Rig Proposal: $650..ish

[Schadenfroh]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Primarily gaming, Bioshock, NWN2, COD4, The Witcher, and Mass Effect being the most stressing. Compiling will also be done on it. I plan to dual boot Windows Vista 64 and OpenSuse 11 64. Vista will only be used for gaming. I need good linux driver support for both 2d and 3d applications.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

$650

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

USA

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.

No nforce chipsets (nVidia GPUs are fine), but I will never buy an nForce after what nVidia did to its customers with the nForce3. No corsair memory (bad RMA experience, they kept sending me the wrong kind of memory).

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

Samsung SpinPoint F1 750gb
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS with Alchemy
Samsung SATA DvD-rw
LIAN LI PC-K7B case
Antec NEOHE 550W PSU
thermalright XP-90c (it is currently on my old Socket A system, will it work on LGA 755?) EDIT: Looks like it is supported, will I need any special accessories to make it fit?

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Overclock

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?

Next few weeks



Proposed rig:
Video: Asus built AMD Radeon 4850

• Very concerned about Linux support on this one, I cannot run my AGP x1950 in Linux with the 3D gnome desktop enabled without performance going to the crapper (like lagging while scrolling in web browsers) due to (I assume) poor drivers since the nVidia 7900GS in my notebook runs Gnome's 3d desktop with no problem. Does ATI offer good Linux support for their new (PCI-E) cards?

Mobo: Asus P5Q Pro

• Debating getting this one or the gigabyte competitor, any other P45 boards worth considering in that price range?

CPU: E8400. My main concern is gaming speed and I am willing to overclock. I will not be multitasking on it (I shut down Folding@Home or media encoding / compiling when I game). I am willing to extend my budget by $100 if the Q9450 is REALLY worth it, but it does not seem so from what I have read. Would be nice if I could O/C it decently with the stock HS/F, but I do have a Thermalright XP-90c in an old PC (a Socket A machine), not sure if it would work on an LGA 755. Let me know what HeatSink Fan that I need to buy otherwise, at a loss here as most of the Thermalrights that I am familiar with are sold out at NewEgg and I would like to buy all of my components at the same place.

RAM: Crucial DDR2 800 4GB (is this too slow to run CPUs like the 8400 at their normal FSB? Is this ram too slow to overclock the Q6600 or E8400 significantly?)


Huge concern: Good Linux support and longterm bios support (I do not upgrade often).

Current rig (for reference, not counting components named above):
nForce 3 Ultra Socket 939
Athlon64 4000+
x1950 Pro AGP 512mb
2gb Crucial DDR400

Thanks!

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

AMD's video cards are really pushing the idea for full x-fire setups (x38 & x48 boards)

 

[Schadenfroh]

Thanks for the heads up, but I am not really interested in multigpu solutions at this time, by the time I am they will probably have single card solutions that is better than two of these in xFire that are affordable. But, the P45 motherboards that I linked both said they support xFire.

the gigabyte:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Pro...ew.aspx?ProductID=2842

2 PCI-E 2.0 x16 graphic interface with CrossFireX support for ultimate graphics performance

for the asus:

PCI Express 2.0 x16 2
ATI CrossFireX Technology ~ Exceptional 3D Experience

Update: After reading, it looks like those two PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots become PCI-E 2.0 x8 slots once a card is placed into each on the P45:frown:
I also cannot seem to find an X48 board with the latest southbridge chip, they are all the older Intel ICH9R.

Should I just go ahead and get a P43 and save even more money since I have little or no interest in xFire? This gigabyte says that it supports dd2 1200 (the main reason I was going with the P45 over the P43):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128347

 

[DaveSimmons]

You can get $30 off if you buy an Asus PQ5 Pro and add an Asus 4850 as a combo, so you get the Pro for the same price as the "plain" PQ5 and only $20 more than a P43 board.

Crossfire is bottlenecked with 8x/8x (Tweaktown just tested this) but the P45 looks like the best intel chipset for motherboards under $200 right now.

The P43 I'd pick as a cheaper choice is the GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3L for $100.

The Asus 4850 is a good choice because apparently Asus includes working fan control software while others don't and rivatuner doesn't support 48xx yet.

E8400 + PQ5 Pro is what I'm thinking of buying myself, but with a 4870 (for 1900 x 1200).

Linux support: there's a thread on this in Video, AMD is apparently much more pro-linux than ATI was, and linux drivers supposedly even ship with the 48xx cards on the CD.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Thanks for explaining that, Dave

Looks like the PQ5 Pro is the way to go then, the memory look good for overclocking (I am not familiar with new ram)? Going to attempt 3.5ghz on the E8400.

I was thing of upping the ram speed to 1066:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820146785

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'm too lazy to overclock, someone else will have to answer that.

I'm still trying to decide between an X48 board "just in case" I want x16 Crossfire someday (but paying $200+ seems excessive), the PQ5 Pro as a rational middle ground, or waiting a month for a G45 chipset micro-ATX board so I can build an X-QPack2 cube system instead.

2 crazy options fighting it out with the sane one . . . my poor brain

 

[magreen]

E8400 is 333 fsb (1333 effective) and 3.0 GHz, right? So it runs ddr2-667 (333 MHz memory clock freq) at its stock speed with a 1:1 ratio. With ddr2-800 ram you can raise the fsb to 400 (1600 effective) and still keep the ram in spec at ddr2-800. That's a 20% OC, which would net you 3.6GHz on the cpu. So you don't need the 1066 ram if you're shooting for 3.5.

 

[Ike0069]

Generic rule for the 8400 w/ 9x multiplier:
DDR2 800 allows you 400x9 = 3.6GHz for the CPU
DDR2 1000 allows you 500x9 = 4.5GHz for the CPU