LebGeeks

AVOlio

Member

My new GTX 680 Rig.

Ok so from all the requests that i had since i wrote the post on that other used case topic,
I decided to open another topic in building a Rig (Only case for me) with the GTX 680.

Now starting with my Budget,
Im thinking of spending between 1500-2000$ for both case and UPS.
I have a screen  (1920*1080 full HD), i have Mouse/Keybord. So yea i only need a case and a UPS.

So far, i surely know that my new rig will be based on a GTX 680 graphics card.
And like i said in that post, i need help from you guys, helping me choose all the other parts of the case, that can run at their best and get along very good with the 680.

For the CPU, i thought Intel Ivy bridge i7  Please help me choose which one works best.
For the Board                                         I honestly have no idea, so i need your total help on this one.
Ram i decided minimum 12 GB                Again, help about which type/brand is appreciated.
HDD  1 TB, its more than enough for me  Lately i heard about prices rising for the H-Disks so i need
                                                            your help to choose which brand which better quality...

So now we come to the most important part to me, The Case.
Im looking for a case that is really good looking, with LED lights and so..
Also i want one that does not make any noise, And lets not forget about the heating problem.
So basically for the case, i want it to be very attractive, very silent and dont overheat!

Plus, if the case you will mention, does not have any PSU built in, i want to know what PSU should i get.
I know i have to get at least 1000W correct ?!    So i will need you guys to help me figure out the brand basically.

Last but not least, the UPS..   Will a 1200W PCE do the work?  Or .. ?

So that is the details of my future Rig to be,
Im awaiting your participation in helping me choose the best hardwares.
Also you will be helping other geeks aswell for future references.
Thats it for now ,  :)   thanks y'all.

Last edited by AVOlio (May 16 2012)

taekh3

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

Great Mate,

Those are my Recommendations although all it's left to Pick Your Favorite Brand:

1- Mobo - ASUS P8Z77-V LX (Z77 Chipset / Socket 1155)  or - ASROCK Z77 EXTREME4 (Z77 Chipset / Socket 1155).

2- Cpu - INTEL CORE i7-3770K - Ivy Bridge - 3,5GHz - 8MB L3 Cache - Quad Core (LGA 1155) or - INTEL CORE i5-3570K - Ivy Bridge - 3,4GHz - 6MB L3 Cache - Quad Core (LGA 1155).

3- Memory - CORSAIR VENGEANCE DUAL CHANNEL/ 1600MHz/ 1.5V/ 8GB or - Value Ram "Kingston" 8GB (4GB x 2).

4- Gpu - "Mainly" ASUS GTX 680 (reference/depends on availability as it could be msi/evga/gigabyte..etc) or - ASUS GTX 670 (non-reference DCuII).

5- PSU - XFX 650w or XFX 750w.

6- ODD: Pioneer DVDrw.

7- HDD: WD 500GB or Seagate 1TB.

8- Chassis - COOLER MASTER Storm Enforcer SGC-1000-KWN1 or - NZXT Phantom 410 CA-PH410-B2.

Last edited by tarekelkhaledi (May 16 2012)

shant

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

you can't have a chasis thats good looking,silent and has epic leds at the same time, fans that come with the case always suck, you need to replace those fans if you want silence
a 750W would do for a psu, as tarek suggested xfx does not disappoint, its a modular psu, as for memory? why so overkill? go less, hard disk...hmm... with a rig like that you must do raid 0 or get an ssd, not shoould! MUST! else all that performance is just useless, i guess you're most probably using it for gaming, if so, just get an i5, or if i7 is a must, go ahead, note that ivy bridge temps are high
what screen do you have?

Last edited by shant (May 16 2012)

Aly

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

Invest in a SSD it will give a great boost of performance in everything, as for the PSU no need for a 1000W PSU unless you plan to go SLI in the future as mentioned by the guys above 650 or 750W are more than enough.

