August 2011 New Triple Head Gaming Rig Advice

[Stec]

Would love input from the WSGF community on a new build I am working on. I am wanting to build something powerful that will last and age very well for a few years.
Here's a little template for build advice requests I found (cheesy, but thoughtful):


Approximate Purchase Date: Mid-August 2011
Budget Range: <$3,000
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming
Parts Not Required: None, buying everything new except mouse
Parts Preferences: No strong preference. But slightly partial to AMD only because it seems like more games have explicit "Eyefinitiy" support
Overclocking: Maybe
SLI or Crossfire: Yes
Monitor Resolution: 5760 x 1200

Additional Comments:
The components I have in mind at this point are 3 Dell U2412 displays (1920 x 1200 x 3) and the Core i7 2600k which seems like the best CPU for gaming at this point. I intend to, among other games, play BF3 at the highest possible graphics settings across three screens.

I am mainly interested in comments or suggestions for GPUs, CPUs, and Motherboards. Thank you kindly! :onethumb

[Skripka]

Save $100USD and get a 2500K. You aren't going to lose anything noticeable when gaming. For motherboards, I believe only Gigabyte's UD7 boards have support for x16/x16 dual card-most LGA1155 boards only do x8/x8, x16/x4 or x16/x8.

[Gilly]

The Sandy Bridge CPU's only have 20 PCI-e lanes so those NF200 chips are completely useless anyway. And apparently the new AMD platform "bulldozer" is coming out 19th September, if you can wait. We don't know a lot about it, but if you didn't wait the extra month, and it was quicker, you might be annoyed.

One part you didn't pay much attention to in the post is the power supply. If you are going on long, hot gaming sessions, the PSU is a crucial part. I would say get a minimum of a GOOD BRANDED 750+ watt unit. Look for one that has around 90% or more of its capactity at 12v. Something like a Corsair AX750, 850 or 1200, the Antec High Current series, pretty much anything with a Seasonic badge.

And another great addition to a gaming rig would be a SSD. They speed up loading times a lot, and improve general performance too, making everything snappier. I am looking at a Crucial M4 128GB as it seems all the Sandforce based drives are having various firmware issues (BSOD's, disappearing etc etc), the only other drive I haven't seen many problems with is the Intel 510 drive, but they cost a bit more than the Crucial. Hope that helped.

[Stec]

Thanks to the both of you! Last of the components arriving today.

[QuackingPlums]

The Sandy Bridge CPU's only have 20 PCI-e lanes so those NF200 chips are completely useless anyway

Never really understood the NF200 chip - isn't it supposed to double the bandwidth of those existing lanes? Why in particular does Sandy Bridge make a difference?