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New Rig - New Graphics Cards While We Wait

Digitalcaveman

Gawd
2FA
Joined
Dec 18, 2006
Messages
602
Guys,

What do you think of my new Rig specs. Received some but waiting for my shipments to arrive, I'll post pics when I'm done. I'm gonna use the Corsair CPU cooler now and let those 5870's run with some distance from them in the 800D case, should be good airflow. Fans on my HyperX's so should be okay.

Swapped out (2) 8800 GTX's for some Powercolor PCS+ 5870's - tell me how much of a difference I'll see! Now next year when they come out with something killer will have to see if it will be worth upgrading - then I'll probably go to water cooling the GPU's with a new loop.

I spent some serious, serious, serious time on putting this all together - read probably 50 reviews on everything, then went back again. It should be a very sound and killer setup. Still probably need some lights and fan display stuff for front. I'm not an 18 year old so all that crazy flash is just that...crazy, unless you have a killer WC loop.

Let me know if you all agree on my setup... :D
 
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Good for you I guess. That $1000 processors gonna be outclassed by a $200 processor of the next generation probably what 6 months from now? and god why the Powercolors?

http://hardocp.com/article/2010/03/15/powercolor_pcs_hd5870_hd5850_video_card_review/9

I'm not trying to flame you but you did ask for feedback. Other than that no complaints really I just get the impression you went out of your way to buy whatever the most expensive part of in each category. I guess it's kinda like buying the newest most expensive car on the lot. The minute you drive off the lot you just devalued.

oh well enjoy it!

flame shields up.
 
Did you buy those VRaptors brand new or were they from your old rig?

If new, that was a waste of money IMO since you could have gotten a SSD or two. That would have provided a more noticeable performance increase than VRaptors ever could.

Yeah I'm under the same impression as piscian18 in that you just bought the most expensive items in each cateogy that weren't necessarily the best choices for the money.
 
Good for you I guess. That $1000 processors gonna be outclassed by a $200 processor of the next generation probably what 6 months from now? and god why the Powercolors?

http://hardocp.com/article/2010/03/15/powercolor_pcs_hd5870_hd5850_video_card_review/9

I'm not trying to flame you but you did ask for feedback. Other than that no complaints really I just get the impression you went out of your way to buy whatever the most expensive part of in each category. I guess it's kinda like buying the newest most expensive car on the lot. The minute you drive off the lot you just devalued.

oh well enjoy it!

flame shields up.


lol... hey man you have your opinion no problem I understand. I got the Extreme because of a number of reasons. You probably think I should have went with the 920 right... and the powercolors got a gold rating from cluboverclockers and for the money it was good for the performance - I'm running two not one. The 5970's take up too much power and that Corsair is the best power supply out there even though its only 1000 watts. I plan on upgrading to the better graphics cards when they arrive then watercooling from there and maybe get a bigger PSU if needed then. The Raptors are from my old Rig so no expense there. I will probably add an SDD soon too. Not sure, other than the processor why you think its a so so rig....
 
Did you buy those VRaptors brand new or were they from your old rig?

If new, that was a waste of money IMO since you could have gotten a SSD or two. That would have provided a more noticeable performance increase than VRaptors ever could.

Yeah I'm under the same impression as piscian18 in that you just bought the most expensive items in each cateogy that weren't necessarily the best choices for the money.

+this

not sure where to even start....
 
we're waiting :D

LOL.... ok I just had to read that article and great.. you should see the review here, little more specific http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/powercolor_5870/ and the Hard article is good too, for right now I didn't need to concentrate on value for those cards, I got them because in crossfire they probably will get me through next year very well until we can see what really comes to fruition on those new gpu's coming out.

Ok.... you wanted the reasons. Well video rendering for one, much faster. 6 cores. And Heat. the extreme can take it better even though I'm using the H70 to cool it. Video encoding as well as other things, this processor kills everything and can take a decent OC. I wanted this machine to be able to pretty much handle anything I wanted to throw at it. Haven't had a build done in close to 4 years and wanted to get something that with a minor upgrade as I mentioned would really scream for another 4 years or so. I originally loved the 920 because of the OC but I saw how much voltage and added heat that you had to deal with, sure you could hit 4Ghz but you needed to water cool or may get away with using a Noctua DH-14 or something. I wanted to be stock at over 3.2Ghz and have some workability there. And since the money wasn't the determining factor, don't get me wrong I really liked the price of the 920 but I think in many applications I will see a performance difference.

