Support NeoGAF

[MikeJAMoran]

Nah, that 80+ gold is beast

Price compare any of the Seasonic Modular or XFX Pros at the same price.

I ran my i5 and 670 on a VP450, 12V rail output seems the same on the VP450P (?)
660 is fine on that

If you can return and grab a 500B for $45 off Amazon that would be good as well, but the PSU is fine.

Thanks Haz. I have already returned and going for Corsair Builder Series CXM 600W. Sorry, I meant VP450, not 450P. I'm going for the Corsair one because it seems to have good reviews, isn't much more expensive and I'm now considering getting a 770 instead of a 660!

 

[Bydobob]

Built my rig the other day and luckily went without a hitch, all parts working perfectly (touch wood). As expected the trickiest part was getting the graphics card in and tucking the stiff wires out of the way. Those who are experiencing weird noises would do well to check their wiring. Had a slight fluttering noise last night and it was the CPU cooler wire flicking against the fan.

Anyway, there seems to be some misinformation about the ability of certain cards to "max settings" in games.

For reference my MSI 780 twin frozr (I5 4670k with 8gb RAM) is maxing Crysis 3 at 1080p at around 50-70fps with FSAA or SMAAx1 on. More demanding AA solutions such as MSAAx8 and TXAA x 4 bring that right down to around 25-45. I think you'd need to make large sacrifices on a 760 or 770 to run a game like Crysis 3 how you'd want it.

 

[Brerlappin]

Hey guys,
quick question:

Ive currently got an ageing PC, and this year is the year ive decided to upgrade. At the moment, i have a 560ti 2GB, 8GB ram, q6600 quad.

Im thinking i might upgrade incrementally, as money is a factor and i cant splurge everything id like at one go.

Thinking of getting a new CPU/Mobo for now, and slotting my existing GFX card/Ram/HDD into it until i can upgrade everything.

I have a good PSU, its a 600w name brand PSU, seasonic i think. It wasnt cheap anyway. Im just looking for good suggestions for CPU/mobo combinations. I dont want to go cheap on this build but not looking to break the bank either. The Q6600 was a great buy back in 2008, it was expensive, and people laughed and said "a dual core is jsut as good, youre throwing money away", but this fucker has lasted me 6 years and performed amazingly. So im thinking intel, definitely an i7.

Also im a bit out of the loop on hardware and ram, not sure what speed ram i have currently...are new mobos incompatible with older ram?? Sorry for the noob questions

 

[kennah]

Your RAM likely won't work. New stuff needs DDR3 and that probably is ddr2.

 

[Giggzy]

Is there a downside to building an ITX PC? My buddy who doesn't know much about PCs has come to me to put together an ITX build for him. I'll likely use the builds in the OP as a guideline.

He doesn't want to SLI/Crossfire and the most expensive card he would ever buy would be roughly around a 770/780. With this build he is just starting at a 760.

He really loves the small form factor and he hosts frequent lans at his house so that's why he wants this type of build. Do I steer him away from it? Or are they completely viable? He does plan to overclock so I'm not sure how the airflow is on these types of PCs.

 

[Brerlappin]

Your RAM likely won't work. New stuff needs DDR3 and that probably is ddr2.

Thanks, had a feeling that might be the case

 

[HoosTrax]

Is there a downside to building an ITX PC? My buddy who doesn't know much about PCs has come to me to put together an ITX build for him. I'll likely use the builds in the OP as a guideline.

He doesn't want to SLI/Crossfire and the most expensive card he would ever buy would be roughly around a 770/780. With this build he is just starting at a 760.

He really loves the small form factor and he hosts frequent lans at his house so that's why he wants this type of build. Do I steer him away from it? Or are they completely viable? He does plan to overclock so I'm not sure how the airflow is on these types of PCs.

The only downside to an ITX build, assuming you're already aware of the single expansion slot limitation, is that the motherboard will be a little more expensive than the equivalent microATX or ATX version.

