Wow, talk about a great support community! Thanks for all the feedback guys, i have questions for nearly all of you, so prepare for a wall of text haha.
It would be helpful if you could state exact models and names of your hardware. 6GB DDR3 RAM for example can be anything but slower than DDR2 etc. We need everything in details so that there will be any recomendations.
If you going to have 2x4860 you don't need SLI case but CrossFire.
What model of your CPU? There are quite a few i7s with 2.66GHz clocking.
Alright, here's all the information as it appears on newegg.ca;
COOLER MASTER Storm Scout SGC-2000-KKN1-GP Black Computer Case With Side Panel Window
ASUS P6T ATX Intel Motherboard
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4860 100286L Video Card (x2)
COOLER MASTER Silent Pro RS-600-AMBA-D3 600W Power Supply
Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory
Seagate Barracuda LP 1.5TB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive -Bare Drive
LG DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model GH24NS50
COOLER MASTER Intel Core i7 compatible V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
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The intel i7-920 is faster than the AMD 965 that is over 3 ghz. The rated speed is not everything, stick with it, no need to pay more.
However, do you already have the two 4860s? Not sure I have heard of them, do you mean 4890 or something else (4870)? Either way just get 1 5870. CF is fast but it can be hit or miss on games. Get one fast card over two slower cards. In the future if you want CF 2 x 5870 is faster than just about anything. The 5870 is currently the fastest single GPU made and it cost $400 give or take.
Thats good advice, ive done away with the two 4860's, the price difference between them and other, better cards (from what i can tell from the reviews) was negligible. From what you've had to say about the 5870, that card is looking pretty attractive right now, if a little pricy.
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I always buy locally because I like local support. Microcenter and Frys for me.
I just changed my sig because I changed some comp. I love the Corsair TX650 PSU, they are $99 at Frys and probably the same price anywhere. I cannot possibly recomend this PSU enough. Single rail with lots of power.
I think the 5850 is the best price for performance GPU made, I would still go with the 5870 because it is the fastest. I do not like the 5770 for the price, I think the 5850 is so much more for the extra $100 but I know my budget is different than others (not trying to be mean). I have owned all above including the 5970 twice.
Look at the reviews on the 5850 compared to the 5770, the diff is huge. The step from the 5850 to the 5870 is not as large.
Just get a 1tb WD Black HDD. It is fast, large, and reliable.
If you are in the USA see if you are local to a Microcenter, they have very good prices on comp parts and they take returns on anything but the CPU. My thought is that if you can go past 1 month you are fine.
That seals it, the 5850 is what im going to go with. I have a local outlet with a TON of variety in cpu's, gpu's and everything else, theyre really cool with fledglings like myself and their return policy is the same, so i think im going to go through them for some of the parts rather than order online.
Thanks for the input guys, it was extremely useful. Keep it coming haha. Also, the modified builds some posted i found particularly healpful, more are definitely welcome.
Cheers,
Revive