Titan X or 980TI

Vokar

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Nov 1, 2015
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This is my first post so feel free to berate me as needed. I am able to budget almost 4k towards a new pc build. I have already purchased an X99 MSI Godlike motherboard, EVGA 1300W G2 power supply and the NZXT 820 P{hantom case. I plan on adding the samsung 950 M.2 512gb for storage with the possible future addition of a 1tb wd black hdd. The cpu will most likely be the 5960x.There will also be some sort of 4x4 ddr4 bundle over 3000mhz. I still need to pick a monitor and also a video card. Any opinions on if I should go X or TI? This will be my system for the next ten years most likely and I am upgrading from a lenovo idea centre with a G630@ 2.7ghz.
 
There is very little performance difference between the Titan X and 980 TI, if you want to spend more money SLI 980 TIs is a much better option than one Titan X. SLI 980s would fit into a 4K budget pretty easily (and if you're looking to play games in 4K this is what you'd need).

I'm not sure if actually spending 4K on one computer to run for 10 years is the best plan. You'd be better off taking 2K now and building a system and then replacing it in 5 years with one built with your other 2K. You may have some reason I don't know about so obviously I could be totally off base. I just spent $2,200 on a laptop so I'm not really in any position to pass judgement or anything.
 
Thanks, that helps a little. I think I am going to go for gaming in 1440. There will also be some content creation. Water cooling is something I should've mentioned to. Ideally the ewkb 360 predator for the cpu( maybe 240) and the msi 980ti sea hawk has caught my eye. Sounds like the extra 6gbs of vram on the titan X isn't really going to help keep the system relevant. If I put 2k aside something will most likely come up...as life so often likes to do. I can always try to save up for sli and other upgrades.
 
You made a perfect choice in gong with the MSI Seahawk 980ti. Pics if the build afterwards would be nice. ;)
 
Keep in mind that 2016 will be a year that both NVidia and AMD come out with new architectures for their GPUs.

So the advice to same a bit for the future, might come closer than you think.

Definitely don't spend on a Titan X now.

I needed a GTX 980Ti SLI for 4K HDMI 2.0, but I bought a GTX 960, as I am willing to live with the "pain" until 2016.

Gives me something to look forward to, as I always get the upgrade bug.
 
The build will be finished in early to mid march. I had to put things on hold as The family prepared for the holidays. For the first three months of the year I will spend around a grand per month with 01/15 being for the m.2, ram, cpu cooler, etc. I know new hardware can come out in the first quarter so we will see what happens. Thanks for the tips and I will post pics on a few sites most likely.
 
If you have the money to flex, Titan X > 980 Ti in every way possible.

If you're a regular person, get the 980 Ti lol
 
Just throwing in "my2cents" but i thought most folks were going with smaller cases these days. I like all your other choices though. With that being said im a fan of the NZXT H440
 
Unrelated to the gpu question, I want to suggest not getting a platter HDD unless you really need loads of room. If you can make do with a 1tb SSD, that is what I'd suggest.

I run a 512gb OS SSD, Then a 1tb SSD for games and programs and the like, and then just use an external or two for extra storage as needed. But I like keeping the insides of the machine as lean and free of moving parts as possible...


Good luck with the build. Sounds like it will be a very nice machine.
 
I know a lot of people here are against purchasing a few items at a time and would rather buy it all at once... But I like doing it the way you're going personally.

My only suggestion is to plan your build by the estimated release schedule of new hardware.

For instance... The case, mechanical hard drive, RAM and power supply are all components you wouldn't expect to change too much in the next few months and prices should be somewhat stable. I'd buy these first.


For the CPU and motherboard... you may want to hold off to see what Intel has up their sleeve for Broadwell-E. Rumors are saying Q1 (feb/mar) of 2016 and it will be a 10 core processor instead of 8. If you can get it a 6950x for the same price as a 5960x... Why not? This would also mean you would have to hold off on the motherboard until the CPU releases.

For the GPU... If Nvidia follows the Titan release schedule of the last few years... We could be seeing the new Pascal Titan on the market in February or March of 2016. I'd definitely hold off on the GPU and save it for last. If you absolutely have to have something now... I would check out a used 980 Ti with a good warranty or a new 970 (to get you by). It's really hard to justify a high end gpu at full retail price this close to the new GPU cycle.

