Howdy boys,

I'm going to order a new system.

Acer V233Hb 23inch 16:9 Full HD Widescreen 1920x1080 5ms 40000:1 ACM TCO03 BLACK

AMD PHENOM II X4 955 BLACKED. AM3

Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Rev 2,Intel socket 1366,1156,Core i7,775, AMD AM3,AM2+,AM2,939 tot 160 watt

Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P/ATX AM3 DDR3

Corsair CMPSU-650TX

Creative Labs Fatal1ty Gaming Headset

Kingston 4GB 1333MHZ DDR3 NON-ECC CL9 DIMM (KIT OF 2) (KVR1333D3N9K2/4G)

Logitech Laser gamermouse G5

Logitech OEM KEYBOARD DE LUXE 250 PS2

Samsung 1TB HDD SATA II 32MB SpinPoint F1 (HD103UJ)

XFX Radeon 4890 1024MB DDR5 XXX(twice)

Antec Three Hundred/Ultimate Gamer Case no PSU


Now, as far as i know this is all compatible.

Now my question.

It seems this is a pretty high end setting but how much more can i get out of it by overclocking?

regards,

Tom

you do know the 4890 has a typical power consumption of 140W and a peak of 210W, right?

also is anyone else baffled as to how a 650W can (reportedly) deliver 52A at 12V which means 620W on the 12V alone?

especially if you plan on overclocking a crossfire 4890 phenomII system i'd say go two notches up in the corsair line.

Hmm, so you would suggest a higher power supply?

And how high? Because about power supply i'm a total newb.

And i've found out that the CPU can only handle DDR2.

So i've decided to go for this CPU: AMD PHENOM II X4 955 BLACKED. AM3

you also need a far better cooler for both the cpu and the gpu.
for the gpu, arctic cooling accelero s1rev2 and two 12cm fans on each one
for the cpu hr-01, thermalright true or xigmateck s1283

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Recommended_Heatsinks

if you're really serious about overclocking though, you've gotta be prepared for spending money on watercooling

Quote from battle :

Hmm, so you would suggest a higher power supply?

And how high? Because about power supply i'm a total newb.

And i've found out that the CPU can only handle DDR2.

So i've decided to go for this CPU: AMD PHENOM II X4 955 BLACKED. AM3

That power supply would be fine if you weren't going for Crossfire, but since you are you should go with a 750tx. That'll be fine for you.

You might want to get a better heatsink than the Freezer. Depending on your budget you can go for a few things: top of the line - Prolimatech Megahalem with 4 fan clips and 2 120x38mm San Ace 101 fans in a push pull config.
Midrange - Coolermaster V8
Lower end (yet still much better than arctic cooling freezer) - Xigmatek HDT-s1283

You might want to look for some memory with lower CAS timings for better performance.

For the motherboard, go for the GA-MA790FXT-UD5p. That supports full 16x 16x crossfire and you won't be bottlenecked.

Regarding the headset, I tend to steer clear away from anything labeled "fatal1ty". Many people like the Sennsheiser 555 + clip-on mic but at $140 that might be out of your price range.

Everything else looks good though

edit: for now I'd advise against going Crossfire. At 1080 resolution, you won't need the extra horsepower for playing many games. I'd say still get the 750tx, get one 4890, and in the future if you're not getting enough frames per second, throw in another one.

And I'm not sure of the availability where you are, but have you thought about a different monitor? I'd go for a Samsung 2233SW for around the same price.

About how much you can get out of overclocking: quite a bit. The Phenom II's overclock very well and I'm sure you can get to 4.0 ghz with a Megahalem with the board I suggested. Overclocking the video card is really easy and usually very worth it, just make sure your overclocks are STABLE! Nothing worse than having your computer lock up during a 12h race.

Quote from mijnwraak :

nothing worse than having your computer lock up during a 12h race.

ffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuu..........!!!!!

no overclock is worth that!!!!!

