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Posted: 5/20/2014 9:42:05 PM EDT
And they said it couldn't be done...
Anyways, getting off my ass and getting started on putting a PC together. I weighed my options, buying a prebuilt from someone like ibuypower.com or something like that, but I figured let's make this a learning experience, I'll roll my own. http://www.logicalincrements.com/ has been an awesome resource, and I've been using PC Part Picker as well. I'm in no real rush to put anything together, I'm buying components as I can, but I hope to have everything I need minus a monitor/mouse/keyboard within another month or two. Started with the motherboard - http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Computer-Corp-Z87-GD45-GAMING/dp/B00D12OBEU/?tag=logicaincrem-20 -- it was about $126.00 with Amazon Prime and a $10 post purchase rebate. I've read hit and miss stories about MSI's QC, but most of what I've read has been positive, and the price was right. This motherboard choice obviously means I'm going Intel. I've read Intel vs AMD, seems in general for what I'm gonna be doing (casual gaming, playing things like Skyrim, FO3, Minecraft, the most intensive thing I might mess with is BF4 or Titanfall), it's six of one/half dozen of the other. I've read that Intel based setups generally age a little better than AMD, but I dunno. Leaning towards an i5 4670k, leaves me the option of overclocking further on down the road if/when I get brave. I don't plan on messing with any of that stuff from the start. Video cards, I'm lost on. Again for what I'm doing, with what I've read, it seems like a GTX 760 or R9 280 should be more than enough horsepower, but there's a part of me that wants to future-proof this thing and hopefully not really have to mess with it all that much for the next 2-4 years, so I'm thinking GTX 770 maybe? Or more? Thoughts? RAM, seems like 8 gigs is the consensus of being enough, and I can always add later. Gonna do the SSD and conventional drive. Looks like I can get a pretty decent SSD around 120 gig or so for about $75-100 depending on brand. Speaking of which, any preferred brands here? Along with that, the OS - Win 7 or 8? Not really a Linux/Ubuntu kinda dude, although I'd be willing to learn. And a case to cram it all in. I dunno what I want just yet to be honest, it gets hot around here, so I want something that's gonna cool well. Noise ain't really a concern, I could care less if the sumbitch sounds like a hurricane, so long as it cools well. I don't know if I really want to mess with liquid cooling at first, but it may be something to explore further on down the road. |
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I have 2 GTX 780 TI SC cards. It runs everything like a boss. Look into getting the GTX 780 6Gb cards.
I have an i7 4770k...I plan on overclocking at some point... If you aren't going to overclock, get an i5. I have a Samsung 840 Pro 256Gb SSD that I used for the boot drive. Do to forget to turn hibernation off. My storage HD is just an HDD I picked up at Best Buy (1Tb Seagate for $60). I plan on getting a 1T Samsung 840 EVO to replace it...but I haven't had the chance to spend money on that. If you use separate drives like I did, don't forget to transfer your program files .etc to your storage drive. Make sure you set your internet browser to download all files to your storage drive, and don't forget to change the path to your storage drive when you install something. I also created folders in Storage (E:) > Users for my temporary files to keep my SSD from bogging down with temp files. It took a bit of reading up on, but I figured it out. I have Win 8.1 and I really like it. Linux and other community based OS aren't that great to game on. Most games are Microsoft Windows based. |
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I just built my first rig and it was intended to be for gaming. I went with an AMD 8350 and the GTX 770. It's plays BF4 on Ultra with FPS between 60 and 120, depending on the map. Also plays Titanfall just fine with settings on high. My motherboard is a mid to high Gigabyte board with 8gs of memory. Just be sure to get a PSU that can power everything. Lastly, make sure the monitor you have will make the rest of the hardware worth the price you paid! I have a samsung SSD, and I have no complaints. Like the other guy said, always remember to change the install path to a bigger hard drive.
ETA....running windows 8.1 |
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I just built my first rig and it was intended to be for gaming. I went with an AMD 8350 and the GTX 770. It's plays BF4 on Ultra with FPS between 60 and 120, depending on the map. Also plays Titanfall just fine with settings on high. My motherboard is a mid to high Gigabyte board with 8gs of memory. Just be sure to get a PSU that can power everything. Lastly, make sure the monitor you have will make the rest of the hardware worth the price you paid! I have a samsung SSD, and I have no complaints. Like the other guy said, always remember to change the install path to a bigger hard drive. ETA....running windows 8.1 View Quote I thought about the AMD really hard before getting an Intel i7 4770k, but the power consumption and performance/$ were pretty ridiculous long term. |
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I wanted the intel, but I suppose I wasn't thinking long term. I basically built it for BF4 and I saw the performance people had with the AMD and GTX 770 combo so I went with that. My next build, whenever that may be will be an intel for sure. If I had gone intel, my total would have been $2k + as I had nothing! no monitor, keyboard, etc.
