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$1200 Gaming PC

Last response: in Systems
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Approximate Purchase Date: Next couple of weeks

Budget Range: $1000-$1300 (but only if it is a significant increase over $1000)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming

Parts Not Required: Case, mouse, keyboard, speakers, sound card, HDD, Monitor

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg

Country of Origin: USA

Parts Preferences: by brand or type nope

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200

Additional Comments: No matter how much money I spend I always go for value while getting as much performance. I am building a computer where money isn't too much an issue. Although I don't think it's justifiable to spend another $150 to get a slightly better graphics card, so I am trying to get a top of line PC without spending unnecessarily too much. Once decision I am trying to make is if I should get an i5 or i7. Please don't just look at this build and think that I have $300 more to spend and that I can just throw it down on whatever. I will gladly spend $300 if it means I can get a significant improvement of some type but if I am spending 100 more for an i7 that does nothing for games and 100 more for a graphics card that is highly over priced for performance than no thanks.

850 w PSU and mobo combo.
64gb SSD
i5 2500k
2xGTX 560
8 GB RAM

This all comes out to be about a thousand.

More about : 1200 gaming

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It is a decent build for gaming. I do always though try to get the fastest GPU I possibly can for the budget I have as the GPU is one of the most important parts of a gaming PC.

Yes I have been looking at many charts and the difference I see between a 570 and a 580 is about 4 FPS in most tests or something similar. I can't justify spending $100+ for a graphic card that only gives me 4 FPS over the cheaper one. Anyways am I interpreting these correctly? I also tried to look at CPUs and the 2500k and the i7 look about the same for gaming.

I would consider stepping up to the 128gb version of the SSD.. its $198 instead of $125. i5 2500k will be more than enough for gaming. You should decide if you're going to SLI or not. If you are you should switch to the extreme 4 motherboard and 2 560ti instead of the 570.. or go with 1 560ti now and get another one when you need more horsepower.
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Well I plan on playing BF3 on high so I suspect I will need it right away.

I am a little confused, what is the difference between a 560 and a 560ti? I am assuming I will want a ti? They seem to perform better for not too much more.

my 2 year old is climbing all over me currently, but off the top of my head i think the TI has more shadee cores.. I'd have to look it up to be sure why exactly the TI is better

cmadrid said:
my 2 year old is climbing all over me currently, but off the top of my head i think the TI has more shadee cores.. I'd have to look it up to be sure why exactly the TI is better

i'm sure I don't know everything about the difference between the two, but I do know that the non-ti has the exact same number of processor cores, xxx-bit memory, etc. of the gtx 460, except higher clock speeds, while the ti has more processor cores, etc.

Fizban140 said:
That is tempting, for $40 or so I can get SLI 560s which should perform much better than the 570.


The thing to think about is this. Alot of games still dont support SLI (Think: Blizzard) and so you will not see any performance increase in those games. I would definately think about getting a 570 for now, and then down the road as SLI becomes even better supported and the price of the 570 drops with the introduction of the 6xx series in the next quarter or so, you can pick up another 570 for SLI and destroy any of the new cards :) 

Deallean said:
The thing to think about is this. Alot of games still dont support SLI (Think: Blizzard) and so you will not see any performance increase in those games. I would definately think about getting a 570 for now, and then down the road as SLI becomes even better supported and the price of the 570 drops with the introduction of the 6xx series in the next quarter or so, you can pick up another 570 for SLI and destroy any of the new cards :) 

I was not aware of this at all actually. I will look for a list of what does not support SLI but I am assuming BF3 will and most games coming out after that right? To me from all the research I have done it looks like there is a real nice sweet spot for value with the SLI 560s, just a little more than a 570 for a huge increase in performance.

Fizban140 said:
I was not aware of this at all actually. I will look for a list of what does not support SLI but I am assuming BF3 will and most games coming out after that right? To me from all the research I have done it looks like there is a real nice sweet spot for value with the SLI 560s, just a little more than a 570 for a huge increase in performance.

besides, while sc2 doesn't support sli and cfx, you don't need either, cause you can max it on a gtx 460.

Fizban140 said:
I am looking at ordering this today but I am still a little nervous and unsure about a few things, anyone else want to look it over first?

get 560ti sli if you can afford, cause they're not a ton more expensive, and the performance gap is pretty big.

I am still undecided on a graphics card, I know there isn't a right decision, just a lot of choices but I am looking at benchmarks where some games perform about the same with a single 570 and 2 560tis. But then other benchmarks show the SLI 560s out performing 580s.

Fizban140 said:
I guess I just have trouble being able to tell if I will SLI or not, I mean the 580 should be good for a year at least right? I have never bought a card that was more than $200.

the only problem with buying the more expensive cards is that the price/performance gets lower and lower. but a 580 could easily last a year, especially since I still game on a 9500gt :pt1cable: 

One thing I don't like about the 580 is that the price is so high and remains high, but with new cards coming out is should come down in a year or so right? Also is it safe to upgrade like that? I mean who knows if I will be able to buy the same model 580 a year from now.

Also one person on another forum suggested to never use SLI unless you are going to top performance, like 2x580s or whatever.

Fizban140 said:
One thing I don't like about the 580 is that the price is so high and remains high, but with new cards coming out is should come down in a year or so right? Also is it safe to upgrade like that? I mean who knows if I will be able to buy the same model 580 a year from now.

Also one person on another forum suggested to never use SLI unless you are going to top performance, like 2x580s or whatever.

that isn't terrible advice, but it's cheaper to upgrade to a second 560ti than a gtx 570, and you would get better performance. It is fairly safe if you buy in the next year, but after that, it gets kind of uncertain

So I wonder if it would almost just be a better idea to get 2x560tis now and then when I need to I can just buy similar cards down the line or whatever is out then.

I mean two 560tis right now is about $420 I think. A single 580 is around $500, so I am paying $80 for less performance but then maybe another $350 a year from now for a second card which would massively outperform the 560s.

Fizban140 said:
So I wonder if it would almost just be a better idea to get 2x560tis now and then when I need to I can just buy similar cards down the line or whatever is out then.

I mean two 560tis right now is about $420 I think. A single 580 is around $500, so I am paying $80 for less performance but then maybe another $350 a year from now for a second card which would massively outperform the 560s.

560ti sli could last a while longer than a single 580, but at that point, purchasing a second 580 for sli would be worthless

Another thing you should consider is if you buy an 580 now and down the line buy another for SLI you will probably need to upgrade your PSU as well to make sure you have enough power and headroom.
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