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What should I buy because I don't really know.

Hello! I never seem to be ever 'finished' with a build, but my main machine is at a state where I'm pretty happy with it. So have a look and let me know what you think, or if you have any questions! This is generation 4 of my gaming/performance machine. It wasn't built into what it is now all in one go, it has evolved into this over the last 2 years or so. The last major update was the RAM, the motherboard, the third GPU and moving it all into a new case. Everything else was brought along from previous generations. First, pictures. Below: Closeup of the important bits. See further below for parts list and explanations/excuses. Above: Three ASUS GTX660Tis in SLI. This wasn't planned this way, it just kind of happened that I ended up with three of these (quite excellent) GPUs over time. Obviously the cooling situation is not great. However, it works fairly well thanks to what I call the 'GPU Ram-air duct' included with the HAF X (it's the black squareish thing covering the right end of the GPUs). Inside is a 120mm Cooler Master Scythe fan set to a constant 70% power (anything above that and it starts to get too noisy for me). It forces cool air from the front fan into the open ends of the GPUs. The big 200mm side panel fan also has a duct mounted on it which fits up against the GPUs in the area between the SLI bridge on the left and just before where the GPU power cables are on the right. Between the two, outside air is forced in from the front and side, and a good amount of hot air comes out the vents at the 'back' of the GPU. Ideally, this kind of setup should be only 2-way SLI for proper air cooling, or water cooled to properly cool these particular GPUs in 3-way SLI on this board. With this setup the way it is, in maxed-out-settings gaming the three GPUs tend to level out at around 55-65 C. Serious problems only arise when doing sadistic artificial GPU-melting benchmarks like FurMark. Below: take up ALL the slots! Parts: Cooler Master HAF X Case (USB 3 version) I chose this case because I've had good luck with CM cases before (I have a HAF 922 and HAF 912 also), I liked the top setup for rad mounting and two big 200mm fans on top, proper amount of slots/space for 3 GPUs, all the great airflow features, and it comes with WHEELS! Yes! Loads of detailed pictures here. AMD FX 8350 (OC to 4.4 GHz) I've always been an AMD guy, and had a Phenom II X6-1090T before this. I sat out Bulldozer and figured I'd wait on the next version. When Piledriver appeared with a 4.0GHz base clock, I couldn't resist. It is mildly overclocked to 4.4 GHz using a multiplier of 22, stock bus speed (200) and stock CPU voltage (1.368V in my case.) The only other adjustments were to turn off most of the power saving features and loosen up the VRM power delivery settings to make more power available to the CPU, CPU/NB, NB and DRAM (if needed.) ASUS ROG Crosshair V Formula-Z 990FX motherboard I wanted to give the GPUs as much PCIe goodness as possible, and the ROG boards' thermals and power delivery seem to be about the best there is. I also like the auxiliary power options such as the EZ plug - a 12V molex connector which feeds the PCIe bus extra power if you have more than 2 PCIe cards (esp. GPUs) attached, and a second EATX12V 4-pin CPU connector which helps feed the CPU in more extreme OC situations. Good review of the board here. My favorite little touches are the 'OK' button that undoes what you just tweaked to cause the system to freeze, and the Q-Code LED which shows (in hex code) the steps the CPU and BIOS are going through during startup. A real lifesaver when you've bricked it after your last brilliant attempt. G.Skill RipjawsX X-14900CL9Q-16GBXL 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3-1866 RAM Set to DDR1866 using the BIOS' DOCP tuning feature (sets up the RAM based on its XMP profiles) RAM is fast, works well. Corsair AX860i PSU I should have gone with a slightly bigger PSU. Although it theoretically has enough power output and connectors to feed the 3 GPUs, they had to be carefully connected to the PSU (due to the way the connectors coming from the PSU split into varying numbers of 6/8 pin PCIe connectors...ugh) because when I first set SLI up, when all 3 GPUs suddenly went to max load (ie. starting a run of Unigine Heaven or Valley) the sudden draw would trip the PSU and the whole system would suddenly reboot. The PSU has (I think) six proprietary connectors that comes from the PSU then branches out to two 8/6 pin PCIe power plugs. At first, I had them setup 1-1, or one power supply connection to the two PCIe on . What I ended up doing was taking one connector from the PSU and splitting it across two GPUs until all six GPUs had power. 