New build

I'm looking into building myself a new rig. My SLI Ultra rig is looking dated. No set budget, but I like value for my money.

Was thinking along the lines of 4870's in Crossfire and a quad, but that's as far as I've got right now. I play a few strategy games, so a fast CPU is a must. Doesn't have to be the most expensive, just good. I looked at Rajha's baby the 280 but the 4870 appears to have the edge?

You might want to wait for Nehalem, it's supposedly coming out by the end of the year.

What Crimson said.

There is never a right time to buy a new system, but now is definitely the wrong time.

Wait for Nehalem, and hopefully Big Bang II (does our Rahja know about this?)

Big Bang II is just a new driver release. It has nothing to do with building a system.

The big push is the Nehalem wait.

Oh, and the GTX280 slaughters the 4870, lol. Wait until you see the numbers with the 180 drivers.

I knew this - but it's a BIG driver release. SLI over multiple monitors big.

Overclockers has the 4870 down as the most powerful gfx card out. It was a throw up betwen the 4870, 9800x2 or the 280. Can't wait really, the Ultra rig is going to the nearest primary school Monday.

the 4870 is a better "bang for your buck" card. the gtx280 is still the most powerful GPU ever created.

i think you are thinking of the gtx260, in which case it is roughly the same as the 4870.

I'm impatient so I'm going to order this weekend probably.

Q6600
Abit IX38 QuadGT Intel X38
Point of View GeForce 280
GeIL Black Dragon 2x2GB 800MHz DDR2
Samsung Spinpoint F1 500GB
Tuniq Tower
OcUK Value 24"
Antec Nine Hundred
Corsair TX 650 ATX2.2
Vista Prem 64bit


Anything wrong with this? Not sure on the PoV 280? Better to go with Asus/BFG?? The PoV was the cheapest at £260

Anything I missed?

well you COULD go for a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 for about £30 more... :P

Yeah but I doubt I'd use that much space. My laptop only has 100gb HDD, and I currently have about 20gb spare. 500 should be plenty, if not I can always add another later.

I'm more concerned with the OcUK Value 24" - I know it's cheap and all, but as Gibbo said "The absolute best quality large LCD monitor on the market without spending thousands is the NEC 26" Pro that OcUK sells. Good 24" models are the DELL 2407WFP-HC and Hyundai W240/241D PVA models."

I seem to recall that you're "comfortably off" - splash it (Oh, and check out the Antec 1200 over the 900)

Surely you don't mean 8800 Ultras? Because a single GTX 280 is a downgrade from two 8800 Ultras. Personally I would go for two 4850s in CF over a single GTX280 given you are getting a CrossFireX board. Two 4850s outperform the 280 at Crysis, COD4, Assassin's Creed, Oblivion, The Witcher, Bioshock etc according to Andandtech review. However, this may change with drivers, and multip GPU solutions tend to have more problems than single GPUs. I guess its up to you. Overall looks good.

I intend on getting 2 280's, hence why the MOBO I picked is being swapped out.

Snog - I have the original Dell 30", but I'm looking to downgrade to a smaller size. I'll have a browse at the 26" though. Any major difference between the 900 and 1200?

The 1200 is bigger and has fan filters - not much apart from that. I like elbow room

The GTX 280 does slaughter the 4870, if you're willing to pay $600 for a card that will be obsolete in 6 months.
Bang-for-the-buck the 4870 beats them all - it's only $300 for a card that will be obsolete in 6 months.

As far as waiting for Nehalem goes, I doubt that it will be such a big improvement that it would really matter. If you keep waiting for the "next big thing" you'll never upgrade.

The 280 I'm looking at works out just over $400 Still looking at MOBO's though. The one I mentioned is aimed at Crossfire not SLI. Need something that will handle the Q6600 being OC to 3GHz on air+room for 2 280's OR I could opt for the slightly cheaper 2x4870's and get the Abit MOBO.

280 won't be obsolete in 6 months anyway the 8xxx series is still going strong nearly 2 years on.

"Obsolete" may be too strong a word, but basically speaking, in 6 months you would be looking at something newer/faster. You wouldn't even considering using an 8xxx series card now. Six months from now the 280 will be half the price it is now, but you wouldn't consider using it anymore either, because something newer & faster will come along by then.
So, it would be more accurate to say why spend $600 on a card that you'll want to upgrade in 6 months anyway (when the $300 card is almost as good)

As an example, about 6 months ago (maybe more) I got an ATI 2900XT (I know, I know), paid about $300 - now they're going for around $99, and you wouldn't suggest anyone buy one anymore. (Bad example, I know - but then again, I now have a big enough power supply for just about anything.)

At any rate - you can now spend about $600 on an ATI based 4870x2 card that will beat a 280.

Btw, I just got a new 4870 for myself. GW pegs at 60 fps continuously at 1680x1050 with everything set to max.

Two 8800Ultras can't touch a GTX 280. Two 9800GTX+'s can, but that makes sense. The new drivers make the GTX 280 king, period.



Oh, and Malice, good choices overall. However, see if you can pickup some GSkill or Crucial RAM instead of OCZ or Corsair.