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[GhastlyGaseous]

Realistically, you could not have three video cards. If you go with two video cards, you would not be able to also have a sound card. It's the difference between 4 and 6 expansion slots pretty much.

If you do want those options though, then the $200 board you would want is the MSI MPower. Nothing else in the price range compares to the Maximus V Gene and MPower. The Gene has a few other features that make it a really neat board though, namely a great onboard audio solution as well as the ASUS RoG standard set of features which is really comprehensive.

Yeah, about $250-300, depending on which card you are talking about.

Ok, thanks. That makes it a lot clearer. While I am tempted by a sound card, I don't see myself headed down the sli/crossfire road anytime soon, so micro-ATX should be fine.

 

[kennah]

I just noticed that myself, he specifically said, "Don't get a micro atx board. You will kick yourself for it later". I am trying to find the difference myself, but it seems to really be a size thing... Is there a general lack of expansion slots on micro ATX boards or something? I'm confused.

The main reason to get atx over micro is expansion cards. The gene can sli so unless you are going three or four gpus there is no advantage

 

[mkenyon]

If you are interested in getting a case that is a bit smaller, check out the Silverstone TJ08, SG09, and Lian Li A04.

Despite being so small, they can cram in a ton of components. From the Titan thread, here's an SG09 with two Titans.

 

[Varna]

Jesus. Aren't those cards gasping for breath?

I had a similar SLI setup and the heat/noise was just way too high for comfort.

 

[mkenyon]

Nope, most the the air intake is coming from the right side. They're designed with this kind of setup specifically in mind.

 

[tarheel91]

So, I overclocked my 7950 today from 900MHz to 1GHz, and I'm seeing 15-20% improvements in FPS. Can someone explain why a 11% improvement in clock rate is boosting FPS by so much? I'm psyched, but it seems like improvement should be linear at best.

 

[Appollowexx]

This is the build I'm looking at going for. It's stretching my budget. Any advice how to tweak it , maybe get the cost down. Although I do want to ''do things right'' so to speak.

Also will all this stuff be compatible. I think it will but I'd certainly appreciate some tech-head advice.

Asus P8Z77-V Motherboard (socket 1155)
Intel 3rd Gen i5-3570k CPU (4 x 3.40GHz / Ivy Bridge /Socket 1155)
EVGA GF GTX 680 4GB (This is very cheap at just £100 more than a 2gb)
Kingston KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX (16gb 1600MHz DDR3)
WD Caviar Black 2TB (7200 RPM) SATA 6GB/s 64MB 3.5'' Internal HD
Corsair TX650V2 Enthusiast Series 650W TX ATX/EPS 80 PLUS Bronze PSU
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Soundcard
Case - BitFenix Ghost

Total cost £1,195

Ouch. Thanks guys!

 

[mkenyon]

So, I overclocked my 7950 today from 900MHz to 1GHz, and I'm seeing 15-20% improvements in FPS. Can someone explain why a 11% improvement in clock rate is boosting FPS by so much? I'm psyched, but it seems like improvement should be linear at best.

Because FPS isn't a very good metric, and can lead to very inconsistent results.

 

[Anton668]

This is the build I'm looking at going for. It's stretching my budget. Any advice how to tweak it , maybe get the cost down. Although I do want to ''do things right'' so to speak.

Also will all this stuff be compatible. I think it will but I'd certainly appreciate some tech-head advice.

Asus P8Z77-V Motherboard (socket 1155)
Intel 3rd Gen i5-3570k CPU (4 x 3.40GHz / Ivy Bridge /Socket 1155)
EVGA GF GTX 680 4GB (This is very cheap at just £100 more than a 2gb)
Kingston KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX (16gb 1600MHz DDR3)
WD Caviar Black 2TB (7200 RPM) SATA 6GB/s 64MB 3.5'' Internal HD
Corsair TX650V2 Enthusiast Series 650W TX ATX/EPS 80 PLUS Bronze PSU
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Soundcard
Case - BitFenix Ghost

Total cost £1,195

Ouch. Thanks guys!

do you really need a sound card? do you really need 16gb memory?
what is the build for? gaming? editing

eta: inb4 "no ssd?"

 

[Appollowexx]

do you really need a sound card? do you really need 16gb memory?
what is the build for? gaming? editing?

I do quite a bit of video work, and I'm working under the assumption that 16GB is always going to be better for gaming, and will future proof things a fair bit. Maybe I don't need the sound card, I haven't built a PC since 2006, so things are very different now.

