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Hi Guys!

With all the help that was previously given to me on this forum, I thought I'd come bug you again. I'm helping a mate set up a new system, his budget is 15k. Everything is basically ready except for one question. He has quotes on two systems, first one contains a Phenom II x4 940 on an Asus M3A78 board and the second Q9550 on a Asus P5Q. Apart from some minor items the rest of the systems are identical, 4gb RAM, 1TB HDD, HD4870 etc.

I'm still partial too Intel myself but the valid point he has is that by going with AMD now he can still get the AM3 chip in the future if needs be, sticking with Intel will require a new board as well as cpu to upgrade...Which should he take? I'd appreciate any opinions on this issue.

There is very little difference between the two setups. Intel guys will say Intel, AMD guys will say AMD. I had a QX9650with DDR3 and a DDR3 mobo, and I also got myself an AMD Phenom II X4 940 with an Asus M3A79-T Deluxe, and at present it's my gaming rig and plays all the games I play brilliantly. He will not make a mistake either way.

In the end it's his choice.

Quick question? does he plan to run crossfire in the future? The P5Q series boards only support 2 PCI-E in 8x for x-Fire rather than 16x, Not sure about the AMD board?

Also which P5Q board?

The AMD boards with the 790fx chipset runs Xfirex very well.. Currently holding the 3dmark06 and 3dmark05 world record on ORB.

Then, i'd say that answers the question, assuming you want to Xfire one day

As I understand it he won't be running xfire, both the boards he has selected only have 1 PCI-E 16x slot and he'll be using the HD4870 1GB in that so as to get the most out of the monitor hes getting. Basically its a rig to last a couple of years and then when the next upgrade comes to have some parts to carry over.

At the rate of current progress I say that's unlikely.
We are seeing massive jumps in graphic card processing power and it doesn't look like it's going to stop.

We were all blown away by the 8800GTS and GT when it came out but now were using cards that leave them in the dust. 4870 is a fantastic card and coupled with a overclocked quad it should do you service but games are getting really power hungry. 2 years from now its going to be an entry level card. I would make arrangements for crossfire and get a 2nd hand 4870 when it becomes cheaper/is an older generation of card.

I still game with an 8800GT though but SLi would be nice.

I think it's foolish to upgrade at the moment. i7 has so many benifits however the price is one major pitfall. I would wait till the CPUs and RAM are cheaper. Much cheaper.

Well as I understand it he doesn't really have any option other than to buy a system now, its an entire new build, he currently doesn't have anything at home to work on.

ah, the good old wait-for-the-price-to-drop argument. wait for the price to drop, but then don't buy then because some new technology will be on the horizon, which you should only purchase when the price drops ...

buy now, forget about i7. if it was me i'd go for the amd system, purely because of the option to upgrade to am3+. but that's just me.

Stuart wrote:ah, the good old wait-for-the-price-to-drop argument. wait for the price to drop, but then don't buy then because some new technology will be on the horizon, which you should only purchase when the price drops ...

buy now, forget about i7. if it was me i'd go for the amd system, purely because of the option to upgrade to am3+. but that's just me.

Agree with the Mouse this Vampire must. Purely because he won't make a decent meal come sundown

Seriously if you don't intend to go for i7 right now the only other option is the AMD regardless of price it is the better option at the moment regarding the possibility of upgrades.

RuadRauFlessa wrote:Agree with the Mouse this Vampire must. Purely because he won't make a decent meal come sundown

these ears have enough blood pumping through them to keep you nourished for a week.

Stuart wrote:

RuadRauFlessa wrote:Agree with the Mouse this Vampire must. Purely because he won't make a decent meal come sundown

these ears have enough blood pumping through them to keep you nourished for a week.

Luckily you did not refer to a spoon there

I'd say take the AMD build... seeing that an ATI card is added to it, also make sure it as an amd chipset. I haven't looked at the specs yet, but what I can tell you is you can use AMDFusion, if you have an AMD/ATI build.

And the CPU upgrade (AM2+ to AM3) is a big bonus