Support NeoGAF

[mr2xxx]

Last summer I was going to take the plunge and build my own PC, but at the last minute I completely wussed out and bought a Gateway PC on sale for nearly the same price as the build I had assembled. Here's the PC:

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/gateway-fx6831-01/4507-3118_7-34048068.html?tag=mncolBtm;rnav

My question is this -- accounting for power consumption, cooling issues, etc., what options do I have in terms of getting a better card? Money really isn't an issue. I'm hoping to get something that clearly outperforms my 5850, but acts as a stop-gap until I get a new PC when we see the next big leap in GPU capabilities.

Fair warning: I am pretty clueless when it comes to this stuff. Any help at all would be appreciated.

You would have to get a 580 GTX to make it worth your while but your better off overclocking your GPU and waiting for the next set of cards. Check out this link for comparisons http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/295?vs=305

Also your power supply should be good enough for any single GPU.

 

[Ryan_]

You need the K version to overclock. That 550W is more than enough.
My only other suggestion would be the new Micron M4 drives, but I haven't read extensively into them.

Okey, I changed the CPU to a 2500K and swapped the OCZ Vertex for a Corsair Nova Series 2 (also 60 gb) which had overall very good reviews. The Micron was above my price range.

The final result is this:

 

[Hazaro]

Wanted to give a big thanks to Hazaro for his OP. I built 3 of his $600 range boxes for my sister's 12 year old triplets. I used each exact part he suggested, just upgraded the hard drives to 1TB Spinpoints and used Coolermaster 310s for cases. Took about 6 hours total, including all 3 built without a hitch and Win7 and Steam installed before I left. They were incredibly happy with the performance of the games they played. I know it's not much, but I've got an extra copy of Sanctum you can have. PM me and I'll get it to you or you can can gift it to someone else. Thanks again.

Some lucky kids. Hope everything holds up.

Last summer I was going to take the plunge and build my own PC, but at the last minute I completely wussed out and bought a Gateway PC on sale for nearly the same price as the build I had assembled. Here's the PC:

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/gateway-fx6831-01/4507-3118_7-34048068.html?tag=mncolBtm;rnav

My question is this -- accounting for power consumption, cooling issues, etc., what options do I have in terms of getting a better card? Money really isn't an issue. I'm hoping to get something that clearly outperforms my 5850, but acts as a stop-gap until I get a new PC when we see the next big leap in GPU capabilities.

Fair warning: I am pretty clueless when it comes to this stuff. Any help at all would be appreciated.

You'd be looking at GTX 570/6970 level cards to have a noticeable upgrade.
That's a very capable machine.

Okey, I changed the CPU to a 2500K and swapped the OCZ Vertex for a Corsair Nova Series 2 (also 60 gb) which had overall very good reviews. The Micron was above my price range.

The final result is this:

Looks good!

 

[Dina]

After my first 4000 2500k OC, it seems that the bus speed is 99.8 instead of 100, making it a total of 3991mhz. Is this bad or is this normal? In the bios it's set as 100 (10000 actually). Also my core voltage is 1.208 but I set it to 1.200. Is this bad or is this normal?

 

[Hazaro]

Some slight variation is normal from my experience.

 

[Drazgul]

Am looking at upgrading this autumn - choosing hardware I've no problems with, but given the choice, would you rather get a normal 1080p projector or a 720p 3D projector for PC gaming? Overall cost would roughly be the same since the performance drop with 3D would be offset by the lower resolution. 3D sure is tempting, but again, lower resolution. I just can't seem to decide one way or the other - 1080p 3D won't be an option for several years, and majority of user experiences with nvidia 3D Vision and Acer H5360 (what I had in mind) seem very positive.

 

[ConstructMe]

Given the choice, would you rather get a normal 1080p projector or a 720p 3D projector for PC gaming? Overall cost would roughly be the same since the performance drop with 3D would be offset by the lower resolution. 3D sure is tempting, but again, lower resolution. I just can't seem to decide one way or the other - 1080p 3D won't be an option for several years, and majority of user experiences with nvidia 3D Vision and Acer H5360 (what I had in mind) seem very positive.

Aren't theyre ones that do both?

 

[Drazgul]

1080p 3D projectors? Not at regular chump consumer level; the pro ones cost like 10k minimum.

 

[Falch]

Okey, I changed the CPU to a 2500K and swapped the OCZ Vertex for a Corsair Nova Series 2 (also 60 gb) which had overall very good reviews. The Micron was above my price range.

