40 replies to this topic

[Catamount]

Artgathan, on 22 June 2013 - 03:52 AM, said:

I've got another question for you guys if you don't mind:

I've been comparing the Sapphire 7870 (2GB memory, 1280 stream processors, 256 bit memory interface) and 7970 (3GB memory, 2048 stream processors, 384 bit memory interface). Those are the only differences in the two cards specs; but they result in a price difference of roughly $250. I was wondering if the extra money is worth it for the 7970?

Thanks again!

The stream processor is the core of the card, like a core on a CPU. Double the number of them, and you card has effectively double the processing capability. That's what that 2048 vs 1280 difference means.

Also, the Radeon HD 7970 I recommend is $100 off right now.

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814202008

I don't know why, and I don't know for how long, but I would buy that, like, right now before it goes out of stock and/or the sale ends. I suspect Sapphire might be clearing out their stocks of this model.

Edited by Catamount, 22 June 2013 - 05:32 AM.

[Bloodshed Romance]

wow, yeah get the sapphire 7970 if its $100 off.. like Catamount said... like... now... before it runs out.. idk how they even have them still unless the sale just recently happened..

[Artgathan]

Catamount, on 22 June 2013 - 05:30 AM, said:

The stream processor is the core of the card, like a core on a CPU. Double the number of them, and you card has effectively double the processing capability. That's what that 2048 vs 1280 difference means.

Also, the Radeon HD 7970 I recommend is $100 off right now.

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814202008

I don't know why, and I don't know for how long, but I would buy that, like, right now before it goes out of stock and/or the sale ends. I suspect Sapphire might be clearing out their stocks of this model.

Thanks for clarifying that for me! I appreciate the sale suggestion, but unfortunately I'm located in Canada so I'm not eligible (newegg.com only ships to the states, I need to order from .ca and they don't have a sale... yet). I'll be keeping me eye on it through their Canadian site to see if the sale crops up there as well.

[Dragoon20005]

i not sure if it helps but have you try getting middleman postal services?

how it works is that for customers like me who want to buy items from US stores can ship to asia using a middle man postal service

you just need to send the item to the postal company address which is located in the US and the company will then ship the item to your destination

abit of a hassle but you can ship virtually anything with this service

[Catamount]

Dragoon has a point. As long as you aren't going to face some massive import tax (I don't know much about Canada's laws there), it would be only a small added hassle.

[Artgathan]

The piece actually went on sale on newegg.ca this morning. I'm now the happy owner of one

Thanks to everyone for making recommendations and giving advice! The final build I went with was:

Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12 630W http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16817182200

HGST HDS721050CLA362 (0F10381) 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16822145299

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16820231428

ASRock Z77 Pro3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16813157297

AMD FX-8350 Vishera 4.0GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16819113284

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16827135204

ZALMAN Z11 Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16811235033

Radeon HD 7970 http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16814202001

Edited by Artgathan, 23 June 2013 - 11:56 AM.

[Bloodshed Romance]

Artgathan, on 23 June 2013 - 11:44 AM, said:

The piece actually went on sale on newegg.ca this morning. I'm now the happy owner of one

AWESOME! glad to hear you jumped on that!

[Smokeyjedi]

Artgathan, on 23 June 2013 - 11:44 AM, said:

The piece actually went on sale on newegg.ca this morning. I'm now the happy owner of one

Thanks to everyone for making recommendations and giving advice! The final build I went with was:

Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12 630W http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16817182200

HGST HDS721050CLA362 (0F10381) 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16822145299

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16820231428

ASRock Z77 Pro3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16813157297

AMD FX-8350 Vishera 4.0GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16819113284

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16827135204

ZALMAN Z11 Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16811235033

Radeon HD 7970 http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16814202001

You do realize that an Asrock Z77 wont run a FX8350............ that's an Intel based board. ei ei ei!!! You would need either a 970 based AMD am3+ or 990based am3+ board. 970 no SLI,990=SLI

Edited by Smokeyjedi, 23 June 2013 - 03:23 PM.

[Bloodshed Romance]

NOOO... no no no no no please don't have ordered that yet! that board isn't correct for AMD as SmokeyJedi has said!

something like this would work just fine though!
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128514

this one comes with 8GB of free Ram (1600 crucial)
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813157358

any on this list will work with that CPU
http://www.newegg.co...ING&Pagesize=20

Edited by Bloodshed Romance, 23 June 2013 - 03:32 PM.

[Smokeyjedi]

Bloodshed Romance, on 23 June 2013 - 03:28 PM, said:

NOOO... no no no no no please don't have ordered that yet! that board isn't correct for AMD as SmokeyJedi has said!

something like this would work just fine though!
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128514

this one comes with 8GB of free Ram (1600 crucial)
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813157358

any on this list will work with that CPU
http://www.newegg.co...ING&Pagesize=20

heck I should have went this far and gave you options, This deserves a double-like!

[Bloodshed Romance]

well I know gigabyte is a great company and trying to stay with the same vendor on motherboard I saw the Asrock came with 8GB of RAM so if he dumped the ram in his post and got that board with the crucial 1600 ram it would actually be a little cheaper altogether

Gskill is amazing but you can't beat the deal of the 990fx board with 8GB of ram free since it shot up in price so much.. I got 8GB of 1866 (gskill) for $40 when I was buying ram..

