lots of questions =)

[mmogamer]

hey guys im considering building a gaming computer, but seeing as i havent built a computer in over 10 years i have a few questions regarding some of the newer stuff that im not familier with if someone would be kind enough to give me some advice please.

SLI

does SLI make much difference?
is it worth the extra cash?
does it require cards that are the same make and model or can you do it with different cards?
would i be better off using one more powerful GFX card or 2 less powerful ones?

gfx cards

i have my eye on a few cards but im undecided on which way to go, my best choices as i see it are:

1x 3gb nvidia geforce gtx 580
2x 2gb amd radeon hd 6970
2x 1.25 nvidia gforce gtx 560 ti 448 core (which is apparently better than the 2gb version - how is this so?)

is it worth paying the extra cash for the more powerful ones? will the perfromance increase be notable?
would i be better off with different cards?

HD's

ive noticed that quite a few people use 2 HD's, 1 being a small (usually 120g HD) SSD HD and one much larger regular HD, is this because SSD is much faster but more expensive, so people play the apps that require speed off of the SSD and just use the larger HD for storage?

liquid cooling

is this neccesary? does it help much? it seems cheap enough, should i just get it because its cheap?

cases

ive seen a lot of people on here went with the coolermaster haf - x full tower gaming case, personally i prefer the looks of the inwin black dragonrider gaming case which is also considerably cheaper. my question is, does the haf -x have much over the inwin case to make it worth the extra cash, regarding features?

cheers for reading my post.

 

[Corfate]

Go for one better card, rather then two lower ones

SLI shares the load, so effectively the GPU's can perform better as each isn't under as much streign and stress

Go for the 3GB 580, will beast all games currently

People usually run an SSD and another HDD as the price for a large SSD is very high. People want the PC to boot quickly and some programs that are frequently used to boot fast, the second HDD is usually for storage.

Liquid cooling is usually overkill unless you do some overclocking. I have a fear of having any form of liquid in my pc incase it leaks everywhere, so go with the Fenrir

Im not sure about cases, sorry!

Hope this clears some stuff up

 

[mmogamer]

yes it has helped me clear up a few points, thanx.

one more question though, if im not that bothered about fast boot up times, and as an online gamer, is it worth spending the extra cash for an SSD drive?

 

[liamnic2]

yes it has helped me clear up a few points, thanx.

one more question though, if im not that bothered about fast boot up times, and as an online gamer, is it worth spending the extra cash for an SSD drive?

Get a small SSD for OS and your favourite game(s) about 120GB ? Im going for 80GB

 

[mmogamer]

cheers. i think ill go with an 80g also then.

 

[Corfate]

Well, if I remember the OS is 20-30GB then that'll leave you with alot of space on it. If you're gaming online, you shouldn't really benefit much from an SSD other than boot times