The final result is this:

That looks very nice, where are you buying it (I'm dutch too)? Looking at something similar but with a bigger SSD, a HD6970 and some more RAM. What made you chose that corsair Graphite series?

 

[Fair Trial]

I want a smaller build, so i'm thinking to drop my fractal define r3 and go with a micro atx case and motherboard.
I will reuse my 560ti, psu, hdd and 2500k.

Could someone suggest a cool micro atx case and a not very expensive micro atx mobo?

 

[mandiller]

1) Use the auto overclock tuner to get the desire speed. Load up CPUZ and HWmonitor. Then, run Prime 95 small FFT to see your voltage under full load.

2) Now, go into the bios and manually set your overclock speed (multiplier). Set Line Calibration = Regular. Base voltage should be ~1.2V. Use OFFset+ & value to achieve voltage under full load in step #1.

3) Load up CPUZ and HWmonitor again. Then, run Prime 95 small FFT to see the voltage under full load.

4) If Offset number is wrong, adjust it and keep repeating steps #3 until you get it correct.

5) Afterward, you can try decreasing the Offset number (.010V each time) and run Prime95 until your computer crash. Then, increase the Offset number (.005V each time). If Prime 95 doesn't crash after 4+ hours, that's your sweet spot for that speed.

My voltage under the full load was 1.25 before messing with the offset. So I went into the bios and changed the Set Line Calibration to regular and then changed the Offset value to 0.015 and now when I run Prime95 my CPU VCore shows a volt of 1.26 with dips down to 1.25. I haven't been running it for 4 hours but there hasn't been any crashes with Prime95.

Are these voltages and settings safe? I really don't know much about overclocking. If the voltage is slightly higher than the sweet spot will it damage the cpu?

Unfortunately though I've just tried some games again and I get the same message about switching colour scheme. Crysis 2 presents the colour scheme pop-up and stops responding on loading a level, while Bad Company 2 has the pop-up but works fine once you get rid of it. My RAM doesn't seem to be a problem. I have 4GB and it goes up to about 2.6GB when loading Crysis 2 at its peak. Any ideas?

 

[knitoe]

My voltage under the full load was 1.25 before messing with the offset. So I went into the bios and changed the Set Line Calibration to regular and then changed the Offset value to 0.015 and now when I run Prime95 my CPU VCore shows a volt of 1.26 with dips down to 1.25. I haven't been running it for 4 hours but there hasn't been any crashes with Prime95.

Are these voltages and settings safe? I really don't know much about overclocking. If the voltage is slightly higher than the sweet spot will it damage the cpu?

As long as you stay 1.35V or below, should be fine. You want to hit the sweet spot because there is no point in using more voltage => higher temps than what's necessary. Try increasing your speed (multiplier) with the same voltage or keep the same speed with lower voltages.

Unfortunately though I've just tried some games again and I get the same message about switching colour scheme. Crysis 2 presents the colour scheme pop-up and stops responding on loading a level, while Bad Company 2 has the pop-up but works fine once you get rid of it. My RAM doesn't seem to be a problem. I have 4GB and it goes up to about 2.6GB when loading Crysis 2 at its peak. Any ideas?

I haven't experience something like this since Windows XP. Try reinstalling the monitor and video drivers.

 

[RS4-]

Unfortunately though I've just tried some games again and I get the same message about switching colour scheme. Crysis 2 presents the colour scheme pop-up and stops responding on loading a level, while Bad Company 2 has the pop-up but works fine once you get rid of it. My RAM doesn't seem to be a problem. I have 4GB and it goes up to about 2.6GB when loading Crysis 2 at its peak. Any ideas?

I get this with BC2. Not sure what causes it either but it isn't a problem either aside from the popup.

 

[Coldsnap]

I get this with BC2. Not sure what causes it either but it isn't a problem either aside from the popup.

I get this as well

 

[garath]

Thoughts on the Cooler Master Hyper 212 CPU cooler?

My current build right now is:

Kingston HyperX 2x4gig

MSI P67A-G65 or Asus P8P67 I can't decide!

and an Intel i5 2500K

My case is a Corsair 650D.

I don't plan on doing any super overclocking. I'd be happy with a low 4ghz OC.

Any opinions on the CPU cooler and the motherboard would be very welcome!

Edit: One more question. Is it important to get 1.5V RAM as opposed to 1.65V?