AvoK95

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

You don't need an i7 unless you're gonna do some video rendering. You should get an i5 3570(Get a K series if you want to do some overclocking) An i5 is basically an i7 without Hyper Threading (Which is useless for games) and is a 100$ cheaper.

As for ram , you do not need 12 GB of ram , that is overkill. I am a power user myself and I use 6GB, and I'm still going with 8GB even though I don't need it.
8GB of ram can run anything and still have plenty to spare, unless you do video rendering you do not need more than 8GB of ram.

As for the motherboard just get any Z77 motherboard (If you want to do some overclocking) If you want a very decent motherboard just get the ASUS P8H77-V LE from ROG or if you want something cheaper get the ASROCK H77 PRO4-MVP . Both of these board support SLI meaning you can add a second video card if you're running your games on more than 2 or 3 screens. You can also add an old graphics card and dedicate it for PhysX , making your 680 run better.

You don't need a 1000W PSU, you don't even need an 850W PSU. Since Ivy Bridge and the new Kepler (Nvidia 600 series) CPU and GPU-s are 22/28nm , it uses very little power. You can get a 650W or 750W PSU with plenty of watts and amps to spare.

Get an Asus GTX 680 or wait for the Direct CU II version to get released since they are better for overclocking.

For hard drive get the 1TB Seagate if you want storage. If you want reliability get the Western Digital (WD) 500GB.

As for the case, get the Cooler Master Enforcer or the NZXT Phantom 410. The NZXT is more of an enthusiasts case, making it more modifiable and  adjustable.

Note that all of the stuff I mentioned are from ROG store (From the user tarekelkhaledi). I do not sponsor him or anything , but right now he has the latest hardware and the best warranty so far.

Goodluck with your new build mate :)

shant

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

Invest in a SSD it will give a great boost of performance in everything, as for the PSU no need for a 1000W PSU unless you plan to go SLI in the future as mentioned by the guys above 650 or 750W are more than enough.

investing into an ssd is a generally good idea but too little space, plus it would be useless if you have an ssd and a single 1tb hdd, only windows will load fast and the rest are still slow, raiding hdd's seems the better option along with an ssd, or better yet, ssd chaching, hdd space with ssd performance,hybrid win

Last edited by shant (May 16 2012)

Beej

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

I feel useless.... Congrats lebgeeks , you made me useless... :(

*goes to a small corner and weep*

taekh3

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

No…. You're not. Come on stop those bitter tears i know you can pass this :)

AvoK95

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

I feel useless.... Congrats lebgeeks , you made me useless... :(

*goes to a small corner and weep*

I'm sure you can suggest something

AVOlio

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

Hmm, thanks for you replies and help guys.
So by all the stuff i read,
Do you think that the 12GB is more than enough, so i should just stick with 8 GB?
Yes, im mostly using the case for Gaming, Mostly Battlefield 3 ! (which is the reason im making the rig in the first place )
PSU, 750W will be enough ?! Because Im getting an Ivy Bridge and the Nvidia 600 series?
But lets say i back down, and want to get previous cpu (not Ivy) and a 500 nvidia series, then i would need more than 750 W right ?!

And for my TV, its not a computer TV , its a normal 32 inch Samsung TV , full 1920*1080 HD TV.

Last edited by AVOlio (May 17 2012)

AvoK95

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

Hmm, thanks for you replies and help guys.
So by all the stuff i read,
Do you think that the 12GB is more than enough, so i should just stick with 8 GB?
Yes, im mostly using the case for Gaming, Mostly Battlefield 3 ! (which is the reason im making the rig in the first place )
PSU, 750W will be enough ?! Because Im getting an Ivy Bridge and the Nvidia 600 series?
But lets say i back down, and want to get previous cpu (not Ivy) and a 500 nvidia series, then i would need more than 750 W right ?!

And for my TV, its not a computer TV , its a normal 32 inch Samsung TV , full 1920*1080 HD TV.

