Serious build - gamer, $3-5K+ budget. - Page 4

Originally Posted by savage1987 

Currently the machine which is failing to impress is a laptop. He understands a great gamer can be had for $1-2K, but as mentioned previously since he gets all his other electronics at absurdly low prices, he's happy to drop a bit more than usual on a tower.

I wholeheartedly agree about looking like a $5k machine, and to that end I'll spend as much time on it as I need to. I'm doing this because it's a passion of mine, not because I want to make money off it so time spent is really just me enjoying myself. Each piece does indeed add clutter, another reason I'm still in two minds about adding a sound card. I've been updating the OP as we go along - have a quick check and most of the use/aim/requirements are outlined there.
You sure did, and I have been speaking to him via PM about if. My issue with dropping to 2GB is while I'd love to do it to allow an extra card comfortably inside budget, I can imagine the lower VRAM may start becoming a limitation when 3d gaming comes into play. If two 4GB 680s are going to do the job and do it well on 3x1080p, I'll stick with that - for the moment at least.

I hadn't considered unlocked voltages. I guess I just assumed people had worked out how to unlock them on pretty well any 680 by now through BIOS adjustments etc, but I'll adjust the parts list again


All these adjustments are exactly why I like to start planning things a fair way out - not the week before ordering parts!

Once again, thanks for the help guys.


More food for thought - CallsignVega has put the idea in my head of using Ivy. 3770K and a UP7 are a cheaper option than the 3930K, dropping a couple of cores probably won't be a huge issue with gaming being the main focus. I have no hands-on experience with 3d modelling software, video encoding, or any real high intensity CPU work though so it's difficult for me to get my head around this.

Originally Posted by savage1987 

Interesting read but hard to sort out rubbish from fact.
I'll leave it as 2 EVGA FTW 4GB editions for the moment. If something better comes up in the meantime I'll consider it Also I'll talk to him more about how often he'll be using it for crazy labour intensive CPU work and probably move to Ivy Bridge.

Have also updated the PSU choice to AX760, would be plenty for 3930K and two 680s, should be still good for the Ivy.

Originally Posted by savage1987 

Modded Skyrim was what finally hit the limits of my signature rig, surprisingly I thought other games would topple it first but there you go.

The PSU choice for me makes a lot of sense. I have stuck by Corsair for a long time for a number of reasons; I love their PSUs. From there I figured i needed 750W or so to comfortably run this with everything flat out, from reading around a fair bit. A modular PSU seems like it's going to be the best option for a tidy case, ease of servicing/replacement and also easier to tackle on my first cable sleeving adventures.

Typical use:

Minecraft 100% of the time
Runescape 100% of the time
Youtube, music editing, mcedit, Doom, Doom editor, pokemmo a lot of the time
and in between there (possibly at the same time as, on occasion), top shelf games, with which the intent is to have no trouble at max settings, 5760x1080.


This in mind, I still think the Ivy quad won't have too much trouble with anything listed so that is looking like a better and better option. Regardless, it'll sure as hell be better at multitasking than his laptops have been

Originally Posted by Avonosac 

Without a doubt, the 3770k is perfect for what he'll do. On top of that, when you're going to spend 5k on a system, why make one that can't play games because of Vram? If he is holding out on the build (a couple months from now. A single titan might actually be better than the SLI 680s with none of the issues. Better or close enough to not matter.

Originally Posted by savage1987 

Interesting read but hard to sort out rubbish from fact.

Originally Posted by savage1987 
I'd unfortunately highly doubt that as well, from the handful of things I have read. Probably somewhere between single 680 / single 690 performance I would guess. Happy to be wrong though.

AMD GPUs are fine but someone up there was recommending nVidia for a couple of reasons - scaling better when a 3rd card is added is a big reason. I'd be cautious of AMD cards in case a third ever needs to go in.