Which is a better build

Icyseanfitz

hey guys im waiting for my laptop to sell so i can start ordering my parts and ive come up with two builds that are around the same price (probably less if i go with hardwaresand.de) what im wondering is which one is better for gaming (as that is what il be using it for besides general browsing) ive just started looking at the i7 builds (as they are a bit more expensive) but the motherboard that i have chosen for the i7 build supports 3 cards in sli or crossfire so i figure i can always add in a card or two to make it more powerfull, anyway what are yer opinions on these builds and which one would ye favour and what would ye change to make them more affordable
Build 1.jpg
Build2.jpg

massy086

intel build me thinks

Monotype

I'd go for #1, especially for gaming. The 5970 would be the better option. The SLI advantage is useful, I suppose, but the Crosshair IV is still a very nice board. I'd only go for the i7 if you really need that extra CPU power. If you really wanted the best, you could go with i7 + 5970?

Icyseanfitz

*at massy* ya thats what im thinking now :rolleyes: all this waiting and saving is driving me mad with the amount of choices haha, im thinking that the gtx 480 while not as powerfull as the 5970 is still a single card unlike the 5970 and the general consensus is to go with the best single gpu you buy. how long would that intel build last me for gaming (dont mind going to medium settings in a couple of years btw) if i add another 480 or two.

Icyseanfitz

Monotype wrote: »

I'd go for #1, especially for gaming. The 5970 would be the better option. The SLI advantage is useful, I suppose, but the Crosshair IV is still a very nice board. I'd only go for the i7 if you really need that extra CPU power. If you really wanted the best, you could go with i7 + 5970?

ya that would be the best but im trying to keep it as close to 1500 as possible (have to cheek my intel build on hadewaresand.de later) what would be the most ballanced build overall ?

Icyseanfitz

one question guys how long do ye think the gtx 480's will drop in price because some of the benchmarks ive been looking at say 2 gtx 480's are better than 2 hd 5970's :eek: which is pretty suprising seen as two 5970's is actually four cards

Solitaire

Are you sure that's not just TWIWMTBP benches? IIRC most of those games break CrossFire compatibility to get money from nVidia :mad:

Monotype

You'd also need to keep in mind that the 480 consumes more power than the 5970.
You could also use the SLI mod on the AMD board to get it working if you really wanted it.

What about sli 460s? They'd do better than a 480 for close to the same price.

Icyseanfitz

ya im actually thinking of going with a 2 gig gainward gtx 460 until the next gen of ati or nvidia cards come out, what would ye think of the 2 gig gtx 460 as a card for maybe a year until i can replace it with my i7 build? would that be a better option than going with the amd build

Monotype

Looking at the builds again, I wouldn't really go with either of them as they are. For the AMD build, I wouldn't bother with the black edition CPU. It isn't worth the extra 50% in price above the 1055T.

As for the i7, the processors have come down a bit, but that motherboard is a big money sinkhole. Why not consider an i5 build? There's only big sacrifice is a small difference in performance with multiple cards.

1156 and 1366 have got less than a year left before they'll be replaced. AM3's future is still uncertain.

A 2GB 460 is only going to make a very small difference and will mainly take effect if you're going up to resolutions like 2560x1600.
Here's a good gauge or results that you could expect
Worth the price if it's <€10 difference or you plan to have high resolutions.

Icyseanfitz

think i might go with a phenom x4 gtx 460 build right now but il put good components into it like the antec 1000 W psu, haf 932 etc. and wait and see whats coming out at xmas from AMD, ATI and nvidia.
is it very hard to make a motherboard like the asus crosshair do sli with out causing much touble as i would never have done something like that before, also is there any AM3 board out there that does both sli and crossfire ?

Icyseanfitz

how about this build guys im just wondering will one 2 gig gtx 460 be enough to play at reasonable rates? because if it is i would rather save my €200 until xmas just to see if ati are bringing out anything good and it would also save me the bother of trying to find a AM3 motherboard that is sli compatible or flash the ASUS board, any opinions would be great guys
Build3.jpg

Icyseanfitz

i think im going to go with this and upgrade the GPU later when i get some more cash
Build4.png

Monotype

Do you know that you have two 460s in build 3?

Weren't you thinking of having 3 monitors a while back?

Icyseanfitz

i will be doing 3 monitors eventually (around xmas maybe after) the thing is as of right now im trying to keep my pc as close to €1500 as i can and i really like the mobos with the i7 builds as you can do both sli and crossfire in them with 3 cards anyway do you think an i7 930 will last me for a good while as i really dont want to have to change it for a couple of years, also would that 2 gig gtx 460 be able to run games on high at around 1440x900 up to 1920x1080 as im going to wait til xmas when the new ati cards come out to see if there any good and if not il just buy another gtx 460 (pity you cant 3 x sli the gtx 460's as they would be class)

Monotype

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

do you think an i7 930 will last me for a good while

It is a powerful processor, there's no doubt about that. You probably won't have the opportunity to upgrade the processor later as there's only a few more processors due for this socket. I haven't heard of any planned additions to its line apart from the 990X and some Xeons. If you think you'll be going down the triple SLI route, then it would be the best path to choose.

also would that 2 gig gtx 460 be able to run games on high at around 1440x900 up to 1920x1080

Yes, but the price difference should be very small to get the 2GB version over the 1GB. You won't see any difference at those resolutions. On the other hand, if you will be moving to three monitors with SLI with the 460s at Christmas, you should see an improvement.

Icyseanfitz

well the palit 2 gig 460 is around 220 on pixmania which i think is pretty good but people are saying the palit 460's arnt that good so i might just go for the 1 gig gigibyte 460 over it which is 200, i also read somewhere that intel will probaly be bringing the prices down on the i7 range is there any truth to this?

Solitaire

Only the i7-950 and possibly i7-870 AFAIK, as they were always horribly overpriced. If the price on the i7-860 dropped much closer to the i5-760 I'd sure take a punt at it

Icyseanfitz

which gtx 460 would ye guys buy? theres a boat load of them everywhere, also what would ye think of a small ssd for windows 7 and maybe a game or two? which ssd would ye recommend?

Solitaire

I'd get the Palit GTX460 768MB because a) I'm poor(ish) b) I would only be gaming on one 1080p monitor at a time and c) because I'd probably have the next one on water with some form of VRM cooling going on somehow so I'm not too bothered about the lack of a VRM heatsink that seems to be upsetting the pickier punters