 

[Effect]

Bit of warning based on something I've experienced. When making a leap in terms of graphics, for those currently upgrading, you'll have a strong desire to fully take advantage of the new hardware. Be prepared to be somewhat frustrated when your options are limited due to not buying games before the upgrade because you knew you couldn't run them well enough. Experiencing that now. Outside of B:BC2 I don't have really anything that can take advantage of the GTX 560 I put in. Starcraft 2 and The Witcher 1 (the latest games I got besides BC2) already looked great with my 9800 GT. Doubt even running those at max things will look that much different. I ordered a copy of Black Ops for the PC but that won't be here until sometime at the end of the week or early next. I'd suggest having a game on hand or something in mind when making upgrades to combat this feeling. Currently looking for something now that could my system to the test to see what it's limits are. Might have to wait a while I think.

Is there a PC games thread on neogaf?

 

[mandiller]

I haven't experience something like this since Windows XP. Try reinstalling the monitor and video drivers.

I just reinstalled my video drivers, unplugged my second monitor, closed a bunch of things running in the background and nothing has fixed the problem. A google search shows a lot of people are getting the Crysis 2 not loading bug, but the colour scheme change message is weird. I never used to get it on my old computer and I wasn't getting it until recently on this computer. I'm not sure what I've changed since before the message started appearing.

I get this with BC2. Not sure what causes it either but it isn't a problem either aside from the popup.

I get this as well

Nice to know I'm not alone. If you ever figure out what causes it let me know!

And in unrelated news I've updated my clock to 4.2Ghz and its running fine in Prime95 so far. The highest one of my CPU cores is running is 61 degrees celcius on full load (GPU not doing anything though). Is that okay?

 

[Ultrabum]

Bit of warning based on something I've experienced. When making a leap in terms of graphics, for those currently upgrading, you'll have a strong desire to fully take advantage of the new hardware. Be prepared to be somewhat frustrated when your options are limited due to not buying games before the upgrade because you knew you couldn't run them well enough. Experiencing that now. Outside of B:BC2 I don't have really anything that can take advantage of the GTX 560 I put in. Starcraft 2 and The Witcher 1 (the latest games I got besides BC2) already looked great with my 9800 GT. Doubt even running those at max things will look that much different. I ordered a copy of Black Ops for the PC but that won't be here until sometime at the end of the week or early next. I'd suggest having a game on hand or something in mind when making upgrades to combat this feeling. Currently looking for something now that could my system to the test to see what it's limits are. Might have to wait a while I think.

Is there a PC games thread on neogaf?

There is the high res screenshot thread, which is almost all PC games, many with moded textures and things like that.

 

[MadraptorMan]

Ordered all my PC parts except for a DVD drive. I'm seriously debating not even bothering with a rewritable drive...I can't remember the last time I even burned a CD, let alone a DVD, and if I need to I can just use my laptop.

Ran into one issue though, the mobo I ordered was only for a single graphics card, so I had to cancel it...luckily I was able to and now I am waiting for an Amazon gift card to come as a refund so I can buy another motherboard...does anyone have any recommendations for a P67 board? Right now, I am looking at the Biostar TP67B+ or the TP67XE...can't really figure out what the difference between the two of them is, but the B+ is $20 cheaper.

 

[Cptkrush]

Thoughts on the Cooler Master Hyper 212 CPU cooler?

My current build right now is:

Kingston HyperX 2x4gig

MSI P67A-G65 or Asus P8P67 I can't decide!

and an Intel i5 2500K

My case is a Corsair 650D.

I don't plan on doing any super overclocking. I'd be happy with a low 4ghz OC.

Any opinions on the CPU cooler and the motherboard would be very welcome!

Edit: One more question. Is it important to get 1.5V RAM as opposed to 1.65V?

I don't know a whole lot about it(the cooler), but I got mine just yesterday and i went from idling at 40 and full load at 55ish with my phenom II 925 stock clocked at 2.8 to idling at 20-25 and full load at 30ish, then overclocked to 3.6 I can idle at 33 and full load at around 48. It was pretty easy to install, just make sure you get some thermal grease with it, I've heard the CM stuff they give you is garbage. Not sure how well this translates to an intel chip, but it's no slacker on keeping your shit cool.


Also, order it from amazon if you were thinking of getting it from Newegg and are in the U.S., Newegg wants around 50 bucks for it. I bought mine sunday for 29.99 on Amazon and got my free two day shipping with prime.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002G1YPH0/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Edit: seems they lowered the price on newegg from sunday. So either way it's 30 bucks.

 

[Chesskid1]

how do you install windows w/o a DVD drive? only reason i bought one tbh.

