First Build - Need Input!

with 7950, i think you won't be upgrading anytime soon...

but isn't that 560 oc'ed in the same ball park as the 580 and 7950?

Can the 560 run crysis 2 and bf3 maxed settings on 1080p?

need more opinions!

is everything compatible?

-thanks

Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC BF3 bench:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/02/21/sapphire_rade...
MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 core OC BF3 bench
http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-geforce-gtx-560-ti-44...

from the 7950 BF3 bench:
In these tests the Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC was about 16.6% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 and about 30.8% faster than the AMD Radeon HD 6970.

pretty phenomenal . .

wait for the 7870, it will be at lower price than that 560 and with better performance overall i think  . 7870 and 7850 (ati) will be at shops in few weeks

quit bogarting the bong and pass it.

For Ram I would go with this low voltage 1.25:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

It's in your ram compatibility list where as the one you listed isn't, plus the heatsinks don't look as tall:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/memory.asp?Model=P67%20Extreme...

As for your gpu, well it only depends on if you want to play games on high / or ultra with good frame rates.

I reccomend shelling out for the 7950 and getting that. Other than that your set bro

I just purchased my first build. You should really check compatibility.

I will have to agree with what g-unit says about low voltage ram. SB and 1.25/1.35v don't mix well. I would just save some $ and buy a 1.5v RAM kit.

@ Alyus: You might want to actually see his build before commenting on compatibility. His build is all compatible.

I'd second this recommendation, but for some reason Newegg deactivated Sapphire's 7950. Try this instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Also swap your motherboard for this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

He can just get the SAPPHIRE from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-11196-00-40G-Radeon-PCI-... .

go to pcpartpicker.com to find better deals, just put in all the parts there and it will give you the lowest price out of a group of retailers. Also at the price RAM is i would recommend shelling out 45 more dollars and getting 16 gigs. It is well worth it for the amount of money you are spending. Also if you gong to wait for the new graphics card from AMD, I would just wait until Nvidia releases there new cards because AMD will almost definitely lower prices to compete, or you can just go with one of the newer nvidia ones.

I disgaree. No need for 16gb for gaming, regardless of how cheap RAM is. Not even 8gb is utilized as of yet, so what makes you think 16gb will in the next 5 or so years?

okay thank you, and what is the difference between the two motherboards?

The Gigabyte board is a Z68 which will enable you to use the onboard video (helpful for diagnosing GPU problems) and will enable 3TB hard drive support and support for Intel's smart SSD caching system. I also tend to prefer the Gigabyte brand on builds around the $1K mark or better just because I use that same board in my system and it's been excellent so far. I'm certainly open to trying Asrock but if I can get the best board for my money, I will do that every single time.



I generally don't like buying from multiple resellers if I can possibly help it. For one thing (and this is just me), I try to keep my name on as few mailing lists as possible, and the other thing is I really research the history of resellers' return and RMA policies before I buy. I've been doing this since the mid-90's and I've had many a bad or broken part and have been unable to get a replacement for it. If something breaks, I want a replacement for it ASAP, not six weeks from now or whenever they feel like it. The reason I always recommend Newegg for US and Canada-based builds is that I've never had any problems with their support department and trying to get things returned and exchanged, for me the extra few bucks in price difference is more than worth it.

Some good corsair or g.skill RAM will last you a while, and if you decide to do video editing and rendering then the more ram will help quite a bit. But you are right you don't need 16 gigs, but you don't need 8 gigs even, most games will run well on 4 or six gigs.

That is certainly true but watch the heat sinks if you get either brand. Installing aftermarket coolers with those heat sinks like on the Vengeance aren't good. Also watch the voltage - SB will not mix well with 1.65V or 1.35V, you need 1.5V for sure.

Try something like the Kingston Hyper X, PNY Optima, or Mushkin Enhanced Silverline - those heat sinks will be fine for coolers.

