Windows 7 - Some advice needed for my gaming rig.

hm... from what i've seen the eyefinaty is very good... and no it doesn't do teh 3d glasses i don't think but... it is the best card out there right now

Yeah, eyefinity is good. It was a little sketchy sometimes when it first came out but the drivers have been refined and eyefinity looks good. Also another thing many don't look at is power comsumption. The 5870 only uses 188 watts under load. If you are locked in getting the 3D glasses then go with the NVIDIA. Either way you will have a robust gaming system.

12GIG of RAm will benefit you IF:

1. You Run Multiple Virtual Machines
2. Heavy Video Encoding (HD Content) + Other Multi-tasking
3. heavy Photo Shop or 3D rendering


For gaming around 4GB is more than enough as well as most other things.
6Gb will give more head room.

I do alot of HD Video Encoding (1080P material) , and with 8GB of RAM it is helpfull in this situatuion as I do other things as well at the same time.
typical use is around 5.5Gb depending how much i have going on, although i have seen it higher on occasions.
Non-the-Less, I think even with the stuff I do that uses alot of memory, 6GB would be enough.

As far as Gaming and most other normal stuff, I seldom ever even use 1/2 of it.

Filling all the DIMMs will also put a lot more strain on the system, create more heat and using more power.
So unless you do the things that can take advantage of that much memory, i would stick with the 6GB. It should serve you quite well.

Supposedly I just read in the AMD forums that that 10.3 beta drivers fixes the 120 Hz flicker in 3D apps and also adds 3D stereoscopice support.
Catalyst 10.3 - AMD's ATI Catalyst 10.2 and 10.3 Preview | [H]ard|OCP

http://forums.amd.com/game/messagevi...VIEWTMP=Linear

great advice all.
yeah i think ill stick with 6gb it's more then enough then what i need,
Just real stuck on if i should go nvidia or ati.
I was adamant about going nvidia gtx480, but now i just don't know.

Also guys is raid0 easy to set up? i can format 1 hard drive no problem. but the thought of 2 in raid sounds scary to me,lol i was thinking of the OCZ Vertex Turbo Solid State Flash Drive 120gb for OS and main games.(And later few months down the line add a 2nd for raid0

and a WD VelociRaptor 300GB SATAII 10,000RPM Hard Drive for data music and stuff (and again in a years time add 1 more in Raid0)
or is my choice on page 1 more sensible?
thanks for help guys.

Wow, wasn't expecting so many responses from my post
Hate is a pretty strong word actually, I guess I should have said I'd prefer PC gaming compared to consoles. I like real high definition games, and my Wii doesn't really satisfy me. And also, just the experience of putting together a PC is really good (I've never had the money to build a gaming rig.)

Well, the Wii isn't exactly a good console for HD gaming. Xbox and PS3 are deadset on getting their systems to be the best HD system. and both make 1080p games. Wii is making games for console gamers who aren't as worried/concerned with HD.

Edit: this is just my opinion if I am wrong correct me

I think the wii is better for kids than serious adult gamers. I tried a few wii games in the mall when they set up demo machines and find them laughably child-like. The PS3 or XBOX360 is more sensible for the typical adult gamer due to the richer graphics and more intense (violent) games that are available on those 2 platforms. I spend most of my PS3 time killing people in MW2. It's a BLAST!

QUOTE]
I think the wii is better for kids than serious adult gamers. I tried a few wii games in the mall when they set up demo machines and find them laughably child-like. The PS3 or XBOX360 is more sensible for the typical adult gamer due to the richer graphics and more intense (violent) games that are available on those 2 platforms. I spend most of my PS3 time killing people in MW2. It's a BLAST! [/QUOTE]

The Wii market is targeted for kids and the non 18-35 year male. That's why it is so wildly popular. Simply a broader market. I enjoy playing it with my kids. It's simple and rated G.

Are you saying you will put 2 SSD in raid?

It will be blazing fast but you will loose TRIM feature when you RAID SSD so you might want to rethink that.

As for the VelociRaptors; in the near future WD will be releasing their newest Raptor a 640GB for the same price as the current 300GB so you might hold of on that for a while.

Another interesting possibility is HHD Boost for SSD; take a look here.