PC's are continual things to upgrade, only my notebook lasted me four years of Uni.
I really don't know much about Biostar boards and their performance, but based on some of the specs I'm looking at, I'd more than likely spend a tad more on a Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5. For starters, the 3 x16 slots on the Biostar are 16x 16x 4x, the Gigabyte has 16x 16x 8x. The Gigabyte also has 4 more SATA ports, and quite a few subtle differences. Worth the extra money IMHO. The rest of the build looks great to me. On topic of the graphics card, the 4870 and the 260 are very similar in performance... IIRC, the 260's new drivers now allow it to outperform the 4870 in gaming tests. Everything at this point is drivers though... Any given week one can outperform the other. It comes down to ATI or nVidia. You may want to look into the differences between nVidia's CUDA, and ATI's Stream technology before you make a definitive decision as well.
@DaveVader I have been wanting to builda pc since year 6/7 and my dad was like OK because i would stop downloading so much on his pc ( he gave 1K its a one off) [got into PCs when my dad tried to fix our Packard bell (the motherboard snapped and we did nothing for it do that) he then gave up and took it to an independent computer shop and got it fixed but later on I began reading a book he bought and started asking my IT uncle questions, reading his pc mags etc @JaredC01 I liked the biostar because i never realised the gigabyte had tri-pci-e so i'll go for that but now im torn between the 4850 and 4870 (ATi's free avivo has me sold) i'm not really a supa-crysis crazy etc gamer but am more into my 360 tbh i need to balance the casual gamer in me (4850 1GB) VS the what if the new games don't work(4870 1GB)
gtx260 im my opinion. offers better cooler and a little bit better performance at current drivers (8.12 vs 180.84 beta) (as JaradC01 said) and don't forget nVidia cards uses less idle power, so it should save on your electric bill at uni when you do the all-night-downloads. the final choice is yours, which brand you had the best experience on? which brand do you prefer. i've had horrible experience with ATI's x800GTO and x1650pro. whereas my nVidia Geforce4Ti4400, 8800GTX are fantastic. so i chose gtx260 over 4870 1GB get Antec p182 for case, much classier and quieter than that thermaltake heap. also, not sure whether that Hyper PSU is good....... why not a Corsair? while we are on the topic of age, i remember how i managed to save up just £90 to get a x800GTO to upgrade my dad's aging Geforce4Ti4400 which he said he won't be upgrading. which kept me gaming for a while before SM3 became necessary. the very good ol' days. don't worry kid, once you get student loan when you are in Uni. all the flashy things will come at your own leisure. and once you had your first summer placement, things really pour in: iPhone, new hard disks, games console, new graphics card, and hopefully new CPU next summer (that's my plan).
which would scale better (4870 or 260) i eventually want to add another one in perhaps filling all 3 slots. The PSU has the 80+ thing it seems about right its cheap but not so cheap it might be of worse quality
SLI and X-fire don't really work as upgrade paths. In all likelihood by the time you come to add another card there will be a single card upgrade path that makes more sense. Having said that, I'd go for X-fire over SLI (but mind you, I do generally play for the red team). As mentioned above, case wise, Lian Li (or Silverstone) really are the bollocks Also, I'd go for a few less watts and a better brand for the PSU (Cosair, Enermax among others) even if it costs you the same (or even more). I really is worth it.
At the moment, only nVidia has the ability to have more than 4 total cores (no matter how many slots you have). That includes dual core cards, such as the 4870X2. So you could pick up 2 4870X2's, but not 3 (at least for now). You CAN stick with the 4870 single core cards though, and eventually get 3. As for scaling, there's not much data acquired for triple slotted ATI cards. Quick note: Hiper PSU's are pretty decent quality wise, and the one he picked out is an 80+ Bronze as well... He should be fine with it.
if you're not looking at any aftermarket coolers i'd suggest the 260. otherwise look for a 4870 with custom cooler wuyanxu is right tho, i've bought soooo much wit my first student loan. also you'll find yourself thinking, ok - so i'll buy this in september, this in january and this in may. god bless the student lifestyle.
