MOBO & RAM for 2 HD4870 cards?

[7rigg3r]

Bought new stuff and gonna mix new and old parts.

Rig 2 is built.
Rig 1 is to be built, but still lacks RAM, new MOBO & a CPU-fan.

Will be running 2D and 3D apps on a 3 monitor setup aswell as surroundgaming, is a TripleHead2Go still required for surroundgaming?

Would like some tips on what MOBO, RAM and CPU-fan will suit this best.

Sorry for any bad english...


New and old parts I already got:


MOBO: P5W DH Deluxe (buy new)
Powersupply: Corsair CMPSU-TX750EU, 750W, SLI/CF, ATX2.2/EPS
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450, Quad Core, 2.66 GHz, 2x6MB
RAM: ? (buy new)
CPU-fan: ? (buy new)
2 x GFX: Club3D HD 4870, PCI-E 2.0, 512MB GDDR5
HDD: 2x250 GB Samsung Spinpoint
LCD: 3 x HP LP2065 20"

[perkam]

Mobo: Asus Rampage Formula
RAM: Gskill 4GB DDR2-8500
CPU FAN: OCZ Vendetta

Perkam

[saki_bomber]

Mobo: Asus Rampage Formula
RAM: Gskill 4GB DDR2-8500
CPU FAN: OCZ Vendetta

Perkam

why the DDR2 8500?

i was told to get pc 6400 for my q9450, and nothing else:confused:

if there's different ram that will sped me up some more please recommend :up:

[Kondik]

The higher FSB / RAM the better

C2Q 9550 [ 8.5 * 400 ] + Corsair DDR2 1066 User here *dance*
Perkam is completly right , Solid X48 board and 1066 MHz DDR2 and you're issue free until nehalem is cheaper

[Jtrain43791]

+1 for Asus Rampage Formula :up:

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

This ram is better than the stuff perkam recommended

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146789

[perkam]

This ram is better than the stuff perkam recommended

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146789It's also $25 more than the ram perkam recommended :http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231166

:stick:

Perkam

[Caveman787]

I agree with snippe however I'd go with normal mushkin ram since it overclocks well, you can get 800 and overclock it to 1066, for much cheaper then the stuff he showed. Though I like there new heatsink idea.

As far as a mobo I'd say grab a dfi x38 for $180 cheapest full crossfire 16x/16x mobo.

xigmatek s964 and xigmatek s1283 are both cheap and good heatsinks that perform in the top or as the top heatsink.

[grimREEFER]

for a crossfire mobo, as long as you're not dealing with an x4 slot, you're fine imo.
i like the dfi x38 too.

[Nomadsoul]

Gigabyte X48 DQ6
Gskill 1000MHz (2 X 2GB) DDR2
Xigmatek S1283

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

It's also $25 more than the ram perkam recommended :http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231166

:stick:

Perkam

I bet that g.skill can do 1120 PL6 5-5-4-15 :rolleyes: not

I find g.skill to be very shady, they release super high binned ram to the review guys over in xtreme bandwith section but then the products they release to retail are much much slower and cant nearly do the things that the reviewers could. I've had 3 kits that weren't worth what I paid for them because the reviews showed great results, but not so much from retail product.

sometimes you need to trust the users who are dealing with the products and not just webinfo/reviewers, the mushkin I recommended is well worth the 25$ more

[saki_bomber]

so it would be worth it to go to 1066mhz ram?

its so cheap now, might as well.......:idea:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145197

[saki_bomber]

bump for the mornin crew:up:

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

so it would be worth it to go to 1066mhz ram?

its so cheap now, might as well.......:idea:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145197

the ram I posted is better than the corsair, and the ram fan is rubbish, it interferes with the ram. when i put mine on machine wont post, take it off runs fine and stable

[7rigg3r]

Thx for all the advice and tips guys!! :)

However I ran into some problems when I came home...
I work from home and had to get the rig up and running the day after I came home or I would loose 2 days work (that day and the next cause of deadlines).

I went to the biggest computerstore in my hometown (Malmoe, Sweden, 3 stores and a big central warehouse) ......but they didn't have a single crossfire mobo in stock, only SLI-mobos :confused: but could order and have it for me in 2-5 days :down:

Went to second biggest(I think)... and they only had one, so I kinda had to get that, bought that and the cheapest 2 GB RAM they had.
Got a ASUS P5KR and 2 GB ADATA RAM
MOBO: 205 $ (1250 SKr)
RAM: 58 $ (350 SKr)

Went home and put it all together and thereby atleast didn't loose 2 days worth of pay...