3x ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660Ti (TI-DC2O-2GD5) 2GB GPUs At their launch the 660Ti was an amazing price/performance deal. You get a slightly nerfed 670 for a lot less money. I got one, then 8 months later, another. Then I ended up with a third. So, what the hell. Other than the less-than-ideal airflow situation I have, the 3-way SLI setup just screams, and now connected to a 144Hz monitor, they seem even more powerful. Corsair H100i closed-loop liquid CPU cooler Keeps my 8350 and its 4.4 OC at a max of 54C, idling at around 29-31C. 4x Cooler Master MegaFlow 200mm fans (2 on top, 1 front, 1 side) With a top speed of only 800RPM these giants run very quiet at full 12V and nearly silent if they are cranked down a bit. 1x Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition High Airflow 140mm Fan (case rear) Looked cool? I needed something to fit the case (140mm) and rather than blow air out, it is drawing folw hair in 2x Noctua NF-F12 'Focused Flow' PWM 120mm (H100i radiator) Noctua's flagship 120mm fan, it was designed for use in high-static pressure applications, such as pushing air through CPU coolers and liquid radiators. Nocuta's fans are the best. If they made a 200mm fan I'd replace 2x Feser Xtender 120mm Fan Shrouds (in between the Noctua fans and the H100i rad) (see below) 1x Cooler Master Excalibur PWM 120mm (GPU front-end 'Ram-air' duct) I like Cooler Master's 200mm MegaFlow fans because they're very quiet even at full 12V, and they move a LOT of air. There are two on top drawing air up from the H100i rad and the interior of the case. Note the two clear fan shrouds between the Noctuas and the radiator. I'm a big believer in these spacers since they allow airflow more evenly through the radiator since they get rid of the dead spot next to the fan's hub in the middle. It makes a lot of sense because physics. Check out this article. And this video about the shrouds I have: Kingston HyperX 3K SH103S3 120GB SATA-III SSD (OS) I don't know much about SSDs. This one was cheap, and it seems fast. Western Digital Black WD1002FAEX 1TB SATA-III HD (Steam and other applications) Western Digital Green WD2002EARS 2TB SATA-II HD (Backups and archive) Big fan of WD drives. The Black edition 1TB is a bit noisy, but it's really fast. DarkSide HSL braided power extension cables (6x PCIe, 1x Molex) The cables that come with the AX860i are nice and braided and black and shiny and everything, but they are wicked stiff, and almost all the PCIe connectors are 6/8 pin so it was a god-awful mess getting them routed to the GPUs properly. And the molex plug on the Crosshair V board that feeds extra power to the PCI bus could not be in a worse place to route power (see the picture above). So, I got some nice extension cables from some great local guys at dazmode.com in Mississauga. Peripherals: ASUS VG248QE 24" 144 Hz LCD - Note: THIS IS AN AWESOME MONITOR. THAT IS ALL. NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 Kit (IR emitter and glasses) Logitech G19 keyboard (with Colour LCD) Logitech MX518 mouse (still the best) Logitech F510 game controller Logitech Z323 2.1 speaker system Software: Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium AIDA64 Extreme Edition CorsairLINK2 (AX860i / H100i control and monitoring) The usual CPU/GPU tuning and monitoring utilities (NVIDIA inspector, CPU-Z, GPU-Z, MSI Afterburner, MSI Kombustor, OCCT, CrystalDiskInfo, CrystalDiskMark, CPUID HWMonitor, SpeedFan, AMD Overdrive, Futuremark benchmarks (3DMark, 3DMark 11, 3DMark Vantage, etc.) I mainly use AIDA64 monitoring software. I use it with my Logitech G19's LCD display to keep an eye on things without needing another monitor or ugly overlays. Here's an ugly-but-functional custom display layout I made. The three stacks of readings at the bottom right are the GPUs' TDP%, Core clock MHz, Temperature, and utilization gauge. So, that's Hydra IV at the moment. Any ideas? Questions? Let me know! electrostatic

