Hi guys, i can't make up my mind which one is better and what is the difference so i need your guys help! Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower 850w or Antec True Power Quattro 850w? Processor: E6850 or E8500? Q6600 or Q9450? (I'll have to wait for another few weeks to get Q9450) Graphics Card: Ati HD3870X2 or Nvidia 9600GT about the motherboard, i can't find any Asus/Gigabyte X38 chipset motherboard that has Sli support/3 way Sli with DDR2.
the e8500 is a 45nm part at 3.16ghz. the e6850 is an older 65nm part at 3.0ghz. the e8500 will overvlock to 4+ghz. it is a better chip and also runs cooler because of the 45nm. the q9450 is also a 45nm part. it is 2.66 stock and can overclock to around 4ghz. the q6600 use6 older 65nm but it can overclock to 3.6ghz with proper cooling. the e8500 and the Q9450 have sse4. that will help alot with futer video editing programs and other stuff. if you are into video editiong then i would recomend the Q9450. the 9600gt will be the new mainstream card from nvidia. it will replace the 8600. but it doesnt beat the 3870 or the 8800gt. the 3870 x2 is two 3870's put on one pcb. basicaly its crossfire on a single card. here are benchmarks for the 3870 x2. http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/28/ati_r680_the_rage_fury_maxx_2/ dont bother with 3 way sli. it will just be a waste of money. get a 3870 x2 and a p35 board. this would be a good board. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128050
I agree with the above about PSU and processors, however the mobo has a older P35 chipset. The newest is the X38/48 and if you are going to get a 3870x2, then try to get a motherboard with PCI-e 2.0 as that is soon becoming the standard. I am also seeing benchmarks with pretty larger performance increases from 2.0 over the standard 1.0 version.
could you post a link to the benchmarks you are talking about. from what i have seen on toms hardware there have only been a few fps difference. but maby with newer cards there will be a bigger difference.
you guys still haven't told me which PSU is better? Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower 850w or Antec True Power Quattro 850w? so the new Penryn 45nm, processor is better than the old 65nm, more overclockability and cooler. About HD3870 X2 it is too expensive for me, so i will not buy that one. but if i have the money should i buy HD3870 X2 or 9800 X2, both card are High-End. Ok here is a list of GPU's please tell me wich one to get, more options are better than less HD3850 or 8800GS = HD3870 or 8800GT = 8800GT or 9600GT = after thinking deeply, Nvidia dominate Mid-Range GPU, ATI dominate High-End GPU(for now) That was the motherboard i was thinking of getting the GA-P35-DS3R BUT it's a P35 chipset and i don't think it supports PCI-E 2.0...i need a X38 mobo with PCI-E 2.0 and nearly the same price as the GA-P35-DS3R thanks for helping!
i dont know what one of those psu's are better, but you wont need that much power to run a computer with the parts you are asking about. the corsair 520 will be sufficient. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001 HD3850 or 8800GS = 3850 HD3870 or 8800GT = tie 8800GT or 9600GT = 8800 i would recommend getting either the 3870 or an 8800gt. most people here prefer the 3870 but i haven't had any problems with my 8800 and i love it. but the 8800gt runs a little hotter. the 3870 will be a little quieter and has good over clocking. pci-e 2.0 inst that big of a performance boost and its not real necessary. an 8800 ultra doesn't use all the bandwidth provided by pci-e 1.0 so you wont have any problems running a 3870 or 8800gt. also x38 mobo's are expensive and p35's are still good and will be able to over clock the new wolfdales to over 4ghz.
@krj15489 too bad that Corsair supplier in South Africa doesn't supply Power Supplies, otherwise i would buy that psu. I thought 8800GT is faster that HD3870, because most benchmarks shows that 8800GT is much better, it's just that HD3870 has clearer/better image quality and performs better on higher resolutions. so 9600GT is the predecessor of 8600GT, it is true that the performance is between 8800GS and 8800GT? and like you said HD3870 has good overclocking potential, but i'm not into OC the gpu, so does that mean 8800GT is better? for the motherboard i was thinking of getting this one: http://www.prophecy.co.za/asus-support-pcie-crossfire-16x16x-copper-heat-p-23557.html the down side is that the back panel is very basic, what i mean is that there is only 1 lan port and 4 USB ports...but the good thing is that it has X38 chipset and dual PCI-E 2.0 X16 Crossfire.
That motherboard looks pretty good. It's an ASUS, so very reliable and of good quality. As for the 8800GT, yes it is faster. However, this is only because nVidia added a "hack" (I guess you could call it that?) that tones down the image quality in certain games - and that's why it is faster. Most of the time you cannot tell unless you compare the cards side by side. The 8800GT has a louder cooler that keep the card less cool than the 3870, peaking at temps around 90C on load, with the 3870 around 65C with fan at 50%. If you do end up going the nvidia route, try to find a board without the X38 chipset, and without 2x PCI-e slots as one would just go to waste. A nvidia nforce 780i board should be fine, but they have less overclocking potential due to the cheap heatsinks on the chipset.
@Waymon3X6 so HD3870 is on par with 8800GT if nvidia didn't add the "Hack", and HD3870 is cooler than 8800GT, thats good, coller is better. you said that if i end up going nvidia route, I shouldn't buy a mobo that has X38 chipset and 2X PCI-E slots? May i ask way? Isn't X38 chipset faster?
Well if you ever wanted to add another 8800GT down the road, with the X38 chipset SLi wouldnt work. Only with a 680i/780i chipset will it work. In addition, if you decide to turn back to ATi, then you could fully use the 2 PCI-e slots for CF; if you turn into a nvidia fan, then the extra PCI-e slot goes to waste as you cannot use it.
so intel chipsets are good for CF and not SLi, no wonder all the intel chipset, have CF instead of SLi, now i know, but isn't it's better for an intel cpu with a intel chipset? and if you're a Nvidia fan, intel chipset is not the choice?
You shouldn't worry about any issues with any combination of graphics/chipset manufacturer with a single card. With dual graphics your options are narrowed somewhat.
hey guys you must check this mobo out, the MSI X38 Platinum, it has 4 PCI-E x16 slots, how does that work?
lol, duh! I didn't really finish my setence, what i was trying to say is that how do you CrossFireX with it?
The same way as you normally would. If the board supports crossfireX, just plug four crossfire cards in. This obviously only works with the new generation of internally bridged cards. They have two crossfire bridges on them, so you connect them together thus, using three crossfire bridges. Card 1 ------- Card 2 ------- Card 3 ------- Card 4
but the card must be a single slot card, if it's a 2 slot card like HD3870, i don't think a mobo can fit 4 HD3870's when CFing, must the card be made by same company? Can it be one Asus HD3850, and one MSI HD3850 OC?
It can run dual slot cards - look carefully and you'll see that all the PCIe16x slots are a slot apart. Of course if you did this you couldn't use a PCI card though!
hmm, true, plus games are just starting to support Sli/CF, so getting 4 GPU is waste of money really. you say that HD3870 is a better choice but . "The Radeon 3870 is a lot of card for $250. The only reason not to buy a 3870 is the Geforce 8800 GT 512 MB, which can offer notably more performance for only slightly more money. The problem is that most 8800 GT 512 MB cards have inflated prices, but if you can find an 8800 GT 512 MB for sale close to the 3870's $250 price point, it's a better bet than the 3870." took this from Toms "The Best Gaming Graphics: January 2008"
