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[maneil99]

A 780 is to expensive, and if I am getting that little performance increase from a 770, then that isn't worth it either. Thanks for the help. I will stick the RAM and SSD in, keep the rest of the money away for the new GPU's, see what those are like.

My freind overclock the i5, its way above its base speed, 4.3ghz or around there I seem to remember.

Just out of interest, and for future reference, why not those PSU's?

Thanks for the help guys, you saved me a good chunk of GPU money there.

Sketchy, won't last long and most likely won't be able to provide the power they state. If you are craving a GPU Upgrade a 280x might be a good idea. 299$, within 5% of a 770 and has 3 GB of ram. If you can sell your 670 for 250$ might be worth looking into. Not a huge AMD fan but its better then a 400$ 770 GTX

 

[Anton668]

Just out of interest, and for future reference, why not those PSU's?

not sure about that cooler master, but that other one.. some unknown brand pretty much only found on ebay and at that price just screams piece of shit

and a quick google seems to agree..

 

[Felix Lighter]

Does anyone know for sure if that ASUS triple slot HD 7970 will fit in a Corsair 200R?

 

[kharma45]

Does anyone know for sure if that ASUS triple slot HD 7970 will fit in a Corsair 200R?

It will.

 

[schandmann]

This would be my pick. PRAD recommends it in their buyer's guide as well.
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B005OPLG0O/redorbonlinevisi

Looks okay, but it's TN. IPS would probably be better. (He doesn't play "fast" games.)

 

[TehPabz]

Shit looks like my budget won't be $800 after all >_> it's looking like $700 is going to be my max . Any advice on what I should get for a $700 machine? The one you guys helped me put together is around $800+.

 

[kennah]

Save up longer and buy later. The jump in performance between 700 and 800 is HUGE. Like 30% faster or more.

 

[CreepingFear]

Save up longer and buy later. The jump in performance between 700 and 800 is HUGE. Like 30% faster or more.

I always go buy the philosophy of saving more longer to get something better. It's never let me down.

 

[kennah]

I always go buy the philosophy of saving more longer to get something better. It's never let me down.

I go with "when you buy cheap, you buy twice'

 

[Felix Lighter]

It will.

Thanks, I was tempted to take a chance on an open box deal on newegg but decided against it.

 

[nOoblet16]

I've been looking at getting a GTX780 but with the upcoming Radeon 290x I'm wondering if I should wait to get that instead or should wait for nvidia to drop the price because of 290x (if that's even happening in the first place).

But is it worth spending all that money (about 500 GBP for a 780 and maybe more for a 290x) on upgrading from a GTX580 considering I game at 1080p? I think I can sell my 580 for about 150GBP so that could save me some money.

 

[Felix Lighter]

I was hoping the official release of the 280x would trigger some clearance 7970 prices but they haven't budged.

 

[Seanspeed]

Save up longer and buy later. The jump in performance between 700 and 800 is HUGE. Like 30% faster or more.

Yea, just an extra $100 to spend on a video card really makes a big difference and is completely worth doing if you're building a gaming rig.

 

[Crimsonclaw111]

Alright guys, today should be the day. I have all of my parts except my GPU in, which is at my local post office for delivery this morning. I'm nervous about putting it together, as it will be my first build ever. Any tips, comments, etc?

I do have Vengeance RAM that is tall, but shouldn't pose a problem with my fan cooler if installed in the second pair of slots.

Thanks for all the help over the last few months GAF.

 

[Eleuin]

Thinking of buying a used 7870 from a friend for $70

Even with the new gpus coming out do you guys think it'll last me the next generation? Especially since I don't think I'll be playing in 1080p..

EDIT: Sapphire if anyone one was wondering

 

[kennah]

Thinking of buying a used 7870 from a friend for $70

Even with the new gpus coming out do you guys think it'll last me the next generation? Especially since I don't think I'll be playing in 1080p..

EDIT: Sapphire if anyone one was wondering

That is a hell of a deal.

