New PC build soon - Comments ?

[mobriskie]

Hello, I am new to Overclockers forums although I have been to the site many times.

I'm am about to build up a new PC, I thought I'd list the components so far and see if anyone has any suggestions. I'm upgrading from an AMD Athlon X2 on a Asus Crosshair MoBo with Crucial Ballistix Tracer memory and a BFG Geforce 8800 GTS 512M.

Here is what I have thus far for the new system (plan to start assembly in a couple of weeks when I get some time off). My choices on brands or models came either from good past experience or recommendations and good reviews. I'm hoping I have the components of good build in the making and didn't screw up anywhere.....but always looking for advice !

• Antec Nine Hundred Gaming case (love the airflow through these)
• Asus Crosshair IV Formula
• AMD Phenom II 1090T 6 core 3.2Ghz
• Thermalright Venomous X BLACK CPU cooler
• Nanoxia FX12-1250 120x25mm Nano Technology Fan
• 8GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
• XFX 750 Watt Black Edition Power Supply
• Video card --????

I have not selected a video card yet and I'm open to suggestions. My experience with ATI has been hit or miss while my experience with Nvidia has been always great and their stuff has never let me down. I've owned EVGA and BFG Nvidia cards with no issues and even cards going all the way back to Leadtek back in the Geforce 2 and Geforce 3 days. But... I am always open to any Video card suggestions.

So far I know that I need to watch out for the Crosshair IV NB heatsink issue and watch the temps. I have inspected the board I got in and it "looks" like the heatsinks on the NB and SB are making great contact. Anything else to be aware of with this combination ? I also have read a lot of warnings that the Nvidia Geforce GTX 470 and 480 cards run very hot and people are having some failures of these cards. My PC will be a single, not SLI even if I was to go the ATI Radeon route (Crosshair supporting), so I'm fine with suggestions from either video card recommended here.

Thanks in advance....

 

[Zerix01]

Asus Crosshair IV Formula

This MB looks cool but I personally would have a hard time justifying the cost. I couldn't see much, if any, difference in features compared to the Gigabyte 890FX UD3 board that I just bought, and the Gigabyte one is a lot cheaper.

AMD Phenom II 1090T 6 core 3.2Ghz

I have the 1055T, no complaints. Once again it came down to cost for me. I'm pretty sure the 1090 and 1055 can reach the same clock speeds just the 1090 makes it a bit easier, is it worth the extra $100?

Video card --????

The 470 and 460 are at good price points. Just get a good brand and you should be fine, don't worry about them burning up. ATI should also be good but I don't have much experience with them lately. If you use Linux at all or run Folding@Home then go with Nvidia. If your only focus will be gaming then just go with who ever has the best deal at the time. The ATI cards tend to use less power and still perform well.

 

[QuietIce]

to OCF!

• Asus Crosshair IV Formula
• AMD Phenom II 1090T 6 core 3.2Ghz

You should be aware of this issue with ASUS boards in combination with the X6 processors ... http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=649026

As far as I know they haven't fixed the problem as yet, at least not for the 890FX chipsets. I believe they did finally get a solution published for their higher-end 890GX board and it's rumored the 890FX boards are next. For more information or the latest update you might PM Dolk but it may take a few days for him to get back to you.


I haven't heard of any vDroop problems with Gigabyte, though I'd go with the 890FX-UD5 instead of the UD3 ...

 

[Zerix01]

I haven't heard of any vDroop problems with Gigabyte, though I'd go with the 890FX-UD5 instead of the UD3 ...

Oops, yeah mine is a UD5. There is no UD3 with the 890FX chipset.

 

[mobriskie]

I checked the reviews of the Gigabyte 890FXA-UD5 and wow are there a lot of people complaining about boards arriving DOA and that it takes Gigabyte a week to get back to them only to ask the question "Have you verified other components". ASUS has problems too, I guess all manufacturers do but I guess I have bought so many ASUS boards with zero DOA's and really no problems that I keep going back to them.

Thanks for the heads up on the vDroop... if that gets fixed in a soon future BIOS that will be good. I do not plan to go insane on the OC... probably only 3.8 Ghz (mild).

 

[velozzity]

Wel first of all the case, if you can still take the nine hundred back i would either suggest the nine hundred two or the coolermaster 690 II advanced, if it were'nt for the fact that i own a nine hundred and have taken all the rivets out and painted it black inside (took about a week to get right with all the sanding and multiple coats because i tried spraying it in one piece and the overspray made it look like crap) I would get the coolermaster 690 II....it can be loaded with 120mm fans so no proprietary crap and you can choose whatever you want from cheapo to $15-$20 a pop fans which will outlast the computer itself.

About video cards if you can wait a bit and am not in a super hurry and have something to get you by for a few months the Radeon 6000 series should be out soon and that means price drops on the 5000 series cards, besides that anything EVGA is great and BFG is going thru bankruptcy and are denying RMA's so i would avoid them like the plague. There is some type of SLI hack floating around which does'nt support the 460's the last time i read about it but its always an option if you stay with an AMD Chipset board, I would say if money is no issue the 5870's play everything you want at high settings but they are'nt considered a super value ..there are really alot of good choices out there for video cards at the moment so buy whatever you need for the resolution and budget you have.

 

[Zerix01]

I checked the reviews of the Gigabyte 890FXA-UD5 and wow are there a lot of people complaining about boards arriving DOA and that it takes Gigabyte a week to get back to them only to ask the question "Have you verified other components". ASUS has problems too, I guess all manufacturers do but I guess I have bought so many ASUS boards with zero DOA's and really no problems that I keep going back to them.

If you buy from newegg and it comes DOA then you should be able to RMA it to newegg within 30 days. Also remember unsatisfied customers will make more noise than satisfied ones.

On the flip side I'm having some annoying BIOS issues with my 890FXA-UD5. It takes my OC settings but then tries to reset them on every reboot. See this thread http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=653221

But I do have my x6 1055T holding at 3.5GHz on the stock cooler.