min specs for SOW

[icuucme37]

Has any min specs been released yet for SOW ? I just order parts for a new computer and know I'll be over the min specs, but want to know if I will be middle of the road on specs or top-end.

New computer specs are............Window 7

Radeon ATI HD 5770 1 gig GPU

Intel Core i7-920 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Low Voltage Desktop Memory

ASUS Rampage II GENE Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 750GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

OCZ Promod 600w 2 rail SATA, PCI-e ready power supply

[hellbomber]

you left off the most important part for gaming a graphics card, thats a great build but the GPU will make it or break it, if you want to pwn SOW get a 5850 or 5870 and slap an after market cooler on your cpu, i recommend Prolimatech Megahalems

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835242001 just make sure you have case clearance if not you can get something small cheaper

slap 1 or two 120mm fans on that thing and you can OC the 920 to 3.8-4.0 easy no problem, ive got mine at 4.2 and never goes over 75C max or you could leave the stock cooler and go for a mild 3.2 - 3.4 OC

to put anything less than a 5850 on that system would be seriously GPU bottle-necking the system

[Thunderbolt56]

Yes, you've got so much overhead on the i7 920 that you can oc that thing up to 3.6ghz without a sweat and provided you have a half decent cooler (I put a Thermalright TRUE on mine) you can take it to 4ghz. I have 3 profiles on mine and switch them depending on what I'm doing. I boot at 3ghz for general use, 3.5ghz for most other games and 3.8ghz for all my flight sims and even the first two are overkill most times. I have a profile that runs 4ghz solid as a rock, but I try not to run that profile except in the fall/winter.

That and a solid GPU with ALOT of VRAM (more than 1gb for sure) and you should be fine. You still may not be able to run everything at high (or highest) settings, but it'll still look good without a doubt.

[Tree_UK]

Back to the original question, at this time we have no system specs from Oleg. I would imagine we should most likely have an idea early next year.

[zapatista]

just by looking at the thread title and seeing it then contained a post by Tree, it was fair to presume he used the occasion to add more of his monotone whining

and hey presto, i was right ! :) :)

[zapatista]

Has any min specs been released yet for SOW ? ..... want to know if I will be middle of the road on specs or top-end........

no official announcement has ever been made so far about specific pc specs for BoB-SoW. but what is safe to presume is that, whatever high end gaming pc you might have AT RELEASE TIME will then allow you to run BoB on the higher settings with more eye candy and decent frame rates

if you search this forum you will find more in depth reasons why that should be the case

for your current new pc specs, you have a high end cpu, a fair amount of ram, so all you would need is a high end gfx card to go with it. that is of course presuming you will play on a medium level resolution with a single monitor. high end resolutions like those on a 30', or wanting to use multiple monitors, will need multiple high end gfx cards presumably.

all this of course is just deduced by applying common sense and additionally knowing something about oleg's previous release strategy in the original il2 series. if you want more certainty, then wait till release BoB time or for a formal spec announcement before you spend your money. by all current indications BoB should be released later this year, so it wont be far off. if a delay occurs, then obviously pc specs continue to evolve and oleg will tailor his product for the high end technology being available at that time.

[Tree_UK]

just by looking at the thread title and seeing it then contained a post by Tree, it was fair to presume he used the occasion to add more of his monotone whining

and hey presto, i was right ! :) :)

How on earth can my comment be at all percieved as whining?? :confused::confused:

[Tree_UK]

no official announcement has ever been made so far about specific pc specs for BoB-SoW. but what is safe to presume is that, whatever high end gaming pc you might have AT RELEASE TIME will then allow you to run BoB on the higher settings with more eye candy and decent frame rates
if you search this forum you will find more in depth reasons why that should be the case

for your current new pc specs, you have a high end cpu, a fair amount of ram, so all you would need is a high end gfx card to go with it. that is of course presuming you will play on a medium level resolution with a single monitor. high end resolutions like those on a 30', or wanting to use multiple monitors, will need multiple high end gfx cards presumably.

all this of course is just deduced by applying common sense and additionally knowing something about oleg's previous release strategy in the original il2 series. if you want more certainty, then wait till release BoB time or for a formal spec announcement before you spend your money. by all current indications BoB should be released later this year, so it wont be far off. if a delay occurs, then obviously pc specs continue to evolve and oleg will tailor his product for the high end technology being available at that time.

