Gaming PC MEGA UPDATE! PLEASE COMMENT!

  • Thread starter o6villma
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Mid-Late 2013 games (Big & Pretty ones.) - Max or not?

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o6villma

o6villma

495
Canada
Ottawa, ON
o6villma
Yeah, I'm getting a gaming PC. My budget is MAX $1500 (CAD) and I'd like to not touch $1500. For some reason I'm caught up in the $1400's. Here are the specs anyways!

o6villma
CPU: AMD X8 FX-8350 (125W) Eight-Core Socket AM3+ 4GHz CPU, 8MB Cache, 32nm
Motherboard: ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 + SB950 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Memory: Kingston HyperX Blu 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz

HDD: WD Black 1TB 3.5" SATA 7200RPM 64MB Hard Drives

SSD: ADATA SP600 256GB 2.5" 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SSD), Read: 480MB/s Write: 250MB/s (X2)

Main Graphics Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 2GB WindForce 3X 1137MHz Clock, 7000MHz Memory

Optical Drive: LG Internal 14x Blu-Ray Writer, 3D Play

Chassis: Thermaltake V3 Black AMD Edition Mid ATX Tower Case

Power Supply: Thermaltake SMART Power 750W 80Plus Bronze Certified PSU
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I'm kind if curious on what part of canukistan does a numerical value followed by the dollar sign rather than vice versa.

I want to go to that part.
 
Technicolors
What about a single 280X or a 290X?
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I'm having my PC built (Let people hate me for some reason), but that's because I really can't dedicate time to it. My choices for graphics card are limited on that site. It goes from R7 to R9 then Nvidia which gets a bit too much expensive.

dice1998
I'm kind if curious on what part of canukistan does a numerical value followed by the dollar sign rather than vice versa.

I want to go to that part.
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Um.. That's just the way I do it, doesn't mean I'm a Canukistanist (Is that the word for a person which is Canukistan? Heh.)
 
Why 260X and 270X? That's an extremely bizarre config for a new build - a single 280X or GTX 770 (cheaper option) would perform better and give you far fewer driver headaches.
 
o6villma
I'm having my PC built (Let people hate me for some reason), but that's because I really can't dedicate time to it. My choices for graphics card are limited on that site. It goes from R7 to R9 then Nvidia which gets a bit too much expensive.
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So you're going to buy a pre-built system?
 
Sharky.
Why 260X and 270X? That's an extremely bizarre config for a new build - a single 280X or GTX 770 (cheaper option) would perform better and give you far fewer driver headaches.
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I want to at least have over 2GB of VRAM (So minimum 3GB) and in the pre-build choices for the system I want, the only 770's are 2GB's. But would a SINGLE 2GB 770 outmatch a R7 AND R9 combined?
EDIT: Screw that theory, re-check the OP's GPU and tell me what you think.

Technicolors
So you're going to buy a pre-built system?
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Yes, in the way as they show you core specs and you have a dropdown list of choices for each part.
 
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o6villma
I want to at least have over 2GB of VRAM
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Why is that? 2GB of video memory is more than sufficient for 1920x1080 gaming, you only start to need more than 2GB when you're pushing a 2560x1440 panel or running in Eyefinity/Surround.

Multi-GPU VRAM isn't additive either, so you'd still only have 2GB.

o6villma
But would a SINGLE 2GB 770 outmatch a R7 AND R9 combined?
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In all likelihood, yes. The reason being when you crossfire mismatched cards like you plan on doing, the faster card will clock itself down to the slower card - so you'll in effect have a 260X and a 270X running at 260X speeds; ie two 260X.

Find a bit more coin, get a 280X - which has 3GB VRAM - for 400CAD (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202061) and never look back.

Or buy a used 7950.
 
Sharky.
Why is that? 2GB of video memory is more than sufficient for 1920x1080 gaming, you only start to need more than 2GB when you're pushing a 2560x1440 panel or running in Eyefinity/Surround.

Multi-GPU VRAM isn't additive either, so you'd still only have 2GB.


In all likelihood, yes. The reason being when you crossfire mismatched cards like you plan on doing, the faster card will clock itself down to the slower card - so you'll in effect have a 260X and a 270X running at 260X speeds; ie two 260X.

