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[The Frankman]

well the 64gb crucial is 80 on newegg or you will have to wait until one of those drops happen again.

Whoa I just saw one on Amazon new, $59.95 with S/H included. It's sold by an Amazon Store company, is the type you meant? If it's legit I'll grab it.

Crucial m4 64GB 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT064M4SSD2

Tired of wasting a week on this, I'm ready to move on!

 

[Infinite Justice]

yeah i'm hoping it just fell out when i was trying to reroute some cables. i'll get to it tomorrow though, way too tired now

ok cool.

Whoa I just saw one on Amazon new, $59.95 with S/H included. It's sold by an Amazon Store company, is the type you meant? If it's legit I'll grab it.

Crucial m4 64GB 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT064M4SSD2

Tired of wasting a week on this, I'm ready to move on!

its a reseller that amazon deals with but i'm not sure i would go with that tbh (i usually go with amazon themselves or the "fufilled by amazon" resellers since their goods are at amazon anyways).



hmm, i wonder what happened to that poster who never saw his parts even though UPS said they delivered it, hope that was rectified.

 

[The Frankman]

its a reseller that amazon deals with but i'm not sure i would go with that tbh (i usually go with amazon themselves or the "fufilled by amazon" resellers since their goods are at amazon anyways).

Hmmm... I just checked their info and reviews, they seem good. I know what you mean though, I'm a longtime eBay buyer/seller and I've seen some weird things...

I'm already taking a bit of a gamble with SSDs over HDDs in the sense of how much I have to learn on the fly/life of the drive, why not one more gamble?

 

[Hazaro]

I'm already taking a bit of a gamble with SSDs over HDDs in the sense of how much I have to learn on the fly/life of the drive, why not one more gamble?

No you aren't. SSDs should last like 7 years, and then still be readable.

Current HDDs are lucky to last 3 years it seems. Seagate has butchered their warranty on many OEM drives to 1 year. WD not much better at 2, but that's twice as good.

 

[brogan]

Sounds memory related. Try removing a stick, then the other, etc. You certain your memory is compatible with your motherboard?

Yeah they are definitely compatible, but will try this anyway. I'm thinking it might be overclock problem (it's a pre-build and has a I5 3750k clocked at 4.4) So going to try resetting the mothboard to see if it still happens with no overclock.

 

[Infinite Justice]

Hmmm... I just checked their info and reviews, they seem good. I know what you mean though, I'm a longtime eBay buyer/seller and I've seen some weird things...

I'm already taking a bit of a gamble with SSDs over HDDs in the sense of how much I have to learn on the fly/life of the drive, why not one more gamble?

if you don't mind the seller then go for it imo and tbh i'm not that obsessive in how long will it last since its PC hardware and will be upgraded eventually but i wouldn't mind if it lasted until then (which i'm confident in mine at least)

No you aren't. SSDs should last like 7 years, and then still be readable.

Current HDDs are lucky to last 3 years it seems. Seagate has butchered their warranty on many OEM drives to 1 year. WD not much better at 2, but that's twice as good.

See this sounds interesting but i'll just ride it out and not worry too much.


and mkenyon The Samsung 840 250gb is $150 with a newegg promo code so their you go. Even if you are iffy about the 840's as a whole i would honestly check one out (and if anything you can say its for testing purposes for your site LOL)

 

[jsrv]

New firmware update for Samsung 840 and 840 Pros

 

[n64coder]

I'm confused as to which motherboard to buy for an i5 3570k processor. Do I get a MSI Z77A-G43, G43, or a ASUS P8Z77-V Lk? What's the difference between the 43 and 45?

The difference is in the motherboard features. You have to take a close look at the technical specs to see the differences. The 45 has 2 PCI-E-16 3.0 slots while the 43 only has 1 but it has a couple more USB 2.0 ports.

 

[beje]

Yeah they are definitely compatible, but will try this anyway. I'm thinking it might be overclock problem (it's a pre-build and has a I5 3750k clocked at 4.4) So going to try resetting the mothboard to see if it still happens with no overclock.

