For those of us looking to upgrade for SOW

[baronWastelan]

What sort of CPU & RAM do you reckon I'd need, to keep that GTX 590 supplied with enough bytes to make full use of its abilities?

[IceFire]

Originally Posted by baronWastelan

What sort of CPU & RAM do you reckon I'd need, to keep that GTX 590 supplied with enough bytes to make full use of its abilities?

Somewhere within the Core i7 range is probably a safe bet. Quad core, hyperthreadded, fast DDR3 ram with 6GB, oh and a SSD hard drive. That'll probably be a good bet for something that is in balance with a video card like that.

[lbuchele]

I have the SSD bought already, 6 GB RAM and other periferals.
I'm looking to build a system with Sandy Bridge 2600 and one of the afore mentioned cards because I'm suspecting that SOW will need a lot of power to run properly.
But maybe a GTX 580 can do the job right.

[Les]

Originally Posted by lbuchele

...
I'm looking to build a system with Sandy Bridge 2600...

You raise a good point here. If anyone is actually looking to make up a new system from scratch right now, the new Intel chips are just around the corner and could be worth waiting for, especially as they'll be using a new socket ie. requiring a new motherboard as well.

[Les]

Originally Posted by baronWastelan

What sort of CPU & RAM do you reckon I'd need, to keep that GTX 590 supplied with enough bytes to make full use of its abilities?

I don't know what the absolute minimum would be. But if I were building a new system right now I'd say, at least a Core i7 920, overclocked. Beyond that, whatever you want to spend your money on.

Having decided that though, your RAM choice is narrowed down, as using such a chip, which uses the LGA1366 socket, will require an X58 motherboard, which in turn will enable you to use triple-channel DDR3 RAM, which is best used in multiples of three sticks.

So, 6GB (3x2GB sticks) would have you covered for any game that I know of, whereas 3GB (3x1GB) could leave you lacking. Using 6GB would require also using a 64-bit version of Windows too though, so you'd have to factor that in.

You could use 4GB(2x2GB) and a 32-bit version of Windows, but the RAM wouldn't be running in triple-channel mode, and depending on whatever else you've got running (like Windows itself), 4GB might not be enough to keep something like, say, SOW:BOB moving along nicely.

Edit - Just wanted to add that when it comes to real-world gaming, there's next to no perceivable difference in frame-rates when running dual-channel or triple-channel RAM, or even between running double-channel and single-channnel RAM. And although I haven't experienced it first hand, there's no perceivable difference, in game, between equally clocked, LGA1366 or LGA1156 socket CPU's.