My Build

[hoofhearted4]

so for anyone whos known me since i joined this site, ive been planning a build for almost a year and a half. i thought i was going to have to wait until Tax Returns of 2013, but i was doing the math, and if everything goes good (ie no car accident this time) i should be able to build this rig on Black Friday/Cyber Monday. not only will it take till then to save up the money in addition to bills, but i just might be able to get some good deals that weekend. anyways, i wanted to post my build here, partly for advice, but also partly in anticipation of realizing today that i could build it much sooner then i had thought. let me know what you guys think. ive done a lot of research so i doubt much will change about it between then and now, but i value you guy's opinions so feel free to comment and suggest and opinionize :P and since this is my first build, i literally have to buy every component. but without further ado!:

 

Case: Fractal Define Arc Midi

Mobo: ASRock z77 Extreme4

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570k

RAM*: 8GB G.Skill Ripjaw 1333

GPU: Gigabyte 3GB 7950

SSD*: Crucial M4 128gb

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB

PSU: Corsair AX650W

Heatsink: Corsair H100

Monitor: Asus 23" 2ms HDMI

Keyboard: Corsair K90 Vengeance

Mouse*: Logitech G500

Optical: Asus 24x DVD Burner

Fans: Corsair Air Series 140mm and 120mm

 

***The RAM i bought over a year ago when i was originally going to build this, so i already have it. unless its DOA (since its still in the package it could be) then that will be the RAM ill use. the SSD i just recently bought so i already have that as well. ill use it for my OS and a few games and apps. everything else will go on the HDD. lastly, because i put keyboard, i put mouse as well, which i bought some 8 months ago or so and have very much enjoyed it. Two things that are in my Newegg Cart that arent on this list are an HDMI cable for my monitor, and a 50ft CAT6 cable. I was gunna go wireless, but with Cat6 cables being so cheap, i figured id just buy one and hook it up to my modem upstairs! and a note on the fans. there will be three 140mms. two in the front intake, and one in the back exhaust. there will also be two 120mms, both on the H100 pushing air put the top. all 5 of those fans are the Silent Editions. between the H100, the Silent Fans the SSD and the Gigabyte GPU, this should be a pretty quiet build overall. oh and also, the for the Arc Midi, ill be buying a windowed side panel. its not released yet, but its been announced, and its the same one used for the R4. it was supposed to be released this month, but nothing yet, so hopefully by the end of November it will be lol.

 

the build total atm comes up to $1600 after tax and S&H (with $65 in rebates lol). hopefully i can find some deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday to take some of it down, even if its just $20, thats money saved. and if necessary i can always buy the fans later. thats $100 saved right there lol. i pretty much have it all figured out. i overestimated how much my bills cost and underestimated my checks and even still my numbers came out that i would have enough to build this (without deals and without taking anything out) so things are looking good, and im in quite a good mood because of it! hence this post! so yea, im off to eat some Subway and play some Borderlands 2! so enough blabbering now sorry!!

 

thanks for reading all!!!

Edited September 21, 2012 by hoofhearted4

[Erik005]

This looks very good although I urge you to read this review.

 

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/3026/26/nvidia-geforce-gtx-660-ti-review---3-way-sli-included-conclusion

 

The 660-ti seems to be faster than the 7950 boost.

 

They seem to be cheaper to.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&N=100006662&isNodeId=1&Description=660ti&x=12&y=11

Edited September 20, 2012 by Erik005

[Thor.]

Hmm we'll see about that, i wan't real true tessellation benchmarks that are none biased before they bring out vs benchmarks first. http://forums.nexusmods.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/whistling.gif and standard fps benchmarks.

 

Anyways Nice build Hoof http://forums.nexusmods.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/thumbsup.gif the 7950's is a beast of a card, not to mention runs allot cooler then that 660ti erik005 mentioned, wont need water cooling to run it efficiently http://forums.nexusmods.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/teehee.gif One thing i have against Nvidia they always tend to run way to hot for my liking.

Edited September 21, 2012 by Thor.

[hoofhearted4]

This looks very good although I urge you to read this review.

 

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/3026/26/nvidia-geforce-gtx-660-ti-review---3-way-sli-included-conclusion

 

The 660-ti seems to be faster than the 7950 boost.

