# Please Comment!! Multimedia/Gaming Build- Sandy Bridges 2600K



## Frankh1188 (Oct 10, 2006)

I'm building this rig for photography editing, gaming, video editing, HTPC, and general use. My budget is $2500 after taxes. 

Here is what I've come up with. Hoping to get some comments on the build and suggestions for changes (or not). 

*CPU * $329.99
Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 
Newegg.com - Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K 

*Motherboard * $337.99
GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD7 
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD7 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard 

*GPU * $899.97
Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 (x3)
Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100312SR Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity 

*RAM * $244.98
G. Skill Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL9 1.5v 
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL 

*HDD* $119.98
Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s (x2) 
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive 

*PSU * $222.99
Corsair HX Series CMPSU-1000HX 1000W 
Newegg.com - CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-1000HX 1000W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply 

*Optical Drive * $134.25
LITE-ON iHBS212 
Newegg.com - LITE-ON 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Internal Blu-ray Burner with 3D PlaybackiHBS212 LightScribe 

*Case* $199.00
Cool Master HAF X RC-942-KKN1 
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case


*Grand total:* $2,489.15


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

I have reservations about Sandy Bridge but if you want to take the chance the build looks good.


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

You definitely should go with a single high end gpu over the three 6950's. Crossfire and sli both have a very bad price to performance ratio. twice (or in your case three) times the cost for maybe a 25% increase in speed and not the widely assumed 100% increase. 

In your case with 3 gpu's the 3rd gpu will add little to no performance increase over two , and in some tests actually is slower then two. This is because all three gpu's are basically fighting for something to render thus slowing the machine over two or even one gpu.

Also whatever programs you use have to support crossfire or else it's a no go. Best advice I can say is loose the 3 gpu's and get a single high end gpu.

Your build is 2500$ and doesn't even have a monitor or os included which is pretty bad so bring it back down to earth a bit or you'll be very disapointed with the performance compared to it's price.


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## Frankh1188 (Oct 10, 2006)

emosun said:


> You definitely should go with a single high end gpu over the three 6950's. Crossfire and sli both have a very bad price to performance ratio. twice (or in your case three) times the cost for maybe a 25% increase in speed and not the widely assumed 100% increase.
> 
> In your case with 3 gpu's the 3rd gpu will add little to no performance increase over two , and in some tests actually is slower then two. This is because all three gpu's are basically fighting for something to render thus slowing the machine over two or even one gpu.
> 
> ...


I already have a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate and the monitors I will be using with this system. The reason I chose three HD 6950s was because I was planning to unlock them to HD 6970. And I went off of this benchmark XFX Radeon 6970 and Radeon 6950 Graphics Card Review - 3-Way CrossFire / Eyefinity vs SLI.

The way I saw it was three HD 6950s would cost $900 and would outperform two GTX 580s at $1000 or three GTX 570s at $1050. Perhaps my logic was flawed. Should I just get a single GTX 580?


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

I don't think you actually got the point of what I was trying to convey but yes a single high end gpu would be the best idea.

If you do get a single gpu you can also go with a less expensive motherboard as the one you've chosen is more expensive then the cpu which is kinda nuts.


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## Frankh1188 (Oct 10, 2006)

Yeah. The only reason I was going for that mobo was if I were to do 3-way sli/cf. Although I'm still not quite sure why triple HD 6950s wouldn't work well. I understand that a single GTX 580 will perform much better than lets say three GTX 460s. But what about 3 HD 6950s (flashed to 6970) v.s. two GTX 580s? The benchmark I link shows that the 3 HD 6950s would outperform dual GTX 580s at a cheaper cost and have more VRAM.


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## shotgn (Aug 10, 2008)

Keep in mind those are just benchmarks. On paper it is awesome. It is just not practical. Unless you are running multiple folding programs

Unless you want bragging rights?

You will not see a difference in gameplay between a single 580 to 3 6950s. As the human eye can only "see" is about 60. But that varies from screen size and resolution. 60 is just an average.

Simply alot of game are really not optimized for multiple gpu configurations.

In the end it is your money, we can only advise from our experience.


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## Frankh1188 (Oct 10, 2006)

shotgn said:


> You will not see a difference in gameplay between a single 580 to 3 6950s. As the human eye can only "see" is about 60. But that varies from screen size and resolution. 60 is just an average.


What about graphical output? Let's say I want to run Chrysis at max settings on three monitors. Wouldn't that require more than one high-end GPU?


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Sorry, I didn't notice the 3X GPU's.
Multiple GPU's significantly increase costs, power consumption and heat. For that more than considerable added expense you will get a small increase in performance.One better GPU will be more than sufficient and you save money.


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## Elvenleader3 (Jan 1, 2010)

If I'm not mistaken, some of AMD's GPUs have 2 video ports, making a 2 monitor setup fine with one card. With 3 monitors, 2 cards will be sufficient.


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## shotgn (Aug 10, 2008)

With current eyefinity on most 5xxx and all 6xxx series, one should run it just fine


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## Elvenleader3 (Jan 1, 2010)

I guess one card for a 3 monitor set-up is fine then. Thanks shotgn


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

The software title you plan to run MUST be programming code written to take advantage of dual and triple video cards / such a configuration is such a small percentage of the gaming customer base its not value orientated for a gaming title to spend much money for that ? better to spend your programming dollars on aspects of a game that MOST of your customers can use and will want


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## hhnq04 (Mar 19, 2008)

linderman said:


> The software title you plan to run MUST be programming code written to take advantage of dual and triple video cards / such a configuration is such a small percentage of the gaming customer base its not value orientated for a gaming title to spend much money for that ? better to spend your programming dollars on aspects of a game that MOST of your customers can use and will want


Ditto.

If you want to have the best performance overall and are willing to splurge, blow your load on a single card at the top end. I normally wouldn't recommend that someone buy a top end card, but you're planning / going to use 3 monitors whereas a fair amount looking to buy them have a single monitor -- you'll utilize that power there as well as with some of your other PC uses.

As an aside, be prepared for flashing bios updates with the new sandy bridge hardware as the kinks are worked out. I think it will be a great line, but there are (and will be for a short while) kinks to be worked out.


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

Um you also have to have a card capable of triple monitor output or a triplehead2go. If you sli or crossfire two dual link cards , then only one card will be active with only 2 outputs.


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## clonxy (May 26, 2007)

It looks like you have lots of money, so I would recommend an SSD as well. Newegg.com - OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD3-2VTX120G 3.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

SSD's may not have as much transfer speed as 2x f1 samsung in raid, but it does have lower ms time so you open programs, boot windows, load games a lot faster


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

clonxy said:


> It looks like you have lots of money, so I would recommend an SSD as well. Newegg.com - OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD3-2VTX120G 3.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
> 
> SSD's may not have as much transfer speed as 2x f1 samsung in raid, but it does have lower ms time so you open programs, boot windows, load games a lot faster






how does "lower ms time" ("milliseconds faster" translate into "lot faster" ?


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