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Doubled my budget fro new build. Need honest opinions here.

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TonyMc

TonyMc

Member
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Joined
Jul 4, 2002
Location
Rathdrum ID
I've been trying to put together a decent system for the last month and have been going over and re-going over parts and just couldn't get a system that I'm happy with with the budget I was working with so I've doubled my budget.
I need some advice from you guys that have "these" types of systems so I get the best I can from the budget I'm working with. My budget is $2000.00 .
I'll be using this mostly for gaming(I have 3 other computers set for other tasks). Sim games like Microsoft Flight, DSC A-10 Warthog, F1 2012, etc...

Parts I have: Corsair HX650 PSU, OCZ 64gb SSD(for OS), Seagate 1tb HDD.
Parts I want to buy:
Crucial Ballistix DDR3 8gb 1600.
ASRock Z77 Extreme 4
i7 3770K
X2 EVGA GTX670 2gb for SLI or...
1 EVGA GTX680 4gb
x4 Asus VS229 monitors(I need 3. 1 is for my wife so that needs to stay in budget).
$70.00 in misc. parts for another build.

Do I need to run SLI for what I'm doing or would 1 GTX680 4gb suffice?
Also... If I go SLI is the i7 suited better for this or would an i5 3570K do the trick?
I've heard SLI and crossfire have some issues so if I can get away with 1 card would be great, but on the flip side I don't want any laggy games and I want to run everything on max settings(flight sims mostly)
One more question... Will my Corsair HX650 handle the 2 GTX670s? I've researched this and have seen conflicting reports.

I want to do it once and I want to do it right so factual, honest input would be great... Thanks all.
 
Are you gaming on 3 screens? If so, I would get two cards... Maybe 2 7950's to keep costs down.

As far as flight sims, if you are specifically talking FSX, you need all the cores/threads an clockspeeds you can get. I wouldnt go with a 3570K in that case.

AMD has the best bang for your buck now and I would go AMD GPU's at this time.

The Corsair HX650 will handle 2 670's or two 7950's with things at stock speeds or overclocking the CPU a bit. But I would go 750W if you want to verclock both heavily.
 
EarthDog said:
Are you gaming on 3 screens? If so, I would get two cards... Maybe 2 7950's to keep costs down.

As far as flight sims, if you are specifically talking FSX, you need all the cores/threads an clockspeeds you can get. I wouldnt go with a 3570K in that case.

AMD has the best bang for your buck now and I would go AMD GPU's at this time.

The Corsair HX650 will handle 2 670's or two 7950's with things at stock speeds or overclocking the CPU a bit. But I would go 750W if you want to verclock both heavily.
Click to expand...

Thanks earthdog.
I probably will not be OCing this rig. I need it to remain as stable as possible.
I'm not opposed to AMD(always used them in the past), but do the new AMD CPUs stack up to the new Intels?
Also with 7950s do I need to run DP to DVI active adaters for 3-way eyefinity? If so that adds to the cost and gobbledygook of the setup... Or do I not need that with 2 AMD cards?
Oh and yes FSX so I need processing power(wasn't sure If I needed the HT or not though).
 
AMD GPU/VIDEOCARD, not CPU. Stick to Intel CPU.

Not sure on the DP to DVI, I only ran one monitor with two cards so... Those are 20-30 but not sure how many you need.
 
EarthDog said:
AMD GPU/VIDEOCARD, not CPU. Stick to Intel CPU.

Not sure on the DP to DVI, I only ran one monitor with two cards so... Those are 20-30 but not sure how many you need.
Click to expand...

OK. Cool. That's what I thought... So stick with the i7.
I was looking at the EVGA 7950s and even with the active adapter it's still cheaper than the 2 670s and from what I've been reading the 7950 crossfire is faster than the 670 SLI so I may go that route...

Can anyone clue me in on the active adapter situation? Do I need a $30.00 active adapter or $120.00 dual link adapter.
Is eyefinity easy to work with or a PITA?
 
I think I will go with the 7950s. Sounds like I just need a standard "active" adapter plus the money saved will go toward a new PSU just so there's no question on power required.
 
Fro 2 7950's and overclocking that CPU, a 750W QUALITY PSU is a nice sweetspot.

As an example of power use... with a 3770K @ 4.9GHz and 2 7970's at 1200/1800, I managed 735W peak at the wall (90% efficient PSU so around 660W actual use).
 
For future reference.
Monoprice.com
They have some super cheap cables and everything that work just fine. I managed to get a displayport to hdmi for 5 bucks there. You may be bale to get those adapters if necessary.
 
Ah well, that flew past me. (misread my bad)
Thats probably going to be around 15-20 if you find a good deal.
 
EarthDog said:
Fro 2 7950's and overclocking that CPU, a 750W QUALITY PSU is a nice sweetspot.

As an example of power use... with a 3770K @ 4.9GHz and 2 7970's at 1200/1800, I managed 735W peak at the wall (90% efficient PSU so around 660W actual use).
Click to expand...

I'm looking at the Corsair HX750 80 plus gold. I have the same in the 650 flavor and it's been a great PSU for a couple years now.
Good call on the 7950s as well. Thanks. I think this is going to give me a top notch flight sim setup.:D

snowbrdd said:
For future reference.
Monoprice.com
They have some super cheap cables and everything that work just fine. I managed to get a displayport to hdmi for 5 bucks there. You may be bale to get those adapters if necessary.
Click to expand...

