GPU question for overclocked PC purchase.

W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
imo id go with 2 580s (if you can afford it) rather than a 6990 but thats just personal preference of nVidia
 
tom_gr7

tom_gr7

Life Serving
I'd go for two 6970's, I believe these in crossfire beat a 6990, but that may be because games don't support the 6990 yet. Also the 6990's/gtx 590's are rare due to a massive world wide demand.

I notice ya going for a amd processor, so i'd stick with amd for the gpu too!
 
Tracker

Tracker

Enthusiast
you won't see a maaasive difference between the two eco liquid coolers, maybe a couple of degrees, depending on how much load you stress it with ( and for how long each time) this can be negligible, a big difference, or anything in between, how often will you use? how long? what games?

I query whether you'd be better off going with an intel processor on this one, games in particular are best suited to fewer faster cores than they are processors with extra, less efficient cores, For a very similar price to your system you could get a i7-2600k, its the fastest around except for tasks where a cpu can utilise all cores of the processor (which tends to be restricted to work such as video encoding, archiving and cpu-based suites).

additionally, i query your harddrive choice, yes you want a SSD as an OS drive for max performance and a snappy responsive system, but your 2nd harddrive is also a performance drive, you really want to go for one or the other and have your second drive as a big storage oriented drive like a Caviar black, a popular option is to opt for a 120gb SSD drive for your OS and a few select games (your favourites or ones which load alot) and then use tradional harddrive in the second slot for the rest.

lastly, Logitech headset.. this is a personal preferance but i'd shy away from a logitech headset, the most expensive thing on the menu isn't always best and you might save money by shopping around and getting a headset from elsewhere (siberia headphones, sennheiser PC350's or even a pair of Astro A40's spring to mind). the Mouse is fine as they seem to be reasonabley good with Keyboards and mice.

lastly, your spec has no monitor or keyboard, so make sure you have these ( plus the appropriate DVI or hdmi cable for monitor)

if you want to try out a Intel I7- spec,(which will boast superior cpu performance, important if you play wow or anything cpu intensive like real time strategy games) then the following would be a good basis, keeping all your selections such as case, mouse and headset, boasting a bigger SSD for os and some games, and a Caviar black for lots of storage ( and by all means it's still a pretty fast drive), only a £40 or so premium above your amd spec.

Case
COOLERMASTER COSMOS 1000 SILVER SILENT CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz @ max 4.80GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6GB/s, NVIDIA®SLI™, ATI®CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
4GB AMD RADEON™ HD6990 - 1 DVI,4 mDP - DX® 11 (PRE-ORDER ITEM)
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB OCZ VERTEX 3 SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 500MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX850 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£99)
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO II A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£59)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC COOLING MX-3 HIGH THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 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
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Mouse
LOGITECH® G500 LASER GAMING MOUSE (£48)
Headsets (VOIP)
LOGITECH® WIRELESS GAMING HEADSET G930 - 7.1 SURROUND SOUND (£139)
Surge Protection
6 Socket Compact 2M UFO Surge Protector + Auto Power Off Function (£19)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,969.00 including VAT and delivery.
 
Usukane

Usukane

Gold Level Poster
Tracker said:
you won't see a maaasive difference between the two eco liquid coolers, maybe a couple of degrees, depending on how much load you stress it with ( and for how long each time) this can be negligible, a big difference, or anything in between, how often will you use? how long? what games?


I usually do around 3 hours or so of gaming a day. The games it will be running are titles like Black Ops, Bad Company 2, Dead Island, Witcher 2 etc. But I want it to be able to play future titles - Diablo III, Borderlands 2, Battlefield 3 & the like. I'd like to be able to run the big titles of tomorrow on more than just medium, even if it means adding a second 6990 if needs be a little down the line.

There's always going to be something better released than what I can buy today, but I want something that's going to stand up in 2-3 years time if possible.

I query whether you'd be better off going with an intel processor on this one, games in particular are best suited to fewer faster cores than they are processors with extra, less efficient cores, For a very similar price to your system you could get a i7-2600k, its the fastest around except for tasks where a cpu can utilise all cores of the processor (which tends to be restricted to work such as video encoding, archiving and cpu-based suites).

I really had no idea here, I literally saw 6 processors & thought it would be the best selection - without any knowledge as to how they function, or any technical know-how other than 6 is higher than 4.

I did read somewhere a while back, that there aren't any games that even fully support quad-core, let alone 6 core? Also that 3 cores are the best, although hardly anyone does it? Not sure where I read that, it might just be hogwash.

If there isn't a huge difference in performance between 4 & 6 now, is there likely to be in a couple of years time do you think?

People will laugh i'm sure, but my current system is a dual-core Pentium 4 3.2Ghz, 4GB of ram (3.37 shown). Running a Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 AGP 8x.

I upgraded this machine countless times over the years, it has treated me really well. But the poor fella can't run the titles i've been putting off playing for a while, as much as it wants to. I think it had a 9200 GPU, 512MB of ram etc when I initially bought it, lol

additionally, i query your harddrive choice, yes you want a SSD as an OS drive for max performance and a snappy responsive system, but your 2nd harddrive is also a performance drive, you really want to go for one or the other and have your second drive as a big storage oriented drive like a Caviar black, a popular option is to opt for a 120gb SSD drive for your OS and a few select games (your favourites or ones which load alot) and then use tradional harddrive in the second slot for the rest.

Again, I really had no idea.

I browsed the forums for information on what's good/not good for building a PC & the general impression I got was SSD for OS is great, though I don't know if I should be starting/running my games from an SSD also?

I have two 2TB USB ext drives that I use for storage etc. The only thing I was putting on the 450GB one, was the games I was actively playing. Would I see less performance in load times etc if I downgraded from the currently proposed drive?

lastly, Logitech headset.. this is a personal preferance but i'd shy away from a logitech headset, the most expensive thing on the menu isn't always best and you might save money by shopping around and getting a headset from elsewhere (siberia headphones, sennheiser PC350's or even a pair of Astro A40's spring to mind). the Mouse is fine as they seem to be reasonabley good with Keyboards and mice.

You're quite right, I think it was me wanting to buy everything in 1 easy package & use it from the box.
The one I chose seemed to be the best option available on the site, but I don't know how good logitech are for sure.

lastly, your spec has no monitor or keyboard, so make sure you have these ( plus the appropriate DVI or hdmi cable for monitor)

I have a great keyboard, and I also purchased a fairly expensive high spec monitor this year. So i'm set there hopefully.
Click to expand...

I really appreciate the replies & help.

Due to the money i'm looking to put into it & considering my lack of knowledge - I really do want to be comfortable i'm buying what I want before I swipe my card.

In a nutshell, I want a gaming PC that will hold it's own now & for a while into the future. Also looking at spending around the £2,000 mark. Unless there is a significant advantage of splurging out much more.
 
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