Don't let the $20 mail in rebate fool you. It will take forever to get it. Better to have the $20 savings up front and it does seem the 770 is faster than the 680.
Thanks guys. Tom's Hardware has been my goto place for a long time. My recommendation to my son is to pick from the list below, then pick a manufacturer. I am waiting for him to choose his path. Custom, built to order, off the shelf. I've been using the DELL/Alienware Aurora ALX as a reference and it's the one with everything he wants. So far, all the ways of getting what he wants price out at least $2200 before tax. I can't do much more until he makes a choice.
The Titan and the HD 7990 both cost around $1,000...... That's way too much IMO. Unless you're running in eyefinity or ultra high res, there really is no point in spending that kind of money.
The Titan and the HD 7990 both cost around $1,000...... That's way too much IMO. Unless you're running in eyefinity or ultra high res, there really is no point in spending that kind of money.
He probably won't. I was just giving him an window of upper end GPUs so he had something to work with. I will be pushing him to get at least a 670 equivalent and recommending 'not' to go the SLI route. I'm surprised and thankful for the wealth of info from here and the web. I've always wanted to build a whole rig but it was never within my means. I've upgraded earlier desktops and know a little bit about it. Now that I can easily afford it, I don't have the need anymore. An XB1 will keep me busy gaming for at least 5 years (not to get side tracked by that discussion ;) ).
Just another thumbs up for the 670, I run triples in all games that support it and it deals well with them all, I'll add triples are not just for racing and add to any gaming experience
My son just told me the custom build is a go. Just need to fine tune, cross check and iterate before ordering. The system will be buit around an Intel i7 3930K, Nvidia GTX 680 or its equivalent and 16GB ram. Advice on the rest of the system would be a welcome read, keeping in mind we've already begun making choices. :)
My son just told me the custom build is a go. Just need to fine tune, cross check and iterate before ordering. The system will be buit around an Intel i7 3930K, Nvidia GTX 680 or its equivalent and 16GB ram. Advice on the rest of the system would be a welcome read, keeping in mind we've already begun making choices. :)
Nice choice, ( its what I use - though my PC is primarily editing / animation ).
I basically copied this build exactly, but added a RAID array and an extra SSD an extra fan and used a Corsair 850 power supply.
My only slight negative - the pretty multi-color LED on the water cooling has stopped working, ( though the cooler itself is fine ). I mean, its in a closed case, it doesn't matter..but to cool young dudes, that might be an issue
As a gaming machine, 16GB RAM is plenty.
For the choice of processor, there aren't many motherboards to choose from, but the Asus P9X79 is really nice.
I think it will be. Going with the case in the video scratchski just posted. The Thermaltake we were looking at could barely fit a MSI GTX 770 and had no cable management so I dropped that idea and also the Thermaltake 650 watt PSU in favour of a 650 watt SeaSonic modular unit. Had a Creative sound card in the build but have now dropped that to save ~$100. Taxes and shipping included is looking like ~$2300. I may post the build links later today.
not sure if you mentioned it or not. But you might want to go with an SSD for the start up/OS drive and then some HDD for your other storage.
Also building in a tap for his favorite frosty beverage would make you one of the top 3 dads of all time. You could move to the number one spot if you would it have it delivered, set up and tested by a naked Lucy Pinder...JUST SAYIN'..
not sure if you mentioned it or not. But you might want to go with an SSD for the start up/OS drive and then some HDD for your other storage.
Also building in a tap for his favorite frosty beverage would make you one of the top 3 dads of all time. You could move to the number one spot if you would it have it delivered, set up and tested by a naked Lucy Pinder...JUST SAYIN'..
Thanks LB. I mentioned the SSD to him but he wanted to keep it simple for now. Lots of SSD capability in this rig, so he can add-on later if he wants.
Here are links to all of the components we've selected. Seems like everything required is there. Cables for the drives come with the motherboard, I think. Am I forgetting anything?
Looks good. As mentioned, an SSD drive is a great addition, but isn't essential. LIkewise, a few extra, larger fans to keep that bad boy ( girl ? ) even cooler...but thats just nitpicking.
My son's beast is waking up as I type. The entire sytem is as I listed above. It started without error on first powerup. Windows 7 is installing and updating. Thanks for all of the info. :)
I'm uncertain over which GPU to get. Is the 760 a significant enough improvement over the 660 for the $100 difference? Thanks in advance!
Check out the hierarchy chart from Tomshardware that I posted above. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ :) A 760 is a pretty good GPU. The 770 my son got came factory Overclocked.
I'm uncertain over which GPU to get. Is the 760 a significant enough improvement over the 660 for the $100 difference? Thanks in advance!
The 3570k is the "go to" i5 for ivy bridge. However if you are not overclocking it is a waste. Even still, I am able to push my 3350p to 3.9 with a factory cooler and still have it be stable(Asrock Extreme 6 board). If you want speeds over 4.0, then you have to have an unlocked chip.
