I'm giving away my current system (Athlon X2 64 3800+/ATI X1950/2GB RAM) to my younger, and "college-poor", brother, and I've been looking at the pros and cons of getting an X48 vs a P45 based system. I would be keeping my current case, a 620 W Corsair PSU, a 24" Dell widescreen LCD panel, and a 500GB SATA drive. The computer would be used primarily for gaming. I don't bother with overclocking unless the computer is getting old and I'm trying to squeeze some more useful life out of it.
I've been debating on whether I should get an X48-based system versus a P45-based system for a couple of weeks now and I'm still not sure what to do... At a 1920 x 1200 resolution dual ATI video cards in a 16x/16x Crossfire setup look really great, but the price is not so good mainly due to the high cost of decent X48 motherboards (DFI X48-T2RSB or Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5, both around $225-250). The idea would be to get an ATI Radeon 4850 now, and when the need arises buy another ATI Radeon 4850 and use them in a Crossfire setup.
A P45 setup would allow me to spend less money on a motherboard (Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P or an Asus P5Q Pro, $100-140) and more money on a video card. 16x/8x Crossfire doesn't work quite as well as it does at 16x/16x, unforunately. I would probably buy an ATI Radeon 4870 now, but I'm not sure what upgrade path I would take in the future with this kind of setup.
So I have the following (in addition to an E8400 + 4GB DDR2 RAM):
X48 Setup
- Now (Video Card): ATI Radeon 4850
- Future (Video Card): 2 x ATI Radeon 4870 (Crossfire)
P45 Setup
- Now (Video Card): ATI Radeon 4870
- Future (Video Card): ???
Any suggestions or insights into this whole X48 vs P45 thing would be really appreciated.
I've been debating on whether I should get an X48-based system versus a P45-based system for a couple of weeks now and I'm still not sure what to do... At a 1920 x 1200 resolution dual ATI video cards in a 16x/16x Crossfire setup look really great, but the price is not so good mainly due to the high cost of decent X48 motherboards (DFI X48-T2RSB or Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5, both around $225-250). The idea would be to get an ATI Radeon 4850 now, and when the need arises buy another ATI Radeon 4850 and use them in a Crossfire setup.
A P45 setup would allow me to spend less money on a motherboard (Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P or an Asus P5Q Pro, $100-140) and more money on a video card. 16x/8x Crossfire doesn't work quite as well as it does at 16x/16x, unforunately. I would probably buy an ATI Radeon 4870 now, but I'm not sure what upgrade path I would take in the future with this kind of setup.
So I have the following (in addition to an E8400 + 4GB DDR2 RAM):
X48 Setup
- Now (Video Card): ATI Radeon 4850
- Future (Video Card): 2 x ATI Radeon 4870 (Crossfire)
P45 Setup
- Now (Video Card): ATI Radeon 4870
- Future (Video Card): ???
Any suggestions or insights into this whole X48 vs P45 thing would be really appreciated.