 

[Anton668]

I do quite a bit of video work, and I'm working under the assumption that 16GB is always going to be better for gaming, and will future proof things a fair bit. Maybe I don't need the sound card, I haven't built a PC since 2006, so things are very different now.

well atm 8 is about the most for gaming, but editing and such, the more the merrier

 

[Vestal]

This is the build I'm looking at going for. It's stretching my budget. Any advice how to tweak it , maybe get the cost down. Although I do want to ''do things right'' so to speak.

Also will all this stuff be compatible. I think it will but I'd certainly appreciate some tech-head advice.

Asus P8Z77-V Motherboard (socket 1155)
Intel 3rd Gen i5-3570k CPU (4 x 3.40GHz / Ivy Bridge /Socket 1155)
EVGA GF GTX 680 4GB (This is very cheap at just £100 more than a 2gb)
Kingston KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX (16gb 1600MHz DDR3)
WD Caviar Black 2TB (7200 RPM) SATA 6GB/s 64MB 3.5'' Internal HD
Corsair TX650V2 Enthusiast Series 650W TX ATX/EPS 80 PLUS Bronze PSU
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Soundcard
Case - BitFenix Ghost

Total cost £1,195

Ouch. Thanks guys!

go with the 16gb corsair vengeance kit


on my phone so can't check the board to see how good it is at ocing

 

[tarheel91]

Because FPS isn't a very good metric, and can lead to very inconsistent results.

Yes, yes I'm glad we've all discovered the issues with averages. However, just because FPS has issues determining worst case scenarios (why would you look at a mean and think it'd do that?) doesn't mean it's not useful in some situations. If I know a time period and a fps, I know how many frames I rendered. I'm rendering 15-20% more frames on an identical GPU that can work 11% faster. That doesn't make sense to me, and I was hoping for a more in depth explanation that just "Lol fps is bad."

 

[Mordeccai]

Ok GAF, something very weird just happened to my PC and i'm a bit worried.

Just built the rig three months ago now and its run fine with no hiccups. Today, I tabbed out of a game and went to browse the internet when my rig just shut down, hard crash. No warning, just off. A few seconds later, it tried to start back up on its own. No signal was coming to the monitor through DVI, even after removing the cable. I noticed the green LED that lights up when I have the ethernet cable plugged in is no longer lit up even though its all the way in, which leads me to believe something might be wrong with my mobo. Fans spin, but I cant get anything to display. Fan LED's work.

Tried to switch the PSU switch a few times once the PC was off to see if it did anything, but nothing. Should I try resetting the mobo next by removing the battery?

I hope nothing is seriously wrong :/ I need the PC this week for school stuff.

 

[Vestal]

Battery, then memory, then vid card, finally what you are left with is either a faulty psu or motherboard. Remove all cables except the essentials when diagnosing aka only leave power, vid and keyboard connected for a power up

 

[News Bot]

Are the eight-core AMD processors worth getting? AMD seems overall a bit cheaper than Intel/NVIDIA.

 

[teh_pwn]

Are the eight-core AMD processors worth getting? AMD seems overall a bit cheaper than Intel/NVIDIA.

Not in my opinion. Look for mkenyon's frame latency graph.

Though PS4 ports may be interesting.

 

[Artanisix]

This is my current PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004

Will it be fine if I upgrade my GPU to a 7950 or an equivalent nvidia card?

 

[Primordial]

So I ended up buying

Intel i5-3570K (OC'ed to 4.2Ghz)
Hyper 212 Plus
ASRock Z77 Pro4 Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix Sport 4Gb x2 DDR3-1600
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950
WD Caviar Blue 500Gb
Corsair Carbide 300r


I am reusing Antec EA-500 Earthwatts & Windows 7

I can run Dolphin emulation very well now. Valley Unigine Demo runs beautifully. Temp monitor says about 53/54 C when stress tested by Prime95. Should I overclock further?

 

[Arsenic]

Hi guys.

So I'm helping out a friend with a build which is mostly for rendering work (3D Max, AutoCAD, etc) and his budget is a very low $1500.

- So far I've spent $200 of that on 32GBs of memory.
- It's a guarantee I'm getting a 3770 since there seems to be no chip better on the market at this time

The big issue is the GPU. He obviously can't purchase a professional card within the budget, and not even the titan, but what's good between the 7970 and 680?

There's so many different variations (OC, CF, 2GB, 3GB, 4GB, etc etc etc) and I don't wanna base the power on FPS readings, since this build isn't for gaming.

