Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

[Hayde]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

@Mal

IMO, I think you should go for the GTX 770; the price point and value to cost is just too good to pass up. The 7950 is about $300 and the GTX 770 is $400 in America--if it means you need to wait off a month before your purchase, I think it's worth the wait.

I mean, the 7950 has been reported to be comparable in benchmarks and actual performance to the GTX 660ti time and time again, so it gives you kind of a perspective on how much of a performance you get with the extra money on the 770:

(there's also a 1440p performance video if you happen to run in that resolution.)

[Firewind]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

If you can get a good deal on the GTX 770 I would be inclined to agree with Hayde.

But in terms of pure Price/Performance... Sorry but I'm going to have to play Devil's Advocate; I still find it hard to look past the HD 7950 Cards. $100 for a slight performance boost might not be worth it depending on how optimised your system is.

[DakAttack]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

I think the inclusion of PhysX is becoming more worthwhile now that more developers are taking advantage of it.

[Malacite]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

I'm in Ottawa, actually.

[DakAttack]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

So I forewent building my own PC to have it built by iBuyPower. I willingly paid extra to have the wireless professionally organized, since I plan to place it on my desk so that I can see into it whenever I please. Here are the specs:

1 x Case (NZXT Tempest 410 Elite Gaming Case - Black))
1 x Processor (Intel® Core™ i5-4670K Processor (4x 3.40GHz/6MB L3 Cache) - Intel Core™ i5-4670K))
1 x Motherboard (Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3 -- 2x PCIe 3.0 x16, 4x USB 3.0, 6x SATA-III 6Gb/s))
1 x Memory (8 GB [4 GB X2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Corsair Vengeance))
1 x Video Card (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 - 2GB - Single Card))
1 x Case Lighting (Liquid Neon Thunder Pattern Light - Blue))
1 x Power Supply (750 Watt - Corsair CMPSU-750AX))
1 x Processor Cooling (Corsair Hydro Series H60 Liquid CPU Cooling System - Standard 120mm Fan))
1 x Primary Hard Drive (500 GB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive))
1 x Optical Drive ([12X Blu-Ray] LG BLU-RAY Re-Writer, DVD±R/±RW Burner Combo Drive - Black))
1 x Sound Card (Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio))
1 x Advanced Build Options (Tuniq TX-2 High Performance Thermal Compound - The best interface between your CPU and the heatsinks))
1 x Advanced Build Options (Professional wiring for all cables inside the system tower - Achieve exceptional airflow in your chassis))
1 x Advanced Build Options (Professional wiring for all cables inside the system tower - Basic Pro Wiring))
1 x Advanced Build Options (Professional wiring for all cables inside the system tower - Advanced - Power Package (Individually Sleeved 24-pin ATX, 8-pin CPU, and SATA Drive Power Cabling)))
1 x Advanced Build Options (Professional wiring for all cables inside the system tower - Advanced - Video Package (Individually Sleeved 8-pin and 6-pin PCI-E VGA Power Cabling)))
1 x Flash Media Reader / Writer (12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer - Black))


I went in heavy with the expensive parts, since this should last me for years. I really only see myself replacing the GPU and possibly the CPU, but everything else should remain the same for a long time.

[Malacite]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

Looks cool, but I'm gonna try my darnest to squeeze out every bit of performance I can out of this tired old beaten up piece of shit until at least Boxing Day/Week sales, and then snag a bunch of parts I want cheap and have the rest assembled into my new rig likely next year once all dat fancy shmancy new DDR4 RAM and other goodies are out ^^ (since DD4 *will* require new sockets and I'm hoping AMD's Steamroller will be as strong and cheap as they're boasting)

[Aeni]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

I'd rather get premium i5 chips than bin bottom i7s ... IMHO.

I don't need to upgrade just yet. When my Q9400 kicks the bucket, then I'll go and put together something ... biggest bang for the buck without sacrificing quality and performance.

[DakAttack]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

I'd rather get premium i5 chips than bin bottom i7s ... IMHO.