 

[MadraptorMan]

how do you install windows w/o a DVD drive? only reason i bought one tbh.

You can use a USB key if it's big enough.

 

[garath]

I don't know a whole lot about it(the cooler), but I got mine just yesterday and i went from idling at 40 and full load at 55ish with my phenom II 925 stock clocked at 2.8 to idling at 20-25 and full load at 30ish, then overclocked to 3.6 I can idle at 33 and full load at around 48. It was pretty easy to install, just make sure you get some thermal grease with it, I've heard the CM stuff they give you is garbage. Not sure how well this translates to an intel chip, but it's no slacker on keeping your shit cool.


Also, order it from amazon if you were thinking of getting it from Newegg and are in the U.S., Newegg wants around 50 bucks for it. I bought mine sunday for 29.99 on Amazon and got my free two day shipping with prime.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002G1YPH0/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Edit: seems they lowered the price on newegg from sunday. So either way it's 30 bucks.

That's good stuff. Wow, huge difference in temps. And I happen to be an Amazon prime member so that's a great place to order it from. Thanks!

 

[jambo]

I was in this thread a week or two ago asking about upgrading my video card.

I currently have the following rig

Gigabyte P55A-UD4P
Core i7 870
GTX 570 1280MB
4GB DDR3

and I run at 2560x1600.

All I've been playing recently is Metro 2033, Crysis 2 and GTA IV and all of them have been a bit shit. In Metro 2033 I have to have everything set to low-normal and DX9 or DX10, anything above and it's just so slow and choppy.

I got a decent pay rise at work recently and it's also tax return time so I figured to hell with it, I'm upgrading! :lol

PC Case Gear is getting some Palit GTX 590s in stock soon so that's sortedPC Case Gear has some GTX 570s for around $360, but I just wanted to check about my PSU.

Currently I have a 650W PSU and obviously that's not going to cut it with the 590 SLI 570s. Benchmark sites and various reviews seem to say that 750W is what it needs, so I figured I'd overshoot it and get an 850W PSU. I've never really paid much attention to PSUs so would the Corsair HX-850 be a good choice?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Corky]

I was in this thread a week or two ago asking about upgrading my video card.

I currently have the following rig

Gigabyte P55A-UD4P
Core i7 870
GTX 570 1280MB
4GB DDR3

and I run at 2560x1600.

All I've been playing recently is Metro 2033, Crysis 2 and GTA IV and all of them have been a bit shit. In Metro 2033 I have to have everything set to low-normal and DX9 or DX10, anything above and it's just so slow and choppy.

I got a decent pay rise at work recently and it's also tax return time so I figured to hell with it, I'm upgrading! :lol

PC Case Gear is getting some Palit GTX 590s in stock soon so that's sorted, but I just wanted to check about my PSU.

Currently I have a 650W PSU and obviously that's not going to cut it with the 590. Benchmark sites and various reviews seem to say that 700W is what it needs, so I figured I'd overshoot it and get an 850W PSU. I've never really paid much attention to PSUs so would the Corsair HX-850 be a good choice?

Thanks in advance.

With regards to your gpu situation, a 590 performs on par with two 570s, so instead of burning money on a 590 you can just go ahead and buy another 570 for fraction of the cost of a new 590.

just my 2 cents.

 

[Cptkrush]

I was in this thread a week or two ago asking about upgrading my video card.

I currently have the following rig

Gigabyte P55A-UD4P
Core i7 870
GTX 570 1280MB
4GB DDR3

and I run at 2560x1600.

All I've been playing recently is Metro 2033, Crysis 2 and GTA IV and all of them have been a bit shit. In Metro 2033 I have to have everything set to low-normal and DX9 or DX10, anything above and it's just so slow and choppy.

I got a decent pay rise at work and it's also tax return time so I figured to hell with it, I'm upgrading!

A site I use is getting some Palit GTX 590s in stock so I've got one lined up there, but I just wanted to check about my PSU. Currently I have a 650W PSU and that's not going to cut it with the 590. Benchmark sites and various reviews seem to say that 700W is what it needs, so I figured I'd overshoot it and get an 850W PSU. I've never really paid much attention to PSUs so would the Corsair HX-850 be a good choice?

Thanks in advance.

Looks good, and modular at that. Just unsure of the stability of one 12v @ 70a, then again i know nothing about psus other than that the 12v decides the maximum continuous output. Hopefully someone with more knowledge can help you out. Hell, I could just be getting over cautious.