If that's the case, it's definitely the overclock. Your symptoms are classic for OCs not done right. Happened exactly the same to me when I was doing some tests and forgot to adjust voltages: stress tests where OK but as soon as I tried games, they would crash or even make the whole PC BSOD constantly. Go back to stock, google some guide for overclocking in your particular mobo + CPU (shouldn't be difficult) and work your way from 3.8GHz or 4GHz upwards.

 

[brogan]

If that's the case, it's definitely the overclock. Your symptoms are classic for OCs not done right. Happened exactly the same to me when I was doing some tests and forgot to adjust voltages: stress tests where OK but as soon as I tried games, they would crash or even make the whole PC BSOD constantly. Go back to stock, google some guide for overclocking in your particular mobo + CPU (shouldn't be difficult) and work your way from 3.8GHz or 4GHz upwards.

Okay great, thanks for the advice. Very much appreciated

I will get on it once I'm home from work!

 

[Exuro]

Samsung 840 250GB for $149 with code EMCJHJC23 on Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...412CO-_-EMC-121412-Index-_-SSD-_-20147189-L0E

 

[Leckan]

Opinions?

Even single AMD cards suffering from microstutter in comparison to Nvidia cards. Anyone noticed this?

http://techreport.com/review/23981/radeon-hd-7950-vs-geforce-gtx-660-ti-revisited

In the end, we're left to confront the fact that the biggest change from our prior graphics reviews was the influx of new games and new test scenarios that stress the GPUs differently than before. (The transition to Windows 8 could play some role here, but we doubt it.) For whatever reason, AMD's combination of GPU hardware and driver software doesn't perform as well as Nvidia's does in this latest round of games, at least as we tested them. That's particularly true when you focus on gameplay smoothness, as our latency-focused metrics tend to do.

Armed with that info, we can dispense with the talk about game bundles, rebates, and pricing shenanigans that might shift the value math in favor of one camp or another. Instead, we have a crystal clear recommendation of the GeForce GTX 660 Ti over the Radeon HD 7950 for this winter's crop of blockbuster games. Perhaps AMD will smooth out some of the rough patches in later driver releases, but the games we've tested are already on the market—and Nvidia undeniably delivers the better experience in them, overall.

Another two articles about the same issue here:

http://techreport.com/review/24022/does-the-radeon-hd-7950-stumble-in-windows-8

Trouble is, that doesn't really matter. A moral victory in the borderline-meaningless FPS sweeps doesn't overcome the fact that the Radeon HD 7950 has a persistent problem with high-latency frames across a range of test scenarios based on the latest games. The 99th-percentile frame times reflect that reality. Our latest round of tests shows that Windows 8 is not the problem. On the contrary, Windows 8 generally improves the latency picture somewhat.

When we first published our rematch between the 7950 and the GTX 660 Ti, we pinged AMD to ask if they could explain the Radeon's struggles in recent games. AMD spokesman Antal Tungler told us that our article had "raised some alarms" internally at the company, and he said they hoped to have some answers for us "before the holiday." He also noted that AMD is continually working to improve its drivers and that the 7950 does perform well in FPS-based benchmarks.

http://techreport.com/review/24051/geforce-versus-radeon-captured-on-high-speed-video

 

[garath]

I know some people were looking for a 660ti on sale. Newegg has a pretty decent one today:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-_-DesktopGraphicsVideoCards-_-14121653-L010B

$255 after rebate is a pretty damn good price. It's not their OC version but with that cooling solution you can probably OC it pretty easily. I have an Asus 660ti and that cooler is amazing. Very quiet and fantastic card temps (I have the OC version of the card).

 

[Xdrive05]

I know some people were looking for a 660ti on sale. Newegg has a pretty decent one today:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-_-DesktopGraphicsVideoCards-_-14121653-L010B

$255 after rebate is a pretty damn good price. It's not their OC version but with that cooling solution you can probably OC it pretty easily. I have an Asus 660ti and that cooler is amazing. Very quiet and fantastic card temps (I have the OC version of the card).

This is an excellent card and deal, folks. I can confirm that garath is 100% correct. This cooler is spectacular.

 

[Ty4on]

Opinions?

