Video Game System Advice--What do you recommend I try?

[underminer]

So I want to try playing some video games, I'm almost at the point where I will have spare time so its now time to plan! 

Options: PCs

I have an msi board which will do quad crossfire, this has a 1090t in it now.
I have an asus board which will do 2x crossfire, with the 8120 processor in it.
I am looking at buying a socket 1356 i5 system which I believe will do 2x crossfire as well
I also have a socket fm1 llano pc
And finally I have several fairly good for their time gaming boards that are socket 775 (to consider all options)
Not really interested in building/buying anything else anytime soon.

Options: GPUs

I have 4x 5870 cards of various makes (or will fairly soon)
I have a matched pair of 6950
I have maybe 6-10 5770 cards
Oddballs like a 5570 (to consider all options again)
Always looking for new video cards, probably no nvidia however.


What would you guys say would be the strongest setup?  I want to play eve online, minecraft, maybe some first person shooters, as well as of course, whatever I find cheaply on steam.

[SaintDevil]

I would take msi mobo with 1090t + 4x 5870s.

I love to play minecraft with high textures, but that requires a lot of memory on gpu.
If you are interested to play minecraft, I have a friend hosting a server. (minecraft.drought-tech.com) It's not really that populated though

[SgtSpike]

Honestly crossfire can bring a lot of headaches when trying to game on it.  If you want something that "just works", pick the best processor, the best SINGLE card, and then upgrade only if and when you are dissatisfied with the performance.  There are very few games out that need more than a 6950 (which looks to be the best card in your bunch) even running at max visual settings.  Just my opinion. 

Also, if we're plugging for Minecraft servers, play.minecraftcc.com is a good one.    Also accepts Bitcoins for donations!

[mufa23]

The quad 5870s will be useless. It will require lots of power compared to the 6xxx series, and won't preform as well. Also lots of games won't even run a quad card setup. Minecraft doesn't utilize crossfire, and only runs on your one card.

Go with the dual 6950s and 1090t.

[SaintDevil]

Honestly crossfire can bring a lot of headaches when trying to game on it.  If you want something that "just works", pick the best processor, the best SINGLE card, and then upgrade only if and when you are dissatisfied with the performance.  There are very few games out that need more than a 6950 (which looks to be the best card in your bunch) even running at max visual settings.  Just my opinion. 

Also, if we're plugging for Minecraft servers, play.minecraftcc.com is a good one.    Also accepts Bitcoins for donations!

Is setting up crossfire is much more complicated than doing SLI?

[underminer]

If I go with the msi I needs a new case for it though.  I have it in an antec armor but its about done it was pretty beat up when I got it and I almost think the back-plate is no longer square on it which drives me nuts. Also all the pcie are right next to each other which means risers-only for 4way anyway.  I am not too worried about headaches with crossfire, (I had a 7990 and decided to trade it off) I plan on having at least one redundant system.  I probably will just end up with 3 gaming systems total.

As to the minecraft Saintdevil--sounds fun.  I'd love to have a "house" to invite my friends over to, but I don't think I can commit to maintaining a server for it.  My friend had one all set up at his parents, (so they could play lol) but his stuff got stolen so he took the server down to use as a desktop and we don't have that anymore.

[SgtSpike]

Honestly crossfire can bring a lot of headaches when trying to game on it.  If you want something that "just works", pick the best processor, the best SINGLE card, and then upgrade only if and when you are dissatisfied with the performance.  There are very few games out that need more than a 6950 (which looks to be the best card in your bunch) even running at max visual settings.  Just my opinion. 

Also, if we're plugging for Minecraft servers, play.minecraftcc.com is a good one.    Also accepts Bitcoins for donations!

Is setting up crossfire is much more complicated than doing SLI?

No, it's the compatibility headaches that you have to deal with afterward that suck.  Games not running right, running more slowly than on a single card, crashing, etc.

Since underminer already has experience in that realm, and doesn't mind fiddling, it's a moot point for this particular discussion anyway.

[underminer]

Especially crashing.  Having a problem where guininer is invisible right now in fact.

