I am like a fish, flipping and flooping on what I should have in my Rig...After countless advise, 4-5 trips to Fry's Electronics and Shipping from and to Newegg, I finally came to a conclusion of what is now my final set up.
For starters, I am a noob with PC stuff, I have been a console game for the last 15 years or so...use to be big into computers back in the Atari ST/Commodore days...but as of late it is all console. StarCraft 2 for some reason got me thinking of a PC rig, but I am such a fucking pain in the ass of what I want and especially what I expect out of an investment in PC's. Bottomline, I wanted a rig that could play anything currently out at 100% EVERYTHING, like some of you.
I started off with the following:
AMD Phenom II 965 x4 @3.4
EVGA Super Clocked 460
4 Gigs of Ram
Windows 7 32bit
1 TB HDD
ASUS M4N75TD Motherboard (SLI Ready)
Corsair 850W TW PSU
After a few days of having this built, I noticed that some games I was not able to max out at 1080p and maintain at least a 60FPS. I did a ton of testing, benchmarking etc. So, after about 3 days or so I upped to the following:
All the Above +
Windows 64bit Ultimate
4 additional gigs of Ram
2nd EVGA Superclocked 460
Now the system was running much better, SLI Enabled etc...but even then, some issues mainly related to games fully utilizing a SLI configuration. Diff. games reacted differently to the rig, but comparing my FPS to others that were running a single 480, I found that some better performance would be found going with a single card solution...so the rig evolved again.
Now it contained a EVGA Stock 480, the 460's were removed entirely. After more testing, keeping a log of performance with a single 460, SLI 460's, I found the single 480 outperforming most of the tests that I threw at it. But being a anal mofo and wanting the best, I started reading alot about SLI and some stuff I did not try..so...the SLI 460's returned (Again). Yes, I know this sounds insane!
So the Rig is back to dual 460's, latest SLI Enhancers added, some customization to the game profiles and better results than what I had before when I first tested the dual configuration, but at the end of the day and I had about 8 different tests that I was tracking, I still found OVERALL that the Single 480 was still outperforming the Dual-460's on most (not all) of the tests that I have thrown at the system. What I found was that SLI as good as it was, seemed finicky and very dependent on the game engine and how it handles dual GPU's. Basically as Brain-Stew said "a single powerfull GPU will on average outperform 2 SLI Cards" Of course this would be very game dependent and other factors play into it as well.
So, another trip to Fry's to return some of the stuff and decided to order off Newegg a Super Clocked Evga 480 that has the backplate/high flow bracket (the original 480 was a stock card & returned to Frys). This time, I decided to keep one of the 460's since Newegg has a 15% restocking fee and I wondered how a 480 SC paired with a 460 SC for Physx would work...
Well...I am finally done. The combination of a single GPU Solution paired with a 460 for Physx hit what my lofty expectations wanted...so far, everthing I have thrown at it, running in 1080p on my big screen tv, this combination has been able to run it at max settings. I went through a horrid ordeal, spent a good 12 hours of driving (Frys is 90 miles away from me), I spent way more than I thought, but I learned a valuable lesson and to those of you just starting out and unsure of what to do here is some valuable advice that i have to share.
1. Be patient and don't rush into something.
2. Research and do alot of reading
3. Read (THIS THREAD) - A few users here have great advice
4. Know what your expectations of your rig is going to be and research what will get you to that goal.
5. Dont buy a Retail Rig, build it yourself
I followed only like 2 of these and spent alot more money, time and frustration. In the end I learned alot and if I had to do it again, it would be a breeze. The biggest challenge for those like me is being patient, not rushing into anything. I just wanted my rig and I wanted it NOW. Had I done more research, reading etc. I would of been much better off.
I the end for me, personally speaking and testing, a single card solution worked out better. Could I have had better performance with a dual-460's and let's say a 980x Intel processor, probably, but that processor is close to a grand, plus having to change out motherboards etc. My rig that I have I am very happy with...games runs great, look great and am finally able to enjoy it. More tweaking to be done, but I am finally done swapping parts etc.
Sorry for the length, I know it is a long read, but for the newer folks unsure of what to do, at minimum, follow at least 1 & 2 above. I know the thought of new rig is exciting, but being patient and doing research, you save yourself money and time in the end.
And another THANK YOU to the many users in this thread for advice, direction and feedback...I would not be enjoying my Rig if it was not for many of those in this thread that share there time and experience to help out noobs like myself.
However, this is my first computer with an ATI card. I went to their site to do it, and look at the tutorial video at the bottom, but I'm still stumped on wtf I put in the categories. Here's a link to the site:
