Building a PC for 1500€, help needed.

[Gapi182]

okay so my PC is 5 years old and I have decided to build a new one. Pretty much dedicated my last 2 months to figure out what would be the best choices and this is what I came up with. Please give some suggestions.

850watt PSU because I'll get a second 7970 in the future.

 

[DSF]

Please fill out the questions in the sticky.

Assuming this is a gaming build, it's not bad, but you could definitely save some money on things like the power supply. 850W is more than you need even if you plan on SLI, which I don't recommend in the first place unless your screen is larger than 1920x1080 and you feel the need to max out graphics settings.

Also, are you intending to order that exact 7970 which is out of stock, or just whatever 7970 they happen to have when you place the order?

Edit: I just noticed the line at the bottom about ordering another 7970. If you mean to do that within about 6 months so that you can max out the details in the short term, that's one thing. (My personal opinion is that it's still a waste of money, but it at least has some merit that way.) If you intend to drop it in further on in the future you're probably not going to get the performance you're hoping for. You'd be better served by simply buying a single new card in the future, not to mention that the release of AMD's 8xxx series isn't all that far away.

 

[Gapi182]

I'm getting a new high resolution monitor next month so I'll be playing on 1440p. I'm from europe and I'm ordering it from germany since it's the cheapest way for me. As for the 7970 version I want that exact one and it is in stock it'll just take 2-3 weeks.
EDIT: Oh and of course it's for gaming only.

 

[DSF]

Yeah I speak German I just kind of assumed that the 2-3 week shipping delay was because it was out of stock and they were waiting for more.

 

[Gapi182]

so is the rig okay for my needs?

 

[mfenn]

What site is that from? We might be able to find you better deals if we browse around a bit.

 

[Gapi182]

What site is that from? We might be able to find you better deals if we browse around a bit.

it's hoh.de. I'd really appreciate for some more quick feedback as I'm literally just about to order it

 

[Sleepingforest]

Well, the PSU is definitely too big and you aren't getting much in terms of price/perfomance ratio with that motherboard. There are almost certainly cheaper 7970s, and you don't need the Pro version of the Samsung 840.

 

[Gapi182]

as said I'm getting a second 7970 and I want this model since it's supposed to be great for overclocking. What's wrong with the motherboard it looks great to me? And i kinda want the Pro model of the SSD since the basic one is quite slower.

 

[mfenn]

The thing is, you can get the same performance for less by making some smarter component choices.

i5 3570K 193e
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 110e
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB 38e
Sapphire 7970 3GB 289e
Samsung 840 250GB 146e
Seagate 7200RPM 1TB 58e
LG DVD Burner 20e
Corsair TX850 110e
NZXT Phantom 135e
Thermalright Silver Arrow 57e
Total: 1156e

In fact, you can double up on the 7970's and be at 1445e, only a few euros more than your original config.

 

[Gapi182]

the problem is i want the silver arrow extreme and a fully modular PSU. Might change to extreme4 if it really doesn't make a difference.

 

[Sleepingforest]

Why do you want those things? Overclocking can only be pushed so far on air (4.5-5.0GHz, depending on your luck). Anything more will require custom water cooling to be effective, and the Silver Arrow Extreme is hardly better than the normal edition. Modular, provided you choose the right size of PSU, hardly makes a difference (maybe 2-3 SATA power cables at worst will need to be shoved into an HDD cage.)

Plus, you only need 500W for a single GPU and 750W for two GPUs at most. You'd need around 1000W to do 3 GPUs, so getting 850W is basically a waste.

 

[Gapi182]

I want a clean case and like modular PSUs. And the extreme edition is quite better than the normal edition. Also a 750 watt PSU just won't cut it for 2 overclocked 7970s. It would be enough for something like 2 gtx 680 but these 7970 are quite hungry.

 

[mfenn]

I want a clean case and like modular PSUs. And the extreme edition is quite better than the normal edition. Also a 750 watt PSU just won't cut it for 2 overclocked 7970s. It would be enough for something like 2 gtx 680 but these 7970 are quite hungry.

A modular PSU doesn't buy you anything with a stacked Crossfire setup because you're going to be using basically every cable anyway. It's just extra resistance and more bulk at the PSU end.

Bottom line is that if you spend less on useless frills, you can spend more on real-world performance.

 

[Sleepingforest]

This link tells me that you have unreal power consumption expectations. 2 Crossfires 7970s does not even break into the upper half of the 600s, let alone 700W.

 

[Gapi182]

so If I were to overclock is it better to just go with a cheap 7970? Will I be able to overclock it to let's say 1200(that's my realistic expectation, I don't expect something like 1300 because I know I won't get it.) Also some people have told me that the tx series isn't that good that's why i went for the ax.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

An oced 7970 used 1.5-1.7 times the power of a stock 7970. And while using furmark like apps a single 7970 oced can easily exceed 250 watts. And then we have a highly oced CPU and stuff. So 750 watts may cut it but not by a big margin. A 850 watts has ample room to spare and barely costs much more.

 

[Sleepingforest]

I'm confident that overclocking the 7970s won't eat up 100W extra (that would be a 20% percent each) unless you can post a benchmark/several anecdotal posts proving otherwise, and he won't really need to overclock them too much since he's getting two. At the very worst, he might overclock a single one if CFX doesn't work in a game.

 

[mfenn]

so If I were to overclock is it better to just go with a cheap 7970? Will I be able to overclock it to let's say 1200(that's my realistic expectation, I don't expect something like 1300 because I know I won't get it.) Also some people have told me that the tx series isn't that good that's why i went for the ax.

There is NO guarantee that any given 7970 will clock to 1200 MHz. Doesn't matter if it is a 400 euro card or a 300 euro one. There is always a risk with overclocking. That being said, the 7970 is a pretty mature chip at this point and your chances are good with any card.

The TX may not be as good as the AX in some grand objective measure, but that honestly does not matter at all in your case. The AX is not good enough to justify its increased cost, especially when that increased cost means that you are limited to a single GPU. A 7970 CFX + TX850 beats a single 7970 + AX850 any day of the week (twice on Sundays).