For the SSD... There is a bunch of new SSD tech coming to the market very soon and the prices of the SSDs already on the market have been plummeting. Personally I would wait until the new tech comes out to see if it would give you a very significant improvement or if the price of the older tech drops more. With the way prices are dropping, you may be able to pick up a massive SSD and forgo the platter drive altogether.

As far as the monitor goes... I would wait on this too... CES is in January and you can expect some new tech to be shown off and maybe a few monitors to be released. A lot of the higher end gaming monitors (IPS Swift and Acer counterpart, etc) are having quality control issues right now.

Edit*
I read your post wrong and didn't notice you had already purchased the motherboard and PSU. :(

If your build isn't going to be finished until March, I would really suggest looking into returning the motherboard, unless you're not interested in the 6950x. If you PSU is within it's return period, you may be able to save a little money there too. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the power supply, but it may be a bit overkill for your needs. You could easily run three Titan Xs (possibly four) with that PSU.
 
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titan x has its perks. like the time i was at MC and this guy who was getting a 980ti saw me checking out with a titan and gave me the 'blah blah blah its not worth it, what are you doing with your money???'. the SA told me that he later returned his 980ti to get a titan (but they were OOS at that point). :D
 
Fixall, I was under the impression that the 10 core would be on the X99 platform. If this is not the case then the 5960x is going to have to be good enough for me. I live a little over an hour from Chicago so at least Microcenter is an option.

As far as monitors go I spent last night looking at the swifts and Acer's counterparts. The cheaper swift may be the one I pick.

At some point the wife is gonna say "this build is going beyond it's budget" so having a grand each month or there abouts is helping with price drops. As new tech comes out in the first quarter the items I have selected will hopefully drop a little, giving me the room to pick up a decent mx keyboard and high quality mouse.

I just wanted to thank everyone for thier opinions. There is absolutely nobody that I see on a daily basis that has any knowledge in this area. THANK YOU everyone and have a HAPPY YULE.....or whatever you celebrate..:)
 
Fixall, I was under the impression that the 10 core would be on the X99 platform. If this is not the case then the 5960x is going to have to be good enough for me. I live a little over an hour from Chicago so at least Microcenter is an option.

As far as monitors go I spent last night looking at the swifts and Acer's counterparts. The cheaper swift may be the one I pick.

At some point the wife is gonna say "this build is going beyond it's budget" so having a grand each month or there abouts is helping with price drops. As new tech comes out in the first quarter the items I have selected will hopefully drop a little, giving me the room to pick up a decent mx keyboard and high quality mouse.

I just wanted to thank everyone for thier opinions. There is absolutely nobody that I see on a daily basis that has any knowledge in this area. THANK YOU everyone and have a HAPPY YULE.....or whatever you celebrate..:)

You're absolutely right about the upcoming 6950x being on the X99 platform. Not sure where my head was last night... I blame it on living in Washington (recreational marijuana laws ftw!).

If you're looking at the cheaper Swift and Acer (the TFT instead of the IPS), I HIGHLY suggest you take a look at the new Dell offering (the s2716dg). It has all the same specs as the Asus and Acer (Gsync, 144hz, 8 bit panel, lightboost, etc), but the quality control seems to be MUCH better. You also get Dell's wicked awesome customer service in case of an RMA (cross shipping and whatnot) and to top it all off... It's usually cheaper than both the Acer and Asus (I've seen it for $550 recently).

Lastly... Since you were talking about picking up a keyboard with Cherry MX switches, I just thought I'd draw your attention to a really good deal on the forums right now. There is a Keyed Up Labs tenkeyless with Cherry MX browns up for sale for $75. Hell of a keyboard and layout.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1885115&highlight=tkl
 
Yeah, I saw the board earlier, I'd better wait till the first week of the new year or somebody might not get a present...I do see a lot of tempting deals on here.
 
If you have the money to flex, Titan X > 980 Ti in every way possible.

If you're a regular person, get the 980 Ti lol

I can afford a Titan X but went with a 980Ti since I'm not fan of needlessly spending money. With it's lower power consumption the 980Ti can boost higher and maintain boost longer than the Titan, often times giving it the edge in performance, especially when you don't need more than 6GB of vram which is the case almost all the time. The fact that NVidia gimped it's DP performance is even less of a reason to buy Titan X.