I am planging to build a z77 chipset computer and I am going for a SLI configuration later on. Will I benefit with the extra memory in SLI (ASUS GTX 680 4gb) or go for higher clock speed (ASUS GTX 680 2gb TOP). I know that when adding an extra card I dont increase the memory. I am going to use multiple monitors, but not gaming in surround. I hope I can get some answers.

Hi everyone! Please note that this build will be started after my exams have been completed, so please do not get your hopes up until then. This will be my first ever build for school and gaming purposes. My current PC is a hp pavilion with a centurion processor, 1gb of ram and ...250gb of storage? So knowing this, you can tell how hyped up I am. I am currently working part time and hopefully, in the near future, I will be able to do a water cooled build log of this PC. Now back to business. The spec on this computer will be as followed: Case: Corsair 350D (pre-ordered) PSU: Corsair AX760i Mobo: Asus Maximus V Gene CPU: Intel i5-3570k (more info below) Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8gb (4gb x 2) GPU: 2x EVGA GTX 650 ti Boost 2gb Cooler: Corsair H100i SSD: Kingston 60gb HDD: WD 1tb Black 7200rpm Monitor: Benq XL2420T Keyboard: Microsoft Sidewinder X4 Mouse: Cyborg R.A.T 9 Headset: Tritton 720+ 7.1 Now for the important part. This question is directed at some of the more advanced members. Would it be worth the trouble in waiting for haswell as well as buying an Z87 mobo as opposed to a 3570k and a gene. Personally, i do not like to gamble on motherboards. The Gene is probably the best micro-atx mobo and i'd doubt there will be any up coming ones that will be able to match it. I am choosing Intel for the specific reason that I am living in a dorm in the UK and energy efficiency does play it's part. So..., I am all ears for any opinions as well as any improvements. :D

Hey guys , I saw Linus's new video on NCIXcom channel where he showed a pc with GTX 650 Ti Boost in SLI . I then went to Youtube and saw some videos show that the GTX 650 Ti Boost in SLI does actually beat the GTX 670 in performance . I know running CrossfireX/SLI is not always a good thing , but I think the new cards these days don't have much problem with that config . As Linus said , 2 GPU in 1 machine just looks freaking awesome . Which one should I get ? I would love to hear your opinions . (:

Hey, I am currently looking around for a motherboard that supports SLI, has wireless WiFi and can hold an Intel i5 3570k for overclocking. It is a budget PC, so the cheaper the better. But it has to have som preformance, so that it doesn't bottleneck either the CPU or the GPU. Right now I have the ASUS P8Z77-V in my sight, but do you have any tips for me? Thank you :)

Hey guys, this is my first post here at the forums :) So, I'm in a bit of a dilemma. My system specs are: Core i7 3820 (LGA2011) Asus Rampage IV Extreme MSI GTX 680 Twin Frozr III Corsair HX1050 NZXT Switch 810 Those are pretty much the important details you guys need to help me, if not - let me know and I'll post more specs. My question is, should I get a 780 and sell my 680, or should I find a cheap 680 and run SLI. What I'm planning on within a month or so, is to watercool my entire rig. So dual 680 would look cool and all, but is it really worth it considering the extra power it consumes and possible compatibility issues? Also, my usage is gaming and video editing. I don't play a ton of games, I've got like 2-3 games. BF3 and GTA IV. I'm going to buy GTA V and hope to play it all maxed out. I'm a mediaproducer so I do quite a lot of video editing for other companies, so something like CUDA is a thing I utilize a lot when possible. Thanks,

Hello, I was thinking about adding a third monitor to my rig and add a second GTX 670 (4gb version), now I am not so familiar with power distribution in a system (never did SLI) and I am wondering if I could easily do that on my current setup. Current setup: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T (6x 3300 MHz) Corsair H70 (CPU Watercooling) Gigabyte 990FXA-UD5 8GB Kingston DDR3 1600Mhz 1x OCZ 60GB SSD 2x 1TB Western Digital 7200rpm Gigabyte NVidia GTX 670 (4GB DDR5, Core Clock 980Mhz, Memory Clock 6008Mhz) Corsair 600D Case Corsair HX 850Watt Power Supply 2x 24inch Samsung BX2431 (1920x1080) Razer Black Widow Ultimate (Keyboard) Razer Naga Epic (Mouse) Windows 8 Pro (64bit) If I have to upgrade something please let me know. Thank you for the help, Poison

When do you think an MSI Extreme clocked twin forzr cooler titan will come out?

