Suggestions for a new build

rage i was refering to the i5 systems not having full 16x speed on both pci-e not the other way around. and tank why not go for the system i reccommended it will be alot faster overall and you can just add another gtx 295 trust me it will kill everything you throw at it and the 1156 socket motherboards are not a good match for 2 gtx 295s because of the limited pci-e bus on them.i think the limited pci-e bus will bottleneck the cards really bad since the gtx 295s would in a since be split between the 8x pci-e where both cards would be limited to 4x speeds per gpu core.

I absolutely agree with klepto12.

thanks rit my op usually get passed over but hey if i were tank i would want to know this stuff before i spent like 3k on a new system only to be upset with how it performed.

A very good thought. But what exactly do you mean by "and runs all but four of the fastest games"?

that is a good question rit wouldnt it run them all lol

Again klepto, an x8 PCI-E 2.0 slot has speeds equivalent to that of a PCI-E 1.1 x16 slot. There is no card out there that can saturate the PCI-E 1.1 x16 bus, let alone that of PCI-E 2.0 x16. So it will make no difference if you have a PCI-E 2.0 x8 slot.

yeah but wouldnt each gpu core be using only 4x speed? and for a top end system the 920 would be a better choice overall?

The i7 920 has a triple channel memory controller as compared to the dual channel for the i7 860. The LGA 1366 platform is better with SLI / multi GPU IMO. However, most benchmarks have shown that the 920 and 860 are almost equivalent in performance (the 860 being a tad better). The Core i5 750 is another good processor that performs extremely well with single GPUs.

well i know when i build my new system i want it to be top end and that is the i7 920 or higher and imo a better system overall since you can use the new i9 cpus when they come out.

Yes, the LGA 1366 will support i9 CPUs. I'm just wondering about the OCing capabilities of the i7 920 Vs the 860. The 860 has a Turbo Boost Multiplier that's greater than a 920's.

they both overclock around the same plus th reson the 860 does better is the higher stock clock speed versus the 920 but overall the 920 is better imo.

Ok. The i7 build always looked a winner with the OP's budget. If it was a tight one the the i5 750 + P55 chipset would have been a better option.

i do like the 860 over the 750 only because of the hyper threading which would help with rendering and encoding which i do a lot of. but i might buy an i5 750 for my wifes computer when tax time comes around.

I apologize for what might seem like ignorance on my part, but you are suggesting I buy an OLDER CPU?? The 1366 is an older series.

Klepto12 - I did find what you were talking about. The GA-EX58-UD5 you suggested does have 2 PCI Express slots, both running at 16X. The board I was going to run, the 1156 series, has one slot at 16X and the other at 8X. I see the error of my ways, you were right.

Ok, how does THIS look?

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 motherboard
Intel i7 920 CPU
Wstrn. Dig. Black 640GB 32MB cache SATA HD X 4
Creative Labs X-FI Titanium Fatal1ty Pro soundcard
EVGA GTX 295 Superclocked Edition X 2
Ultra X3 1600 Watt modular PSU
Corsair XMS3 12GB (6X2GB) DDR3 1600 RAM kit
Thermaltake Armor + Black steel full tower case

Also, Rage_3K_moiz, you said that PSU is not needed, it seems to me like it would be. A system this hungry, plus lights, fan controllers, water cooling...would 1000 watts handle that?

What do you mean each GPU core is limited to 4x? This is not like an SLI implementation FYI; it is more like parallel processing on a single board. Each core processes a frame each. That theoretically provides double the performance, but driver support usually limits FPS boosts to around 40-50% at best.

Again, I re-emphasize the fact that two GTX 295s are a colossal waste of cash. And why not buy two 1TB HDDs instead of getting four 640GB HDDs? Lesser power consumption, and not to mention the fact that two HDDs take up less space than four.

The X-Fi Titanium is also unnecessary; the cheaper ASUS XONAR DX will be good enough IMO.

As for the PSU, that kind of system will require a 1kW PSU for sure. However, make the changes suggested above, and you can drop down to a quality 750-850W PSU from Corsair, Seasonic, XFX, BFG or PC Power & Cooling.

I went with 4 640's to gain more speed through a RAID setup.

Even if the 2nd card is only used by 20%, it is still worth it to me, the only time I would feel that second card is a waste, is if it sat there doing absolutely zero work, 99% of the time. More and more new games will be geared towards working with SLI, and with a board that runs both cards at 16X, I would be in a great position for the next 3 or 4 years to come I imagine. Am I not right?

Intel now intends to keep the LGA 1366 as a high end option for enthusiasts only. The 1156 is going to be the mainstream flagship for Intel in the quad core segment.

And I'd still agree with Rage. No need to get the second GTX 295 right now. Get it when there is some application that will require it. With your current setup you'll be safe enough to upgrade your GPU option later.

I thank you for the suggestions, but I am going to continue with the 2nd card, that way I will have it, and I am ready, and...I mean...bragging rights have to count for something eh?

tank why buy 4 640 drives and then raid them in raid 5 thats not going to increase performance as you might think two 1 tb western digital drives would be better in a raid zero but i think an SSD would be best for the os and apps to run on also i agree with rage and rit the second gtx 295 would be wasted you could really grab 3 gtx 275 for a tri sli setup and it would barely cost more than 1 gtx 295 and would be better put to use. Rage thanks for clearing that up about the pci-e bus and the gtx 295.

i recommend this PSU CORSAIR CMPSU-1000HX 1000W and it would work nice for a tri sli setup.