Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hello, all.
Been lurking around on the forums for a while and am just now making an account. I know horrible

Anyway, I'm planning out a new build for the new year that's eyefinity-capable.

Here's what I'm going with so far

Antec 300
ASRock X58 Extreme3 LGA 1366 Intel Motherboard
Corsair Cx600 PSU
12gb DDR3-1333 (triple channel)
i7-920 1366

So here are my questions so far..

1. Would it be better to go for a 6970 (either single GPU or Crossfire) or waiting for the 7970. I want to be able to run at full resolution (5760x1080), but dont really care about maxing everything out as long as it runs. I'm leaning towards the 6970, but i'm open to ideas.

2. My current monitors are the AOC 2343. The base is nondetachable as it holds the power/output connectors and the VESA mounts are at the bottom of that base. Is it still possible to use these monitors with say the Ergotech stands?


Thanks for all the help and this website has been a great resource in helping me plan out my build. Merry Christmas.

Hello, all.
Been lurking around on the forums for a while and am just now making an account. I know horrible

Anyway, I'm planning out a new build for the new year that's eyefinity-capable.

Here's what I'm going with so far

Antec 300
ASRock X58 Extreme3 LGA 1366 Intel Motherboard
Corsair Cx600 PSU
12gb DDR3-1333 (triple channel)
i7-920 1366

So here are my questions so far..

1. Would it be better to go for a 6970 (either single GPU or Crossfire) or waiting for the 7970. I want to be able to run at full resolution (5760x1080), but dont really care about maxing everything out as long as it runs. I'm leaning towards the 6970, but i'm open to ideas.

2. My current monitors are the AOC 2343. The base is nondetachable as it holds the power/output connectors and the VESA mounts are at the bottom of that base. Is it still possible to use these monitors with say the Ergotech stands?


Thanks for all the help and this website has been a great resource in helping me plan out my build. Merry Christmas.

Don't know on number 2, but I believe that dual 6970 is faster than single 7970, but you make yourself vulnerable to micro-stutter, and you are at the mercy of the AMD driver team when it comes to performance in newer games. But for my 5500:-, I would drop it on a pair of 6970's over a single 7970 any day :)

Games won't make use of over 2GB video memory for a while, so the potential gain from that will be minimal.

EDIT: My comment still stands, but you are going to want a bigger power supply. I wouldn't dare run crossfire on that PSU, not that it is bad, but it isn't capable of giving the required power. You want at least a 850w AX Corsair unit, or other such item, or anything bigger. If I had more income (and therefore a 3 screen system), I would of probably gone 580 SLI personally, and an AX1200 unit. Cannot stress enough how much you need a beefier PSU.

I would also go for a Sandy Bridge (1155 system), you will get the same gaming performance, if not better, with a lower power draw (read electricity bill, and heat output in summer), which is good, and I would guess getting 2 stick of 4GB RAM for 8GB total instead would also help making it a little cheaper. Unless you already have those items of course

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Adding onto what Gilly said also;

id wait for the new intel generation due out hopefully within the next few months. I was advised similar years ago and thought screw it i want the new PC now, but since then i wish i had waited just a few months. That old core i7 920 is going to seem so very under powered after a few months, and next year it will struggle quite a bit with newer games.

Dont get core i7 if the PC is mainly for gaming, get core i5 instead, performance with the i5 is about the same or slightly better on average in games, and costs a bit less.

A 600watt PSU for a med-high spec gaming PC is quite underpowered, its good for onboard and low-mid end AMD single card PC's, but no chance for double cards, especially the more hungry nvidia cards

If you get 2x GPU cards, make sure to upgrade that Antec 300 case so it has the 'optional' fans installed as well, or get a bigger case with more/bigger fans. AMD cards dont produce a lot of heat like nvidia cards produce so its not much to worry about, but in the long run its better to keep the PC as cool as possible - if you get 2x GPU's.

Thanks....

good info for me. I think I may go for something in the 800 watt area. Would that be enough overhead if I do decide to go Crossfire?

An 800watt good make PSU is the bare minimum for 2x AMD GPU's, youre makin the PSU struggle though.
As a rough guide, base each card max load as 400w, so x2 cards youve already maxed the 800w PSU, CPU's use about 150w, then a small amount for everything else case fans, LED's, RAM, harddrive, motherboard.

A lot of people use 800w PSU's, i use 1k though, better to be safe than sorry,

Just check specs of GPU and the 12v rails on a PSU, and allow for overhead.