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I

ITOAO

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 29, 2005
Messages
176
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etcGaming
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? 1900.00 US including shipping and tax
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible. Pompano Beach, FL
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? Case, CPU, Cooler, RAM, HDD, SSD, Motherboard, PSU, GPU
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Monitor, KB and mouse
6) Will you be overclocking? Probably not
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it? 1920x1080 23" x3. Considering moving back to 2 monitors and stepping up the resolution.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? I can order any time within the next 2 weeks
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? EYEFINITIY would be nice. and USB 3.0
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? No would like suggestions on either 64bit Win7 or 8.1? I have not tried 8.1 and do not know how well it works out for gaming.

I would like to go with the mini-itx case that was reviewed here. I was thinking of trying to see if I can build my first watercooled rig. Not sure if that is a good idea or not.
 
The Corsair 250D isn't expected to arrive for at least another month.

Can you wait that long?
 
:( I can but if you think there are other ones that would work I am open to suggestions.
 
With a mini ITX setup, you're limited to the new high-end cards, the GTX 780, the R9 290/290X, and the GTX 780 Ti. A few mini ITX cases can fit those cards.

The Corsair 250D is currently the only mini ITX case that can support a 240mm radiator. The limited spaces in many cases make even using a 120mm radiator a hassle.

How badly do you want to use watercooling? Can you live with a micro ATX or a regular ATX setup instead?
 
Watercooling isn't necessary I was just thinking about it. I will probably end up with Air I think the small form factor is probably more important.
 
Before the Corsair 250D, many people chose the BitFenix Prodigy for their mini ITX gaming builds.

Case notwithstanding, here's what I recommend:

$197 - Intel Core i5-4570
$111 - Gigabyte GA-H87N-WIFI
$123 - Crucial CT2KIT102464BA1339 2x8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$510 - EVGA 03G-P4-2784-KR GTX 780 SuperClocked 3GB GDDR5
$146 - Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD
$60 - WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB HDD
$97 - Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit System Builder DVD

$1244 - Total before shipping and taxes

Your decision on the case will determine which power supply and optical drive (assuming you need one) you can use. The case selection also plays a role in which third-party CPU cooler you could use, but unless you live in a very hot environment, you'll be fine with the stock Intel HSF.

Again, the GTX 780 is the "bare minimum" for single-card, multi-monitor gaming. The cryptocurrency craze screwed up the cost and availability of the R9 290 and the R9 290X, so you may need to consider the GTX 780 Ti if you feel like you need more GPU power.

Battlefield 4 performs better on Windows 8 than Windows 7. Windows 8 also has a few under-the-hood improvements over Windows 7. If you want to avoid the Windows 8 Start Screen, you can use either Classic Shell or Start8 to bring back the Start Menu.

Let's ignore the 250D for a moment... what are you looking for in a case?
 
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Something not to large mid-tower noting flashy. No lights or windows etc.
I have a Lian-Li black aluminum case atm. Some would say plain but I kinda like that at the moment.

No optical drive. Kinda bummed about no 290 and I guess I could go with 8.1.
I have never messed with it so it will be new to me.

Is that i5 a considerable step up from the current one I have?
 
This is your current setup?

Current Gaming/Home PC
Intel Core i5-2400 CPU || Asus P8Z68-V LE Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard
G.Skill Sniper 4 x 4GB DDR3 1600 RAM || XFX HD-697A-CNFC Radeon HD 6970 2GB
Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SSD || OCZ Vertex4 2.5" 128GBSSD
Hitachi 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb HDD || Seasonic S121II 620 620W PSU
2x Acer S231HL Widescreen Ultra-Slim LED
Click to expand...

You could reuse your processor, HDD, and PSU along with:

$50 - Cooler Master Elite 130 mini ITX desktop case
$105 - Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI
$123 - Crucial CT2KIT102464BA1339 2x8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$510 - EVGA 03G-P4-2784-KR GTX 780 SuperClocked 3GB GDDR5
$97 - Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit System Builder DVD

$885 - Total before shipping and taxes

While the Haswell-based i5-4570 is better than the i5-2400, IMO, it's not so good that you can justify a platform change. You'd gain a more noticeable performance boost in gaming from the video card alone.

OK, you could also reuse your Vertex 4 SSD as your primary drive. I believe that the Samsung 840 EVO is better, but if you're having no problems with your existing SSD, there's really no reason to switch.

Regarding RAM, you could either grab the 2x8GB set or reuse two of your four 4GB sticks. 8GB is enough for a gaming machine.