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The i5 4670k is just fine. Buy a Noctua DH-D14 or a all in one water cooler like a Corsair H70/80/90/100. Quieter than the stock cooler and allows extra cooling for overclocking. The i7 offers no performance advantage over the i5 when it comes to gaming.
GTX 770 or R9 280X or better. The 770 and 280X are just rebadged 680s and 7970s from the previous generation. New architecture is coming up pretty soon. Buy a 250GB or 256GB SSD. Prices have come down dramatically. A 250GB Samsung 840 Evo is $139 on Amazon right now. Sounds like you are going to do some gaming. Pretty much limited to Windows. 8/8.1 has a slight edge when it comes to gaming performance as well as various other "under the hood" improvements. A few things other things were changed, but if you aren't aware of them then they probably don't affect you. As far as case goes anything from Fractal Design or Corsair are good. Personally, the Fractal Design R4 would be my recommendation. Has optimizations for quiet computing. You may not care about noise now, but you might change your mind after listening to it drone for days, weeks, or months. |
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I wanted the intel, but I suppose I wasn't thinking long term. I basically built it for BF4 and I saw the performance people had with the AMD and GTX 770 combo so I went with that. My next build, whenever that may be will be an intel for sure. If I had gone intel, my total would have been $2k + as I had nothing! no monitor, keyboard, etc. View Quote You must have gotten a good deal. An Intel i5 and MB is roughly equivalent in price with an AMD 8350 and MB. |
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You must have gotten a good deal. An Intel i5 and MB is roughly equivalent in price with an AMD 8350 and MB. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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I wanted the intel, but I suppose I wasn't thinking long term. I basically built it for BF4 and I saw the performance people had with the AMD and GTX 770 combo so I went with that. My next build, whenever that may be will be an intel for sure. If I had gone intel, my total would have been $2k + as I had nothing! no monitor, keyboard, etc. You must have gotten a good deal. An Intel i5 and MB is roughly equivalent in price with an AMD 8350 and MB. Won't disagree with that. I'm weird in that if I decided to go with intel, it had to be an i7. I didn't want to buy the i5 knowing there was a better / next gen processor out there from intel. But I learned something for the future though. |
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Is there any significant difference between 2, 3 and 4 gigs of memory for the video card?
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Is there any significant difference between 2, 3 and 4 gigs of memory for the video card? View Quote Yes. Higher resolutions require more VRAM. Also, so games are notorious for sucking up VRAM. Skyrim, for examples, uses a lot of VRAM if you install mods. At the price level you are looking at, there is no reason to get more than 2gb IMHO. The VRAM will not really be used by the GPU. |
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Will Skyrim run okay even with mods on a 2 gig card? I've pretty much decided on a GTX 770, seems to be a fair popular choice. Also, are there any specific brands of cars that are better/preferable over others?
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http://alienbabeltech.com/main/gtx-770-4gb-vs-2gb-tested/3/
Summary: Most games will see minimal difference at 1080p with 2gb vs 4gb. An exception is modded Skyrim, which will benefit from the extra VRAM. I wouldn't buy a 4gb 770. If you are going 770, I'd go 2gb and just accept that the framerate will drop some with skyrim. If you aren't satisfied with that, move up to a 780. |
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VRAM is also a balance between GPU power and resolution. You need more VRAM for higher resolutions and more textures, but at the same time, the GPU needs to be powerful enough to run the higher resolution. So, something like a GTX 750Ti with 10GB of VRAM (doesn't exist) would over no performance increase over 2GB. The memory bus would also have to be sufficiently wide to address the large amounts of memory effectively.
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I'm buying memory and hard drives next.