 

[kharma45]

Thinking of buying a used 7870 from a friend for $70

Even with the new gpus coming out do you guys think it'll last me the next generation? Especially since I don't think I'll be playing in 1080p..

EDIT: Sapphire if anyone one was wondering

Snap dat shit up.

Shit looks like my budget won't be $800 after all >_> it's looking like $700 is going to be my max . Any advice on what I should get for a $700 machine? The one you guys helped me put together is around $800+.

Yeah save more, as you'll only be able to get a 7870 in that case

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Biostar Hi-Fi Z87W ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($98.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($62.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 3000 ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $698.92
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-11 12:21 EDT-0400)

 

[kennah]

Couple deals from mkenyon

Sound Blaster Z for $60 with promo code EMCWXWW75

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...MC-101113-Index-_-SoundCards-_-29102054-L019A

512 gig Toshiba SSD for $319

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...1113-_-EMC-101113-Index-_-SSD-_-20168064-L04D

 

[Rufus]

Looks okay, but it's TN. IPS would probably be better. (He doesn't play "fast" games.)

Yeah, but response time will matter even in "slow" games. Not a whole lot, but still, ghosting can be annoying once you start to notice it. He won't miss the colour accuracy that much unless he's doing any kind of visual work on it as well (at which point he should get something more expensive and have it calibrated correctly), but eh - his choice. Just my two cents. He'll probably be fine with what you picked out.

 

[schandmann]

Yeah, but response time will matter even in "slow" games. Not a whole lot, but still, ghosting can be annoying once you start to notice it. He won't miss the colour accuracy that much unless he's doing any kind of visual work on it as well (at which point he should get something more expensive and have it calibrated correctly), but eh - his choice. Just my two cents. He'll probably be fine with what you picked out.

He's going to be doing some light photo work on it, I think.
There's gotta be an affordable IPS monitor out there that's "good enough" in terms of ghosting/input lag (at least for non-twitch-shooters) while having better picture quality than your run-of-the-mill TN panel display.

Asus can apparently do it, just not in Germany.

 

[SneakyStephan]

I have some questions. I have some money floating around, it might be the last time in a while with a new baby on the way so I thought I would upgrade the PC I am not sure of the bits I need or will get benefit from so here is my plan.

There is an i5 in there now, which I cant afford to upgrade, and the motherboard doesn't support SLI. I am a work from home Game Dev and the PC is my primary games machine (its the upgrades or next gen basically). What I want to upgrade is

8gb RAM to 16gb RAM

Gtx670 to GTX770 4gb (Video RAM will be needed more next gen I read??)

Stick a 256gb SSD in for a main drive, move the 128 SSD for Steam Games, already have a 2TB storage

Upgrade PSU from 500W to 700W, I have found these two on eBay, what are the differences?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360591367231?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2648

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Evo-Labs-...omputing_PowerSupplies_EH&hash=item5af482ce0a

Because the price is hugely different.

Thanks

No offense but those are the most pointless, least bang for buck upgrades I've ever seen listed.

The ram will do nothing for you in games, and right now ram prices are unusually high because of the factory fire being used as FUD by retailers to hike up prices

gtx 670 to 770 is a minor upgrade, you might as well just have bought a gtx 680 originally then... 4GB vram will do nothing unless you play on multi monitors or do heavy downsampling
By the time it matters you'll be able to buy a better gpu for less money.

second ssd, not sure what the point is? your boot drive should already be the ssd alongside with putting your most used progs on there and whatever few games that benifit from it and that you own.

The power supply, again, why?
A 500 watt psu is more than enough.

In fact the underpants gnomes could sneak in at night and remove all of those items you listed and put the old ones back in, and you'd most likely never be the wiser
(well except for noticing that an ssd is missing when you open windows explorer)



Why not put this money in a piggy bank, write 'future upgrades' on it, and break it when there's actually a worthwhile bang for buck upgrade available.
Right now it just seems like you're having it burn a hole in your pockets for no reason.