People who do video rendering think that 12GB is overkill. Stick with an 8GB Memory kit.
The PSU is very good. you don't even need 750W even a 600W will do, but we all suggested 750W to be on the safe side , so it lasts longer.
You shouldn't back down, since an Ivy Bridge will cost a 50$ than a Sandy Bridge PC.

If you're gaming on 1 1080p Screen you don't even need a GTX 680, you can always get a 670 which is cheaper and just as good.

yasamoka

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

I would say consider the Radeon 7970, other than the GTX 670 / 680. The price point of the 7970 is between those two, beats the 670 most of the time as demand goes up, competes with the 680 and beats it several times, and when overclocked, beats the 680 most of the time:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVID … e_GTX_670/

Beej

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

Get a 2x4g rams and your set, there is always room to get more IF needed.
And no the psu was recommended because its cheap considering the price of the lower psu models. And for you to have enough power if you want to sli/xfire. Thus not needing to change your psu.

Its ok if you want to back down to SB based system, but do not waste your money and electric bill on the old generation of nvidia. If you want to save a few dollars and get a gtx 580 (which is still $ive) i suggest getting amd 7870 instead. Get the 7870 HAWK from MSI and you will not regret it.

Also Yasamoka, in order a 7970 to beat the 680, which it does on surround resolution in several games, is to get it 1200 mhz. SO @ 1080p these cards (all three of them actually are neck in neck at this resolution so why pay more?)

Its tough on me to recommend doing something that might not be guaranteed, though an easy oc on the 7970. In anycase, stick to better support, less problems in games, and less microstuttering, lower cost, lower temp, lower noise, and lower power consumption. Get the 670 and call it a day.

I guess i still do have some use .

Last edited by Beej (May 17 2012)

yasamoka

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

Its tough on me to recommend doing something that might not be guaranteed, though an easy oc on the 7970. In anycase, stick to better support, less problems in games, and less microstuttering, lower cost, lower temp, lower noise, and lower power consumption. Get the 670 and call it a day.

Not guaranteed? AMD is improving in every single way. I've said it before, Nvidia still has a problem that it hasn't fixed since 3 years. The issue of HDTV overscanning. It's a deal-breaker for one wanting to use HDMI to an HDTV from an Nvidia card.

AMD's scaling is miles ahead of Nvidia's. Though they suffer from more microstuttering. You do notice I haven't talked about multiple cards, I have talked about single cards. We cannot talk about microstuttering in this case. Of course, if microstuttering is not an issue that will get fixed soon, then I would recommend 670 / 680 SLI for multi-cards.

Lower cost? That is assuming that the 670 will be in enough stock, unlike the 680, which is almost mythical.
Lower temp, lower noise, and lower power consumption, I agree, but at what cost? They struggle with demanding games more than the 7970 and fall behind (did you see that game where the 680 fell even behind the 7950? That's BAD.), the 670 reference is a lower quality build than the 7950 / 7970 reference (the first which is allowed full design from board partners, whereas the 7970 was taken into AMD's own hands). Add to that that when comparing power consumption, comparing 680 to 7970, the difference realistically in high power consumption is 7W!

The 7970 overclocks usually better, has a higher quality cooler, has better board components, pulls ahead on higher resolutions and tougher games (which means it is more potent), is a compute monster, doesn't run into VRAM limitations (don't tell me nothing uses more than 2GB VRAM, people are already running into limits with 1.5GB VRAM and graphical mods on games like Skyrim do indeed use much VRAM), and is available, and its company has admitted to making a PAPER launch, not saying: oh hey we launch za 680 it will BLITZ AMD but oh wait it's not available. We advise you to check back next month. Are you kidding me?

I know my ideas are disorganized, but I hope you get my point. I, for one, would never touch the 670 / 680 with a ten foot pole, especially considering that the 7970 price point lies smack dab in the middle, and then for the aforementioned reasons.

No, you have no use at all...7bb Beej of course you are an elite hardware guru. Where would we be without you  I'm actually giving up on posting on certain topics because my posts would just repeat what you said. So I just throw in a cheerleading rah-rah to keep your fuel burning.