Regarding the memory - very nice specs and reviews on the HyperX. I used to be an OCD guy and also saw many using Corsair Dominator but I think this HyperX memory is really going to work well with my board and processor.
 
lol... hey man you have your opinion no problem I understand. I got the Extreme because of a number of reasons. You probably think I should have went with the 920 right... and the powercolors got a gold rating from cluboverclockers and for the money it was good for the performance - I'm running two not one. The 5970's take up too much power and that Corsair is the best power supply out there even though its only 1000 watts. I plan on upgrading to the better graphics cards when they arrive then watercooling from there and maybe get a bigger PSU if needed then. The Raptors are from my old Rig so no expense there. I will probably add an SDD soon too. Not sure, other than the processor why you think its a so so rig....

One HD5970 is literally two HD5870 on the same PCB, with a minor downclock. The HD5970 uses better binned HD5870 GPU, in order to have *slightly* lower power draw.
 
lol... hey man you have your opinion no problem I understand. I got the Extreme because of a number of reasons. You probably think I should have went with the 920 right... and the powercolors got a gold rating from cluboverclockers and for the money it was good for the performance - I'm running two not one. The 5970's take up too much power and that Corsair is the best power supply out there even though its only 1000 watts. I plan on upgrading to the better graphics cards when they arrive then watercooling from there and maybe get a bigger PSU if needed then. The Raptors are from my old Rig so no expense there. I will probably add an SDD soon too. Not sure, other than the processor why you think its a so so rig....

Meh, If I was gonna blow that much money on a system it would be for a dual/quad socket server not on a very possibly end of life socket and a chip that for desktop purposes doesn't really give you any gigantic advantage over a 920 or now a 930 I suppose. It's kinda like when people would spend about $600 on pentium4 processors right around the time amd64x2 came out and shut them all out cheaply.

The PowerColors I would have gone with reference Asus/XFX/EVGA because RMA support on PC is so-so and literally the only thing PC+ has is a decent Cooler and hell you're watercooling anyway.(actually if I was watercooling I'd go GTX480SLI)

Unless you're planning on having massive encoding sessions or a crapton of winrar going at once the 12GB won't get used. Especially considering you've got Raptors and plan on SSD.

In summary I guess Im saying your setups a bit guady for desktop use and that kinda bank would have been better spent on server equipment for multicore and ram intensive application use.

Good for you though. People look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them what I spent on my monitor setup so we all have our hangups.
 
Okay - Canceled the entire order with the exception of the Ram, Mobo, Case and PSU... wanted to just do for the graphics cards but they canceled the whole thing.... so in my situation what would you guys recommend? The money is not extremely important - just a little lol
 
Meh, If I was gonna blow that much money on a system it would be for a dual/quad socket server not on a very possibly end of life socket and a chip that for desktop purposes doesn't really give you any gigantic advantage over a 920 or now a 930 I suppose. It's kinda like when people would spend about $600 on pentium4 processors right around the time amd64x2 came out and shut them all out cheaply.

The PowerColors I would have gone with reference Asus/XFX/EVGA because RMA support on PC is so-so and literally the only thing PC+ has is a decent Cooler and hell you're watercooling anyway.(actually if I was watercooling I'd go GTX480SLI)

Unless you're planning on having massive encoding sessions or a crapton of winrar going at once the 12GB won't get used. Especially considering you've got Raptors and plan on SSD.

In summary I guess Im saying your setups a bit guady for desktop use and that kinda bank would have been better spent on server equipment for multicore and ram intensive application use.

Good for you though. People look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them what I spent on my monitor setup so we all have our hangups.

LOL - You convinced me man....well you all did.... and for the monitor setups, my second Dell 30" I used Amex points! So it was Free! LOL... had to do it. So I guess I should go with the 920 - but what about my graphics card(s)? Go with the 5970? Or something lower/cheaper till next year?
 
If you can wait a month the new HD 6770s will be out shortly by next month. We should be getting a press announcement in the next few weeks.

If you need a card now HD 5770s are cheap and a few have rebates at newegg.
 
If you can wait a month the new HD 6770s will be out shortly by next month. We should be getting a press announcement in the next few weeks.

If you need a card now HD 5770s are cheap and a few have rebates at newegg.

Maybe I should use my 8800GTX's in SLi until next month, think that would do? Those are free :)
 
8800GTX in SLI still hold their own, for now (1080p). The only thing they cannot do, is DX11 and multimonitor gaming (ATi Eyefinity, nVidia Surround), and in some games, it cannot tick the AA settings any higher than "2x." - which isn't an issue, IMO.