They're complete viable as a gaming system. The vast of majority of people out there currently using ATX could have gotten by with an ITX-based system instead, since they're only using a single video card and a couple of drives. And frankly, a large ATX case with a ton of unused space looks ridiculous to me in this day and age, where small is in style. Only the people using SLI / watercooling / file server truly need something more than ITX / mATX.

Here's my ITX rig:

Currently using a 7970GE, which is about to be replaced by the GTX780 that should be arriving later today. So it's perfectly adequate as a LAN PC. The case (Bitfenix Prodigy) takes up to 5 x 120mm fans, which is plenty of cooling.

 

[mrklaw]

I just RMA'd my MSI twin frozr 7950 boost edition 3GB. In case the supplier doesn't have another one to replace it exactly, what suggstions would you have for an alternative? Either what would be acceptable as 'equivalent performance' for a replacement, or perhaps some alternatives in case they let me throw £100-200 on top to get something a little faster

(They only have one 7950 in stock and that's a Sapphire which I wouldn't accept as an alternative to a twin frozr boost.)

I have a bitfenix prodigy so I think I'm limited to twin slot GPUs? and I think I have a corsair 650GS PSU

apologies for quoting myself, but any suggestions? The landscape above a 7950 seems a bit muddy at the moment - not helped by the pricing on R9s.

Tempted by maybe switching to Nvidia - maybe a 780? Any recommended models that are a reasonable price in the UK? My 7950 was an MSI twin frozr but I don't see those for the 780

 

[Bydobob]

Tempted by maybe switching to Nvidia - maybe a 780? Any recommended models that are a reasonable price in the UK? My 7950 was an MSI twin frozr but I don't see those for the 780

Bought my 780 twin frozr here for £380:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-...-6008mhz-gddr5-gpu-954mhz-boost-1006mhz-cores

Looks like they've gone up £6 since I bought mine. Comes with Ass Creed 4 code.

 

[Crimsonsky]

apologies for quoting myself, but any suggestions? The landscape above a 7950 seems a bit muddy at the moment - not helped by the pricing on R9s.

Tempted by maybe switching to Nvidia - maybe a 780? Any recommended models that are a reasonable price in the UK? My 7950 was an MSI twin frozr but I don't see those for the 780

The best 780 currently is the Ghz edition from Gigabyte:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125488

You can find it on amazon for the same price as well or wherever you guys get your stuff in the UK. The MSI Lightning is a decent alternative, but to get similar performance you are going to have to use third party software to unlock the card from nvidia's voltage lock. That's far more work than I like to deal with. Standard boost is up to 1071, but these things are made from premium parts, my ASIC rating is a whopping 89%, which is absurd. I've had mine up to 1156 at 71C.

 

[-COOLIO-]

i'm thinking about slowly building a new computer over the year. any breakthroughs i should wait for or keep in mind? is ddr4 worth waiting for? broadwell? maxwell? next gen mobos? certain price drops?

 

[TC McQueen]

i'm thinking about slowly building a new computer over the year. any breakthroughs i should wait for or keep in mind? is ddr4 worth waiting for? broadwell? maxwell? next gen mobos? certain price drops?

I'd wait a few months to see if the 20nm Maxwell cards are coming out this year. If they aren't, buy yourself a 780 Ti. That's what I plan to do.

 

[Epix]

Pardon my stupid question but what type of gaming headset/mic would I plug into a SupremeFX Impact Audio Card? It seems headsets come with either 5 analog inputs or a USB connection, neither of which would benefit from or be compatible with the audio card?

 

[mkenyon]

i'm thinking about slowly building a new computer over the year. any breakthroughs i should wait for or keep in mind? is ddr4 worth waiting for? broadwell? maxwell? next gen mobos? certain price drops?

There's going to be a process shrink for NVIDIA. We're likely to see a GTX 880 that will have about 20-30% increased performance over a 780 with less power draw. It's not overly significant.

DDR4 is going to be very expensive at first, and will likely only give noticeable benefits to media creation.