When playing Heavy games like metro last light my temps on one of them 560's get to around 90C and even higher.. after a few hours gameplay in that game its at like 95C having it on Vsynch helped a bit with the temps but not really a whole lot, i also had this "problem" in farcry 3 blood dragon reaching about 90C after 15m. the highest i have seen it go to in metro last light is 99C and when it goes to that i tab out of the game to let it cool down a bit, i do have my fans on my 2x 560 on full speed using MSI afterburner. i dont really like that its going that high so im asking if anyone got an idea to lower that temperatur, my 2nd gtx 560 hits around 10C lower than the other one. i have posted a picture of my rig below so you can check where i might be able to set a fan up or something like that.. My specs: I7 2600k 4.2Ghz 2x GTX 560 in SLI ( i believe the cooler is from Innon ) Cooler Master Silent Pro M 850W Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1866Mhz MSI PG7A-GD65 WD Green 5400RPM 1.5TB Samsung 840 Pro 256GB Corsair H80I *extra info - the fan infront is a 200mm sucking air into the system and then getting out in the back by using the 2 Fans on the rad. Stuff that i have laying around that might help -1x 120mm fan,1x maybe 80mm not sure and 1 that is even smaller than that and probably useless, also got some old heatsinks from diffrent computers but i doubt i could use them anyways. i do have some money to buy stuff if that is needed for something..... ( i dont bloody know ) Oh and totaly off topic is it allowed to make a "advertisement post" about a minecraft server? telling about what it haves and what not? would be stupid to make one if its not allowed :P

Greetings to all of you folks, been a lurker for a while and just made an account since this forum is the shizzle! :D I did a build a couple o' months ago and I've posted a buildlog on another forum back then(from a local pc-store, I'm from Belgium so for those other Belgians here, it's the Tones-forum :) )So now I tought to share my result with you guys! The buildlog itself has a ton of pictures but if you wan't i can share some later on since I don't wan't to put them all here atm :P. I've had a couple pc's in the past that were build and sold again and since I wanted to try watercooling with a costum-loop, I'd tought I would give it a shot ^^ Specs: - OS: Win8 Pro X64 - Intel I7 3930K @4,8Ghz/+-1.4V - Asus Rampage IV-E - 2x Asus GTX680 DCUII TOP @1280/6200 - Corsair Dominator's 2133C9 4x4GB kit - Corsair AX1200 + AX1200 Red sleeving kit - Corsair Obsidian 650D case - Corsair Force GT 240GB SSD - 2x 750Gb WD Black 2,5" HDD's - Scythe Master Pro 6-channel fancontroller - Lite-on BR RW optical drive - NZXT 2m sleeved white LED-cable kit - some NZXT& Alchemy black sleeved sata data&power cables - All cables are sleeved (including the front I/O, fancables, etc.) Cooling: - Swiftec Apogee HD Black cpu-block - XSPC Dualbay Res V4 - XSPC EX240 Slim Rad - XSPC EX120 Slim Rad - Phobya Extreme 200 Rad - All Bitspower true-silver and silver-shining fittings - Masterkleer UV RED tubing ( I know I'm not using UV lights, but those were the only good looking ones in stock at that time) - 2x EKWB Acetal+Nickel waterblocks - 2x EKWB Backplates - EKWB Tripple Serial bridge - EKWB Link Blank Serial CSQ - Acetal - EKWB Blood Red fluid - 3x Corsair SP120 Quiet edition fans - 2x Corsair 200mm fans (came with the case) I know the photo's are not that sharp but since I don't own a good camera, I had to take them with my phone..but you get the idea :) This next picture is from the back of the mobo tray with all the cables and you can see I was still busy assembling the loop and getting all the cables right.(note: not all cables were there atm, the build has been finished since the end of Feb. so there are some small changes here and there - it was also the first time I ever sleeved a couple cables and trying to get the cablemanagement as proper as I could) Like I said, there are far more pictures of the build in process, but it would take time to post them all at once :P. So if you guys want certain pictures (from a part of the build) or have questions about the build, feel free to ask and I will gladly answer :). Grtz!

Hey guys! (typo alert I'm writing this a late night) I just got my new system today, and one of the graphic cards fell out during shipping. So I got it connected, Hooked up to the motherboard, screwed in place and connected it to the sli bridge. But in my Nvdia control panel there's no sli option under the 3D menu? I'm getting a steady 60 fps on ultra in bf3 (it seems to be capping at 60 fps I have no idea why? Is there any tips to check if it's working? The build is as follows i7 3770k Gigabyte z77x-d3h motherboard 2 x msi gtx 660 twin frozr edition I'd guess that's all info you need, can't remember the other parts exactly on top of my head. I'm running windows 8. Hope that you can help me :)

I currently have a single gtx 660 in my rig, and i was wondering if it was worth getting another card to put in a multi gpu setup. i'm worried about the typical problems that come with multi gpu setups, like microstuttering, power consumption and all that jazz.

I was wondering if my Corsair CX600W power supply could handle two Asus 650 Ti Boosts. They require only one PCI-e power cable each, just wondering if its enough juice.

