Nividia or ATI, Intel or AMD

[335th_GRAthos]

Hmmm...
Since you have Intell E8400 @ 3.0Ghz, RAM 4GB, Nvidia GTS 250 1GB, PS 850watt, MoBo MSI P45 Platinum CrossFire only, no SLI, Vista 32bit, Monitor 1920x1200
I presume you are quite adept putting together hardware together.

My recommendation would be:
Intel i7 around 2,9GHz (you can overclock them without any superior knowledge to 3,6+GHz)
6-12Gb RAM 1600 (800MHz DDR2) (helps when it comes to overclocking of the CPU)
Motherboard SLI or tripple-SLI (you may need it later)
NVidia GPU, GTX570 has 1,3Gb VRAM or higher. 1,5Gb or 2Gb RAM would be even better.
Win7-64bit (this i a must, besides it works like a dream)

I think (you need to verify) your 850W PSU should be sufficient.

I am a NVidia man, my experience since the ATI 9800xt (5yrs ago) showed me that NV cards work well. My sympaphy lies with ATI but when it comes to my wallet, it has been NV for the past 4 years.

A word on SLI, I think it words pretty well now, since the arrival of the 460 series, a second GPU gives you almost double frames therefore it is becoming a worthwhile investment.
A word of caution though, ever 14 months on average, the new GPU generation on the market has double the performance of the previous thus, depending on your wallet, you may never need to buy a second GPU for SLI configuration.


~S~

[ICDP]

335th_GRAthos posts a very good system. The only caveat his his lack of experience of current AMD cards. As a person who builds and supports PCs for a living I would say that overall the HD6970 is a slightly better choice as a GPU over a GTX570, though only because of the higher 2GB RAM. Most of the tests I have done show the HD6970 and GTX 570 trade blows and are both very close in performance at 1920x1080, the HD6970 starts to shine as you add higher res and more FSAA and AF etc. To be honest you will not go wrong with either card, or if money is a concern the GTX560 or HD6950, thought the HD6950 is definately a much superior card in this price range.

There is no problems with AMD drivers in my experience, so don't let anyone tell you they are crap.

[ICDP]

Originally Posted by 335th_GRAthos

Why not????

Because at triple monitor resolutions the GTX570 hits the RAM barrier and goes to a crawl. Yes I noticed your smilie but answered anyway

[335th_GRAthos]

Hi ICDP,
the smile was because I have two of them in my rig flying with three monitors and 3072x resolution...

Yeah I guess you are right, you need 1,5+ Gb RAM to play CoD in very high resolutions...

~S~

[TonyD]

Originally Posted by ICDP

335th_GRAthos posts a very good system. The only caveat is his lack of experience of current AMD cards. ...

I have another – while there is nothing wrong with the performance of LGA1366 i7’s, it is difficult to recommend them with SandyBridge available, the 2500k being the pick of the bunch. I recently built a Core i7 2600k system and was impressed with the performance, but the large additional cost for the HT capability is not worth it IMO (unless you need it, of course).

I am about to build my son a new system (he cannot wait to see how BullDozer might shape) and based on current prices would recommend the following. The total cost here in SA is around $1000 (based on 7 ZAR=1 USD), where you are pricing and availability may differ, and you would be hard-pressed to improve on performance without increasing costs significantly.

Mainboard: MSI Z68A-GD65 (4 SATA-3, 4 SATA-2, 6 USB3, Sli/X-fire)
Cpu: Intel Core i5 2500k 3.30 GHz with large Intel vertical cooler
Memory: name-brand DDR3 1333MHz, 2 x 4GB
Graphics: MSI Radeon HD6970 2GB ($200 cheaper than a GTX580 1.5GB)
OS: Windows 7 64-bit (cost not included)

If you are not interested in the cpu’s integrated graphics capabilities, a P67 mainboard will be a bit cheaper, the equivalent to the above is the P67A-GD65.

Good luck

[Rattlehead]

Originally Posted by TonyD

I am about to build my son a new system (he cannot wait to see how BullDozer might shape)

Eish...the delayed release of Bulldozer has caused a bit of a stir.
I'm still waiting, and if Bulldozer isn't all that, then Ivy Bridge is just around the corner come September. At that point in time Sandy Bridge might look like a slightly less attractive choice.

I'm hoping Bulldozer is all that, though.

[l3uLLDoZeR]

Don't get your hopes up too much on bulldozer! It's gonna be late to the party and the clock speeds will never match intel. You can't make up speed with more cores.

Right now i have to recommend the 2500k/2600k with a z68 or p67 mobo.
The 1366 socket is making an exit unless you plan on running 3 or more graphics cards!

[TonyD]

Originally Posted by Rattlehead

... then Ivy Bridge is just around the corner come September. ...

Apparently delayed until March 2012 (http://semiaccurate.com/2011/05/30/b...delayed-a-bit/). A bit of irony above - 13ullDoZeR having a go at BullDozer

[Rattlehead]

Originally Posted by TonyD

Apparently delayed until March 2012 (http://semiaccurate.com/2011/05/30/b...delayed-a-bit/). A bit of irony above - 13ullDoZeR having a go at BullDozer

Gaah! Well, I can't wait that long. It's a straight up choice between Sandy Bridge and Bulldozer then.

[Widowmaker214]

get what you want :p

I prefer intel CPUs but know plenty that run AMD... I think intel will run faster but thats my opinion.

As far as video.. Nvidia.
Some of my regular fly buddies have had ATI, then swiched to nvidia..and refuse to go back.
to many troubles with drivers all the time.
I have an ati card in my latest laptop... only because I coudnt get it configured with an nvidia card and no other laptop I could get configured close to it.
and the driver crashes all the time. have updated it.. rolled back.
its just a mess. And I hear that same thing from my friends using ATI.
most have switched to nvidia.
I have 3 home built computers running nvidia, and one laptop. No issues.