Broadwell, no.

Maxwell, I don't think so.

Next gen mobos? I'm leaning towards no. The only big addition is going to be SATA Express, but again, that's only going to be significant for people who have a particular use for that.

Any news on if Intel has any plans on releasing a new Haswell that overclocks better than a 4770K? After deliddling I can only stably hit 4.5GHz, using a Koolance Liquid Chiller in a closed case system... By "stably" I mean I can't keep temps below 77c max in-game, Prime95 takes it up even further than that. And my preference for my OC's is always 68c-70c max full load temps.

Issue being that all my other CPU's (well, Sandy/Ivy Bridge) I've OCed to 4.8GHz, and all get better in-game performance than the Haswell at 4.5GHz, even my good ole' i5 2500K@4.8GHz. Which is kind of retarded. Is that normal or is my Haswell 4770K just a shit chip for performance?

I'd love to grab a new Haswell that really caters to enthusiasts that can OC to 4.8GHz on my trusty Corsair H110's, just like my others and stay relatively cool. Just didn't know if there was any news on if there'd be a new Haswell released.

1) You need to stop caring about specific temps. You're putting an artificial and illogical barrier to success.

2) Sounds like you didn't do too well on silicon lottery, you could sell it and try to get a good chip.

3) The 4770K should be outperforming your other chips at 4.8. You're either looking at benchmarks incorrectly, not running them consistently and frequently enough to see that, or using something like FPS rather than frame times which can compound the prior issue.

Pardon my stupid question but what type of gaming headset/mic would I plug into a SupremeFX Impact Audio Card? It seems headsets come with either 5 analog inputs or a USB connection, neither of which would benefit from or be compatible with the audio card?

Most gaming headsets have two plugs. One for the audio, one for the mic. The USB ones have an external DAC that overrides your onboard audio.

Most surround sound is virtualized these days.

 

[Nevasleep]

Thoughts on the AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz Socket AM3+ 16MB Cache as a processor for a mid-budget gaming PC? How does it compare against i5 etc

Also looking at R9 270 2GB GDDR5 for graphics.

 

[Sanjay]

There's going to be a process shrink for NVIDIA. We're likely to see a GTX 880 that will have about 20-30% increased performance over a 780 with less power draw. It's not overly significant.

So the GTX 880 = 780ti.

So the GTX 880ti will be 40% increase :O

 

[mkenyon]

So the GTX 880 = 780ti.

So the GTX 880ti will be 40% increase :O

Well, I'd bet on an 880Ti being released maybe a year after the 880.

They're likely going to follow the same kind of road map that they did with kepler. GF104 = 560Ti, GF110 = 580. GK104 = 680, GK110 = Titan/780. GM104 = 880, GM110 = revised titan/880Ti/980 perhaps.

Thoughts on the AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz Socket AM3+ 16MB Cache as a processor for a mid-budget gaming PC? How does it compare against i5 etc

Also looking at R9 270 2GB GDDR5 for graphics.

It compares very poorly. Gaming performance when CPU matters, it's more in line with the i3, sometimes performing better, sometimes worse.

 

[wildfire]

Thoughts on the AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz Socket AM3+ 16MB Cache as a processor for a mid-budget gaming PC? How does it compare against i5 etc

Also looking at R9 270 2GB GDDR5 for graphics.

The R9 270 is a fine choice but AMD cpus have a lot of weaknesses. You are better off saving $30 and getting a dual core multithreaded i3-4330. It offers better performance at a lower pricepoint for general pc usage, it uses less power and you will have access to a larger variety of motherboards.

 

[rCIZZLE]

Well, done building my PC which was a relief. Now I'm looking to prepare windows and drivers. Regarding windows, where do I go to download a legit iso so I can flash drive and install on the new PC? The windows 8 link in the OP is a bit confusing since I'm trying to get it for a different PC, not update my current one.

