2x6850 vs 6950 2gb. First Timing Building

[kkang1119]

I am having difficulty picking which graphics card i want on my new computer. It will be my first time building the computer and main reason i'm building it is for the new games coming out next year. DOTA 2 and DIABLO 3. My computer runs at least 12 hours a day.

The Motherboard i will be using is gigabyte 990fx ud3.

The Radeon 6950 2gb x1 cost almost about $300.
The Radeon 6850 1b x2 cost about $350 i believe.

For The Radeons.. What brand are the good ones if i am suppose to buy one or the other. For the 6950s i've been looking at sapphire 6950 2gb and the msi 6950 2gb freeze something.

For the 6850... I dont even know...

Which will be an smarter option for the price? I wont be using any multiple monitors or anything.
I am also stuck between amd phenom ii x6 1100t vs intel i5 2500k. I do not know how to overclock... if anyone can help me out with that also.

Picking out parts is so much work.. more than i thought. a lot of comparisons to do.

 

[kkang1119]

Oh, also. For the overall price I am thinking about $1200-$1500. can anyone set me up with some nice parts to put together that can be built with $1500 budget? sigh.. this is hard.

 

[jjb8675309]

I would highly recommended not going with dual 6850s micro-stuttering will be unbearable and I speak from personal experience...

much better idea to get a 6950 2 gb and possible a second down the road when they are cheaper

 

[HugoStiglitz]

i would 2nd that. go the 6950

 

[intel4eva]

Go with the 6950. SLI/Crossfire is only worth it for the very top end cards. Period. Take it from someone who's addicted to SLI/Xfire

Secondly, get the core i5 2500K. For gaming, it's MUCH better than the AMD.

Thirdly, sapphire is fine, msi is fine. Everything is ok except for XFX. I wouldn't buy from them ever, they are a cheaper manufacturer with higher failure rates and very bad RMA process. At least according to people's experience on the Hard forum.

 

[jjb8675309]

good lord ^ 6970 tri fire your system must roar

ASUS and MSI models are generally far superior then the reference design ones (XFX) - at least on the radeon side of things...

if they can be found for a similar price then there is no reason not to go with the nice aftermarket cooler imo