I7 $1100ish Gaming Rig, need help with GPU/PSU.

sugarless1

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Mar 31, 2009
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Hey guys,


This will be able to handle all my work needs no problem. I want to be able to game decently now and in the future though, I want to be able to play on a 25.5' 1920x1200. I have no immediate plans to OC anything right now. I will in the future when I try and learn how (I'll be buying cooling parts for it when I do though). I will be buying from NCIX Canada as they do price matching and I will be paying $10 shipping and only 1 government sales tax. I have this configured for $933 USD (no GPU) so far;


Intel Core i7 920 2.66 GHz
Asus P6T (non-deluxe)
OCZ (OCZ3G1600LV6GK) DDR3 PC3-12800 6 GB
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA2 3.5IN 8.5MS 7200RPM 32MB
Samsung SH-S223F
Thermaltake M9 VI1000BWS
Corsair TX750W


GPU - I was debating between eVGA GTX 275 or Gigabyte ATi 4890, the eVGA/Gigabyte makes are the cheapest. I'm very unfamiliar with all the different brands, any I should aim for or avoid?

The other option is I just get a ATi 4770 and hold out for DX11 cards? For the cost of a GTX 275 or 4890 I could get a 4770 + OCZ Vertex 30 GB SSD. Or I can use one 4770 and see how it goes, then add a second if needed.

Is 750W enough for CF 4770? Enough for dual 275/4890? This is going to be hard to answer, but is 750W likely to be enough for the future video cards if I wanted to CF/SLI?

Thanks for all the input guys.
 
^
good build.

The 750 will power pretty much any dual card setup, non multi GPU. (ie GTX 295 or 4870x2)

I wouldn't invest in the 4770, its a low end gaming card, very NICE, but not what you are looking for. I wouldn't wait around for DX 11 because you will be waiting for games to even support it as well. I think you are looking in the right ballpark, the GTX 275 and ATI 4890 are both excellent cards. People will point you in the direction of either or. The 4890 DOES take punches at the GTX 285, so I'd lean toward that. I wish they would get some factory upgrade coolers for those though, similar to the 4870's.

Evga and XFX are the more common Nvidia brands, I tend to lean toward XFX. For ATI, Sapphire is the largest, Asus is good as well. But when it comes down to it, they are all the same really, just different warranties and support. Some offer better cooling, which is usually a seller for me. But like I said I haven't seen any for the 4890's so really I'd just get a good brand.
 

Siggy19

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Mar 5, 2009
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One thing to watch for - There is a new P6T (the SE) which is about $30 cheaper than the regular P6T but does not appear to have SLI compatibility. I got this and only realized that it was different three days after my build was completed. Fortunately, I used a 4870 and it handles Crossfire fine (in theory).
 

mlcloud

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+1 on the 750 TX. It'll handle what you have to throw at it. Although it won't run at maximum efficiency with two 4890s, it will run it (max efficiency is found generally at 50%-65% I think, not sure) easily nonetheless.

About the 4890, I'd say just stay away from Powercolor, who seem to have the most problems. I have their 4890... and well, there's no problem with its normal performance but 4890s are supposed to have this huge overclock potential... but my POWERCOLOR card reaches its threshold at a dismal 890/1020 overclock at stock voltages and I can only push it to 960/1120 with a huge 1.38v (from 1.31v) softmod. Everyone else should be okay, I think.

As to the 4890 cooler, you'd be surprised at its performance; just get some airflow into the intake area of the card and you'll have a very quiet card running at peak temps of ~68c (40% fan speed). Sacrifice a bit of noise and you can cut several degrees off that.

And, well, I lean towards the 4890 as well, because the 275 is a bit more expensive while the performance gain/loss is marginal.
 

radiowars

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Feb 15, 2009
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I'm sure SLI will be enabled later in a Bios update. Just like Gigabyte did.
 

sugarless1

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Just wanted to say thanks for all the advice.

I originally selected P6T non-deluxe/SE. As someone mentioned the Gigabyte EX58-UD3R can now support SLI and is $75 cheaper then the P6T vanilla. Is it worth it? The $75 can be used towards cooling parts for when I OC or SSD or new monitor.

I don't think I will need the third PCI-E slot, I may need 2 for SLI/CF, not sure what to use the third for. I have pretty good speakers that connect through USB and have onboard sound processing thingy that doesn't require a sound card. I might need the extra DIMM's though?




The EVGA GTX 275 Superclocked 648MHZ 896MB 2.376GHZ is $249.99 on promotion that ends tomorrow which is more or less the same as a ATi 4890 give or take depending on make.

Same price, 4890 still better?