For now, I'd recommend:


i7 950 (same price as 930, anyways... 280usd)
your current GPU setup (any decent LGA1366 mobo will support SLI and Crossfire :) - so you have decent upgrade options for your GPU setups)

IMO, wait until ATi releases their HD6000 highend cards by year's end [or so] before deciding whether or not you want to bunker in (or until nVidia launches their highend Fermi refresh). I got two HD5870 a bit back, and am hunkering down for the next few years, I am assuming you will do the same thing, since you still have two 8800GTX cards.
 
8800GTX in SLI still hold their own, for now (1080p). The only thing they cannot do, is DX11 and multimonitor gaming (ATi Eyefinity, nVidia Surround), and in some games, it cannot tick the AA settings any higher than "2x." - which isn't an issue, IMO.

For now, I'd recommend:


i7 950 (same price as 930, anyways... 280usd)
your current GPU setup (any decent LGA1366 mobo will support SLI and Crossfire :) - so you have decent upgrade options for your GPU setups)

IMO, wait until ATi releases their HD6000 highend cards by year's end [or so] before deciding whether or not you want to bunker in (or until nVidia launches their highend Fermi refresh). I got two HD5870 a bit back, and am hunkering down for the next few years.

Um, the 8800GTX's can do multi-monitor support, actually running 2 30" Dell Wfp's on them with my old setup. Not surround gaming but regular windows etc. Why do you recommend the 950 over the 930/920 cpus?
 
Um, the 8800GTX's can do multi-monitor support, actually running 2 30" Dell Wfp's on them with my old setup. Not surround gaming but regular windows etc. Why do you recommend the 950 over the 930/920 cpus?

oops :p

I meant they cannot do multi monitor gaming (ATi Eyefinity / nVidia Surround). All GPU from ATi and nVidia will run at least two TDMS driven (DVI/HDMI - and any VGA connections that sap off of the DVI link) monitors in "non 3D accellerated" mode.

Intel recently dropped the price of the i7 950 to around that of the i7 930

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115225
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211


so why not? :)
 
get a nice am3 mobo with a cheaper phenom x3, when bulldozer hits next spring put that in the mobo.

Or go the intel route with an X58, just more expensive

I'd keep the 8800's until this oct and grab a 6870 or two.
8-12gb ram is nice.
 
get a nice am3 mobo with a cheaper phenom x3, when bulldozer hits next spring put that in the mobo.

Or go the intel route with an X58, just more expensive

I'd keep the 8800's until this oct and grab a 6870 or two.
8-12gb ram is nice.

iirc, bulldozer won't work with AM3 socket. JF-AMD had a comment on this, I gotta go, but if nobody brings up the news source, I will get it in a hour...
 
oops :p

I meant they cannot do multi monitor gaming (ATi Eyefinity / nVidia Surround). All GPU from ATi and nVidia will run at least two TDMS driven (DVI/HDMI - and any VGA connections that sap off of the DVI link) monitors in "non 3D accellerated" mode.

Intel recently dropped the price of the i7 950 to around that of the i7 930

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115225
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211


so why not? :)

Totally saved me you guys... saved me like a friggin ton of money... now I can get a cool rig that screams and will be ready to add some nice 6000's when they come out... from another post this might not be immediate but for the games I have I might be able to get by with my 8800's until then. Buying the 950 now and waiting on the gpu's. By the way, any recommendations on a Blu-Ray/DVD combo drive - so far looking at the Plextor, but its expensive for $200 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827249057

Anyway, thank Jeremy and everyone for your help today - really appreciate it.
 
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Should have bought two GTX 460s and sli'd them. It would have cost you half the price and you'd get the same performance.
 
Should have bought two GTX 460s and sli'd them. It would have cost you half the price and you'd get the same performance.

Dude, my original post and sig changed... I completely went with the advice from this thread, canceled that order and will be doing what's in my sig now. I checked out the 460's and for the money, my 8800's will probably be good for my games until those new cards come out.
 
Well, I think you could have waited a few months and paid half of what you just paid. I don't know what your old rig was though.
 
Well, I think you could have waited a few months and paid half of what you just paid. I don't know what your old rig was though.

some of my stuff cost nothing or I used points and $300 for an i7 950 isn't bad as well as the other stuff. My old specs were QX6700extreme - 4GB DDR2 - 8800GTX's in SLi - WD Raptors and 680i motherboard.
 
you seem like a money is no object kinda guy, but remember not everything that's expensive is worth the price e.g. 980gx/velociraptors
 
you seem like a money is no object kinda guy, but remember not everything that's expensive is worth the price e.g. 980gx/velociraptors

no, I shop but want good quality too. I canceled the 980 and leaving the raptors in until the SSD prices come down.
 
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