Crucial seems to get good reviews, going with the Ballistix Sport 8 GB I think. Hard drives, Sandisk seems to make a nice SSD for a fair price, but the Samsung EVO drives look like a fairly popular choice as well. For HDDs, I've read mixed reviews of Seagate, but near universal praise for Western Digital. Is there a huge difference between WD Blue and Black drives? WD markets the Blue as an every day drive, while the Black is more a performance minded drive with a better warranty. |
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I have a Samsung Pro SSD and would buy it again. For WD HDDs, I went with black. The 5 year warranty is no joke. Reliability is very important to me. I've had exactly one issue with a WD HDD and it wasn't even catastrophic. It was just making noises so I sent it in and they sent me a new replacement. |
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I recently rolled this. Works very well. Only real problem was they sent me a bum WD hard drive. Computer would not recognized it. But I just cannibalized the one from my old computer and it works fine. Corsair Vengeance 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory FYI, www.pcpartpicker.com is a great resource for comparing prices. It also flags if you are buying incompatible parts. |
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Memory and HDD is on the way. 8 gigs of Crucial Ballistix Sport RAM, and a WD Black 1TB drive. Still mulling over what my SSD is going to be - probably Samsung.
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I don't think you'll regret going WD Black. Top notch.
As long as the Crucial is compatible with your MB, no problems. 8gb is a good amount. I have 16 and I've never seen my usage over about 6gb. |
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I checked the specs on my motherboard versus the memory, everything looks okay.
I've briefly read something about running RAM in dual channel - anything I need to be messing with? I'll make my next purchase in another week or two, either the processor or GPU. I wanna get this thing together. I've been reading and watching Youtube videos of the different mods and such people use for FO3 and Skyrim. I thought FO3 was good fun on 360, it's glorious with some mods on PC. |
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On your MB, the four RAM slots will be color coded. Check your manual, but you want to run your two sticks in the same colored slots. That way they'll run in dual channel.
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Still buying parts. So far, I've got a motherboard, hard drives and RAM, and a CPU cooler. I've settled on the case, CPU and graphics card I want - so tell me about power supplies.
Any brand preferable over another? Is there such a thing as going overkill? According to PC part picker, my combination should be running around 420-450W power usage. I like the idea of modular units, where you use just the connections needed, seems like a nice way to keep things clean and uncluttered. |
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SeaSonic is what you seek. You want stability and reliability and that's what you'll get.
Don't buy into the "I need a 2000W PSU" farce. I have a 700W and it's honestly overkill. Google for psu watt calculators and see what they recommend. Please do not cheap out on the PSU. p.s. You probably should make sure your PSU is listed as "Haswell compatible". It's an ultra-low power state that your i5 will go into when it's idle. Great for decreasing heat and electricity costs, but older designs for PSU can't put out such a low output and you'll have issues. Solutions are to disable that specific sleep power state (google for details - it's not hard) or just buy a Haswel-compatible PSU. My Haswell-compatible SeaSonic has zero problems. |
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SeaSonic or Corsair have been the two I've been looking at.
Is there any significant difference between bronze/gold/etc ratings? ETA - I've read that cheap or inferior PSUs can blow shit up, I got no plans of skimping, I'm taking my time putting this one together so I only have to do it once. |
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SeaSonic or Corsair have been the two I've been looking at. Is there any significant difference between bronze/gold/etc ratings? ETA - I've read that cheap or inferior PSUs can blow shit up, I got no plans of skimping, I'm taking my time putting this one together so I only have to do it once. View Quote Both are top notch--Seasonic manufacters Corsair PSU--at least they used to. Seasonics are the best. |
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I picked this one up:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151118 Newegg had it for about $30 less than what it cost on Amazon. I used a couple different calculators online and they both figured around 450-500W. I may still liquid cool and overclock someday, so I'll have some headroom for further on down the road I think. |
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Nothing wrong with that at all. The johnnyguru recommendation is solid.
Good choice. |
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They're all huge today. I run a Cooler Master 212 evo and I'd feel comfortable using it as a personal defense weapon if needed.
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I was worried it wouldn't fit in my case when I took it out of the box earlier today, but I Googled and found people using the case I'm getting with this cooler with no problems.
I'm pretty excited to get this thing together. Only parts I'm lacking are a case, CPU and graphics card. Last time I did any serious PC gaming, Doom was still in its heyday. |
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Make sure your case isn't too noisy. It is fatiguing to use a loud computer 24/7. It's okay if it's loud when you're gaming and the fans are all spun up, but it should be silent or "light breezy fan" quiet when you're just surfing. Read the reviews to see how quiet they are.
For the GPU, you can shoot for the moon or go modest. It all depends on the resolution, what games you want to play, and how much you like spending money. |
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The case is going to be a Corsair C70. It looks really cool, and reviewers have raved about the cable management and how quiet it is.
