PSU upgrade(?)

[linkrift]

Just a quick PSU question~

I'm upgrading soon to crossfire, eventually with the ATi DX10 cards and an AMD FX55 (or 60, depending). I'm also running RAID0 with 2x WD raptors and a couple of optical drives.

Do you think my 500w psu will handle the load of a gaming system like this? If not, how far should I upgrade?

 

[randomizer]

Theres been alot of "quick questions" today. Just go for a 1KW psu and you'll be fine for a few years. :lol: You might want to upgrade your cpu too since its gonna bottleneck CF dx10 cards 8O badly. The fx60 is still going to bottleneck unless you play uber high res (which with those cards, why wouldnt you?). But at the very least, get a dual core or you arent going to be getting anywhere near the full potential of that setup (and again... 8O ).

EDIT: I find it frustratingly amusing (if that even makes sense) when newbies come on asking about these uber pc setups that only rich people or those with their priorities wrong can afford. Its amusing coz its always the newbies that can afford these setups, and its frustrating because I cant.

 

[linkrift]

Theres been alot of "quick questions" today. Just go for a 1KW psu and you'll be fine for a few years. :lol: You might want to upgrade your cpu too since its gonna bottleneck CF dx10 cards 8O badly. The fx60 is still going to bottleneck unless you play uber high res (which with those cards, why wouldnt you?). But at the very least, get a dual core or you arent going to be getting anywhere near the full potential of that setup (and again... 8O ).

EDIT: I find it frustratingly amusing (if that even makes sense) when newbies come on asking about these uber pc setups that only rich people or those with their priorities wrong can afford. Its amusing coz its always the newbies that can afford these setups, and its frustrating because I cant.

heh, I guess I had that one coming :lol: . So you're saying the FX60 will be too slow for the cards? (I'll be gaming at 1920x1200 res, and most of this stuff is being paid for by selling old parts and the like, btw )

I was under the impression that the FX60 was dual core, so why is an X2 any better?

 

[randomizer]

The fx60 is dual core, but its no where near as powerful as say an e6600, and its more expensive too. Are you intending on keeping your 939 rig, since I guess thats what you're using considering the proposed fx60 upgrade? If you can afford to upgrade your mobo cpu and RAM then you could get a C2D system, or an AM2 if you prefer. But the AM2 upgrade will not give much of a performance increase, except that you can get more updated cpus for it.

 

[linkrift]

Yeah, I'm actually working on a fairly limited budget, which is why I stuck with the 939 (even considering it's being killed off)

I have 2gb of OCZ ram, and I didn't really want to bite the bullet and buy a completely new configuration, but it's looking more and more like I'll have to.

 

[randomizer]

What do you mean your on a fairly tight budget? 2 Dx10 cards?! What is your budget when it isnt tight?

 

[tim851]

So you're saying the FX60 will be too slow for the cards?

You can make any card CPU limited if you want to. Play "Quake 2" on 640x480 without Anti Aliasing and you'll probably get a thousand FPS with a Radeon X1300 and a 2 Ghz Core 2 Duo. A 3 Ghz Core 2 Duo would maybe give you 1300 FPS. But who would actually give a crap?

We all want the eye candy. So we will play a game like "Oblivion" with all the bells and whistles enabled and crank up the resolution to the max, in your case you're aiming at 1920x1200. Here, even a GF8800 GTX SLI will become the bottleneck if you enable AA.

So the moral of the story is: if you see people with GF8 SLI playing on their 19" TFTs with 1280x1024, point you finger at them and laugh, cause they've wasted 600$ to get a whole bunch of frames they'll never notice.

But even if you're planning on using 1920x1200, think about what games you wanna play. 'Cause so far, I only know of "Oblivion" that would require SLI on that resolution. Everything else should run fine on a single GF8. So you could save yourself the heat, the noise and the price tag of SLI.

 

[linkrift]

So you're saying the FX60 will be too slow for the cards?

You can make any card CPU limited if you want to. Play "Quake 2" on 640x480 without Anti Aliasing and you'll probably get a thousand FPS with a Radeon X1300 and a 2 Ghz Core 2 Duo. A 3 Ghz Core 2 Duo would maybe give you 1300 FPS. But who would actually give a crap?

We all want the eye candy. So we will play a game like "Oblivion" with all the bells and whistles enabled and crank up the resolution to the max, in your case you're aiming at 1920x1200. Here, even a GF8800 GTX SLI will become the bottleneck if you enable AA.

So the moral of the story is: if you see people with GF8 SLI playing on their 19" TFTs with 1280x1024, point you finger at them and laugh, cause they've wasted 600$ to get a whole bunch of frames they'll never notice.

But even if you're planning on using 1920x1200, think about what games you wanna play. 'Cause so far, I only know of "Oblivion" that would require SLI on that resolution. Everything else should run fine on a single GF8. So you could save yourself the heat, the noise and the price tag of SLI.

I feel like that's a really strong point, and I think I'm going to stick with a single card for awhile (until the R600's drop in price...after they come out...maybe a long awhile :lol: )

Also, I really appreciate all of this input. Thanks everyone.

 

[randomizer]

He does make a good point. Man I'd kill my dog for even 1 gf8800 or r600, but it looks like my 7900gs is going to have to do until I win lotto.

EDIT: And yes, even tho my avatar is a cat, I do in fact have a dog.