Hi Riyaad,

I'm a huge fan of Corsair SSDs, running a bunch of them across multiple machines. They are damn fast drives, and they don't cost an arm and a leg also. Backed up by this we have some impressive drives from Samsung and OCZ, too.

Newegg sell these awesome SSDs at the 240GB size for $219.99. This is not bad considering you get up to 550MB/sec reads and up to 470MB/sec writes. They are simply amazing value for money.

Alternatively, you can take a look OCZ's Vector 4 in 256GB, which sells for $269.99. This has read speeds of up to 550MB/sec and write speeds of up to 530MB/sec. It's a little under 20% more, but this gives you some options between some of the top SSDs on the market right now.

Hi Duarte,

For your system to be capable of running games maxed out at 1080p and at a minimum of 45fps, you shouldn't need to do too much. I would suggest one very fast GPU instead of SLI for 1080p, so maybe you could go towards a GeForce GTX Titan, or an AMD Radeon HD 7970 GPU.

Either of these would max out every game out on the market at 1080p @ 45fps, without an issue. SLI and CrossFire would push out your power consumption (something like ~600-650W+ is what I'd recommend) and then your motherboard would need to be SLI- or CrossFire-capable.

I'd suggest the GTX Titan, or HD 7970, which will set you back just as much as a pair of HD 7970s.

Hi Simon,

This is a bit hard, because NVIDIA just released their GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost GPU. This will force NVIDIA's partners into pushing out new GPUs in the coming weeks and months. This will also hopefully drive the price down of the GTX 660 and 660 Ti.

If you still wanted to buy a GTX 660 or 660 Ti, then out of those companies I would probably take a closer look at MSI's Geforce GTX 660 Ti Power Edition. It comes with a Core clock of 1019MHz, and 2GB of RAM and a very nice dual-fan cooler.

MSI make some great products, but I would really wait a couple of weeks and let the dust settle on the GTX 650 Ti Boost GPUs.

Hi Peter,

You don't need huge amounts of power for that system, but what I would recommend is getting something that both acts as a future-proof PSU, and a quality PSU. I don't like recommending cheaper PSUs as I've seen so many people over the years lose parts of their PC to a PSU going rogue.

We've just opened up our new Tweakipedia section of TweakTown, where we've built a BitFenix Prodigy using a modular PSU, with the Prodigy being a SFF case - so this is a perfect example. I'd recommend Corsair's AX760 PSU, which you can get from AU retailer Scorpion Technology for $269.

This might sound expensive, but you could use this as your PSU for years to come. Even in a high-end ATX build, 760W of power is more than enough even for the fastest, power-hungry GPU out there.

Corsair's AX760 is fully modular, and quiet - something very important for a SFF build.

Edit: Another PSU I will recommend is Corsair's CX430M PSU, which Scorptech sell for just $79. This has more than enough power for that system, but I would not recommend using this in another system that is more powerful.

Hi Gaelan,

I think the most important thing to take away from your question is the fact you're considering CrossFire, this definitely changes the way I'd answer the question. Because you're already thinking of CrossFire, you're obviously somewhat of a power user, heavy gamer or enthusiast. This makes things easier.

If you weren't going CrossFire, the single HD 7950 would be fine - but because you are going CrossFire, this opens you up to two paths. Getting a single HD 7850 from Sapphire now, and then throwing another one in for some CrossFire action in the future, or you could go even higher end and slap down the notes for that HD 7950 Vapor-X.

This way, you're opening up your multi-GPU path, so that you could have HD 7950's in CrossFire in the future. This would give you plenty of GPU to play virtually all games maxed out, no matter what game - Battlefield 3, Crysis 3, etc - at 1080p at a constant 60fps.

I wouldn't really bother with the HD 7970, sure it's a faster GPU - but the HD 7950 Vapor-X from Sapphire is a kick-ass card on its own. The extra money upgrading to the HD 7970 is better of saved toward CrossFiring your card later down the track.

Hi Lewis,

This is actually a question close to something we've answered previously, I had to double check that I wasn't answering this question twice. But, yes - your ASUS M5A97 is definitely more than capable of taking an AMD Radeon HD 7970 GPU.

You can even CrossFire the HD 7970 if you wanted to, but a single HD 7970 is actually more than capable for most games out right now, even games like Battlefield 3 or Crysis 3.

Hi Josh,

The $300 mark for a GPU upgrade these days is a damn good position to be in - because you can start choosing some seriously fast GPUs. Something I'd recommend for the $300-or-so price point is AMD's Radeon HD 7950 GPU. This gives you a high-end part, with 3GB of fast on-board GDDR5 to play with.

Sapphire's Radeon HD 7950 can be had for $309.99 from Newegg, which fits your budget perfectly (you did say you can go a bit above, so $10 is only a little bit above that $300 price point).

This GPU will allow you to play all of the latest games at medium-to-high graphics at 60fps or more, easily.

Hi Wayne,

This is tricky, but I still recommend Ivy Bridge. Sure, when Intel release Haswell it'll bench better than its predecessors and the competition - but will the cost involved be worth it? Maybe.

If you were playing with a multi-GPU, multi-monitor setup - most likely. The CPU bottleneck would be removed some what with the extra grunt, but again, by how much? 5-10% maybe? 15-20% would be my guess on a high-end, multi-GPU, multi-monitor gaming rig in say, Battlefield 3. But then, you'd not be worrying and just buying it when it hits.

I'd recommend getting an Intel Core i7 3770K, that'll see you through the next year or two at least. You can overclock them easily to 4.5GHz, which will remove most bottlenecks from a single-GPU rig, too.

Hi Gary,

The choice of motherboard and RAM there with the GIGABYTE Z77X-UD4H and G.SKILL Trident 8GB of DDR3 2400MHz RAM is fine. They'll work great together, especially the motherboard. GIGABYTE's range of Z77 motherboards are truly some of the best on the market, and G.SKILL make some of the best RAM on the market.

Depending on the CPU you have, you should be able to squeeze a decent overclock out of your system, too!

Hi Ty,

This one is easy - MSI's GeForce GTX 660 Twin Frozr. Sure, Galaxy cards are great, but MSI's Twin Frozr-based GPUs are really kick-ass. The cooling on them is not only great for keeping the temperatures down on your GPU, but they come factory overclocked, and still have wiggle room to move in the OC department.

I would definitely suggest getting the Twin Frozr card, you truly won't be sorry!