Find a bit more coin, get a 280X - which has 3GB VRAM - for 400CAD (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202061) and never look back.
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I've changed the card, also thank you for clearing my confusion with VRAM, a friend of mine had told me that newer games were going to start requiring 3GB VRAM soon, but I think I trust you a bit more :lol:, so take a look at what I did and tell me if it's any better! Thanks!
 
Yeah, more VRAM is only useful if you're running higher resolution or multiple screens. The 770 you chose provides a better experience for you. Not sure about Zotac and their cooling solution but it definitely beats reference cooling.
 
Great! I plan on having 2 monitors, but more for multitasking, aka, one for gaming while the other has like Skype and Chrome open. Now, I use Game-Debate to tell me if I can run games, but it's not a tool that will tell me if I'll have trouble with AA and all of that. If I played BF4 with everything at max, would it be stable on 1920X1080? (Stable as in 60FPS)
 
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Well, if you plan to multitask you'll have to play games in Windowed mode (you can google "borderless windowed gaming" to simulate full-screen gaming) or disable the 2nd screen entirely.
 
Technicolors
Well, if you plan to multitask you'll have to play games in Windowed mode (you can google "borderless windowed gaming" to simulate full-screen gaming) or disable the 2nd screen entirely.
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Never heard of Borderless windowed gaming, I read some of it and that sounds really neat! There's an app for steam I'll try when I have my PC
 
o6villma
I don't have the money to go with intel. I've been quite content with AMD though.
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Ditch the SSD. Ditch the liquid cooler and go for a CPU fan instead. Ditch the FX-8350 and go with an i5 4670k. There, enough money for Intel and you actually saved money on an SDD.
 
I know you said you wanted to buy instead of build, but i'll be the one to say it. Why? You say its a time factor, but in all reality you can build it yourself with absolutely no experience in less then 3 hours tops. Longest process would be installing software, but you'd save a lot of money going this route.
 
JerseyDriverSS
I know you said you wanted to buy instead of build, but i'll be the one to say it. Why? You say its a time factor, but in all reality you can build it yourself with absolutely no experience in less then 3 hours tops. Longest process would be installing software, but you'd save a lot of money going this route.
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I'll check each part on newegg and stuff and will do a price comparison, if the difference is too low, I buy
 
Bram Turismo
Ditch the SSD. Ditch the liquid cooler and go for a CPU fan instead. Ditch the FX-8350 and go with an i5 4670k. There, enough money for Intel and you actually saved money on an SDD.
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FX-8350s have a better price-performance value and score better in benchmarks than the i5 4670k.
 
o6villma
I'll check each part on newegg and stuff and will do a price comparison, if the difference is too low, I buy
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I just got a GTX770 a few days ago as an upgrade from a GTX560Ti and I must say its a good step up from that. In fact I'm pretty blown away by its performance for the price and it will run Crysis 2 on Ultra with the DX11 upgrade with relative ease. That's with an older i5 2500K @ 4.5GHz and 8Gb Crucial Ballistix RAM.

This was my 3D Mark 11 score:

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/8123286
 
Perhaps building myself would be best, saving money to get better parts, personnal project and an object to truly be proud of!
 
Oh and for my money, a good heatpipe cooler and fan is as good as a liquid cooler now, with less maintenance and potential issues. 👍

I got this one:

http://www.zalman.com/global/product/Product_Read.php?Idx=416

...and my overclocked i5 never gets above 40C

o6villma
Perhaps building myself would be best, saving money to get better parts, personnal project and an object to truly be proud of!
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You should, definitely. 👍 Its not that hard and what you get is something you can really be proud of. :)
 
o6villma
Great, but now talking about the specs I have written up, anything that MUST be changed?
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Not that I can see... Looks pretty good. 👍 Seriously though, look into heatpipe coolers.... much lower risk of failure and resulting problems.
 
Vagabond
Not that I can see... Looks pretty good. 👍
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Awesome, still gonna fine tune some things then I'll edit the OP and let you guys know.
EDIT: Pre-Built Price: $1448
All parts price: $1277 JESUS MONEY SAVING GODS! Welp... Should I get more RAM?
 
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o6villma
Perhaps building myself would be best, saving money to get better parts, personnal project and an object to truly be proud of!
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Exactly. Even if you only saved a hundred bucks the personal satisfaction of doing it yourself is great. I was so excited that i just built a computer from scratch and it worked first try.
 

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