Perfect Gaming Desktop?

[pokher]

I wouldnt recommend gtx 465s as they're weaker than the 460 1GB's and they cant be unlocked anymore (PNY didnt laser cut the disabled dies and they finally caught on).

So i put a list together for you that I feel would give you more performance than a single 5970.

Core i7-930

ASUS P6X58D-E

G-Skill Pi (really low timings and voltages)

2x MSI GTX 470s in SLI

3x 500GB WD caviar blacks in RAID 5 (you can get larger sizes for a few more bucks but I wouldnt recommend it because then you'd have multiple platters which would be slower)

Antec TPQ 1000W PSU

Silverstone FT02

LG DVD burner

Windows 7 Home Premium OEM

The total for all of that would be $2044 before shipping. I based a lot of those parts on personal experience (the hard drives and motherboard mainly). The other build with the 5970 was also pretty good except that you'd have to do some price cuts to include windows in that cost.

The processor comes with a basic heatsink but I'd recommend buying one thats a bit better. The Hyper N520 is a very good one for the price (dont buy from newegg though as its overpriced there. If you want to go for a really good one then get the corsair H50. If theres a microcenter near where you live then get the i7 from there as its cheaper (if they have the i7-920 in stock then get it and save $100)

Single GPU always better than two.Why get two 470's than when its time to upgrade you have to replace both 470's instead of just buying an extra 5970, when needed.Oh and my build has an OS included.

 

[shozzking]

Single GPU always better than two.Why get two 460's than when its time to upgrade you have to replace both 460's instead of just buying an extra 5970, when needed.Oh and my build has an OS included.

sorry, didnt notice. and its 470s not 460s. a 5970 is essentially 2 5850s so its also a dual GPU. The two 470s would outperform a 5970. point out where your build beats mine in terms of performance except for the amount of ram.

 

[pokher]

sorry, didnt notice. and its 470s not 460s. a 5970 is essentially 2 5850s so its also a dual GPU. The two 470s would outperform a 5970. point out where your build beats mine in terms of performance except for the amount of ram.

5970 is two 5870's, not two 5850's.Less power then SLI 470, cooler and single slot and once overclocked its like two CF 5870 which beat GTX470. People are comparing GTX480 SLI with HD 5970.A 5870 (OC)is faster than a gtx 470 so a 5970 is going to be faster than GTX470 SLI regardless.Your build is missing pieces CPU Cooler/thermal paste.Try and keep the computer parts the same brand as they will perform better IMO.

 

[VINMAN46]

Get a 480 and sli down the road

 

[pokher]

vinman46 i agree with that to.Same with the 5970 crossfire down the road.gtx480 or 5970 best option, than sli/crossfire later when you need to.

 

[shozzking]

I was going to suggest a 480 but then I decided to go with 470 SLI. with driver updates 470s are even with 5870s and SLI scaling is nearly 100% with 2 cards. There is no way that a 5970 is anywhere near a 5970.

Brand honestly doesn't matter when putting multiple parts together. are you telling me that an asus 480 would perform better than an evga 480 because I have an ASUS board?

 

[VINMAN46]

just get a single 480 Scaling in some games is great its a couple hundred less
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=23132&page=9 almost 100%

 

[pokher]

just get a single 480 Scaling in some games is great its a couple hundred less
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=23132&page=9 almost 100%

thank you very much, that proves my point.
Sli GTX470 3DMark Vantage score=20463
5970 3DMark Vantage score=21627

 

[shozzking]

thank you very much, that proves my point.
Sli GTX470 3DMark Vantage score=20463
5970 3DMark Vantage score=21627

the computer is meant to be the perfect gaming computer not the perfect benching computer so I doubt hes going to be jacking off on benchmarks all day long. compare real gaming performance not synthetic scores like 3dmark

so here's an updated build with 2x gtx 480s:

i7-930

Silverstone RV02

2x Gigabyte GTX 480s

and take the missing parts from my previous list. The total would be $2150 before shipping which is a bit above your budget but it would be very worth it if you can afford it.

 

[Grantofhell]

I think you both are off the thread's aim. A stated budget doesn't mean go up to that and call it a day. Maybe he wants to buy a monitor, too? How about a keyboard and mouse?

SLI'd 470's/480's and even worse a 5970 is just complete overkill. Why would he need to SLI a card /that/ powerful right now? There's a major price difference in 465-470 and even worse on the 5970, which lacks several tessellation units from even the 470. At any rate, few games are going to absolutely push a 470 beyond its limit at a large resolution such as 1920x1080.

Even me suggesting SLI'd 465's was a little much. The number may be small, and it may be considered a more budget minded gamer card, it's still a hell of a lot of power! And with as good as scaling as Nvidia has proven with their Fermi's, two 465's (even without unlocking - since it's not possible, as stated by others) would make for the performance just above a 480 which runs at about $490 USD (per Evga's stock clock listing at NewEgg).

I'm no boss here, but let's not all get carried away. Money is hard to come by and having a lot doesn't mean "spend it all".