What is this in reference to?

Also, I've been reading a lot of back and forth on 3rd and 4th generation Core i5/i7s and their speeds. They cost about the same, so I thought it'd be best to stick with newer tech. Even if that means purchasing a CPU that was developed specifically for mobile devices.

[Firewind]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

Build A Better-Than-Xbox-One/PS4 PC For £500 | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

[Aeni]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

What is this in reference to?

Also, I've been reading a lot of back and forth on 3rd and 4th generation Core i5/i7s and their speeds. They cost about the same, so I thought it'd be best to stick with newer tech. Even if that means purchasing a CPU that was developed specifically for mobile devices.

Some post way back on page 1 (not by you) ... my statement goes back to an earlier issue with Intel's i7 production and that they were re-marking premium i5 chips and doing some fancy (yet close to illegal) rebranding on crappy i7 yields. I think I read it over on The Register a few years back. Which is why I never took the jump to i7 immediately and wanted to wait out a couple of years for the market to clear out old inventory from that debacle. Although I'm still seeing healthy reviews for the "highly OC'able" i5 chips and may pick up one instead of the low or mid tier i7s ... I don't have any use for $600+ CPUs.

Edit:

Also to add to a point made by Valve's Gabe Newell in that they're starting to see required performance for games flattening out and think that optimal for the masses is better than appeasing to the Ferrari crowd. If you got cash to burn, go burn them, I don't care what you do with your money. But it's a delusional quest to try for "the high end rig" in this day and age (look at ARR to see what I mean) Some games are still alive and kicking and require only PCs from like 5 years ago to run ...

[DakAttack]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

I bought a GTX 770 for my new PC, but it's a reference model. I just bought this to replace it: Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-N770OC-4GD GeForce GTX 770 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready Video Card

Anybody want to buy a GTX 770? Completely new and slightly discounted!

[Nandito]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

You bought a 770 to replace your 770? Wat?

Tempted to buy it, but I should seriously consider something with higher VRAM.

[Firewind]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

You bought a 770 to replace your 770? Wat?

[Aeni]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

I ended up with similar to what Dak posted above (I swear it was a coincidence, since I forgot all about this thread when I purchased my parts yesterday) Not sure what you paid for yours but I didn't get high end graphics card (went with a 660 OC instead)

I won't get to building it until late next week, with how free shipping works. I'll put a picture up after, though ...

1x Antec Three Hundred Two Gaming Case, Black
1x Corsair Enthusiast Series 650-Watt 80 Plus Bronze Cert. (TX650)
1x Intel Core i5-4670K Quad-Core 3.4GHz 6MB Cache (BX80646154670K)
1x Gigabyte Z87 LGA 1150 (GA-Z87X-UD3H)
1x Corsair Vengeance Blue 16GB (2x8 GB) DDR3 1600MHz (PC3 12800) (CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10B)
1x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 OC 2GB GDDR5 (GV-N660OC-2GD)
1x Samsung 840 Series SSD SATA 6GBps (MZ-7TD250KW)
1x Pioneer Electronics USA 15x SATA Internal BD/DVD/CD Burner 4 MB Buffer (BDR-208DBK)

1x Silverstone Tek 140mm Ultra Fine Fan Filter w/ Magnet Cooling (FF143B)
3x Silverstone Tek 120mm Ultra Fine Fan Filter w/ Magnet Cooling (FF123B)
1x Cooler Master 140mm R4 Blue LED Case Fan (R4-L4S-10AB-GP)
4x Cooler Master SickleFlow 120mm Blue LED Case Fan (R4-L2R-20AC-GP)
1x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus (RR-B10-212P-G1)

1x Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit (Full) System Builder OEM DVD

(Reason why I didn't add any non-SSD HDDs is because I already have 3 ... tonight I discovered a 3rd lying about unused ... 750GB ... in addition to the 1TB and 2TB drives I already own)

[Aeni]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

Finally came in ... almost all of it. One more package ... probably in on Saturday. So it would appear to be a weekend build.