Tech and Talk > Gaming > PC gaming Tech > New system advice please

New system advice please

I'm not sure where you're getting $1700--I have $1429.87 with the cheaper mobo, $1,553.82 with the Thunderbolt motherboard.

Thoughts:
• This amount of money is an awful lot to spend to only get a single 670. At that price, I would be looking at more from the GPU.
• Mobo: That Thunderbolt mobo is way too expensive. I think there is an MSI mobo with Thunderbolt under $200. If you want that connectivity, go for it--if not, I'd go for the Asrock.
• Ram: Don't spend more money on higher ram. Get 1.5v 1600 ram and then OC it. BuildaPC likes Samsung ram because it OCs well.
• Case is personal preference. I like Corsair, Rosewill, and Cooler Master.
--
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

reply to Skit112
The 212 evo comes with a tube of thermal paste, sure its not quite as good as the arctic silver but its also $10 less and will do a very good/acceptable job.

Really can't go wrong with the 3570k, that cooler should be able to get you 4.5ghz-4.7ghz overclock.

I'd get the asrock motherboard, the other one is too expensive for what you get. I have the p67 model of the asrock, I love it.

A lot of money to spend and only get a 670. for $10 more you can get a 7970 (»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···14125413), which preforms on par(sometimes better) with the 680. The 7950 preforms on par with the 670 for $100 less, based on the recent benches I have seen anyway. That said if you just prefer nvidia or want to use the cuda cores then yeah go ahead and get nvidia. Ether way I'd get 2 gpus if I were spending $1700.

If you don't mind using an 80+ bronze as opposed to an 80+ gold corsair has »www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···17139040 still 750W, but not modular. I know some people care about that a lot more than others do.

Heres 16GB of ram, »www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···20231558 , still by G.Skill. its $9 less and is lower profile. And with the 212 heatsinks thats a good thing, as they often cover up some ram slots making it harder to fit taller ram in there. Its got a cas latency of 10 as opposed to 9, but its not that big a difference. Or if you don't care about the height this gskill comes with a free 16GB flash card »www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···20231486

No comment on the ssd, really know nothing about them.

I'm assuming the hard drive is just a storage drive? If you don't mind having a drive thats just a tad slower: 1TB WD blue for $85 »www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···22236339 plus it looks like it has an extra $15 off right now with promo code.

If you want 2TB for $5($110) more you can get »www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···22149397

Case is a personal thing, I like cooler master and corsair, never really touched anything else so I wont comment on other brands. but I'd get a full tower with a 200mm side fan were I spending that much money, it could help keep dual gpus cooler too.

Never used a blu-ray disk drive so I have no valuable input for that.

reply to Skit112
Thanks for the replies guys. I see that ASRock board I picked is not full size. It is 12"x 8.6" and won't reach the stand offs on the right side. I would like a full size board so I'll have to check more out.

If OCing is there a down side if I run 4 sticks? I know you use to be able to get higher clocks with less sticks.

I see you're both not liking the vid card selection for the money I'm spending. I would like to stay with nvidia. I thought since it's a EVGA FTW and is clocked higher @stock it would be a good choice. Any other suggestions?

The height of the RAM was/is a concern due to the HS. I will look for a different full size case.

How much wiggle room do you have at $1700? Gimme a couple hours...

reply to Skit112
A good case wont care what size the motherboard is, my mobo is normal atx but my my case supports full e-atx works just fine.

not sure about the ram sticks, I only use 2.

reply to Krisnatharok
I could go to $1800. I could go much higher but there are always more guitars and amps to add to the collection.

reply to Skit112
A 670 FTW isn't bad by any means. But if you can cut down on other hardware in cost and opt for a 680/7970 instead, then you'll be golden.

reply to Skit112
If you uses the stock thermal paste from the 212evo, instead of buying the extra, you would have enough to get the 7970. But since you want nvidia, the 680 would take a bit more cutting down, you'd have to get the 80+ bronze 750w corsair instead of the 80+gold and use the stock thermal paste for that. Still it would be worth it, you can still overclock it yourself and get amazing performance. Just a thought my good sir.

»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···14130768

reply to Skit112

Thanks Krisnatharok and everyone else. I like that list. I was actually looking at that vid card as you posted. I have a Lite-On DVD/CD Writer. I just thought it might be nice to have the Blu-Ray too.

One question. How is the on-board sound on these new mobos? Right now I use a Creative SB Platinum card. Will the on-board sound be as good?

As far as an OS I run XP Pro now but I know I should upgrade and probably go with Win 7 Home Premium.

I have no idea how they compare to the on-board stuff, but I only use on-board because its more than what I need right now.

reply to Skit112
What sound system are you going to be using? Headphones or speakers?

I have an older Cambridge Sound works system. Sub with 4 speakers. It sounds amazing. It is a Henry Kloss designed system.

reply to Skit112

reply to Skit112

reply to Skit112
Thanks guys. I'll just go with on-board and if it needs it I'll throw a card in.

Any drawback to running 4 sticks of RAM while OCing?

I think it's easier to run with 2 dimms--I've never gotten into OCing ram, so I can't say--except that you can reach higher freqs with 2 dimms vs. 4.
--
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Man that was fast, thanks.

Snow day tomorrow... up late lurking, trying to combat misinformation in other threads....