Even single AMD cards suffering from microstutter in comparison to Nvidia cards. Anyone noticed this?
*Links and quotes in his post*

Saw that some days ago. Haven't gotten everything up and running, but when I do I'll have a 3570k with a 7870. Anyone know what app can show me frame latency or at least graph the fps so that I can see if it stutters. The 7870 is pretty different as it as a different GPU core and memory interface, so it will be interesting to see if it also stutters.

 

[kitch9]

It's pretty easy imo. Just be sure to youtube a vid and it's easier with 2 people.

Small BB sized drop in middle, push heatsink on, tiny twist left and right once and fix into place.

 

[EternalGamer]

I am considering upgrading my graphics card.

Currently have:

2 Radeon 6870s

Considering:

This Galaxy Geforce 680

My reasons for considering this upgrade are a few:

-free up a Pci slot for internal sound card (right now I have a cumbersome usb Creative labs one)
-avoid future crossfire/sli headaches
-give one of my old 6870s to my brother as an extra Christmas surprise (he currently has a very old Radeon 5660).
-I have been wanting to cross over to Nvidia due to a few (not a lot) of driver headaches


My concerns are that this is a lot of money and I am not sure if I will even get any performance boost and I am also not sure if there are better single card solutions I should be looking at or cards on the horizon.

 

[Ty4on]

I am considering upgrading my graphics card.

Currently have:

2 Radeon 6870s

Considering:

This Galaxy Geforce 680

The 680 looks to be around twice as good in most games (low res means CPU bottleneck) so it will probably be smoother with no microstutter. The 670 is not far from the 680 performance wise, especially if you overclock it. It's expensive for a slim performance buff, but you can maybe sell one 6870 for 100$ (don't know used prices, but the weaker 7770 costs that much).

 

[Lkr]

i'm installing games now. almost ready to test this thing. then i can start OCing

 

[garath]

Opinions?

Even single AMD cards suffering from microstutter in comparison to Nvidia cards. Anyone noticed this?

http://techreport.com/review/23981/radeon-hd-7950-vs-geforce-gtx-660-ti-revisited




Another two articles about the same issue here:

http://techreport.com/review/24022/does-the-radeon-hd-7950-stumble-in-windows-8



http://techreport.com/review/24051/geforce-versus-radeon-captured-on-high-speed-video

I know the general consensus is that the driver stigma of AMD is a thing long past but tbh, this microstutter thing has come up quite a bit in recent history. Deus Ex was a big game that suffered. There were a few Gaffers that felt it was almost unplayable the way it was. I seem to recall Rage had AMD issues as well. Some people noticed it, others didn't. Like I've said before, I've always had good luck with Nvidia so when it came to a choice, that's where I went.

However there are many many people with AMD cards that seem to have no issues. Side by side you may notice something but only the most sensitive seems to have any issues with the microstuttering thing. It probably wouldn't be a problem grabbing an AMD card at all.

 

[EternalGamer]

Opinions?

Even single AMD cards suffering from microstutter in comparison to Nvidia cards. Anyone noticed this?

http://techreport.com/review/23981/radeon-hd-7950-vs-geforce-gtx-660-ti-revisited




Another two articles about the same issue here:

http://techreport.com/review/24022/does-the-radeon-hd-7950-stumble-in-windows-8



http://techreport.com/review/24051/geforce-versus-radeon-captured-on-high-speed-video

I have had dual 6870s for two years now and I have never noticed Microstuttering in anything. Unless you are sensitive to it, it is impercievable.

 

[kharma45]

So I'm starting to shop around for upgrades, getting ready for the new SimCity. Build my current rig it back in 2010 for Civ5. It still runs great (Sleeping Dogs and NFS:Most Wanted run at max well enough) but I don't know how well it will run SimCity 2013. Here's the build I have now. No overclocking what so ever

OS: Win7 64Bit
RAM: 6GB, G.SKILL Ripjaws, DDR3
CPU: Intel i7-930 2.8 GHz Bloomfield
Motherboard: EVGA E758-A1
Graphics: One EVGA GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi)
HDs: 2 Western Digital 640 GBs, one Blue series and one Black series
Power: 750W

I think I should upgrade the RAM, but by how much? I seen that you can get up to 32 GB but that seems like overkill.