I went with the Cooler Master Elite 130 as its small shoebox size can support the GTX 780. I don't like most of Lian Li's mini ITX lineup in the context of your gaming needs. The cases are either too small (in terms of internal volume) or too expensive (IMO) to justify their purchase.
 
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Yes that is my current system. So it isn't much of a bump?
If I wanted to play BF4 and have the eye candy turned on? Would it do the trick?
Also looking to play Titanfall when it comes out. I play a lot of mmo's as well.

So people are not so hot on the i7 processors. Are they just not worth the money for the performance boost?
Sounds like I would be better off just getting a new video card at this point.
 
There's not enough of a performance boost from Sandy/Ivy Bridge to Haswell to really justify it. Sure, Haswell offers all-SATA 6Gb/s ports, but you only need them for your SSDs.

The cheapest approach to your gaming "problems" is to buy a newer, better video card. In some cases, you may have to pair the new video card with a new, larger capacity PSU (but not your case).

As for Core i7 versus Core i5, games generally don't benefit from Hyper Threading in any way. Some games actually lose performance when Hyper Threading is enabled.
 
tiraides said:
With a mini ITX setup, you're limited to the new high-end cards, the GTX 780, the R9 290/290X, and the GTX 780 Ti. A few mini ITX cases can fit those cards.

The Corsair 250D is currently the only mini ITX case that can support a 240mm radiator. The limited spaces in many cases make even using a 120mm radiator a hassle.

How badly do you want to use watercooling? Can you live with a micro ATX or a regular ATX setup instead?
Click to expand...
The bitfenix prodigy easily fits a 240mm... so does the N1.
 
What is the difference in the 780 and the 780Ti besides like 250.00?
 
ITOAO said:
What is the difference in the 780 and the 780Ti besides like 250.00?
Click to expand...

576 more CUDA Cores, 20% more than the 780. Also a higher memory clock. In a reference-only universe, that's probably something like a 25% (peak) performance improvement over the 780 in certain scenarios. Diminishing returns on performance vs price being what they are, it's a budget question more than anything else imho :)

I'm sure someone else around here can point out much more detailed stuff than this ;)
 
Thanks for the reply. I think I may just upgrade the card.
I really would like to know if the Ti would be worth it over the regular 780. I wish I could stick with AMD but those R9 cards are insanely expensive.
Looks like no more so than that Ti though.
 
ITOAO said:
Thanks for the reply. I think I may just upgrade the card.
I really would like to know if the Ti would be worth it over the regular 780. I wish I could stick with AMD but those R9 cards are insanely expensive.
Looks like no more so than that Ti though.
Click to expand...

Whether or not the Ti is worth it to you is really a question of
A: Resolution of the display(s)
B: How much you're willing to spend

If you stick with triple head 1080p, then more power is better, of course.
If you're going to drop to a single higher res display, then a 780 for 1440 or 1600 is probably fine. I run 1440p with my 780 and it's been fabulous for me. If the R9's weren't priced at stratospheric levels because of mining I'd say shoot for a non-reference cooler 290x.
 
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Performance-wise, it goes (roughly): R9 290 = GTX 780 < R9 290X = GTX 780 Ti

But the appeal of the AMD cards were their cheaper costs. When they first arrived, the R2 290 cost around $400 and the R9 290X was under $600. The GTX 780 needed a price drop (it cost around $700 at the time of the R9 290's release) and the GTX 780 Ti was created for Nvidia to better compete with AMD on price.

Again, the cyptocurrency craze (e.g. Bitcoin, Litecoin) has screwed up the pricing of AMD cards, with the R9 290X costing as much as $900 in some areas.
 
tiraides said:
The Corsair 250D isn't expected to arrive for at least another month.

Can you wait that long?
Click to expand...

Ummm.... No.

I received my 250D from Corsair 9 days ago. Amazon and Newegg started shipping them a couple days ago. They are in stock at all three right now:

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Obsid...8&qid=1392447234&sr=8-1&keywords=corsair+250d

http://www.corsair.com/us/pc-cases/...se/obsidian-series-250d-mini-itx-pc-case.html

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139033
 
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tiraides said:
Before the Corsair 250D, many people chose the BitFenix Prodigy for their mini ITX gaming builds.
Click to expand...

You could also use the BitFenix ProdigyM which would give you some more room and does support 240mm water cooling. Check out the reviews.

I will leave the rest of the recommendations to more knowledgeable members since you are running multiple monitors. Not sure what you need to push 2 or 3 monitors.
 
Which GTX 780 did you end up buying?

Are you planning to transition into mini ITX?
 
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