i7 Gaming Build

kramo123 · November 1st, 2009, 08:48 PM

Well that was easy. How come Google sends me to the far corners of the universe to find out Sapphire is the company...?
Anyways, so what's the case with the 5870, reviews I keep seeing don't really put it in the same class as the 295 (fps wise), so will firmware updates end up bridging that gap? Or is paying the same for the two just a ripoff and only done in Australia?
And buying one 5870 is still a HELL of a lot cheaper than two 5850s...

EXreaction · November 1st, 2009, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aaron_8015

Bringing in the p0rn I see...

I think they will release this at the same time nvidia drop the 380GTX.... There is no doubt that 5970 will beat the 380 as its a dual gpu card.... but will be interesting to see how much....

(sorry for random offtopicness

).

The release date of the 300 series is nothing but speculation, but in general it is said to be Q4 2009/Q1 2010, which probably means the best guess would be between 12/15 and 1/15.

Aaron_8015 · November 1st, 2009, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kramo123

Well that was easy. How come Google sends me to the far corners of the universe to find out Sapphire is the company...?
Anyways, so what's the case with the 5870, reviews I keep seeing don't really put it in the same class as the 295 (fps wise), so will firmware updates end up bridging that gap? Or is paying the same for the two just a ripoff and only done in Australia?
And buying one 5870 is still a HELL of a lot cheaper than two 5850s...

The 5xxx series has only been out a short time... new drivers will boost performance games, It is difficult to compare a dual gpu card with a single...

Yes its alot cheaper but two 5850's will perform better than a single 5870...

kramo123 · November 1st, 2009, 08:56 PM

Hmm... Ok then, so I'll have to dwell on the GPU issue. Now onto SSDs. Hellishly expensive basically, all that fits into my budget (quality wise too) appears to be a 60GB OCZ Vertex. What would I have on that drive if I got it, beyond the OS?

Edit: I think I'll have to go for the 5870, two 5850s is taking it outside my budget, on the inclusion of this other stuff.

EXreaction · November 1st, 2009, 09:50 PM

Honestly I'd just go for a single 5850, quite a bit cheaper and pretty similar in performance. There really is no game that'll push a 5850 anyways, at least not at 1920x1200 or less.

ShyguyXPC · November 2nd, 2009, 03:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kramo123

Well that was easy. How come Google sends me to the far corners of the universe to find out Sapphire is the company...?
Anyways, so what's the case with the 5870, reviews I keep seeing don't really put it in the same class as the 295 (fps wise), so will firmware updates end up bridging that gap? Or is paying the same for the two just a ripoff and only done in Australia?
And buying one 5870 is still a HELL of a lot cheaper than two 5850s...

Must of typed something in wrong... doing a Google Search for "Sapphire Radeon"

Gives me the same first hits as doing a Search for "Sapphire", that I linked earlier...

Sapphire Radeon - Google Search

kramo123 · November 2nd, 2009, 03:08 AM

I'll just pretend it was the Australian Google, upside down as we are. Save my pride that way. On a previous side note, if I was running a 60GB SSD and a 1TB drive, what do I stick on the 60GB other than the OS? As in, all media will be on the 1TB, but programs and the like?

ShyguyXPC · November 2nd, 2009, 06:30 AM

not going to get much on the SSD other than the OS, maybe some frequently used Programs, or maybe your favorite game or two.

or just leave it open for extra space if needed, maybe set your Browsers Download folder to it for downloads to save to, then eventually move the files over to the 1TB, could come in handy for unzipping large Zip or RAR files or any other sort of Compressed files, even Installers for demo's etc, then just install the programs to your 1TB drive, delete the uncompressed folders after install and move the zip, RAR, or whatever file to the 1TB for future use later if desired. the faster speed of the SSD can uncompress and write the data of the files faster to the drive than the rotational drive usually, so could speed up install process of programs a bit. some game demo's can take up almost 1 to 2GB of Drive space with the downloaded file alone, and could take several minutes to extract from compressed file, the SSD could potentially speed that up quite a bit...

but in all honesty, SSD's are still too expensive, given their capacity limits right now, I'd personally would rather go with a pair of Rotational drives in RAID 0 or several for RAID 0+1 or RAID 5.

much greater storage space, just as fast, and for same if not less money.

but if you have specific criteria like small space, need low noise, low power, etc, then an SSD could be a good choice.

I honestly don't see SSD's really starting to take a foot hold until SATA 3.0 and USB 3.0 start to come out, SATA 3.0 has been Ratified, not sure on USB 3.0, but last I heard both should start coming onto the scene in the next year or so. I think USB 3.0 is 10 times faster than current 2.0 if I remember right, and SATA 3.0 is twice as fast as SATA 2. This is where I can see SSD performance starting to make a dent, and become much more popular, but then again who knows, SSD's have been around for well over 10 years, and they have just started to make it into the regular consumer products in the last couple.

if your one to keep your PC running all the time, an SSD really won't help a whole lot with the OS, aside from running some other programs on the same drive as the OS, SSD's can help with Boot up times, etc, but if the OS is constantly running all the time, more and faster RAM will be more beneficial for the OS than a SSD IMO.

for the price I'd be more inclined to look into to Western Digital Caviar Black Series Drives and run them in RAID 0, or even 3 and Run RAID 5 and use that for the OS and Games, etc.

more storage, less price, but just as fast...

3 of these in RAID 5 would be pretty solid, plus would give some level of redundancy if one drive failed, Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (disregard the price I know its US, but was used as an example, I'm pretty sure given AUS pricing these would still be less than a single 60GB SSD down there, up here that same SSD is at least $235)

kramo123 · November 2nd, 2009, 09:02 AM

Yeah, three of those is only $240 down here (as opposed to $360 for the SSD). To be honest, I see benefits and drawbacks to the different RAIDs. After research, RAID 5 seems to be 'moderate' performance wise. Does it cause a noticeable drop in performance from just running them seperately? Or is it barely affecting?

*edit: though I get the feeling I'm misunderstanding how it affects performance.

kramo123 · November 2nd, 2009, 09:25 AM

I suppose on that note, with advice taken: go for the ATI 5850, either SSD or go for a bunch of drives in RAID 5 (yeah, makes me realise how little redundancy I have), and I'll be back for this in 3 or 4 months time for a final word or two.
Cheers to all.