I went for 16g of RAM. All the processors(the boards are 2 channel) you are going to look at are dual channel. Get a 2 card kit. 1600 DDR3 is good for Ivy bridge. I picked out a Gskill product at 2133. This doesn't give you as much of a boost as you think it would and it costs much more. Make sure you pick a kit that your board maker recomends. It helps if the RAM maker agrees it works on that board.
I prefer extra cooling on the GPU to extra overclock. I got a Gigabyte GTX670 with the windforce system. The 760 will have better clock speed to the 670 already. Regardless, make sure the GPU has at least 2 fans on it. It is a big card and it will run warm. I think that having a 4g card may be overkill. Everything I run with my 670 card I can max out with no issues. EVGA is a good maker from what I read but the Gigabyte card was much less(when I bought it) and a little less overclock was acceptable.
The 760 is a fairly significant upgrad to the 660 but I am not sure about $100 better. The 4GB of GPU memory will probably be overkill unless you are doing a multiple monitor setup or possibly using it with a large 1080p television. The 760 with 2GB of video memory will probably be about $50 less than the 760 with the 4GB of memory, so that may be your best bet.
The 760 is a fairly significant upgrad to the 660 but I am not sure about $100 better. The 4GB of GPU memory will probably be overkill unless you are doing a multiple monitor setup or possibly using it with a large 1080p television. The 760 with 2GB of video memory will probably be about $50 less than the 760 with the 4GB of memory, so that may be your best bet.
Thats a good point and I did forget info about my monitor setup. I am considering using my 42" 1080p LCD Samsung as the monitor. Coming from console and 30fps I don't need uber graphics just smooth and nice. I originally though about going with a 660 then in a few months adding a second 660, but everything I'm reading talks about micro-stutter. I think I'll just find the funds and go with a better GPU out of the gate.
Thanks for the suggestoins Scratchski and Deep! I've read so much to this point that my head wants to explode! :) It's also tough sometimes wading through the BS and hype about why this small incremental change is so GREAT! ;)
Deep,that rig you and your son put together is a BEAST!!
The 760 is a fairly significant upgrad to the 660 but I am not sure about $100 better. The 4GB of GPU memory will probably be overkill unless you are doing a multiple monitor setup or possibly using it with a large 1080p television. The 760 with 2GB of video memory will probably be about $50 less than the 760 with the 4GB of memory, so that may be your best bet.
Thats a good point and I did forget info about my monitor setup. I am considering using my 42" 1080p LCD Samsung as the monitor. Coming from console and 30fps I don't need uber graphics just smooth and nice. I originally though about going with a 660 then in a few months adding a second 660, but everything I'm reading talks about micro-stutter. I think I'll just find the funds and go with a better GPU out of the gate.
Thanks for the suggestoins Scratchski and Deep! I've read so much to this point that my head wants to explode! :) It's also tough sometimes wading through the BS and hype about why this small incremental change is so GREAT! ;)
Deep,that rig you and your son put together is a BEAST!!
I am not 100% certain, but I don't think the size of the monitor has anything to do with GPU memory, just the resolution and how many you are hooking up, so my example before may be a bit misleading. They do make PC monitors higher than 1080p but 2 GB's of memory will probably still be more than enough. To give you an example, I am using a 570 with 1280 MB of video memory and I can still run Battlefield 3 at almost all max settings and run about 45 fps on a 24in 1080p monitor. The 2GB 760 will do significantly better and the 660 will do at least a little better than my 570.
Have fun with your build and just wait for October 29th to get here.
I am not 100% certain, but I don't think the size of the monitor has anything to do with GPU memory, just the resolution and how many you are hooking up, so my example before may be a bit misleading. They do make PC monitors higher than 1080p but 2 GB's of memory will probably still be more than enough. To give you an example, I am using a 570 with 1280 MB of video memory and I can still run Battlefield 3 at almost all max settings and run about 45 fps on a 24in 1080p monitor. The 2GB 760 will do significantly better and the 660 will do at least a little better than my 570.
Have fun with your build and just wait for October 29th to get here.
I'm running a 2.5 year old Radeon 6850 overclocked. Needless to say, putting Battlefiled 3 in and cranking it to max caused my jaw to drop too much. I died a lot. It blew the 360 away.
Everything Cardic said above is bang on. Playing on my 50" TV vs my 24" monitor doesn't make a difference, other than on the TV it "feels" as though you can see more due to the size. They are both 1080p and look fantastic. You'll have to try both out and see your preference.
