New Custom Gaming Rig - a few QuestionsPost Date: 2010-06-09 |
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Brun
Newbie Joined: 09 Jun 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 8 |
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Topic: New Custom Gaming Rig - a few Questions Posted: 09 Jun 2010 at 1:08pm |
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Hello everyone. My name is Brun, and tomorrow I move from my home in AL to start a new job in St. Louis, MO. Once I get settled there, I plan on ordering a new custom-built gaming desktop to replace my current gaming laptop that I used in college. I originally planned to build my own PC, since the general consensus is that it is cheaper than ordering a prebuilt machine, however, I haven't built a desktop since 2003, so needless to say the technology has changed significantly since then and I no longer have the time or confidence to build a machine myself.
I stumbled upon Digital Storm while browsing through potential builders and I must say that I'm quite happy to have found you guys - after reading reviews of other companies (including StealthMachines, Falcon Northwest, iBuyPower, and CyberPowerPC) and the associated horror stories, the nearly ubiquitous satisfaction expressed by Digital Storm customers was quite refreshing and reassuring, so I have decided for certain to order my machine from Digital Storm. Once I decided on DS, I began exploring different configuration options. Before I elaborate, I'll post the specifications of my current system: Dell XPS M1730 (Gaming Laptop, purchased 2008) Windows XP Professional Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.5 Ghz 4 GB System RAM Dual Nvidia GeForce 8700Ms (256MB each) configured in SLI Dual 250 GB Hard Drives Integrated Motherboard Audio I think that's all the pertinent information, let me know if I forgot something really important. This laptop was the second Dell XPS I have owned, the first was an M170 which was taken out by a graphics card failure associated with overheating. I was fairly satisfied with the performance of my first Dell laptop but the second (my current machine) has fallen short of my expectations, which, given the price I paid for it, were rather high. I know that a desktop is a better platform for gaming anyway, and now that I will be settled down in one place for an extended period of time I figured it was time to move up to the big leagues. Here is a ticket number for the Desktop configuration I'm looking at now: 413336. A basic summary of the machine follows: Digital Storm Ironclad Custom Desktop Windows 7 Home Premium Intel Core i7 960 @ 3.2 Ghz, overclocked to between 3.3 and 3.9 Ghz 6 GB System RAM Single Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 1.5 GB Single 500 GB Hard Drive Integrated Motherboard Audio I placed the following constraints on my configuration:
1) Cooling Systems - Having spent the last 6 years gaming on laptops, I'm paranoid about heat (especially after overheating caused my first gaming laptop to suffer graphics card failure). I've taken pretty good care of my current laptop to avoid heating problems, but I still use a cooling pad and regularly keep an eye on my temperature gauges just to be sure. Needless to say, I'm concerned about heating problems associated with all of this high powered hardware. My biggest question is about Liquid Cooling. I've never had an LCS before and I don't know what sort of upkeep or maintenance is associated with having one. Do I have to keep refilling the working fluid from time to time or is it a closed thermodynamic system? What sort of risks are there associated with Liquid Cooling? Do I really need one, or can I get a fancier all-air system and still be able to overclock? Are they highly recommended over all-air systems? 2) Overclocking - This is related to question #1. I've never had an overclocked system before. Is this something I should do? The system builder recommends a cooling upgrade next to the option to add stable overclocking. What kind of cooling upgrade is necessary? Do I need an LCS for this? Is it even worth the risk of damaging my machine? 3) Nvidia vs. ATI - This is an age-old question that I'm sure sees much debate on these forums. When I originally conceived of the machine I plan to order I was almost 100% leaning toward ATI since one of my requirements for the system was that it include DX11 support and at the time Nvidia didn't have any DX11 cards out. However, things have changed, and having been a longtime Nvidia user I'm now leaning toward a GTX 480 rather than an HD 5970. My biggest concern is that the ATI cards seem to come with more memory than the Nvidia ones (2 GB Radeons over 1.5 GB GeForces), but the Nvidia cards typically have better reviews on sites like Newegg. Which card would be best for me and why? A related question pertains to SLI/Crossfire. My current laptop is configured in SLI, and when I first got it SLI caused me nothing but headaches because many games didn't support it or had glitches when using it. This is part of the reason I currently only have a single GPU selected (the other reasons being cost and the fact that I can always add additional GPUs later if I decide I want to upgrade). Is it better to have a single more powerful GPU or multiple less powerful GPUs configured in SLI/Crossfire? That's all I have for now - if I have any additional questions I'll post them here. Thanks, Brun |
