Just a few ?'s

[Menace2Sobriety]

Hello, I'm starting to put together a gaming rig and I don't really have alot of money so I'm looking for the "Best bang for my buck". I've picked up an i5-3570k and an Asus P8z77-VLK along with 4x 4gig Kingston HyperX Performance @ 1866.
Basically I'm looking for input on a good but easy on the wallet gfx card. Should I go with 2 mid level cards in SLI? 1 good card? Also.... should I just run the largest SSD I can afford as a single drive? Or get a smaller one for OS and run a regular 1 TB Sata drive for storage?
How about PSU? Can I cheap out on a 650W if I"m not running SLI? Or should I run 800 W+?

Thanks.

 

[manofchalk]

Get the best single card you can afford, that simple. Crossfire/SLI isnt worth it until you get to the high end of the market (or there are uber-value cards like the 560Ti was upon release, two of them outperformed a 580 for significantly less. Unfortunately there isnt anything like that right now).

Get the small SSD (128GB) and 1TB drive.

Never cheap out on a PSU's quality. Fortunately there's no correlation between wattage and quality.
650W is more than enough for your build, could even go down to a 550W if you wanted. Though if you wanted to leave the option of Crossfire/SLI open down the road, you will want to get a 750W unit.

 

[dns7950]

It would be alot easier to help if we knew your budget. The best "bang for your buck" graphics card would probably be the AMd 78xx series, a 7870 if you can afford it, if not then a 7850.. it is always better to get 1 good card than 2 mid-level cards in Crossfire/SLI, since you then have the option of getting another good card for evn more performance! Don't spend all your money on a huge SSD, they are to expensive to replace a regular hard drive. I would get a 120Gb SSD for the OS and some choice programs you want to load fast, and then get a 1TB hard drive for storage. For the PSU, i would get a Corsair 750W, since they are not very expensive and will run even 7970s in crossfire. If you are not going to run 2 cards in SLI/Crossfire, then even a 550w would do. Give us a budget (and include what currency it is in!) if you want to know what your best option is!

 

[Menace2Sobriety]

Well my budget is enough that I COULD afford to buy a $500 video card but don't want to spend $500 so that I could get slightly better performance than say a $250 card but win a "Who's d!@K is bigger" contest.

I mean.... worste case scenario I could get a rig together and upgrade to the best of the best over a 6 mth period but I'd kinda like to keep the build around the $1200 mark. (with $500 already being spent on CPU, MoBo, Cooler, and RAM.)

I still need case, PSU, video card, Hard drive(s)..... then I push the build further from there.... Complete liquid cooling? LED kits? funky cables/sleeves? General Lee Paint job with the Dixie horn as my "You've got Mail" notification? (Ok ok.... that's a bit ridiculous). But ya's get the point. If my CPU/Boar/RAM will play any game out there with a specific "$150 card" on high settings.... then I don't really want to spend $500 on a card. Instead I'll put the savings towards other stuff... SSD, H2O cooling, etc.

Thanks again!

Menace

 

[manofchalk]

You will find there is a fairly linear relationship between price and performance. If you spend more, you will receive roughly that much more moneys worth of performance. That only fails when your talking the very low end of the market (and the GTX680).

Basically, build the rig you want. If you feel you don't need the performance of a higher end card provides, then don't get one. Invest the cash into other things like water-cooling if it will make you happier with the build, because that is ultimately that's what matters.

 

[Menace2Sobriety]

Guess I shoulda spent a few more hours here on TH Forums before spending some money. Seems as though I prolly shoulda bought the 1600 mhz RAM instead of the 1866 mhz, and maybe there were a few better choices out there motherboard wise.

Will have to put it together next week and see what happens when I push the "Power" button....

Menace

 

[Menace2Sobriety]

Ok. So I almost got her together.

- CoolerMaster Storm Scout Case (Loved the "body lines" of the side panels as they allowed for ample cable hiding)
- The i5-3570 CPU (Non overclockable? It's the non "K" version)
- The Asus P8Z77v-LK MoBo
- 500 Gig WesternDigital HD (Will be adding SSD in a couple weeks)
- Standard LG DVD R/RW
- 550W PowerSupply (For now)
- 8 Gig Kingston HyperX Performance RAM @ 1866 mhz

I'm definately gonna need a new Powersupply as the one I have won't run the Asus GTX 660Ti TOP edition. Gonna need ALOT more sources for power as the case alone requires 4 "plug-ins" for the fans.

I noticed the card requires 2 6 pin power plugs... it DOES come with an adaptor to turn 2 4 pin plugs into 1 6 pin plug.
Which powersupply out there will give me an ENORMOUS amount of plugs AND 2 6 pin power plugs? I'd rather NOT use "adaptors" or "Power splicers" as it's just more to troubleshoot if there ends up being a problem down the road.

Should I just pick up 2 more 4 gig sticks of RAM? I'm worried that in a year I may not be able to find the exact same RAM....

I am a little dissappointed as the system itself doesn't seem to scream like I thought it would. It seems now faster than my 1.5 yr old i7 930 laptop.

Have the BIOS set to "performance". I'm just wondering if I have a bottleneck somewhere? Maybe I made a bad decision somewhere while collecting the pieces?

Menace

 

[dns7950]

You should be able to run a 660 Ti on a 550W power supply! Nvidia recommends at least a 450W power supply, and you have to consider that their recommendation is most likely very conservative.. The 660 Ti draws a maximum of 150W, and your CPU draws a maximum of 77W.. Even if you overclock and have a case full of hard drives, you should still have enough power! If your power supply has only one 6 pin PCI-E cable, then just use the molex to PCI-e adaptor!! If you already have a 550W power supply then it is definitely not worth getting a new one for one 660 Ti, just because you don't want to use an adapter... Remember, the PCI-E slot itself provides up to 75W. A 6-pin PCI-e connector provides up to 75W also... And are you just using the integrated GPU currently? If you are, that might be why your system isn't "screaming"..