UPDATE:
So I decided to cough up a little bit more money to get an SSD early on, so now, all I need is a silent PSU with enough juice to handle two 670s (alternatively two GPUs from a future gen, assuming the power consumption won't skyrocket) should I be able to pick up another one on the cheap as previous gen "high end" GPUs stays soaring up high in price. Modular is a big plus.
I've been looking at this PSU as it pretty much does the job well enough and has a sufficient amount of power to at least counteract capacitor aging to a certain degree. (also comes with a 5 year warranty, woo) Leaning towards this one, cheaper as well.
The corsair one is generally quiet and has high performance, however, a persistent issue with the HX series seems to be that the fan spins up at full speed during short intervals during idle and keeps on spinning for a while after load (approx. 90 sec). The noise from the other components might drown the noise out at all times though as at roughly 90% load it stays at 32.5db. *shrug* Anyone with any pointers on this one?
Two reviews of Corsair's HX series (little difference between the HX and HX v2 series):
HX 850W v2, the 850W version of the PSU in my current build order down below that line.
HX 750W, AX series predecessor
Updated build:
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 670 2GB GDDR5 OC
CPU: Intel i5 3570k
CPU cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3-1600MHz Memory Low-Profile
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 720W 80+ Bronze Modular
Case: Fractal Design Define XL R2
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM
Storage: Samsung SSD Basic 840-Series 120GB
Probably should have mentioned that I want a relatively noise free system when I first posted the topic.
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The time has finally come to replace my old faithful GTX 460 rig with some heavier equipment, so without further ado, hear me out:
After going back and forth between the GTX 660/660 ti and GTX 670 for what seems to have been an eternity, I decided to just swallow that penny-pinching urge and go with the 670 (for now).
I've basically been trying to hit a sweet spot between both price and performance without compromising too much on the latter.
Country of residence: Sweden
Resolution: 1080
Budget: Approximately $1200, with next to no wiggle room because of an already stretched budget.
This is what I've pieced together so far:
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 670 2GB GDDR5 OC
CPU: Intel i5 3570k
CPU cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3-1600MHz Memory Low-Profile
PSU: Corsair HX750w v2 +80 Gold Certified Modular
Case: Fractal Design Define XL R2
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM
I've tried to tailor this build with overclocking in mind (both GPU and CPU) as well as enough headroom to be able to SLI two 670s should I need to before the 800-series/9000-series.
What I want out of this rig...
Other than that, the obvious intention for this rig would be for gaming purposes mainly. Other than "maxing" the few usual titles such as BF3 with decent fps and what not, I have specifically been wanting to play Skyrim with a boatload of graphically enhancing mods with decent fps (45-60ish) and frametimes. My reasoning for picking the 670 over the 660/660 ti would be because of the wider memorybus with all of those high-res textures, ranging all the way down from 512 up to 4k, with 1-2k textures being the most common for environmental objects and surfaces.
The burning question...
Having that said, two 660s almost lands at the same price as a 670, being a bit pricier while performing about 1.25-1.35 times that of a 680. Would the memorybus on the 670 really justify the cost?
Do also note that any noteworthy microstutter (among other inconveniences with SLI) has effectively been eliminated with the 600 serises based on many inputs I've read. If SLI isn't supported by X game? No problem, just about every game that demands more performance than a single 660 WILL have Crossfire/SLI support.
Despite all the research I've done, there's still a little voice in the back of my head yelping "OVERKILL! OVERKILL!" over and over again. Should I abide to that little voice or just scoff at him and shove him off to the side?
Edit: Ended up slightly longer than I expected. I appreciate the assistance from anyone willing to read through that brickwall above and help me out.