- Nov 2, 2008
- 39
- 0
- 18,530
My i7-920@4GHZ/GTX295 system is nearing three years old and I figure it's time to upgrade. I tend to upgrade my computer only every three years so want to get a system that will last a while. I've been looking at the reviews for a few months now contemplating what I should put into the build and have most of it figured out. I'm starting with an i7-2600k. I'm definitely going with a 240-256GB SSD (there's a Corsair Force 3 240GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233182 on sale on Newegg right now for $320 so probably will go with that one). I'm looking at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171049 for a power supply. I'll probably go with 16GB of 1866 ram because it's so cheap: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231456.
The problem I'm having, primarily after seeing the build article regarding the small case with water cooled GPU/CPU (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/microatx-gaming-overclocked,3039.html), is whether I should go with the smaller case and better cards or go cheaper and go with dual-570s instead. First of all, the article lists that pair of PNY closed loop liquid cooled cards (one with and one without the CPU block) at $1080. I can't find that price at any online vendor I've ever heard of for less than an additional $150 beyond that, $1230 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133398 + http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133399). Regardless, I'm still considering the build since it would be nice to have a smaller case for portability and the better graphics cards are clearly better.
The problem I'm having is that going with a dual-580 build comes out something in the area of $500 more than going with a traditional air cooled dual-570 build in a full tower case. Using the same components but replacing the Gene-Z (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131759) with the Gigabyte board (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128512), swapping to a full tower case, adding a decent $30 aftermarket CPU heatsink, and obviously using a pair of GTX 570s instead of the pair of water-cooled GTX 580s comes out at $2000 whereas the liquid-cooled build comes to around $2500 for my chosen components.
I guess the question here is whether I actually need the power of the dual-580s for the next three years and whether this liquid-cooled system should be expected to last as long as an air-cooled system. I run a single monitor at 1920x1200 for gaming (plus a second monitor for web-browsing while my game takes up my primary screen). I want to run everything at max settings. Even Metro 2033 runs at like 54 fps at this resolution on dual-570s (according to guru3d's VGA charts) so it seems like the 580s may be overkill. However, I would also like this computer to last 3 years (yes I know it would be likely less expensive to use less expensive cards and just upgrade them later instead of buying high-end right now but my financial situation means I have money to spend right now and may not later). So, in the interest of "future-proofing" (lol) and the cool-factor of the smaller form-factor, should I drop $500 more on the dual-580 liquid-cooled build?
Edit: I'm purchasing this weekend. I'm not carrying anything over from my old system except a 1TB storage drive. I prefer intel/nvidia. I do overclock though usually not aggressively. I almost exclusively order parts from newegg though would order from tigerdirect or amazon if the deal was good. All other info should be in the post above. Thanks!
The problem I'm having, primarily after seeing the build article regarding the small case with water cooled GPU/CPU (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/microatx-gaming-overclocked,3039.html), is whether I should go with the smaller case and better cards or go cheaper and go with dual-570s instead. First of all, the article lists that pair of PNY closed loop liquid cooled cards (one with and one without the CPU block) at $1080. I can't find that price at any online vendor I've ever heard of for less than an additional $150 beyond that, $1230 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133398 + http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133399). Regardless, I'm still considering the build since it would be nice to have a smaller case for portability and the better graphics cards are clearly better.
The problem I'm having is that going with a dual-580 build comes out something in the area of $500 more than going with a traditional air cooled dual-570 build in a full tower case. Using the same components but replacing the Gene-Z (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131759) with the Gigabyte board (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128512), swapping to a full tower case, adding a decent $30 aftermarket CPU heatsink, and obviously using a pair of GTX 570s instead of the pair of water-cooled GTX 580s comes out at $2000 whereas the liquid-cooled build comes to around $2500 for my chosen components.
I guess the question here is whether I actually need the power of the dual-580s for the next three years and whether this liquid-cooled system should be expected to last as long as an air-cooled system. I run a single monitor at 1920x1200 for gaming (plus a second monitor for web-browsing while my game takes up my primary screen). I want to run everything at max settings. Even Metro 2033 runs at like 54 fps at this resolution on dual-570s (according to guru3d's VGA charts) so it seems like the 580s may be overkill. However, I would also like this computer to last 3 years (yes I know it would be likely less expensive to use less expensive cards and just upgrade them later instead of buying high-end right now but my financial situation means I have money to spend right now and may not later). So, in the interest of "future-proofing" (lol) and the cool-factor of the smaller form-factor, should I drop $500 more on the dual-580 liquid-cooled build?
Edit: I'm purchasing this weekend. I'm not carrying anything over from my old system except a 1TB storage drive. I prefer intel/nvidia. I do overclock though usually not aggressively. I almost exclusively order parts from newegg though would order from tigerdirect or amazon if the deal was good. All other info should be in the post above. Thanks!
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