Desktop Computers

TecKnoe_sl said:

must have been a good deal, sold out on newegg, tigerdirect. 10 left on amazon.

what is the best I5 cpu out there? i googled and got nothing but shit.

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I'd stick with my guns at the i5 4670K.

TecKnoe_sl said:

must have been a good deal, sold out on newegg, tigerdirect. 10 left on amazon.

what is the best I5 cpu out there? i googled and got nothing but shit.

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i5-4670k is the newest and "Best" i5 out there. Just make sure you get a good cooler.

TecKnoe_sl said:

must have been a good deal, sold out on newegg, tigerdirect. 10 left on amazon.

what is the best I5 cpu out there? i googled and got nothing but shit.

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This may be a bit long-winded, but bear with me and it might help you make the best video card decision for your individual situation.

660ti SLI vs 760 SLI vs 780

There's no easy answer here, and heres why:

The order of performance in that situation is going to be 760 SLI(~$500) > 660ti SLI (~$300) > 780 SLI (~$500). So why in the holy hell would anyone buy the 780 if it's outperformed by a ~$300 setup? Well, for one, you are pretty much maxed out for the future if you go with a 760/660 SLI combo now. You generally probably aren't going to have room in your case(or possibly on your mobo) for a 3rd card, not to mention the heat & power consumption of running 3+ cards is going to become an issue if you didn't plan for it to begin with. So while that 780 may trail behind by a bit right now, you have the option of adding a 2nd one in 12-18 months when it's half the price for a really nice performance boost. But still, in that scenario you're probably spending $800 on 2 cards when a $300 setup would have been better during that first year or so anyways.

Or alternately, you buy that single 780 now for $500, and then in 2 years you can buy another $500 card that absolutely destroys it, or either of the 760/660ti SLI options. The only problem with that is that you're now spending $500 every 2-3 years on a new video card, when you could probably spend $300 for 2 mid-range SLI'd cards that get you the same performance.

My plan that I've stuck to for going on a decade now is to plan on buying a ~$300 card every 2nd year, and that has always generally kept me playing new release games at high/ultra settings(usually Ultra right when I get the card, high by the 2nd year). That's been the sweet spot for performance vs pricing for quite a while now in the video card market if you want to play new games on max settings.

I just deviated *slightly* from that plan in that I spent $300 on a 660Ti a year ago, and I just spend ~$150 on a 2nd one this year. This will probably keep me from having to buy a new video card next year in 2014 however, and I'll replace both of those with whatever card is $300 in 2015. Budget-wise, I'm still pretty much right on track, whether I'm spending $300 every other year, or $150 each year.

You can plunk down $500 on a video card now, but it's still going to be old in 2 years and barely keeping up to new games on high settings. Spending $500 now *might* get you an extra 6 months as opposed to spending $300, but at 66% more price, it isn't going to last you 66% longer...nowhere near it. You really start to see greatly diminishing returns on video cards vs power once you go over that $300 price mark.

Some quick numbers: All of the single card numbers are from anandtech.com, feel free to look them up yourself
(Generally speaking, 2 cards SLI'd together get roughly a 75-90% boost over a single card, depending on how well the drivers/game is optimized for dual cards, so I'll even estimate low and go with 75% gains for the 2nd card)

Bioshock Infinite 2560x1440
Single 660Ti - 38.1 FPS
Singe 760 - 42 FPS
780 - 61.9
660Ti SLI - 66.7
760 SLI - 73.5

Crysis 3 2560x1440
660TI - 34.2
760 - 37.7
780 - 53.1
660Ti SLI - 59.9
760 SLI - 66

Far Cry 3 2560x1440
660 TI - 38.8
760 - 39.3
780 - 55
660Ti SLI - 67.9
760 SLI - 68.8

And remember, those SLI estimates are LOW, 660Ti SLI benchmarks are closer to 85-90% over a lone 660ti in most games. If you look at these benchmarks:SLI And CrossFire, Compared - GeForce GTX 660 Ti Review: Nvidias Trickle-Down KeplernomicsSkyrim goes from 50 to 93.3, Battlefield 3 from 46.1 to 87.7, etc

All that being said, I'd honestly probably either go with SLI'd sub-$200 cards(the 660Tis), or the full blown $500 card. No use spending $500 now AND having no room to upgrade in the future, unless you honestly dont mind spending $500 on a new video card every other year. I think that's probably a bad combination for the money. Obviously SLI'd 780s would be tits, but you're looking at a grand to do that now, and still probably spending $800+ to do it with one card now and one a year from now.