Vatom brought up the question of ram, do you think the ram I have selected is good, or should it be changed, I remember someone posted that it wasn't compatible. Also, with that new motherboard I'm not sure if the red skill ram will match with it.

-thanks!

I generally don't like buying from multiple resellers if I can possibly help it. For one thing (and this is just me), I try to keep my name on as few mailing lists as possible, and the other thing is I really research the history of resellers' return and RMA policies before I buy. I've been doing this since the mid-90's and I've had many a bad or broken part and have been unable to get a replacement for it. If something breaks, I want a replacement for it ASAP, not six weeks from now or whenever they feel like it.[/quotemsg]
I agree with you, pc part picker uses pretty reliable stores like new egg and NCIX.com. You can even choose which merchant you want to buy from, it will alert you when prices drop, and provides basic compatibility checks making sure you won't buy something that will not work.

I'm still contemplating sticking with the 560ti because I'm pretty sure it will be able to max out guild wars 2 which will be the primary game I play with this computer. Money really isn't the issue between these two cards, but I feel that the 560ti will do the same job as the 7950. Idk still unsure.

I don't think it will be the same as a 7950, but since it isn't a really intensive game anyway, I think the 560ti will be just fine.

ASUS Radeon HD 7950 3GB - $469.99

interested in this 7950, although its huge, thoughts?

If you go with the 560 ti then get the Gigabyte on newegg for $210. If you go with the 560 ti 448 core then look at amazon for the MSI one with free shipping.

As I have said before, Guild Wars 2 isn't a very demanding game. A 560ti will do just great.

are you confident that it can max the game with no problem in fps?

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&output=search&sclient=psy-... <----- check the benchmarks so you have an idea of what that card will and will not do.

I am yet again in doubt as to wait or not. I decided upon buying now, although I have had multiple people tell me to wait until april when apparently the nvidia will all come out, the z77 board, and ivy bridge. Is this true? I thought the dates for these things were still up in the air

Im leaning towards simply getting the 7950, and the hardware i have listed, I can upgrade to ivy bridge in like 6 months when my budget allows.

Here are the variable to this situation

-what will be the pros of getting the z77 board?

-will the 7950 be overshadowed by the nvidia 6xx series?

-is the price/performance of the 7950 worth it or should I wait till nvidia drops their cards?

or I can pick up that 560ti..

-thanks

There is not to much concrete information concerning the z77 boards yet, but they will probably be expensive when they launch.If you do decide to go with it you will have to get an ivy bridge CPU, which will be more expensive, less power consuming, but overall not much of an upgrade from sandy bridge. If the leaks have been even slightly true then the 7950 will be drastically overshadowed by the 6xx series, but the 7950 will most likely drop in price, while the 6xx series will be quite expensive. The 7950 is a great card, but the drivers that AMD puts out are a nightmare. I would recommend buying your graphics card when everything is out just to be able to compare it to other stuff.

okay, so do you think if would be okay to purchase all the components except the gpu?

i doubt i could afford the z77 board, and if the ivy bridge doesn't significantly bump my gaming fps i don't care about it.

thoughts?

That RAM you have is fine - I wouldn't change it, but I will say watch the heat sinks if you're going to be using a Hyper 212.



Actually that is completely true - the new stuff is almost always more expensive than the existing stuff.



I don't trust ANY leaked source (been around the internet way too long...   ) but when the price drops on the 7950, you can bet I'm picking one of those up.

Why would Z77's be that expensive? Z68 boards launched at essentially the same prices they're at now and displaced P67's at launch. I expect Z77 to do the same thing to Z68. So you'll see sales on Z68, but Z77 shouldn't have exorbitant prices like X79. It's more that old products drop in price than new ones cost more than the previous high-end.

OP, Like I said in your other thread, if you're not a hardcore overclocker (and even if you decide to overclock, you won't be hardcore for a while), even the low-end Gigabyte Z68 SLI boards for $130 will do everything you want (like OC an i5-2500K to 4.5GHz). That said, I'd buy myself one of Gigabyte's $150 black Z68 boards because they look better.

