[BattleBrat]

My current computer is a Dell Precision 490, it is running dual- quad core Xeons @ 2ghz (16mb cache between the two) Problem is that those processors, although fast, are power hungry. The computer has a capable power supply, but they STUFFED this computer! And the owners manual states that I can use a 150W Video card MAX, so I'm running an EVGA GTS 450, @720p Deus EX human revolution runs smooth @ 1080p Bioshock2 runs smooth. Now this computer converts music at breakneck speeds, and other then gaming is PERFECT (it is a friggen workstation after all,w/ enterprise class goodies within) but I need a gaming computer that will last me 5 years (there will be an upgrade after 2.5)
 
OK way one is an ASUS Z77 Sabertooth in an NZXT LEXA case I have laying around that I have never used, I have modified it with SilenX iExtrema fans (blue naturally) so it is quieter.
 
OR
An EVGA FTW Z77 in an Coolermaster HAF X case, also new I have it laying around as well.
 
I plan on using an EVGA GTX 670 FTW or maybe SC w/ 4gb ram. My plan is in 2.5 years when upgrade time rolls around I buy a second one (they'll be more affordable by them) and SLI it. I'll be using a creative Sound Blaster X-fi titanium HD sound card. OCZ Ram (8gb maybe 16 if cheap enough) and SSD cache drive, and WD or Seagate Hybrid type harddrive (or maybe a raptor, we'll see, trying to keep it under 3000) I plan on using a lower powered i7 3rd gen (keeping costs down and leaving room to upgrade)
 
 
What do you think? I'm leaning toward the Asus Sabertooth in the Lexa, because my Digital rig is RIGHT THERE and noise is an important issue, but the EVGA offers MUCH more upgrade options and the difference in price between the two isn't that much. I don't run crazy high def monitors, just a 24" Sony Internet TV @ 1080 I use for a monitor, and I only run one monitor.I might upgrade to a 3d display of some sort a year from now.
 
So what do you think? PLEASE do not recommend different Mobo's these are it!

 

[deadlylover]

Flip a coin, both of those cases are equally terrible.

 
Let's be realistic here, there's practically next to no difference between the motherboards, as the most you'll ever do is chuck in another graphics card. Don't get all sappy and say you'll throw in even more graphics cards, because by that time, the 670's will be turtles.
 
It's not worth the stress trying to decide between the two. Look for maximum short-term gain because the computer will be practically useless in five years time, I'd go with whatever's cheaper, even if only slightly.
 
$3k is a lot of dough nowadays for a rig, I remember buying my first dual core cpu, just the Athlon X2 cost me something like $950.

 
Whatever you do, get an SSD, they're better than sliced bread. Hell, with that budget, get yourself a decent monitor too!.

 

[tk3]

Don't forget the standoffs when you're building if this is your first attempt.
My brother did that when he was building his first PC, I'm surprised that thing didn't short circuit the moment he turned it on.

 

[BattleBrat]

@deadlylover, The Haf X had a problem where it would short the motherboard if you plugged in the Front firewire ports (I believe it was firewire) so yeah, that one isn't the best. But the Lexa is solid gold, that is one well done case. I'll go with the ASUS/Lexa longer warranty, quieter operation. I won't be plugging in more than two video cards probably ever, long as it runs a game in 1080p 120hz 3d smoothly, which I believe the 670 can, I'm happy.

 

[obobskivich]

If you're going SSD, either go big or go home. There's no advantage to the "cache drive" nonsense that advertising has been pushing down everyone's throats. With your budget, you can afford the nice stuff, including Revo, and just be through with it. I'm not saying go all the way up to the Revo, but get a nice pair of SSDs of an appropriate size and run that. Mechanical for storage and nothing else in that case (if you have a few TB of junk sitting around that is).

RAM is about similar; unless you're doing pro work, 8GB is realistic.

And do we need to have the talk about good power supplies and why you need one?

 

[DefQon]

I'd go with the HAF X build over the Lexa and this is coming from someone who plays around with these kind of things every week. The HAF X to some looks ugly but is sturdy built and rugged, has great cable management and you can fit relatively long (12.5 inch) card's in pretty easy.
 
