Building a new PC, looking for opinions

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Trapsummers

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#1  Edited By Trapsummers

It has been about five years since I built my current PC and I made a ton of mistakes with that build.

Current specs:

i7 960 OC'd to 3.7Ghz

1x GTX 580 1.5GB VRAM

ASUS RAMPAGE something or other

7200RPM HDD

750w Corsair HX modular PSU

Cheap-o CoolerMaster case with FP-IO that only halfway works

etc.

Biggest mistake being the 1.5GB vram. This time I did much more research before putting together...

Parts List

This build is meant for 1080p gaming; ideally it will last for the next five or six years. I plan to overclock the CPU. I might do SLI in the future. The 970 3.5GB/224bit memory issues do not bother me. As is, the build is right on budget, $1100.

My main question is about the CPU. Is it worth spending $80 more and going with an i7 over an i5? The big difference between the two is Hyperthreading. Game devs, thus far, haven't been able to adopt semaphores into their calculations, though, so Hyperthreading isn't very useful in games. At the same time, with both consoles running four cores, I can imagine multi-core physics becoming a bigger target in the next few years.

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Kubelwagen

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Hey there, that build looks pretty good actually. But I don't think going for an i7 is a great option if you're trying to save money - as you've said, games can barely make use of multi-core, let alone hyperthreading. I'd almost consider upping the SSD to 480/512GB if you can find one for cheap. Also the 970 is still a great choice for that price point, despite the 3.5/4GB fiasco.

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RazorRamen

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Logical Increments Guide is a good starting point to figure out where you should be spending your money within a budget. /r/buildapc is also a great community that can help you out with picking the best components for your build.

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Trapsummers

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Logical Increments Guide is a good starting point to figure out where you should be spending your money within a budget. /r/buildapc is also a great community that can help you out with picking the best components for your build.

Wow, Logical Increments is pretty great. I used a mix of passmark and tomshardware for my build. I will have to remember that site next time I am doing something like this, thanks.

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Brendan

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Common wisdom will tell you its best to stick with an i5, especially if you plan on overclocking. Spend those extra i7 bucks elsewhere.

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pcorb

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Yeah, there's no need to get an i7 today, and buying one on the off chance that you might benefit from one at some point down the line isn't a terribly sensible use of money. Build looks good for the most part, only thing I'd say is that Corsair's CX series power supplies aren't great. They aren't awful junk like Raidmax or whatever, but they are entry level hardware, not really intended for something as demanding as a gaming PC, and a power supply is something you don't want to compromise on, given that it's the one part in your build that can take the whole thing with it if it blows.

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deactivated-58ca104190dca

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An extra $80 for a computer that you're planning to use for 5 years is nothing, go for the i7.

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AlexW00d

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Tbf dude 5 years ago 1.5gb of vram was the most you could get...

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pcorb

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#9  Edited By pcorb

@hone_mcbone: That would be valid logic if the $80 couldn't be spent anywhere else, but the difference in games between an i5 and an i7 is so negligible that the money would definitely be better spent elsewhere.

For example, here's a non-overclocking i5 build with a 980 for $50 more than the i7 one.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rpXgmG

The 980 would provide a far greater upgrade in games over the 970 than the i7 would over an i5.

@AlexW00d Yeah, that sort of confused me. 1.5GB wasn't a small amount of VRAM until relatively recently. I mean, the 770 was one of Nvidia's highest end cards until half a year ago and it only came with 2GB as standard.

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big_denim

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I have a very similar build but with an i5 4690k. I highly recommend the 4690. Lot's of tests have shown that it's insane OC potential makes it a better choice than the i7 in my opinion, considering the lower price point.

Any who, you can't go wrong either way honestly. Both are great CPUs!