Hi Guys, I am waiting for some money to come through and when it does I will be investing in a new rig. I have narrowed some of the components down to a few option but I just can't decide between them, I don't want to read an individuals review and decide, I would like a few opinions hence posting as a topic. Motherboard: Undecided Asus Sabertooth OR Rampage II Extreme OR Rampage III Extreme As the motherboard is a pretty integral part and will determine other hardware, I want to make an informed decision, But I can't see the real difference between these Mobo's... CPU: Definitely want an i7, was looking at a 950 as it is cheaper than a 940 by some way, but again I can't tell the difference between the 2. RAM: Sorted some form of Corsair RAM probs 6Gb Case & Cooling: Will Sort this out after, don't need advice on this. GPU: Undecided, how powerful a GPU does one need to play modern games? PSU: Will sort when other build aspects are sorted. Would anyone be so kind as to enlighten me on the Mobo and CPU issues?
Mobo, the sabertooth is getting some great reviews if you want the ultimate then it has to be the Rampage III CPU, the 950 is the upgrade of the 940. Better than the 930 and only a few pounds more. If you value for money on the GPU it has to be the GTX 460
I thought the 950 would be an upgrade to 940, but it is like half the price of its poorer performing sibling? Why is it so much cheaper?? Just more demand??
I don't think there any difference in performance, my 940 will go to 4.4 Ghz. For some reason Intel has decided to punt out the 950 at almost half price, so look at it as a gift. And you have to remember that in Q1 2011 the new sandy bridge stuff will be hitting the market. With a bit of luck the 980 will take a big price hit aswell.
mobo: I'd say rampage II, and rampage III only if your budget allows. cpu: i7-950 gpu: I'd either go with 580, 460 SLI, or 460 for graphics. Which one you get depends on your budget.
I'd go for the Sabertooth, as I was pining after a R3E for ages, but seeing the Sabertooth in tests it's better in some cases, is more robust, has a 5 year warrenty and it's SATA 6Gb/s speeds are actually good. The Rampage series is over for UBERXTREME overclocking, plus they have soooooooooooooo many settings, so unless you have the time and will power to learn them all you've wasted money (one of my mates got the first Rampage and it took him 6 months to learn everything and to tweak it full). Plus the Sabertooth is £100 less... 950 is usually the one to go for as at stock it has a higher clockspeed, and 'should' in theory overclock higher due to a higher multiplier, but this isn't always the case... Edit: What's your budget?