Don't be in too big of a hurry to take Vantom's word as gospel. Some of it is decent advice, other stuff I completely disagree with like recommending you get 16GB of RAM. Any 8GB (2x4GB) 1600CL9 1.5V DDR3 kit will do. But stick to the better brands--notably Kingston, G.Skill, Corsair, Mushkin, or maybe Geil & Crucial.

All these people are drooling over the 7950 performance and, I'll admit, it's phenomenal. Yet the vast majority of games are STILL console ports. And not many games can actually make use of hardware more powerful than an overclocked GTX 560Ti at 1080p, which is what you plan to game at. I mean, you're limited to Crysis 2, Metro 2033, & BF3 really to make use of any card more powerful than a 6950. That is, unless you game in 3D.

So I do want to pose the question of: What game will you be using all this graphics hardware on?

Because a single GTX 560Ti is $210 and will be $150 in April and there still will only be 3 games that use more than it offers. And if you put two GTX 560Ti's, or better yet, two 6950's together, they absolutely stomp everything but a 7970, and destroy everything stronger than a 6950 on price/performance.


But like I said before (other thread), I'd buy an i3-2100, solid Z68 board, Radeon 6950, and play games on "very high" until later this year. Then dump the i3 (not too much heartache there) for an Ivy Bridge i5 and pick up a second $140 6950 come August.

Validation that the i3-2100 can provide a satisfying gaming performance that's almost always bottlenecked by the GPU: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fx-4100-core-i3-210...

X79 boards are currently twice the price that Z68 boards are. I'm not expecting the Z77 boards to be X79 prices but they will be probably $30 - $50 higher than Z68 boards are.



I'd take two 6950's but I personally like to have a single strong card like a 7970 rather than two weaker cards.



To me building a system with an upgrade path already in mind is really pointless. I've built a lot of systems - used a lot of good hardware and a lot of crap hardware, and to me the worst part is buying the same part twice. I build my builds for longevity with an upgrade 2 - 3 years from now, not six months after you get your build.



Those are good brands (I've heard good things about Geil but I haven't used them yet), but 16GB is not needed for a gaming system. You will never use all of it. 8 is plenty.

Agreed (or close enough) with earlier comments.

True, but SLI 6950's are supposed to be pretty awesome and the $300 savings over a single 7970 is appealing.


True, however this guy is talking about buying an i5-2500K and getting rid of it in six months. I'm not okay with recommending a path to replace an i5-2500K so quickly. So I presented an alternative that I am okay with. My preference is, definitely, to wait until Ivy Bridge and Kepler are out. And I'm a lot more certain about their performance than Bulldozer's.

The primary game i will play is guild wars 2. I will play other games but not to the same extent I play guild wars 2. At the moment I am going to wait until April until I make my decisions regarding the gpu, because hopefully the 6xx series will come out. Also, should I be interested in the z77 board and ivy bridge? Will they bring me higher fps in my games?

-thanks!

Maybe you should be interested in Ivy Bridge, but it won't help you when gaming until 2015 when an i5-2500K might start to show it's age...of course, it might not. There isn't really any game an i7-920 from 2008 has ANY issues with.

Can someone help me with what's better about Z77? All I can find from the wikipedia article is a couple extra USB 3.0 slots: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1155
While that is nice, it's hardly worth buying a motherboard over. I guess it means native USB 3.0? Is that a big issue since all good Z68 boards use USB 3.0 one way or another?

i am having trouble finding the benefits of getting a z77 board over the z68 or p67 as well

does anyone know?

also, I will most likely only use this computer for 2-3 years max

Is there any reason for that? Do you plan on joining the armed forces, getting thrown in a Tibetan prison, or something like that?

yes, I plan to be thrown into a Tibetan prison, glad we cleared that up.

I'm closing this browser tab. PM me if you get new posts.

currently have no questions, if anything arises ill either start as new thread, post it here, or PM you