First time build.

[joelthezombie15]

I am planning on building a nice (not top of the line but not low end either) Gaming build for at the absolute most $2000USD that counts shipping and taxes to.I would like a PC that can run just about any Game no problem for atleast a few yearsive chosen almost all the parts but i need to know if there is anything i can do to reduce the price and i also have a few questions about things.

PARTS;

Case;nzxt Phantom already chosen

Mobo;Asus Maximus V formula w/thunderfx

RAM;Gskill ripjaws 8GB

PSU;corsair enthusiast tx750m

Hdd;western digital 1 or 2 tb drive

CPU;Intel i5 3570k

GPU;evga gtx 680 superclocked signature 2 OR; Two evga gtx 660 ftw

Heatsink;Xigmatek Gaia 120mm

OS;Window 7 home premium OEM

Parts set in stone:

Case

No ssd

Monitor

PSU

CPU

Mobo

Questions;

one 680 vs two 660's

Will The PSU be enough to power all of this?

Will i beable to run crysis 3 on ultra settings with a good framerate?

Anything i can improve on?

Where can i save some money by replacing things with cheaper parts and what should i put that money towards?

Thank you if i missed anything just tell me.

[Guest]

• PSU you can drop to a 600w and still be fine.
• Go the 680 over SLI'd 660's.
• Do you really need an ROG Board? What does that do that an Asrock Extreme or Asus P8Z77 doesn't?
• Why no SSD?

[NamelessTed]

I would definitely recommend a single GTX 680 over SLI 660Ti. Yes, the 660Ti will outperform a single 680 but the only room to upgrade would be a 3rd 660Ti or replacing both cards which I don't think is the best solution. With the 680 you are going to get great performance, and an easy upgrade down the road by just purchasing a second 680.

Also, why no SSD. I didn't get an SSD when I first put together my current build. I bought one a couple of months later and it hurt how much of an improvement it was. The overall responsiveness increase is just astounding. I would personally highly recommend an SSD to everybody at pretty much any budget. Even a low capacity SSD that are cheaper would absolutely be worth it to use as a boot drive.

[joelthezombie15]

I would definitely recommend a single GTX 680 over SLI 660Ti. Yes, the 660Ti will outperform a single 680 but the only room to upgrade would be a 3rd 660Ti or replacing both cards which I don't think is the best solution. With the 680 you are going to get great performance, and an easy upgrade down the road by just purchasing a second 680.

Also, why no SSD. I didn't get an SSD when I first put together my current build. I bought one a couple of months later and it hurt how much of an improvement it was. The overall responsiveness increase is just astounding. I would personally highly recommend an SSD to everybody at pretty much any budget. Even a low capacity SSD that are cheaper would absolutely be worth it to use as a boot drive.

i didnt want 660ti i wanted regular 660 and the ssd i will get later but price to memory isnt worth it it think im used to a computer from 2005 and load times arent to important for me now once i get alot of things on the drive im not getting a ssd or unless they get cheaper

[joelthezombie15]

• PSU you can drop to a 600w and still be fine.

• Go the 680 over SLI'd 660's.

• Do you really need an ROG Board? What does that do that an Asrock Extreme or Asus P8Z77 doesn't?

• Why no SSD?

i like the rog board mainly because of the rog connect and the thunderfx and i want the high quality if you can recommend a better board that has those same things and i like the overclockability and the triple slot gpu support in case i upgrade. thanks for the help though

[Guest]

• PSU you can drop to a 600w and still be fine.
  
• Go the 680 over SLI'd 660's.
  
• Do you really need an ROG Board? What does that do that an Asrock Extreme or Asus P8Z77 doesn't?
  
• Why no SSD?
  

1. External sound card instead of the SupremeFX.

2. Good power supply and heat distribution can be found on other boards - it isn't an RoG specific thing.

3. Running 3 way SLI on that board will not yield the performance you expect - you'd be limited to 8x, 4x, 4x.

4. Do you really need RoG Connect?

Asus P8Z77 boards, AsRock Extreme boards and some of MSI's offerings are all very good alternatives.

[NamelessTed]

I would definitely recommend a single GTX 680 over SLI 660Ti. Yes, the 660Ti will outperform a single 680 but the only room to upgrade would be a 3rd 660Ti or replacing both cards which I don't think is the best solution. With the 680 you are going to get great performance, and an easy upgrade down the road by just purchasing a second 680.

Also, why no SSD. I didn't get an SSD when I first put together my current build. I bought one a couple of months later and it hurt how much of an improvement it was. The overall responsiveness increase is just astounding. I would personally highly recommend an SSD to everybody at pretty much any budget. Even a low capacity SSD that are cheaper would absolutely be worth it to use as a boot drive.

I definitely wouldn't do 660 in SLI. The 680 is going to be a way better option.

In terms of the SSD, it isn't about storage or load time for games. I had the same idea when I put off buying an SSD. I had 10k RPM drives in a RAID configuration before and I thought the system was pretty snappy. upgrading to an SSD made my RAID setup look like a baby crawling around. Games don't really load faster, but boot times are insanely fast, and applications launch way quicker. If you can't fit it in your budget then I guess you can't afford it, but I think it is one of the more underrated parts in builds. 1TB+ drives just aren't good as boot drives.

[joelthezombie15]

I Have changed the mobo to a msi mpower board and im considering a ssd not a big one though

[joelthezombie15]

• PSU you can drop to a 600w and still be fine.
• Go the 680 over SLI'd 660's.
• Do you really need an ROG Board? What does that do that an Asrock Extreme or Asus P8Z77 doesn't?
• Why no SSD?

i changed the board to an msi thanks for the help