Building a cheap but a powerful rig

[nightmare106]

I have been really lost on past 3 weeks on what components for my rig to buy... here's what i come up with for now:

GECUBE HD3870 X-TURBO, PCI-Ex16, 512MB DDR4 256-bit, HDTV-out
Procesor Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 , 4x2.4GHz, socket 775, 8Mb G0
Not sure what motherboard but definetly an ASUS one with Crossfire 16x 16x (x38 or x48 chipset (they 're the only chipsets i know that support 16x 16x crossfire))


Could ya help me out by making some changes and adding some powerful but cheap =) hardware. I need it to be as cheap as it can aswell. Ty ahead!

 

[kazuya-kun]

CPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037 169.99$
Mobo - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131335 104.99$
GFX - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129112&Tpk=visiontek%204850 164.99 MIR
Memory - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146789 - 139.99$

I would get some decent cooling, but it's up to you. Try to get an E0 revision for the E8400 and you can OC it to a nice 4.3 ghz

This is fairly cheap and chances are you'll see a much bigger improvement over the Q6600. I wouldn't recommend dual cards, I'm currently using 2 3870 and I regret it. Try sticking with the 4850 till the RV870 comes out, I heard it's going to be a "true" dual-gpu card not like the R700

 

[BIZWIZ]

you haven't really mentioned what your rig will be used for.... Any good X48 mobo will do for both graphics processing/gaming. But they cost more than the p45s, which don't support 2x 16X crossfired cards, but 8x8x instead. THE HD3870 X-TURBO gddr4 will be a GOOD mid range choice...you could also look at the 4850 1gb oc series as a cost option. Alternately, look at the 3870x2 options, if u r hellbent on crossfire.
The q6600 is likely to be phased out; the e8500 is a good fast cheap option for gaming as it has excellent oc potential.
A quality psu is paramount for crossfire; crossfiring ain't exactly cheap!

 

[dagger]

you haven't really mentioned what your rig will be used for.... Any good X48 mobo will do for both graphics processing/gaming. But they cost more than the p45s, which don't support 2x 16X crossfired cards, but 8x8x instead. THE HD3870 X-TURBO gddr4 will be a GOOD mid range choice...you could also look at the 4850 1gb oc series as a cost option. Alternately, look at the 3870x2 options, if u r hellbent on crossfire.
The q6600 is likely to be phased out; the e8500 is a good fast cheap option for gaming as it has excellent oc potential.
A quality psu is paramount for crossfire; crossfiring ain't exactly cheap!

That's right, p45's 2 8xpcie2.0 in cf will bottleneck.
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1472/7/page_7_benchmarks_crysis/index.html
X38/48 won't but will cost around $200 or more.

Your best choice for high performance on the cheap will probably be a cheap p43/45 motherboard, price starts at $75, and performs on par with x38/48 other than the cf bottleneck.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200280%20107172615&bop=And&Order=PRICE

Plus a $275 9800gx2 ($245 after mir).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133217

As the second fastest card on market, after 4870x2($550), it outperforms 4870($280) and gtx280($420), and will certainly blow away 2 3870s($120 each).
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=13
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=14
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=15
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=16
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=17
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=18
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=19

As for quad vs dual, a lower clocked quad will outperform higher clocked dual even in old non-quad optimized games, as long as the gap in clock rate isn't too big.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q6600_8.html

 

[venkat karthik]

i prefer not to take q6600 because it is not future proof
it does not support SSE4 which are going to be used in future games and provide more performance

take any yorkfield quad core
please ensure whether the cpu supports SSE4

 

[dagger]

i prefer not to take q6600 because it is not future proof
it does not support SSE4 which are going to be used in future games and provide more performance

take any yorkfield quad core
please ensure whether the cpu supports SSE4

SSE4 is only used for newer encoding softwares. Larger more complex applications like games do not take advantage of it (or sse3 for that matter).

 

[spuddyt]

what is this machine for? gaming? video editing? what?

 

[cjl]

If you want cheap but powerful, an X48 is not the place to be looking. Also, note that the bottleneck testing was on the newer HD4000 series cards - a 3870 will not come even close to bottlenecking 8x PCIE2.0. Get a P45 instead.

 

[brendano257]

The combination your asking for isn't really possible, and @dagger, you cannot get a CF board and a 9800GX2, you need an SLI board for that.

 

[Shadow of Dawn]

The combination your asking for isn't really possible, and @dagger, you cannot get a CF board and a 9800GX2, you need an SLI board for that.

You don't need an sli board for the 9800gx2

 

[dagger]

You don't need an sli board for the 9800gx2

Yep, single card does not require sli/cf capable board. Same is true for 3870x2 and 4870x2.

 

[Grimmy]

Pretty much the sheer beauty of them x2 GPU cards, especially on a non-sli/cf platform.

Although I don't think I'd wanna put up with a Quad GPU setup from all the heat pouring out of them.