GtX 590 or new rig and 5850 crossfire

Liquiduk · 12 May 2011 at 15:12

crossfire the 5850. As you said "Just used for games" You won't need anymore then two 5850's at the current state. What is your PSU though? That may add another £100 or so depending on what PSU you have already.

ewarwoowar · 12 May 2011 at 15:17

If you have the money why go for the cheapest

EdwardTeach · 12 May 2011 at 15:19

Are you having trouble running games at the moment or do you jsut have the upgrade itch?

Liquiduk · 12 May 2011 at 15:22

ewarwoowar said:
If you have the money why go for the cheapest

Sometimes spending the most isn't always the smartest thing to do

. 'If', he wants to just play games then the most cost effective thing to do would be to (maybe) bump up his proccessor and grab another 5850 imo.

*update*
In fairness if your Q6600 is struggling to perform in certain games then a CPU upgrade would be a feasible option.

Old Wino · 12 May 2011 at 15:23

EdwardTeach · 12 May 2011 at 15:31

I think you could get a very nice i7 rig with an ssd and a 589 for about 1.2k

That is just for the computer, no peripherals or monitor.

I have been looking into putting together a system like that for myself (and giving my dad my current rig).

Back to my earlier question - are you having any problems with your 5850 at the moment? Personally I stil find mine plays everything I want to an acceptable level. IF i was you I would prob just go for 5850 crossfire and hold off ding a full system upgrade till later - Sandybridge will be old tech in a year!

WingZero30 · 12 May 2011 at 15:36

Liquiduk said:
crossfire the 5850. As you said "Just used for games" You won't need anymore then two 5850's at the current state. What is your PSU though? That may add another £100 or so depending on what PSU you have already.

This.

OP I have more or less similar system to yours and using one 5850.

Old Wino · 12 May 2011 at 15:36

Xelene · 12 May 2011 at 16:14

This is what i'd do:

i5 2500K + Motherboard + 8GB RAM - around £350-400
120GB SSD - around £200
570 or 6950 2GB - around £275
sell 5850 for £75*

Total = £800 roughly

* rough guess, got this for a 4890 3 months ago.

Crossfiring/SLI stuff always causes some heat issues and such. A nice fast single card with the chance to upgrade later is preferable IMO.

Edit: can sell existing mobo / chip / ram too - dunno how much they would go for - or if your like me re-purpose them as a spare server or something.

Old Wino · 12 May 2011 at 16:27

Marvin · 12 May 2011 at 17:17

I'm with sldsmkd, but importantly, what resolution are you going to be using?

FrancesoNoir · 12 May 2011 at 17:18

sldsmkd said:
This is what i'd do:

i5 2500K + Motherboard + 8GB RAM - around £350-400
120GB SSD - around £200
570 or 6950 2GB - around £275
sell 5850 for £75*

Total = £800 roughly

Agreed but consider what you'll have installed on the boot drive before making a decision on 60gig vs 120gig. For me, 120gig doesn't make sense as all my games are on Steam, which have to be all on the same drive, and I only have a few other programs installed. So 60gig for boot is the optimum.

On the other hand, you may have quite a few other programs or not be a Steam user so could be irrelevant. Just a thought.

Xelene · 12 May 2011 at 17:26

FrancesoNoir said:
Agreed but consider what you'll have installed on the boot drive before making a decision on 60gig vs 120gig. For me, 120gig doesn't make sense as all my games are on Steam, which have to be all on the same drive, and I only have a few other programs installed. So 60gig for boot is the optimum.

On the other hand, you may have quite a few other programs or not be a Steam user so could be irrelevant. Just a thought.

I don't think I could manage with a 60GB, 120GB is still a bit of shuffling stuff about. 120GB gives me Windows, 2-3 current games, user profiles (excluding downloads etc) and core programs. Typically have around 90GB on the SSD.

James J · 12 May 2011 at 17:29

I recently built an i5/64gb SSD/8gb DDR 1600/580gtx and 2x500gb hdds in raid 0 for around £1100. 590GTX cards are seriously unreliable so if you really want to part with that much cash on a gcard just get a 6990 instead. I'd recommend doing a full build and probably going for a 570/580gtx instead or buy a 6990 now and go sandybridge after abit more saving (bundles are good value) or wait for ivybridge/bulldozer etc.

Old Wino · 12 May 2011 at 17:59

bru · 12 May 2011 at 18:19

one question is your q6600 stock or overclocked...?

Xelene · 12 May 2011 at 18:25

I keep my steam folder on the 1.5TB drive, if there's something I want to play a lot will use ntfs junctions to move it on to the SSD.

A 570 is more than capable of good gaming @ 1920 x 1200. My flashed 6950 easily handles this resolution.

Old Wino · 12 May 2011 at 18:40

Marvin · 12 May 2011 at 18:42

Easy solution for Steam users wishing to split their Steam games across two drives: Clicky (basically does what sldsmkd does, but automatically).

Use it myself across my Kingston 128GB SSD and my WD Caviar Black 500GB HDD.

Generally I have any boot up programs (Core-temp, Afterburner, Steam), my web browsers (Chrome and IE9), and around 5-6 current games on the SSD, and then have lesser played games (L4D2, DOW2:R, any games I've started, but have paused to do something else) on the HDD. SSD has around 30GB free. I also store all documents/pictures etc on the HDD, not the SSD, as they are not speed-critical. Music is on a network shared drive anyway.

With 1920x1200, a single GTX570, 6970 or GTX480 will be hunky-dory for some time with a good CPU behind them. Better to fork out the big money if you see something you like next gen, or the one after, when extra GPU power is actually relevant.