Maxxtraxx

1050Ti definitely... He called us... Experts *smiles and snickers*

Very vague statement... possible, but depends heavily on any form of overclocking (which would eliminate most of any difference), what fan curve was used, what game and what in game settings. The strix will definitely run cooler but most ANY gtx1080 will hit 2 - 2.2Ghz With overclocking and sensible cooling they should be very close. The turbo would be louder due to the blower cooler but it can be a better choice in a case with limited airflow.

Well, if it's working great for you, that is getting 60fps at 1080p in the games that you're playing, then I don't see a need for an upgrade at the moment. If you want an upgrade, well then. Absolutely! a 1070 will be more than 2x as powerful (roughly equivalent to 2x 780Ti) and a 1080 will be 20% or so faster than that.

I apologize, I know that's not what you were interested in... but I'm in a funny mood tonight.

Manual application!

Correct you are sir, I did not notice that I had found the wrong drive. BP5e vs BPX version, thank you for the correction.

Possibly This instead? See THG review here.

Just throwing this out there... but the GTX1080Ti is likely only a few months away. Chances are that the 1080Ti will be under $1,000 possibly more like $800 (both numbers are just informed guesses) if your budget is $800 the 1080Ti may be your best bet, the AMD Vega 10 will possibly be around the same timeframe as well. IMO, if you need it NOW, the SLI 1070's will work great if you can WAIT 2-3 months, 1080Ti or VEGA 10... or even USED gtx1080 (you know many 1080 owners will be selling when the Ti comes out).

Love AOE2, not so much AOE3. IMO Neither have the quick pace that esports need, even SC2 multiplayer got a major game speed boost via mineral collection adjustments to appeal more to esports players and watchers.

SLI 1070's would perform much better than 2 295x2's due to scaling with 4 vs 2 GPU's and spotty game support, some games don't support crossfire/sli and in those cases it will be one 290x vs a 1070 which is no contest in favor of the 1070.

The included fans are certainly acceptable but not of the highest quality I still use them as intake fans in the front, they're quiet at low speeds and look good with the black and white scheme, I don't prefer using a fan controller myself, instead I use the motherboard fan headers and the BIOS to apply fan curves based upon temperature in the system however if you prefer a fan controller you can go that route as well. Don't quote me on this but there is a switch behind the front panel that may possibly be a 2 setting fan speed controller but I've never used it or even looked at it closely.

IMO, With the new crop of cards you're going to struggle to get a meaningful upgrade to a r9 290 in your price range, but there is one option that comes close to your price range and will give a very good improvement. here's a price and performance list/hierarchy. GTX1070: $400 GTX980Ti: $330 can be found: Here GTX1060(6GB) and RX480 $250 (both have slightly better performance than your R9 290) GTX1060(3GB) and RX470 $200 (both would be similar in performance to your R9 290) The sweet spot that comes CLOSE to your price range would be the GTX980Ti, it would give you a meaningful performance increase and come close to your price.

I assumed that was possibly the case with the SSD, I have the R5 myself, it does have two 5.25 bays behind the front panel door. There is a large selection of atx mid tower cases out there, some of the NZXT cases are quite good looking with attractive color combinations and may be appealing to you. For example, the Be Quiet! Silent Base 600: see HERE

If you can get the R9 390 for $185 then that's a good deal, and will give you a better performance per dollar bargain thanks to the $60 in savings. The RX480 will work as well with a lower power requirement and will give you a more current GPU. IMO the 480 is not worth $60 more, I would go with the 480 if it was $20-30 more.

I do recommend going with a higher speed RAM, WITHIN REASON it can make a difference in your gaming performance. DF did a very nice informational video showcasing what memory speed can do for you: Here

If you're not interested in a PCI-e based SSD that's way faster for a reasonable price that's your decision. But... if you're building a high performance PC like this, the extra $ input is well worth it. Why would you want to limit yourself to a SATA interface designed for HDD speeds when the drives we have now are so much faster than SATA allows.

Overall, it's a good build. You picked a good CPU a good Cooler(better/aka. much larger than the 212evo) a good motherboard a good memory choice, XMP memory profiles are easy to use and faster memory is better if the choice is available, don't worry about ram overheating issues. EVGA is my recommendation for GPU The PSU is good, titanium rated, EVGA supernova P2/T2 are great options also the case is good but it is a full tower(large) I personally like midtower cases for a more rational footprint/size such as: Fractal Design R5: here I would recommend going with a NVME based SSD for the serious performance increase over the SATA based drives. For example here is a good value/performance NVME SSD: here I pulled that recommendation from a very new Tom's Hardware SSD review: here Update: be sure not to just rely solely on pc part picker: scan a few websites to get the best price on whatever part you pick: ex. Newegg, NCIX, Amazon, Microcenter, ect.

Congrats, nice card. I'm still a fan of the looks of the new strix design.

Note the FPS counter in the top right. This is just a Screenshot but the bottom right corner also shows just how drastically the fx-8350's framerate can drop when compared against a CPU with higher IPC and memory bandwidth(in certain cases).

If you think there is some sort of misconception here about performance (that being that being that a cpu is a cpu and there is no difference between AMD and Intel) then I invite you to watch the WHOLE Digital Foundry Video: Here Then Decide if a 40 FPS difference in certain games at points is a misconception.

IMO, Get the most powerful Single Graphics Card that you can afford... which really comes down to budget. It will give you the longest future usability as well as the possibility of going beyond 1080p when you're ready. This is how I would break down the offerings on a price scale: Get the best one you can afford. $600: GTX1080 $400: GTX1070 $330: GTX980Ti (here) $250: GTX1060 (6GB) or RX480 $200: GTX1060 (3GB) or RX470

1070 is a much better choice if it's only $40 more.

Reasonably priced motherboard, should work fine.

The AF fans should be put in places with little restriction(no radiators). The SP fans should be used in conjunction with radiators or heat sinks to push the air through the restrictive cooler. generally AF fans will move more air at lower pressure and SP will move less air at a higher pressure(when restricted). Most people feel that you should maintain a balanced air flow (equal amount of air going in and out) or a positive pressure inside the case(1 more fan blowing into the case than blowing out) to be sure that the case is only being fed filtered air. I would recommend using the front case fan locations as intake using AF fans and then using the rear and top as exhaust. sooo... 2 AF fans in the front for intake and 2 more fans in the rear and top as exhaust. You should have enough fans with what you have since the case will likely come with 1 or 2 fans of its own.