I'm also starting to ponder about upgrading my graphics card but I it can wait until spring. Perhaps I shoud just get another 460 but I think they are starting to become outdated.

Any thoughts? Thanks for your time.

With that rig I'd OC your CPU (should be able to at worst hit 3.8GHz) and upgrade your GPU.

RAM wise you're still fine.

I am considering upgrading my graphics card.

Currently have:

2 Radeon 6870s

Considering:

This Galaxy Geforce 680

My reasons for considering this upgrade are a few:

-free up a Pci slot for internal sound card (right now I have a cumbersome usb Creative labs one)
-avoid future crossfire/sli headaches
-give one of my old 6870s to my brother as an extra Christmas surprise (he currently has a very old Radeon 5660).
-I have been wanting to cross over to Nvidia due to a few (not a lot) of driver headaches


My concerns are that this is a lot of money and I am not sure if I will even get any performance boost and I am also not sure if there are better single card solutions I should be looking at or cards on the horizon.

Don't bother with the 680, just get a 670 if you're wanting to go Nvidia.

 

[garath]

So I'm starting to shop around for upgrades, getting ready for the new SimCity. Build my current rig it back in 2010 for Civ5. It still runs great (Sleeping Dogs and NFS:Most Wanted run at max well enough) but I don't know how well it will run SimCity 2013. Here's the build I have now. No overclocking what so ever

OS: Win7 64Bit
RAM: 6GB, G.SKILL Ripjaws, DDR3
CPU: Intel i7-930 2.8 GHz Bloomfield
Motherboard: EVGA E758-A1
Graphics: One EVGA GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi)
HDs: 2 Western Digital 640 GBs, one Blue series and one Black series
Power: 750W

I think I should upgrade the RAM, but by how much? I seen that you can get up to 32 GB but that seems like overkill.

I'm also starting to ponder about upgrading my graphics card but I it can wait until spring. Perhaps I shoud just get another 460 but I think they are starting to become outdated.

Any thoughts? Thanks for your time.

I'd do what kharma45 said. OC and upgrade your GPU.

A 7950 or a 660ti is a 100% upgrade from your 460. I just upgraded to a 660ti from my 460. I have a sandy bridge system but the old Bloomfield CPUs are still pretty good.

 

[kharma45]

Yeah CPU wise that i7 is still more than competitive

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

 

[EternalGamer]

With that rig I'd OC your CPU (should be able to at worst hit 3.8GHz) and upgrade your GPU.

RAM wise you're still fine.



Don't bother with the 680, just get a 670 if you're wanting to go Nvidia.

Yeah but I would like some kind of performance boost if I'm dropping that kind of cash. Like I said the other advantages are freeing up a slot, getting rid of an external soundcard (which has been a pain in the butt), drawing less power and avoiding crossfire headaches but if I'm spending that much money I would also like to see SOME performance benefit over my dual 6870s.

I'm also wondering about the video ram. Right now I have 4GB of RAM between these two cards.

Perhaps the best option is a nice, overclocked GTX 670 with 4GB of RAM?

The kicker is that the GTX 680 w/ 2GB of RAM I linked to earlier is actually CHEAPER than most superclocked 670s/670s with extra RAM.

Like this comparison:

GTX 680 2GB DDR5 for $419

vs.

GTX 670 Superclicked 4GB DDR5 for $409.

In this sort of comparison, which is better?

 

[Gueras]

Guys I NEED HELP

a good sound card that can send 5.1 by optical to receivers... using Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect.

Anyone can help?

 

[kharma45]

Yeah but I would like some kind of performance boost if I'm dropping that kind of cash. Like I said the other advantages are freeing up a slot, getting rid of an external soundcard (which has been a pain in the butt), drawing less power and avoiding crossfire headaches but if I'm spending that much money I would also like to see SOME performance benefit over my dual 6870s.

I'm also wondering about the video ram. Right now I have 4GB of RAM between these two cards.

Perhaps the best option is a nice, overclocked GTX 670 with 4GB of RAM?

The kicker is that the GTX 680 w/ 2GB of RAM I linked to earlier is actually CHEAPER than most superclocked 670s/670s with extra RAM.