I know i'm going to pick this up next week
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371049&Tpk=antec HCG-750
Can't beat 70 bucks after the rebate for 750 continuous watts. It's just not modular though

 

[jambo]

With regards to your gpu situation, a 590 performs on par with two 570s, so instead of burning money on a 590 you can just go ahead and buy another 570 for fraction of the cost of a new 590.

just my 2 cents.

That did cross my mind, but would the 1280 MB memory roof be an issue compared to 3072 MB of the 590?

 

[Corky]

That did cross my mind, but would the 1280 MB memory roof be an issue compared to 3072 MB of the 590?

Actually I think that they sometimes "fool" people by writing 3gb on certain 590 cards/boxes since they're in fact NOT the 3gb version of the gtx 580 but rather they count it as 2*1,5gb which in SLI still counts as 1,5gb. Which means that the ram will be equivalent to your 570(s)

edit : Or I could've simply misunderstood their marketing or w/e.

 

[IonicSnake]

Got my new case today, a Fractal Design Arc and just finished putting my stuff in it.

It was bigger than I thought but I'm very happy with it so far.

 

[Appleman]

That did cross my mind, but would the 1280 MB memory roof be an issue compared to 3072 MB of the 590?

The 3GB of the 590 is really only 1.5GB/GPU anyways so it won't have any real benefit.

 

[jambo]

The 3GB of the 590 is really only 1.5GB/GPU anyways so it won't have any real benefit.

Yeah, I was reading up on some forums and just worked this out.

I reckon that settles it, I'll grab a second GTX 570 and a Corsair HX-850.

 

[Cptkrush]

I'm about an hour and a half into prime95 testing on my main pc, same overclock of 3.6ghz I upped the CPU-NB voltage a bit and so far: all cores still going strong. My temps haven't crossed over the 55c mark and have been riding along at 53-54 since about 20 minutes in. I think I have my overclock done! I'm keeping my fingers crossed and probably going to test for another hour or two before dropping the main voltage a bit. Hopefully my new case fan and extra 212+ fan will help at least a couple degrees.

 

[jambo]

I really don't know why I didn't realise the 590 would only be 1.5 per card, I owned a bloody 4870x2 for a year :lol

Mental fart.

 

[professor_t]

You would have to get a 580 GTX to make it worth your while but your better off overclocking your GPU and waiting for the next set of cards. Check out this link for comparisons http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/295?vs=305

Also your power supply should be good enough for any single GPU.

Thanks for the feedback. I suppose I'll just wait. The only games that truly give me performance envy are Crysis and Metro 33, but Crysis alone is enough to drive me a little bit crazy (didn't really like Metro regardless of the visuals).

 

[MustacheBandit_]

for those of us that are not tech savvy and are unable to build a new PC, is there any other recommended places to purchase a capable PC? The ones linked in the OP have options but they seem to be priced 2k and up and my budget would be around 1200. Anybody able to point me towards the right direction would be appreciated. Im in no rush but would like to be able to have it by the time the new Battlefield is released.

 

[professor_t]

You'd be looking at GTX 570/6970 level cards to have a noticeable upgrade.
That's a very capable machine.

I think I'm just going to wait. I simply need to stay out of threads where people are talking about their super high-end rigs and I'll get by

 

[froliq]

That looks very nice, where are you buying it (I'm dutch too)? Looking at something similar but with a bigger SSD, a HD6970 and some more RAM. What made you chose that corsair Graphite series?

That site is azerty.nl. Good dutch hardware shop with overall pretty good prices.

 

[Falch]

That site is azerty.nl. Good dutch hardware shop with overall pretty good prices.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

 

[Cptkrush]

Holy Shit, my psu just exploded i think, I'm freaking out pretty bad right now, i'm not sure if it fried my cpu or anything and I can't even think straight. What should I do?

I heard a loud pop and now i smell metal really bad smell of burning. Damnit....

 

[larvi]

for those of us that are not tech savvy and are unable to build a new PC, is there any other recommended places to purchase a capable PC? The ones linked in the OP have options but they seem to be priced 2k and up and my budget would be around 1200. Anybody able to point me towards the right direction would be appreciated. Im in no rush but would like to be able to have it by the time the new Battlefield is released.

