Eyefinity for gaming and productivity

[tambo100]

Hi there,

Need some expert opinions on whether I'm doing the right thing for a PC that will be used for gaming and productivity purposes.

Games are likely to include newer FPS titles (Metro 2033, BF3) and older ones (Left4Dead 2, ArmA II) on hiugh settings. I intend to use a 3-screen Eyefinity at lower settings, possibly adding a second GPU at a later date (hence the inflated power supply).

Productivity will be mostly statistical modelling.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

SPECS

Case
CORSAIR GRAPHITE SERIES™ 600T WHITE MID-TOWER CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX

Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPERX GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 2133MHz X.M.P(4 x 4GB KIT)

Graphics Card
3GB AMD RADEON™ HD7950 - DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
10x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW

Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)

Processor Cooling
Corsair H40 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£39)

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Firewire
3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)

Operating System
Genuine Windows 8 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)

DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
3 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£14)

Eyefinity / GeForce 3D Vision
Active Display Port to DVI Adapter (3 MONITOR SETUPS) (£20)

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Miscellaneous
FREE FARCRY 3, SLEEPING DOGS & HITMAN with AMD HD 7950/7970 GPUs!

Price: £1,313.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-ivy-bridge-pc/P746GWn7c7/

 

[tom_gr7]

it looks really good, but a few tiny things

- if you plan to add anything card, go for the slightly better motherboard, yea that one you have chosen will support crossfire, but the second slot would run slower, so go for the better mobo.

- you certainly dont need ram that fast, no need at all, go for 1600mhz.

- get a kingston ssd, same speed as the intel but cheaper

- i'd personally up the cpu cooler a to atleast the h60, or better (pretty sure the h60 is newer/better than the h40, its also the same cooler as the Coolit Eco II) Due to you wanna play some pretty cpu intensive games it would be beneficial to have a decent cooler, metro, bf3 and arma 2 are all pretty cpu heavy.

- psu wise, that is big enough for one 7950, but I wouldnt say its ideal for two cards, yeah it may just be enough. But that would result in the psu being pushed to 100% most of the time, we dont want that, bad for power efficiency and extra heat outputted. So i'd go for a 750w atleast, if you go for 7970's go for an 850w psu. just so you have plently left over,

 

[tambo100]

Thanks Tom, this was exactly the advice that I needed.

Bumped up the mobo (ASUS® P8Z77-V PRO/THUNDERBOLT), the PSU (CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES) and cooler (Corsair H60). The RAM was cost-negligible anyway.

Order placed. Many thanks.

 

[tom_gr7]

no worries mate, if you do plan to add another gpu in the future, the 750w will probably be enough power, but if it was my rig i'd opt for the 850w psu, just so I have enough juice left in case I ever wanted to add other/more components/devices

edit - unless the configuration says you have loads of spare power with the two 7950's.