derekc4

Thanks. How is the new line of CPX power supplies by Antec? If I were to get an Antec 1200, newegg has a special with the case and an 850w cpx for 245. So I could save a little money there. Because it'd be nice to have two 5870s. That's totally not overkill for adobe photoshop, right?

Also how much better is RAM that costs over 200 vs ram that costs 100? I've always wanted to ask. I loosely understand the timings, but how does it translate to real-world applications? Thanks.

derekc4

I have a gateway 7805u notebook. I'm not sure if I'd keep it or deal it for $400 or 500. It would obviously be a huge upgrade. I love my notebook, but it's kind of limited for what I want to do: game and design. :-)

Tuxi

Welcome to OCN and please, do fill up your system info from User CP.

MrDeodorant

Keep it. The first time you spend a couple days sick in bed, you'll be glad you still have it.

You could wait for the 32mm shrink of the i7s due in January or so, but I wouldn't wait for a 6-core. By the time anyone really needs them, they'll have been out for a year or so, and you'll be able to upgrade. I don't think anyone can accuse the i7 920 of being underpowered. You can buy the D0 stepping specifically from NCIX (or NCIXUS for Americans), and it's worth the premium. Get a really good CPU cooler, overclock your i7 to 4+ GHz, and you've got a machine that'll handle anything out there for years to come. Hardware Canucks did a cooler roundup recently, so you can get up-to-date information.

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Spritanium

Antec PSUs are very reliable; I just chose a corsair because I didn't realize money was an issue with a $2200 budget

Crossfire 5870s are WAY too powerful for any game, much less photoshop. I'd stick with one.

I don't particularly care about ram speed/timings, but I've heard good things about that set.

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• Lancool PC-K62
• Corsair 650HX
• Xigmatek Dark Knight
• Sunbeam Rheobus

DaftFully17

don't drop 2200 on a PC.

spend 1500 and pocket the rest, i'm sure you can figure something more useful to spend the money on.

[hooker ]

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uNeec

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e7200 @ 4.15ghz
VisionTek 4870 512mb 980/1200(Almost 1ghz core!)

Tommie

It is just plain stupid to spend that much on GPU's that are gonna power a 150 dollar monitor. Plain stupid. Spend more on a good monitor, at least 1920 by 1080 with low input lag and no macklight bleeding. That's where your money should go. All that GPU power with nothing nice to display on is madness.

Spritanium

Blame me for that one; 22" seems huge to someone with a 19" monitor.

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• Lancool PC-K62
• Corsair 650HX
• Xigmatek Dark Knight
• Sunbeam Rheobus

oliverw92

Crossfire 5870s are not too powerful for any game.

I would suggest:

i7 920 D0
EVGA x58 Classified
Corsair DOminator GT 6gb
Samsung F3 Spinpoint 1tb - the fastest hard drive that is non solid state, even proven to beat the velociraptor in everything but random access.
HAF932
Prolimatech Megahalems cooler
2x 5870 1gb (don't get the 2gb)
Corsair 850HX PSU
2x Scythe Ultra Kaze Fans for the megahalems. Probs 2k rpm will be the best.

If you can afford it:
Another F3 spinpoint and RAID0 them
Intel x25M G2 80gb SSD OR OCZ Vertex 120gb SSD


Then get a nice screen, Dell 24" monitors are very nice, although a little pricey. GEt a rokkat kova for your mouse, and an Enermax Aurora for your keyboard.

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