Advice on build

[StuSAFC87]

Hi everyone, I am about to start building my very first custom build and I was looking for some advice. I should start off by saying that I have already purchased the case and motherboard so I'm 'locked in' on those parts but advice on any other parts would be greatly appreciated.

My main concerns are the Graphics Card and PSU. I have a feeling that I may possibly be going overboard with the PSU but I really want to make sure I am future proof so that in the future I can easily swap or upgrade a single part instead of having to completely rebuild. But with that bieng said I certainly don't have a lot of money so would prefer not to go silly and spend £200 on a PSU I won't need. In regards to the Graphics Card the 660ti is definetly my price range but do I break the bank balance for a 670 or not bother?

Case: Antec Nine Hundred Two V3
Motherboard: Sabertooth 990FX
CPU: AMD FX 4170 4.2GHZ
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO

PSU: Corsair 1050HX or Corsair 1200AX

GPU: GTX 660Ti or GTX 670

Memory: Corsair 1866mhz (2 x 4GB)
SSD: Corsair Force Series 3 120GB
Hard Drive: Seagate 3TB


System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Movies

Parts Preferences: AMD CPU, Nvidia GPU

Overclocking: Yes

SLI : Considering it as a future option

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080


Thanks for reading and any other advice or critique would be appreciated!

 

[mocchan]

You are definitely overspending on your PSU. Unless you intend on Quad-SLI GTX680's, you don't need that much wattage.

I would recommend something along the lines of a TX650V2 for a single card, or a TX750V2 for SLI (Applies to both 660 Ti and 670).

You may want to step your CPU up to something like an FX-81xx if you're planning to get the best performance out of your rig in terms of gaming. That or waiting a few weeks to get AMD's latest CPU's; Piledriver. They should perform maybe 10% better than Bulldozer chips, which should help quite a bit.

One gripe I personally have, why not consider the Radeon HD7950? It's around the same price as a GTX660 Ti and it wouldn't break the bank like the GTX670 would. Once you overclock the HD7950, you've got a card that outperforms even the GTX670.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-ti-memory-bandwidth-anti-aliasing,3283-11.html

I think those benches speak for themselves. Unless you're wanting features such as PhysX or Adaptive V-Sync, AMD is definitely the route to go in the ~£300 market.

Long story short, go for at least a GTX670 if you're wanting long term performance. The GTX660 Ti won't cut it for later titles most likely, the memory interface cripples it way too much.

 

[strife_ff7]

Just get a corsair hx750 its more than enough for sli or crossfire setup. With the money you saved on the psu get a better cpu amd fx-8150.

 

[StuSAFC87]

I will definetly reconsider the PSU then which is great because it saves me money!

I picked the quad core because I was told that an 8 core system would not really be of great benefit because most if not all games don't use that many cores. But considering it's only a difference of about £50 I may as well, plus I am guessing that it's more future proof.

Yea I thought Nvidia would be better because of PhysX, I've seen what It can do in Borderlands 2 for instance.

If I go the AMD route am I going to miss out especially, as I want the best for gaming?

 

[mocchan]

It's not just about future-proofing, it's about how the Bulldozer modules work in general. With the FX-41XX CPU's, you're not getting 4 cores, you're getting two Bulldozer Modules with two Integer units. Essentially it's a type of 'Physical Hyperthreading', i.e, 2 cores 4 threads per se.

Knowing that, an 8 'core' CPU will give you 4 Bulldozer Modules with two Integer units each, giving you a total of 8 threads.

Long story short, the FX-81XX CPU's are probably the ones to get if you're wanting a decent gaming experience They perform roughly like an i5-2500k, so they're not too bad.

PhysX...now that's something you'll have to do research on yourself. I've used a GTX560 Ti in the past and I never took advantage of it. If you're building this rig specifically for Borderlands 2, then a GTX660 Ti would suffice, however, if you're wanting an all-around gaming rig, I would seriously consider spending the extra money on a GTX670 due to the extra memory bandwidth, or the Radeon HD7950 for the extra performance.

 

[StuSAFC87]

Thanks very much you have been extremely helpful!

 

[mocchan]

You're very welcome