Like this comparison:

GTX 680 2GB DDR5 for $429

vs.

GTX 670 Superclicked 4GB DDR5 for $429.

In this sort of comparison, which is better?

You'll get a good performance bump with an OC (with a third party cooler if you don't have one already) to your CPU and well as an upgrade to your GPU. The CPU OC I'd also recommend to help avoid any potential bottlenecking that might occur, and it'll benefit you in CPU limited games.

With Crossfire/SLI you don't double up your VRAM, it stays the same so you've actually just got 2GB at the minute.

What resolution will you be gaming at? If it's 1080p then you've no need for the 4GB card, something like this would be a better buy http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125423 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127685

AMDs offerings are still well worth considering, just as another option btw. 7970 can be had for decent money atm http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202008 and http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00752QYLK/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Performance wise it stacks up like this (pre- 12.11 drivers) against the 670

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/598?vs=618

 

[EternalGamer]

You'll get a good performance bump with an OC (with a third party cooler if you don't have one already) to your CPU and well as an upgrade to your GPU. The CPU OC I'd also recommend to help avoid any potential bottlenecking that might occur, and it'll benefit you in CPU limited games.

With Crossfire/SLI you don't double up your VRAM, it stays the same so you've actually just got 2GB at the minute.

What resolution will you be gaming at? If it's 1080p then you've no need for the 4GB card, something like this would be a better buy http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125423 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127685

AMDs offerings are still well worth considering, just as another option btw. 7970 can be had for decent money atm http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202008 and http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00752QYLK/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Performance wise it stacks up like this (pre- 12.11 drivers) against the 670

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/598?vs=618

Yeah I won't be gaming at a higher resolution than 1080p most of the time. My monitor does support 1920x1200, but I even rarely use that since i can't even see much of a difference and prefer stability. I'll take a look at the cards you linked to but thanks for the info on the RAM. I'm throwing out considering a 4GB option now.

Edit: Oh man, that 7970 deal does look great and it comes with 4 games, two of which, Hitman and Farcry 3 I really really want to play. Curse you AMD for continually dragging me back in just when I think I'm done considering your options...

 

[kharma45]

Yeah I won't be gaming at a higher resolution than 1080p most of the time. My monitor does support 1920x1200, but I even rarely use that since i can't even see much of a difference and prefer stability. I'll take a look at the cards you linked to but thanks for the info on the RAM. I'm throwing out considering a 4GB option now.

Edit: Oh man, that 7970 deal does look great and it comes with 4 games, two of which, Hitman and Farcry 3 I really really want to play. Curse you AMD for continually dragging me back in just when I think I'm done considering your options...

It's only three games, MoH is just a discount code for 20$ off but any 79xx card you buy at the minute you get the three free games. The Gigabyte is the better 7970 I just linked the Sapphire as it's pretty cheap for what you get and it's not a bad cooler on it, just not as good as the Gigabyte WF.

If you're gaming at that res then stick to 2GB Nvidia cards or 3GB AMD ones. For me at the minute it comes down to really the 670 or 7970 for the top end GPUs.

 

[EternalGamer]

It's only three games, MoH is just a discount code for 20$ off but any 79xx card you buy at the minute you get the three free games. The Gigabyte is the better 7970 I just linked the Sapphire as it's pretty cheap for what you get and it's not a bad cooler on it, just not as good as the Gigabyte WF.

If you're gaming at that res then stick to 2GB Nvidia cards or 3GB AMD ones. For me at the minute it comes down to really the 670 or 7970 for the top end GPUs.

Yeah those seem like the best two options to consider, perhaps. Although I think I am still leaning towards a 670 overclocked.

Mainly because I have been AMD for a while and while it hasn't been terrible I have had some problems. For example:

-until I updated to the latest beta drivers, Catalyst was crashign Windows Explorer every few minutes. This happened for nearly a week.

-Witcher 2 and a host of other games didn't support Crossfire until a month or more after release

-Rage still doesn't run worth shit on my system despite being able to max out nearly ever other game.

These options have me wanting to see how things swing on the Nvidia side, but I'm not unhappy enough with AMD to throw them out of the picture altogether especially when there are deals as good as that.