1. Why is it 'Safe' to presume that you will be able to run SOW on higher settings with this spec PC, you are completely guessing, at this moment in time we have seen no high res video with multiple aircraft flying over a city. Its impossible for you to make that statement. Of course you could be right, but you simply dont know.

2. There have been no indications that SOW will be released this year, in fact if you use your 'common sense' you would most certainly feel that all indications show that it will 'not' be released this year, christ its not even in 'beta'.

Take a re-look at this list that Furbs compiled of the things we haven't seen, and im sure you will agree a release this year is most unlikely.

Sqd take off and landings from a working airfield.
Aircraft sound.
Finished landscape seen in full detail and at high res with AA, AF.
Rivers.
Bad weather, overcast sky, night time.
How radar will work.
Working GUI.
SOW website.
System specs.
Any aircraft crashes showing physics model.
Sound of coms between pilots or ground control.
Anything showing how the single player will work.
Anything showing how MP will work.
finished coastlines.
Anything being bombed...or bomb damaged buildings...craters.
Bombsights...and how level bombing in formation will work.
Anything showing how being injured will be shown and how it will affect pilots.
Ground straffing.
Anything showing how the good the AI is.
More than 10 planes in the sky at one time.
Finished clouds.
anything in DX10???...but def nothing in DX11.
Explosions.
Cities(london).

3. Stop being a smart arse.

[furbs]

i cant see how Tree's post could have been seen to be "monotone whining "...just looks to be "common sense" to me...as you can see by my list, we have a long way to go.

the best way to go i would say is start saving now...wait till SOW goes gold and buy the best system you can get.

[zapatista]

How on earth can my comment be at all percieved as whining?? :confused::confused:

because it is a thread discussing computer specs, and without contributing anything to the topic under discussion you just use the occasion to echo your exact same same negative defeatist banter about BoB you always post here

I would imagine we should most likely have an idea early next year.

can you spot it ? :)

[zapatista]

..as you can see by my list, we have a long way to go.

what private personal list do you think is a failsafe measure to judge the progress of a sim you have only had small glimpses at over the last years ? i am not trying to be facetious there, but i have the exact opposite perspective to your personal opinion

iirc it is at the start of this year oleg indicated the sub-components of the sim were largely finished (dynamic campaign engine, scenery, weather, damage models, plane models, AI behavior, flight physics modeling etc..), and he at that point was in the progress of integrating them (a very different way of working to other programmers, largely skipping the alpha stage). have a look back at foobar's website to get an overview of the WiP updates we have had since then, focusing on just weekly shots might make you loose perspective of the amount of work that has already been completed.

oleg also stated that many parts of the sim you (we) wont get to see until right before release time so his competitors need more time to respond to his quantum leap and dont get a leg up on him to quickly. there have also been repeated statements by oleg he has to release this year for financial reasons and is aiming for the BoB anniversary date as a target. even if there are some minor glitches and postponements from that, it still leaves more then 3 months for him to release it in the boom pre xmass sales period. oleg also stated he personally is already working on the next project for after BoB, so his crew can continue working and dont need to be laid off, plus he is relaxed enough to go on hollidays, doesnt sound like a man who is panicking to me.

do we know for SURE it will be released later this yr, nope, but then nothing in life is sure. statistically speaking in the UK nearly 20 people every year die while getting out of bed, another 70 or so will die because they slip down the stairs on their way to get breakfast, etc.. does that mean you personally will succeed in surviving long enough tomorrow morning to eat your cornflakes, let alone make it all the way to work alive ? none of us can predict that for you with 100% certainty, but on the balance of all probabilities you will. and that is about how well we can judge the release of BoB this year, we know the work that has been done, we know roughly the stage it is at, and we know the pressures oleg's team is under to release it, so right now odds are we WILL have it before xmass.

[Tree_UK]

..... but we still haven't seen any of those things on Furbs list, and Oleg stated recently no work has been done on bridges yet, you have to use a little common sense here, this is not whining or complaining it is purely an observation.

[furbs]

From what ive seen in regular updates over the last 12 months, the progress rate from what we started with to what we are seeing now or NOT seeing, seems to me to say that Oleg and his team would be very hard pushed to get a release this year without dropping alot of features.

again this is just my thoughts...i really hope we get to see SOW in 2010 as im sure it will be ground breaking and set a new standard for flight sims.

