Need advice

[powerfuel]

Hi,

I have a budget turning around 1500$ but if it's possible, I prefer to spend around 1000$.
I had a PS3 and it died 4 months ago, the console and the bluray are both screwed =(. I need a new computer so I want it to have good overall perfomance, overclockable and multimedia PC.
I need to know if it's possible to use my PC as a PS3, being able to plug to my TV and play movies or play 1080p games on a 32'inch TV. I really want to play games on a normal monitor w/ 1920x1200 (or 1920x1080) resolution too.

I selected two G/Cs for a crossfire configuration, the Rad 4870 or the Rad 4850. With the 4850/4870 in crossfire configuration, I have the possibility to upgrade my monitor to a 2560x1600 resolution when it'll be easier to get one of these monitor. However, I don't know what kind of CPU you need for these applications. I bet I need a powerfull PSU, a larger case and a Mobo supporting crossfire but for the CPU, I can't say anything. If I don't want to take any risk for that point, I think the 920 is perfect but there's a risk that it'll be unnecessary fast. So what is my options? Is an overclocked phenom able to give suffisant perfomances?

[Note: If my TV can be used as a big monitor (just for game/movie) without requiring much performance from a G/C, then is it possible to only run with single GPU configuration.]

 

[ShtBrix]

Wait for the DX11 cards. They should be very powerful, and they will drop the price on older cards.

 

[powerfuel]

What is the definition of waiting for you? 1 week, 1 month, 1 year?
Thanks for the information!

[edit]: Doesn't worth the waiting time. I'll stay with the radeons.

 

[seabreeze]

No definition is needed. Release date is September 22, so that's about a week to wait, but it may take at least several more weeks for prices changes (if any) of existing cards to flow through. Some lines may be discounted heavily while others will remain unchanged. It's not long now...

 

[powerfuel]

Yep... A thing to take in consideration =)
But, in the case I don't buy a DX11 card, waiting time does worth it simply because these card are really cheap for the performance actually.

Remember, I need help to know what kind of CPU I should be looking for. An I7 is priced at ~500$ with its mobo while a phenom 550 is turning around 200$ with its mobo.

 

[belial2k]

The problem is if you are certain you want to crossfire, the x58, 920 platform is the way to go. If you want a good AMD crossfire board, you'll end up spending just as much as an X58 board. If you don't crossfire, you can get by with the cheaper MBs and the phenom processors. Just be sure you get a processor you can overclock to at least 3.6ghz or so, beyond that the burden will be on your graphics cards.

 

[powerfuel]

That's a nice answer. Do you have any link for that? Not that I don't trust you but I need all the extra informations. ;p
----
The 550BE is overclockable to 4GHz (a member of this forum did it), 3.6~3.8 is "normal" in most benchmark.

[Note]: Is a single 4870 able to support this?

 

[belial2k]

I'm sorry, no links, but just check out gaming charts on overclocked processors. Once you hit about 3.6ghz (on intels, at least) or so there is very little gaming difference at 19x12 by going over that on the processor. After that you pretty much rely on the ability of your graphics card. When running in crossfire (on high end cards) the second card can make more use of extra cpu power, so it puts the burden back on the cpu to go faster to keep up.