3 HD 6450's or 1 HD 6850?

tw23

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I'm wondering what would be faster:

3 AMD Radeon HD 6450 1GB Cards
or
1 AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB Card

I'm a real noob at this lol.
Thanks for your help ;) :) !
 

iArereya

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yeah, 3 HD 6450s wouldn't even perform on-par with the similarly priced HD 6770. it would be way under. Go with the HD 6850 because the only use of 3 HD 6450s is if you need to work with a shitload of monitors which i highly doubt.
 

iArereya

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TBH, get 1 6870 then later on get another later. Alternative options are:
wait for HD 7790/7850/7870
HD 6850
GTX 560 Ti
GTX 560 Ti 448 core
GTX 460 1GB (make sure it's the 1GB and not 768MB)
HD 5850/5870
wait for GTX 6660
 

subasteve5800

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List your whole system specs (especially motherboard, monitor resolution you'll be using, and power supply), your budget, and what you intend to use this card for.

You'd have to list the specs of the Alienware laptop for us to tell you if it was a good deal. Alienware tends to be over priced but it might be a good deal.
 

tw23

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Hmm...
For my Motherboard I was thinking either:
-ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3
-GIGABYTE GA-P67X-UD3-B3
-P8P67 Evo
Which one do you think is best?
My budget is ~$800

CPU: Intel Core i7 2600k

I need help finding a case (full) and power supply (how many watts do you think I need)?

Like I said I'm a noob, and need help.

I want to play games like MW3 Battlefield 3 and GTA.
 

subasteve5800

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Right off the bat, drop down to an i5-2500K. The 2600K will take up too much of your budget and the performance increase in gaming wouldn't be worth it for the price.

For Mobo's the ASRock one you listed is the one I'd recommend. It's fairly cheap, a good performer, and is PCI-e 3.0 compatible which will be good if you decide to upgrade in the future.

For that budget range, either an AMD 6950 or a GTX 560ti will provide the best bang for buck in gaming.

For PSUs you should get something from Seasonic, Antec, Corsair, or PC Power & Cooling. Those guys make the best power supplies and that is not an area where you want to skimp. A solid 650W or higher would work.

For a case, Anandtech just did a review on the Antect Three Hundred Two and it looks like a pretty good case for a reasonable price.

For Ram, an 8GB (2 x 4gb) 1600Mhz kit from G.Skill or Corsair will serve you well.

You'll also need a hard drive and an operating system. For hard drives, I'd recommend buying the lowest capacity you can stand right now and upgrading later. The flooding in Thailand has caused a huge spike in HD prices.
 

headless97

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Took the words right out of my mouth. OP, follow this guy's advice. He knows what he's talking about.

I've never used dual monitors but the 6950 should be able to handle it nicely.

As for the laptop, I'm assuming that you're buying used to find it at that price. Take it to a computer guru to make sure that it works and get it cleaned up before laying down $600. Otherwise, this site (http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5360) lists its specs pretty high.

1080p
i7 920XM
GTX 260M
4GB 1333
500GB HDD

Should work very well for gaming. If we're talking about the same laptop, that is.
 

omega21xx

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It's ok... but OCZ's better line is the ZS/ZX some people tend to have issues with the modXstream.
 

tw23

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Also.
This motherboard is on sale for $100:
ASRock Z68 PRO3 GEN3

Get it?
It's $20 cheaper than the Asrock Z68 Extrem3

How about this:
CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W
as a PSU?
 

omega21xx

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PSU = good
between the two motherboards it really depends on how much you want to overclock. the pro series is decent but has a 4+1 power phase that can limit overclocking. the extreme has an 8+2. If you are only looking at a 4ghz overclock max the pro is fine, if you want higher look toward the extreme series or boards with 8+2 power phases or higher. Not saying you can't reach higher than 4ghz on the pro series, just the board has a higher chance of blowing up (or limiting power to the cpu) the higher you overclock compared to ones with 8+2 :)