Need Advice/Help with my New Build Specs... ($2500-$3000 budget)

spirit

spirit

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Yep go for the Sabertooth board and add a sound card if you want one.

The 670 is a great card. 4GB of V-RAM should keep you up and running for years. Very few games actually use more than about 1.5GB at high resolutions right now, so 4GB should be fine for any resolution!

@G80 - the 690 is a dual-GPU card.
 
spirit

spirit

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Staff member
G80FTW said:
Yes I know :)

I was just saying that I generally dislike them, but I would pick a dual GPU card over SLi because I think its just too show-offy to have more than one video card :D
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Ah right ok, sorry my misunderstanding.

To the OP, it really depends how much you want to spend on the card. A 670 is half the price of a single 690 or two 680s and will be fine for a long while yet, a 690 or an SLI'ed pair of 680s would last you longer though. Remember though that 670 SLI is always an option for the future.

How much would you ideally like to spend on the graphics card?
 
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Chameleon

New Member
G80FTW said:
Well, technically a GTX 670 will do just fine right now for any game. But the important thing to remember is that there are 5 new game engines coming out the beginning of next year and may or may not be more demanding (judging from the console driven gaming development world we sadly live in).

So, I would still suggest the single 690 over SLi 680s. Reason being, Iv never been one for SLi or even dual GPU cards. I just dont believe there is any reason to need that kind of power. But, if I had the kind of money you do then there is no reason not to get a 690. Because in the long run it will last you much longer.
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vistakid10 said:
How much would you ideally like to spend on the graphics card?
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Well, I'll just put it this way... I do have a huge budget... but I don't necessarily WANT to spend ALL of it. The wife has also been begging me for a new Refrigerator! (LOL)

So I may just opt for a single 670 for now... and, like I said in a previous post, just wait for nvidia's next 7xx line of gpus, and see if there is anything enticing there... especially given the advent of dx12 coming out next year possibly! :)

EDIT-- I don't usually budget each individual piece. I just have an overall budget, and then try and work all parts into that budget.
 
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G80FTW

G80FTW

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Chameleon said:
Well, I'll just put it this way... I do have a huge budget... but I don't necessarily WANT to spend ALL of it. The wife has also been begging me for a new Refrigerator! (LOL)

So I may just opt for a single 670 for now... and, like I said in a previous post, just wait for nvidia's next 7xx line of gpus, and see if there is anything enticing there... especially given the advent of dx12 coming out next year possibly! :)

EDIT-- I don't usually budget each individual piece. I just have an overall budget, and then try and work all parts into that budget.
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Where did you hear about DX12 coming out possibly next year? Iv heard no word on it even being worked on.

They still have yet to really touch on DX11 features whats the point of DX12?
 
spirit

spirit

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Staff member
I don't DX12 is going to come any time soon really. As G80 said, most games barely take advantage of DX11 right now, let alone DX12.

I had figured that you wouldn't want to use all of your budget. Anything you choose now would be a good option, they're all great cards we have in mind for you now.
 
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Chameleon

New Member
Sorry, I should have said that it was just a buddy of mine that builds PCs for a living that said he only speculates that dx12 may come out next year. Though, that could be completely wrong!

But yeah... I think I'm going to be going with either the EVGA 670 FTW 2Gb or the EVGA 670 Superclocked 4Gb. Both of those seem to be the best cards for the money! And as I've said, it will allow me to save money NOW, and then give the 670 to my wife in the future if I later go with something from the 7xx line! (regardless of dx12, haha) :)
 
spirit

spirit

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Staff member
I'd say get the 4GB one, unless it's way more expensive.

Is your wife a gamer too then? ;)
 
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Chameleon

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vistakid10 said:
I'd say get the 4GB one, unless it's way more expensive.

Is your wife a gamer too then? ;)
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On Newegg, the FTW 2GB is $409.99, and the 4GB is $459.99. I'm thinking $50 extra bucks for that extra 2GB is worth it!

As for my wife, yeah, she's a gamer! She used to just play console games, but I got her into all things PC-gaming many years ago... started with L4D, and onto things like L4D2, Borderlands, etc etc etc...

We've been playing the Arma 2 mod called DayZ lately... it's one of the craziest things we've played in a LONG time! haha
 
spirit

spirit

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Staff member
Yeah I'd spend the extra money on the 4GB one just for that bit of extra future proofing, especially if you're going to give it to your wife to use when you upgrade to something else.

It's awesome that your wife is a gamer. Not many girls/women I know play games all that much. I have a few friends who do though. :)
 
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Chameleon

New Member
vistakid10 said:
Yeah I'd spend the extra money on the 4GB one just for that bit of extra future proofing, especially if you're going to give it to your wife to use when you upgrade to something else.

It's awesome that your wife is a gamer. Not many girls/women I know play games all that much. I have a few friends who do though. :)
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Hmmmm... I'm beginning to read that some of the 670s have a horrible whining noise from the fan. So many negative reviews on this issue! Uggghhh!

Now I'm beginning to contemplate the single 690 option again! LOL... I dunno, this is a decision I'm just going to have to weigh my options!
 
spirit

spirit

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Chameleon

New Member
I have some things to think about, for sure! Thanks for all the help... I think I'm going to wait to determine what PSU to go with, until I've finalized my choice as what I'm going to do GPU-wise.

As for heatsinks... I think I need to do some research on what will fit in my case, etc.
 
G80FTW

G80FTW

Active Member
Chameleon said:
I have some things to think about, for sure! Thanks for all the help... I think I'm going to wait to determine what PSU to go with, until I've finalized my choice as what I'm going to do GPU-wise.

As for heatsinks... I think I need to do some research on what will fit in my case, etc.
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I have a Cooler Master Hyper 612 PWM. Its probably the biggest heatsink Iv seen for a CPU and has 12 copper heatpipes which are direct to the CPU as opposed to most that are not so it will dissipate heat a little better than ones that are not direct. It was also $65~ and depending on the motherboard configuration it could cause problems installing RAM/video card because of its size. Mine fits just perfect though.
 
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Chameleon

New Member
G80FTW said:
I have a Cooler Master Hyper 612 PWM. Its probably the biggest heatsink Iv seen for a CPU and has 12 copper heatpipes which are direct to the CPU as opposed to most that are not so it will dissipate heat a little better than ones that are not direct. It was also $65~ and depending on the motherboard configuration it could cause problems installing RAM/video card because of its size. Mine fits just perfect though.
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What I have in all our other PCs is... ZALMAN CNPS9900ALED 120mm

Not sure if that would be sufficient for the i7... what you all think?

EDIT--- Nevermind... just realized it't not for socket 1155.
 
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G80FTW

G80FTW

Active Member
Chameleon said:
What I have in all our other PCs is... ZALMAN CNPS9900ALED 120mm

Not sure if that would be sufficient for the i7... what you all think?
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Should be enough for an i7 yea.

Now, I dont know about the Ivy Bridge processors, but with my processor (which is six core as opposed to the quad core your looking at) is about 28c idle and under full 100% load its peaking around 82c. Which is about as hot as my video card runs under full load.

Now, thats also with 2 more cores and an older fabrication process of 32nm as opposed the IB 22nm.

With that said, Im not 100% sure but the IB should run much cooler than my 970.
 
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