Hi there, Fuzzy...

Maybe I am too late to the party and you have already bought your stuff, but here are my 2 cents.

I have a 4890 too and I like it. I wanted a second one, but I am waiting for the 22nd of this month. At that date the 5850 and 5870 will be released (just in time for Windows 7). They are probably faster and maybe you won't need Crossfire. I have nothing against it (in fact I have used CF in the past too), but a single card means less issues with some older games (or new games which are not updated in the drivers yet). Of course there are tricks for that, but that means tweaking.

If you read about the new CPUs then Intel definitely beats AMD, but... In 3D gaming at resolutions of about 1600*1200 and higher the high-end CPUs all perform the same in terms of "frames per second".

Here is an interesting article about the new CPUs introduced at the 8th of this month: Core i5 750 - Core i7 860 and 870 processor review.

That article shows clearly what I mean. It compares all the current CPUs from AMD and Intel. The Intel CPUs only perform better in the non-3D-gaming categories and synthetic benchmarking.

I own an AMD Phenom II 940 @ 3.6 GHz (on air) and it performs in 3D gaming just as well as the big guys from Intel. Even at 3.0 GHz there is no difference. So, maybe you should reconsider buying an expensive Intel platform. Mobos for Intel CPUs and the Intel CPUs themselves tend to be more expensive than the AMD ones. It can save you a lot of money.

Of course if you do other tasks which require intensive computing then the above may not apply to you.

About SSD drives... They are still rather expensive and not many games benefit from them, unless they require lots of loading during gameplay. Oblivion and Fall Out 3 are such games. Other than those two, I cannot think of many others. I have chosen for a cheap solution as a concession: 4*500GB Seagate HDDs (with 32MB cache each) in RAID 0.Those work fine too. Just an idea to consider.

It's like everything to do with PCs. As soon as you buy anything its out of date It's that kind of industry.

The two 4890s are an inexpensive solution to getting high end graphics and will probably be the first thing to be upgraded anyway. My resolution is 1600x900 and the 4890s seem to like it.

I work a lot on RAW files, to lots of memory and a speedy hard drive are essential. It doesn't matter how much memory you've got, some graphics still use a massive amount of paging, particularly the processing of Nikon NEF files.

A lot of my games will be on one of my other drives to save space on the SSD. Most rely on graphics power anyway.

I hope you read the article, Fuzzy. It's really cool.

Yeah. Everything will be out of date in no-time. But I am following the 3D gaming market for a while now. And graphics cards seem to have more impact than faster CPUs. Of course that only works in your case... You want high end stuff.

But if you really have lots of CPU intensive stuff other than gaming then go for the best Intel CPU you can afford.

And oh! Make sure to have extremely good air flow! Otherwise you'll overheat your graphics cards!

Have fun.

The case has two fans blowing directly on the cards. Plus I chose the deluxe version of the mobo because it has proper spacing for crossfire.

Yes, the article was interesting. In reality there very little in it. What a shame for gamers they can't combine four cores into one.

My current AMD 4400+ and 8800GT is suprisingly quick on some games. UT3 flies along, no problem. Of course the 2 4890s will be 4 times quicker than the 8800GT...

BTW... Nice talking to you again, sir.

Yep. I have a case with 8 fans... They are fairly big, so they don't make a lot of noise.

Talking about noise... The standard/reference ATI cards tend to be noisy. Several brands have non standard solutions with less noise and better cooling. They are a little bit more expensive (not much, though), but they are worth it, because after market coolers are often a pain to install and may even cause damage to your card and may void the warranty. Also, cooling solutions that keep the hot air in the case are a no go. Especially with CF you want the hot air to be blown out of the case. Sapphire's Vapor X series come to mind. I wouldn't opt for MSI's Cyclone, though. That one keeps the hot air in. Not sure about the Club 3D solution either for the same reason.

Your 4400+ is definitely holding you back. It won't be able to drive CF properly.

Anyway... Good luck with your purchase.

The money is spent. Garrrgh, in a few years it will be worth nothing...

It will be about two weeks before I can start installing software. The overclock takes days of testing at each setting to make sure its running safe and stable.

I'm looking forward to running 3dmark

Cool! Good luck.

I am interested in how it goes. Maybe post some pictures of the machine while building it? That would be great.

I've ordered some games too, you know, stuff I'd like to play but would drag my current rig into destruction.

Earlier you mentioned Fall Out 3. Is this any good, or is it just a Quake clone where you frag everyone then wander round aimlessly looking for stuff?

It's on sale at the local Game store complete with two expansion packs. Looks good value if its ok.

Fall Out 3 is an RPG with shooter elements. It's not a real first person shooter like Quake. Imagine the 50s after a nuclear war. It has a "sci fi" feel to it, not a true "Science Fiction" feeling. That's the setting. It's fun to play and you can play it for ages. There are lots of "quests" (each has its own little story) to do and discover.  I recommend the version you saw on sale. One of those expansions allows you to continue to play after the main mission ends. It converts it to a true sand box game. FO3 also has some great mods (from eye candy to gameplay mods) and of course a patch created by the community which fixes a lot of bugs Bethesda left in. The latter is highly recommended. Make sure to get the latest official patch (1.7) too.

It does look good, think I will pop into the shop today

Ah. Cool. I think you will love FO3. But remember, FO3 is also CPU intensive. No matter what great graphics card you have, the CPU needs to crunch this game. Considering your plans for this build, your machine will handle FO3 very well.

There's NOTHING like playing older games that you couldn't on your old PC when you build a fresh one...mmmm yeah.

Fuzzy why are you overclocking? Shortens the life of your componets you know...

The lifetime of components with factory settings is way longer than you ever intend to use them anyway. (in other words, on factory settings they will be outdated before they break down from wear and tear)

Granted if overclocked improperly (eg. to high), lifetime could be reduced to a few seconds. But reducing lifetime from 50 years to 10 won't really matter that much.

im totally lost when it comes to all this just happy for you and your new purchase fuzzy enjoy

Fuzzy, you may want to wait until October for Fallout 3. They're coming out with a GotY edition, which will include all 5 DLC.  Of course, if the sale you saw is a really sweet deal, then go for that.

Hey Fuzzy, overclocking with that board should be easy.  While i'm not 100% certain it is the same as the Rampage II you should be able to install the asus ai suite and you will have it to 3.4 with a couple of clicks.  Then you can fine tune when you see fit.

Kona, I think Weike said it best.  As long as the thermals are kept in check the lengevitity doesn't seem to be an issue.

I've got computers that are on 24/7 that are 5+ years old and are oc'd a bit and don't have any problems.

However i tend to be lazy and cautious with OC'ing.

j

You can easily get 4.0 out of the i7 920, but I'm stopping at 3.4 for a reason. It's fast, very fast, but also completely safe.

My current pc is just over 3 years old, so the new one won't have to last longer than that. Of course OC'ing over stresses components, but providing you have the right cooling and are sensible about the limits it's not a problem.

Didn't know about the F3 GOTY - bought it already, I didn't want to wait in case the price went up.

Installing will have to wait until I get out of hospital https://forums.wincustomize.com/363227 I'll have about a week off work recovering, so plenty of time to play

Ah, I wish you a speedy recovery, Fuzzy (even though that will shorten your gaming time!)