 

[Tenrius]

What sort of RAM can I get for my GA-M720-US3 motherboard with AMD Athlon X2 6000 and a 500W PSU? It has four DDR2 slots, can I just pop in any four DDR2 2 Gb modules I can find or are there specific limitations? It has just 1 Gb currently and the perfomance on the newer games has been poor. And I probably would need to upgrade to a 64 bit OS.

I've been gaming exclusively on my laptop for two and a half years, so I'm kinda out of touch with all the hardware. Are my motherboard and CPU even good?

EDIT: And by "good" I don't mean anything ultra powerful, just low-to-mid range good. It also got a GeForce 9800 GT.

 

[Mordeccai]

Battery, then memory, then vid card, finally what you are left with is either a faulty psu or motherboard. Remove all cables except the essentials when diagnosing aka only leave power, vid and keyboard connected for a power up

For memory do I just take out the RAM and see if it boots without it?

 

[Vestal]

For memory do I just take out the RAM and see if it boots without it?

no. You will have to test with at least one stick in for the machine to be able to post. Sadly I doubt you have an internal speaker to hear any error codes from the mobo.

 

[tbhysgb]

Here's my gameplan for the next year. I'm sitting on an i5 2500, 4GB of ram and a gtx 460 768. I just ordered 4 more GB of ram and my plan is to upgrade my gpu this year also because while I game at 1680x1050 the vid ram on this card is limiting. What would be a good card later this year? I have a 400w corsair w 30a on the 12v. I'm keeping the processor and mobo of course until my next full build.

 

[Xdrive05]

So, I overclocked my 7950 today from 900MHz to 1GHz, and I'm seeing 15-20% improvements in FPS. Can someone explain why a 11% improvement in clock rate is boosting FPS by so much? I'm psyched, but it seems like improvement should be linear at best.

Nice, keep cranking it bro. Just got my MSI 7950 boost from 960 to 1150. That's like 44% over the base clock of the reference model. These cards are OC beasts.

 

[Mordeccai]

no. You will have to test with at least one stick in for the machine to be able to post. Sadly I doubt you have an internal speaker to hear any error codes from the mobo.

Thanks for the help man, I just removed the battery on the mobo and it booted fine. I still dont know what was wrong but I went through with a can of compressed air and blew off all the dust I could find (there was a LOT on the 212 behind the fan) so I'm hoping this doesn't happen again.

Should I RMA another mobo just to be on the safe side or does everyone think i'll be fine?

 

[Vestal]

Thanks for the help man, I just removed the battery on the mobo and it booted fine. I still dont know what was wrong but I went through with a can of compressed air and blew off all the dust I could find (there was a LOT on the 212 behind the fan) so I'm hoping this doesn't happen again.

Should I RMA another mobo just to be on the safe side or does everyone think i'll be fine?

Get through your school week then torture test it during the weekend with prime95 while keeping an eye on the temps

 

[Hawk269]

If anyone has a Asus Rampage IV Extreme and can help me with my OC, I would appreciate it. I am having 2 major problems. When I first did my OC to 4.8 a while ago, it was perfect...but with an update to the Bios, my OC profile was deleted and I cannot remember how I did some stuff.

Here are the two stumbling blocks so far:

1.) When setting the Turbo Ratio in the BIOS to All Cores Can Set in OS, the field that allows me to enter the Core Ratio is stuck in Auto. How do I change it so it does not show Auto.

2.) Almost the same issue when trying to use an OFFSET. I can change it to offset mode, hit the + or -, but the field where I usually can enter the values, it is also stuck in Auto.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[lmpaler]

Follow the progression down to 3100MHz. This is at 1080P, so the differences will actually GROW at 720P. Can't seem to find my 99th percentile Far Cry 3 graph......



Needless to say, you are missing out on a ton, and you SHOULD overclock. It's soooo easy. It's easier than building the PC, which is super easy to begin with. At the very least, having a 3570K gives you much much better resale value.

Cannot argue with the data. I'm sold. Saturday cannot come soon enough

 

[TimHortons]

If anyone has a Asus Rampage IV Extreme and can help me with my OC, I would appreciate it. I am having 2 major problems. When I first did my OC to 4.8 a while ago, it was perfect...but with an update to the Bios, my OC profile was deleted and I cannot remember how I did some stuff.

