PC Gamers....

[roliath]

Mass Effect? Who doesnt want to replay Mass Effect 3?

ME3 will not use phsyx, ME1 has physx only on 360.
Remember that they can wrap phsyx in software as well and have it run on the cpu.

[Lason]

Honestly I think Im going with Nvidia, been looking at AMD prices and setups and unlike the laptop cards, the prices arent too different. There is over $1k difference in the GTX580M's and 6990M's on the laptop cards!

[roliath]

Honestly I think Im going with Nvidia, been looking at AMD prices and setups and unlike the laptop cards, the prices arent too different. There is over $1k difference in the GTX580M's and 6990M's on the laptop cards!

From where? Shoot because the 580's ARE more expensive than the 6990's in the mobile market pretty much everywhere. Link to where its opposite.

Desktop wise the 6990 isnt made to compete against the 580, its priced to go up against the 590.

For instance have a look at dell. 700 bucks more for slower performance.

[Lason]

I never said Nvidia were cheaper, I just meant there isnt near as much of a price difference in the two as there is in the laptop cards.

The 590's are junk I hear, they are just 2 underclocked 580's on the same PCB, AMD wins on that one. Like I said, I have been burned by AMD everytime I tried them. Either bring back Voodoo cards or Ill stick with Nvidia

[roliath]

I never said Nvidia were cheaper, I just meant there isnt near as much of a price difference in the two as there is in the laptop cards.

The 590's are junk I hear, they are just 2 underclocked 580's on the same PCB, AMD wins on that one. Like I said, I have been burned by AMD everytime I tried them. Either bring back Voodoo cards or Ill stick with Nvidia

Well you can never judge laptop cards by price, they are always skewed one way and always very expensive.

6990's are basically two 6950's, same as the 590's. That's how dual cards always are. I had quad sli 7950's, 9800GX2's, they were fast but suffered from microstutter like a mofo (new tech, everyone had it unfortunately). I'll never go back to a dual gpu card. I'm actually waiting a bit to get a new sound card so I can install my third 6970 that I picked up. Scaling in bf3 is oh so nice with multiple gpu's in this game.

BF3 uses around 1.8GB of vram on my eyefinity setup, with 1.5gb 580's you'll notice severe hitching, 2gb is the way to go for surround/eyefinity and leave the 3gb cards (unless you're buying for the e-peen) to the extreme resolutions otherwise its really is wasted money due to paying the premium for that extra 1gb of vram which won't get used at 5760x1080p.

[Lason]

Ok so I just ordered my new system and decided to give AMD one last try. Also went with sandy bridge and this board should support ivybridge also. Thanks for the input guys.

Here is what I ended up going with...

Haf X case
Asus Maximus Extreme-Z mobo
Intel 2700K
Noctua NH-D14 (Hope it fits!)
Gskill Ripjaws X series 16gb
Crucial M4 128gb x2
dual MSI 6990's quadfire
Asus VE258Q 25" x3
Enermax Maxrevo 1350W PSU

After researching it quadfire seems to do pretty well these days with the newer drivers and microstuttering is at a minimum so I decided to chance it. Probably would have been smarter and cheaper to go trifire but owell. Only thing Im worried about is the noise of these things. I dont know how these things cool with the cards being right on top of each other but we will see. If they get too loud Ill do a cheap xspc watercooling setup down the road, not enough room in the budget for it this time around.

[BajaBob]

I have two of those exact monitors (in anti-glare) and I really like them. I am a programmer though, and game just a bit on the side. Not a fan of the case you went with, but that's only because I hate LED's.

Get a good battery backup when you can afford it, one of the best system protection investments you can make.

What did you get for your CPU cooler? I am running an H100, and a modded my mid-atx case to get it to fit.

[Lason]

Yeah I wasnt crazy about the LED's either but the Haf X has a button up top that cuts all the LED's off. One of the reasons I went with it.

I almost went with that same cooler but hearing Roliath and TxRedneck talk about it got me nervous so I went with the Noctua NH-D14 instead.

Ill look into a battery backup, I meant to get one but forgot about it.

[FATHERFORD]

It's a shame you can't wait.. Don't the x79 setups come out next week?

[BajaBob]

Yeah I wasnt crazy about the LED's either but the Haf X has a button up top that cuts all the LED's off. One of the reasons I went with it.

I almost went with that same cooler but hearing Roliath and TxRedneck talk about it got me nervous so I went with the Noctua NH-D14 instead.

Ill look into a battery backup, I meant to get one but forgot about it.

I don't live in fear of my processor dying... if it does I get to upgrade

Glad to hear about the LED's, didn't know that about the case. Its so annoying having those one when you game in the dark, steals from the essence of the game.

[Tx Redneck]

VERY NICE! Since you have all that scratch to throw around, I'll take a Phenom 2 1100T.

[Lason]

It's a shame you can't wait.. Don't the x79 setups come out next week?

I had no clue

VERY NICE! Since you have all that scratch to throw around, I'll take a Phenom 2 1100T.

Ill add that to my list

[Lason]

Glad to hear about the LED's, didn't know that about the case. Its so annoying having those one when you game in the dark, steals from the essence of the game.

Yeah this system is going in my living room and I wanted to make sure I could cut all the LED's off when we watched movies and stuff.

[Tx Redneck]

I had no clue



Ill add that to my list

Sahweet! PM sent w/my address.

[roliath]

Ok so I just ordered my new system and decided to give AMD one last try. Also went with sandy bridge and this board should support ivybridge also. Thanks for the input guys.

Here is what I ended up going with...

Haf X case
Asus Maximus Extreme-Z mobo
Intel 2700K
Noctua NH-D14 (Hope it fits!)
Gskill Ripjaws X series 16gb
Crucial M4 128gb x2
dual MSI 6990's quadfire
Asus VE258Q 25" x3
Enermax Maxrevo 1350W PSU

After researching it quadfire seems to do pretty well these days with the newer drivers and microstuttering is at a minimum so I decided to chance it. Probably would have been smarter and cheaper to go trifire but owell. Only thing Im worried about is the noise of these things. I dont know how these things cool with the cards being right on top of each other but we will see. If they get too loud Ill do a cheap xspc watercooling setup down the road, not enough room in the budget for it this time around.

Sounds good, I just installed my third 6970 this evening. Gonna try it with the color-grading hack in bf3.
This may sound elitist, but I wouldn't be happy unless I hit 4.8~5ghz with that 2700k. And I'm curious how how much you'll like those TFT LCDs.