I am not 100% certain, but I don't think the size of the monitor has anything to do with GPU memory, just the resolution and how many you are hooking up, so my example before may be a bit misleading. They do make PC monitors higher than 1080p but 2 GB's of memory will probably still be more than enough. To give you an example, I am using a 570 with 1280 MB of video memory and I can still run Battlefield 3 at almost all max settings and run about 45 fps on a 24in 1080p monitor. The 2GB 760 will do significantly better and the 660 will do at least a little better than my 570.
Have fun with your build and just wait for October 29th to get here.
I'm running a 2.5 year old Radeon 6850 overclocked. Needless to say, putting Battlefiled 3 in and cranking it to max caused my jaw to drop too much. I died a lot. It blew the 360 away.
Everything Cardic said above is bang on. Playing on my 50" TV vs my 24" monitor doesn't make a difference, other than on the TV it "feels" as though you can see more due to the size. They are both 1080p and look fantastic. You'll have to try both out and see your preference.
Great to know! I'll be shooting you a FR via Steam and Origin once I set them up. I'm really excited about jumping to PC for BF4, but unfortunately most of my longtime BF buds are not making the leap. :( I should have my PC up and running early October in time for the open BETA.
I agree with Cardiac. The PC craziness about being able to play with every graphics setting maxed is good hype to sell graphics cards, but really, when your trying to play a game, you're not stopping to admire the beautiful detail of that flower or the luxuriant depth of those cloud shadows.
Use that extra $100 to buy yourself a fancy mouse, or keyboard, or beer. Mainly beer.
4Gb boards really are for triples, and even on saying that I can run most things with my GtX 670 2Gb on High or Ultra on triples, and certainly everything on Ultra Single screen.
Thanks for all the input!! I'm still researching grahics cards and I think I found a reasonable model above the 660 in the 760 line, but not too high of a price tag:
Here's a link for Tomshardware's review of the 770
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-770-gk104-review,3519.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125422&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Desktop+Graphics+Cards-_-N82E16814125422&gclid=CIPqkv7b8rgCFcOh4AodVlMAng
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125463&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Desktop+Graphics+Cards-_-N82E16814125463&gclid=COjRy_bb8rgCFYai4AodhiAAHw
Don't let the $20 mail in rebate fool you. It will take forever to get it. Better to have the $20 savings up front and it does seem the 770 is faster than the 680.
Thanks guys. Tom's Hardware has been my goto place for a long time. My recommendation to my son is to pick from the list below, then pick a manufacturer. I am waiting for him to choose his path. Custom, built to order, off the shelf. I've been using the DELL/Alienware Aurora ALX as a reference and it's the one with everything he wants. So far, all the ways of getting what he wants price out at least $2200 before tax. I can't do much more until he makes a choice.
The Titan and the HD 7990 both cost around $1,000...... That's way too much IMO. Unless you're running in eyefinity or ultra high res, there really is no point in spending that kind of money.
Just another thumbs up for the 670, I run triples in all games that support it and it deals well with them all, I'll add triples are not just for racing and add to any gaming experience
My son just told me the custom build is a go. Just need to fine tune, cross check and iterate before ordering. The system will be buit around an Intel i7 3930K, Nvidia GTX 680 or its equivalent and 16GB ram. Advice on the rest of the system would be a welcome read, keeping in mind we've already begun making choices. :)
Nice choice, ( its what I use
- though my PC is primarily editing / animation ).
I mentioned the build earlier, - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2CapyMkubg.
I basically copied this build exactly, but added a RAID array and an extra SSD an extra fan and used a Corsair 850 power supply.
My only slight negative - the pretty multi-color LED on the water cooling has stopped working, ( though the cooler itself is fine ). I mean, its in a closed case, it doesn't matter..but to cool young dudes, that might be an issue
As a gaming machine, 16GB RAM is plenty.
For the choice of processor, there aren't many motherboards to choose from, but the Asus P9X79 is really nice.
That is going to be beastly Deep.
not sure if you mentioned it or not. But you might want to go with an SSD for the start up/OS drive and then some HDD for your other storage.
Also building in a tap for his favorite frosty beverage would make you one of the top 3 dads of all time. You could move to the number one spot if you would it have it delivered, set up and tested by a naked Lucy Pinder...JUST SAYIN'..
I'll save the beer option for myself. ;)
If I was you I would go with a PSU of 750W or more. The system I'm running now is:
Core i7 3770 OC'd to 4.2GHz
16GB Corsair Vengance
GTX560Ti 1GB (it's starting to show its age now)
3 HDD's plus 1 SSD for the OS
ASUS Sabetooth mobo, very nice and clean board with a nice bios for OCing.
Here are links to all of the components we've selected. Seems like everything required is there. Cables for the drives come with the motherboard, I think. Am I forgetting anything?
Nice, that will deal with anything thrown at it for some time to come,
Looks good. As mentioned, an SSD drive is a great addition, but isn't essential. LIkewise, a few extra, larger fans to keep that bad boy ( girl ? ) even cooler...but thats just nitpicking.