[hellbomber]

if doubt that a 5870 and an i7 at 4.0 will max sow then you must be dreaming, i havent found a single game yet that i couldn't get at least 80fps on a 1920 x1200 all maxed with ample aa and af to boot, i can also run most latest releases at max res and with 2x aa on a 6000 x 1200 eyefinity set up, doesnt really matter what the specs are if u got a 5870 and i7 920 your good to go, who cares if u cant max every last fing detail.. bottom line is the game will run like butter with high settings

and even if it didnt theres not a hell of alot more you can do. maybey pop in 2 5870's or a 5970, but alot of games crossfire doesnt really do a whole lot, sometimes it doesnt help at all, and you wont find much more powerful than i7 unless you want to spend $1200 on a 980x which is insane, so bottom line is that system is about as good as it gets.. you could wait for an ATI 6000 series supposedly wil be here in december, if u havent upgraded yet i would wait for that GPU will give you the most bang for the buck

[furbs]

Hellbomber...i hope your right but i think SOW is going to be a whole new ball game :)

[zapatista]

1. Why is it 'Safe' to presume that you will be able to run SOW on higher settings with this spec PC, you are completely guessing, at this moment in time we have seen no high res video with multiple aircraft flying over a city. Its impossible for you to make that statement. Of course you could be right, but you simply dont know.

this has already has been extensively discussed in another thread here recently, and there are a number of specific reasons why that generalization i made there indeed likely to be correct

2. There have been no indications that SOW will be released this year,. you persistently seem incapable to process normal logical information in a rational manner. "indications" of release time are based on oleg's stated intent at the beginning of this year on meeting the BoB anniversary date, the financial pressure the company is under to release without additional delays, and that the last 9 months of weekly screenshots and video's show the project coming together nicely (with a few glitches, which is to be expected for a project as complex as this)


Take a re-look at this list that Furbs compiled of the things we haven't seen,

most points there are largely irrelevant, try and use some critical thought based on known facts instead

[zapatista]

and Oleg stated recently no work has been done on bridges yet, you have to use a little common sense here, this is not whining or complaining it is purely an observation.

wow geez thats really a show stopper aint it !!

lets see, there is probably roughly 100 to 150 bridges needed for major roads on the southern english part of the BoB map. if they are to be placed manually by hand (3 clicks of the mouse ?) i would say a single person can probably place almost 100 of those on a map in a single day

lol so 3 or 4 days work for a single person to do the whole BoB map

anything else that is keeping you awake at night worrying about ?

[Tree_UK]

Well historically speaking Oleg has said on more than one occasion that he 'wants and needs' to release SOW in, 2007, 2008 and 2009, so Im guessing that 2010 'could' go the same way as the previous years, but again hopefully i am wrong. As for the bridges you maybe right, a couple of days work, but it does somewhat defeat your argument that everything else is done and finished.

If SOW is released this year i will eat your grubby shorts, if it isn't will you eat mine? :grin::grin:

[furbs]

this has already has been extensively discussed in another thread here recently, and there are a number of specific reasons why that generalization i made there indeed likely to be correct

you persistently seem incapable to process normal logical information in a rational manner. "indications" of release time are based on oleg's stated intent at the beginning of this year on meeting the BoB anniversary date, the financial pressure the company is under to release without additional delays, and that the last 9 months of weekly screenshots and video's show the project coming together nicely (with a few glitches, which is to be expected for a project as complex as this)




most points there are largely irrelevant, try and use some critical thought based on known facts instead

irrelevant?? if you review all the updates over the last 12 months the ONLY thing i can see thats almost finished is the plane models and some of them still need more work(weathering on most of the types)

When we start seeing finished screens of updates(everything on screen is not WIP or placeholders) in DX11 then we can guess we are maybe a few months away from release.

I would love you to be right...im looking forward to SOW just as much as anyone.

[icuucme37]

Must of had a brain fart when i started this thread and not list the graphics card. As you can see I edited now with it listed.
Someone said to wait untill SOW releases, then upgrade computer, but seeing how old computer went up in smoke, that is not a option.

