I want to update my existing rig with a new motherboard, this DFI RDX200 just plainly sucks. Current bits: Motherboard - DFI RDX200 (POS Edition!) CPU - AMD X2 4400+ @ 2.65Ghz Mem - Crucial Ballistix 2Gb DDR400 @ 480 GPU - ATI X1900XTX & X1900CF PSU - Tagan 580W Cooling - water cooled Would I see any significant gains (in games such as Crysis, CoD4, UT3 etc) by changing certain bits to this.. Motherboard - MSI K9A2 Plat 790FX CPU - AMD AM2 X2 6400+ Black Edition (3.2Ghz) -OR- Phenom 9500 quad core Mem - Giel PC2-8500 DDR2 (1066Mhz) (2GB, possibly 4GB) -or- I could go the whole hog and slap in two HD3870's for a massive gain? This would mean an end to my water cooling circuit until there's blocks for the cards. (Plus Crysis doesn't support Crossfire yet, if ever). -or- Do as a friend says and dump the AMD/ATI thing and go Intel/Nvidia. Any thoughts?
I'd go with AMD/Nvidia. Get the 6400+ and a 8800GT. Also get Crucial Ballistix 6400 and overclock it, cheaper and same price at the 5300 stuff. 8500 isn't worth the cost. You might get better performance from Intel in general but AMD are good (better in my opinion) gaming chips and its nice to support the smaller company. I'm currently on a E6600 but probably would have got the 6400+ if it was out then as you really don't need the overclocking performance of the C2D cos the 6400+ will do you.
I'd dump AMD and move across to the Intel camp as you're going to be changing your mobo, CPU and RAM and would seem a no brainer to me.
I was thinking about moving back to AMD if the Phenom turned out to be any good Initial reviews say no, so I'm staying with intel for now, same price better performance imo I'd go with an Intel CPU
Dump the AMD I'm on my 3rd AMD and Ive had enough there always slower than Intel and there is bugger all good motherboards, I'm giving my AMD the flick when time and money suit and gonna get the quad core Intel, If you buy a AMD you'll be stuck upgrading along those lines as I was (a money wasting experience).
After reading all your replies I've been investigating all the options and prices at various vendors (Scan, Overclockers etc). My head hurts now Dual or Quad, AMD or Intel, Crossfire or SLI, ATI or Nvidia...who said choice was good! One of the reasons I was keen on keeping things AMD/ATI is their new OverDrive overclocking application. Overclocking via the bios is a pain.
Overclocking via BIOS is the only reliable way Plus it's an education in itself! Nvidia has ntune and Intel will have its just as catchy "Extreme Tweaking Utility" soon too. AMD aren't the only ones. If you enjoy ATI products - grab a HD3870 and an Intel X38 board with Q6600 G0 - it seems to be a very popular option.
Yes Bindibadgi, and I read the blurb on that MSI HydroGen, looking at the pic of the mobo it's the x38 version. That would fit nicely into my watercooling but at the price quoted, nope! Looking again and overlaying the quick fittings I use, the video card will foul the fitting. I notice too that places have been getting the 8800GT in stock and the HD3870 in the next few days. I know I'm kinda asking the future here, but what's better from a gaming perspective - E6850 (dual) or Q6600 (quad)? 3Ghz on two cores or 2.4Ghz on four cores? They are priced roughly the same, including the AMD counterparts. I'll admit I've been out of touch with Intel the past few years, but I'm getting there. One thing I'd like the motherboard to have is 2 full x16 PCIe slots when two cards are fitted. Resorting to 2 x8 would be a backwards step I reckon. More reading..
Thanks Aterius, Cyphus was almost in the same predicament as me. I presume he went quad although he doesn't actually say. Reading some of the overclocks you guys have been getting on your Q6600's, I'm impressed. 3.6Ghz on air? That would be nice on water... Decision 1 made - Intel Q6600. You see, I do listen! Now I need to look at motherboards, and with that my future choice of graphics card.
The 8800GTs look very good value at the moment, pushing you accross to (probably) a 680i board. I've got an evga offering and it is very nice. However, you'd probably get slightly higher clocks with the p35 chipset, so that pushes you into crossfire. Looking at your current setup, you could upgrade bit by bit if you went with a crossfire board. Though if you can afford to do it all at once, now is the time to change! RwD
http://evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=167016&mpage=1&key= This is good enough reason to choose an Intel chipset over 680i, Sli or not, imho.
Thanks Silver Shamrock, the more I hear about Nvidia chipsets, the more I'm avoiding them. Say I had around £300 for graphics, I wonder what would be better (I wonder because I can't find any reviews!) - 2x HD3870 in crossfire or 1x 8800GTX? They are around the same price. The ATI option gives me DX10.1 over DX10 (meh) and perhaps less power draw, but less future upgradeability (forgetting about 4x PCIe mobos). Then there's the issue of games that don't work properly on Crossfire but perfectly fine on one GTX, like Crysis for example. A review like that would be a great read. I'm swinging more towards a Crossfire motherboard because I alread have a X1900 Crossfire setup, and could use the cards until after Xmas (so many X's!) and the market to settle a bit. Try the X1900's before comitting to my gpu purchase. But I'd love a high FPS Christmas...
^ I'd get the new 8800GTS (released December 11th). I'd imagine that it'd probably be faster than the current 8800GTX.
The new 8800GTS? As opposed to the old one that's on sale at Overclockers? What makes the new one so special and how would you know you were getting the new model when they are named the same?
The new one is based on G92 like the new 8800GT and seeing as the GT is not far off GTX performance it's not unreasonable to expect GTX or better performance from the new GTS. Easy way to tell them apart is the amount of onboard memory. If it has 320 or 640mb it's the old one.
Thanks SS, found some more info here. Supposedly the new one will have 640mb as well. Nvidia must have ran out of alphabet soup, naming the new one the same as the other. Deliberate confusion?