Something like this from the Dell outlet might work for you:

http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnline...ySearch.aspx?rn=286&SC=&c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh


•Processor: Intel Core i7-930 Processor (8MB L3 Cache, 2.8GHz)
•Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
•Studio XPS 9100 Desktop
•2 TB SATA 6Gb/s (7200RPM) 32MB Cache
•12 GB DDR3 SDRAM,1333MHZ (6x2GB)
•6X Blu-ray (DVD+/-RW + BD-ROM)
•2 GB Single ATI Radeon HD 5970, GDDR5

 

[jambo]

One thing about putting two GTX 570s in SLI. I currently have a Galaxy 570, so would it be fine to put an EVGA 570 in with it? As far as I can tell the core clock and memory clock are identical so I assume it's all good to go.

 

[Tallshortman]

I was in this thread a week or two ago asking about upgrading my video card.

I currently have the following rig

Gigabyte P55A-UD4P
Core i7 870
GTX 570 1280MB
4GB DDR3

and I run at 2560x1600.

All I've been playing recently is Metro 2033, Crysis 2 and GTA IV and all of them have been a bit shit. In Metro 2033 I have to have everything set to low-normal and DX9 or DX10, anything above and it's just so slow and choppy.

I got a decent pay rise at work recently and it's also tax return time so I figured to hell with it, I'm upgrading! :lol

PC Case Gear is getting some Palit GTX 590s in stock soon so that's sorted, but I just wanted to check about my PSU.

Currently I have a 650W PSU and obviously that's not going to cut it with the 590. Benchmark sites and various reviews seem to say that 700W is what it needs, so I figured I'd overshoot it and get an 850W PSU. I've never really paid much attention to PSUs so would the Corsair HX-850 be a good choice?

Thanks in advance.

Do not buy the 590, simply not worth the money. You can get 2 cards that run in CF or SLi that perform better or on par for less money.

EDIT: nevermind, didn't read the latter posts saying you were going to get another 570 instead.

 

[mkenyon]

I want a smaller build, so i'm thinking to drop my fractal define r3 and go with a micro atx case and motherboard.
I will reuse my 560ti, psu, hdd and 2500k.

Could someone suggest a cool micro atx case and a not very expensive micro atx mobo?

Every mATX case that is not the V354 is inferior. The Gene IV is stupid good for the price, but you can really pick out any P67 mATX and be okay.

 

[LordCanti]

Holy Shit, my psu just exploded i think, I'm freaking out pretty bad right now, i'm not sure if it fried my cpu or anything and I can't even think straight. What should I do?

I heard a loud pop and now i smell metal really bad smell of burning. Damnit....

Unplug it, remove it, make sure nothing on the board is blackened. Plug a new PSU in, and hope nothing got killed when the PSU died.

 

[MustacheBandit_]

Something like this from the Dell outlet might work for you:

...

thanks i will look into that

 

[Cptkrush]

Unplug it, remove it, make sure nothing on the board is blackened. Plug a new PSU in, and hope nothing got killed when the PSU died.

I dont have anymore psus unfortunately, thanks for the advice, i'm ordering my new one now, and getting ready to look over the motherboard.

 

[jambo]

Do not buy the 590, simply not worth the money. You can get 2 cards that run in CF or SLi that perform better or on par for less money.

EDIT: nevermind, didn't read the latter posts saying you were going to get another 570 instead.

Haha yeah I fixed my post up.

Anyone have any thoughts on the PSU? I have a 650W Antec atm, so not sure if I should get another modular Antec 850W or get a modular Corsair 850W.

 

[larvi]

thanks i will look into that

Another option, a bit more but a better processor:

http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnline...Search.aspx?rn=1107&SC=&c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh

•Processor: Intel Core i7-2600 processor (8MB Cache, 3.4GHz)
•Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
•Alienware Aurora Desktop
•1 TB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM)
•8 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (4 DIMMs)
•24X CD RW/DVD Combo Drive
•1.5 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580

The dell outlet inventory changes pretty fast but if you want to search for systems go here:

http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnline...earch.aspx?brandId=2202&c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh

Then on the left where it says narrow your selection, under the graphics card section select > 1GB dedicated graphics and that will filter leaving only the systems with the best video cards.

 

[MustacheBandit_]

thanks larvi, this seems like a great place to look out for my next rig. lots of options!

 

[mkenyon]

One thing about putting two GTX 570s in SLI. I currently have a Galaxy 570, so would it be fine to put an EVGA 570 in with it? As far as I can tell the core clock and memory clock are identical so I assume it's all good to go.

Per the OP. Careful with going dual cards, it's not plug and play. You have to be constantly on top of drivers, knowing whether or not to update, and having all of the right profiles. There will be a ton of games out there that you will either have to create your own profiles for or simply disable SLI to have it work properly.