so this is my current build http://pcpartpicker.com/p/xVqP (I also have a 500W 80+ bronze certified PSU but i dont remember which one and im to lazy to pop the case oen and look) I have a spare $500 and im looking to upgrade. problem is the computer is relatively new.
I won the 7950 thats in there now and was considering buying a second 7950 to put in. obviosly i would have to upgrade the PSU first. what i was wondering is if its even worth it? i get pretty good framerate at max settings on a single monitor so the only reason I could imagine buying a second graphics card would be to use three monitors as one. but thats somthing i assume only Nvidia cards support. so is it worth picking up a pair of nvidia cards to run 3 screens? is there a single Nvidia card (for less than $500) that i can use nvidia surround with? is it even worth it?
anybody see anyplace else i might consider upgrading.
also no i wont consider upgrading to an I7. My GFs brother has almost eh same build but with an I7 and a 7970 and the performance difference isnt worth the money to me.
actually, amd does surround far better. and I would also suggest only getting 8g of ram, or at least, just a 2x8g kit that's cheaper. spending $90 on 16g of ram is too much. also, a 1tb hdd is like $10 more.
this is what i already have not what im looking to buy I baught 8GB of RAM 2x4GB kit but newegg accidentally sent me double...and who am i to turn down free RAM. I may add a second HDD (especially if my GF starts playing SIMs 3 again and i start playing WOW since between two thats like 70GBs of space by itself) as for AMD doing surround I diddnt know that. ill have to look into it.
hmmm i was thinking while upgrading the PSU (probably to one thats modual since the one i have currently is not which sucks) i might upgrade my heatsink as well. I love the hyper 212 it does a fantastic job but its just so damn big and bulky. i was thinking maybe upgrading to a corsair hydro series cooler. anyone know if its worth the effort or will i see no real cooling difference.
yea u'll see a big improvement
so i guess now my question is (since im still relatively new at building) does anyonw know of a modual PSU capable of powering that rig with 2 7950's ? Im guessing Ill need somewhere around 700watts.
If you plan on overclocking the i5 a lot and running the 7950s in SLI, I'd recommend more than 700w. A friend of mine was running 6950s in SLI with i5 2500k OC'd to 4.5GHz and he began running into power problems on an 800w. I'm not sure if the 7950s are more power efficient but generally AMDs are more power hungry. 700w should be sufficient if you plan on leaving them at, or close to, stock.
um both the cards are amd and anywhere from 750 to 850 should be fine as the 7000 series is much more power efficient than the 6000 series
I am gonna leave them stock. im personally not much of a fan of overclocking