Building a new system intel, 5K Limit, Gaming HD video editing

Updating the old war Horse
Well it’s been a year so it’s time to feed my need for speed, I want a system so fast when I run a bench mark for a score is says Infinit I want to put that decated 30Amp circuit under my computer desk to good use, I want to see the little spinning wheel on my power meter fly off and slice down the neighbor's elm tree.

I talked it over with the wife she gets her new kitchen cabinets and I get my new computer (sounds like a fair trade)
But I am torn the new GTX 480’s haven’t gotten me all warm and fuzzy so I figured I would get some third party input.

I have a few questions.

1. Motherboard EVGA Classified SR-2 With dual X5570 Cpu’s Vs a EVGA X58 Classified 4-Way SLI with a INTEL BX80613I7980X Core i7 980X Extreme Edition if I go with the ATI setup the board will be a Asus Rampage II Extreme or ASUS P6X58D Premium
For Sheer number crushing the Xeon’s gets the nod but for gaming I don’t think I have ever seen the two set-ups go head to head. (I could see the I7 beating a single Xeon but not two of them)

2. Dual GTX 480’s HC VS tri GTX285’s HC vs. Dual 5970 x2’s water cooled I am pretty sure the X’2 will stomp a mud hole in Nvidia’s back but the 480’s are so new that nvidia could come out with a hot fix/better driver and unlock what they chip really can do.

12-24 GB of ram dual Raptors for boot running Win7u
I am hard core gamer but I don’t game as much as I used to I also do HD Video editing and trans-coding, and I am getting the new Dual Sony HD 3d Cam-corder when it hits the streets.

Case will be a MountainMods with room to spare.
And this baby with fire it all up ePower Technologies 2000W Switching Modular PSU

El Diablo de Yucatan !!

To start, you don't need that big of a PSU. A 1000W would do fine if you SLI the 480, a 850W would do fine for the 5970s.

Second, you don't really need 24 GB of RAM to start with. That would require 4 GB sticks, which are just too expensive right now. If you waited until the 4 GB sticks are the norm, you would spend less for the 24 GB when (if) you need it. Grab two sets of Mushkin Enahnced Redline 3x2 GB 1600 mhz CAS Latency 6.

Third, Raptors suck. The new standard 500 GB platter 7200 RPM drives are just as fast. Grab a SSD or two to really see some speed. However, use the SSDs only for the OS and apps/games. Rewriting too much data with a SSD wears them out faster and makes them slower.

Fourth, you should get the 5970. The 480 doesn't really compete with it and the excess heat is a huge problem. Not to mention the massive power draw.

More worred about the Proc's if Dual Xeon's can Own a Single I7

I LOVE IT ! Saved that to my "special builds" folder ...

... It was very ignorant to use a SATA connection, tho ... A 4X/8X slot drive would make the only "best sense". Even the OCZ SSDs exceed SATA-II.

= Al =

The HyperOS has been around for almost 6 years and tested dozens of time

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 19-12.html

I wouldn't worry about it and dang its fast

No one knows if dual xeon's are a match for a high end i7 in gaming?

Not fair, she gets the kitchen cabinets AND the kitchen oven? You must buy something for yourself.

Not to be a "priss" but I think this is kind of important because that DRAM drive is WAY faster than an SSD (WAY!) and the SATA-II bandwidth is more than fully saturated by larger (internally RAIDed) SSD "4x and 8x slot drives".

AS YOU CAN NOW SEE ... These slot drives *ARE* bootable and touted as such. As for that DRAM drive ... MOSTLY WASTED BANDWIDTH !


General
Brand OCZ
Series Z-Drive m84
Model OCZSSDPCIE-ZDM84512G
Device Type Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Architecture MLC
Expansion / Connectivity
Capacity 512GB
Interface Type PCI-Express interface (x8)
Features 256MB Local Cache

Onboard RAID Controller
**************
For use as primary boot drive or data storage ************
**************
Sustained Write: Up to 600MB/s

Compatible with Windows XP 32/64, Vista 32/64, Windows 7 32/64
Performance
Sequential Access - Read up to 870MB/s
Sequential Access - Write up to 780MB/s
MTBF 1,000,000 hours
Manufacturer Warranty
Parts 3 years limited
Labor 3 years limited

I was refering to devices like this..
Fusion-IO, which was producing hard drives that ran on your PCI-Express slots. It was a pretty cool idea then, but unfortunately their offering was really salty, and aimed primarily at enterprise customers. Well since one of the co-founders is a hardcore gamer, they decided to branch out and try to bring the same incredible performance to a new crowd.
Enter the ioXtreme. This card holds 80GB of storage (NAND Flash) which is capable of giving you a performance boost that you won’t see by just upgrading your CPU and RAM. Games, large applications like Photoshop and Final Cut will open almost instantaneously. They likened it to bringing up a program that was minimized on your start bar, which is pretty incredible. They even said that it would be possible to boot Windows in just one second. Unfortunately this feature won’t be available at launch, due to them still working out bugs with a few different BIOS, it will however be available via a driver update. The card should be launching later this year for somewhere around $895, though the price is subject to change.

Read more: http://www.techenclave.com/storage [...] z0jyMnTqag

I7 vs Dual Xeon's...

I am nowhere near an expert on this, but taking what I've read about, isn't it true that most games today do not favor more cores??

So wouldn't it stand that at the range of the I7-980 vx Dual Xeon's it is already past the point of diminishing returns??...well, when it comes to games anyway

When talking applications, it may be true that the Dual Xeon's would be better

Personally...i think the cost to value ration is wayyy too high right now. Save yourself the money, go one step lower on the chain of cpu's and get an i7 then overclock it. You should spend part of the money you save on cooling...and part of it on an ssd.

Ok ... you aren't gettin' 64MB sysRAM system for $3K

ALSO ... just because GAMES are not currently looking for more than two cores DOES NOT MEAN that those games won't be looking for LOTS of cores, in near future .... With 3D and whatever "feel-a-round(TM)" game tech is coming down the pike ... You can count on the next gen of FPS exploiting those extra cores.

SO ... just don't get too far ahead of yoursef ... Wait 'till games are looking for them, before you do 6+cores ... huh ?

= Al =