Ran 3D-Mark 06 and got 13840 without Crossfire and 14923 with Crossfire enabled.
I ran two tests cause I wanted a score for only 1 card since I'm running a triple monitor setup, and in the ATI settings (as far as I could tell) you can't run Crossfire with all monitors enabled...? Is there a way to change this or is it not possible?

I would have lost more than what I payed for the MOBO and RAM if I wouldn't have done this so not that big of a deal I guess...but still.

I'm gonna look into what you suggested and also buy a CPU-fan (running stock now) I read in one forum (posted this in 4 different forums) that ppl recommended the sigmatek 1283 cooler.

I also think I'm gonna get a new chassi. I had to bend the PCI-E cables quite hard just to make it fit in the chassi, which made me a lil worried.
I have a Coolermaster Mystique now, any thoughts/recommendations on that? Thinking about maybe building a watercooled system soon.

I'm also gonna switch to XP 64 or VISTA 64, haven't decided yet but am leaning more towards XP 64 right now. I tried working in VISTA basic for 3 weeks on a borrowed rig and didn't like it at all, but that was a kinda weak rig so I don't know. What little I have read Adobe CS4 will run a lot better on a 64 bit system and will be able to use more than 4 GB of RAM...I don't care that much about Directx 10 so that's not very important.

MOBO wise I dont want to pay any hysterical prices... the store I got the mobo from could have an ASUS mobo (Striker or formula something) the next day for a price of 630 $ (3800 SKr) :eek: which is a lot more than what I'm willing to pay!


A lot of questions and rambling :p: thankful for any input/thoughts/advice I can get!!!

Thx in advance! :)

I posted this thread on 4 forums and got the most replies here :) (none or 1 reply on the others) so I like it a lot better here now!


Sorry for any bad english.

[7rigg3r]

Forgot one thing.

At bootup I get the following message:

"Unknown CPU detected, updating BIOS is required to unleash its full power!"

Have to press F1 every time...annoying!

I looked in BIOS and the CPU according to specs and 1333 FSB.
According to the BIOS updating app I have the latest BIOS already.
Running BIOS 0502.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/TriggerJam/System-1.jpg

Any ideas?

[karateo]

your problem is that your mobo has the P35 chipset
meaning that with crossfire you get x8/x8 I think and not x16/x16 so you lose some performance from there.
Not a lot but still something.

Check with the store you bought the mobo if you could switch with the cheapest having the chipsets X38 or X48

There is a review on the net testing different chipsets with crossfire ;)

EDIT:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/10/12/crossfire_comparison_intel_x38_versus_p35/3
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=761&p=0
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1472/intel_p45_vs_x48_crossfire_performance/index.html

[Kondik]

ASUS P5KR (Buy new?) is a no good for you, and it's an pretty old Chipset , should bougt the P45 or X38 series .. tbh , this was not a step back but a sidestep

[Red Evil]

eh, CF on p35 mobo? waste of money to me.
and why didnt you order from a online shop?

[7rigg3r]

I didn't have a choice since I needed the computer up and running that day or I would loose two days pay and that mobo was the only crossfire mobo available.

Read what i wrote above before answering ;)

[7rigg3r]

I just spoke with the guy at the store and he agreed on a full refund on the P5KR mobo and RAM if I bought another more expensive mobo and RAM from him :)

I also could keep the parts I have until what I order is delivered to the store for pickup. I guess I've found a new store to buy computerparts from! :cool:

Now I just have to decide what to get...

[karateo]

Read what i wrote above before answering ;)

i believe, you didn't say this for me :cool:

now, can you post a link from the shop you are buying parts from?
to check the available products.

or else you can buy any(it's better to ask first) X38/X48 (where the X38 will be a bit more cheap (better value/money).

Usually asus boards are good so the P5E will be your cheapest option I think
have a look here
X38 http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=572
X48 http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=640

[7rigg3r]

It's a swedish store and their homepage is in swedish only... (www.josty.se)

Their pricelist sucks bigtime since they don't even list everything they got and it's ofcourse in swedish only.

They said they could order any Asus mobo, so that's good :) They've been around since 1970 so I guess they're doing something right! :cool:

I'll read up on what you guys wrote about mobos and ram today, aiming to place an order tomorrow (or tuesday)

Just have to try to stop gaming first...found the SoftTH this friday, triple monitor gaming really rocks :p
Saved me some cash I was gonna put down for a TripleHead2Go. If you have a multimonitor setup check out http://www.kegetys.net/SoftTH
Free software that does same thing as TripleHead2Go

Any recommendations for chassi and CPUfan? Think I'll go with the sigmatek 1283 fan, dunno bout chassi yet...

Thx :)