Hey everyone, So far I am loving my build (3570k, GTX 660 Ti, 8gb ram 1600mhz) I have been running all modern games at high-max and keeping decent FPS, but when big battles or other graphically intense moments happen my fps drops to 15 or below,. which I REALLY do not want, so i have to drop the settings a little bit. I am not planning on upgrading or getting another 660 Ti to run in SLI, so is there anything I can do to help FPS drops? It is not a big deal right now, but when I start playing newer first person games and the FPS drops will actually effect my gameplay (Ive been playing guild wars 2 and it only drops on large scale boss battles and stuff, so its not a big deal). I havnt done too much overclocking on my GPU, (I do have MSI Afterburner) Thanks in advanced for all tech tips =D. I average about 70 FPS when i do casual gameplay in guild wars 2 at nearly max settings. I always play in 1920X1080. CPU is NOT currently overclocked, but I do have the cooling to overclock it to 4.2 or higher, but i had troubles with crashes before so i keep it at stock speeds. Thanks agian!

I am wanting to build a PC but I am stuck on the GPU and Mobo, with a small case like a SG09/10, FT-03, Prodigy, Fractal Node, Etc. I have been amazed at the performance of the GTX 660ti and its almost doubled power output in Dual SLI, I was thinking of buying a 660ti at first then getting another when my budget allowed leading to incredible power and should allow me to use. but this would mean spending more on the PSU and needing more cooling which means more noise in either the FT-03 Case or the SG09/SG10. Also with mATX i could get a ROG Gene board with all those goodies. However getting a powerful card like a GTX 680 on an ITX board would reduce power consumption, the amount spent on the PSU and temperatures and noise. However it would be a much larger investment and i would need to replace the entire card to upgrade. although an upgrade would not be necessary for a while. or maybe should I get an mATX board and case with a GTX 680? with a wifi card or something else

Hey guys! Kind of new to the community. Hello. Yeah. So I've wanted to get in to water cooling for a looong time. I started looking around on Youtube, found Linus, Tinytomlogan and Singularitycomputers and got totally hooked. The thing is, my Zalman chassi has absolutely no space for adding anything more than an H100. After watching at least 30 unboxing videos of different chassis I couldn't find any that would fit well in to my living room next to the TV - which I use as my computer monitor. So I figured; why not just use an old tv-stand and put my rig in there? Specs: Motherboard - Gigabyte 990FXA UD3 rev 1.2 CPU - AMD Vishera 8350 @ 4.4GHZ (hoping to join the 5 ghz club once I'm finished) RAM - 16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHZ 9-9-9-24 CL9 GPU - ASUS GeForce GTX 680 2GB GPU2 - EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2GB SSD - Games Samsung 256GB 840 Pro Series HDD - 1TB 7200RPM PSU - Corsair HX 1050 watt with replacement sleeved cables (upgraded from my old 600w that was barely keeping up) EKWB CPU block, 2x GPU block and replacement top for my Liang Li DCC pump. 6x Corsair SP120 Liang Li motherboard tray A button to boot up my computer Some tubing, some EKWB fittings. Fancy T-virus res They forgot to send parts of my order it seems. And they got the wrong liquid. Oh well. Replacement PSU I found some used radiators on the cheap. Tested for leaks etc; they seem fine. 240mm x 40mm 480mm x 40mm The old tv-stand I had in the back, gathering dust. Not in the best condition but I like it. First things first; cant have it all wobbly. Time to sandpaper & paint the tray Yup Changed the top on my pump, added some of the fans and trying different positions for everything. Apparently the regular screws won't fit in the 240mm radiator. No fans there until I find screws that fit. Got stuck at the second GPU block because I didn't have any torx tool small enough to unscrew the stock cooler. That's all for today. Hopefully I'll get the rest done this weekend. I welcome any and all input/suggestions.

Hi, This summer I'll have 1000$ to spend on gpu/s. and question is: Wait and get a GTX 790 or buy 2 GTX 770 4gb ? and if anyone has better rumored specs about the 790 than http://videocardz.com/nvidia/geforce-700/geforce-gtx-790 has. it will be great to share! Thank you all!

What has more microstuttering, SLI or Crossfire?

Probably a stupid question but do i can SLI theys video cards? GTX 550Ti GTX660-DC2T-2GD5 Thanks for answer allready!

I'd like to know if I can run a GTX 770 and a GTX 670 in SLI. If I remember right, they are both based on the GK104 chip, so I think that they can be run in SLI, but the 770 might downclock to match the 670. If it's not possible, I might run the 770 powering my main monitor, and the 670 running the other two.