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Bullseye
Senior Member Joined: 11 Jan 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 880 |
Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jun 2010 at 2:22pm | ||||
Hey Brun:
Ok so what you're gonna wanna get is Nvidia 1.5 GB because it can run virtually any game as long as you have a monitor running at 1900x1080. 5970 is the hottest card EVER! So stay clear of it. Yes 2 GPUs are more powerful but as I said unnecessary. LC is not necessary as long as you're not goin over stage 1 overclocking. LC is a little risky with the chances of a leak in other stores but DS no not really, never heard anyone complain about that b4. Do you have a monitor?? I need to know before I can configure for you... |
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Brun
Newbie Joined: 09 Jun 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 8 |
Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jun 2010 at 2:30pm | ||||
So I just read the "Expert Guide" section of the website, which I probably should have done before I made my post in the first place. Doh. It clarified a few things, but I still have some more detailed questions:
1) The guide recommends multiple GPUs for high-resolution gaming. How essential is this? Is it possible that I will see a loss in performance going from my current dual 8700Ms to a single GTX 480 or similar card because of the change from SLI to single GPU? Would it be better to go ahead and invest in an additional video card (say, two GTX 470s instead of a single GTX 480) than to wait and install my own later on? 2) The guide recommends LCS for overclocking, but it also mentioned that maintenance was required after 2-3 years. What exactly does that entail? I'm guessing it involves replacing the working fluid in the system - is it just water, or is it some specially designed fluid with better thermal conductivity properties? Two other notes related to cooling systems - first, I wear a very nice pair of Bose headphones while gaming, so a noisy cooling system will not bother me (in fact, if I had the expertise I would reconfigure my laptop's fans to run full blast all the time). Second, my background is in Aerospace Engineering and I've had multiple classes in Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer, so I'm fairly confident I could handle any cooling system maintenance. However, I'd still like to know what's involved with this "maintenance" before I invest. 3) With regards to Nvidia vs. ATI cards, I'm now pretty firmly set on Nvidia, especially since I read that DS recommends them. However, just out of curiosity, why is it that the ATI high-end models have more video memory than their Nvidia competitors? 4) Motherboards. I don't know much about them. I currently have one picked out that's Dual/Triple/Quad SLI compatible because I want to keep options for upgrades open. Is that a good decision, and do such motherboards also include additional PCI and RAM slots in case I want to install a stand-alone Sound Card or more memory? I also don't know a thing about the manufacturers, and which have the reputation for producing better quality hardware. 5) This isn't really a pressing issue, but I'm curious about choices of Chassis. Right now I've picked an Ironclad, mostly because it's the biggest case (by volume) available and I'm trying to maximize upgradability, and because I think it looks kind of cool. Is there anything else I should concern myself with when choosing a Chassis? -Brun |
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Brun
Newbie Joined: 09 Jun 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 8 |
Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jun 2010 at 2:36pm | ||||
