Opinions wanted

This is a great mobo for that price.

And yes, you can also go for AMD with the basic system. It's upto you really.

Yeah i am goign to go for AMD for the basic system and Intel for the gaming system.

I was thinking of going for this motherboard for the AMD system

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/144453

or

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/113844

Or if you recommend another board that is better then i will be happy to take a look

I will use this processor as well http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135663#

I recommend this mobo as the best choice, in case you want to upgrade the CPU later to a Phenom without the bus being clocked down. It also has a very good integrated graphics solution so you may not need to get a separate video card. Even if you do want one, a low-end Radeon like the HD 3450 can be run in Hybrid Crossfire mode with the onboard GPU, resulting in fantastic performance gains for a very low price.

How do you set up hybird crossfire? Is it easy?

Look at CPUSolutions.com and the reviews on www.ananadtech.com, and www.tomshardware.com

Hi guys update time.

I will be ordering the parts that were suggested for the gaming computer on the weekend coming up.

I will not be building two comps instead i will be building a gaming comp and getting a laptop as i need one.

I have about £600-£700 to spend on a laptop, Can you guys recommend a good one for that price as i have found a few but don't know if they are good. It must have at least 3gb of memory

Thanks For all the help much appreciated

-Baltan

If someone could also recommend another graphics card encase they are sold out when i come to buy them.

Thanks

-Baltan

Get any HD 4850 from HIS, PowerColor, Visiontek, ASUS, Sapphire or Gigabyte. I doubt all of them will be out of stock. Sapphire is the best out of those, with HIS, Visiontek and Gigabyte being next. PowerColor and ASUS are last, and probably the ones you should buy if you can't find anything cheaper. I know this sounds kinda weird since I've recommended the PowerColor HD 4850 originally, but after researching all over the internet, their reputation isn't as great as that of the others, specifically Sapphire and HIS, whose Toxic and IceQ card revisions come with fantastic aftermarket coolers and OC'd GPU and memory clocks.

So don't go for the powercolour hd 4850 but for another make? will this one work and still let me get sli?

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148468

as i want to be able to have two graphics cards!

Also when i install the two graphics cards do i have to install both disks for both of them?

Yep, you can go Crossfire with that card, no problem. You just need to install the latest Catalyst drivers from ATI's site. The drivers on the CD are usually outdated, so don't bother using those.

Does the motherboard come with the bridge that is needed to connect the two graphic cards?

No, but each card will come with one.

Oh ok cool. I will only need to use one right? Also will the cables from the power supply be long enough on top of that why is the power supply more money when you can get better watts for the same price?

I will be using vista for the build as i cant afford to xp pro, so i will be using vista 64 bit premium.

Thanks

Baltan

Yep, you need to use only one.

The PSU costs more than others delivering 700W of power because the M12 delivers 700W of continous power at normal operating temperatures (i.e. around 50C). Other cheaper PSUs deliver 700W of peak power, which is not sustainable for more than a couple of minutes. Also, Seasonic's PSUs usually cost more than others but have a reputation for being long-lasting and reliable. Lastly, it provides a hefty 56A on the +12V rails and provides modular cabling, which other PSUs at the same price lack.

I see, i am going for the antec 900 case so i am hoping the wires will reach.

What do you think of this monitor http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142526

-Baltan

The wires will easily reach, no problems there.

As for the monitor, getting a Crossfire setup to play games at 1440x900 is really not worth it, since at that res, a single HD 4850 would be more than enough to run any game completely maxed out (except Crysis of course, but that's the case with most other cards in the same price range). So unless you get a monitor capable of at least 1600x1200, there's no point of getting two HD 4850s.

Right i will have another look. By the way i have added all the parts up ect and it is going to come to over £1,000, which is way more than i would like to spend.

Maybe i should look at an AMD system, what amd system would nearly match this? Maybe the phenom?

Thanks

-Baltan

For gaming, a powerful GPU is more important than a very powerful CPU about 90% of the time. There are very few games out there that are CPU-limited more than GPU-limited, so a faster video card and a slower CPU will be better than a very fast CPU and a slow video card.

If you feel like the Intel PC's budget is too much for you, try this alternative build:

• Gigabyte GA-MA790X-DS4 790X Socket AM2+ 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard - £71.79
• AMD Phenom X4 9550 Socket AM2+ 2.2GHz 4MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor - £99.4
• Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-18) Heat Spreader Lifetime Warranty - £55.98
• Sapphire HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card - £185.54
• OCZ Stealth XStream 600W PSU - SLI Ready ATX2.2 12cm LED Fan - £54.91

That along with the monitor you picked will give you enough power to run any game (barring Crysis) with all the detail settings maxed out.

Maybe i could go sli with the amd? I dont really think that intel is to much i think it is when i add the memory and the GPU that it becomes expensive.

Then go for the AMD PC.

Also, as I said before, don't bother using SLI\Crossfire at such low resolutions, since it is mainly meant to be used at very high resolutions such as 1920x1200 with lots of AA and AF. That's where the true performance potential of such a setup will come through. Also, newly-released games take a patch or two to become properly optimized for SLI. So I don't recommend it.