I remember working my arse off for a month to save £150 to buy a second hand 6800GT, that was after spending two months to afford a Epox 8RDA3+ and a 2500 XP-M monster in the end, for the time. Nvidia 260, runs cooler and has a slighty higher headroom for an overclock because of that.
Been through a 7600GT, a 7950GX2 and a 4870 1GB (current). ATI are a bit more of a hastle but then the 4870 is generally a better performer than the 260GTX. 5 weeks work = £1000 = New PC.
If there's any doubt in your mind, go for the 4870... Along with better gaming performance (for now, and to-be-released games), you'll also get better AVIVO performance from the better card. Next choice would be 512MB, or 1GB... If you can afford it, go for the 1GB.
ATI's AVIVO quality is shockingly bad apparently (see Anandtech) but afaik the 4870 1GB scales better with AA enabled. Check this: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/12/17/xmas-2008-graphics-performance-on-core-i7/1
unfortunately, working elsewhere also means house payment for unit, house payment for work place and extra cash being spent because unfamiliar with new surroundings. (eg, can't find nearest Iceland and Tesco, and no sports centre near by) so in the end, a 10 week summer placement usually only have 1500 left. if im lucky (like this summer) i got a company who gave me a place to stay for FREE, and managed to get out of paying for house during summer, so i made 3000+ over summer still more when the tax refunds. student lifestyle is the best. sports centre always cheap, money always comes without worry and you don't have to go to lectures, so sleeping until 12 is normal. /OT the GPU encoding is nothing to be excited about: 11m comparing to 3.4Ghz q6600 19m for a 90min film. if you own an Intel i7, it's rather pointless to pick graphics card just on the encoding capacity, the i7 would match performance while offering superior image quality. the 55nm gtx260 with higher overclocking headroom should really beat 4870 1GB with ease, especially with better cooler, lower idle power consumption (save power bills). if you are going for ATI, you HAVE to get an aftermarket cooler, otherwise gtx260 will be a saver bet
Either the 4870 1GB or the new 260s would do you well. I have a 4870 512MB (wish I had the 1GB), love it. I agree with Jared, probably worth going for a Gigabyte board over a Biostar, in my experience they are at different ends of the market. And I can vouch that Corsair PSUs rock. Just go for a modular one (one with a prefix of HX). (in your case that'd probably be the HX1000, so it can power 3x 4870/260s in future) Also, I recommend you change the CPU heatsink for something from a more reliable company. For serious performance and silence, I'd say go Noctua. They have a new 1366 socket cooler out I believe. Also, you don't have an operating system there mate
I went the 4870 1gb route, the cards are neck and neck though you can't really go wrong with either one
I have nothing to add on the video card, I mean everything was mentioned, other than with Nvidia you buy potential, as it has PhysicX (renders physics on the GPU rather than your CPU, which is slow at such task) on compatible software and games. Library for these games is few (still a new thing). So you have to decide if it will pickup or not. My guess, is that it will pickup as all Geforce 8000 series and newer supports it, and it's easy to implement from a programmer point of view, as the API codes are identical if not close to C++. Also, you have CUDA, which is a API script from Nvidia, that allows for an application to use the GPU to execute a process with it's mighty 200+ processors and fast GDDR3 memory than use the CPU. So far Adobe Photoshop CS4 and a few other applications support it. It's also based on C++, the scripting language. In other topic, I REALLY don't like your choice of PSU. What's the point of all these fancy stuff if you use a crappy PSU that wont' give it proper, let alone stable power, which could damage them on a long term base. I don't trust it one bit. I say checkout Corsair HX series the HX620 (620 W) should be more than enough to power your system, and I think it has Energy star and 80 Plus certification, anyway, I know it's one of the most efficient. It also has really high end components, which are backup with a 5 year warranty. With such big warranty, THEY KNOW at 100% it won't fail on you. That's a hard statement to beat. And to top everything, it has modular cables, so you get to use the cables you need. Also if one brake for some odd reason, you don't need to change the PSU, just call up Corsair and ask a new one under the warranty. Also, it allows you to have a greater air flow (less cables that blocks air flow). Meaning quieter computer, longer lasting components (as they are cooler), and more room for overclock using air cooling. Sure it might be more expensive, but it's totally worth it. I think it even has an integrated fuse if I am not mistaking.