 

[CreepingFear]

So, let's all place our bets for the prices of the 290 and 290x in the US. I'm thinking $550 for the 290 and the reported $729 for the 290x. The 290 price will cut into the GTX 780 in both price and performance and the $729 290x will be the Titan killer.

 

[Spiritreaver]

I bought that CM 1000w PSU that's on sale on NE for about 115 AR. I know it's a little overkill for OC 7970 CF, but all I have right now is a 750w Corsair and I just don't know if I could use it longterm and overclock. What do you guys think?

Current: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021 (Corsair TX750V2)
Upgrade: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171078 (CM V1000)

EDIT: I'm also running a 2500k @ 4.5.

 

[DTKT]

Does anyone know if you can mix and match different powerline adapters? I have two I'm currently using and I would like to add one more. Do I need the exact same mode?

 

[Rufus]

Asus can apparently do it, just not in Germany.

It could be that they're available here, just under a different name.

 

[kharma45]

nm

 

[kennah]

No offense but those are the most pointless, least bang for buck upgrades I've ever seen listed.

The ram will do nothing for you in games, and right now ram prices are unusually high because of the factory fire being used as FUD by retailers to hike up prices

gtx 670 to 770 is a minor upgrade, you might as well just have bought a gtx 680 originally then... 4GB vram will do nothing unless you play on multi monitors or do heavy downsampling
By the time it matters you'll be able to buy a better gpu for less money.

second ssd, not sure what the point is? your boot drive should already be the ssd alongside with putting your most used progs on there and whatever few games that benifit from it and that you own.

The power supply, again, why?
A 500 watt psu is more than enough.

In fact the underpants gnomes could sneak in at night and remove all of those items you listed and put the old ones back in, and you'd most likely never be the wiser
(well except for noticing that an ssd is missing when you open windows explorer)



Why not put this money in a piggy bank, write 'future upgrades' on it, and break it when there's actually a worthwhile bang for buck upgrade available.
Right now it just seems like you're having it burn a hole in your pockets for no reason.

While I agree with most of what you're saying - he does development work so the extra RAM will help there.

 

[asdad123]

Any recommendations for z77 mITX boards? My microcenter only has z87s in stock.

Looking to spend about $100. Preferably I would love to find someone to trade my P8Z77-V ATX for a ITX board, but cant find anyone

 

[kennah]

Any recommendations for z77 mITX boards? My microcenter only has z87s in stock.

Looking to spend about $100. Preferably I would love to find someone to trade my P8Z77-V ATX for a ITX board, but cant find anyone

The gigabyte one is good if you're not going for massive overclocks.

Side note - You've got some great deals on your gear and i hope someone helps you out.

Also updates from mkenyon.

Why Crossfire over PCI-E is important.

Currently, AMD has issues with running 4K monitors and eyefinity setups. Basically, the issue with runt frames that was exposed with standard crossfire is even worse currently with these types of displays. You’ll get tearing, microstutter, all the ickey stuff that comes about due to poor frame pacing.

The start of the issue is that all 4K displays are essentially treated as multi-monitor displays. There is no technology that can transfer the entire image of 4K. So, these monitors use a tiling technology that makes the left half of the screen one display and the right half of the screen another display.

Now, why multi-GPU AMD setups have issues with these displays is a result of a limitation with the current crossfire technology. The crossfire bridge only supports images with a maximum resolution of 4MP. When each GPU is alternating frames, each GPU is then rendering the entire display. A triple 1080 display is 6.2 megapixels, and a 4K display is at 8.3 megapixels. Even a 1600p monitor goes above the maximum resolution at 4.1MP.

Because it cannot transfer the entire image over the crossfire bridge, it has to send part of the image over PCI-E. Since the GPU then receives part of the image from two different places, it totally screws up how to pace the delivery of that frame.