And to throw in 1 last chart, here's how most of the major cards from the last couple years stack up in a new game, Battlefield 4


Not sure why the 660ti is not listed, but it would fall in-between the 660 and 670, so it's probably in the 33-34ish FPS range. You could then assume that SLI'd 660Tis would be roughly ~60 FPS and SLI'd 760s would be ~70FPS, assuming both get a 80-90% gain from the 2nd card(which they should)

And one last thought, if you are doing multi-monitor gaming, go with the 4GB 780 all the way. That extra memory makes a HUGE difference once you get over the 1440p/1600p resolution range, but if you are staying at those marks or under, SLI'd lower-end cards are a very legit option

I am starting to do get into video editing (HD 1080p) and according to most in the forum the best CPU for that use would be an i7. What I would like to know if there is a massive difference in performance between an i5 and i7 when it comes to encoding video? Would I be able to live with it or is the extra money for an i7 totally worth it?

While not a massive difference, it isn't insignificant either. I've seen Handbrake and other video encoding benchmarks show as much as a 20% performence gain in an i7 over an i5. Could mean your video encoding only takes 24 minutes instead of 30. So you're not talking about doubling your speed or anything, it is a noticeable difference on really big jobs. If your typical rendor/encode is only 2 or 3 minutes to begin with, then shaving 15 seconds off the time might not be a big deal, it really just kind of depends on what you do, and how much you do it. If it's your job to edit video all day long, the time saved is significant for sure. If its only a hobby that you screw around with a few times a month, it's probably not a big difference.

Mist_sl said:

Kicking myself for buying a 670 instead of waiting for a 770 last year.

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Hell, pick up a 2nd 670 for $229 and the 2 together will outperform a Titan

EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW LE 02G-P4-2676-KR Video Card - 2GB, GDDR5, PCI-Express 3.0(x16), 1x Dual-link DVI-I, 1x Dual-link DVI-D, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort, DirectX 11, SLI Ready at TigerDirect.com

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if you can find a 670 for sub-$200 on Cyber Monday, might see them for like $189 or $199 after rebate, or something crazy like that

joeboo_sl said:

While not a massive difference, it isn't insignificant either. I've seen Handbrake and other video encoding benchmarks show as much as a 20% performence gain in an i7 over an i5. Could mean your video encoding only takes 24 minutes instead of 30. So you're not talking about doubling your speed or anything, it is a noticeable difference on really big jobs. If your typical rendor/encode is only 2 or 3 minutes to begin with, then shaving 15 seconds off the time might not be a big deal, it really just kind of depends on what you do, and how much you do it. If it's your job to edit video all day long, the time saved is significant for sure. If its only a hobby that you screw around with a few times a month, it's probably not a big difference.

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Thanks, that is exactly what I wanted to hear. Since I do it for a hobby an i5 it is, that is unless there is some awesome deal that comes along soon.

Mist_sl said:

Kicking myself for buying a 670 instead of waiting for a 770 last year.

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joeboo_sl said:

Hell, pick up a 2nd 670 for $229 and the 2 together will outperform a Titan

EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW LE 02G-P4-2676-KR Video Card - 2GB, GDDR5, PCI-Express 3.0(x16), 1x Dual-link DVI-I, 1x Dual-link DVI-D, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort, DirectX 11, SLI Ready at TigerDirect.com

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if you can find a 670 for sub-$200 on Cyber Monday, might see them for like $189 or $199 after rebate, or something crazy like that

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I am still running on a pair of SLI 670s and I have yet to run into anything they can't handle.