There's literally zero reason why anyone should by a single Titan X. If you're running a resolution that 1 Titan X has enough GPU grunt to pull it through, then you're running a resolution that will easily fit within the 6GB frame buffer of a 980Ti making the performance between the two a wash. If you're running triple 4k screens, then you'll need the 12GB of a Titan X, but you'll also need the GPU grunt of about 3 of them to do you any good.
 
You're absolutely right about the upcoming 6950x being on the X99 platform. Not sure where my head was last night... I blame it on living in Washington (recreational marijuana laws ftw!).

If you're looking at the cheaper Swift and Acer (the TFT instead of the IPS), I HIGHLY suggest you take a look at the new Dell offering (the s2716dg). It has all the same specs as the Asus and Acer (Gsync, 144hz, 8 bit panel, lightboost, etc), but the quality control seems to be MUCH better. You also get Dell's wicked awesome customer service in case of an RMA (cross shipping and whatnot) and to top it all off... It's usually cheaper than both the Acer and Asus (I've seen it for $550 recently).

Lastly... Since you were talking about picking up a keyboard with Cherry MX switches, I just thought I'd draw your attention to a really good deal on the forums right now. There is a Keyed Up Labs tenkeyless with Cherry MX browns up for sale for $75. Hell of a keyboard and layout.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1885115&highlight=tkl

Yeah the quality control on that Acer panel (XB270HU) is complete dogshit. Mine arrived with uneven backlight (no not IPS backlight bleed, this is something else entirely), but I let it slip since it was mostly in the bottom left corner and didn't bother me too much. Then about 5 months in the OSD controls completely broke, and I now can only control contrast/brightness/hue through software (thank god for ScreenBright), and have no means of adjusting overdrive or choosing ULMB. Not to mention the flimsy plastic and overall cheap feel and build quality of the monitor+stand. For the price Acer is charging it's a piece of shit.

With all that out of the way, the XB270HU does remain the only 144Hz 1440p IPS panel with GSync for now. If you don't care about GSync you can buy the cheaper Asus MG279Q, which uses the exact same AUO panel as the XB270HU. Just make sure you grab the updated revision since the first batch had a firmware issue that would cause frame skipping if set to 144Hz.
 
Thanks for all the monitor advice...I have some time to figure it out at least. If I lived in Washington my memory would be foggy to.
Damn it Wisconsin get with the program.
 
Case, Enthoo Evolv ATX

GPU, GTX 980 Ti your choice but the MSI with the Corsair AIO looks like a really nice piece.
 
I'm gonna offer a contrarian opinion. This is not the right time to be dropping $600+ on a video card, IMHO. The next gen is close enough that you could suffer significant buyer's remorse in a matter of months.

If you're building today, then I would suggest one of the following:
1) eVGA B Stock GTX980 - these can be had for around $360, although availability is sketchy
2) used R9 290 or 290x - both are excellent cards and are quite cheap
3) new or used GTX970 (zotac can be had new for $299 on NE)

All of these would save you hundreds, and you can flip the card later to get back $100-$200 and pool that with the $300+ you save, to buy one of the next gen cards.


If you insist on dropping large amounts of dough on video cards this very moment, do not buy the TITAN X, go with the 980Ti
 
Don't get the 1300w PSU. Don't need it. Get a quality Seasonic in the 860+ range. If you want to do 4k at high or max settings at or near 60fps, and that's your goal, you will need two of whatever you buy. Buy the 980 Ti and overclock them. You can hit your goal for less money that way.
 
I'd take a 980ti on a good board any day over the Titan X with it's mediocre one. A good 980ti can be overclocked to be faster than a Titan X can.
 
Kickasscop, mmmm cores. That's why.

To the above post about the power supply, I already have it and I want overkill.

The whole point of the build is overkill in a way, Buying a new home in the next 3 weeks. Just waiting on the paperwork to be sent back. Bought a nice 2008 car at the beginning of the year and my 01 buick will be paid off this time next year. I have to prepare for new and different cost in this next year so I don't see myself being able to justify any more upgrades until 2017.
 
Why not save the money and get 5930K and put the difference towards a nice monitor?
 
I've thought about going with the 5930 and it could still go that way, It all depends on what life throws at me.

The buick is starting to make a high pitch noise in the mornings and it doesn't sound like a belt. Doesn't mean it isn't but I wouldn't be surprised if it's the alternator or even worse a bearing. Really hoping it's not a bearing in the idler pulley or something similar. Never worked on bearings before, belts and alternators no big deal. I guess replacing the idler pulley is no biggie but I better stop rambling.
 
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