[aloot]

I'm building the following rig designed by Building-Gaming-Computers.com

ASUS P8Z68-V/GEN3 Intel Z68 Motherboard

Intel Core i7-2600K

Corsair Hydro H100 CPU Liquid Cooler

Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 16GB (4 x 4GB)

EVGA GeForce GTX 580 SuperClocked (1536MB GDDR5)

Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer

Seagate Barracuda 1TB (7200rpm, 64MB cache)

Patriot Pyro SE Solid State Drive 120GB

Lite-On Internal Blu-Ray Burner

Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower

OCZ ZX Series Modular Power Supply 850W



I have a SAPPHIRE HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 PCIE in my current PC setup. I wanted to maybe switch out the GeForce graphics card above, buy another 6850 Radeon and use dual cards in the new system.

My question is: Is this even a good idea? And if it is, would I need to buy a different Power Supply than the one listed above? If so what would be a good choice?

Thanks in advance.

[waldojim]

aloot, on 20 April 2012 - 10:01 PM, said:

I'm building the following rig designed by Building-Gaming-Computers.com

ASUS P8Z68-V/GEN3 Intel Z68 Motherboard

Intel Core i7-2600K

Corsair Hydro H100 CPU Liquid Cooler

Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 16GB (4 x 4GB)

EVGA GeForce GTX 580 SuperClocked (1536MB GDDR5)

Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer

Seagate Barracuda 1TB (7200rpm, 64MB cache)

Patriot Pyro SE Solid State Drive 120GB

Lite-On Internal Blu-Ray Burner

Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower

OCZ ZX Series Modular Power Supply 850W



I have a SAPPHIRE HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 PCIE in my current PC setup. I wanted to maybe switch out the GeForce graphics card above, buy another 6850 Radeon and use dual cards in the new system.

My question is: Is this even a good idea? And if it is, would I need to buy a different Power Supply than the one listed above? If so what would be a good choice?

Thanks in advance.

first, if you honestly think you need 16GB of ram, do it as a 2x8GB kit, as it will be better for the memory controller. Though, unless you are running a half dozen VM's at once, there really is no need.

Second, your choice of video cards will work out well either way. Though X-fire does introduce other problems that require patience, and tweaking. The power supply is overkill for both configurations. You could run 3 of either card with that.

This post has been edited by waldojim: 20 April 2012 - 11:04 PM

[LiveBrianD]

I have 8GB RAM in this machine, and trust me, unless I run a few VMs or mess around with video editing software a bunch (for instance, I got premiere elements 64-bit to use 4GB RAM while applying some effects to a video), 8GB is plenty. (4GB is recommended in lower-end machines, for instance.) Also, do you really need discrete audio? For most things, onboard is good enough (it has improved quite a bit over the years).

[coastie65]

aloot, on 20 April 2012 - 10:01 PM, said:

I'm building the following rig designed by Building-Gaming-Computers.com

ASUS P8Z68-V/GEN3 Intel Z68 Motherboard

Intel Core i7-2600K

Corsair Hydro H100 CPU Liquid Cooler

Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 16GB (4 x 4GB)

EVGA GeForce GTX 580 SuperClocked (1536MB GDDR5)

Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer

Seagate Barracuda 1TB (7200rpm, 64MB cache)

Patriot Pyro SE Solid State Drive 120GB

Lite-On Internal Blu-Ray Burner

Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower

OCZ ZX Series Modular Power Supply 850W



I have a SAPPHIRE HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 PCIE in my current PC setup. I wanted to maybe switch out the GeForce graphics card above, buy another 6850 Radeon and use dual cards in the new system.

My question is: Is this even a good idea? And if it is, would I need to buy a different Power Supply than the one listed above? If so what would be a good choice?

Thanks in advance.

I agree that 16 Gb is a bit much on the ram. I am using 8 Gb in here and it is fine. If you want to go with that PSU, then do so. It won't hurt anything. I am using a Corsair AX850 in here with an Nvidia GTX 560Ti. Is It more than you need? Yep. but if you decide to go with the card in sli sometime down the road, you won't have to worry about the overhead as you will have plenty. The build looks good though. With that case, I'm not sure if you really need water cooling or not. I am using the Cooler Master 912 HAF and it stays plenty cool with the air cooling. I did add extra fans though.

[LiveBrianD]

Keep in mind that coastie is known for power supply overkill around here...

[waldojim]

I was not suggesting the OP drop to a lower wattage PSU - only that it has plenty of power for up to 3 cards. I would say that for 2 cards - 750watts is ideal, 850 is overkill, and 900+ is downright pointless.

[ReviverSoft]

: Is this even a good idea? And if it is, would I need to buy a different Power Supply than the one listed above? If so what would be a good choice?

I would never recommend dual cards, unless you're desperate for performance and don't want to switch to a newer, faster card. Dual cards consume more power and generate more heat in the system. I've also read that the 6850 in crossfire suffers from Microstuttering.

So I would maybe sell the 6850 and keep the GTX 580 or get a HD 6970 instead.

Performance wise, the 6850 CF still edges over (only by 5-9 FPS) the other two, but it's not worth the shortcomings of CF.

As for the PSU, please avoid an OCZ unit. Seasonic, Corsair (HX/TX series) and XFX are top brands to choose from.

This post has been edited by ReviverSoft: 25 April 2012 - 06:26 AM

[waldojim]

ReviverSoft, on 25 April 2012 - 06:24 AM, said:

: Is this even a good idea? And if it is, would I need to buy a different Power Supply than the one listed above? If so what would be a good choice?

I would never recommend dual cards, unless you're desperate for performance and don't want to switch to a newer, faster card. Dual cards consume more power and generate more heat in the system. I've also read that the 6850 in crossfire suffers from Microstuttering.

So I would maybe sell the 6850 and keep the GTX 580 or get a HD 6970 instead.

Performance wise, the 6850 CF still edges over (only by 5-9 FPS) the other two, but it's not worth the shortcomings of CF.

As for the PSU, please avoid an OCZ unit. Seasonic, Corsair (HX/TX series) and XFX are top brands to choose from.

All of them do(meaning all multi-card setups). The full extent of the microstuttering differs from one set of cards to the next, what game you are using, what frame balancing methods are in use, etc. From what I have seen, the only way to truly stop most microstuttering out - is use 3 cards from ATI. That seems to result in the least microstuttering overall.

OCZ power supplies are actually fairly decent. Example from a trusted source: The very OCZ ZX 850 in question. Earning not only a Hardware Secrets Golden award, but being recommended side-by-side with the Seasonic X850.
Now, I would I buy this powersupply myself? Nope. I have no need for 850 watts, and I want a slightly different product from Antec (the HCP line). This doesn't change the fact that you are recommending someone ditch a perfectly usable power supply based on your gut feeling, not the facts.

This post has been edited by waldojim: 25 April 2012 - 09:35 PM