 

[mkenyon]

Yeah those seem like the best two options to consider, perhaps. Although I think I am still leaning towards a 670 overclocked.

Mainly because I have been AMD for a while and while it hasn't been terrible I have had some problems. For example:

-until I updated to the latest beta drivers, Catalyst was crashign Windows Explorer every few minutes. This happened for nearly a week.

-Witcher 2 and a host of other games didn't support Crossfire until a month or more after release

-Rage still doesn't run worth shit on my system despite being able to max out nearly ever other game.

These options have me wanting to see how things swing on the Nvidia side, but I'm not unhappy enough with AMD to throw them out of the picture altogether especially when there are deals as good as that.

Sounds like the same sort of issues that happen on both ends. You can make custom crossfire profiles, in case you didn't know. SLI/Crossfire should only be used when you can't get the required/desired performance out of a single card for this very reason.

 

[The Frankman]

No you aren't. SSDs should last like 7 years, and then still be readable.

Current HDDs are lucky to last 3 years it seems. Seagate has butchered their warranty on many OEM drives to 1 year. WD not much better at 2, but that's twice as good.

If you say man, man. I guess I'm lucky... lowest amount of time I've ever had a HDDD last is 3-4 years, and I accidentally dropped that one. Plus I was reading that alot of guys had issues with that particular SSD, it was failing within a year but they released a firmware update to resolve the issue. That's one of the reasons I was hedging...

Should come in by Wednesday at the earliest w/ Windows 7 64-bit, after I install the OS I'm guessing the firmare should be next. I'm guessing all that info is in the OP?

 

[EternalGamer]

Sounds like the same sort of issues that happen on both ends. You can make custom crossfire profiles, in case you didn't know. SLI/Crossfire should only be used when you can't get the required/desired performance out of a single card for this very reason.

Which is another bonus for getting rid of Crossfire altogether. I originally only had the dual 6870s because I got an end of the year clearance on an Alienware a few years ago (right before the Ivy Bridges came out). I was planning on a custom build but the deal I found along with some bonus coupons made it so that I literally would have had a hard time building a similar PC for the cost and it wouldn't have the fancy liquid cooling system the alienware case had. The dual 6870 configuration was the best buy at the time among my options.

But I could really use that extra PCI slot, I am tired of the lack of crossfire support/crossfire instability, extra power usage, and I could donate the extra card to someone who needs it more.

Now that I think about it now, you are probably right that my problems aren't really AMD related at all but merely dual card config related. At $399 for that overclocked 7970 + 3 free games (two of which I had ever intention of buying within the next month), I don't think I can go wrong. Infact, I almost just dropped $60 on Far Cry 3 just last week. If I can get around $100 out of my other 6870 than my real world cost for this upgrade would only be about $200.

And with that, I think I just convinced myself. The only real question for me now is whether the Gigabyte formulation is worth an extra $40 over the Sapphire equivalent.

 

[mkenyon]

Sounds like a damn good plan.

 

[sorijealut]

Could I get a check on my parts please? Want to make sure everything will work and such.
My first build.

Current Part Plan:
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169 bundle @Microcenter)
Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus ($15 AR @Newegg)
Mobo: ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Z77 ATX Intel Motherboard ($85 bundle AR @Microcenter)
Memory: Samsung 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($35 @Newegg)
Storage: Either Samsung 830 or Crucial M4 250gb ($160AR?)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB Video Card ($255 AR @Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 Black ($89 @ NCIXUS)
PSU: Antec BP550 ($60 @Newegg)

Total: ~$870 after getting rid of optical drive, HDD, not including fans I will buy later. My goal was initially 750-800.

I'm scared to go over budget for 660Ti, but that seems like a fantastic card... idk!

 

[EternalGamer]

Could I get a check on my parts please? Want to make sure everything will work and such.
My first build.

Current Part Plan:
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169 bundle @Microcenter)
Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus ($15 AR @Newegg)
Mobo: Asus P8Z77-V LX ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($85 bundle AR @Microcenter)
Memory: Samsung 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($35 @Newegg)
Storage: Either Samsung 830 or Crucial M4 250gb ($160AR?)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB Video Card ($255 AR @Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 Black ($89 @ NCIXUS)
PSU: Antec BP550 ($60 @Newegg)

Total: ~$870 after getting rid of optical drive, HDD, not including fans I will buy later. My goal was initially 750-800.