I do not have a monitor but I was looking at getting one of the bundle packs that included an Acer 22 inch LCD and some Logitech peripherals (keyboard, mouse, and speakers). Realistically all I need are the monitor and keyboard, since as I said in my previous post I use headphones and I already have a lovely Razer Lachesis mouse that I love very much. However, it was cheaper to get the promo bundle that included the mouse and speakers than it was to get the monitor and keyboard separately, so I figured I'd just pocket the mouse as a spare and save the speakers for watching movies or something. I don't absolutely have to have an Office Suite on this machine either since I plan on keeping my current machine and if I need Word or PowerPoint for something I can just use that or the laptop I'll be getting from work. |
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Bullseye
Senior Member Joined: 11 Jan 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 880 |
Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jun 2010 at 2:59pm | ||||
I am glad to see you are doing some reading to familiarize yourself. I will go in order with your questions:
1. Dude the 480 is a BEAST! It can run Crysis by itself! There will be an improvement from your 8700's. You don't want 470's in SLI simply because 480 will do just fine and it is just as DST4ME always says: When you can game without SLI it is better to do so. 2. LC maintenance entails changing the water and possibly cleaning the pump etc. You can use water but it is better to use the special liquid where you can find in alot of places. You could also pay someone else for the maintenance every 2-3 years. I highly suggest with your budget to go NH-D14 it is the top of the line in air cooling for a great price. 3. No clue why ATI has more memory but it's as I said, they run hotter. And to be honest Nvidia has more new technology that ATI in regard to the 5970 and the 480. 4. To be honest any mobo should have enough PCI slots for your needs. You will want to go with the evga3xSLI on sale. You should take Evga, they're always the best. 5. The HAF X is a great case you should consider getting. It has alot of space and great fans. It also has LEDs which are very addictive and fun to play around with. I'll be back with a solid configuration. |
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Bullseye
Senior Member Joined: 11 Jan 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 880 |
Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jun 2010 at 3:07pm | ||||
Ok 413375. If you really want to save money you can take away the SSD which is really not a necessity and replace it with a 1tb hard drive. If you could save up some money I would suggest getting a blu ray drive to keep the option open to watching Blu ray videos or you could get a sound card which is really only if you have spare money otherwise what I configured for you is great!
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Brun
Newbie Joined: 09 Jun 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 8 |
Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jun 2010 at 3:32pm | ||||
Cool, thanks a bunch! Two quick questions: 1) I noticed you had the standard i7 930 (2.8 Ghz) selected for the processor. Is there any point to paying the extra 300 bucks for an i7 960 (3.2 Ghz), which is what I was originally planning on doing, or will overclocking push the 930 (2.8 Ghz) into a range such that it will be getting close to the performance of a 960 anyway? 2) It says the Noctua Air Cooling system doesn't fit on the regular EVGA 3x SLI motherboard, is that the one it's using or is that a different EVGA 3x SLI board? Maybe you have to get the LE or something? I'm not sure, like I said I don't know much about motherboards. |
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Bullseye
Senior Member Joined: 11 Jan 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 880 |
Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jun 2010 at 4:00pm | ||||
Oh ya forgot about that use the LE. And no I don't think its worth it unless you want it. Now wait for DST4ME to give his seal of approval!
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Brun
Newbie Joined: 09 Jun 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 8 |
Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jun 2010 at 4:08pm | ||||
Sweet, I looked around and decided on an EVGA X58 Classified for the motherboard because I want to keep triple SLI an option for the (distant) future. Thanks so much for your help! |
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Dragoonseal
DS Veteran Joined: 03 Apr 2009 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2247 |
Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jun 2010 at 4:35pm | ||||
Quite refreshing indeed. Digital Storm is definitely an oddball company by today's standards. I've never seen any other company come remotely close to their value, quality, or customer service, it's as if everyone was best friends with them and we all get special treatment and insider discounts.
