Erik005

The asus xonar cards are very good. Most are expensive but there is one that is just under €70 called the xonar DX/XD I don't know how that preforms exactly but the asus software is always excellent. I have been looking for a new soundcard because my creative soundblaster is pci and sits to close to my graphics card.

There are several programs that can use many cores, like video-converting. Not much games but professional programs.

I also have the 5850 xxx, although I bought it because it was the only one that was available. It works great.

A good tri sli/crossfire mobo is hard to find the current intel chipsets do not have enough pci-e lanes for 16x16x16. Currently there is the msi big bang trinergy, this has a chip that makes triple sli more efficient. EVGA mobo's support sli they even make a quad sli board with socket 1366 and an x58 chipset. I wonder what the performance is of four gtx9800's they are really easy to get second hand now here in the Netherlands. I updated my computer info to my new beast check it out

Have you had a look at the new 890gx/sb850 boards yet? And the hexacores will go on sale soon they will threaten the i7-860 and i7-920/30 Unfortunately they came to late for me I have already upgraded my system based on a i7-860. But the new 890gx/sb850 + amd hexacore = pretty good value for money.

That'll work. :biggrin: Are you going to get one? What motherboard do you have that does not support ATI cards? SLI is out of the question unless you get the very expensive hydrocopper ones. I currently have a 5850 which goes up against the 470. They preform about he same but the cheapest 470 here is 367€ and my factory overclocked 5850 was 276€.

Thor a single card will use 300w not counting the other stuff so you will need a powesuply that is a lot bigger 600w minimum maybe 700w From what i have seen now the 480 offers 15% performance over the 5870 but with more power consumption and more heat. Nvidea wanted to have the fastest video-card but they only got the fastest GPU. The 5970 is still faster than the 480. Maybe a nvidea dual-gpu will come and take the crown of fastest card but considering the power consumption of 1 gpu this is unlikely.

The four hd5870 would preform better. A Dutch hardware site Hardware.info tested this with three 5870s and it got very close to the 5970s in crossfire so four would certainly go over. Keep in mind that the chips on the 5970 are the same as the 5850 not the ones on the 5870, because otherwise it would get too hot. BTW I still have a 5870 on order and it has not arrived yet I am thinking of maybe trying to order it from the US

Windows 7 does not support dual sound card so it can be a pain to install It works now but it still does not show up in the hardware menu P.S If you want a ati 5xxx series card order it as soon as possible I have been waiting for my 5870 for a month now.

I can confirm X-Fi not working well with win7 On most motherboards the sound is excellent Two 5970's you will need a big PSU

I'm thinking about buying a hd5870 to replace my 8800gt. What do you guys about this card