ATI or Nvidia gaming rig?

[alquemist]

Hey whats up guys, I have a gaming PC I bought custom made back in 07 from I buy power and its still runs great. But it does not run Bf3 how I would like to do so*Ultra High Settings*. So Im thinking of building a new rig on my own right after new years and this is what i came up with. I would like to know from you guys out there with custom rig making experience wich of these rigs would at least let me play any game for the next 3-6 years with max settings? If you have any suggestions on what would be better please let me know and thank you




MSI P67A-C43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz ( New CPu Fix)

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B

EVGA 015-P3-1580-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

$1,293.91

Or

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor

MSI 870A-G54 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

2x HIS H695FN2G2M Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

$1,062.90

 

[gmcizzle]

The i7-950 is a 1366 socket and the mobo is 1155, so it won't physically fit. You want either the i5-2500k or the i7-2600k Sandy Bridge CPUs. The main differences between those two are hyperthreading, slightly higher clocks (only 100Mhz), and 2MB more L3 cache.

 

[jsc]

MSI P67A-C43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950

Intel motherboard and CPU are incompatible. For an Intel based gaming PC, I recommend an overclocked i5-2500K CPU.

 

[alquemist]

The i7-950 is a 1366 socket and the mobo is 1155, so it won't physically fit. You want either the i5-2500k or the i7-2600k Sandy Bridge CPUs.

Thx i didnt know that. What do u think would be better for gaming 1 gtx 580 or 2xRadeon HD 6950 2GB running crossfire?

 

[gmcizzle]

Thx i didnt know that. What do u think would be better for gaming 1 gtx 580 or Radeon HD 6950 2GB running crossfire?

6950 2GB in crossfire will give much better performance than a single gtx 580. However, in the BF3 beta, there seemed to be a lot of driver issues with crossfire, but hopefully that will be fixed by retail release.

 

[gmcizzle]

What PSU do you have? 6950 2gb in crossfire in that setup will require a ~750w PSU.

 

[alquemist]

What PSU do you have? 6950 2gb in crossfire in that setup will require a ~750w PSU.

hec XP1080 800W Continuous @ 40°C ATX12V / EPS12V CrossFire & SLI NVIDIA HYBRID-SLI Certified Modular

 

[gmcizzle]

Never heard of that PSU before but you should be good to go.

 

[alquemist]

Never heard of that PSU before but you should be good to go.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339035

So i should go for the Amd build?

 

[gmcizzle]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339035

So i should go for the Amd build?

I would go with the Intel build, either i5-2500k or i7-2600k, and the 6950 2gb in crossfire.

 

[alquemist]

I can put the 2x 6950 2gb in crossfire on an intel build? I have some what some knowledge to pc building xp sry if its a dumb question

 

[gmcizzle]

I can put the 2x 6950 2gb in crossfire on an intel build? I have some what some knowledge to pc building xp sry if its a dumb question

Yes of course I can see how it's confusing though since AMD now markets their CPUs and GPUs together so heavily. If ATI was still on their own then there would be no confusion.

 

[gmcizzle]

Your mobo - MSI P67A-C43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Only has one PCIe 16x slot, so you need to pick another one for crossfire.

 

[gmcizzle]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157229

Although in dual mode its only 8x/8x on each card, but it won't make that much of a difference.

 

[alquemist]

Your mobo - MSI P67A-C43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Only has one PCIe 16x slot, so you need to pick another one for crossfire.

Ok this is what i came up with tell me what u think.


COOLER MASTER Storm Scout ( Case)

BIOSTAR T5 XE CFX-SLI LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact"

2x H695FN2G2M Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit

hec XP1080 800W Continuous @ 40°C ATX12V / EPS12V CrossFire & SLI NVIDIA HYBRID-SLI Certified Modular

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb

LITE-ON DVD Burner

Subtotal: $1,167.90

 

[alquemist]

What u trying to say? 2 cards will be the same as having 1?

 

[gmcizzle]

You need an LGA 1155 socket mobo.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130583

This mobo is only $95 after MIR and its layout looks nice, and should run 2 6950s nicely.

 

[alquemist]

Best answer selected by Alquemist.

 

[alquemist]

What did you mean by " Although in dual mode its only 8x/8x on each card, but it won't make that much of a difference."?

 

[gmcizzle]

What did you mean by " Although in dual mode its only 8x/8x on each card, but it won't make that much of a difference."?

When you run a single card on an LGA 1155 build the PCIe mode is at 16x, but when running dual cards each is only running at 8x. Although each card in this mode technically only has half the bandwidth, it doesn't really translate to much loss in performance.

 

[alquemist]

so 1 16x card basically is going to show the same performance as 2 at x8 im guessing?

 

[gmcizzle]

so 1 16x card basically is going to show the same performance as 2 at x8 im guessing?

No, the 8x/8x mode will still be almost as fast as it would be in 16x/16x mode with those cards. The performance loss is only about 2-3%.

So 2 cards even at 8x/8x will be much faster than a single card at 16x and only slightly slower than if they were both at 16x/16x.

 

[alquemist]

ok lol im learning alot tonight. My last question is it really worth getting 2 card running in crossfire or 1 card for gaming?

 

[gmcizzle]

Depends, what resolution are you playing on?

 

[alquemist]

I play on 1680x1050 16:10 on this pc