Need advice on new GTX670/680 sli rig

[morper]

Hey!

Im about to go ahead and build myself a new gaming rig this Christmas and I would love to get some advice and thoughts from all experts lurking in this forums

The rig will mainly be used for gaming. All from the latest titles to older mmo´s. Other than that it will mostly be used for music, movies, websurfing, office work and some video editing.

My build will be based on the 1155 socket, and I plan on using an i7 3770K CPU.

My max budget is around 5k $, monitor not included as I will reuse that from my old rig. I will also reuse my OCZ Vertex 4 512GB and a 2TB WD harddrive.

I live in Sweden and order my parts from a swedish online retailer.

I have some areas of question:

Case for the rig – I will use air-cooling only, and I want a case with lots of room and very good airflow. I´ve been looking at CM Cosmos 2, CM Storm Stryker, Silverstone FT02 and NZXT Phantom 820. I´d like your thoughts on these cases and im open for other suggestions aswell. The cost of the case is not a concern.

Motherboard – I plan on using a z77 motherboard. It need to be suitable for SLI with lots of space between the graphic cards and a slot for a Asus Xonar Essence STX (or other PCI soundcard). I need space for a WLAN card aswell, or good integrated WLAN on the motherboard. The motherboard needs to be easy to OC and be stable. The cost for the motherboard is not a concern-

Choosing graphic cards – Im going either 670 or 680 SLI. I lean towards the 680 even thou I know the performance/$ is lower. I need suggestions for good cards suitable for SLI, preferably factory OC:ed. I don’t know if I should go for 2 gb or 4gb cards. I use a 30” monitor @ 2560*1600 and a 26” @ a lower resolution.

Tips and thoughts on above and on other components needed for the build is most welcome

Cheers,
morper

 

[lehtv]

Hello and welcome. So, you want a 2560x1600 gaming build for Christmas. We need a bit more info:

1. What will you be using the PC for besides gaming?
2. Overall budget
3. Where do you order parts and is USA do you have a Microcenter nearby?
4. What is your current rig like - are there any parts you can reuse? I assume you already own the Xonar Essence STX?

 

[morper]

thanks for the reply and welcome, lehtv!

I have updated my OP with more info now

 

[lehtv]

Which Swedish online retailer? Link please . Is there a price tracking site that I could use?

With that sort of budget we can pretty much assume that cost is of no concern. But you should be aware that recommendations on these boards are generally based on value for money. A good value gaming system is one that emphasizes the performance and relative cost of the graphics processing part of the rig (without sacrificing quality and reliability). Everything else is secondary, even in projects for those with deep pockets. With that in mind, I can't see any way to sensibly spend $5000 while only spending $1000 on graphics (680 SLI). 680 SLI is more like a $2000 rig. In fact, spending $5000 on one go isn't such a great idea; with that money, you could get 680 4GB quad SLI and a 3930K, but it would make more sense to spend half that and save the rest for future upgrades.

 

[morper]

a good pricetracking site is prisjakt.nu with prices in swedish krona. 1 USD = 7,1 kronor, roughly

I´ll probably end up buying from komplett.se and inet.se.

You are right to assume that cost isnt of much concern, as long as it´s "worth" it performance-wise. Spending above that is better saved for later imo aswell

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Motherboard – I plan on using a z77 motherboard. It need to be suitable for SLI with lots of space between the graphic cards and a slot for a Asus Xonar Essence STX (or other PCI soundcard). I need space for a WLAN card aswell, or good integrated WLAN on the motherboard. The motherboard needs to be easy to OC and be stable. The cost for the motherboard is not a concern

I can recommend the ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe. I use one myself. Plenty of expansion ports and built-in WiFi...

Other then that I agree with lehtv. $5000 is almost 33500 SEK, that is going a -little- overboard for a gaming PC. To compare, my own has cost ~10000 DKK (Danish Krone) (minus monitor, and with generous specs, its also used for other things besides gaming) and can handle any current game...