I'm scared to go over budget for 660Ti, but that seems like a fantastic card... idk!

No compatibility problem that I see if that is what you were asking and those are all good parts.

If you were looking to save money, though, why are you going with a SSD to start with? I mean, they are nice and all but they are a luxury item. I have one but I don't tend to store anything on it other than my OS and default stuff (maybe 1 game at a time). They seem like a very limited and expensive option to me if they are going be your ONLY storage solution.

Everything looks good, though.

 

[EternalGamer]

Thanks all for your help. I ended up ordering the Saphire Radeon 7970OC 3GB edition. It was $360 after rebate and comes with over $100 worth of games I was going to buy in the near future anyway (Far Cry 3 and Hitman). This review at Tom's Hardware sealed teh deal for me.

If I can get a decent value of or one of my Radeon 6870s this upgrade ends up costing me only around $150 and I can get rid of this damn external soundcard and avoid crossfire headaches in the future.

 

[garath]

No compatibility problem that I see if that is what you were asking and those are all good parts.

If you were looking to save money, though, why are you going with a SSD to start with? I mean, they are nice and all but they are a luxury item. I have one but I don't tend to store anything on it other than my OS and default stuff (maybe 1 game at a time). They seem like a very limited and expensive option to me if they are going be your ONLY storage solution.

Everything looks good, though.

I'll second this. If you're on a budget, the SSD isn't the most efficient place to put the money. Buy a 1TB HDD or something and save $80.

 

[mkenyon]

I'll second this. If you're on a budget, the SSD isn't the most efficient place to put the money. Buy a 1TB HDD or something and save $80.

I couldn't disagree more. SSD, IMO, should be the standard storage device. I think storage space should be considered more of a luxury, especially with the way that content is now delivered.

 

[Petrie]

I couldn't disagree more. SSD, IMO, should be the standard storage device. I think storage space should be considered more of a luxury, especially with the way that content is now delivered.

I NEED all my Steam games installed!

 

[mkenyon]

Yeah. Old habits die hard I guess.

 

[EternalGamer]

I couldn't disagree more. SSD, IMO, should be the standard storage device. I think storage space should be considered more of a luxury, especially with the way that content is now delivered.

I guess it depends on what kind of user you are. I am a heavy gamer. A 200GB SSD would make me cry during Steam Sales and after. Heck just keeping the old standbys installed that I play multiplayer would fill that: Left 4 Dead 2, Borderlands 2, Team Fortress 2 (which is nearly 20GB by itself), PayDay, ARMA 2/Day Z, Worms Reloaded, Civ V, etc. You get to 200 pretty damn fast. I am not sure I would be able to even load half of those games on a 200GB once Windows is done with it's massive updates.

You are right that you could always just down load them but then your buddies want to play TF2 and your response has to be "I'll join you in 3 hours, need to download it first."

Hell, even though I have an SSD and can easily move games back and forth, I rarely bother even for single player games because it doesn't make much of a noticable difference at all in terms of in game performance. I have actually forgotten which drive games are installed on and can't even notice most of the time.

The one time it makes a huge difference is on start up. And the difference in start up speeds is dramatic, no doubt, but the idea of only having 250GB of storage on a new PC meant for gaming seems insane to me. Especially when you are already over budget.

 

[garath]

I couldn't disagree more. SSD, IMO, should be the standard storage device. I think storage space should be considered more of a luxury, especially with the way that content is now delivered.

Well what practical gaming benefits do you get out of a SSD?

Faster load times? - I can't think of a single game in recent memory that I've even had time to read the tooltips in the load screens with my 7200rpm HDD

Less heat and space in case? - A nice benefit, nothing performance impacting

Faster loading windows? - I reboot my computer maybe once every other week. Sleep is OP

If I'm on a budget (not talking building the ideal machine here), I'd put the most money into CPU and GPU. I wouldn't skimp on a quality PSU or mobo. I'd look for savings in the HD and RAM.