As for the motherboard selection I would actually select the smaller EVGA x58 LE. It has all the important features of the EVGA 3X SLI while coming in a smaller form factor, a smaller price, and even fits the bigger Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler which the 3X SLI does not. Case selection is more a matter of preference so I will leave that one up to you however I would personally suggest the HAF 932. The HAF 932 is of a similar setup as the Ironclad but with bigger and better fans, all in all better air flow, and more space for components, while being a similar price. On that same note drop the upgraded Zalman case fans, they are annoyingly loud and offer little additional air flow. And yet still on that same note drop the Aerocool temp display and fan controller, the temperature readings won't be accurate and you will not be able to control all the fans with it, nor is that a useful ability to start with, a waste of $89. The Asetek Liquid cooler is LCing for the sake of saying it is LCing. It pales horribly compared to real LCing and has inferior quality, reliability, and cooling performance to even a decent air cooler. The Noctua air coolers in particular are a much better choice, the smaller Noctua is a great bang for the buck high performance air cooler and the larger Noctua NH-D14 offers top of the line almost unmatched air cooling at a bit more of a premium, as it doesn't have a sizable performance lead over the smaller Noctua. Drop the free OS tweak. The disabled services or visual effects are barely even a blip on the radar of an overclocked 930 processor and you can easily miss out on helpful or nice looking things by disabling them. Better to just tweak the OS to your preferences on your own. How badly do you need the 22" monitor + keyboard + mouse combo? Do you already have a mouse and keyboard? You can purchase a monitor by itself for cheaper elsewhere at a local retailer or online e-tailer. Seeing as you can get a monitor cheaper elsewhere and Digital Storm's extended warranties do not cover the monitors anyway (as far as I am aware) you may as well go that route to save a little more money to put toward the PC budget. Try to find a monitor that can support a resolution of up to 1920x1200 or 1920x1080. SSDs. Totally within your budget and you totally want one. Totally. An Intel SSD has 80-100 times faster small file read/write performance and at least twice the sequential (large) file read performance of any conventional HDD available. Once you've had one you'll never go back to conventional HDDs for anything other than media storage. Get an 80GB Intel SSD for OS/apps and 500GB or 1TB HDD for games/music/movies/pictures. You will also have enough room on the SSD for a small library of games but overall games do not benefit from a SSD's faster speeds very much so you can freely install them on the normal HDD and you won't be missing much.
Liquid cooling is never a requirement. Air cooling will do wonderfully unless you are trying to push for extreme overclocks. By keeping to air cooling you keep the build much simpler and vastly cheaper. A real LC system is complicated, space consuming, and extremely expensive. Not cost effective at all, friends don't let friends LC.
Some things overclock very well, some do not. Most CPUs can be overclocked notable amounts without the need for extensive cooling, in particular the Intel Core i7 line as a whole has amazing overclock potential with or without significant amounts of cooling. GPUs as a whole do not overclock well, they are usually already close to their thermal and/or voltage limits out of the factory and extra aftermarket cooling is expensive. In a nutshell, overclocking is thus. When you increase clock speeds you increase the part's heat output. Increasing clock speeds also increases voltage requirements to maintain stability. Increasing voltages also increases a part's heat output. In the end you are primarily fighting rising temperatures as the parts can only operate up to a certain temp. Thus the better cooling you provide the higher you can safely overclock the part before you hit a thermal wall. Digital Storm is good at safe but significant overclocks. They fully warrant their overclocks so they will never let a part get into danger temperatures, so they will dynamically overclock based on what parts and cooling options you have selected and make sure everything is fully stable before shipping it off.
The order of price and performance goes like this, ATI 5850 < GTX 470 < ATI 5870 < GTX 480. Do not even consider an ATI 5970, it is more or less just two overpriced 5850s in Crossfire. There are a very very small number of games that require more than 1GB of GPU RAM to max out all the textures, so you would need a 1.5GB or 2GB RAM GPU, but in 99% of games the 2GB versions of the ATI cards perform exactly the same as the 1GB versions, so don't consider the 2GB ATI cards either they are terribly overpriced (or 4GB 5970, again just overpriced 2GB 5850s, which were overpriced to start with, which hurts my brain). At a resolution of 1920x1200 a single GTX 480 can play all games at max settings and high (50+) FPS except for a select few very poorly optimized games such as Crysis and Metro 2033. An ATI 5870 is $88 less than the 480 (from DS) but there are a large (and growing) number of games that it can not play with max settings at that resolution. So normally I would recommend the GTX 480 if you have a monitor with a resolution of 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 unless your budget was very tight. My suggested build