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Leave it to the Austrians to pick a fan colour scheme that matches absolutely nothing.

The Noctua looks good, though the fact that it requires a separate mounting kit for LGA 2011 is a bit of a bother. I'm leaning more towards X79 because that CPU won't be trumped in any meaningful way for at least 3 years and if it is, it will be by a fellow LGA 2011 CPU. That means I can just pop in another LGA 2011. LGA 1155 dies in June this year when Ivy Bridge comes out. That's it. X79 still has Ivy Bridge-E ahead of it. Not to mention, the X79 build is already $200 cheaper (surprise, surprise). AM3+ also dies this April, with the release of Piledriver. Really, it's lose-lose to have to buy a new platform right now. That's why X58 was also in the running. Its performance is still great and it's far cheaper than any of the new stuff. And it has only just now become obsolete, and only barely.

@Amit: I can't just buy a cheaper GPU to tide me over because if I buy two GTX 680s at the end of this year, it means that I now have a kick-ass GPU (HD 6970/GTX 570) lying around with no computer to put it in. The next best PC in this house is still running an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Socket 939, and it has an AGP 8x graphics slot. I currently own the only PCI-Express capable rig in the house, and it's also a Socket 939. Bottleneck supreme. It's better to buy at least one top-end now and add to it later when said top-end comes down in price as manufacturing yields improve.


To give you guys a reference, though, I've been running this rig since December 2004. The only additions have been 1 GB of RAM (total 2GB), a sound card (HT Omega Striker), and an upgrade from a GeForce 6600GT to a GeForce 7800GT in early 2005 (resulted in getting a new mobo, but mobos hardly affect performance). I've been running just about everything on maximum settings except for those games which just won't run at all because I have a single core CPU (APB, RO2, BFBC2, Metro 2033, Crysis). I want this new computer to last that long, preferably. Spend more now, spend less later. Buy the best now, and you get maximum mileage out of your parts. I'm running a 17" monitor at 1280x1024 at the moment, so one HD7970 or GTX 580 is excessive overkill, let alone two. The next item on the shopping list is a Dell Ultrasharp 27", though, so it won't be that way for long. Alternatively, I might buy three monitors in 1920x1200, but that's not as likely (FFFFFFFF bezels). I like having one really big desk to work on better than having three smaller ones.

This summer is going to be busy. Jobs, teaching myself how to model for real, catching up to everyone in BF3, learning how to map with CryEngine 3. Fun stuff.

Don't go with a 7970 unless you have specific plans tied to the cards. For 150 bucks, you can get a GTX 550ti that will run everything that's out there today on the highest settings (not as much AA/AF though). A year and a half or two years from now you can buy a GTX 650 ti for a hundred fifty bucks that will replace your "medium to high settings" video card. Even then, you might not see much of a need to upgrade until the generation after that.

I got my 590 to get around certain problems with CryEngine. If I didn't need to do that, I'd have just bought a 550/560ti and upgraded again after two or three years. Yeah the 590 will last me for five or six years, as I'll have probably bought a new mobo/cpu to replace my 2600k by then, but I'm kinda stuck with it unless I want to ignore the price I paid for it.

^ i dont know from experience, but ive heard the 550ti isnt really worth the money. the 560ti, however, is what i have, and i can pull a solid 60 fps anywhere in battlefield 3 with everything on high with that post AA thing off. idfk what that is but it fucking annihilates my frame rate.
the 560ti is also like 70 bucks more expensive though. but seeing as hes going for a 7970, something tells me 220 dollars is within his GPU budget, lol.

I do have plans for the 7970(s), to the tune of 2560x1440. A GTX 570 won't cut it there, let alone a 560. Remember, Zeph, when you told me that if I'm going all the way that I should be getting dual 6990s? Well, I am going all the way, and a 7970 (later two) matches a GTX 590 with a little bit of OC magic. So yeah, I'm already taking your advice. :)

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Originally Posted by Warsaw

I do have plans for the 7970(s), to the tune of 2560x1440. A GTX 570 won't cut it there, let alone a 560. Remember, Zeph, when you told me that if I'm going all the way that I should be getting dual 6990s? Well, I am going all the way, and a 7970 (later two) matches a GTX 590 with a little bit of OC magic. So yeah, I'm already taking your advice. :)

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Yeah, that was before I took out the 550 and installed the 590. Both cards ran all games at the highest settings 1920x1200. Go back five years and that wouldn't have happened. We're at a weird point in hardware because developers haven't started utilizing the heavy parts of DX11. At the time they actually do start using it (if they do, mobile is making huge fucking leaps and bounds), the 7k generation will be aging. It's one of those things you have to experience instead of simply looking at benches.


edit: don't get me wrong, the benches are right. I'm just telling you what I found when I asked myself what I can do with the thing now.

Once consoles move on, all of a sudden we'll be out of this stagnant rut for at least a couple of years. When the next Xbox comes out (not counting the Wii U, because that's using a Radeon 4870), we won't be able to rely upon mid-range cards maxing out the latest games.

I bought the 6600GT with the same mindset you have now, and it was great back then. That said, I don't think it would have given me the 7 year mileage that the 7800GT I upgraded to has. I can buy a $270 card now, and a $270 one later, but what's the point? I could just spend the $550 up front and still get the same result. The less that I have to dive inside my case to throw in new parts, the better.

So yeah. We're going balls-deep for this one, since I'm hoping for eight years, but no less than six. The biggest roadblock is the shortage of LGA 2011 CPUs, which itself is a result of a rare issue in the current C1 stepping that prevents users from moving the multiplier past stock settings. Intel has just let current stocks of C1 dry up. The C2 stepping is supposedly hitting retailers by 20 January.

Go with your first choice, the x79, once the new revision of the 3930k shows up :)

I'd actually get a cheap processor and wait for Ivy Bridge. Don't even bother getting a k version right now if you do that.

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

I'd actually get a cheap processor and wait for Ivy Bridge. Don't even bother getting a k version right now if you do that.

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Or he can get sandy bridge which supports up to quad channel where as ivy bridge only supports dual.

Can someone tell me if this Lucid Virtu stuff would allow me to run three monitors with one Nvidia card + the 2500-2700k's GPU? I only actually use two monitors at my desk, but I have my TV connected as well that I frequently run XBMC on to watch movies. I'm considering building a new computer and I really don't want to get another AMD GPU (ever again) just for Eyefinity.