Have fun with the build.
My son's beast is waking up as I type. The entire sytem is as I listed above. It started without error on first powerup. Windows 7 is installing and updating. Thanks for all of the info. :)
Excellent. Get your driver updates right away.
I have a question for the PC guru's about mother boards and graphics cards. I'm putting together a build for BF4 and Titanfall. This is where I'm at:
CPU:Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz 4 Core LGA 1155
Motherboard:GA-Z77X-UD3H
GPU:EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SIGNATURE2 2048MB
or
GPU:EVGA GeForce GTX760 FTW with ACX Cooler 4GB
RAM: 8Gb or 16Gb (leaning towards 16Gb)
I'm uncertain over which GPU to get. Is the 760 a significant enough improvement over the 660 for the $100 difference? Thanks in advance!
The 3570k is the "go to" i5 for ivy bridge. However if you are not overclocking it is a waste. Even still, I am able to push my 3350p to 3.9 with a factory cooler and still have it be stable(Asrock Extreme 6 board). If you want speeds over 4.0, then you have to have an unlocked chip.
I went for 16g of RAM. All the processors(the boards are 2 channel) you are going to look at are dual channel. Get a 2 card kit. 1600 DDR3 is good for Ivy bridge. I picked out a Gskill product at 2133. This doesn't give you as much of a boost as you think it would and it costs much more. Make sure you pick a kit that your board maker recomends. It helps if the RAM maker agrees it works on that board.
I prefer extra cooling on the GPU to extra overclock. I got a Gigabyte GTX670 with the windforce system. The 760 will have better clock speed to the 670 already. Regardless, make sure the GPU has at least 2 fans on it. It is a big card and it will run warm. I think that having a 4g card may be overkill. Everything I run with my 670 card I can max out with no issues. EVGA is a good maker from what I read but the Gigabyte card was much less(when I bought it) and a little less overclock was acceptable.
The 760 is a fairly significant upgrad to the 660 but I am not sure about $100 better. The 4GB of GPU memory will probably be overkill unless you are doing a multiple monitor setup or possibly using it with a large 1080p television. The 760 with 2GB of video memory will probably be about $50 less than the 760 with the 4GB of memory, so that may be your best bet.
Thats a good point and I did forget info about my monitor setup. I am considering using my 42" 1080p LCD Samsung as the monitor. Coming from console and 30fps I don't need uber graphics just smooth and nice. I originally though about going with a 660 then in a few months adding a second 660, but everything I'm reading talks about micro-stutter. I think I'll just find the funds and go with a better GPU out of the gate.
Thanks for the suggestoins Scratchski and Deep! I've read so much to this point that my head wants to explode! :) It's also tough sometimes wading through the BS and hype about why this small incremental change is so GREAT! ;)
Deep,that rig you and your son put together is a BEAST!!
I am not 100% certain, but I don't think the size of the monitor has anything to do with GPU memory, just the resolution and how many you are hooking up, so my example before may be a bit misleading. They do make PC monitors higher than 1080p but 2 GB's of memory will probably still be more than enough. To give you an example, I am using a 570 with 1280 MB of video memory and I can still run Battlefield 3 at almost all max settings and run about 45 fps on a 24in 1080p monitor. The 2GB 760 will do significantly better and the 660 will do at least a little better than my 570.
Have fun with your build and just wait for October 29th to get here.
I'm running a 2.5 year old Radeon 6850 overclocked. Needless to say, putting Battlefiled 3 in and cranking it to max caused my jaw to drop too much. I died a lot. It blew the 360 away.
Everything Cardic said above is bang on. Playing on my 50" TV vs my 24" monitor doesn't make a difference, other than on the TV it "feels" as though you can see more due to the size. They are both 1080p and look fantastic. You'll have to try both out and see your preference.
Great to know! I'll be shooting you a FR via Steam and Origin once I set them up. I'm really excited about jumping to PC for BF4, but unfortunately most of my longtime BF buds are not making the leap. :( I should have my PC up and running early October in time for the open BETA.
I agree with Cardiac. The PC craziness about being able to play with every graphics setting maxed is good hype to sell graphics cards, but really, when your trying to play a game, you're not stopping to admire the beautiful detail of that flower or the luxuriant depth of those cloud shadows.
Use that extra $100 to buy yourself a fancy mouse, or keyboard, or beer. Mainly beer.
4Gb boards really are for triples, and even on saying that I can run most things with my GtX 670 2Gb on High or Ultra on triples, and certainly everything on Ultra Single screen.
Thanks for all the input!! I'm still researching grahics cards and I think I found a reasonable model above the 660 in the 760 line, but not too high of a price tag:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DHW4HS4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF...
Still researching, but slowly narrowing down the GPU.
That same card is 254 at new egg.