Resolution, um, 1920x1080 I suppose. I really want things to be smooth - 60+ FPS is what I'm after. What games am I going to play? Skyrim and FO3 with mods, probably revisit Dead Space, the Bioshock games, gonna be Minecrafting. DayZ looks really interesting, as does Rust. I got burned on BF4 on XB1, don't know if I want to give Dice/EA any more of my money for that. Might try Mobas as well, I dunno. Never played the Stalker games, I'm looking forward to them. Reviews I've read have me thinking 770 or 780. I don't really mind paying for something good.
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The case is going to be a Corsair C70. It looks really cool, and reviewers have raved about the cable management and how quiet it is. Resolution, um, 1920x1080 I suppose. I really want things to be smooth - 60+ FPS is what I'm after. What games am I going to play? Skyrim and FO3 with mods, probably revisit Dead Space, the Bioshock games, gonna be Minecrafting. DayZ looks really interesting, as does Rust. I got burned on BF4 on XB1, don't know if I want to give Dice/EA any more of my money for that. Might try Mobas as well, I dunno. Never played the Stalker games, I'm looking forward to them. Reviews I've read have me thinking 770 or 780. I don't really mind paying for something good. View Quote I have a 780 and I can run Skyrim/FO3/Bioshock Infinite at 2560x1440. Shouldn't be an issue. |
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Stupid work, getting in the way of more important things, like building this PC.
Anyways, CPU is on the way. I thought you had to liquid cool to over clock, which with what I've read so far isn't always the case. So I ordered an i5 4670k and will experiment with over clocking. Next, GPU.
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Is liquid cooling a must now? I built a comp 10 years ago and liquid was just another way of
cooling. I used it on the CPU and video card. The radiator was a tower that was outside and cooled passively. Needless to say my knowledge of things is hosed by now.
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Is liquid cooling a must now? I built a comp 10 years ago and liquid was just another way ofcooling. I used it on the CPU and video card. The radiator was a tower that was outside and cooled passively. Needless to say my knowledge of things is hosed by now. View Quote Not necessary, but the all-in-one water coolers are cheap, easy, and pretty good. |
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Is liquid cooling a must now? I built a comp 10 years ago and liquid was just another way ofcooling. I used it on the CPU and video card. The radiator was a tower that was outside and cooled passively. Needless to say my knowledge of things is hosed by now. View Quote No, liquid cooling is not a must. Air is still perfectly reasonable for most users. However, liquid has never been more accessible than it is now. If you want it, it's not hard and it's not expensive. |
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I just bought a new rig
I7 4790K GIGABYTE 770 GTX 16G RAM 2TB HD 512 SSD I am running an I7 with a corsair H80 water cool. |
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Are you getting anything done on this Quintin? I am curious to see how it works out for you. I am upgrading an old piece of #%@! to a slightly newer, faster piece of $%#.
I don't play the fancy games that you play on PC though. |
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Are you getting anything done on this Quintin? I am curious to see how it works out for you. I am upgrading an old piece of #%@! to a slightly newer, faster piece of $%#. I don't play the fancy games that you play on PC though. View Quote If you are not a gamer and instead use your computer for web surfing, paying bills, watching netflix, etc. then you don't need a lot of computer. An inexpensive prebuilt from Wal-Mart or Fry's will be plenty. No need to waste money. Even if you are a light gamer, those prebuilts are fine. Just buy a discrete video card for $100 if the built-in video isn't hacking it. Boom, done. |
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If you are not a gamer and instead use your computer for web surfing, paying bills, watching netflix, etc. then you don't need a lot of computer. An inexpensive prebuilt from Wal-Mart or Fry's will be plenty. No need to waste money. Even if you are a light gamer, those prebuilts are fine. Just buy a discrete video card for $100 if the built-in video isn't hacking it. Boom, done. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Are you getting anything done on this Quintin? I am curious to see how it works out for you. I am upgrading an old piece of #%@! to a slightly newer, faster piece of $%#. I don't play the fancy games that you play on PC though. If you are not a gamer and instead use your computer for web surfing, paying bills, watching netflix, etc. then you don't need a lot of computer. An inexpensive prebuilt from Wal-Mart or Fry's will be plenty. No need to waste money. Even if you are a light gamer, those prebuilts are fine. Just buy a discrete video card for $100 if the built-in video isn't hacking it. Boom, done. Not hijack his thread.. But I only play Counter Strike on PC. Everything else I play on console. So I am just upgrading GPU and RAM a little so it runs the CS smoothly. I was just curious how much he had done and how it was going. I've gamed with Quintin quite a bit so I was just curious how it was going for him. |
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Quoted: Are you getting anything done on this Quintin? I am curious to see how it works out for you. I am upgrading an old piece of #%@! to a slightly newer, faster piece of $%#. I don't play the fancy games that you play on PC though. View Quote It's on a temporary hold, as we've been in the middle of a big project at work so I haven't really had much time to mess with it. All I'm lacking is a video card, OS and a keyboard and mouse. I recently upgraded my internet at home to U-Verse, no more 4G hot spot garbage.