(We all know where the long postitis infection came from eh?)

AvoK95

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

Put a sock in it guys , he's not overclocking anything

AVOlio

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

Ok guys, so after reading your posts, and thinking through them deeply,
I wound up with these specs and future purchases (4-5 months future  )

Cpu:     Intel Core Ivy Bridge  i5-3570k  (Gonna buy it from our fellow Tarek)

MotherBoard:     Asus P9H77-V LE  (also from Tarek)

Case:         Thermaltake Overseer RX-I      Link    I just fell in love with this one.   (From PCandParts)

PSU:     XFX 750W, although i am having doubts that i need more :3    (from Tarek also)

GPU:      Well,since i saw that the price of the 680 had over-rised alot since before (its now 880$)
              I decided to get the GTX 670 !    (from Tarek)

HDD:   Seagate 1TB   (from Tarek)

DVD-rw:        Samsung Samsung SH-S223 22X   (@pcandparts     

Ram:      Now i first taught of getting  G. Skill Sniper 8GB ram,
             But then, for budget reasons (to save money for a UPS) i thought about getting a normal value ram
             Kingston 8GB (4GB*2)                                                        (From Tarek)

And for the final touch, decided to start decorating the case by buying these LED fans:

Fans:        4x Cooler Master Mega Flow 200 R4-LUS-07AB-GP 20cm Red/ Blue LED Fan  (@pcandparts)
                Cooler Master Hyper 212 R4-L2R-20CK-GP 12cm Green / Red/ Blue LED Fan (@pcandparts)

     Im probably going to make my case look all Red and blue.  Just like a Barca flag ! 

Lets not forget the UPS:
UPS:       Im stuck between  PC Star     1200W UPS
              Or                        PCE          1200W    UPS                    (still did not figure out where to get them)
Which one is more good looking? that is why i am stuck.
And also, will 1200W be enough for my Above Rig?  and a 32 inch Samsung LCD TV ??

So guys, that is all i came up with.
My only to do goal with this case, is Gaming ! Hardcore Gaming !

So tell me if i am going in the right path, dont hesitate to write down what you think is not enough or more than enough!
Thats all for now..   Thanks and cheers guys

Edit:  And yea guys, i am not planning to overclock anything ! Just original as the way ther are.

Last edited by AVOlio (May 17 2012)

taekh3

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

@Avolio, Grats Mate, nice pick up ;).

@Yasamoka, *Long Postitis* Eh It is a wide spread infection that is hitting most of us right now thanks to you .

@Yasamoka & Beej, Even if my name is, being repeated I think I am the one who is not useful anymore and it really hurts :(, one is Cheerleading “rah rah” Whuhuhu & the other one somehow finds himself useful again: D, all this without me why Guy’s?.

shant

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

*cough hard drive cough speed cough slow cough cough*

Beej

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

@ AVOlio congrats man and very nice build, but H77? Or is it a typo? Or to save some cash? In anycase, the psu is fine, you can run 2 gpus of anything (just not the gtx 690 ok? ).

@Shant: Sahha bro sahha. Before grammar people come her, health Shant Health (yea google translates to this)

Also at YASAMOKA:
tsk tsk tsk .... I am dissapoint

1) Oc is never ever guaranteed, some people barely hit 1050 with voltages (even if they are minority) If that happen to AVOlio he would be very upset.

2) Overscanning is an issue with HDTV, you are right. But i tried my 460 on my hdtv and it runes fine. Yes i do have to make custom resolution on the desktops, but i can run all games @ 1080i, which btw on hdtv is nasty. 30hz referesh rate, no thx.

