NEED SOME INPUT ON A NEW GAMING PC BUILD!

[ColossalAssassin]

Hello,

I am planning out a new build for a gaming pc, my Motherboard will be MSI Z77A-G45 and my CPU will be and intel Core i5 3570K Unlocked clocked at 3.4GHZ Ivy Bridge. The RAM will be 16GB of Kingston HyperX 4x4gb sticks DDR3 - 1866. For my Drives I will be getting a Seagate 1TB HDD with a 128GB ADATA SSD Sandforce 2281 to boot up my OS which will be Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit then I will eventually update to Windows 8 once I feel 100% confident with everything it has to offer. For the optical drive I will be getting a regular old LG Drive/DVD Burner. The PSU is gonna be a Corsair 750w Fully Modular Power Supply. As for the case I can't seem to decide between a Bitfenix Shinobi XL or a Azza Hurricane 2000. The question I really wanted answered is about the Graphics Card, I know for a fact that I want a MSI card. I want to either get 2 MSI GTX 660 Ti 2GB Power Edition Graphics Cards running in SLI or 1 MSI GTX 680 4GB. I really appreciate any feedback. Just to let you all know, I would prefer to have someone with alot of computer experience that knows alot about gaming pc's. I don't want anyone giving me advice that doesn't even own a gaming computer giving me advice based on video's they watch on youtube reviews lol. Thanks again.

[dma0991]

Don't go with Kingston HyperX. I am using them right now and it isn't worthy of my praise. They're not that much different from a factory overclocked ValueRAM with fancy heatspreaders. Get these instead, they might surprise you.

Two GTX660 Ti should outperform a single GTX680 but that depends if the game has good support for multiple GPUs in the first place. If you're in doubt, a single faster GPU is always better than two slower GPUs. There is much less headache with a single GPU and it leaves space for another GPU if you so desire.

[great_big_abyss]

To determine the graphics horsepower that you require, we really should know the quantity and size of the displays that you are planning on using. Are you planning on using a single 1920x1200 display? If so, a single GTX660Ti will probably suit your needs. Are you planning on dropping a grand on a 30" Dell IPS display? IF so, a single GTX680 should fit the bill. Or, rather, are you planning on 3x 24" displays, for a total area of 5760x1200. Because if this is the case, you'll probably need SLI GTX680/670.

Then again, have you considered Radeon cards? If you're only running a single monitor, the 7950 will have enough power for you. It typically slots in between a 660Ti and a 670, and guess what? MSI manufactures one:
MSI Radeon HD7950 Twin Frozr III
As a bonus, you get 3 free games. And these aren't crappy titles, either, but rather full blown, A-list games: Far Cry 3, Hitman Absolution, and Sleeping Dogs.


At least, that's what Linus Tech Tips tells me...

[dma0991]

Originally Posted by great_big_abyss

At least, that's what Linus Tech Tips tells me...

Yeah, Linus rules.

[ColossalAssassin]

Well I wouldnt mind something from AMD but I notice that NVidia has more games with NVidia in mind rather then AMD, Nothing against AMD but I took a look at alot of the benchmarks and NVidia is ahead in they're numbers every time. even the MSI 660 Ti that has been overclocked can beat some of AMD's higher end cards. As for now I will be using a BenQ 24" XL2420T wich is 3D Ready and is a res. os 1920x1080 with a refresh rate of 120 Hz. I'll be using that for a good amount of time till I'll eventually upgrade to 3 24" monitors. That wont be for awhile though.

[great_big_abyss]

Take a look at benchmarks done using AMD's latest 12.11 drivers. You'll see vastly different results, where AMD cards pretty much cream the equivalent Nvidia cards in almost every metric.

I'm not saying to go with one or the other, you'll get comparable results from either brand of card. BUT, you can't look at it as 'Nvidia has better drivers' anymore. Because AMD has now caught up in that department.