Associate
- Joined
- 5 Feb 2011
- Posts
- 18
It's been a long time coming but I've finally saved enough to upgrade my Q6600 set-up. Although I use my rig for audio production I'm a pariah amongst the old guard in audio circles as I also use it for (gasp) gaming. Frankly I don't have the money for a separate audio-only Mac and, using a dual boot set-up, I'm able to keep everything running smoothly audio-wise with no complaints. However, gaming is a different matter. I spend a good deal of my time either in hospital or at home as I have Crohns and one of the things that helps me cope is gaming, in particular, immersive, ultra-realistic games, mainly sanbox RPG's such as Fallout 3 and New Vegas, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., the Elder Scrolls series etc. etc. although I'm a sucker for old school RPG's as well but they're not as much of a system strain...
(I'm sure the escapism factor would give most psychotherapists a field day). I also enjoy modding games and pushing the graphics of these titles to the limit. Unfortunately, this is where the Q6600, Radeon HD 5870, 4GBs of RAM and Acer P243W 24" is coming unstuck.
Apologies for the pre-amble but this is where I'm at now: I'm buying the Sandy Bridge-E Core i7 3930K when it's released (well, maybe a week or so afterwards just in case anymore bugs rear their ugly heads, although after the expense of the last debacle I somehow doubt there'll be problems...
), pairing it with 16GB of RAM (a lot, but the audio recording side of things really eats it up), an OCZ Vertex 3 SSD Boot Drive, 2xOCZ Vertex 3 SSD's 1 for gaming/films and 1 for audio/graphics work (although on a separate topic I'm unsure whether to go 2x240GB or 1x512GB with partition) using an HX 1200 to power it. Mobo, case and cooling are currently undecided although I "think" I'm going for a Lian-Li case. Ideally I'd prefer to keep it rackmounted like my existing 4U Compucase system as it would fit neatly at the bottom of my audio rack but I've been told that rackmounted cases aren't as efficient at cooling as full towers designed with intensive gaming systems in mind? I've also read that the i7 3930K will be bundled with a liquid cooler so that might solve my cooling issues: http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cooler...2011_Chips_with_Own_Brand_Liquid_Coolers.html ). My problem is that I'm well and truly stumped over the graphics card. At the start of November I'm getting a Dell U3011 and will be running just one monitor at 2560x1600 for a while till funds recover. However, at the start of next year it's my intention to go tri-screen so I'm trying to factor this in. Here are my options as I see it at the moment:
1. 2x1.5GB GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme
2. 2x3GB GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme
3. 2xRadeon HD 6990
I'm looking for a set-up that, for example, will allow me to run the likes of the forthcoming Skyrim in Ultra all round as well as coping with any intensive graphics mods I may end up throwing at it and aquit itself well when I introduce 2 additional screens. I've read that there's been some people not entirely happy with the dual-gpu set-up of cards such as the 6990 but I'm afraid I don't know enough to be able to make a reliable judgement on that front. I know it's a fair wedge of money I'd be putting toward this and I hope I don't offend anyone as it's not my intention to do so haphazardly. If anyone has any other suggestions or thinks that I'm going the wrong way with anything I'd genuinely appreciate the input
Cheers,
Leigh.

Apologies for the pre-amble but this is where I'm at now: I'm buying the Sandy Bridge-E Core i7 3930K when it's released (well, maybe a week or so afterwards just in case anymore bugs rear their ugly heads, although after the expense of the last debacle I somehow doubt there'll be problems...

1. 2x1.5GB GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme
2. 2x3GB GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme
3. 2xRadeon HD 6990
I'm looking for a set-up that, for example, will allow me to run the likes of the forthcoming Skyrim in Ultra all round as well as coping with any intensive graphics mods I may end up throwing at it and aquit itself well when I introduce 2 additional screens. I've read that there's been some people not entirely happy with the dual-gpu set-up of cards such as the 6990 but I'm afraid I don't know enough to be able to make a reliable judgement on that front. I know it's a fair wedge of money I'd be putting toward this and I hope I don't offend anyone as it's not my intention to do so haphazardly. If anyone has any other suggestions or thinks that I'm going the wrong way with anything I'd genuinely appreciate the input

Cheers,
Leigh.