Another recombination thread

[Raincity]

Planning to pull the trigger in the next month and replace my core dual Radeon 4850 setup. I also don't plan to overclock the CPU or GPU ever or upgrade down the road on this setup. Crossfire and SLI wont be needed also. So far I have decided on a Ivy I5 3570 and Nvidia 670 and Samsung 830 SSD. Also I plan to game on this monitor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236052 until the 27" IPS panels drop in price in the US this year. Need advise on motherboards and power supplies. I will re-use my Antec Sonata case and Hitachi storage drive and Win 7 license.

Thanks

 

[Blain]

Planning to pull the trigger in the next month and replace my core dual Radeon 4850 setup. I also don't plan to overclock the CPU or GPU ever or upgrade down the road on this setup. Crossfire and SLI wont be needed also. So far I have decided on a Ivy I5 3570 and Nvidia 670 and Samsung 830 SSD. Also I plan to game on this monitor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236052 until the 27" IPS panels drop in price in the US this year. Need advise on motherboards and power supplies. I will re-use my Antec Sonata case and Hitachi storage drive and Win 7 license.

Thanks

Don't (I wouldn't), waste your current cash on a TN panel if you're planning on a 27" IPS anyway. The 27" IPS are cheap enough now.

 

[DSF]

Could you answer the questions in the sticky? You've hit a lot of them, but there are a few missing.

 

[Raincity]

1. MS Office, Visio and moderate gaming.

2. Around $1500 US

3. US

4. Intel & Nividia

5. Antec Sonata 1 case and Hitachi 1 gig storage drive and Win 7 pro

7. No OC, dont have the time to tweak. Just want to build, install windows and go. No dual GPU's either.

8. 2560x1440

9. This month.

 

[mfenn]

What do you have in mind when you say "moderate gaming"? Examples of games that you play, detail levels that like (OK with medium, everything must be maxed, etc.), and framerate tolerances would be most helpful.

 

[lakedude]

That is a decent budget especially if you are reusing some parts. Any reason you don't want to reuse the PS? The new stuff don't need all that much power...

Ivys get a little hotter, maybe budget an extra $20 for a decent cooler?

That video card and CPU will make a great combo.

I love the Sonata cases, only thing is they do not keep things as cool as some of the newer top venting cases. Still it should be fine, maybe toss in an extra 120 mm fan in the optional spot in front by the hard drives.

These http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824254093

are very nice 27" monitors for around $240, but if you need IPS I guess you will be spending a bit more...

If you are not going to OC the motherboard is not so important.

 

[Raincity]

Sorry I thought you all where mind readers. I want to be able play games like Skyrim and Crysis 2 on medium setting to high with a steady frame rate of 45 FPS. Right now I run two cheap four year old 20" TN panels at 1680X1050. I am thing of dumping the dual monitor setup and just going with a 24 or 27 IPS if the prices come down. 1K seems extreme for a Dell Ultra and I don't want to go the Ebay/Paypal to Korea to get one under $400. The $1500 is max but does not include the monitor.

 

[Blain]

I am thing of dumping the dual monitor setup and just going with a 24 or 27 IPS if the prices come down.
1K seems extreme for a Dell Ultra and I don't want to go the Ebay/Paypal to Korea to get one under $400.

Micro Center has 27" IPS monitors for $400.

 

[swe391]

Samsung has a 23" IPS for $190 w/ a $20 gift card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236288

 

[mfenn]

Sorry I thought you all where mind readers. I want to be able play games like Skyrim and Crysis 2 on medium setting to high with a steady frame rate of 45 FPS. Right now I run two cheap four year old 20" TN panels at 1680X1050. I am thing of dumping the dual monitor setup and just going with a 24 or 27 IPS if the prices come down. 1K seems extreme for a Dell Ultra and I don't want to go the Ebay/Paypal to Korea to get one under $400. The $1500 is max but does not include the monitor.

OK, so given the above and the parts that you will be reusing, I can tell you that you don't need to spend anywhere near $1500 on the computer itself. Hell, you can probably get the computer and your 27" IPS for less than $1500.

i5 3550 $210
ASrock B75 $80
G.Skill DDR3 1600 8GB $44
GTX 670 $400
Crucial M4 128GB $100
Lite-ON DVD Burner $18
Silencer Mk III 600W $70 AR
"Auria" 2560x1440 IPS $400 @ MC (yes, they will ship it)
Total: $1322 AR AP

 

[lehtv]

Could also get a hyperthreaded Xeon E3-1230 V2 for $26 more. It won't really improve gaming but that's such a low cost for hyperthreading that it could be worth it

 

[Blain]

For an extra $26 I would opt for the HT, extra L3, slightly lower TDP and give up integrated graphics.

 

[lehtv]

I'm not convinced it's actually going to consume any less power though. Hyperthreading means a few extra watts, and the system wouldn't use the IGP of 3550 anyway. Either way, power consumption is a non-issue

 

[mfenn]

I'm not convinced it's actually going to consume any less power though. Hyperthreading means a few extra watts, and the system wouldn't use the IGP of 3550 anyway. Either way, power consumption is a non-issue

It won't. The IGP block is going to be powered down in the OP's usage scenario and as you say, HT adds to real world power usage. Not a bad upgrade for $26 though, especially considering how much of the budget is still on the table.

 

[Raincity]

Decided to rethink this and decided to scale down and game on a 24" 120 TN pannel at 1920x1080 like the BenQ XL2420T. I will be adding another 24" IPS for primary work. Now the question is will a 560TI work at medium high setting on current games. I am thinking of running a second one in SLI down the road if the performance starts to lag. Here is what I picked out so far http://pcpartpicker.com/p/eyYA Now I will be reusing my Hitachi 1 gig storage drive and Intel 330 128 SSD.

