Eyefinity Upgrade

[Schultzy]

So, I'm bored.

I spent nearly 6 hours or better looking at hardware last night and comparing what I currently have. For argument's sake, here's my current system:

CPU:
i5 750 @ 3,830mhz Socket 1156LGA
Motherboard:
MSI P55-GD65
RAM:
3x2GB OCZ PC3-8500F (533mhz) Part # OCZ3G2000LV2G
Video:
XFX Radeon HD 5870 1GB ram, 850mhz / 1200mhz


So, rather stout system as it sits. There are certainly better parts out there, but the best parts out there are still only a scoot above what I've already got, that I can see.

But that does not beat the itch I am getting to build something new.

So I saw an ad on NewEgg about Eyefinity. Of course I know what it is, but knowing what it is, and know exactly what it does are two different things entirely. Leading me to the next thing.

I don't believe the 5870 would be a good card to run this newfangled technology. Worse, I only have one 24" monitor. I've looked at monitors, videocards, and everything else, and have come to the conclusion that this would be the only real upgrade I could do. I am curious if it's worthwhile though?

First off, I would need 3 monitors that are similar. For that, I'd prefer three of the same exact monitors. I found these on NewEgg, and they look good, specially for their price:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824009261

While they are 3" smaller than the 24 I have, they would also make buying/building a monitor stand for them much easier. There's also the issue they would solve with space. 3x24 would take up alot of space I don't really have on my desk. Lastly, is cost. I can buy 3 of these 21's for the price two 24's would cost me - less than, actually. The cheapest 24's are 200/ea, and are not the same model as my current ACER P243W. Love this monitor, but I think 3x21 beats 1x24.

Then I figure, well, would need more power to run all of that resolution. So I decided on this card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102951

While the 6950's are not the top card on the market for ATI (re: i am not a fan of nV, so don't bother), they can be unlocked to the shader count of a 6970, for $100 less. Ontop of that, the top dog ATI 6990, is 760$, and nearly impossible to find. While I would love to have a 6990, I think the savings for near enough same performance is worth saving the other 100$ or so. This is actually the part I am arguing most with myself on, is the video card.

Lastly, SSD. I keep hearing that SSD is the big thing right now. I also hear that the process/read times are increased dramatically with an SSD drive. On the other side of the coin, I keep hearing/reading that they are failing left and right. Does anyone have an experience with this? I am looking at the following drive, but am unsure about pulling the trigger on something that costs $200 and is still prone to failing.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227706



I would also like to move into Windows 7, but I cannot seem to find a copy priced reasonably. An OS is something that I refuse to acquire illegally.

[Duke{CLR}]

I have never messed with eyefinity so I can't help you there but if you keep an eye on Newegg the OEM version of windiws 7 goes on sale periodically.

[Schultzy]

I... went ahead and did it.

This means I have a 5870 and a 24" monitor up for sale.

[Duke{CLR}]

Sweet, keep us posted on how it works.

[SIR Rossy]

i run eyefinity wih 6990 and 3 x Acer - V233HLBD 23" monitors 1920x1080 , Full res (5760x1080) .. MAKE! sure the monitors you get have dvi ports or you wont be able to run them on eyefinity properly .. if you need to know what cables to get i can tell you eyefinity is great i love it altho i havent used it that much with bfbc2 as im always tabbed out but the peripheral vision is fantastic!! you can see Phantom running up from the side of you!!

[{CLR} Cobalt]

Dayum Rossy. You way up there. That 6990 is da bomb.

Yea and it's a good thing to see Phan coming. He runs around lookin for me I think.

[{CLR} Cobalt]

I... went ahead and did it.

This means I have a 5870 and a 24" monitor up for sale.

I'm not a big fan of anything Acer, but how much for the monitor. If the price was right I could deal with it.

[SIR Rossy]

I'm not a big fan of anything Acer, but how much for the monitor. If the price was right I could deal with it.

the Acer 23 inch monitors that i bought were $140 each 23" and the colour is fantasic but the main reason i bought them was the thin edges!

[plaztic.dagger]

Lastly, SSD. I keep hearing that SSD is the big thing right now. I also hear that the process/read times are increased dramatically with an SSD drive. On the other side of the coin, I keep hearing/reading that they are failing left and right. Does anyone have an experience with this? I am looking at the following drive, but am unsure about pulling the trigger on something that costs $200 and is still prone to failing.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227706



I would also like to move into Windows 7, but I cannot seem to find a copy priced reasonably. An OS is something that I refuse to acquire illegally.

I've definitely enjoyed my SSD! Havent had any complaints about it since it was installed late last winter. I went with the Crucial brand, exact model escapes me right now. Only my OS resides on it due to its size (80G) and everything else resides on a hard drive.
And if your going that route definitely upgrade to Win7 for TRIM support for the SSD. Helps prolong the life of it, and there are a few tweaks for the OS to help as well. Like disabling defrag and indexing if I recall right. Googling will give you a list of things to do in order to help insure its life span.

Good luck!

[Schultzy]

I've definitely enjoyed my SSD! Havent had any complaints about it since it was installed late last winter. I went with the Crucial brand, exact model escapes me right now. Only my OS resides on it due to its size (80G) and everything else resides on a hard drive.
And if your going that route definitely upgrade to Win7 for TRIM support for the SSD. Helps prolong the life of it, and there are a few tweaks for the OS to help as well. Like disabling defrag and indexing if I recall right. Googling will give you a list of things to do in order to help insure its life span.

Good luck!

Ensure it's life span? That doesn't sound so good. -_-

As for the 6990's. I tried so hard to find them! The only place I could find them was in Canada, and it said it would take 3 weeks to get here! Everywhere else was out of stock/on back order.

[plaztic.dagger]

Meh, I doubt that I will ever reach its life span. But just like their smaller cousins USB Flash drives they have a limited number of writes & erase cycles. The TRIM feature helps cut down on erase cycles.

And things like weekly defrags is pointless, as is indexing since its so fast compared to a hard drive.

[Schultzy]

I'm not a big fan of anything Acer, but how much for the monitor. If the price was right I could deal with it.

I am unsure what a fair price would be, considering they stopped making them.

[Donziboy2]

SSD's are nice.
It does help to have Win 7 since its optimized for SSD, Vista is not and could cause long term damage.
That being said, SSD's aren't much more reliable then normal HDD. But even with all the bells enabled they wont wear out for several years. Like all electronics they can fail unexpectedly thou.

[Schultzy]

Having a problem with Crossfire & BFBC2. Everytime I have Crossfire running with BFBC2, computer decides it wants to shut off. I still am unsure how to fix this.

[Dead...Again]

Get an NVIDIA video card