New computer specs are............Window 7

Radeon ATI HD5770 1 gig card

Intel Core i7-920 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Low Voltage Desktop Memory

ASUS Rampage II GENE Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 750GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

OCZ Promod 600w 2 rail SATA, PCI-e ready power supply

[Bobb4]

Take a re-look at this list that Furbs compiled of the things we haven't seen, and im sure you will agree a release this year is most unlikely.


More than 10 planes in the sky at one time.


You can remove that one from the list. There is one screenshot showing I think 21 aircraft. It is of 109's and bombers being attacked.

[zapatista]

Radeon ATI HD5770 1 gig card


nice gfx card in the "bang per buck" category, but for the new high end cpu you have the gfx card will be a bottle neck in more demanding games. i bought the same card here recently when my own pc went belly up a few months ago, but i have it paired with a much lower spec'ed midrange intel i3 cpu at the moment.

if you already spent your money, dont fret and just wait for BoB's release. at that point i suspect you will need to get a better gfx card if you are using a HD monitor and want the eye candy turned up

[swiss]

HD5770?

This card get's its butt whooped by the end of production GTX260.

It ok however, when you consider you'll need a new one for SOW anyway.

[Oldschool61]

HD5770?

This card get's its butt whooped by the end of production GTX260.

It ok however, when you consider you'll need a new one for SOW anyway.

Not to mention all the future driver issues with ATI cards, doesnt anyone remember all the problems with ATI cards and lack of driver updates??

Do that many people have money to burn on overpriced intel hardware??
Save a couple hundred bucks and get a quad core Phenom or hex core for much less and get basically the same performance.

[swiss]

Not to mention all the future driver issues with ATI cards, doesnt anyone remember all the problems with ATI cards and lack of driver updates??

Do that many people have money to burn on overpriced intel hardware??
Save a couple hundred bucks and get a quad core Phenom or hex core for much less and get basically the same performance.

Just finished AM3 conversion and bought

-MSI M65 mATX mobo
-955 BE
-4GB DDR3 (VR)

GPU is still a galaxy 260/216OC and I am very well aware I'll need a new one(Nvidia it will be) for SOW.
Took the mobo because it potentially could take 2GPUs, although they wouldn't fit in the current case I guess.
[Nvidia chipset would have been even cooler, but there are no mATX mobos on the market in this configuration]


Maybe s.o. can explain the advantages of an Itel CPU - because I really cant see any(other than mentioning it in the sig;))

[hellbomber]

Radeon ATI HD5770 1 gig card is nothing to laugh at

i had a 5770 running eyefinity on 6000x1200 ... granted i could only have aa on in a few games and most games were at medium / low settings.... on a single screen it doesnt do bad, but you certainly wont be maxing the settings without some lag, depends whats important to you, if your short on cash then i would just stick with the 5770 and whenever you get a present or something maybe ask santa clause for a 5870, 5770 have good resale value i actually sold mine for more than i bought it for on ebay

[swiss]

Radeon ATI HD5770 1 gig card is nothing to laugh at



It sure is.

Let me post this link from the SLI vs XfireX thread

http://techreport.com/articles.x/19404

[Oldschool61]

Radeon ATI HD5770 1 gig card is nothing to laugh at

i had a 5770 running eyefinity on 6000x1200 ... granted i could only have aa on in a few games and most games were at medium / low settings.... on a single screen it doesnt do bad, but you certainly wont be maxing the settings without some lag, depends whats important to you, if your short on cash then i would just stick with the 5770 and whenever you get a present or something maybe ask santa clause for a 5870, 5770 have good resale value i actually sold mine for more than i bought it for on ebay


What are you going to do when SOW comes out and you have all sorts of graphical issues with your ATI card? Download the latest Nvidia drivers :)

[hellbomber]

Let me post this link from the SLI vs XfireX thread

http://techreport.com/articles.x/19404

ok your an idiot or a troll .. those tests are all with high aa and af... 5770 choke on high aa and af, if you put it at 2x aa and or 0 - 2 af.. the 5770 would be running up ALOT higher on frames probably double, find one card in the 5770 price range taht does anywehre near as good.... didnt think so.. not only does it give the most fps per dolalr it also gives the most fps per watt.. its an extremely efficient mid range card.. comparing it to high ends is doomed, ive never been a fan of crossfire, i dont use crossfire, i hear SLI is alot better, but comparing a mid range card to high ends? seriously what did you expect


the 460 does about 33% better than the 5770

it also costs $230 but you can pick up a 5770 for $150-160 230 / 155 = 33% price difference so if u dont have the money to spend on a 460 you wont fins anything better at that price point in DX11

[hellbomber]

What are you going to do when SOW comes out and you have all sorts of graphical issues with your ATI card? Download the latest Nvidia drivers

thats funny becasue i did have driver issues with my 5876 2GB, but a week later 10.5 betas came out havent had a single problem since then

[hellbomber]

It sure is.