NZXT's look nice but are of lesser build quality compared to CM's offering's. Most of the nice looking shiny NZXT's have poor paint job's can easily be scratched off. Cable management is mediocre, nothing special.
 
Use the Sabertooth in the HAF X, Asus has a wider range of overclocking setting's then most of EVGA's offerings and the stability of most of there board's are questionable, not saying Asus is perfect (there BIOS' need to be updated more often) but yeh, you might want to compare both which has more input and output, peripheral ports, SATA ports etc.
 
With the GTX670's, I hear they are recalled by nvidia (possibly due to TSMC issues, wafer's or competency against the 680) so not to sure. 
 
With $3000, skip the Hybrid drives, get yourself some decent SSD's, 120GB minimum these day's, Intel recently released there 9""" series SSD's that are based on a lower nm architecture and offer incredible write/read speeds. Grab some normal Seagate or WD 2TB hdd's and your all set.

 

[BattleBrat]

Hmmm, OK a solid state drive (greater than 120 gb) I think I'll go with OCZ for that, and some deep storage drives, Hmmm, WD caviar black perhaps?, I think I'll go with the Asus

P8Z77-V DELUXE

(gotta love the cut and paste)
and an Ivy bridge i7 Processor.
I was going to fill the RAM half way - 16gb.
As for the power supply, I planned on using around a 1kw PS suggested by Nvidia for SLI setups, so I should be OK in the power department.
 
Now for the case, well, noise is an issue, the Dell Precision 490 I'm using has a rather large fan in the front that is noticeable. My digital rig is RIGHT THERE so when I listen to music in my chair I can hear it's fan going. The HAF X has a similar fan in a similar location. The LEXA I have still has excellent paint, she is still pretty, that and I removed all the stock fans and placed Silenx iXtrema fans (blue LED in keeping with the LEXA theme) These fans (I've been told) have an EXCELLENT airflow/noise ratio combine that with the fan controller feature of the P8Z77 V Deluxe and it should be pretty quiet. 670 recalled huh? Guess I'll go with a 680 EVGA FTW edition. Now I'll need to see if it will fit in the LEXA if it does I'll go with the Lexa, if not, I'll go with the HAF X

 

[DefQon]

As long as the OCZ ssd your choosing isn't Agility, Vertex I or II, then you should be fine. (A lot of them fail and slow down after some time of use). Go for a Vertex Plus or Vertex 3 or the latest Vertex. If your purely after storage, don't worry about spending too much on WD Black's, get more hard drives that equal the same price they are at (depending on the size of the WD Black your looking at).
 
As with PSU's your imo wasting money if you going to SLI 570 or 580 anytime soon. To give you a rough idea, a 2600k processor overclocked, 16gigs of ram, 2 hard drives and 1 ssd, 1 optical drive, a sound card and 2 gtx580's won't use more then 900watt's under full load. You can go for a nice decent 1k PSU if your willing to upgrade anytime soon in the future, adding more card's for SLI or Crossfire or replacing them with newer gen graphics cards.
 
And you made a typo, the 670 was recalled, not 570, 570's were nvidia's last gen card's. 

 

[Makiah S]

If I where you I'd go with a 900w PSU,
 
I FINALLY purchused a $900 Ivy Brdige i5 3550 rig yester-yonder
 
Still though, do some reaserach on mobo's good for OC and SLI, in addition instead have you looked at getting 560 ti's? What might be cheaper too is just going for a HD 6990, that might save you some in the long run, as opposed to buying 2 lower end GPUs
 
But :3 if you'd like you can come to this thread, me Bowei and Hybrid have already don tons of reaserach, so feel free to look through our finds as well as asking what ever questions you have,
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/610509/journey-to-building-a-budget-gaming-monster-computer
 
But I'd seriously look into the 6990

 

[DefQon]

The 6990 is last year's technology and they still cost a lot, imo not a worthy contender compared to what's out on the table by the latest offerings of ATi and Nvidia. 2xGTX570's will be faster then a 6990/gtx590.
 
