I will be ordering my parts off Newegg on Monday. I am having a very hard time choosing a video card setup (single vs SLI) for my new i7 gaming rig. Here's the setup I'm looking at so far in case certain parts (like the CPU & Monitor) are important for you guys to help me:
Coolermaster HAF 932
i7 920 2.66 (already ordered my Thermalright Ultra-120)
Asus P6T Deluxe V2 Mobo
Corsair 1000HX PSU
6GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600
640GB WD Black HD
X-Fi ExtremeGamer Sound Card
24" Samsung T240 5ms (1920x1200)
Whatever SATA DVD/RW that's available upon ordering (2 drives have gone out of stock for me in the last couple days ;P)
Either one or two GTX 275s (This is where I'm undecided).
I play various FPS games (HL2 & FEAR2 mostly) and I will be playing a pretty graphics intensive FPS MMO (which will utilize SLI) once it's released. I like to run fraps a lot and need to make sure I can record while playing with all eyecandy active (light/shadow renderings & anti-aliasing maxed out etc).
Atm I'm running on an AMD 5600+ (low-end 2.8 dual core), standard DDR2 ram and an HD 4850. So it's obviously VERY hard for me to know how well a high-end, single graphic card system would handle max graphics settings + fraps in today's games. Or...if I'll need to run SLI to get the performance I'd like. The little bit of extra $ isn't really the problem as I hardly ever upgrade (can you tell?? ;P) so I can justify spending a large chunk when I do. Now I'd really like to run a single card setup because as I understand it, SLI doesn't allow using 2 monitors while enabled...and I'm guessing the GTX295 or 4870X2 would be the same. I like my second LCD displaying vent, forums, movies etc.
How powerful are stock GTX275s coupled with an i7 920? How much will this stronger CPU help me record with fraps while gaming vs my old etch-a-sketch? (or is it strictly a GPU thing) HALP!
Coolermaster HAF 932
i7 920 2.66 (already ordered my Thermalright Ultra-120)
Asus P6T Deluxe V2 Mobo
Corsair 1000HX PSU
6GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600
640GB WD Black HD
X-Fi ExtremeGamer Sound Card
24" Samsung T240 5ms (1920x1200)
Whatever SATA DVD/RW that's available upon ordering (2 drives have gone out of stock for me in the last couple days ;P)
Either one or two GTX 275s (This is where I'm undecided).
I play various FPS games (HL2 & FEAR2 mostly) and I will be playing a pretty graphics intensive FPS MMO (which will utilize SLI) once it's released. I like to run fraps a lot and need to make sure I can record while playing with all eyecandy active (light/shadow renderings & anti-aliasing maxed out etc).
Atm I'm running on an AMD 5600+ (low-end 2.8 dual core), standard DDR2 ram and an HD 4850. So it's obviously VERY hard for me to know how well a high-end, single graphic card system would handle max graphics settings + fraps in today's games. Or...if I'll need to run SLI to get the performance I'd like. The little bit of extra $ isn't really the problem as I hardly ever upgrade (can you tell?? ;P) so I can justify spending a large chunk when I do. Now I'd really like to run a single card setup because as I understand it, SLI doesn't allow using 2 monitors while enabled...and I'm guessing the GTX295 or 4870X2 would be the same. I like my second LCD displaying vent, forums, movies etc.
How powerful are stock GTX275s coupled with an i7 920? How much will this stronger CPU help me record with fraps while gaming vs my old etch-a-sketch? (or is it strictly a GPU thing) HALP!