Storage space is very nice to have as I don't have to continually redownload 5+ gigs for games I'd like to play. I have every game I've played in the last year installed on my 1TB drive with no issues.

 

[Echoplx]

I NEED all my Steam games installed!

I actually started playing more games after installing an SSD, I know it's all in my head but for some reason just having the games I want to play installed helps me actually focus and play them

 

[n64coder]

If you say man, man. I guess I'm lucky... lowest amount of time I've ever had a HDDD last is 3-4 years, and I accidentally dropped that one.

Same with me. I've only had two bad hard drives. One was an external one that fell on the floor when I tripped on the power cord. It fell while it was on, spinning. Never came back to life.
THe other one was in my laptop that again fell to the floor. The drive was still good but had bad sectors.

Otherwise, I've had about 15 drives that are still good, some for up to 12 years.

Could I get a check on my parts please? Want to make sure everything will work and such.
My first build.

Current Part Plan:
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169 bundle @Microcenter)
Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus ($15 AR @Newegg)
Mobo: ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Z77 ATX Intel Motherboard ($85 bundle AR @Microcenter)
Memory: Samsung 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($35 @Newegg)
Storage: Either Samsung 830 or Crucial M4 250gb ($160AR?)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB Video Card ($255 AR @Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 Black ($89 @ NCIXUS)
PSU: Antec BP550 ($60 @Newegg)

You could use the stock cooler that comes with the i5 and save $15. It does a pretty good job and is quiet.
Do you really need a fancy case? I think I paid $29 for my mid-tower Antec case (after rebate). I see it frequently advertised on newegg. I just look at the slickdeals.net hot deals threads and wait until I see a case deal posted.

 

[mkenyon]

Well what practical gaming benefits do you get out of a SSD?

Faster load times? - I can't think of a single game in recent memory that I've even had time to read the tooltips in the load screens with my 7200rpm HDD

Less heat and space in case? - A nice benefit, nothing performance impacting

Faster loading windows? - I reboot my computer maybe once every other week. Sleep is OP

If I'm on a budget (not talking building the ideal machine here), I'd put the most money into CPU and GPU. I wouldn't skimp on a quality PSU or mobo. I'd look for savings in the HD and RAM.

Storage space is very nice to have as I don't have to continually redownload 5+ gigs for games I'd like to play. I have every game I've played in the last year installed on my 1TB drive with no issues.

That is just as much of a luxury as my 8 second boot time.

It's not about games though, it's about having a snappy computing experience. HDDs just can't hit that. If we were having this discussion while Samsung was still around and HDDs were $70 for a quality 2TB drive, I might agree with you. Right now, you're faced with buying a good HDD that is more than the price of a good 128GB SSD, or buying a crap HDD that has a fraction of the reliability of a good SSD. In that process, I'll take reliability and speed over having 1TB of games at my disposal.

 

[Piercedveil]

Considering ordering tonight! Could anyone give me some last minute comments, opinions, changes, etc. for my budget build? Would be much appreciated

List of parts

 

[mkenyon]

Considering ordering tonight! Could anyone give me some last minute comments, opinions, changes, etc. for my budget build? Would be much appreciated

List of parts

USB wireless adapters generally suck. Try to get an internal card if you absolutely must have wireless.

 

[EternalGamer]

Considering ordering tonight! Could anyone give me some last minute comments, opinions, changes, etc. for my budget build? Would be much appreciated

List of parts

Nice level headed build. Enjoy. if it is your first gaming rig in a while, be prepared to be amazed.

 

[Nekrono]

Considering ordering tonight! Could anyone give me some last minute comments, opinions, changes, etc. for my budget build? Would be much appreciated

List of parts

You seem to be going for a pretty basic setup except for the 7850 which is mid-range and it's the reason why you should probably go for a slightly better PSU. I'm not saying it won't work the way you have assembled it right now it's just a general good idea to invest a bit more on a PSU since every component relies on it.

Also, unless you're on a budget I'd suggest to go for a slighty better processor/mobo, processor especially since you will be bottlenecked by the G850 with nowadays games.

Other than that it's looking alright.

USB wireless adapters generally suck. Try to get an internal card if you absolutely must have wireless.

This too. I missed the adapter.