Here are the two stumbling blocks so far:

1.) When setting the Turbo Ratio in the BIOS to All Cores Can Set in OS, the field that allows me to enter the Core Ratio is stuck in Auto. How do I change it so it does not show Auto.

2.) Almost the same issue when trying to use an OFFSET. I can change it to offset mode, hit the + or -, but the field where I usually can enter the values, it is also stuck in Auto.

Any help is appreciated.

If I remember right on those boards you adjust Phase control to Standard and V-Core Load Line to probably 50% or 75% from Auto

 

[DarkoMaledictus]

Hi guys.

So I'm helping out a friend with a build which is mostly for rendering work (3D Max, AutoCAD, etc) and his budget is a very low $1500.

- So far I've spent $200 of that on 32GBs of memory.
- It's a guarantee I'm getting a 3770 since there seems to be no chip better on the market at this time

The big issue is the GPU. He obviously can't purchase a professional card within the budget, and not even the titan, but what's good between the 7970 and 680?

There's so many different variations (OC, CF, 2GB, 3GB, 4GB, etc etc etc) and I don't wanna base the power on FPS readings, since this build isn't for gaming.

Its the end of a cycle, I'm in the opinion there are no great video card as we speak. I would wait for 780 and 8000 series.

 

[kennah]

Hmm... P67 Sabertooth or Maximus IV for 20$ more...

 

[minasodaboy]

Hi guys.

So I'm helping out a friend with a build which is mostly for rendering work (3D Max, AutoCAD, etc) and his budget is a very low $1500.

- So far I've spent $200 of that on 32GBs of memory.
- It's a guarantee I'm getting a 3770 since there seems to be no chip better on the market at this time

The big issue is the GPU. He obviously can't purchase a professional card within the budget, and not even the titan, but what's good between the 7970 and 680?

There's so many different variations (OC, CF, 2GB, 3GB, 4GB, etc etc etc) and I don't wanna base the power on FPS readings, since this build isn't for gaming.

If you look at a lot of rendering type benches, your CPU is going to make more of a difference than a more expensive card, especially when budget is a concern. So I'd look for something in the 660 range at most (if CUDA matters for his particular programs) and then spend that extra on a 3770k or maybe even a 3820 or 3960 or whatever.

A lot of times it is just about getting to the CUDA or OpenCL dance more than having 1500 compute units.

 

[EsotericManiac]

If i purchased this MSI 570 frozr iii, would this fit in my case you think?

Also, let's say it did, what PSU would I need to get?

 

[catmincer]

Are the eight-core AMD processors worth getting? AMD seems overall a bit cheaper than Intel/NVIDIA.

I have the FX-8350. Thus far everything i've thrown at it has worked really well combined with my 7950 @ 1080P. I went with it because the equivalent intel CPU (3750K) was a good $80 more here in NZ and I would rather put the money towards a better GPU. It also overclocks pretty well, without adjusting voltage I can stay at a stable 4.6 Ghz. Plus on the current AM3+ socket AMD have guaranteed their next CPU (Steamroller?) will work on it and who knows it might be awesome!

If you do go AMD definitely get a 8320, 8350 or 6300. The Bulldozer models (8150, 6100) are really shit.

 

[mr2xxx]

If i purchased this MSI 570 frozr iii, would this fit in my case you think?

Also, let's say it did, what PSU would I need to get?

How do you go from 7750 due to a crappy power supply to a high TDP beast like the 570?

 

[EsotericManiac]

How do you go from 7750 due to a crappy power supply to a high TDP beast like the 570?

craigslist...

 

[mr2xxx]

craigslist...

Ahhh so what power supply are you getting now? Also how much did you pay for it since I might be selling mine.

 

[EsotericManiac]

Ahhh so what power supply are you getting now? Also how much did you pay for it since I might be selling mine.

He agreed to 150. Ebay shows 150-180

i have no idea what PSU

 

[minasodaboy]

Powerline Ethernet is no joke. Wow. I have never gotten 25 Mbps on my wireless at home.

Thanks for the suggestions! This should really be in the OP if it is not already.

 

[lmpaler]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130645

How does this compare to the Extreme 4? Both are Z77, but this is on sale until Monday and I am getting my parts Saturday. Reviews seem to point that I can go with either one, but I would like a more expert opinion

 

[EsotericManiac]

Powerline Ethernet is no joke. Wow. I have never gotten 25 Mbps on my wireless at home.

Thanks for the suggestions! This should really be in the OP if it is not already.

what chu talkin' 'bout?