[Unacceptable]

Honestly crossfire can bring a lot of headaches when trying to game on it.  If you want something that "just works", pick the best processor, the best SINGLE card, and then upgrade only if and when you are dissatisfied with the performance.  There are very few games out that need more than a 6950 (which looks to be the best card in your bunch) even running at max visual settings.  Just my opinion.  

Also, if we're plugging for Minecraft servers, play.minecraftcc.com is a good one.    Also accepts Bitcoins for donations!

Is setting up crossfire is much more complicated than doing SLI?

No, it's the compatibility headaches that you have to deal with afterward that suck.  Games not running right, running more slowly than on a single card, crashing, etc.

Since underminer already has experience in that realm, and doesn't mind fiddling, it's a moot point for this particular discussion anyway.

I had 6970's in Xfire & they did pretty good.Its mainly getting the right drivers,at least for me it was.12.6 & 12.8 did very well.Win7 makes Xfire pretty easy to setup.I also got a mobo that has 2 16x slots,I saw a diff coming from a mobo that had 1 16x & 1 4x slot.I play BF3 & COD 4/WaW.

Those 6950's would do just fine  

[SaintDevil]

If I go with the msi I needs a new case for it though.  I have it in an antec armor but its about done it was pretty beat up when I got it and I almost think the back-plate is no longer square on it which drives me nuts. Also all the pcie are right next to each other which means risers-only for 4way anyway.  I am not too worried about headaches with crossfire, (I had a 7990 and decided to trade it off) I plan on having at least one redundant system.  I probably will just end up with 3 gaming systems total.

As to the minecraft Saintdevil--sounds fun.  I'd love to have a "house" to invite my friends over to, but I don't think I can commit to maintaining a server for it.  My friend had one all set up at his parents, (so they could play lol) but his stuff got stolen so he took the server down to use as a desktop and we don't have that anymore.

I see, I have amd cards mining but always bought nvidia for gaming, just better piece of mind with drivers.
I have been building computer for long times, but not as much with amd gpus.

That sucks, what there is to steal from minecraft  

[Unacceptable]

If I go with the msi I needs a new case for it though.  I have it in an antec armor but its about done it was pretty beat up when I got it and I almost think the back-plate is no longer square on it which drives me nuts. Also all the pcie are right next to each other which means risers-only for 4way anyway.  I am not too worried about headaches with crossfire, (I had a 7990 and decided to trade it off) I plan on having at least one redundant system.  I probably will just end up with 3 gaming systems total.

As to the minecraft Saintdevil--sounds fun.  I'd love to have a "house" to invite my friends over to, but I don't think I can commit to maintaining a server for it.  My friend had one all set up at his parents, (so they could play lol) but his stuff got stolen so he took the server down to use as a desktop and we don't have that anymore.

I see, I have amd cards mining but always bought nvidia for gaming, just better piece of mind with drivers.
I have been building computer for long times, but not as much with amd gpus.

That sucks, what there is to steal from minecraft  

I agree Nvidia is better,but AMD/ATI is not that bad,drivers do suck though.But,I'm playin on my 7970 in BF3 & doing really well 

After the GPU mining is over,I will sell my 7970 & get a 580 or 680 though.Just to see what I've been missing on the "darkside" 

[underminer]

Well they stole his very nice expensive $1000 toshiba laptop (this is the friend whos getting the amd laptop now) and so he started using his old desktop back from his parents.  (Which he was serving from.)

I am really happy with my 6950 cards so far though I have only tested mining ability, no time for games.  I would like to check out modern nvidia eventually too (I used to run a 8800gt in every system) but for now if having amd means money, thats where I'm@...

[SaintDevil]

I agree Nvidia is better,but AMD/ATI is not that bad,drivers do suck though.But,I'm playin on my 7970 in BF3 & doing really well 

After the GPU mining is over,I will sell my 7970 & get a 580 or 680 though.Just to see what I've been missing on the "darkside" 

I agree, they are not bad. Back in Russia would mostly stock up on AMD stuff cuz cheaper. Much better at processing shadows too. Nvidia seems to lack that, always have to turn them down.
You should definitely go with 690