3) AMD scaling is better duo to microstutter, number wise will not show. But real gaming experience is definitly there. Not saying AMD isnt improving, they are adn FAST. But they still troubleshoot the issue but not fix it. ANd i am talking 1 card here, alot of people still cannot run skyrim perfectly, rage..etc

4) GTX 670 is by far one of the most available on launch cards to date. They are never out of stock, yea some models are duo to demand, but its nowhere near gtx 680 which even if it doesnt show at retailers in stock, it is ;). How do you think tarek managed to get one :). A guy on another thread bought 12 gtx 670, thinking he will sell them on craigslist/ebay...well guess what :) he got skewed. The huge availability of 670 indicates that nvidia are able to manufacture large quantities, but they are saving the gpus for gtx 690 and more importantly k10 tesla which use not 1 but 2 gk104. Geforce cards are not where the $ is at.

5) Power, gtx 680 is a 170w card let alone gtx 670, 7970 is 210. Thats the rating, but true power consumption varies with both. The difference is not 7w, read alot of reviews from various sources and you will know. The difference is 30-50w. You can tell by the power connectors which card draws more, 2x 6pin, vs 1x6 1x8. In lebanon trust me the power bill is important. And when you oc and increase AMD power tune to 20% and raise voltages, temps and power consumption jumps alot. Unlike the gtx 6xx series which have the voltages locked, cmon nvidia wth are you doing? Shamino with all his greatness was disappointed by the card and so am I.

6) We are talking 1080p games here, with these cards nothing is demanding. You are right, but when it comes to surround/2560x1600 these cards are heldback by the small bus (we already agreed that its not just memory bandwidth related) And if we count the games where amd wins, they are crysis/crysis wh/metro/F1/DeusX which are optimised for AMD. Yes i can use this term also, its not just for AMD. Hell dirt series was made BY AMD themselves, and when this issue is brought up to amd fans, they say special case! Hypocrites much?

7) Yes the 7970 is a BEAST, when oc-ed its nearly equal to 680 on most resolution, and edges out at high resolution (2560x1600 or surround). People take OC lightly, its really important, for me atleast i got the gtx 460 since it IS the most oc-able card ever made. ANd i got the HAWK for all the tinkering inside it . SO yea full blown fledged oc, i choose AMD :). Its more fun, and worth it. Still the 680/670 have voltage locked in them. We heard that Vince-Kingpin, was able to go all the way to 1400 on a reference card, but he hooked the invincibles. Now make no mistakes, this board is not nearly as good when compared to a "true" non-reference board. As the pwms are limited and are just 10 phases. Instead we have seen asus, msi, gigabyte, and evga go all the way to 14+. So all AIBs are playing the nvidia game now, waiting to release truly high performing cards. But till now nothing is known.

8) Nvidia does cheapout alot when they can, they did it with 570 and 590 and all things got BOOM. SO they fixed it with this generation :). Not by getting better pwms, well actually the gpu phases are better but the 2 phases for the memory are the same (thats why mem oc varies alot). By introducing gpu boost. This savor/poison is where they control tdp and power consumption that the card will not explode. Also AMD has always used quality pcb and power design on their high end card, thats why when you see a non-reference design by AIBs you will not be impressed by the oc ability. Its seen all around, people with SOC/DCU/Lightning cards barley matching people with stock reference cards.

9) vram, is a touchi subject :). You said it, with MODS. Not all people MOD but lets assume they do, now a company is held responsible for a MOD? CMon that doesnt make sense. And if you run out of vram limitations, since you can MOD a game, why dont you do the vram trick? On bf3 it saves 200mbs and on skyrim with mods, it saves 400!
*Vmem trick* rightclick on the game shortcut -> properties->compatibility-> disable visual themes and desktop composition. And your all set, you disable windows aero and save vram. This works on all cards not just nvidia. Its a good thing to do if you think your running out of vram.

10) As for availability, its all marketing man.
Nvidia: we have the fastest card around
Amd: Where? I cant see it available? Well we have our new GHZ 7970 which will match the card that doesnt exist
Nvidia: *Troll face* gtx 670! 7 % slower than 680, cheap and available.
AMD: Uh-oh compute monster
...etc it goes on and on.

