Yet another (re)build thread - OPINIONS / SUGGESTIONS??

For gaming, you won't notice much bump in performance between the two. The only difference that matters (gaming-wise) in those two builds is your GPU. You may as well go with your "budget" build, but go with the faster GPU. Some folks around here will disagree, but IMO there's no difference in gaming performance with the i7 or the 16GB of RAM. May as well stick with the 3570K and 8GB if your primary focus is gaming.

EDIT: BTW I think you could go much cheaper on a motherboard and be just fine, unless there's some specific reason you want that particular one. Also, be sure you trust your old PSU with these new parts. I'd aim for $600 all told.
Edited by confidenceman - 12/19/12 at 7:06pm

That phanteks cooler is massive, there's a youtube video on the newegg page, you can see the size. Make sure your case can hold it. Also make sure your power supply has enough power.

$85 can be spent in far better places in your system than on a ridiculous cooler. That will buy you a new keyboard that you will touch every day and will have a much larger impact on your user experience.

"and 8GB if your primary focus is gaming."

STOP RECOMMENDING 8GB OF RAM TO PEOPLE. I can not for the life of me figure out why you repeatedly, and endlessly keep telling people to starve their fancy new machines from day one.

Daver - RAM is dirt cheap. Drop 16GB in there at a minimum. Windows loves pre-loading stuff for you in anticipation that you are going to use it soon. Help Windows help you and give it enough ram to do it's job. Having enough ram also means that Windows doesn't have to dump nearly as much stuff to swap when you open something new. That means less load times as you aren't trying to both read and write GBs of data to your HDD at the same time. Seriously, Confidence is telling you to starve your machine, and he's trying to do it with a straight face. It is honestly the worst advice you will receive today.

Go with the 3570K. It will give you 95% of the 3770k's performance for a whole lot less cash. Also, spend less on a motherboard. All of the really important functions have migrated to the CPU for the most part. These days the motherboard is really just a plate that gives you holes to plug stuff in to. $120 should be tops on a motherboard, with that extra $50 better spent somewhere else, like helping to make up the difference between the GTX660 and GTX670. When looking at motherboards, you will usually find better prices in the Micro ATX form factor. Less material cost and all that. Really, what are you ever going to plug in to the thing, a GPU and wifi card? What do you need seven slots for that four slots won't do just fine?

Either the GTX660 or 670 will give you solid 1080p gaming at a pretty steady 60fps at high settings for everything that you would care to throw at it, it really just becomes a matter of how often you'll see a bit of a dip below 60fps and how high you can crank up shadow-related settings in games. Thankfully Nvidia has their fantastic Adaptive Vsync now, making dips below 60fps even less jarring than they used to be. You get a bit of tearing below 60, but it isn't the sudden feel of judder that you would classically get dropping straight from 60 to 30fps.

Also, are you running an SSD yet? If not, then throw a 256GB Samsung 840 non-Pro in to that build. You will be exceptionally glad that you did, and it would even be worth dropping from the 670 to 660 to make it fit the budget. Windows 8 upgrades are still $40 as well. If you are running Win7 still, then now would be a great time to upgrade.

I agree on the 3570K and the 212 EVO. Go for it.

I'm running 8GB of RAM and have never been starved for RAM, but I agree that RAM is cheap enough to just get the 16GB.

When I bought my board, it came down to these two:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128544
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293

I chose the Gigabyte, because it was cheaper at the time and I'm happy with it. But I don't think you could go wrong with either one.

Spend as much money on the GPU as you can afford. Use the money you're saving on the i7 and go for a 670 or 680.

The 660 ti is roughly 0-20% faster than the 660. It's really going to depend on what resolution and what game you play. Here's some benchmark data comparing the two, it might give you a rough idea of what to expect:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/660?vs=647

+1

100 vs 140fps is still over 60fps in each case. You'll also notice that anytime you dip below 60fps on that list it's with Ultra settings. "Ultra" is of course code for "doesn't really look any different, but sure runs a lot slower!". Keep things at Medium-High settings with Adaptive Vsync on and you'll get 95% of the look at a solid 60fps with a GTX660. Even when it starts to bog down a bit in a couple of years or the occasional game like Metro 2033 that is just super-poorly optimized, you can drop the rendered resolution to something like 1440x900 with 2xAA (GPU-scaled to 1080p for output) and still have a very solid image on your 1080p display.

For a bit of perspective, my 18 month old Radeon 6870 still gives me a solid 60fps at 1080p with Medium-High settings for everything I've cared to play on it. I'm about to upgrade it, but more so I can gain Adaptive Vsync more than anything else. I'm sure it would stagger on Metro 2033, but again, terribly optimized game. A GTX660 would still be a great choice. $370 is a ridiculous price to spend on a video card. Again we come back to: That extra $150 could be spent somewhere else on your user experience to greater effect.

I'd opt for the 670, myself. Plus, I have that card and can vouch for it's awesomeness and worth...ness.

You're going through all this for a reason, you want better gaming performance. Put that money where it counts most and get the better videocard. You'll notice more performance from that alone over EVERYTHING on the list of upgrades. Seriously.

Gigabyte


This one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125423

The triple fan system is ULTRA quiet. I think it's one of the quietest on the market, actually.

The fans, features, review ratings and the price.

I think you will be very happy with that setup. If the stock cooler is noisy, you can always add an aftermarket one later. I don't OC my CPU (yet?) either, but I bought the 212 EVO just because they are pretty much silent. Cooler Master also makes some cheaper, smaller coolers that are quiet as well.

I would still suggest an after market cooler now. The cooler of you video card is designed to push the air onto the card and out into the rest of the system, and it will be right next to your cpu. More cooling is better. I don't know what the current stock fan they have looks like, but my C2D cooler is pretty wimpy. Since your system is also planned for gaming, you're going to run the card pretty hard.

The other thing is, adding a different cooler later is a pain, cleaning the gunk off, getting the old one off, depending how hard it is to work in the case. Then you have to take the MB out...

I would also recommend using an aftermarket cooler. The one I am using is excellent and only $30. A worthy and small investment on something important.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

Just install your RAM before installing the heatsink. For me, it just hovers over the first slot. So I could have used the 2nd and 4th slots instead of the 1st and 3rd. But I figured that way, I could later install more RAM more easily.

The actual heatsink is pretty easy to install. Just be sure to look up how to do the thermal paste right. It isn't much more difficult than installing the stock cooler.

He's not overclocking.

And he's trying to save a buck.

Spending anything on an aftermarket cooler is, at best, a lateral move.

I'd rather see that $30 or $40 put towards something that would provide a tangible benefit outside of noise, since "increased cooling" isn't called for here.

Since I have the same mobo that you want and an 212 EVO, I can take some pics if you want. As confidenceman says, it does hover over the 4th RAM slot if you are aiming the air flow out the chimney. It comes no where near the RAM if you aim the air out the back. I prefer the chimney just because my CPU stays just a tad cooler.

Anyway, I used to have one of these and it worked pretty good. It's smaller, cheaper and quiet.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103064

It's up to you. When I had the TX3, I just used the paste it came with and it was fine. I used Arctic Silver 5 on my EVO.

Didn't realize. Strange choice of parts, then. Because if he's not overclocking (either now or in the future), then there's also no point to getting the "K" processor. He could save $20 by sticking with the stock cooler, and save another $10-20 bucks by going with the vanilla 3570 (not the 3570K).

But based on his parts choices, I'm guessing he's at least thinking about OC-ing. In which case the Evo 212 is a no-brainer.
Edited by confidenceman - 12/23/12 at 11:36am