Budget: <= £2k
Requirements: New high end rig for gaming and programming, something to keep me entertained for a while. Needs a monitor, big with ideally high resolution for dealing with multiple windows open while programming. While recording will be part of what I'm doing, I'm assuming that I'll be ok with an i5 on this one given the benchmarks and performance/price balance I've seen.
I've put something together based on current availability and the best tech as far as I can tell. Hopefully the fine folk of GH will be able to point me in the right direction if I've made any massive mistakes or if people want to suggest improvements.
I intend to be at least overclocking the i5.
Concerns:
1. It's a bit close to budget, so there's not a lot of wiggle room in the upwards direction.
2. The Crossfire 6950s seem to be the most cost efficient way to drive the high resolution monitor, but in all honestly I'd like to find an equivalent-strength NVidia solution at the same price point (which as far as I can tell doesnt exist). While I've enjoyed exploring OpenCL a bit with my 4670, I'd like to explore CUDA as well. However if there's nothing thast fits the budget I'm happy to stick to the ATi solution.
3. HDCP - I've yet to actually encounter this little technology in my own personal experience, but I am interested in playing Blu-rays. I'm assuming from what I understand that I'll be alright with all of this kit (player, graphics card(s) and monitor)?
4. Noise - I'd like it to not be too loud when running, and short of doing a custom loop watercooling project on the whole rig, I'm hoping the 6950s won't be too loud. Again this is something to be taken into consideration I suppose..
5. PCI-E Lanes - I know there's a limitation on this socket for intel platforms with x8 on each graphics card in crossfire. Does this then include any other PCI-E lanes as well? (i.e. if I have 2 graphics cards and a pci-e sound card for example, does that further constrain the number of lanes available to each device?)
6. The SSD - I've read a lot on these forums about SSDs being something a bit special, so I'm happy to take your word and use one for Windows install etc. I'd like to get a bit of advice on that selection, I'm hoping it's a pretty reasonable one.
There's a fair few different questions in here, but I'd rather not spam threads all over the boards
Any and all advice is much appreciated
Cheers!
Requirements: New high end rig for gaming and programming, something to keep me entertained for a while. Needs a monitor, big with ideally high resolution for dealing with multiple windows open while programming. While recording will be part of what I'm doing, I'm assuming that I'll be ok with an i5 on this one given the benchmarks and performance/price balance I've seen.
I've put something together based on current availability and the best tech as far as I can tell. Hopefully the fine folk of GH will be able to point me in the right direction if I've made any massive mistakes or if people want to suggest improvements.
I intend to be at least overclocking the i5.
Concerns:
1. It's a bit close to budget, so there's not a lot of wiggle room in the upwards direction.
2. The Crossfire 6950s seem to be the most cost efficient way to drive the high resolution monitor, but in all honestly I'd like to find an equivalent-strength NVidia solution at the same price point (which as far as I can tell doesnt exist). While I've enjoyed exploring OpenCL a bit with my 4670, I'd like to explore CUDA as well. However if there's nothing thast fits the budget I'm happy to stick to the ATi solution.
3. HDCP - I've yet to actually encounter this little technology in my own personal experience, but I am interested in playing Blu-rays. I'm assuming from what I understand that I'll be alright with all of this kit (player, graphics card(s) and monitor)?
4. Noise - I'd like it to not be too loud when running, and short of doing a custom loop watercooling project on the whole rig, I'm hoping the 6950s won't be too loud. Again this is something to be taken into consideration I suppose..
5. PCI-E Lanes - I know there's a limitation on this socket for intel platforms with x8 on each graphics card in crossfire. Does this then include any other PCI-E lanes as well? (i.e. if I have 2 graphics cards and a pci-e sound card for example, does that further constrain the number of lanes available to each device?)
6. The SSD - I've read a lot on these forums about SSDs being something a bit special, so I'm happy to take your word and use one for Windows install etc. I'd like to get a bit of advice on that selection, I'm hoping it's a pretty reasonable one.
There's a fair few different questions in here, but I'd rather not spam threads all over the boards
Any and all advice is much appreciated
Cheers!
I see there's a black version but doesnt quite look as good somehow..
(although it begs the question of why