2 Radeons 4870's + HDD + ____? = computer

[Yoma44]

UPDATED

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Some gaming, photoshop, and web browsing.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
~$200 to $300 w/shipping ideal. Can stretch beyond that if unrealistic.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Utah, US.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case, mobo, CPU, RAM, possibly PSU if mine is too old
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
2x VID VisionTek Radeon HD 4870 2.0 x16,
HDD Western Digital Caviar SE16 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s,
PSU CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W,(Bought in 2011, used it for 2 years)
DVD drive Included
Windows 7
Have plenty of old mice and keyboards.
6) Will you be overclocking?
Not planning on it, but I'm not familiar with the risks or methods to do it.
7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
DISPLAY VGA 17" Dell, but I may switch to a larger one later, or even hook up a 2nd monitor of the same size.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Now
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
I don't know much about all Raids, or crossfire. But I think this would be ideal for crossfire, even though I don't know what it takes to make that work.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I have a legit Win7 64bit license.


Here's my old case
CAS Old Antec Case that I don't know model (it might be worth replacing this too)





Thanks in advance so much for any help!

 

[Excalibur55]

Please go the sticky and "Answer these questions first" so we can help you better.

Right off the bat; you'll need a new case (suggestions : NZXT Source Elite 210 or Corsair 200R)

Do you already have a DVD drive or will you need one ?

If I understand your post, you need : mobo, CPU, case, RAM (maybe DVD drive) ?

If you live in the US, do you live near a Microcenter ?

Also, how old is your PSU ?

 

[Yoma44]

Thanks, excallibur. Sorry I didn't see that first.

 

[Yoma44]

Here's a build I put together from some other comments in other threads:

CAS $49 NZXT Source 210 -Inch ELITE-Inch Midtower Case with 3.0 USB - Black
MOBO $109 ASUS P8Z77-M LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
CPU $219 Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz 4 Core LGA 1155 - BX80637I53570K
RAM $52 Corsair Vengeance Blue 8 GB (2X4 GB) PC3-12800 1600mHz DDR3 240-Pin SDRAM Dual Channel Memory Kit CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B
Total $432

I don't have a PSU listed on there. That's already a bit higher than I was hoping, but maybe that's what it will have to be.

 

[Dangman]

Wait, are you already using those two HD 4870 cards in your system? Are those the 1GB versions?

Also, Since you're not planning on overclocking, you don't need an overclocking CPU or motherboard.

 

[tiraides]

Keep the NZXT Source 210 Elite from Yoma44's build list and replace the rest with:

$185 - Intel Core i5-3470
$118 - MSI Z77A-G45
$45 - PNY Optima 2x4GB DDR3 1333

Including the Source 210 Elite case, the total comes out to around $398 shipped (not including taxes).

I went with the more expensive MSI board to give your cards more space for air.

 

[Yoma44]

Honestly I've never tried overclocking. It sounds risky, so I don't know what is involved. If there's no downside to it, I'm not positive I wouldn't.
But, frankly, I didn't even realize any of those were overclocking components.

As to the Radeons, they both say 512mb on them.

 

[Yoma44]

Keep the NZXT Source 210 Elite from Yoma44's build list and replace the rest with:

$185 - Intel Core i5-3470
$118 - MSI Z77A-G45
$45 - PNY Optima 2x4GB DDR3 1333

Including the Source 210 Elite case, the total comes out to around $398 shipped (not including taxes).

I went with the more expensive MSI board to give your cards more space for air.

Awesome. Looks like I'm going with exactly that.
Anything I need to do in order to "crossfire" these two video cards? Do I need a special bracket or something?

For example, do I need this?:
XFX Crossfire Bridge Video Card MAAP01CF1K

 

[Hagrid]

Honestly I've never tried overclocking. It sounds risky, so I don't know what is involved. If there's no downside to it, I'm not positive I wouldn't.
But, frankly, I didn't even realize any of those were overclocking components.

As to the Radeons, they both say 512mb on them.

512mb will be a big drawback to a bigger monitor.(in games at least)

Maybe you can sell them and get at least a 1gb card? 5850, 7770, or something, unless you don't play anything major, or on low settings.

 

[Yoma44]

512mb will be a big drawback to a bigger monitor.(in games at least)

Maybe you can sell them and get at least a 1gb card? 5850, 7770, or something, unless you don't play anything major, or on low settings.

Will it still be such a drawback even when they're both combined with crossfire?

I guess, for right now, I just want it to be able to do well enough to do lower end games like swtor, starcraft 2, and maybe some steam games.
Later on though, I might consider upgrading the video card and PSU. Will this build support some of the better cards if I wanted to wait, say, a year before upgrading?

 

[Hagrid]

Will it still be such a drawback even when they're both combined with crossfire?

I guess, for right now, I just want it to be able to do well enough to do lower end games like swtor, starcraft 2, and maybe some steam games.
Later on though, I might consider upgrading the video card and PSU. Will this build support some of the better cards if I wanted to wait, say, a year before upgrading?

Even with 2, it will still only be 512mb, since they don't add up in SLI, just more power.

They should be fine for those games, you can always tweak the settings.
If you can get around 90-100, you can get a used 5850 1gb, and those cards really rock.
I played crisis 3, on max, except no AA, and it looked beautiful, though a bit slow, but I didn't care.

 

[tiraides]

Will it still be such a drawback even when they're both combined with crossfire?

I guess, for right now, I just want it to be able to do well enough to do lower end games like swtor, starcraft 2, and maybe some steam games.
Later on though, I might consider upgrading the video card and PSU. Will this build support some of the better cards if I wanted to wait, say, a year before upgrading?

Yes. The board uses PCI Express 3.0, which is backwards compatible with PCI-E 2.x and PCI-E 1.x. In short, it can handle any video card (or two) you throw at it.

Since you brought up the fact that both cards have 512MB of GDDR memory each, that may be the true cause of your performance slowdown. Many of the games released recently (within the past couple of years) have been using more graphic memory bandwidth to the point that we often recommend 2GB cards in build requests.

 

[Yoma44]

OK, tangent question:
edit: // nvm, figured it out.

 

[Yoma44]

UPDATE

Hey all. Thanks for the help. I put together a nicely working computer thanks to your help. I realized I needed it to work with WIFI. So I ordered this card:
Edimax EW-7128Gn 150Mbps Wireless 11n PCI adapter

And then tried to fit it in:


And as you can see if you look close, it doesn't line up. So I obviously ordered the wrong kind of card? Or I'm trying to plug it in the wrong slot? Sorry for my ignorance on this.

(The computer specs are in the above posts -- later I'll come back and collect them together, but I have to run for now)

 

[PTNL]

Wrong socket type -- You ordered PCI, when you needed PCI-Express (or PCIe).

Return that part, and get a Intel PCIe wireless card.

 

[DooKey]

If you aren't too far from your router I would buy a USB wifi adapter and call it a day.

 

[Yoma44]

That sounds pretty awesome. Any downside to a USB wifi? I just figured it wouldn't be as fast. But yeah, we are talking same room as the router.

 

[PTNL]

Any downside to a USB wifi? I just figured it wouldn't be as fast. But yeah, we are talking same room as the router.

General consensus, especially from those more familiar with the networking arena (as I learned here), is that you should prefer to get an internal card instead of a USB stick. And stick with Intel, whenever possible.