Gaming Rig

[rudirautenbach]

Pretty much, Crossfire support and DDR2 1200. No need for DDR3 unless you want to go with the New Corei7. And its a P45 chipset so it will overclock the E8xxx processor quite well.. What CPU cooler are you going to get? If you looking for the Bang for Buck one you might want to consider the Coolermaster Hyper TX2

Greylid Thanks for your note.

Haven't looked at cooling solutions (yet), thought of first getting the rig up and running, and once I have it stable will then look at cooling when I start overclocking.

Too many negative comments on DDR3 to date, so not keen on that.

Whats the difference between P45 and X45?

 

[rudirautenbach]

If you intend to Crossfire at 16x + 16x then yes. Otherwise if you're running a single gfx card there are cheaper options, check the P43 boards (i.e. P5QL-Pro).

Definitely want to leave options open for next year when adding a 2nd GPU.

Is the Intel chipset the best solution for the ATI/E8500 combination, or should I look at other chipsets too. I thought its important to match the "engine" to the "chassis" and fitting the right "wheels". Sorry I am an engineer...