would look something like this. Ticket #413410, Price: $2281 Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master HAF 932 Exterior Finish: - Not Available Trim Accents: - Not Available Processor: Intel Core i7 930 2.8GHz (Quad Core) Motherboard: EVGA X58 LE Edition SLI (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports SLI or CrossFire) System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested) Power Supply: 1000W Digital Storm Certified (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition Highly Recommended) Expansion Bay: - Not Available Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (80GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Extreme Performance) (Model: SSDSA2MH080G2R5) Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (1TB Seagate/Hitachi/Western Digital (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed) Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x) Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Video Card: 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB (Includes PhysX Technology) Add-on Card: - No Thanks Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 1: Noctua Dual 120mm Fans High Performance Cooler (Compatible With ONLY i7 Processors) H20 Tube Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans Internal Lighting: - No Thanks Enhancements: - Not Available Chassis Mods: - Not Available Noise Reduction: - Not Available Boost Processor: FREE: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Cooling Upgrade Recommended) Boost Video Card: - Not Available Boost Memory: - Not Available Boost OS: - Not Available Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based) Virus Protection: - Not Available Office: - Not Available Benchmarking: - Not Available Install/Test Game: FREE: Hot-selling game with a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 or above graphics card Display: - No Thanks Surge Shield: - No Thanks Speakers: - No Thanks Keyboard: - No Thanks Mouse: - No Thanks External Storage: - No Thanks Exclusive T-Shirt: FREE: Digital Storm T-Shirt - Black (Large) Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed Warranty: 3 Year Limited Warranty with Life-Time Customer Support (3 Year Labor & 1 Year Parts) This build covers everything but should still leave you with enough budget wiggle room for a good monitor. Optionally you may consider the 4 year Limited Warranty, which is 4 years labor and 2 years parts, a great deal for $99. |
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Lilim
Intel Core i7 920 @4.2GHz HAF 932 - Dual SLI Nvidia GTX 480s 3x Intel X25-M G2 (80GB) SSD RAID0 |
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Brun
Newbie Joined: 09 Jun 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 8 |
Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jun 2010 at 4:48pm | ||||
Great! That covered a lot that I needed to know. I do need a monitor and keyboard but a quick look at Best Buy's website is telling me that I can probably get better prices for both there.
EDIT: One quick question - will I need to configure the SSD and HDD in any sort of RAID configuration or is that only if I have two Hard Drives? Edited by Brun - 09 Jun 2010 at 5:03pm |
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Dragoonseal
DS Veteran Joined: 03 Apr 2009 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2247 |
Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jun 2010 at 5:40pm | ||||
And probably even better prices yet elsewhere. What I always remember about Best Buy is going in their store to check out electronics first hand and get advice from their employees and then once I made a decision walking across the street and purchasing the same item from Wal-mart for like half the price. Heh.
No, RAID is for making two or more drives work as one. You can take multiple same sized drives and and either mirror the data between them (RAID1) for redundancy in case one of the drives fails or you can take multiple same sized drives and split data evenly between them (RAID0) and have them work as one big drive that is faster because all the drives work together in parallel. When you have both a SSD and a HDD installed you would just have two separate drives show up under My Computer. The OS drive will show up as C as usual and the next one will usually either show up as D or E. You more or less just treat them like a new folder and you are free to install apps and games on either of them or storage any manner of file on either. |
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Lilim
Intel Core i7 920 @4.2GHz HAF 932 - Dual SLI Nvidia GTX 480s 3x Intel X25-M G2 (80GB) SSD RAID0 |
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Bullseye
Senior Member Joined: 11 Jan 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 880 |
Quote Reply Posted: 10 Jun 2010 at 12:56am | ||||
I know a couple good wireless keyboards for 30 dollars you could use:
K250 for 29.99 and K320 for 29.99 both are great prices for wireless keyboards. |
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Bullseye
Senior Member Joined: 11 Jan 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 880 |
Quote Reply Posted: 10 Jun 2010 at 1:10am | ||||
There are a couple good 24 or 22 inch monitors here and there. You could even go with a 28 inch Hanns-G for around 320 dollars but you might wanna look at something a bit smaller like this 23 inch LG. If you want a good company you could go with HP 22 inc for around 240 dollars. It's really up to you so just pick a monitor you want and get back to us so we can see if it is appropriate.