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It's on a temporary hold, as we've been in the middle of a big project at work so I haven't really had much time to mess with it. All I'm lacking is a video card, OS and a keyboard and mouse. I recently upgraded my internet at home to U-Verse, no more 4G hot spot garbage. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Are you getting anything done on this Quintin? I am curious to see how it works out for you. I am upgrading an old piece of #%@! to a slightly newer, faster piece of $%#. I don't play the fancy games that you play on PC though. It's on a temporary hold, as we've been in the middle of a big project at work so I haven't really had much time to mess with it. All I'm lacking is a video card, OS and a keyboard and mouse. I recently upgraded my internet at home to U-Verse, no more 4G hot spot garbage. I hope your U-Verse is better than mine... It is up and down all the time. Hopefully, it will be better than your phone though. |
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It's been pretty damn sporty so far. I got hit detection in COD like I've never experienced before, things like the KSG in Blops 2 is borderline unfair now.
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So Nvidia announced the GTX 970/980. I really want to try and set my PC up in such a manner to future proof it as best as possible, to have as much headroom as I can get for future releases. I was pretty well set on a 780, but now I don't know whether to wait out and get a 980 or what. Thoughts?
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Get a 900 series card.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/nvidia_geforce_gtx_970_and_980_reference_review,1.html EVGA 970 is $329 on newegg. 980 is $549 |
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So Nvidia announced the GTX 970/980. I really want to try and set my PC up in such a manner to future proof it as best as possible, to have as much headroom as I can get for future releases. I was pretty well set on a 780, but now I don't know whether to wait out and get a 980 or what. Thoughts? View Quote I just read a review. It looks like the 970 is close to 780ti performance at a substantial discount. If you were going to be happy with a 780, you'd likely be even happier with a 970. |
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I just read a review. It looks like the 970 is close to 780ti performance at a substantial discount. If you were going to be happy with a 780, you'd likely be even happier with a 970. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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So Nvidia announced the GTX 970/980. I really want to try and set my PC up in such a manner to future proof it as best as possible, to have as much headroom as I can get for future releases. I was pretty well set on a 780, but now I don't know whether to wait out and get a 980 or what. Thoughts? I just read a review. It looks like the 970 is close to 780ti performance at a substantial discount. If you were going to be happy with a 780, you'd likely be even happier with a 970. I think EVGA has a trade in program. Ill do some research...as I have 2 780-ti SC's ETA: looks like the 980 isn't that much better than my 780-ti SC I'll wait until the 980-ti's come out and see. Unless I strike it rich and then I'll just buy a few Titan-Z cards |
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Quoted: I just read a review. It looks like the 970 is close to 780ti performance at a substantial discount. If you were going to be happy with a 780, you'd likely be even happier with a 970. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: So Nvidia announced the GTX 970/980. I really want to try and set my PC up in such a manner to future proof it as best as possible, to have as much headroom as I can get for future releases. I was pretty well set on a 780, but now I don't know whether to wait out and get a 980 or what. Thoughts? I just read a review. It looks like the 970 is close to 780ti performance at a substantial discount. If you were going to be happy with a 780, you'd likely be even happier with a 970. The price on the 970 is very, very right too. That could be my jam.
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If only you were good at video games building this PC would almost be worth it for you......
All joking aside... I am curious what the final cost of the build is with the changes and everything. It looks like you are putting a lot of higher quality components. Are you finding yourself spending a lot more than your original budget? I plan on having a lower end PC available to me from now on to help me handle my Counter Strike addiction that I developed recently. I am looking forward to seeing how your build works out for you. |
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I plan on having a lower end PC available to me from now on to help me handle my Counter Strike addiction that I developed recently. I am looking forward to seeing how your build works out for you. View Quote CS doesn't take much of a computer at all. I bet my integrated graphics that I've never used can render that just fine. |
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CS doesn't take much of a computer at all. I bet my integrated graphics that I've never used can render that just fine. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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I plan on having a lower end PC available to me from now on to help me handle my Counter Strike addiction that I developed recently. I am looking forward to seeing how your build works out for you. CS doesn't take much of a computer at all. I bet my integrated graphics that I've never used can render that just fine. The integrated graphics on my old i3 ran CS, but it skipped a little bit. |
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