Let me post this link from the SLI vs XfireX thread

http://techreport.com/articles.x/19404

these reviews that you all read are completely worthless to real world use.. what the reviews SHOULD DO is see how high settings they can get with each graphics card at 60FPS.. not force the mid range cards to choke on high settings and let the high ends win easily, if you lowered the aa and af for the 5770 it would be keeping up with the high ends on high aa and af, thats real world performance what you loose with a 5770 isnt frames as that review would have you believe, what you loose is graphics detail, 5770 can run any game out today at 60fps, just have to set graphics settings down a little

[hellbomber]

i will say that a 460 is one of the best cards out thier tohugh especially within price performance, but it does cost alot more than 5770, some cant afford that, what the 460 does do well is smacks the 5830 like a red headed stepchild

[swiss]

Are you sure 5 subsequent posts are enough? Maybe you want to add another 3 or so?
Are you confused or drunk?
The latter is an excuse I would accept. :D

ok your an idiot or a troll

Thx Mr.Charming, see above.

those tests are all with high aa and af... 5770 choke on high aa and af, if you put it at 2x aa and or 0 - 2 af.. the 5770 would be running up ALOT higher on frames probably double,

No shit? The only thing I care about when buying a new card is it's performance with high AA + AF settings - and details.
Why not stick with the integrated GPU? ;)

find one card in the 5770 price range taht does anywehre near as good

Late model GTX260 OC, done.
Happy?
Plus: The 260 performs better in IL2, and nobody knows who much longer we have to play it.

it also gives the most fps per watt..

Matters, lots...

Who's forcing you to buy Green Power?


it also costs $230 but you can pick up a 5770 for $150-160 230 / 155 = 33% price difference so if u dont have the money to spend on a 460 you wont fins anything better at that price point in DX11

1st: You can them for less than $200.
2nd: Yes, it has DX11 - but on the other hand it's incapable of delivering decent fps. No sure if that really is an advantage.
3rd: Does it have potential, like you save money now, and when you need it, you can add a 2nd one? Not really unless you got triple.

Conclusion:
I would never recommend buying a new 260 over of the 5770. But if you don't have the bucks for a 460(or above), you'll be better off getting used one for the time being.
Or save the $ for the intel CPU and instead, get a decent GPU. ;)



OT:
. what the reviews SHOULD DO is see how high settings they can get with each graphics card at 60FPS

Those tests exist. Sure, I'd love to see how a MarsII does vs Ares, but just for entertainment.
Those results are of zero importance for the average user.
This test here shows you what you can achieve with less money spent.

[hellbomber]

1st: You can them for less than $200.

ohh reallllly? i guess your refering to 768 mb.. which is also an amazing card, but at higher resolutions its almost neck and neck with the 5770, however if your gaming 1600 x 1000 and under it should do alot better

[hellbomber]

3rd: Does it have potential, like you save money now, and when you need it, you can add a 2nd one? Not really unless you got triple.

yeah everyone always talks like their only option is sli or crossfire for upgrade... i went from 5770 to 5870 to 5870 2gb.. each time i just put my card on amazon or ebay, and i sold the old one for either more or only a few percent less because i keep the boxes and receipts and take very good care of the cards, and have excellent feedback... if your short on cash.. you could get a 5770.. then when you have enough money get a 5870.. or 6870.. or nvidia whatever.. you will most likely get at least 120-130 for selling the 5770 so you will only be down 20-30 bucks.. its a great holdover card if your planing on future upgrades

personally i would never do sli or crossfire even though i could.. id rather just sell the old card and buy the next best single core card.. i hate dealing with the hassel of two cards

[hellbomber]

Matters, lots...

yes it does matter lots to alot of people with older systems, crap power supplies, and thier system is alredy near its watt limit not to mention that you can oc it alot with just a little juice.. now if you have a 850 watt PSU like me its not an issue, also my room is hot as balls, i have three computers in here, 2 are OC, i have a 1200 wtt sound system and alot of other electronics, theres thousands of wats burning in my room and yes the electricity doesnt cost alot but the AC that i have to run to keep my room cool sure does.. less heat is nicer at least in the south, maybe in Norway it will be a benefit, free heating?

