Building A Rig

Hey Guys so i've decided to build a PC :D but i have some questions when picking my parts like :

What's more important for a cpu the L3 Cache or the processing speed?

Umm Also i know its called corssfire if you have 2 video cards but can you add on another video card if your motherboard already has onboard video and would that be crossfire aswell ?

Umm Also i know its called corssfire if you have 2 video cards but can you add on another video card if your motherboard already has onboard video and would that be crossfire aswell ?

v-bripaul

To this question, no, thats not called crossfire.

And processor speed is generally favoured of the L3 cache, but there are other factors to consider aswell, price/performance, main use of CPU.

Crossfire is when 2ATI Graphics Cards are linked together using a Crossfire Ribbon, each card is slotted into a PCI-Express interface on the motherboard. Also they have to be of the same generation, for example, 2x4890's, 2x 5770's, 2x 5850's, 2x 5870's, 2x5970's for best performance and scaling.

Alternatively using 2 Nvidia Graphics cards you get "SLI", which uses a SLI bridge instead of a Ribbon. Plus an example can be 2x280's, 2x 285's, 2x 470's, 2x480's.

Motherboards on PC Component websites usually state in the description whether they support Crossfire/SLI.

You can also get motherboards that support 3-way/4-way SLi and/or Tri-Fire/QuadFireX.

As for the CPU: More Ghz is usually better. As for number of Cores, most people, including me will recommend a Quad-Core CPU with a minimum of 2.66Ghz Clock speed, for gaming(i5, i7). Or a 3Ghz+ Dual-core (Core 2 Duo, i3, i5).

Crossfire is when 2ATI Graphics Cards are linked together using a Crossfire Ribbon, each card is slotted into a PCI-Express interface on the motherboard. Also they have to be of the same generation, for example, 2x4890's, 2x 5770's, 2x 5850's, 2x 5870's, 2x5970's for best performance and scaling.

(ATI pic)

jamesfffan

Your a bit wrong there, as ATI can scale and crossfire in the same series, 58xx with another 58xx, even if thats 5870 with a 5830. Even though it downclocks to match the 5830.

That's why I said for "best" performance you want them to be the same card. I'm aware of Hybrid crossfiring, such as a 5970+5870 Trifire within the 5000 series (though the good thing about the 5970, it is 2x 5870's down-clocked to 5850 speeds, but can be upped to 5870 speeds, to get the same clocks across all 3 GPU's in the TriFire config).

Thanks guys =D so a couple new questions :

1. 4890 , 5770 or 5850 =D ?

2. How much RAM should i have ? i was thinking around 4gbs should be fine.

3. How much wattage should my power supply have ? 800 is good enough right ?

4. 500 gb's for hardrive?

5. AMDPhenom 2 X4 (3.2 Ghz)(Quad-Core) , good enough?

Give us a Budget you wish to spend on this Rig, and the site you buy from Newegg.com for USA usually or Scan/Overclockers.co.uk for UK, not sure about AUS