 

[mkenyon]

Well, done building my PC which was a relief. Now I'm looking to prepare windows and drivers. Regarding windows, where do I go to download a legit iso so I can flash drive and install on the new PC? The windows 8 link in the OP is a bit confusing since I'm trying to get it for a different PC, not update my current one.

Follow the steps, that downloads an ISO (digital copy of a disc) to use.

 

[rCIZZLE]

Follow the steps, that downloads an ISO (digital copy of a disc) to use.

Alright cool, thanks. Just making sure I wasn't going to download and waste a key updating my old machine.

 

[HoosTrax]

Damn, this Windforce 3X cooler is impressing me so far. Can hardly hear it at all at 70C (Furmark). Sounds like a hum that's a touch higher than ambient noise. My Vapor-X would have sounded like a hair dryer by this point, even before one of the fans died.

 

[dearapollo]

Hey guys I'm building a pc atm and was having trouble choosing a video card. My price range is 350 to 450 dollars. I may spend more depending how good the card is. I've always went ATI in the past but will to try Nvidia as well. Any help would be great

Edit: the mobo I'm using is a gigabyte z97x- Ud3h

 

[-COOLIO-]

There's going to be a process shrink for NVIDIA. We're likely to see a GTX 880 that will have about 20-30% increased performance over a 780 with less power draw. It's not overly significant.

DDR4 is going to be very expensive at first, and will likely only give noticeable benefits to media creation.

Broadwell, no.

Maxwell, I don't think so.

Next gen mobos? I'm leaning towards no. The only big addition is going to be SATA Express, but again, that's only going to be significant for people who have a particular use for that.

ah, thanks for the rundown. i guess ill just focus on finding the best prices and perhaps the 800 series release.

 

[mkenyon]

Damn, this Windforce 3X cooler is impressing me so far. Can hardly hear it at all at 70C (Furmark). Sounds like a hum that's a touch higher than ambient noise. My Vapor-X would have sounded like a hair dryer by this point, even before one of the fans died.

It really is incredible. It made me question my dedication to water cooling.

Hey guys I'm building a pc atm and was having trouble choosing a video card. My price range is 350 to 450 dollars. I may spend more depending how good the card is. I've always went ATI in the past but will to try Nvidia as well. Any help would be great

Edit: the mobo I'm using is a gigabyte z97x- Ud3h

What's your current videocard?

 

[soultron]

ah, thanks for the rundown. i guess ill just focus on finding the best prices and perhaps the 800 series release.

I'd say build yourself a PC now and try and sell any components you want to upgrade and put that money towards the upgrades.

I have a i5 4670K, 8GB DDR3, and a ASUS GTX 660. I'm probably going to sell my GPU soon when a good price for a 780 pops up. I might try and sell my 660 and put the ~$100-$150 (hopefully this seems like a decent price?) from that towards the 780.

Eventually when I want an 8xx card, I'd just sell off my 780.

 

[Erebus]

I've been in his exact position. But first, I should say that he can still probably get it fixed/replaced under warranty. Contact ASUS, they handle the warranty, not the place he bought it from.

I had a Rampage IV Gene that blew up on me with a 3820. I replaced it with a 4770K and a Gigabyte Sniper M5. I don't regret that ever.

*edit*

If you want exact ammunition to debunk his "future proof claim":

1) There's no more processors that will be released that will work with X79.

2) The only benefit, from a gaming perspective, with X79 is 40 PCI-E lanes, which only matters if he's running 3-4 way SLI/Crossfire.

3) 4770K's are much faster, clock for clock, than a 3820.

OK he's now convinced to go for a 4770K. He's looking into two different mobos from ASUS. The Z87 Sabertooth and the MAXIMUS VI Hero. Both look pretty solid motherboards to me, any reason to prefer one over the other?

 

[-COOLIO-]

I'd say build yourself a PC now and try and sell any components you want to upgrade and put that money towards the upgrades.

I have a i5 4670K, 8GB DDR3, and a ASUS GTX 660. I'm probably going to sell my GPU soon when a good price for a 780 pops up. I might try and sell my 660 and put the ~$100-$150 (hopefully this seems like a decent price?) from that towards the 780.

