Clan x86

General Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: deadly7 on March 31, 2011, 02:02:54 pm

Title: Building a new computer
Post by: deadly7 on March 31, 2011, 02:02:54 pm: I need a new general purpose workstation at home, so I browsed Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.591989
I like this combo set for a few reasons:
Processor super easy to OC and decently spec'd out of the box
1TB hard drive for all my piratin needz
4GB RAM
Mobo has SATA3 and USB 3.0 ports galore

I'm still in the market for a:
Case
Power supply
Monitor

I don't think I'll be buying a video card anytime soon -- this is going to be never used for video games beyond Starcraft 1 or Warcraft III. But, if I want to buy one, would an nVIDIA card work? Or am I limited to ATI because this is a Crossfire motherboard?

Anyway, recommendations on the three things I'm looking for would be awesome.
Title: Re: Building a new computer
Post by: nslay on March 31, 2011, 04:16:16 pm: I think a single nVidia card would work fine. Crossfire is a multi-video card technology (nVidia's is SLI).

Your board has a decent integrated video card. Should be fine for your purposes.
Title: Re: Building a new computer
Post by: deadly7 on March 31, 2011, 05:23:27 pm: Ah. Does having the ATi bridge benefit me at all if I then add a discrete video card? I've stopped keeping up with hardware changes, as you can see..

How's this monitor? http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=320-8966&s=dhs&cs=19&dgc=CJ&cid=24471&lid=566643&acd=10550055-1225267-u0t0f0fp49321c0s441#Overview
Title: Re: Building a new computer
Post by: Blaze on April 01, 2011, 01:47:49 am: I have this video card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187115 ($155)

I can play all the video games on high settings. :)
Title: Re: Building a new computer
Post by: MyndFyre on April 08, 2011, 02:15:33 am: Multiple video cards bridged with crossfire/SLI is lame. Both times I've used it, you can't enable that bridged mode and have multiple monitors enabled. Totally, totally lame.
Title: Re: Building a new computer
Post by: rabbit on April 08, 2011, 09:33:33 am: That's the glory of CrossFire. Create a profile in CCC and then you can use them all (they are all treated as 1 monitor)
Title: Re: Building a new computer
Post by: Furious on April 08, 2011, 01:31:35 pm: I have a GTX470 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130549&cm_re=gtx470_evga-_-14-130-549-_-Product) and this case. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147023) I like them D:
Title: Re: Building a new computer
Post by: Chavo on April 08, 2011, 05:11:11 pm: Quote from: rabbit on April 08, 2011, 09:33:33 am
That's the glory of CrossFire. Create a profile in CCC and then you can use them all (they are all treated as 1 monitor)
Does it have the same annoyances that some of the linux display drivers have with multiple monitors treating them as 1? Example: popups that show up in the center of your screen end up being split by a monitor boundary.
Title: Re: Building a new computer
Post by: rabbit on April 08, 2011, 08:48:05 pm: From what I understand (I still haven't done it as I only have 1 card), you can set up 1 profile for each monitor, so you still have 3 discrete screens.
Title: Re: Building a new computer
Post by: MyndFyre on April 09, 2011, 04:57:35 pm: Quote from: rabbit on April 08, 2011, 09:33:33 am
That's the glory of CrossFire. Create a profile in CCC and then you can use them all (they are all treated as 1 monitor)

That sounds like it could be incredibly annoying. If I maximize a window, does it maximize across all monitors? What if the monitors are not the same resolution?
Title: Re: Building a new computer
Post by: rabbit on April 10, 2011, 11:26:39 am: Dunno! You'd have to ask someone with CrossFire. I'd tell you if I knew, but right now I have no plans for another card.