 

They seem to be cheaper to.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&N=100006662&isNodeId=1&Description=660ti&x=12&y=11

 

reviews ive read say otherwise. they put the 7950 upwards near the 670, if not better. and its much cheaper then it. and from what ive read, the new drivers of the 7xxx series really helped a lot. on top of that ive heard the 7xxx are better at OCing which im sure ill do eventually.

[Rennn]

Well, the 7xxx series is better for overclocking, and they're less expensive generally. Not being able to force SSAO in the drivers could be a potential loss though, plus TXAA.

 

Edit: Regardless of the card, it'd be a good idea to spend $3 more and get the 1600Mhz version of that RAM, unless you're intent on getting a single stick.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

Edited September 21, 2012 by Rennn

[Thor.]

txaa is just another form of fxaa,, not much different really, and ambient occlusion and ssao are just shaders.

 

http://www.geforce.c...ret-world-txaa/

 

Although txaa is hardware based, they say fxaa is better..

Edited September 21, 2012 by Thor.

[hoofhearted4]

Well, the 7xxx series is better for overclocking, and they're less expensive generally. Not being able to force SSAO in the drivers could be a potential loss though, plus TXAA.

 

Edit: Regardless of the card, it'd be a good idea to spend $3 more and get the 1600Mhz version of that RAM, unless you're intent on getting a single stick.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

 

ill look a little bit more into cards, but im not too worried about every last setting.

 

and as the paragraph below it said, i already have the RAM. thats actually not the exact one i have. i have 2x4gb sticks. i just picked that one to show price and a picture of what i got. that said, the Mhz of RAM does diddly squat. it may show in benchmarks, but ill pay anyone who can use a computer and tell what MHz the ram is running at.

[Thor.]

I'm running my ram around 1333mhz for a stable overclock, decreasing the ram to increase cpu.. Although the AI in my Bios did it for me. LOL ya that's what they are calling it. http://forums.nexusmods.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/teehee.gif Although sometimes i wish i could increase it to 1880mhz, though you would notice a difference in stability. Edited September 21, 2012 by Thor.

[Dan3345]

Hmm we'll see about that, i wan't real true tessellation benchmarks that are none biased before they bring out vs benchmarks first. http://forums.nexusmods.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/whistling.gif and standard fps benchmarks.

 

Anyways Nice build Hoof http://forums.nexusmods.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/thumbsup.gif the 7950's is a beast of a card, not to mention runs allot cooler then that 660ti erik005 mentioned, wont need water cooling to run it efficiently http://forums.nexusmods.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/teehee.gif One thing i have against Nvidia they always tend to run way to hot for my liking.

What makes you think these cards need water cooling to run efficiently? My 680 runs on idle at 33 degrees, and under load only gets up to 57. All I did was set my own fan curve to get these temps. The thing overclocks like a champ.

 

And considering how 660ti is the same chip (at least I believe it is) as the 680 just scaled down a bit, I see no reason as to how it could possibly be less efficient under load without liquid cooling.

 

I can make the same baseless statement about AMD 7xxx series cards. Honestly anything is going to be more efficient with liquid cooling.. Simply because water is 21 times more conductive then a simply copper contact could ever hope to be.

 

Hoof you're build looks great but I would really stress you avoid the AMD cards. Drivers aren't there. My friend and I were playing borderlands 2, he can't max it out and get 60 fps everywhere, I can. But this pales in comparison to the fact that his computer is getting BSOD's because of the card and its drivers.

 

And Thor if I sound rude, I am kind of having a bad day. I don't mean anything by it. :P

Edited September 21, 2012 by Dan3345

[Thor.]

See thats the thing with tthe 7950's you don't need to tweak anything for it to run cool , the coldest I've seen my cards idle is 29c, and on load never goes above 60c, extreme load that is.

 

 

edit

Its set at "30%" fan speed http://forums.nexusmods.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/thumbsup.gif If he can't get 60fps in Borderlands then he must have a bottleneck else where, me in Crysis 2 get a whopping 80fps lowest 120fps to 150fps depending on location.

Edited September 22, 2012 by Thor.