• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.
  • The forums have been upgraded with support for dark mode. By default it will follow the setting on your system/browser. You may override it by scrolling to the end of the page and clicking the gears icon.

Need advice on first build

So my new current build is on the first page. Total cost is $2873.
My biggest question now, in trying to keep costs down, is that crossfiring 2 7970s really give a performance boost? (As opposed to buying a single 7970) Or maybe I should consider a completely different graphics card?
Again I want to be able to game on highest resolution all the newest games, ect, while also be able to handle somewhat moderate 3d work if necessary.

Graphics cards I'm considering:
670
680
7950
7970

I don't think I'm going to set up the SSDs in RAID, two expensive and doesn't really see much performance boost.
As of now, I'm good with all the parts except maybe the graphics card. Still undecided on that.

After the graphics card gets nailed down, I'm going to try worrying about the noise. I'm unsure how noisy the case/fan/PSU I choose will be. This is going to be in a small room with two people, so obv. I don't want it to be obnoxious. Does anyone have experience with these items?

A single 7970/7950 can handle the 3D Production workloads and games singularly just fine. Drivers have been working fine since Cat 12.8s. Looking at performance numbers with the 12.11 betas youd be in really good shape.

Crossfire is Truly Optional at this point. If You have the cash get two 7970s or 7950s
 
If You have the cash get two 7970s or 7950s

7950 Even I am not sure that how much 7970 is better than this...but one thing I am sure It will save a some cash for party...

7970 $604.846 (Core Clock: 925MHz, Stream Processors: 2048)

7950 $493.042 (Core Clock: 900 MHz, Stream Processors: 1792)

*As per Indian Market.

(I have converted the INR to the USD)
 
or if you want take a look at my build and build from there, should be cheaper by now besides the processor and gpu and you can change stuff inside
 
or if you want take a look at my build and build from there, should be cheaper by now besides the processor and gpu and you can change stuff inside

Damn son your monitors alone are $1800!

I see you overclocked with watercooling. Would I be able to overclock it with the fan I have (obviously probably not as high though)
 
Damn son your monitors alone are $1800!

I see you overclocked with watercooling. Would I be able to overclock it with the fan I have (obviously probably not as high though)

Maybe, it depends on how toasty your room is but something like 4.2Ghz would most likely be realistic on a decent air cooler. Feel free to look at my rig as well, but I wouldn't recommend the 6870s. I only did it because I already had one 6870 and buying another was the cheapest way to gain considerable performance. SSD RAID-0 is also over kill, so going with one SSD is the better cost-effective solution.

You have a cooler chosen, right? All SB-E processors don't come with a cooler. If you want something quiet, the Zalman CNPS9900 isn't bad. It cools my 3820 pretty well and I've been able to push my CPU as high as 4.75ghz on air, albiet a little toasty with the CPU package reaching almost 70*C, but at 4.5ghz, I'm sticking right around 60*C and I'm sure if I wanted to give it a nudge, I could push it up to 4.65ghz without too much more voltage.
 
You have a cooler chosen, right? All SB-E processors don't come with a cooler. If you want something quiet, the Zalman CNPS9900 isn't bad. It cools my 3820 pretty well and I've been able to push my CPU as high as 4.75ghz on air, albiet a little toasty with the CPU package reaching almost 70*C, but at 4.5ghz, I'm sticking right around 60*C and I'm sure if I wanted to give it a nudge, I could push it up to 4.65ghz without too much more voltage.

For the price of the Zalman(around $77), I could just jump up $10 and get the Cooler Easy Tomatoe has (Noctua NH-D14 LGA2011). His build goes up to 4.5 Ghz as well, plus it looks cool :)
 
Bought! I just bought all the parts of newegg, will be buying the processor from microcenter tomorrow or the next day. Should have them around Wednesday.

The specs are as I have them listed on the first page, except changed to fan to something a little better. I'll post pics when I get the parts, and after it's assembled :3
 
Great - congrats on your purchase!

EDIT: How about you take a PS2 code in my sig as well. *hinthint*
 
Very nice rig you have there. You certainly won't be disappointed. Take you're time putting it together though, don't let your excitement get the better part of you. ;)

Edit: Ohhh, I can comment on the display too. I have one at work that I use. Very good (and reliable) choice. You're cooking with gas. I'm getting excited just looking at the parts list. :p I would have preferred a modular power supply though. Keeps everything more clean. I went a little more gung-ho on the power supply, though. Since I've had a couple of PSUs have died in the past, I'm a little more careful when it comes to PSUs. Seasonic isn't just a good brand, the Platinium-1000 comes with a 7 year warranty, which is rather hefty, but granted I chose to go nicer all around rather than getting the 3930k, which I didn't exactly need, so I re-allocated that 300 USD elsewhere (at the time the 3930k was pretty solid at 600 USD, you got a good deal on that.)
SeaSonic Platinum-1000 1000W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PL...
 
Last edited:
Back
Top