It’s been noted that the 290X is doing away with crossfire bridges. With the overhead in bandwidth available in PCI-E 3.0, they’ve decided to have the entire image transferred over the PCI-E bus, which should in theory eliminate the issue with frame pacing entirely. Keep your eye on TechReport and PCPerspective, as they will most likely be running follow up stories as soon as the 290X is released to verify this.

http://techreport.com/blog/25399/here-why-the-crossfire-eyefinity-4k-story-matters

 

[maneil99]

So, let's all place our bets for the prices of the 290 and 290x in the US. I'm thinking $550 for the 290 and the reported $729 for the 290x. The 290 price will cut into the GTX 780 in both price and performance and the $729 290x will be the Titan killer.

I think the same however I will make an alternative bet based on the new leaks.

519$ 290

599$ 290x

290 equals 10-20% slower then 780

290x - Neck and Neckwith 780, beats the 780 and possibly Titan in AMD games like Tomb Raider and Dirt

 

[asdad123]

The gigabyte one is good if you're not going for massive overclocks.

Side note - You've got some great deals on your gear and i hope someone helps you out.

Also updates from mkenyon.

Cool thanks Ill check it out. I wish somebody would just buy the i5/mobo. Itd be less of a hassle because then I could just go to microcenter and pick up a z87 mobo with a haswell CPU.

I might stop by there tonight anyway to see if they have any open box z77 mobos that aren't listed on their website.

 

[CreepingFear]

I think the same however I will make an alternative bet based on the new leaks.

519$ 290

599$ 290x

290 equals 10-20% slower then 780

290x - Neck and Neckwith 780, beats the 780 and possibly Titan in AMD games like Tomb Raider and Dirt

I hope you're right about the 290x being $600. If it is $600 and beats the Titan, I'll seriously consider cancelling my Xbox One pre-order for it.

 

[Sanctuary]

So guys, riddle me this: Why would anyone ever use v sync over triple buffering?

I didn't know that it was a this or that scenario, and it's been universally suggested that you use both at the same time?

 

[Dawg]

Amazon.de has the GTX 770 ACX from EVGA for €360.

Is it me or is that a better deal than one of the upcoming R9 280X cards? I'm an Nvidia enthusiast of course, but the AMD aftermarket editions are going to be 310-320 here anyway. Price difference isn't that big. And it's a superclocked ACX edition which is one of the best gtx 770 cards, no?

 

[maneil99]

I hope you're right about the 290x being $600. If it is $600 and beats the Titan, I'll seriously consider cancelling my Xbox One pre-order for it.

I don't think it will beat titan at all, I think in a few select games it might beat it ( Tomb Raider favoring AMD heavily but performance wise on average it will be slower )

 

[Telephoto999]

I don't think it will beat titan at all, I think in a few select games it might beat it ( Tomb Raider favoring AMD heavily but performance wise on average it will be slower )

Leaked benchmarks are showing it ahead by 5-10%

http://hexus.net/tech/news/graphics/60465-have-amd-hawaii-r9-290x-benchmarks-pics-leaked/

There's more if you google around confirming

 

[maneil99]

Amazon.de has the GTX 770 ACX from EVGA for €360.

Is it me or is that a better deal than one of the upcoming R9 280X cards? I'm an Nvidia enthusiast of course, but the AMD aftermarket editions are going to be 310-320 here anyway. Price difference isn't that big. And it's a superclocked ACX edition which is one of the best gtx 770 cards, no?

Get it

 

[maneil99]

Leaked benchmarks are showing it ahead by 5-10%

http://hexus.net/tech/news/graphics/60465-have-amd-hawaii-r9-290x-benchmarks-pics-leaked/

There's more if you google around confirming

Theres also more benchmarks saying its not ahead, even a mod at HardOC says its not as fast. Taking any leaked benches or rumors at face value is stupid.

 

[kennah]

Amazon.de has the GTX 770 ACX from EVGA for €360.

Is it me or is that a better deal than one of the upcoming R9 280X cards? I'm an Nvidia enthusiast of course, but the AMD aftermarket editions are going to be 310-320 here anyway. Price difference isn't that big. And it's a superclocked ACX edition which is one of the best gtx 770 cards, no?

