Budget Gaming Midi tower Build! £730 suggestions!

[n0cturnal]

Because I use 1 memory stick and 1 External HHD for college/ university work and the other for listening to music on my headset. Sometimes I use other devices such as my iPhone charger wire or a tablet as well so I need at least 3. 2 would drive me mad.

Can't you put headset and HDD in the back?

[MayronWoW]

Well that would be a pain as I would need to keep taking them out and also I am very happy with the case I picked, it took me a life time to decide which one I wanted lol really would not like to have to go back to the drawing board so to speak.

[n0cturnal]

Well that would be a pain as I would need to keep taking them out and also I am very happy with the case I picked, it took me a life time to decide which one I wanted lol really would not like to have to go back to the drawing board so to speak.

In the end it is your choice I just don't think you should limit yourself when it comes to such a small problem that has several easy workarounds.

[MayronWoW]

What do you mean limit myself? The case is a great price and has everything I want. Like I have been saying I do not want a fractal case as they maybe better quality but I don't like the looks of them. You did not recommend any other alternative but just asked why I needed 2 UBS's. I dont see what you mean by limiting :S

[Deleted]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-KHX...4492451&sr=1-1

Or that patriot ram will be fine for the cooler you've chosen

I actually have those Kingston RAM running in two systems currently

[Deleted]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-KHX...4492451&sr=1-1

Or that patriot ram will be fine for the cooler you've chosen

I actually have those Kingston RAM running in two systems currently

Yeah prices are going up or they're all out of stock like the Kingstons, we did find these though in stock and fairly cheap.

[Deleted]

Yeah prices are going up or they're all out of stock like the Kingstons, we did find these though in stock and fairly cheap.

yeh, they're lovely kits

[MayronWoW]

I have 1 more question. According to this comparison website that Notarget linked: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/645?vs=647

The SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Vapor-X is not as good as the GTX 660Ti for many games?

The main games out of that list which I would play would be Starcraft 2, Skyrim and Battlefield most likely so I am slightly concerned.
Also the Asus GTX 660Ti is £10 cheaper.

Can anyone help ease my concerns? Did I miss something? Thank you.

EDIT: It beats it when it comes to a 2560x1600 resolution size but my screen is 1920x1080

[yurano]

I have 1 more question. According to this comparison website that Notarget linked: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/645?vs=647

The Anandtech benches for the 7000 series are slightly old as the 7000 series performance has been boosted over time due to driver updates.

A more accurate comparison would be TechPowerUp's Catalyst 12.11 review.

The 660 Ti pulls way ahead in SC2. The 7950 pulls ahead in Skyrim and they're about the same in BF3. Overall, their performance is roughly the same at stock. The 7950 overclocks better but consumes more power. The 7950 consumes roughly 50W more at the wall OC compared to the 660 Ti. Note: The Gigabyte 660 Ti has +20W power due to their custom VRM circuitry. Power consumption figures might be important for UK gamers due to high gas/electricity prices.

With a $10 price difference, its up to you to determine whether you care about overclockability, Sapphire vs Asus, the value of $10 and your opinion of the stability of Nvidia vs AMD.

It looks like there are no game bundles with the two cards you linked but Dabs shows an Assassin's Creed 3 promo for their 660 Ti cards. There's also a $221 EVGA single fan blower card from Dabs. Gigabyte 7950 $240 on Dabs comes with Crysis 3 and BioShock Infinite.

I've read that the Gigabyte cooler is superior so choose between the Gigabyte 7950 and a 660 Ti from Dabs, cashing in on the game bundle.

[MayronWoW]

Okay thank you for that information. By the sounds of all this and the extra reviews and information I have looked into I will go for this:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti 1032MHz 2GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI OC

instead of my original choice:

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Vapor-X- 3 GB GDDR5 - PCI Express 3.0 (11196-09-40G)

Not too bothered with the free game deals but I will play it ^^

[Toffie]

What do you mean limit myself? The case is a great price and has everything I want. Like I have been saying I do not want a fractal case as they maybe better quality but I don't like the looks of them. You did not recommend any other alternative but just asked why I needed 2 UBS's. I dont see what you mean by limiting :S

You are not, the 690 II is a great case with good build quality. The R4 have horrible cooling performance.

---------- Post added 2013-03-29 at 03:52 PM ----------

Okay thank you for that information. By the sounds of all this and the extra reviews and information I have looked into I will go for this:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti 1032MHz 2GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI OC

instead of my original choice:

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Vapor-X- 3 GB GDDR5 - PCI Express 3.0 (11196-09-40G)

Not too bothered with the free game deals but I will play it ^^

Why would you do that? The 7950 X-Vapor is better than the 660 ti and overclocks better.

Better performance than 7970GHz when overclocked ( It overclocks insanely good + being voltage unlocked ) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/S...apor-X/31.html

[yurano]

Not too bothered with the free game deals but I will play it ^^

You could sell it for 25-50% of the game's retail price if you don't want it.

[MayronWoW]

Why would you do that? The 7950 X-Vapor is better than the 660 ti and overclocks better.

Better performance than 7970GHz when overclocked ( It overclocks insanely good + being voltage unlocked ) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/S...apor-X/31.html

Damn graphic cards confuse me lol. Well I looked at this website that Notarget gave me and compared the two there:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/645?vs=647

And it only seems to be better with Crisis games which I don't play but I did not take into consideration OCing. There are so many mixed reviews it just drives me mad. Also as soon as I pick something, people tell me to try something else which is why I nearly was tempted to buy the R4. I heard the Fractal design define R4 case was superior to most other cases but I did hear that air flow could be an issue but I thought if it was not good enough I could just buy an extra fan.

[Toffie]

Drivers plays a huge role today. 7870 is better than 660, 7950 is better than 670, 7970 is better than 680.