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Brun
Newbie Joined: 09 Jun 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 8 |
Quote Reply Posted: 14 Jun 2010 at 9:08pm | ||||
Sorry for the late reply, been moving.
For a monitor I'll probably pick one up myself, I saw a very nice Samsung 22" with HDMI and 1920x1080 native resolution on sale at OfficeMax for about 170 bucks, so I'll probably go with something like that. As for keyboards I'll probably get a G15 because my laptop has an LCD screen similar to the one on the G15 and I'm used to having it. One last question - suppose I were interested in getting a Triple SLI compatible motherboard but also wanted to get the Noctua NH-D14 Air Cooler - which motherboard should I get in that case? |
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Bullseye
Senior Member Joined: 11 Jan 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 880 |
Quote Reply Posted: 15 Jun 2010 at 3:47am | ||||
Classified would be best but FTW edition also works. Classified is 100 more
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Brun
Newbie Joined: 09 Jun 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 8 |
Quote Reply Posted: 16 Jun 2010 at 1:33pm | ||||
On that note, how important is keeping the option for Triple SLI open? Will Dual SLI typically be enough, or should I spend the extra 100 bucks on a Triple-compatible motherboard?
My options are basically going to be to get a EVGA FTW3, or to get the EVGA LE and get a sound card installed (the final price would be about the same in both cases. |
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Cretae
DS Veteran Joined: 22 Mar 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 7328 |
Quote Reply Posted: 16 Jun 2010 at 9:46pm | ||||
I am a rather staunch opponent of the multiple gpu option for the exact reasons you cited as problems with your laptop. Those don't go away with a bigger case! An even bigger concern for me however, is the rapid advance of technology in the gpu arena in particular. For example, if you were getting this system in, say, July 2009, you would have settled on a card intending to upgrade to two as needed later, but you would have missed the boat on DDR5 and DX11. Now how good is your upgrade to dual cards?
Furthermore, (and a lot of my compatriots think this is a non-issue - go figure) two GTX480's will draw between 800 and 950 watts of power under full load. I haven't gotten anyone to tell me what the average power demand would be during say, a 3 hour gaming session, but at idle you're looking at ~360 watts. To me that boils down to a financial penalty for gaming at 32xAA I can't afford. I'll go one card and drop down to 16xAA. (Actually, I'll also get the card that uses far less power in the first place, but that's just me.)
Having vented, let me say you will very soon find this generation of video cards is so powerful beyond anything we've ever seen, that it seems to me most people haven't gotten their minds around it yet. The 480 has over 3 Billion transisters, for heaven's sake! I can't understand people who think "that's not enough power yet, I better get two of 'em".
Hope that weighs in on your question v tri-SLI.
Almost forgot. Dragoonseal's config is great except for the PSU. I know this guy, and he just oopsed. For one gpu in future, you only need 750 W Corsair. For dual 480's in future, you need 1250W Enermax - because the power draw will over match the 1000W. For tri... you need a better job and a leg off your neighbor's power.
Edited by Cretae - 16 Jun 2010 at 9:53pm |
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Coolermaster Storm Sniper
Intel Core i7 930 3.8GHz OC EVGA X58 LE 6GB DDR3 1600Mhz Ram 750W Corsair 1TB HDD 1x ATI RadeonHD 5870 1GB Noctua Dual 120mm I can make my mind think... anything.... |
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Dragoonseal
DS Veteran Joined: 03 Apr 2009 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2247 |
Quote Reply Posted: 16 Jun 2010 at 11:15pm | ||||
The EVGA x58 LE motherboard supports triple SLI/CF and also fits the Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler. Not that you'll ever realistically need triple SLI/CF anyway, but having the option and more PCIe lanes never hurts.
Odd. While I don't think I would pass over the PSU section by mistake, I can't for the life of me recall why I selected the 1000w. Normally the better two options are either a smaller 750w for just one 480 or the bigger 1250w for two 480s. |
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Lilim
Intel Core i7 920 @4.2GHz HAF 932 - Dual SLI Nvidia GTX 480s 3x Intel X25-M G2 (80GB) SSD RAID0 |
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