770 is pointless in my opinion. It's a rebadged 680, so only slightly faster than the 670. By buying it you're just encouraging old tech

280 is just as pointless. It's a rebadged 7970.

This gen kinda makes me upset. Though the 780 is awesome value (slightly slower than a Titan) and the 290 looks pretty cool.

But your best bet - find a used 7970 or 680 being sold for cheap by people that don't know better.

 

[Crisco]

Any know how Windows 7/8 handles switching a PCI card to different slot? Will I have to reinstall drivers or should it just "work". This is an old Sound Blaster X-Fi, currently working fine and anyone who's owned a Creative card knows how shit their drivers are.

 

[Nethaniah]

Any know how Windows 7/8 handles switching a PCI card to different slot? Will I have to reinstall drivers or should it just "work". This is an old Sound Blaster X-Fi, currently working fine and anyone who's owned a Creative card knows how shit their drivers are.

I remember having to reinstall my drivers when i switched slots when i was using 7.

Edit: Didn't read the last part about sound cards, i'm not a 100% sure about those, i personally doubt it would require a driver reinstall but i would at the very least download the drivers in advance just to be prepared, cause you know, Creative.

 

[Dawg]

Get it

770 is pointless in my opinion. It's a rebadged 680, so only slightly faster than the 670. By buying it you're just encouraging old tech

280 is just as pointless. It's a rebadged 7970.

This gen kinda makes me upset. Though the 780 is awesome value (slightly slower than a Titan) and the 290 looks pretty cool.

But your best bet - find a used 7970 or 680 being sold for cheap by people that don't know better.

but... but...

 

[kennah]

but... but...

Just my opinion. What do you have for a card right now?

 

[Ieu]

Any know how Windows 7/8 handles switching a PCI card to different slot? Will I have to reinstall drivers or should it just "work". This is an old Sound Blaster X-Fi, currently working fine and anyone who's owned a Creative card knows how shit their drivers are.

It shouldn't care but only one way to find out.

Heck if it stops working you could always pop it back in the original slot it was in!

 

[Dawg]

Just my opinion. What do you have for a card right now?

Nothing.

I've been living off my integrated intel gpu for like two weeks. Sold my GTX 670 FTW because it was VERY loud and it started to annoy me. It was single fan as well so very hot. Main reason for selling was the noise though.

Spoiler

halp

 

[kennah]

Nothing.

I've been living off my integrated intel gpu for like two weeks. Sold my GTX 670 FTW because it was VERY loud and it started to annoy me. It was single fan as well so very hot. Main reason for selling was the noise though.

Spoiler

halp

Oof. Yeah, 770 is a harder sell then. You wouldn't see much of an improvement from what you had before with that.

Spoiler

Watercooling is very quiet

 

[Chakvr2]

Are Noctua NF-F12 fans worth the price? Thinking of replacing my hyper 212 evo stock fan with 1 or 2 of these if they are but £17 for a fan seems quite expensive.

 

[kennah]

Are Noctua NF-F12 fans worth the price? Thinking of replacing my hyper 212 evo stock fan with 1 or 2 of these if they are but £17 for a fan seems quite expensive.

Love em. They look nice. But there are better options for cheaper.

 

[mug]

I'm building an extremely low budget build and I'm estimating the spending of $140-150 for the CPU/Motherboard combo.

So far I've narrowed it down to a AMD FX6300 760G or i3 3220 H61M. Boards have to be MATX. Better to stick with the 6300 or i3? It's the chipsets that are my main concern. I'd like to have the ability to run BF4 if possible on Medium (GTX 660 already purchased).

 

[Dawg]

Oof. Yeah, 770 is a harder sell then. You wouldn't see much of an improvement from what you had before with that.

Spoiler

Watercooling is very quiet

Yeah, the performance difference is very small. I wish I could wait till 8XX but I want to play my games again and with BF4 etc releasing soon, I'll take any high-end card around €360 or cheaper

I should really decide sometime soon though. I've been looking at HD 7970's and GTX 770's for days now, while also reading 280X reviews etc.