Eventually when I want an 8xx card, I'd just sell off my 780.

i would do this normally but my dad was planning on buying a desktop, so i figured I would just give him my current one. I also got a new a job and i want to go balls out from scratch, lol.

 

[mkenyon]

OK he's now convinced to go for a 4770K. He's looking into two different mobos from ASUS. The Z87 Sabertooth and the MAXIMUS VI Hero. Both look pretty solid motherboards to me, any reason to prefer one over the other?

The former is all about aesthetics, the latter has a really neat set of tools, like native ramdisk.

 

[adamantypants]

Any news on if Intel has any plans on releasing a new Haswell that overclocks better than a 4770K? After deliddling I can only stably hit 4.5GHz, using a Koolance Liquid Chiller in a closed case system... By "stably" I mean I can't keep temps below 77c max in-game, Prime95 takes it up even further than that. And my preference for my OC's is always 68c-70c max full load temps.

Issue being that all my other CPU's (well, Sandy/Ivy Bridge) I've OCed to 4.8GHz, and all get better in-game performance than the Haswell at 4.5GHz, even my good ole' i5 2500K@4.8GHz. Which is kind of retarded. Is that normal or is my Haswell 4770K just a shit chip for performance?

I'd love to grab a new Haswell that really caters to enthusiasts that can OC to 4.8GHz on my trusty Corsair H110's, just like my others and stay relatively cool. Just didn't know if there was any news on if there'd be a new Haswell released.

You probably have a shit chip. It's really just luck of the draw you can't control. I personally have a 4670k that I (sort of) stably overclocked to 4.4ghz first try.

Granted, I'm new to overclocking PC CPUs but I do have experience overclocking my cell phone (yes that's a thing) and sometimes you really do just get a shit chip. As far as temps go, Haswell is known to run hot. I'm sure you know since you've gone through the trouble of delidding. Outside of that I don't know what else you can do to keep your temps lower.

 

[Pavaloo]

Hey guys, I really need your help!

Last night before going to bed I put my PC on sleep mode. This morning I woke up to find out that the PC will not boot up. At all. I'm talking no LED lights and even the digital display that is on my actual motherboard (for temperature I'm sure) won't light up either.

I've tried the "paper-clip trick" with my PSU to confirm that the fan still spins. What else can I do to troubleshoot this issue?

I'm having a hard time believing that putting my computer into sleep mode could have done so much damage :/

edit: specs just in case - i7 3770k processor, 7950 gpu, hx650 psu, and a gigabyte z77x-ud5h motherboard

 

[indigo-cyclops]

I went ahead and just installed Steam on my usual drive, my HDD. Now should I use the Steam Mover Tool to move games I want to play onto the SSD or just keep things on the HDD?

Also, is it safe to use Dxtory on the SSD or will that kill the drive?

 

[kennah]

WTS:

Used MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr III Power Edition/OC 1.2GB (x10) $100 each

Used EVGA GeForce GTX570 HD 2.5GB (x6) $100

Clearing out my closet, I ship priority and shipping is $6. I'm GAF GOLD BABY
PM ME if interested, THE MORE YOU BUY THE MORE YOU SAVE!

Solid deals on good starter cards here. Kinda tempting to get a pair.

 

[Edvardelis]

Case and Temperature question:

I've got an i5-3750k, an ASUS p8z77v-pro motherboard, and a Corsair Carbide 500R case.

I want to do two non-reference R9-290Xs in crossfire. I've got an extra slot of space between the two cards (motherboard) as well as a side fan (case).

Is that enough to keep the top card cool? I know these get hot, especially overclocked. Normally, everyone would say "blower" and be done with it, but those throttle even as a single card, they're poorly designed.

(Power supply is a Seasonic Platinum 850w.)

 

[mkenyon]

Since spending money on two 290x's isn't exactly cheap, I'd imagine that replacing your case fans wouldn't be too much of an additional dent?