Quote from george_tsiros :

ffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuu..........!!!!!

no overclock is worth that!!!!!

Happened during a 50lap blackwood race :| I pushed my GPU oc too high without testing. sigh.

Well, you live and learn!

@MijnWraak


I was going for a single 4890 for starters. But i am planning on putting in a second one after a while. So i already want my system to be able to handle it.

Yeah, the 790xt might be a better choice in mobo.

What memory would you recommend then?

Well i was trying to stay beneath the 1000euro's for this pc.

With the setup i posted above i'm at 926. So i've got some small room to play around. The mobo is only 30euro's more expensive so i'll survive that and the Cooler V8 is 17euro's more expensive.

Well the headset is already set. I really like that headset. Buddy of mine has the same one and i think it's great. I'm not willing to pay 100euro's for a headset either so.

Quote from battle :

@MijnWraak


I was going for a single 4890 for starters. But i am planning on putting in a second one after a while. So i already want my system to be able to handle it.

Yeah, the 790xt might be a better choice in mobo.

What memory would you recommend then?

Well i was trying to stay beneath the 1000euro's for this pc.

With the setup i posted above i'm at 926. So i've got some small room to play around. The mobo is only 30euro's more expensive so i'll survive that and the Cooler V8 is 17euro's more expensive.

Well the headset is already set. I really like that headset. Buddy of mine has the same one and i think it's great. I'm not willing to pay 100euro's for a headset either so.

The G.Skill Trident 2x2gb DDR3 is usually liked by those who buy it, but I'm not to keen on DDR3 memory. If I were you I'd just get an AM2+ board with good DDR2. But for future-proofing I can see your reasoning.

But yeah for the money, just grab a 750tx instead of a 650tx, and either some G.Skill Trident ddr3, or G.Skill Pi ddr3.

You are right about the DDR3. But if i now go for a am2+ DDR2 i'll have a system that will be out dated after a while. Ahh well, i'll see if i can get that memory at the store i'm ordering. Not sure if they got it though.

DDR3 RAM or not, your system will be 'out dated' after a 'while'. I'd also say, go for good DDR2 RAM. I don't believe any soon it's going to be WAY better or whatever, and most benchmarks I see, there is almost no difference with DDR2 or DDR3...

I really dont think that 4890 should be clocked. 2 of them will play everything for u. Even here, i got a 4870 about half month/month ago and i can basically play GTA IV on max settings, Crysis and those games too. 4890 is sligty better and if u got 2 of them then u dont need gpu clocking - im pretty sure about that.

Quote from hazaky :

I really dont think that 4890 should be clocked. 2 of them will play everything for u. Even here, i got a 4870 about half month/month ago and i can basically play GTA IV on max settings, Crysis and those games too. 4890 is sligty better and if u got 2 of them then u dont need gpu clocking - im pretty sure about that.

Are you talking about OVERclocking? It's a free performance boost, so there really isn't any downside beside a bit more heat.

Quote from Bose321 :

DDR3 RAM or not, your system will be 'out dated' after a 'while'. I'd also say, go for good DDR2 RAM. I don't believe any soon it's going to be WAY better or whatever, and most benchmarks I see, there is almost no difference with DDR2 or DDR3...

But then if it's out dated i can bring it back up-to-date easier. Without having to adjust allot of things to DDR3.

just drop your AM3 cpu into an AM2+ board. i dropped my Ph550 into a MX770 UD3 board and it works a treat. i also have the cache of a quad but run a duel core. the other 2 cores are also unlockable with certain motherboards too. means you could get a quad core chip for less than €100.

Quote from battle :

It seems this is a pretty high end setting but how much more can i get out of it by overclocking?

the specs you gave will get LFS going on maxed-out settings on that monitor at more than 100fps. Why do you want to overclock it?

It's not just for LFS. I can already run LFS at 100fps on my laptop.

It's also ment for the new games. Alan Wake, Battlefield bad company 2 etc etc.

look sgood

yea looks pretty good