So tax time has rolled around and I have some spare cash on me, so I thought it would be time to upgrade a few parts of my system to increase performance while developing and enjoyment in video games. Basically I'm just going to be upgrading 3 main parts; SSD, PSU and GPU.

Currently I have a Gigabyte GTX 570, the one with 3 quite large fans, and am wanting to get another one, however Umart seems to have stopped stocking them. Thus my question, which GTX570 is the better of them?

With SSD, I'm looking at getting the Intel SSD 120GB 330 Series SATA III 6Gb/s for $110. I currently have a quite old 60GB OCZ vertex 2 which is running a couple steam games, but I really want to run my OS on one, but alas space on a 60GB gets eaten quite quickly. I was thinking of getting two, one for OS and one for games.

My currently PSU is 650W, and I'm presuming I'll need to upgrade with a second GPU so figured 750W would be sufficient enough.

Thoughts/advice?

Should have noted that one of the other reasons for a new GPU is more then 2 monitors. Would like to try three 23-24" monitors for that surrealistic gaming experience.

^ i bought my 512gb crucial from there too for $399 i believe
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/874566-REG/Crucial_Technology_CT512M4SSD1_512GB_m4_SSD_2_5.html

i still dont recommend buying a second video card though. i would wait until the video card you got now cant play games anymore.

Would it be more worthwhile to go the Intel 520S 240GB for an extra $9 and 110 MB/s more read speed but 16GB less?

Alright so no to an extra graphics card, can understand it being tad useless right now when my GTX570 can do everything superb, was more for 3 monitor support. Might as well ask then, what's a good monitor? I've currently got a 23" LG at I think 5ms.

http://umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=143&bid=2&sid=95560
27" for $299

Personally I'd get a 3D one though for 120Hz if I had the cash (currently running a 27" Asus)

So what are the three monitors for anyway? Games, browsing and ? One video card could easily support two monitors if you if you can go without the third one.

True, I think 3 monitors would only be fully used on a game that supported it, and that doesn't seem to be as common yet.

http://umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=143&bid=2&sid=95560
27" for $299

Personally I'd get a 3D one though for 120Hz if I had the cash (currently running a 27" Asus)

Man that is tempting, might grab two and ditch my 23". Are Samsung a good brand?

pretty sure the nvida 6 series cards can do upto 4 monitors

so it might be worth getting a 670 eorl, more gpu power, and less power draw

edit>>>> which means no need for a new PSU, which will no doubt cover the cost difference

I hate 3D on a personal level, bastard owes me money for Pirates 4 in 3D, so I don't know what constitutes good 3D but surely the Samsung or LG 27" versions which are the same price or cheaper than that BenQ are a better option if only because they will give a better regular picture and have larger penis-I mean screen space.

Haha yeah those touch controls can be annoying.

An SSD is the single biggest improvement you can make the the speed of a modern PC, if you're still on mechanical HDDs. They are sufficiently quick enough that there's now very little reason to use a desktop if you don't need loads of RAM, a fast GPU and multiple monitors.

I highly recommend the SanDisk Extreme SSDs.

Definitely looking at getting the 240GB Intel 520S one as I've heard good things about Intel.

I have used TONNES of these and they are awesome (and 5 year warranty doesnt hurt).
however equally awesome for low end users would be the patriot pyro series. I have used alot of these and they are quick and perform really well + CHEAP. Haven't had failures yet on either touch wood.

I think the 120gb patriot pyros are going for $99 at the moment?

http://staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=gtx+570+state%3Aqld&spos=3

I've got 2x GTX 470s, SLi is kind of shit if y ou have more than 2 monitors. You keep swapping between running 3 and running 2.. I assume this is solved in the 6 series because it seems to be a monitor-per-card limitation.

Mind you if you don't mind swapping between SLi and Span and go check my old thread on how to setup span mode to work like 3 independent monitors in windows (so a fullscreen window only takes up 1 etc) then you can actually quite enjoy them. TBH half the problem is my TV is connected as a 4th display so it's even more dicking about :P

Games are awesome though using 3 monitors. all FPS and racing games run brilliantly, even 3rd persons like Assassins creed and batman are fun, but the effect is lost a little and you feel a little 'bubbly' around the edges.

Use your 60gig for windows, 120/240gig for steam+etc. Loading times in modern games is a little annoying with big beefy cards which have to load giant textures. Well, it's not, but hey you might as well give steam more space than windows. My steam folder is so massive i don't think it'd fit on an SSD.

I would go 850w if i were you as a minimum. SSD's might not require much more power, but consider later if you add another media drive then 750w is cutting it kind of thin. You don't want to reach the max of a powersupply, a good rule of thumb is to have 20% more than the peak expected wattage draw. You can probably find a calculator for how much yours expects to draw.

Again, span mode is awesome. SLi can be tempremental a little, but some of that is unique to me needing to turn it on and off to allow 4 monitors vs 3 in span, vs 1 in 1080p on the TV.

Also just FYI when you start Spanning, you really eat up your VRAM quickly. You have more pixels than people with a 2550x1600 resolution. Usually because you're at something like 5760*1080 which will probably be eating more VRAM than you technically have. So you might find yourself a little disappointed with the results considering that the 570's only have like 1280mb.

Also VRAM isn't additive. Naturally each card has to have a duplicate of the data in it's ram as it's parallel processing it. 1280 doesn't become 2560mb.