 

[DarkoMaledictus]

Powerline Ethernet is no joke. Wow. I have never gotten 25 Mbps on my wireless at home.

Thanks for the suggestions! This should really be in the OP if it is not already.

i use power line to stream all my movies to my tv. Wireless was crap and no need for wires with powerline! Totally agree! Best thing ever... that and my Western Digital WD TV Live Hub !

 

[DarkoMaledictus]

what chu talkin' 'bout?

Device that streams data via the electrical outlets of your house! Love it!

 

[Mandoric]

Today I learned that 212 Evos work a lot nicer when you tighten the screw in the middle of the mount.

Think I'm stopping at 4.5 for now, going up 300mhz/1fps (must've had some serious bottlenecking in a single-thread filter...) and down 20-25 degrees in x264 is good enough until I do something about case airflow in general.

 

[I'm new be nice]

Next gen systems are making me confused.

The PS4 has 8 Gigs of GDDR5 Ram right? So would I need a graphics card with 8 gigs of ram or should I wait for DDR4 memory to come out?

I need a new motherboard and cpu, but it I spend the money now will I just end up with a system that can't compare to the PS4? If I bought lets say 16 gigs of DDR3 ram and a Geforce Titan, would that compare to the PS4?

The other question I have is CPUs. It seems like the only one making 8 core CPUs is AMD, why isn't intel making any? If I bought a intel i7 clocked at 4 ghz would that compare to the PS4s 8 core CPU?

 

[RibbedHero]

Next gen systems are making me confused.

The PS4 has 8 Gigs of GDDR5 Ram right? So would I need a graphics card with 8 gigs of ram or should I wait for DDR4 memory to come out?

I need a new motherboard and cpu, but it I spend the money now will I just end up with a system that can't compare to the PS4? If I bought lets say 16 gigs of DDR3 ram and a Geforce Titan, would that compare to the PS4?

The other question I have is CPUs. It seems like the only one making 8 core CPUs is AMD, why isn't intel making any? If I bought a intel i7 clocked at 4 ghz would that compare to the PS4s 8 core CPU?

The PS3 has a shared pool of RAM, no one knows for sure, but your graphics card shouldn't need more than 4GB, 6GB at a stretch, of RAM.

Any system with a Titan would absolutely destroy the PS4. No contest.

A quadcore Ivy Bridge CPU (Intel) would obliterate the PS4, its unlikely that games will be programmed such that a powerful 4-core won't be able to strictly dominate a weak 8-core machine.

 

[Anton668]

Next gen systems are making me confused.

The PS4 has 8 Gigs of GDDR5 Ram right? So would I need a graphics card with 8 gigs of ram or should I wait for DDR4 memory to come out?

I need a new motherboard and cpu, but it I spend the money now will I just end up with a system that can't compare to the PS4? If I bought lets say 16 gigs of DDR3 ram and a Geforce Titan, would that compare to the PS4?

The other question I have is CPUs. It seems like the only one making 8 core CPUs is AMD, why isn't intel making any? If I bought a intel i7 clocked at 4 ghz would that compare to the PS4s 8 core CPU?

new it was only a matter before this thread got infected with this stuff...

 

[I'm new be nice]

The PS3 has a shared pool of RAM, no one knows for sure, but your graphics card shouldn't need more than 4GB, 6GB at a stretch, of RAM.

Any system with a Titan would absolutely destroy the PS4. No contest.

A quadcore Ivy Bridge CPU (Intel) would destroy the PS4, its unlikely that games are programmed such that a powerful 4-core won't be able to strictly dominate a weak 8-core machine.

I see, thank you!

Doing some research on wikipedia leads me to believe intel will have 12 core cpus sometime here in 2013, I believe I will wait for that than.

So it sounds like DDR3 ram is here to stay for quite awhile longer?

new it was only a matter before this thread got infected with this stuff...

Ack! I'm sorry I was just trying to understand how these things compare. I didn't realize I was breaching something here.

 

[RibbedHero]

I see, thank you!

Doing some research on wikipedia leads me to believe intel will have 12 core cpus sometime here in 2013, I believe I will wait for that than.

So it sounds like DDR3 ram is here to stay for quite awhile longer?



Ack! I'm sorry I was just trying to understand how these things compare. I didn't realize I was breaching something here.

DDR3 is lower latency than GDDR5, so it's beneficial for many processes the CPU is tasked with. It's definitely staying for some time but DDR4 RAM is on the horizon, expect that to take a couple of years or more to become mainstream.