Need some Opinions.

[Rapter29]

I'm just starting the process of building a new desktop for myself and ive stumbled upon what i believe is a deal worth buying.

http://promotions.newegg.com/intel/13-2602/index.html

It is a combo Motherboard/Processor.

I've already decided on the i7, but i'm having more trouble choosing the motherboard to pick for the combo. I'm leaning towards the MSI motherboard, it seems to be built more for gaming, and supports expansion up to 64 GB RAM, which may increase how long its useful to me.

Now i ask you, venerable computer wizards of eGO, what do you think?

---

On a separate thought, I've been debating the graphics card, which to me is the hardest choice in the entire build. I personally have a preference for NVIDIA, but i know a lot of people like AMD, and their cheaper prices. My biggest worry is that AMDs won't last quite as long as NVIDIA Cards, and I really want this build to be an investment, so longevity is important.

As far as the actual card config goes, I've been seeing a lot about SLI/Crossfire, and some claims such as 2 400$ NVIDIA 670s, can perform as well/better than a 1000$ 690 (although i believe the 690 is actually 2 680s designed together). What experiences have you guys had with dual cards, and what are your opinions? Also given my current finances, it could take a few months to scrape together the cash for the whole system, do you think it might be worth waiting for the NVIDIA TITAN to go down in price, or drive down the price of the 690?

TLR:

Which Motherboard should i choose out of those 4, if any at all. (please give recommendations if you don't think the 4 in the combo are good)

NVIDIA vs AMD

SLI/Crossfire v Single Cards

what GPU's do you guys recommend (1000$ is my limit)


This will be my first actual PC build, but i have a solid background in electronics, so i'm confident it will go down well. However given my inexperience, any and all advice is super appreciated, and I can't begin to thank you guys enough for any tips you provide.

sincerely, Rapter

EDIT: Regarding the Tower
Just found http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147053
with instant rebate and discount code i can get in for 99$, which i think is a steal for something this heavy duty. Do you guys out there think that this is a good Tower, are there any concerns you might have about it?

 

[Toungizzle]

Dont Know about witch mobo but for video cards ive always been a Evga fan boy never had anything wrong with them but i would say if ur gonna drop the cash and wanna run everything on max 780 is legit i recently just got the titan 1000 kinda a waste but performs awesome soo i cant be disappointed were the 780 is a couple hundred cheaper and has almost the exact same results as the titan i dont trust amd just cuzz always herd driver issues but my take on nvida cards and if u wanted cheaper defiantly the 680 690 is nice but herd lot of games have issues with the 2 in 1 card soo dosnt perform as well

 

[milkdud657]

Go with the MSI and the i5. An i7 is kinda overkill for gaming and you wont notice a difference in performance with the motherboards. If you plan on running multiple screen eyefinity with a single card i would go with AMD. I have a AMD 5850 and i can run 3x 1080p screens with skyrim on ultra at about 30-45fps on a single card, not too bad. its even better performance in games when i crossfire my crossfire 5850's.

But im recommending crossfire 7850's. They can be overclocked to the speed of a 7970 and cost less. Great performance.

Plus you get crysis 3, tomb raider, bioshock infinate, far cry 3 blood dragon. you will end up getting 2 of each game coupon so you can give the extra to someone *nudge nudge*

The motherboard does not come with a crossfire/sli bridge so i had to include that into the total price.

with all that, it comes up to about $1,059.94.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147053

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814998048

2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202030

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?
ItemList=Combo.1352786


I derped, you dont need a crossfire bridge as each of those GPU's comes with one

 

[Rapter29]

Did you mean the 7950 rather than 7850, cause you linked the 7950, but suggested the 7850. And while I am still unsure about AMD's, however, my GPU Research did include AMD's and the Sapphire Vapor-X 7970 performed very well, and the fact that it has two fans makes me feel like down the line, it will still be able to cope with heat. Also, I could theoretically (between the higher starting frequency, and more cooling) overclock the 7970's even higher than the 7950's right?

Either way, thank you for your suggestion, the idea of crossfiring AMDs or SLIing NVIDIAs has been fascinating, although there are still plenty of people who have reservations. The only concern is that some games wont run via crossfire/sli, and if i do 2 cheaper cards, rather than 1 more expensive, I could possibly suffer in those games. Personally i'm not overly worried on that front because if i do choose the 7970, I believe a single one of those can cope with most games reliably.

 

[CyganyZed]

My advice has nothing to do with what you were requesting. My advice is to base your build decisions purely on features that you need, then performance versus cost, not longevity. Does the m/b support all the features you need now and in the very near future? Technology is constantly evolving, and something new is always right around the corner, lowering the price of existing items, while introducing new features.