11) For me, if $ isnt an issue (which it is:P) ill either wait for big papa kepler. But if i am in a hurry, i wait till next month (rumored of the true non-reference voltage unlocked cards released). If the voltage is still stuck to stock, ill go 7970 (probably get zapped by LIGHTNING, pun intended).

Oh man you got me posting this in the middle of the night!!! I know where you live, and you aint far. >.> Ill ninja you someday.

Last edited by Beej (May 17 2012)

Beej

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

i know we shouldnt double post but LOL!
I cant believe i wrote that, oh well more info on the interwebz doesnt hurt.

taekh3

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

Did you see? Your infection is a lethal disease and unstoppable: P. this poor person wrote all this because of you: D & I have to agree with him for many reasons, remember *I am not taking a side in favor towards any Company in here we are talking about Real Facts*.

First, I cannot be fair with AMD this time; NOT AT ALL, they lost the Cpu Battle in favor to Intel and drove Intel to Control the Market their last hope is “Trinity”. AMD had the Lead at least 4 Months over Nvidia did they took the advantage of this early lead? No, they did not. From the release, date until this moment the Flagship 7970, Tahiti based Gpu is suffering from Driver’s instability *Specially in XFIRE* that if they Released a Certified one whereas Nvidia Launched Kepler on par with the 1st Certified Driver the 301.10, which helped Nvidia a LOT to take the Crown Back of the World Fastest Single Gpu. Note: I have been in contact with “Terry Makedon” AMD Manager of the Software Products; he is responsible of the Roadmap and Delivery of Catalyst Drivers thus, he admitted things were not working for their favor recently although he said they got lots of hard work.

Second, As Beej said, if somehow both of us ended up with two 7970’s yours a None-Reference mine is you might hit the 1200MHz, whereas for some reason’s I could hit the 1300MHz hassle free which is relatively inconvenient for a Reference Model at least. The Die Shrink is causing this problem and hopefully with some Re-Branded Models that will be changed.
Now the Green Team, with all the Bells and Whistles surrounding their “Kepler Based Gpu’s” the Pros: taking into consideration the Huge Leap Forward from a Dodgy old Noisy Power Hungry Gpu that needs a Generator to feed, to a Sleek, Stylish low Noise “DIET POWERED Gpu". The Cons: I just cannot find any word to describe that Silly Useless “Gpu Boost”, like Beej said it’s a Poison a really bad one which is killing the Gpu Performance but then again we know it’s another Marketing Trick, this is real business and the story will never ends.     

God Man it's 3am and I'm posting!!!.

Last edited by tarekelkhaledi (May 18 2012)

Rubz

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

I must also voice the SSD reccomendation. It is the most tangible improvement you will notice,

As for PSU, I am using the Thermaltake Toughpower 775 XT (this is a revised version of the older tough power 750) and has excellent reviews. I am quite satisfied with it.

I also believe an 8 GB low latecy RAM kit would suffice.

taekh3

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

@Rubz, With all my respect to your opinion mate, I kinda find it hard for me to swallow or recommend any of the Thermaltake PSU’s for two reasons. First, the Production of those PSUs stopped back in 2006! Thus due to the Huge Stock we still finds them in “Our Market” which is a sad thing from the Importers. Second, Thermaltake is not a “Sea Sonic” based PSU unlike “Corsair, Antec & XFX” 80+ Certified. Technically their PSU’s notoriously known with their sluggish 12v Rails.

Last edited by tarekelkhaledi (May 18 2012)

AVOlio

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

*cough hard drive cough speed cough slow cough cough*

Why do you think that the hard disk is slow ?! :3

And what does the hard disk "speed" even matter for ?

Beej

Member

Re: My new GTX 680 Rig.

He means get an ssd, as its what truley is an upgrade. You see getting the higest cpu + board + gpu..etc will get your fps high. But boot/stream/copy/paste..etc ,which btw we spend more time on windows than gaming, can only be boosted by an ssd.