[hellbomber]

Late model GTX260 OC, done.
Happy?

not really comparing used card to new is kinda cheap and also not dx11, not that its a huge deal, but if your using it on a smallish screen say 1280 then yeah the DX11 will be really handy as the 5770 will be maxing the settings, buying used cards is great, just have to be careful where you buy from, however alot of people dont like getting used

[hellbomber]

Are you sure 5 subsequent posts are enough? Maybe you want to add another 3 or so?
Are you confused or drunk?
The latter is an excuse I would accept.

drunk yes i am drunk becasue i run my business from home and im allowed to drink at work cause im da boss, ok is this enough i think its more than 3

[swiss]

yes it does matter lots to alot of people with older systems, crap power supplies, and thier system is alredy near its watt limit not to mention that you can oc it alot with just a little juice.. now if you have a 850 watt PSU like me its not an issue, also my room is hot as balls, i have three computers in here, 2 are OC, i have a 1200 wtt sound system and alot of other electronics, theres thousands of wats burning in my room and yes the electricity doesnt cost alot but the AC that i have to run to keep my room cool sure does.. less heat is nicer at least in the south, maybe in Norway it will be a benefit, free heating?

He's building a NEW system.

With a 550w PSU he can run even the big ass cards, unless he adds all kinds of fancy stuff.
550w, probably not enough to heat(up) a room.
Considering your 850 PSU - what is the setup and did you ever check actual consumption?

drunk yes i am drunk becasue i run my business from home and im allowed to drink at work cause im da boss, ok is this enough i think its more than 3

working drunk is the fast lane to success. ;)
Maybe you should try to split that.

[hellbomber]

With a 550w PSU he can run even the big ass cards, unless he adds all kinds of fancy stuff.
550w, probably not enough to heat(up) a room.

yep your right in fact with his system i already recommended a more powerful card, but it seems this troll fight had fell of a cliff in mordor and gotten into an unrelated Nvidia vs ATI fanboi screech match, which i clearly won

[hellbomber]

Considering your 850 PSU - what is the setup and did you ever check actual consumption?

well TBH i got the 850w just in case i decided to go crossfire or SLI and i still may do it.. if and only if it will work well with my eyefinity, AND if SOW demands it for high settings with 2x aa.. honestly i dont see the point in 8 or 16 aa on a 1920 x 1200 screen or even 6000 x 1200 for that matter, the whole point of aa is to smooth out that ugly pixel jaggedness, which is MUCH less an issue at high res.. honestly i have tried and i cannot honestly recognize the diff between 4x aa and 16x aa on my screens.. af is another story, but still beyond 4x af the return is steadily diminishing, although it would be nice to max out id much rather have three screen eyefinity. IT IS A HUGE ADVANTAGE IN DOGFIGHTS.. i went from getting 1:2 kill ration in ful realism servers to getting 1.5:1 just after eyefinity.. it also really almost eliminates the need for track IR although i still want to try it

any way your question.

System Name: "The Triple Trader"
Processor: I7 920 D0@4.2 1.35v
Motherboard: Asus P6t Deluxe V2
Cooling: Prolimatech Megalahems 2x 1800 rpm 27 Dba
Memory: 3x 2GB Mushkin enhanced Blackline 1600mhz 7-8-7-24
Video Card: Saphire 5870(6) 2GB
Hard Disk: 2x 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black
Optical Drive: Samsung DVD burn / read
CRT/LCD Model: 3x 24" dell u2410 1920 x 1200 (eyefinity)
Case: Thermaltake Element G
Sound Card: HT Omega Claro plus
PSU: Corsair 850w
Software: Win7 Ultimate 64 bit
Benchmarks: max stable 4.2 Ghz stable at 1.35v at 75C max semi-stable 4.494 Ghz at 1.4v

my next upgrade step will most likely be a 6870, or possibly crossfire 5870 2GB ... but i really really dont want to crossfire

after that i am really kicking myself for not getting the 27" dells even though they were $1200 a pop when i built the rig, now i can get them for $600... but im thinking to myself if i do that il jsut be kicking myself later for not getting triple 30's , but the GPUs arnt powerful enough for 3 30" yet.. so most likely itll be 27"

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/5672/fullsetup.png

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/3787/insidew.png

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/3688/inside3.png

this is when i first built it it still had the "pathetic" 5770, that only ran MW2 at 80FPS at 6000 x 1200 on high settings, and no aa ...such a pathetic card!