I was just about to go through with buying a 7970 at $200 after rebate etc but then I checked reviews on Newegg and all the 3 and below reviews were about the card literally bursting into flames so I think I'll wait for something else to come along...

I'm looking to upgrade my mobo/cpu and bring in some SSD with Win 8.1. Any reco's for SSD these days?

Is this a good deal:Newegg.com - Seagate 600 Series ST240HM000 2.5

Kingston 120GB SSD = $70

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16820721107

joeboo_sl said:

Hell, pick up a 2nd 670 for $229 and the 2 together will outperform a Titan

EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW LE 02G-P4-2676-KR Video Card - 2GB, GDDR5, PCI-Express 3.0(x16), 1x Dual-link DVI-I, 1x Dual-link DVI-D, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort, DirectX 11, SLI Ready at TigerDirect.com

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if you can find a 670 for sub-$200 on Cyber Monday, might see them for like $189 or $199 after rebate, or something crazy like that

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The one caveat I would give regarding the whole "buy a mid range card for $300-400 today and then SLI it in 12-18 months" plan that you outlined above is that it can be tough to fine the right card in that timeframe. I've got a 680 in my desktop and a 670 in my HTPC, and while I'm not really looking to upgrade either, those cards are non-existent locally and might well be completely sold out online forever in the next couple weeks. And those are only 15-18 months since release.

Definitely could be a problem down the road. I'd never plan on being able to SLI 2+ years after the initial card purchase. At that point you'd probably have to track down a used card on ebay or something to match yours. You either need to SLI pretty quick, or plan on a different upgrade plan.

The somewhat nice thing about SLI/crossfire nowadays is that the cards don't have to match perfectly, obviously they have to be the same GPU, but if you end up with different brands, clockspeeds, or memory amounts the cards will generally just run at the lowest common denominator between the 2 cards specs. A few generations ago, you had to match those bastards perfectly, or else face tons of problems. Had a friend with a 8MB Voodoo 2, and 6 months down the road tried to add a 12MB Voodoo 2. He jacked with that setup for weeks and never did get it working correctly.

Draegan_sl said:

I'm looking to upgrade my mobo/cpu and bring in some SSD with Win 8.1. Any reco's for SSD these days?

Is this a good deal:Newegg.com - Seagate 600 Series ST240HM000 2.5

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If money really isnt much concern, the Samsung 840 Pro series are the best performance on the market right now.

Amazon.com: Samsung Electronics 840 Pro Series 2.5-Inch 256 GB SATA 6GB/s Solid State Drive MZ-7PD256BW: Computers Accessories

128 GB = $133
256 GB = $213

That Seagate 600 series is a solid drive. Benchmarks just behind the Samsung Pro and is right in the middle of the Samsung EVOs

I purchased two GTX 660tis a year/year and a half ago for SLI. They work beautifully still.

Hi folks,

So my PC is getting a little long in the tooth, I built it back in early 2009.

I currently have an i7 920 running at 3.19 on an EVGA X58 board
Radeon 6850
16GB RAM
A newer 1TB WD Caviar black HDD

I'm currently running win7 and am wanting to upgrade to win8 so I'm thinking of a clean install on an SSD and then using the caviar as a data drive. While I'm at it what is the most cost effective upgrade? My PSU is a 1kW Corsair and the case is an Antec 900 so they're still fine as is the ram. Is it worth sticking a new gpu in the current PC or should I go for a new mobo/cpu and gpu? Say in the $600 ballpark if I can sweet talk the wife

IMO, if you don't want to break the bank, your CPU is still pretty decent. Just get a new mid range GPU. This is from a gaming perspective, anyways. See this article:

AnandTech | Choosing a Gaming CPU October 2013: i7-4960X, i5-4670K, Nehalem and Intel Update

Even if you got a super fast SLI/Crossfire setup, the difference between your CPU and a brand spanking new one is only going to be 5-10% or so:

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph7189/56752.png

Hardly seems worth it to spend $300-400 on a new mobo and CPU for that kind of a bump.