If that's the case, I'd look at probably doing something like two AF140s in the front for intake, one in the side for intake, AF140 exhaust on the back, and maybe two AF120 Quiet Editions in the top for exhaust.

What's your current setup? Fan types/positions.

 

[Edvardelis]

What's your current setup? Fan types/positions.

The default fans that come with the case:

2 x front-mounted 120mm fans (May not be reliable, got 4x bays full)
1 x rear 120mm fan (CPU)

1 x 200mm side panel fan

The CPU cooler is a Noctua NH-D14.

Since spending money on two 290x's isn't exactly cheap, I'd imagine that replacing your case fans wouldn't be too much of an additional dent?

This is assuming I can get the cards. If it's too much of a hassle, I just may say screw it and go with GTX 780's instead.

 

[Scum]

I'm completely lost on reddit, looking for Windows. :-(
Can someone point me in the right direction please. Never been on reddit before. Lol

 

[mkenyon]

Yeah, with an air cooler, I'd be concerned about dumping 550-600W of heat into your case, and how that would impact the cards as well as CPU temps without some proper cooling.

Doing something like I suggested above would give you tons of airflow while remaining really quiet. Alternatively, you could go cheaper, use something like Arctic Cooling F12s instead of the Corsair AF series.

I'm completely lost on reddit, looking for Windows. :-(
Can someone point me in the right direction please. Never been on reddit before. Lol

www.reddit.com/r/softwareswap

 

[CheesecakeRecipe]

I'm completely lost on reddit, looking for Windows. :-(
Can someone point me in the right direction please. Never been on reddit before. Lol

I bought mine from a seller on r/softwareswap as mentioned in this thread somewhere, though I do question the legitimacy of the key and if it'll still be working in 6-12 months' time.

 

[- J - D -]

Has anyone here ever encountered coil whine? I installed my new graphics card and it emits this high-pitched whine when under load. Actually, it could either be coming from the card itself, or something about it is causing my PSU to make the sound. It is extremely annoying and makes me wonder if I should RMA it.

It's so strange because this new card has about the same power draw as my previous card, but that one didn't ever make a whining sound. If it is my PSU that's causing the sound, I don't know what this new card is doing different.

 

[Crimsonsky]

Damn, this Windforce 3X cooler is impressing me so far. Can hardly hear it at all at 70C (Furmark). Sounds like a hum that's a touch higher than ambient noise. My Vapor-X would have sounded like a hair dryer by this point, even before one of the fans died.

Indeed, I've only had a gigabyte card for about two weeks, but so far, it is very impressive.

 

[mkenyon]

Has anyone here ever encountered coil whine? I installed my new graphics card and it emits this high-pitched whine when under load. Actually, it could either be coming from the card itself, or something about it is causing my PSU to make the sound. It is extremely annoying and makes me wonder if I should RMA it.

It's so strange because this new card has about the same power draw as my previous card, but that one didn't ever make a whining sound. If it is my PSU that's causing the sound, I don't know what this new card is doing different.

Any load, or at specific times?

Coil whine is becoming more frequent these days.

One tip to reduce it is to set a max frame rate. I'd get it on my 7970 Lightning in EUIV when it was running at like 500fps, set it to 120 and it stopped. But playing something like Dota that would push the card decently hard would not cause coil whine.

 

[- J - D -]

Any load, or at specific times?

Coil whine is becoming more frequent these days.

One tip to reduce it is to set a max frame rate. I'd get it on my 7970 Lightning in EUIV when it was running at like 500fps, set it to 120 and it stopped. But playing something like Dota that would push the card decently hard would not cause coil whine.

The whine is loudest when the card is pushing out high hundred+ frames, but it's still there in graphically intense games wherein I get 60fps or lower, just not quite as loud. And the sound is oddly reactive to what I do inside games or where I look. I was playing Gone Home, and the whine stopped whenever I looked at the ceiling or any flat surface that would send my framerate shooting into the hundreds, but then the whine would come back when I looked somewhere else. There's seemingly no real pattern to it.