For instance, by the time you need 64GB of RAM, maybe we'll have some new optical memory, or holographic memory, with performance that is far greater than what is out today. Maybe USB 4.0 is coming, or SATA 9000. Big jumps in performance that make your existing and high-end build obsolete and slow in comparison. Maybe DirectX 12 will come out, and the game you want supports it, but you spent a lot of money on a graphics card today that doesn't support it, and you can't justify re-investing..

Is the $110 difference in price (45% increase) from the i5 Haswell to the i7 worth the minor difference in performance? What about the premiums associated with the very latest graphics cards? My advice is to buy good performance for good value. Find the sweet spot where you can get good-great performance that comes at a reasonable price. Research performance and reliability.

Then spend some of your savings on other things that improve your performance like a good SSD, or improve the quality of the final build by using a solid power supply, good cooling and/or quiet cooling. Then upgrade incrementally when the next big thing comes out.

 

[milkdud657]

Did you mean the 7950 rather than 7850, cause you linked the 7950, but suggested the 7850. And while I am still unsure about AMD's, however, my GPU Research did include AMD's and the Sapphire Vapor-X 7970 performed very well, and the fact that it has two fans makes me feel like down the line, it will still be able to cope with heat. Also, I could theoretically (between the higher starting frequency, and more cooling) overclock the 7970's even higher than the 7950's right?

Either way, thank you for your suggestion, the idea of crossfiring AMDs or SLIing NVIDIAs has been fascinating, although there are still plenty of people who have reservations. The only concern is that some games wont run via crossfire/sli, and if i do 2 cheaper cards, rather than 1 more expensive, I could possibly suffer in those games. Personally i'm not overly worried on that front because if i do choose the 7970, I believe a single one of those can cope with most games reliably.

2x 7950's will be better in proformance than a single 7970. But a little harder on the wallet. I chose those because i like the look of single fans. they have dual fan models also

 

[TheYonderGod]

Which Motherboard should i choose out of those 4, if any at all. (please give recommendations if you don't think the 4 in the combo are good)

NVIDIA vs AMD

SLI/Crossfire v Single Cards

what GPU's do you guys recommend (1000$ is my limit)


This will be my first actual PC build, but i have a solid background in electronics, so i'm confident it will go down well. However given my inexperience, any and all advice is super appreciated, and I can't begin to thank you guys enough for any tips you provide.

sincerely, Rapter

EDIT: Regarding the Tower
Just found http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147053
with instant rebate and discount code i can get in for 99$, which i think is a steal for something this heavy duty. Do you guys out there think that this is a good Tower, are there any concerns you might have about it?

All 4 of those motherboards are solid, I would personally choose the Gigabyte because I like them best and I like the color scheme, but you shouldn't have any problems with any of them.

Nvida VS AMD shouldn't be a question, you should pick whatever gives you the best bang for your buck at your price point when you buy it. Some people say AMD drivers are bad, but that started a long time ago and they have improved a lot since then, plus look at all the problems Nvidia is having with the 320 drivers right now.

multi vs single cards is a tough question. More cards will give you more raw performance but also come with more heat output, more power consumption, and more occasional driver problems depending on the game.
I don't suggest ever going more than 2 GPUs because the scaling is terrible.

Your budget for your GPU(s) is $1000 or $1000 for the whole computer?

If it's $1000 for the GPU then you could get...
1 GTX Titan ~$1020
2 Nvidia 770 ~$800
2 AMD 7970 ~$800
1 7990 (2 7970s on a single card with about the same performance) ~$900
1 690 (2 680s on a single card w/ about the same performance as 770s too) ~$1000

Out of these 4 for me there's only 2 real options - 2 770s or 2 7970s. They will get you the most performance for the dollar. The dual GPU cards cost more for basically the same thing, and the Titan is just overpriced for what it does. If you have some reason to want a single card though, they are still decent options)

Now for the 2 770s vs 2 7970s.. I actually don't know, they are very close, I would look up 770 SLI reviews that compare them with 7970 crossfire or 7990 and see which is better for your favorite games.

What I would actually do if this was my money is just get a single 780 for about $650. It will give you less performance than any of these other options but also the option to upgrade later for even more performance (other than getting 2 Titans, but that also costs like 3x as much)


As for the case, a lot of the choice is just personal preference, that case is big, looks like it has lots of airflow, usb 3.0, fan controllers, etc, if you like it then go ahead and get it.