[hellbomber]

did you ever check actual consumption?

no i haven't checked it even though i do have a kill-a-watt and check other appliances, but from what i know the PSU shouldnt draw more than 500wtts max from the wall, which would be about 450w for the system.. but also consider each monitor draws another 75 watts, the sound system is drawing alot of watts and so are the subs..well north of a thousand considering my subs are over 1500watts, depending on how loud my dub-step music is, usually the walls are shaking, and then i have security system monitors 4 of them with 16 cameras, 2 DVRs to record the cameras, 2 other computers 1 with 4 monitors, and the other with 2, a mini fridge, radios, police scanner, the list goes on, it gets so hot in here have to put the AC on full blast, AND have another ac unit installed just for my room, its even hot in here during the winter when its 5C outside

[hellbomber]

working drunk is the fast lane to success.

well now that i have a full time employee im alot more lazy, i pretty much make him do everything while i pass out, but it took me three years of working 100 hour weeks to get here so id say i earned it

[Blackdog_kt]

I used to have nVidia cards up until i built my i7 920 last year. I switched to Ati at that point to keep the cost down, with a 4870 1Gb (it also had a full GB of Ram, as opposed to 768Mb of comparable nVidia cards at the time for the same price). Unlucky for me it was a deffective card and got fried, but thanks to the 3 year warranty i switched it for a 4890 for free and i've had no problems since.

Before someone goes off about poor manufacturing quality in general, let me say that i also had an nVidia card go dead on me in the past. I had a NX6600 whose fan got fried and it almost killed the card, but the hassle in that case was that fan damage was not covered under the warranty. Also, replacing the fan yourself would void the warranty. So, i was forced to void it to repair damage that should have been covered under the warranty. In that sense, my experience in troubleshooting with nVidia was worse than doing it with Ati.

I dual-boot with winXP SP3 on one disk and Win7 64bit on the other, so i didn't have any problems with drivers...IL2 and other old games stay installed under XP where i run older drivers, new stuff goes under Win7 where i run the latest ones.

In fact, i think that there will be no problems whatsoever with Ati and SoW. The problems with IL2 are because of the fact that IL2 uses OpenGL. SoW will use DirectX, so it makes sense to buy the cards that deliver the most processing power for the least amount of money and watts. I never buy top of the line GPUs, i wait until they are in the $150 range before i pick them up. Since SoW will use DX, if i were to buy a new GPU for it i'd get a monster 5xxx series card from Ati instead of a 4xx series card from nVidia. Performance would be comparable since i run a single 1680x1050 (16:10) 22" dell monitor, so i'd rather buy something that generates less heat and costs less, rather than have the GPU fans screaming all the time and raising my room temperature an extra 5 degrees celsius, it's hot enough during the summer as it is :grin:

[hellbomber]

it's hot enough during the summer as it is

i feel ya!, and the Nvidia fanbabby feels it too

you tube.com/watch?v=2QkyfGJgcwQ

[hellbomber]

So, i was forced to void it to repair damage that should have been covered under the warranty. In that sense, my experience in troubleshooting with nVidia was worse than doing it with Ati.

to be fair to the nVidababy, generally its the card maker that does the warranties not directly ati or nvidia, sound like you got a bad company, maybe go with XFX or the likes next time they have double lifetime warranties, although nVidia companies are going out of business fast from the Fermi debacle, BFG just closed shop. and XFX jumped exclusivity ship, soon thier may not be any suppliers left rumor is EVGA is noone to happy right now either

[Blackdog_kt]

Yes, it's the final manufacturer that's mostly responsible for this, just relaying the whole experience here.

I buy almost exclusively from a small shop in my hometown (i avoid the franchised shops), plus order from the internet sometimes if i get a good price. The guy i buy from only carries MSI and a couple of other manufacturers for GPUs just because of the fact that they give a 3 year warranty on all of their cards, both Ati and nVidia.