Edited by Bloodshed Romance, 23 June 2013 - 03:42 PM.

[Bloodshed Romance]

hmm.. doesn't seem that the canada site does the 8GB of free ram...
http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16813157358

that kinda blows..

heres one:
http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16813157394

heres the list of good motherboards for AMD on the canada site:
http://www.newegg.ca...EWS&PageSize=20

Edited by Bloodshed Romance, 23 June 2013 - 03:49 PM.

[Bloodshed Romance]

this one seems to be one of the better deals on the canada side of things:
http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16813130637

[Artgathan]

Smokeyjedi, on 23 June 2013 - 03:21 PM, said:

You do realize that an Asrock Z77 wont run a FX8350............ that's an Intel based board. ei ei ei!!! You would need either a 970 based AMD am3+ or 990based am3+ board. 970 no SLI,990=SLI

No I did not realize that. Thankfully I read your post before finalizing the order! I've switched back to the I5 Ivy Bridge instead of the AMD card. I did a lot of reading around and there seemed to be a consensus that the I5 was worth the extra cash.

[Catamount]

One will work more or less as well as the other; you'll be plenty happy with the i5.

[Badconduct]

Catamount, on 24 June 2013 - 05:44 AM, said:

One will work more or less as well as the other; you'll be plenty happy with the i5.

http://cpuboss.com/c...-vs-AMD-FX-8350

There are so close, you wouldn't notice a real difference. Personally; I think the 8 cores will become better as programs are better developed for them, where as the i5 will remain the same. AMD has a lot of partners in the gaming industry.

[Smokeyjedi]

Catamount, on 24 June 2013 - 05:44 AM, said:

One will work more or less as well as the other; you'll be plenty happy with the i5.

its really down to personal preference, both have future-proof-ability with new age coolers that haven't come out yet(closed loop phase changing) ........and massive overclocking with said coolers.....

[Werewolf486 ScorpS]

Catamount, on 16 June 2013 - 10:24 AM, said:

I just put together a fairly well-received parts list a couple days ago for a PC in that price range, here:

http://mwomercs.com/...79#entry2437679

It's a place to start, if not just copy outright

Except your PSU is to small, 800Watts minimum to avoid running the PSU at load all the time. Why do this? If you run an engine at WOT (Wide Open Throttle) or close to it while it's running, eventually it blows up, if you buy a larger than required PSU and it runs at 75% or less load it lasts longer. I put 1220Watt PSU's in my last 2 builds, and have one for my sons next rig, we only require 700watts or less, but I want our stuff to last. I've never had to replace a PSU in anything I have built because of this rule that I go by. Even my first rig is still going on the original PSU even after an upgrade of the GPU to a IceQ4670, it's had the same 750Watt PSU since I built it 11 years ago and it still does great for surfing the web.

If your system requires a 400watt, put in an 800 watt, if you require a 800watt put in a 1200watt. Having to much power available will do no harm, having to little will cause issues. The system will only use what it needs, and the PSU will not force more into it. I've seen some people say that the massive PSU they put in caused to much power to fry the MB, BS! Wrong settings in the Bios would cause this. Trust me on this, buy bigger PSU's, they run cooler, run longer, and it's all because you are not maxing them out on load while in use.

[Badconduct]

Werewolf486, on 24 June 2013 - 08:09 AM, said:

Except your PSU is to small, 800Watts minimum to avoid running the PSU at load all the time. Why do this? If you run an engine at WOT (Wide Open Throttle) or close to it while it's running, eventually it blows up, if you buy a larger than required PSU and it runs at 75% or less load it lasts longer. I put 1220Watt PSU's in my last 2 builds, and have one for my sons next rig, we only require 700watts or less, but I want our stuff to last. I've never had to replace a PSU in anything I have built because of this rule that I go by. Even my first rig is still going on the original PSU even after an upgrade of the GPU to a IceQ4670, it's had the same 750Watt PSU since I built it 11 years ago and it still does great for surfing the web.

If your system requires a 400watt, put in an 800 watt, if you require a 800watt put in a 1200watt. Having to much power available will do no harm, having to little will cause issues. The system will only use what it needs, and the PSU will not force more into it. I've seen some people say that the massive PSU they put in caused to much power to fry the MB, BS! Wrong settings in the Bios would cause this. Trust me on this, buy bigger PSU's, they run cooler, run longer, and it's all because you are not maxing them out on load while in use.

Bronze certified 630 is plenty

[Artgathan]

A big shout out to everyone who gave advice and recommendations! Thank you all very much. I finally received all the parts (I went with the I5 3570K CPU) and assembled it earlier this week.

Previously on my laptop I was getting about 7-10 FPS with all the settings on low. With my new PC I get 80-100 FPS with the settings on Ultra High (no overclocking involved). If you guys are interested in how it performs on other games (Tomb Raider, Crysis 3 and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon all came free with the GPU) I can post those up as well. Later this month I'll also be re-downloading Planetside 2 to test that out as well.

Thanks, you guys have vastly improved my gaming experience