Are these parts compatible?

[Phusius]

Originally Posted by x_Stricken_x

Would that card be compatible with everything? If so, I will more than likely swap that out for the 670 I currently have chosen. I just did that 670 because I'd prefer a nvidia card, but if I can get better performance for less money and no problems, I'm all for it!

yeah dont buy the ultimate OS. but reg home premium 64 bit.

and yes 7970 will be compatible. I love my 7970. $410 I paid for it, included the arctic cooler as well. used from a buddy. that sapphire 7970 for 399.99 is a great deal. OC in CCC or Sapphire Trixx. 1125/1575 no voltage increase but with 20% power slider. enjoy

[x_Stricken_x]

eidairaman1, So would those numbers be different because I'm not using that motherboard, or roughly between 28.61 and 117?

Phusius, Thanks for the help/recommendations Anything else you think could be improved?

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by x_Stricken_x

eidairaman1, So would those numbers be different because I'm not using that motherboard, or roughly between 28.61 and 117?

Phusius, Thanks for the help/recommendations Anything else you think could be improved?

I just provided those boards as a relative performance check for the config youre getting (Even comparing 2 of the same model boards numbers can fluctuate by 5-10%), bear in mind different video cards have different affects, Since You will be using a 670 You shouldnt really have any trouble running any games or any recording software/ would be faster than the 6950 2 GB. Only way to reduce that further is to move up to a 680 or a 7970.

However if you run SLI/Crossfire, Configs can be buggy at times, basically meaning run at own risk.

[Phusius]

Originally Posted by x_Stricken_x

eidairaman1, So would those numbers be different because I'm not using that motherboard, or roughly between 28.61 and 117?

Phusius, Thanks for the help/recommendations Anything else you think could be improved?

yeah get a sound card. asus xonar dg is wha ti use i think amazon has them on sale for 20 bucks right now. has a built in headphone amp to if u want to experiment with audiophile headphones someday.

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by Phusius

yeah get a sound card. asus xonar dg is wha ti use i think amazon has them on sale for 20 bucks right now. has a built in headphone amp to if u want to experiment with audiophile headphones someday.

That or a HT Omega

[x_Stricken_x]

Well I think I might go with the 7970 if it would be worth it as far as gaming goes. Basically, I want to be able to play games on max settings (or as close as possible).. With the current options (including the 7970) could there be any estimation as to how well it would perform with/without recording in FPS? I've been doing some Googleing and haven't really found much in general of performance of the 7970

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by x_Stricken_x

Well I think I might go with the 7970 if it would be worth it as far as gaming goes. Basically, I want to be able to play games on max settings (or as close as possible).. With the current options (including the 7970) could there be any estimation as to how well it would perform with/without recording in FPS? I've been doing some Googleing and haven't really found much in general of performance of the 7970

Im assuming you will be running a monitor/TV with a resolution of 1920x1080P or higher?

[x_Stricken_x]

My current monitor resolution is 1440x900, but I'm eventually going to be getting 2 new monitors and using those.

[Jetster]

Any of those GPUs will max all setting. They are so close in caparison that you will be happy with any 670, 680, 7970 running 1920 x 1080

[x_Stricken_x]

Originally Posted by Jetster

Any of those GPUs will max all setting. They are so close in caparison that you will be happy with any 670, 680, 7970 running 1920 x 1080

So will I have half the frames with a dual-monitor setup, or should it stay the same if I only run the game on one monitor?

[Phusius]

7970 is known to be best for multiple monitors just ran 3dmark with my 7970 http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4422416

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by Phusius

7970 is known to be best for multiple monitors just ran 3dmark with my 7970 http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4422416

its game dependent, what games are you going to run and do you truly need more than 1 monitor?

[x_Stricken_x]

Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (once it's released), Minecraft, and a few others. And I won't be using the two monitors for gaming, mainly for coding (I'm a website developer/designer). But I would possibly have like Firefox open on the other monitor now and then to maybe load a video to look something up or to just look something up in general

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by x_Stricken_x

Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (once it's released), Minecraft, and a few others. And I won't be using the two monitors for gaming, mainly for coding (I'm a website developer/designer). But I would possibly have like Firefox open on the other monitor now and then to maybe load a video to look something up or to just look something up in general

ok so you will be multi-tasking and not stretching the games across multiple monitors (Flight/Racing games normally support multi monitor setup/ others not so much)

You will be fine with any of the cards specified,

Look Up EyeFinity vs NVidia Surround though.

[x_Stricken_x]

Yeah, I will be multi-tasking not stretching the game haha. And I'll look that up now

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by x_Stricken_x

Yeah, I will be multi-tasking not stretching the game haha. And I'll look that up now

Ive only read that Eyefinity only requires 1 card to operate where as Surround takes 2 or more, thus increasing price.

[x_Stricken_x]

Are you referring to this?:

You see, natively AMD Radeon HD graphics cards support only two displays, no matter what connection protocol is used. But if you want to connect a third, fourth, fifth or sixth monitor you need an adapter supporting DisplayPort for each monitor after the first two. On the positive note I have to say that the whole system is quite user friendly and its broad compatibility allows you to tie together different display models.

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by x_Stricken_x

Are you referring to this?:

where did you pull that?

[x_Stricken_x]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/gra...d_2.html#sect0

[eidairaman1]

http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/...y-dongles.aspx

ya thats from AMDs mouth.

[x_Stricken_x]

I'm not too worried about a multi-monitor setup right now, that will come later. For now, I just wanted reassurance that I'm not gonna spend over $2,000 and end up having something that won't work because I'd have to swallow the money. Also, which version should I get of Windows (Home, Ultimate, etc)? Home Premium is capped at 16GB of RAM - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...mits_windows_7

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by x_Stricken_x

I'm not too worried about a multi-monitor setup right now, that will come later. For now, I just wanted reassurance that I'm not gonna spend over $2,000 and end up having something that won't work because I'd have to swallow the money

well in that case pull the trigger on the setup.

I Would honestly recommend Windows 7 Pro, supports 192GB

To me it appears you will eventually upgrade that CPU, add more ram and even change video cards. while keeping the rest of the machine the same

[x_Stricken_x]

Originally Posted by eidairaman1

well in that case pull the trigger on the setup.

I Would honestly recommend Windows 7 Pro, supports 192GB

To me it appears you will eventually upgrade that CPU, add more ram and even change video cards. while keeping the rest of the machine the same

I'll eventually upgrade things as new stuff becomes available, but I'm hoping the system will last for 5+ years (though I might upgrade the RAM/video card before then). And so I shouldn't have problems with anything, right? Like I have enough slots for the case fans, everything's compatible and I have enough connectors from the PSU to support the graphics card, etc? Sorry, I'm just nervous about it - it's my first build, after all haha

[eidairaman1]

Well thats as future proof as a machine can get i see, its ready for today and leaves room for growth tomorrow

Honestly run that machine at stock for stability, overclocking is always unpredictable. later on when you have a lil more knowledge and experience you can overclock

[x_Stricken_x]

One thing I'm curious about though is are the SATA power/data cables with the PSU, or do they come with whatever device it is? (graphics card, hard drive, etc) And I plan to run it at stock I thought I saw a "quick overclock" in the UEFI bios for the motherboard, so I might try that after I monitor temperatures and put it through it's paces