 

[mfenn]

A GTX 560 Ti isn't going to let you take full advantage of a 120Hz monitor at 1920x1080. You'll still be getting decent framerates, but you aren't going to be going over 60 FPS much.

Luckily, there is a decent amount of fat in the build that you've got, so we can cut that can get a better GPU.

- CPU: You're not overclocking per the above, so you can get the i5 3550 -$20
- Mobo: Unless you're doing something you haven't told us about, you don't need to spend anywhere near $185 on a mobo. A plain Jane B75 will do what you need. -$105
- PSU: Current GPUs don't use as much power as their predecessors, so you can get a good 550W PSU like this XFX Core 550W. -$19
- GPU: With the money saved above, you can get a 7950 for $309 AR AP and better enjoy that 120Hz monitor. +$109

 

[Raincity]

A GTX 560 Ti isn't going to let you take full advantage of a 120Hz monitor at 1920x1080. You'll still be getting decent framerates, but you aren't going to be going over 60 FPS much.

Luckily, there is a decent amount of fat in the build that you've got, so we can cut that can get a better GPU.

- CPU: You're not overclocking per the above, so you can get the i5 3550 -$20
- Mobo: Unless you're doing something you haven't told us about, you don't need to spend anywhere near $185 on a mobo. A plain Jane B75 will do what you need. -$105
- PSU: Current GPUs don't use as much power as their predecessors, so you can get a good 550W PSU like this XFX Core 550W. -$19
- GPU: With the money saved above, you can get a 7950 for $309 AR AP and better enjoy that 120Hz monitor. +$109

I cannot seem to make up my mind on what to do for monitors. I have changed my mind so many times in the last two weeks that I give up for now. For now I am going to wait and see what’s available in October. My current 22" dual setup will hold me off for a while. I ditched the idea of getting 560TI and going back to a GT670. If one won’t cut it then I will add another in SLI down the road. The price of the mobo seems excessive for this build but I still don’t trust ASrock customer service at this time. Gigabyte is out of the question since all their Z77 boards have Via sound and network that I despise. Not sure on MSI these days since I have been out of the loop for a while. That leaves Asus as my first choice because I have had good luck with the service on the RMA process in the past . As for the power supply. I am not too picky. I prefer a Seasonic or rebrand that is bronze rated that will handle a SLI setup in the future. I will be pulling the trigger this Thursday night Friday morning so I can take posession of the delivery next Tuesday. I plan to split the order up between Newegg and Amazon depending on the price for each item and availability. I have an Amazon prime account to help save on the shipping costs. Thanks for everybody’s help.

 

[mfenn]

First off, I would say that you are really missing out by insisting on ASUS. They are good boards, but overpriced in most places.

Second, building with the intent to "upgrade to SLI" 95% of the time means spending extra money on parts that you will never take advantage of. From my experience, it is exceedingly rare that anybody actually follows through with that intent.

Third, if you absolutely positively must have an ASUS (which I don't really understand), I don't see how you jumped to getting a $185 one. The P8B75-V is the ASUS equivalent (roughly) of the ASRock B75 Pro3.

 

[Raincity]

I do agree that Asus boards are overpriced in today's market. My last two builds where on Gigabyte boards and still running strong today. Why they went with Via instead of Realtec still baffles me since I don't recall anything Via put out ever worked right and driver support is pretty weak. I did look at that Asus B-75 board but once I decided to have the option for SLI. I reverted back to the Z77 chipset. There was a cheaper Z77 board by Asus for $130 but having on board WIFI and the Intel nic justified the extra cost of the P8Z77-V. Somehow I think a single GT670 is not going to cut it for me and will need an second card. I need to get the monitor decisions made first before I proceed with it.

 

[Raincity]

Pulled the trigger and waiting for shipping. Looks like waiting a week got me a copy of Borderlands 2 game since NVidia is giving them out for the launch of the 660TI.

 

[krnmastersgt]

The 660 Ti seems to be to the 670 what the 670 was to the 680, a bit cheaper and a bit less performance for it. What did strike me as troubling for you though was that the 660 Ti is limited to a 192 bit memory bus, whereas the 670 is a 256 bit bus. This may not seem to matter too much in most current benchmarks but for a very high resolution system, especially with multiple cards the memory bit-rate and bandwidth do make a significant difference at higher resolutions. I think that you'll see fairly poor returns on a 660 Ti SLI configuration with some of the more graphically demanding titles as they stress the memory bandwidth pretty substantially. Just my opinion on the matter, I haven't seen enough test scenarios to know how this'll turn out later on.

 

[Raincity]

The 660 Ti seems to be to the 670 what the 670 was to the 680, a bit cheaper and a bit less performance for it. What did strike me as troubling for you though was that the 660 Ti is limited to a 192 bit memory bus, whereas the 670 is a 256 bit bus. This may not seem to matter too much in most current benchmarks but for a very high resolution system, especially with multiple cards the memory bit-rate and bandwidth do make a significant difference at higher resolutions. I think that you'll see fairly poor returns on a 660 Ti SLI configuration with some of the more graphically demanding titles as they stress the memory bandwidth pretty substantially. Just my opinion on the matter, I haven't seen enough test scenarios to know how this'll turn out later on.

I ordered the 670. Newegg and Amazon is giving away Borderlands 2 with the 670 cards also right now.