Turning on a framerate limiter does help in some games though, but not all.

I've been reading up around the web on the topic, and solutions seem to be mixed. Some suggest swapping out the psu for another, some say the whine goes away in time, etc etc. Not sure what to do at the moment. I do think I should RMA at least once to see if it is indeed an issue with the card or my psu.

 

[Scum]

Yeah, with an air cooler, I'd be concerned about dumping 550-600W of heat into your case, and how that would impact the cards as well as CPU temps without some proper cooling.

Doing something like I suggested above would give you tons of airflow while remaining really quiet. Alternatively, you could go cheaper, use something like Arctic Cooling F12s instead of the Corsair AF series.

www.reddit.com/r/softwareswap

I bought mine from a seller on r/softwareswap as mentioned in this thread somewhere, though I do question the legitimacy of the key and if it'll still be working in 6-12 months' time.

Cheers.

 

[Edvardelis]

Yeah, with an air cooler, I'd be concerned about dumping 550-600W of heat into your case, and how that would impact the cards as well as CPU temps without some proper cooling.

Doing something like I suggested above would give you tons of airflow while remaining really quiet. Alternatively, you could go cheaper, use something like Arctic Cooling F12s instead of the Corsair AF series.

Could I go with just the fans on top instead of replacing them all?

What about the non-reference GTX 780's, do they dump that much heat out?

 

[Granadier]

Could I go with just the fans on top instead of replacing them all?

What about the non-reference GTX 780's, do they dump that much heat out?

Your spending ~$1200 on GPU's. Why would you cheap out on cooling?

 

[Edvardelis]

Your spending ~$1200 on GPU's. Why would you cheap out on cooling?

I already have fans, those fans are hooked up to a "controller" and those fans are lit. >_>

If the current case fans are really that bad, then I'll replace them.

 

[kennah]

The problem is that you are starting to enter an upper tier of computing where you need to think of the whole package differently. Dual high end gpus call for careful management of heat and space. Dual 290s should really be under water

 

[clockworkinyou]

I'm looking to possibly upgrade my setup in anticipation for Dark Souls 2 and some other stuff. Here's what I have -

CPU - i5 3570K, not overclocked
MOBO - ASUS P8Z77-V Pro
RAM - 8GB 1600mhz Corsair
PSU - Corsair TX650
GPU - Sapphire HD6870 1GB
SSD - M3 Crucial 128GB

I figure the graphics is the main thing to upgrade - I'd like to go Nvidia rather than AMD, and be around $200-250 range. What's the best bang for the buck right now in that range?

Any other recommendations?

 

[ArynCrinn]

1) You need to stop caring about specific temps. You're putting an artificial and illogical barrier to success.

2) Sounds like you didn't do too well on silicon lottery, you could sell it and try to get a good chip.

3) The 4770K should be outperforming your other chips at 4.8. You're either looking at benchmarks incorrectly, not running them consistently and frequently enough to see that, or using something like FPS rather than frame times which can compound the prior issue.

Yes, you're correct, I'm only going off of FPS count, which I mostly base on my in-game experiences... But also FurMark, 3DMark newset ver, and a couple other CPU stress testers all result in my Sandy/Ivy Bridge CPU's reaching higher FPS, sometimes by orders of magnitude depending on the game. But really FPS is all that really matters to me since I'm building these to be "gaming machines". And in almost every case (except ironically Rise of the Triad on Ludicrous settings which is roughly equal performance) the others at 4.8GHz outperform the 4.5GHz 4770K in pure FPS and overall performance. My Intel Core i7-3970X just destroys it on in-game performance, sometimes by a measure of 100-200fps.

So yeah, paranoia confirmed. I guess I'll be looking at another Haswell soon. Probably the new six-core Haswell this time, and use another 4770K for this mobo, GPU/s, RAM and just use the case and Liquid Chiller for that CPU... :\