Single GTX570 is up to 20% slower then a GTX580, 30-45% slower then a GTX590 (2 GPU cores on a single PCB)
Single GTX580 is about 20-25% slower then a GTX590
 
2x GTX570's are about 5-10% faster then a single GTX590
2x GTX580's are about 25% faster then a single GTX590
 
A GTX590 = 6990 (depends on the games you play as well)
 
The current generation 7970 is most 20% faster then a GTX580 but 10% slower then a GTX590
A GTX670 is 10-13% slower then a GTX680 and the GTX680 is 5-13% faster then a 7970 and cost cheaper as well.

 

[Makiah S]

Quote:

The 6990 is last year's technology and they still cost a lot, imo not a worthy contender compared to what's out on the table by the latest offerings of ATi and Nvidia. 2xGTX570's will be faster then a 6990/gtx590.
 
Single GTX570 is up to 20% slower then a GTX580, 30-45% slower then a GTX590 (2 GPU cores on a single PCB)
Single GTX580 is about 20-25% slower then a GTX590
 
2x GTX570's are about 5-10% faster then a single GTX590
2x GTX580's are about 25% faster then a single GTX590
 
A GTX590 = 6990 (depends on the games you play as well)
 
The current generation 7970 is most 20% faster then a GTX580 but 10% slower then a GTX590
A GTX670 is 10-13% slower then a GTX680 and the GTX680 is 5-13% faster then a 7970 and cost cheaper as well.

Nice good to see your up to date with GPU specs, we stuck with last year due to the limited budget... we orignally had HD 6870 <.< 

 

[DefQon]

Quote:

Nice good to see your up to date with GPU specs, we stuck with last year due to the limited budget... we orignally had HD 6870 <.< 

 
If you lived near me I would sell  you my GTX570 for $180 lol.

 

[BattleBrat]

Yes, sorry about the typo, I meant the new Kepler cards, the 670 and the 680, I'll go for the 680 then....

 

[Makiah S]

Quote:

 
If you lived near me I would sell  you my GTX570 for $180 lol.

xD Auistrallia's might far away, thanks though
Quote:

Yes, sorry about the typo, I meant the new Kepler cards, the 670 and the 680, I'll go for the 680 then....

Sounds good
 
Another thing to is I'm a little bias to AMD gpu, and Intel CPU
 
I've never liked any of the nVida Gpu's I've had :/ although, I'm sure I'll use one. It just depends on what's got the most performance for the least money! And a Dual fan OC ready 6950, that can be OC to a 6970 for $200 [NEW] sounds like a steal! Plus the Dirt 3 coupon it comes with is nice, as I'd like to try the DiRT series :3 I'm a racing fan ^^

 

[DefQon]

Quote:

xD Auistrallia's might far away, thanks though
Sounds good
 
Another thing to is I'm a little bias to AMD gpu, and Intel CPU
 
I've never liked any of the nVida Gpu's I've had :/ although, I'm sure I'll use one. It just depends on what's got the most performance for the least money! And a Dual fan OC ready 6950, that can be OC to a 6970 for $200 [NEW] sounds like a steal! Plus the Dirt 3 coupon it comes with is nice, as I'd like to try the DiRT series :3 I'm a racing fan ^^

 
Unless your buying the latest gen card and CPU's, it's kind of hard NOT to like nvidia, as nvidia is taking the lead with there graphics card's and priced cheaper (surprisingly for the first time in almost a decade since there first geforce 1's/riva's). As for CPU's Intel has been the performance king of the CPU line since 2006, there first Core 2 Duo cpu, which thanks to its architecture Intel has been no.1 since, for a comparison look at how much of a fail AMD's 8-core cpu Bulldozer was, in 95% of benchmark's it get's best by a lower clocked quad core, only time it takes a lead is in multi-threaded rendering where it actually uses the extended instruction sets the Bulldozer CPU has.
 
Overclocking the 6950 to 6970 speeds is possible but I really doubt you can reach it and you'll be pushing it. Most early 6950 user's achieved this by cross flashing 6970 bios', these day's 80% of ATi's current production card's are laser cut which mean's you can't softmod it because you have hardware limitations. Not to mention 6950's and 6970's produce a lot of heat, have a play with there 5870 GPU's if you ever the get the chance to, they run almost as hot as the first Fermi card's GTX470/480's.