Newer comparison
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/H..._Boost/28.html

13 % faster than 660ti.

BF3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aiz7HCdGEic
SC2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9SfaKlWCoY
Crysis 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S9qrWh20QU
Far cry 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6hjT0Ktoqw

The 7950 wins, easily.

Placing another fan in the R4 wont help unless you remove the foam that is sourrinding the case which makes it hard for air to get out.

http://images.bit-tech.net/content_i...ine_r4-22b.jpg
http://images.anandtech.com/doci/610...20of%2014).jpg

It's a very silent case, but ends up costing performance for less DBA.

[yurano]

Newer comparison
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/H..._Boost/28.html

13 % faster than 660ti.

Why are you using a benchmark comparing a factory overclocked 7950 to a stock 660 Ti? How is that even fair?

Oh my god, the 660 Ti is 7% faster than the 7950, you should buy that instead! /sarcasm

Linus is fine for tech tips but I'd avoid any Youtube video benchmarks (cough TekSyndicate) and instead go for traditional articles by renown hardware sites.

Don't forget you're paying for all that extra performance through your electricity bill. The 7000 series has been more power hungry than the 600 series, especially the 7900 cards.

[Toffie]

A 660ti is a overclocked 660. The benchmark you showed is before the 12.11 that brought HUGE upgrades to the 7xxx series, are you joking?

---------- Post added 2013-03-29 at 06:23 PM ----------

Don't forget you're paying for all that extra performance through your electricity bill. The 7000 series has been more power hungry than the 600 series, especially the 7900 cards.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Z...dition/26.html

Huge difference, I'm sure it'll make a difference.

---------- Post added 2013-03-29 at 06:24 PM ----------

Linus is fine for tech tips but I'd avoid any Youtube video benchmarks (cough TekSyndicate) and instead go for traditional articles by renown hardware sites.

What exactly are you suggesting? That his benchmarks are fraud?

[yurano]

A 660ti is a overclocked 660.

No it is not. The 660 Ti isn't even the same GPU as a 660. The 660 Ti is in the 670 and 680 class.

The benchmark you showed is before the 12.11 that brought HUGE upgrades to the 7xxx series, are you joking?

I'm pointing out that comparing factory OC cards with stock cards is a stupid endeavor.

The first benchmark I posted is TechPowerUp's Catalyst 12.11 Benchmark which shows the 660 Ti to be on par with the 7950 overall.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Z...dition/26.html

Huge difference, I'm sure it'll make a difference.

Again not comparing like to like. You're comparing a factory OC 660 Ti to a stock 7950. Lets use the the HIS card that you love so much.


http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/H..._Boost/26.html

Thats a whopping 40W, more than a standard CFL lightbulb.

What exactly are you suggesting? That his benchmarks are fraud?

I wouldn't put it so harshly, but yes I doubt his findings. Especially when he shows the 7950 to be faster than the 660 Ti in SC2 when everyone knows Blizzard is a Nvidia fanboy. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/A...rmance/17.html

[Toffie]

No it is not. The 660 Ti isn't even the same GPU as a 660. The 660 Ti is in the 670 and 680 class.

It's still an overclocked 660.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desk...specifications

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desk...specifications

Comparing the sapphire-x vapor 7950 to a 660ti is stupid, the vapor-x will come ahead in overclocking & performance. They are both in same price-range, so why would he take the 660ti? 660ti are voltage locked and bad at overclocking, the 7950 vapor-x will overclock past 680/7970Ghz cards, so why are you so obsessed to make him change his mind?

Also I bet Linustechtips gets paid to publish benchmarks in AMD's favour, you have lost all credibility Yurano.

[Deleted]

Why are you using a benchmark comparing a factory overclocked 7950 to a stock 660 Ti? How is that even fair?

Oh my god, the 660 Ti is 7% faster than the 7950, you should buy that instead! /sarcasm

Linus is fine for tech tips but I'd avoid any Youtube video benchmarks (cough TekSyndicate) and instead go for traditional articles by renown hardware sites.

Don't forget you're paying for all that extra performance through your electricity bill. The 7000 series has been more power hungry than the 600 series, especially the 7900 cards.

I find it amusing that you bitch out Toffie for linking an OC card after you use an OC card to prove your point here. There's not exactly an argument over the power consumption - the disagreement is over performance. And the two cards linked are roughly equal (being within margins of error.) Personally, I'd recommend the 660Ti, unless you can get a 7870XT for a lower price. And one that I saw was a full £70 cheaper than both cards, costing £172.

[slimj091]

Go Z77.

Don't bother with 2133 RAM, get 1600.

Slightly expensive case.

a good case can out last every piece of hardware you put into it, which will save you money the next time you need to build another machine.. so as far as cases go might as well go big or go home (within your budget)

---------- Post added 2013-03-29 at 06:52 PM ----------

Just stick with your case choice then. The Fractal and Corsair case is better quality overall, better cable management as well but honestly you'll be fine with your choice and if that's what you like then go for it.

Main reason I picked the RAM I did is that it's low profile which makes it fit with your CPU heatsink for sure. It's possible the Patriot might not fit but I don't know for certain.

Z68 is an older generation motherboard. Going with a Z75/Z77 makes more sense with an i5-3570k and you're sure no BIOS/UEFI update is needed.

Edit: RAM, It's partpicker again... they were listed for £45 but they're actually £56 I didn't know that when i linked it.

if there is one problem i have with the 400r is that they routed the front panel connectors through the 5.25 drive bay's to the top cable management grommet, and out of the bottom grommet. that wouldn't have been a problem if they also didn't make it impossible to route them anywhere else..... minor annoyance at first glance, but major pain in the A when routing the rest of your cables.