Other then that, welcome to the forum... ()

Edit; hrm, can't seem to get quotation to work today... fixed...
​

 

[moonbogg]

I don't see how you could spend $5k even if you tried (without being really stupid, no offense). The best possible performance you can get for gaming at that res (if you want to go Nvidia) is going to be the 3770k and two GTX670 4gb versions. The 680's are no longer a reasonable option since the 670's are almost identical in performance. The difference is very minimal. Just look at benchmarks for yourself and you can decide.
2gb of ram on a video card is not good for that res. You will run out, period.
Have you considered two Radeon 7970 Ghz editions? I don't prefer AMD, but the 7970's are compelling a this point in time. It depends on what games you will be playing as certain games run better on Nvidia and others on AMD. Look at the multi-gpu scaling of both brands for the games you will want to play.
Also, if you really want to spend a lot of money and get even better performance, go with an X79 motherboard, i7 3930k cpu and get three video cards. If going this route I would go Nvidia as their multi-gpu scaling seems better.

 

[lehtv]

a good pricetracking site is prisjakt.nu with prices in swedish krona. 1 USD = 7,1 kronor, roughly

Alright, here ya go:

CPU 3770K 2649 kr
Cooler Noctua D14 679 kr
Mobo Asus P8Z77-V 1690 kr
RAM Kingston 2x8GB 1600MHz 699 kr
GPU 2x Asus GTX 670 4GB 8068 kr
Sound Reuse Essence STX
SSD Reuse Vertex 4 512GB
HDD Reuse 2TB
PSU Corsair AX760 80+ Platinum 1639 kr
Case CM Storm Trooper 1295 kr

= 16719 kr = 2500 USD. Half of that is graphics cards, even with other components being pretty high end.

Do you need a DVD or blu-ray drive or might you be able to reuse one? What about things like keyboard, mouse, headphones?

With this sort of budget I would probably try to keep on top of gaming performance by upgrading the CPU and graphics every generation. So, in Summer 2013, I'd get Haswell 4770K, a new mainboard, and two GTX 770 4GB, you get the idea. At least half of the cost of that upgrade would be recouped by selling the 3770K and 670 SLI.

 

[morper]

thanks for all input and help, guys


I can reuse the DVD drive in my current rig, and I got keyboard/mouse/headset/speakers covered aswell. Thanks alot, lehtv :thumbsup:

 

[lehtv]

No probs! Keep us updated

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Alright, here ya go:

CPU 3770K 2649 kr
Cooler Noctua D14 679 kr
Mobo Asus P8Z77-V 1690 kr
RAM Kingston 2x8GB 1600MHz 699 kr
GPU 2x Asus GTX 670 4GB 8068 kr
Sound Reuse Essence STX
SSD Reuse Vertex 4 512GB
HDD Reuse 2TB
PSU Corsair AX760 80+ Platinum 1639 kr
Case CM Storm Trooper 1295 kr

= 16719 kr = 2500 USD. Half of that is graphics cards, even with other components being pretty high end.

Do you need a DVD or blu-ray drive or might you be able to reuse one? What about things like keyboard, mouse, headphones?

With this sort of budget I would probably try to keep on top of gaming performance by upgrading the CPU and graphics every generation. So, in Summer 2013, I'd get Haswell 4770K, a new mainboard, and two GTX 770 4GB, you get the idea. At least half of the cost of that upgrade would be recouped by selling the 3770K and 670 SLI.

Looks very good, I don't think I can do better then lehtv (good call on the dual 670's there) here... :thumbsup:

That build can definitely handle everything you throw at it...

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Get a H100 instead. And get Samsung 4x4gb 30nm ram instead,

 

[BrightCandle]

I would second getting the h100. It may net you 100Mhz when you over clock the CPU.

 

[mfenn]

I would second getting the h100. It may net you 100Mhz when you over clock the CPU.

You can't be serious. Spending 50% more on the cooler for a 100 MHz sounds like a terrible idea to me.

 

[lehtv]

H100i is the way to go if you want the absolute best CPU cooler on the market, but it's not worth it, D14 does everything you need a cooler to do really.