Crossfire Machine (New to Crossfire).

S

sunny87

Geek Trainee
Ok so I've saved up and I’ve got £400 from my old PC, so I get £400 off a Crossfire Machine that I would like to build.

I'm not going to do this until next month sometime so I need all the advice I can get.

So far I know that I need a master card to run another ATi card that’s crossfire compatible so this is what I have put together so far.
I Want to use it for all that latest games like UR2007 so I need every new shader model everything you guys can think of that I have missed...

1 x Connect3d ATI Radeon X1900 512Mb Crossfire master card edition

1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 512M PCI-E Crossfire Edition

MSI RD480 Neo2-FI SKT939 2xPCI-E Crossfire support DDR400 8channel audio LAN ATX

Corsair (VS1GBKIT400C3) 1024MB (2 x 512MB Matched Pair), DDR400 / PC3200, non-ECC, Unbuffered, CL3, Memory Modules With Lifetime Warranty

AMD Athlon 64 (ADA4400CDBOX) X2 4400+ socket 939 Dual Core 2.2Ghz 1Mb and 1Mb Cache

I've got a 500Watt PSU and a Casebuy 413-C 250mm Side Fan That's all came from my Clawhammer Machine. And a 120GB Wester Digital HDD I might buy another one later.

Anything else you can think of that I might need and will it all work?

Thanks alot
 
what is the make and model of that 500watt PSU you have there? it is possible it wont be good enough to run all that as watts aint everything, you need a psu thats at least 450-500watt and has dual 12 rails that have a good amount of amps on.

Have you got £400 alltogether or just from one machine becouse all together for a master card and a normal card it could cost you nearly £600 just for the cards.

anyway judging by those graphics cards your getting you sound like a gamer, i would suggest getting a nice sound card and if you aint on a budget get some nice Logitech Z-5500 Digital speakers, the speakers are 500watt rms with a 10" 188Watt Long thro subwoofer, each speaker has 62watts on, and its THX Certified, there amazing!

Check Here for sound cards:
Overclockers UK HDA Sound Cards


i have read a review on the HDA Digital X-Plosion , looks really good, i would not mind one myself.

What computer case have you got?, maybe add some lighting up fans into it etc.. and make it look like a gamer case :)
 
Looks good, except for the power supply. As a general rule of thumb, any power supply bundled with a case is not going to give you the right power, and quite frankly is likely to be hazardous to the rest of the system. These are typically filled with very few parts, which don't provide adequate power, are not reliable, and when they go, they tend to take other components with it. It's worth the money to buy a good unit. If you're spending the money for a multi-graphics solution, you need to invest in a good power supply. It's not an option, it's a requirement.

Some recommended units:
Enermax EG701-AX 600W £83.05 inc VAT
Hiper Type-R 580W £52.75 inc VAT
Antec NeoHE 500 £47.19 inc VAT

Seasonic S12 units are also good. Any S12 unit 500W or higher will be sufficient for your box.

Do not skimp on the power supply. The X1900's do require a lot of juice, and along with that X2 4400+, trying to get by with some cheap PSU won't be healthy for this system. If you're not willing to spend money on what's arguably the most critical part of your system, you're going to be rather unhappy with your new system when you try to game on it.

Having said that, I don't know much about the MSI RD480 board. MSI is generally pretty solid, but I haven't heard much about it. I have heard good things about the Asus A8R-MVP and A8R32-MVP, and from my experiences, Asus makes some real workhorses.
 
LORD said:
Get another gig of RAM too. 1GB will be a bit of a bottleneck I believe.
Click to expand...

Yea I was thinking that myself so i got another Gig.
I’ve also added the soundcard from my old PC its 24-bit HD 7.1 so that’s good enough and I’ve got me speakers still so I'll keep them and my monitor.

The PSU is an issue its good but its a 20 pin PSU, so what do you think about this PSU? ...

ebuyer.com - Components - Power Supplies - Hiper - Product details

Other than that everything else is compatible with each other?

So with this crossfire dose the master card talk to the second card and then when it needs more memory it uses it from the other? Or dose it just multiply the graphics into one so do I get like a 1024MB graphics card? Or do I get like dual CPU effect?

Thanks for your help!
 
Ok this is what I have now...
Hiper 580W Type-R Modular PSU - Black with UV reacted cables
Connect3d ATI Radeon X1900 512Mb Crossfire master card edition
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 512M PCI-E Crossfire Edition
MSI RD480 Neo2-FI SKT939 2xPCI-E Crossfire support DDR400 8channel audio LAN ATX
AMD Athlon 64 (ADA4400CDBOX) X2 4400+ socket 939 Dual Core 2.2Ghz 1Mb and 1Mb Cache
2x CRUCIAL 1GB DDR PC3200 400MHz 184-PIN UNBUFF 128MX64 Memory Modules

Total £1187.12
 
ok.. you've got a pretty kick ass rig there :good:

But maybe you should get DDR2 Memory and a Socket AM2 motherboard and CPU?
 
That setup looks good. That Hiper 580W is a nice cross between power and performance.

24-pin power supplies have become the norm, due to the shift over to the 12V rail as the primary source for the CPU and video cards, not to mention SATA hard drives. The extra 4 pins divvy up the 12V rails paths, and that puts less strain on the PSU itself.
 
I was looking into the AMD2 machines unless I can build one at near enough the same price I don't mind, but is it really that much extra performance?
 
i dont think there is anymore extra performance exept the fact that you need to use DDR2 memory.

Also as AM2 socket is the new socket, if your upgrading and havent yet build your computer it would be a wise thing to do as then you have better upgrade potential for the future :)
 
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