So - time to buy - 2 x 5850 or 1 x GTX480 plus Mobo Q

[kalniel]

Thanks again for your help all


On a side note, just whilst I was browsing SCAN's site, any got a reason as to why so many cards are unavailable? I've checked other sources and there's no stock anywhere..

There's loads of 5850s in stock.

Or do you mean the 480? That's because it's an enormous, complicated chip which combined with a relatively error prone manufacturing process means they don't actually make very many of them that work properly.

[Sparhawk]

Mainly referring to the 5870.

Based on everyones advice, I was considering going in between and getting a 5870 (Toxic ed. by Sapphire). 5870's seem to be like hens teeth.

That way, I'd have that extra bit of juice and could still Xfire another 5870 in at a later date.

[scaryjim]

With a 1680x1050 monitor a 5870 is going to be twiddling its transistors and wondering what to do. Unless you are planning to get a 1920x(1080/1200) monitor in the near future do your wallet a favour and get a single 5850. It will eat that resolution for breakfast and still have room for an extra shredded wheat

Put the £220 you're saving towards a decent SSD to use as a system drive, which will give you a much better all round performance increase than the stupidly overpowered graphics setups you're considering. If you were already planning an SSD, spend the £220 on a bigger, better one

[Sparhawk]

LOL

You've convinced me. It does make sense to save cash. I think what I was worried about was doing what I did last time. When I got the 7950GX2, I got it a couple of months before the DX10 cards came out and I was a bit annoyed with myself as I knew that It was going to be a few years before another upgrade was possible - Money doesn't grow on trees as we know .

Therefore, what I wanted to do here, was ensure that I had lots of power to do what I wanted to do now and also do what I want to do in 18 - 24 months time. However, i appreciate that if I save a couple of 100 on a video card now, I can easily upgrade just that portion of it next time or even double up as mentioned

So, once again, thank you for all your help, it is certainly appreciated

Ps. Hexus guys. Sometimes benchmarks aren't the best thing. They make people want to spend more money than they need to

[12GaugeShotty]

I know the 5850's have benchmarked better overall but I haven't the patience or time to sit for hours trying to resolve compatibility issues or driver issues.

What compatibility or driver issues? You just plug them in and install the drivers. Not that hard...

[Sparhawk]

What compatibility or driver issues? You just plug them in and install the drivers. Not that hard...

With respect, I appreciate it's "not that hard" but I'm also not blind. I read enough reports from other gamers of of some issues where they are unable to get SLI or XFire working with various games or some have had issues with a particular card and driver release.

As it stands, I've built every single machine I've owned but I've built them all around NVIDIA hardware for GFX. However in the last 3 years, I have simply not watched the market at all due to other commitments so i'm just trying to ensure that I get what I need for my cash with as much hassle free as possible

[Zak33]

my £0.02

Spend some of that money on a bigger monitor or a second one,... and you'll STILL only need a single 5850 AND it'll all look nicer

Twin screens really IS the dogs danglers.. not for gaming.. for life/work/surfing... with a quad core i7 yiou'll be doing lots of stuff at the same time,,,

[Sparhawk]

Thanks Zak. Might just do that.

One 5850 seems to make sense. Thanks again.

[Sparhawk]

Well,

All kit is now purchased. I'd like to thank you all again for your help.

Kit purchased is as follows:

Asus P6X58D Premium, X58
Intel Corei7 920 D0 SLBEJ Bloomfield 45nm
Prolimatech Megahalems Super 6 Heatpipe Tower Cooler + 120mm Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1450 rpm
6 Gb Corsair Dominator DDR3 1866 with Corsair Dominator Airflow Fan
XFX 5850HD XXX Edition (I was going for Sapphire but they had none in stock)


..and all of it fitted into a very lovely Corsair Obsidian 700D case. Barely a cable in sight as they're all hidden in the hide space behind the motherboard panel.

One thing I've noticed already is despite there being 3 x 140mm fans in the case, a 120 on the CPU, the 2 x 60's on the airflow fan and of course the cooler on the GFX card, the whole thing is nearly silent. There's a whoosh as it turns on and then settles to a lovely near silent tone.

Rather pleased so thanks again all

[kalniel]

Pictures!

[Sparhawk]

hehe, I'll do those tonight. There are no cathodes or LED fans inside as it's the windowless 700D but I'll get the camera onto it later.

Photography is a hobby of mine actually so I'll see what nice ones I can get.

The case is gorgeous and SOOO roomy

[Zhaoman]

Gorgeous PC too, that should last you a good while

[Sparhawk]

Gorgeous PC too, that should last you a good while

Cheers... put together with the advice here . I'm hoping it will last a while but as has been discussed, there's scope to swap out and add on to boost and keep it going

Gonna do some pics later. I'm almost done installing and tweaking everything.

[Sparhawk]

Here's a few pictures as requested

[kalniel]

Great pics, lovely computer!

[jim]

The Corsair cases just make me laugh... the motherboard always looks so utterly lost