New Build Questions

[rdragonfly]

So I have this old motherboard and processor that has been sitting around for a bit and wanted to do something with it. The processor is a 1st gen i7 with 6gb of ram and GA-EX58-UD3R motherboard.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product...989&dl=#ov

What I was wanting to do is turn it back into a gamming pc which I originally used if for. Then I though, wouldnt it be nice to dual purpose it as a password recovery machine on its down time. Since it will be a gaming machine for the most part it would be win7 ultimate. But I could also dual boot to ubuntu 12.04 if that would be better. The two parts that I would still need to figure out is what graphics cards to get and how much power it will need. The pc will be connected to a TV so the max resolution needed to be played with High settings is only 1080p. What would you guys recommend for graphics cards in this case and how much power will I need? With the graphics cards chosen, should I use Crossfire or sli or would that not be needed? Budget I would say is not a big issue if I am getting good bang for buck.

Thanks for the help.

[Bitweasil]

Buy 7970s.

Buy lots of them. Or, at least the two that board will fit.

Crossfire or not for gaming, doesn't matter. I'm not sure if it interferes with compute - SLI used to, but I don't know anything about Crossfire since I don't connect multiple cards together for gaming. And you'll want around 1000W to be comfortable. You could get away with less with two 7970s, but there's not a big cost savings, and efficiency often drops on power supplies as you get close to 100% load on them.

[rdragonfly]

Buy 7970s.

Buy lots of them. Or, at least the two that board will fit.

Crossfire or not for gaming, doesn't matter. I'm not sure if it interferes with compute - SLI used to, but I don't know anything about Crossfire since I don't connect multiple cards together for gaming. And you'll want around 1000W to be comfortable. You could get away with less with two 7970s, but there's not a big cost savings, and efficiency often drops on power supplies as you get close to 100% load on them.

7970s, thats what I was hoping to hear. It seems to be very popular.
Is the Ghz edition worth it? Today I see the XFX 7970 on sale for 359.99 after rebate of course. But I was looking at possibly picking up a pair of these with the new power supply and calling it complete. Some point in the future I want to replace the mb and proc for something newer and holds maybe 4 7970s.

[Bitweasil]

The Ghz edition is probably worth the money. They tend to be better binned chips.