Widescreen Gaming Forum

He intends to run Crossfire. Therefore a 850W is the Minimum.
I'm currently running two 290s with lot of over clocking I come of peak 880W system usage! But thinking that all PSUs have 10-30% reserve that should not be a Problem!
Beside IMHO always get the biggest PSU you can afford! the efficiency of a huge PSU can still be platinum and beat this silver certified one! It just costs more!

For the CPU I would also recommend core i7, just because you have unlocked Multiplier (on K version) for Overclocking and an iGPU that does QuickSync video transcoding.
The xenon mentioned here is just recommended because he has a really good performance/price rating, on stock clock speed.

I'd also recommend go with the 240gb EVO SSD, 120gb are just way to fast full!
Same goes for the 1tb HDD, why not 3tb? Would cost around 50$ more, enough space is always useful in the Future!

If you want to go Crossfire 290 or SLI 780 is entirely your choice!
Just one thing you should know. If gaming on one GPU means new game released, start game and it works. Then dual GPU means wait for optimized driver and crossfire profiles! This might come pre release or a week later!

Oh, and also about GPUs make sure you don't buy a reference card! They make way to much noise and have heath problems with two of em!
There are special coolers such as MSI lightning or sapphire twinfrozer, which sometimes do a better job. To be certain about that you'd need to find a test/review about the card you'd like.
Cards that do great single might overheat in dual.

Oh, and p.s. Micro stutter is no more an issue on 290 cards because they use a different way to exchange the pictures with each other.

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I'm running CrossFire with two 7970s and other stuff on an Enermax 625W. And it isn't a new one, it is "only" 82+ Bronze.
A 700 to 750W PSU should be more than enoough for 290X CF or 780 (Tis) SLi, including an overclocked CPU.

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Well yeah, my system runs on an average of 600-660W, and that's 290cf +3930K
But where is the fun if you don't over clock your system
As stated before the only place a bigger PSU hurts is the Wallet!

P.s. undervolted 7970CF 440W peak system usage

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600W from the wall outlet? Then, that's before the PSU efficiency. 800W PSU means, it can deliver 800W. It might be draining more from the the wall outlet.

Here in Germany, electricity is quite expensive. I always recommend smaller PSUs, so that it works with optimal efficiency. (Typically at at least 50% load)

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Thanks for your views on this.

It seems the Xeon may not be available in France, so I've been recommended this one: i5 4670K. Any views? Both of you, Falcon and Haldi, are recommending i7 which seems to be a little (€30 to €60 ) more expensive. But you both seem to agree on using preferably th i7, so I'm inclined to follow your advice (hesitant about budget though).

Thanks, Haldi, for tip about not getting reference card. I'll check reviews.

I personally use a i5 4670K, and it's a very fine CPU. The i7 series has HyperThreading, which can be a plus sometimes. Hyperthreading doubles your virtual threads, for a total of eight threads/virtual "cores" (Both the i5 and i7 have four real cores). I think the i7 is little bit more future proof, especially considering upcoming multi-platform games, because both PS4 and X1 have eight cores.

But, as we all know, future-proof is something that doesn't exist in IT. You might as well save the extra money and get a replacement CPU a year or a half earlier.

It depends on whether you are willing to spend the extra bucks for an about 11% faster CPU (i5 4670K vs i7 4770K), or not.

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As falcon stated, the 8 threads nowadays don't bring much more performance in games. Only special Programs or maybe in the near Future!
Especially if you're going with a K version (means you must over clock or its a waste of money!) there is no big difference from this i5 to i7

@Powerdrain, yeah 600W from the Wall would be around 530W system usage internally.
Most PSU have an optimal load of 80% (iirc) but there are some which are way more efficient than others. I.e. my Enermax MaxRevo 1500W thingy is more efficient with 180W idle load than most others! Surely nowadays with platinum standard that might not be true anymore.... but its still efficient.
The perfect PSU is a complicated topic. But a Working PSU is an easy topic. Most PSU do 5-7 Years without problems. Some strange Brands do less, and some totally lie about their efficiency. Choosing one you like and then reading a few benchmarks/reviews is always recommended.
p.s if I'd buy one now I'd buy one with a USB plug so you can see your system powerdrain in Windows xD but I'm a gadget freak.

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General consensus on the big hardware sites like HardOCP, Anandtech, and TomsHardware seems to be that a core i5 is the best price/performance ratio for gaming. I believe some of the more in depth benchmarks have demonstrated that you really have to be pushing 3 or 4 GPUs to take advantage of the performance on a core i7.

Tom's Latest CPU for Gaming Recommendations

Anandtech's Latest CPU for Gaming Recommendations

I've got a problem with the triple-monitor project: space! The problem is fitting the three monitors in the house in a way my loved one will find acceptable. I've figured a solution would be to keep the 46" Panasonic plasma TV that I use for gaming and add two screens on either side (those screens would be best at 27" in portrait - an almost perfect fit, in fact). With the peripheral monitors in portrait, I guess that's a 4080 x 1080 resolution across the three monitors (1080 + 1920 + 1080 = 4080).

If you're wondering why less space is taken with a very large TV: it's because with the large TV screen, I can keep the TV up against the wall; whereas with smaller monitors, they will need to be brought towards my face, thus imposing on the space in a difficult way).

So I'm hoping to use mismatched monitors. I've understood that you can use mismatched monitors with GPUs in SLI, but they have to have the same resolution, refresh rate, and sync polarity. I'm thinking this won't be possible for me as it's pretty much impossible to get info on what sync polarity a monitor has. And the plasma is reportedly 600hz.

How can I get high framerates at max settings with mimatched monitors? Ideally with the two peripheral monitors in portrait. Any ideas?

Is it to just use one GPU? A GTX 780? A GTX 780 ti? The soon-to-be-released GTX 780 ti 6gb? Is therer any way of continuing with the two GPUs in SLI? What kind of results could I expect? Any idea?

I recognise this is getting a bit complicated.

850 actually seems just right for crossfire. I peek at around 720watts from the wall when I hook up a kill-o-watt meter when I max my dual gpu 7990 and pin my i7 at 100% all cores. I run a 1000watt psu
I would also stay away from the Xeon