Monoprice is great. I've been using them for a while now for all my audio/video cables...
 
What is the price difference on the AX850 vs HX850? HX series is a bit older (still ver good PSU's) but the AX is slightly (not noticeably to anyone but a scope) better and more efficient. HX is great, AX is greaterererer. :)
 
EarthDog said:
What is the price difference on the AX850 vs HX850? HX series is a bit older (still ver good PSU's) but the AX is slightly (not noticeably to anyone but a scope) better and more efficient. HX is great, AX is greaterererer. :)
Click to expand...

Ah. didn't think about that.
I'll hop over to newegg and check it out...
 
this probably isn't the most common suggestion, but an i7 3930k with a 7950 might have good performance on one screen, and could be upgraded to CF or a newer card for three screens later on which might not be bottlenecked by the i5.
 
Actually, in applications that use 4 threads or less, the 3570K would be faster. Its IB and is faster clock for clock than the 3930K. Not to mention the difference in cost between those CPU's are nearly $300, motheboards are $100+ more expensive, and the 3570k has a clockspeed advantage at stock speeds. More cores will not really help CF/SLI scaling really.
 
EarthDog said:
Actually, in applications that use 4 threads or less, the 3570K would be faster. Its IB and is faster clock for clock than the 3930K. Not to mention the difference in cost between those CPU's are nearly $300, motheboards are $100+ more expensive, and the 3570k has a clockspeed advantage at stock speeds. More cores will not really help CF/SLI scaling really.
Click to expand...

If i had a budget of $2000, I would buy an 3930k. Though I'm more likely to spend $1000 with a i5 3570. This newest review (1/1/2013) on newegg says he gets better performance on Flight Simulator, though it compares it to the 3770k: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116492 I'd agree that most apps don't use more than 4-8 threads, though I read X-Plane does. Buying three screens at once is always recommended- they're often discontinued by the time more are bought. Granted, I probably would just use one 1440p screen instead of 3 and one video card to fit under the budget (thugh even that depends: this is the least expensive 1440p monitor at $549- $100 more than three 1080p IPS Asus monitors, so it really depends on whether contrast and image quality is more important than resolution or wideness. I prefer sharp colors (I have an ASUS ML239H).
 
Last edited:
OK. I'm going with the XFX core edition PRO850w Johnny Guru recommended PSU. Whew, that's a mouthful. :)

So the list is now:
ASRock Z77 extreme 4
i7 3770K
Crucial ballistix low profile 8gb 1600(the new orange colored jobbers)
x2 XFX 7950(or recommend a better brand)
x4 Asus VS229 monitors
XFX 850w PSU
Hyper 212 cooler

HAF922 case w/ a boat load of fans(have)
OZC 64gb SSD(have. Will upgrade later if need be)
Seagate 1TB HDD(have)
BD-drive(have)
CH products stick, yoke, throttles, pedals(have)
external DAC, amp, and speakers(have)
cheap MS keyboard, and Razer Deathadder mouse(have)...

Should make for a pretty good flight sim... :)
 
EarthDog said:
Actually, in applications that use 4 threads or less, the 3570K would be faster. Its IB and is faster clock for clock than the 3930K. Not to mention the difference in cost between those CPU's are nearly $300, motheboards are $100+ more expensive, and the 3570k has a clockspeed advantage at stock speeds. More cores will not really help CF/SLI scaling really.
Click to expand...

As biased as I am towards the 3930k, I have to agree. A big budget doesn't mean he needs to blow it all on a 3930k. Especially considering the price of a good board for this part.

IVB runs cooler (Yeah the core temps are higher, but it puts out way less heat overall), faster per-core performance, and still pretty damn impressive. If the larger core count is required, then a 3930k is great, but I'd never reccomend one to a casual user or somebody who doesn't REALLY need a hexi-core processor.
 
AFAIK 7950 CFX can be safely run on a 650W with moderate OCing (rig is about 500W stock). If you max out the TDP limiter on the GPUs (+20%) and heavily OC the CPU, you're looking at about 630W on the 12V rail.

7950 = 200W + 20% = 240W x 2 = 480W
3770K = 77W + OCing estimate = 110W
Rest of system = 40W (slight overestimate).
 
Xenohitsu said:
If i had a budget of $2000, I would buy an 3930k. This newest review (1/1/2013) on newegg says he gets better performance on Flight Simulator, though it compares it to the 3770k: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116492 I'd agree that most apps don't use more than 4-8 threads, though I read X-Plane does. Buying three screens at once is always recommended- they're often discontinued by the time more are bought. Granted, I probably would just use one 1440p screen instead of 3 and one video card to fit under the budget.
Click to expand...
First, no way I'm trusting some random dude on newegg and what his results are (that was from 4/20 of last year btw)... 2nd, I will tend to agree with what he said (did I just blow your mind?!! :p), only because we know that FSX LOVES CORES. That said, I wouldnt spend $400 more on that platform when the difference between the two CPU's and their FPS are not that much (an old benchmark comparing QX9650, i7 920, and some quad and tri AMD showed them within 3 FPS/10%). He has three monitors and needs the GPU horsepower there more than the CPU will help.


I also agree to get your monitors at once or very soon after for those same reasons. :thup:
 
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