[CSX]

Hey. Kinda asked this already in Techsupport gaf but i just need some insurance.

I have one of the defective Haf X cases and just found out that all my computer freezes are due to me having to push my gpu towards the screwholes, creating a bad pci slot connection. Im currently have the video card unscrewed with the case lying on its side. I read that a solution is to bend the metal bracket for the card. Is that safe and how would you end up doing that? Card is a gtx580

[mkenyon]

Should be, pair of pliers ought to do it. You could also remove the bracket from the card beforehand, which should just be a few screws. Otherwise, there's always the tried and true zip ties.

[Karmum]

I just had my first SSD experience with booting up and installing stuff. I don't think I'm ever going back. The reinstallation of key programs and moving over files will be well worth it.

[CSX]

Should be, pair of pliers ought to do it. You could also remove the bracket from the card beforehand, which should just be a few screws. Otherwise, there's always the tried and true zip ties.

How ould you use zip ties? Through the screwholes? Wouldnt that still be loose?

[1-D_FTW]

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-VG236H-23...6782422&sr=1-1

Amazon lowered the price of the Asus VG236H to 305.99 for the new models. My amazon warehouse model doesn't come till Monday. Hope I didn't make a mistake. Would have totally went with this given a choice at the time.

SHAZBOT! And the 27 inch model has broken the psychological barrier of 600 and is selling for 594. I swear, prices always plummet whenever I make a PC purchase that I've been holding out on forever.

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-VG278H-27...782422&sr=1-10

[scogoth]

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-VG236H-23...6782422&sr=1-1 Amazon lowered the price of the Asus VG236H to 305.99 for the new models. My amazon warehouse model doesn't come till Monday. Hope I didn't make a mistake. Would have totally went with this given a choice at the time. SHAZBOT! And the 27 inch model has broken the psychological barrier of 600 and is selling for 594. I swear, prices always plummet whenever I make a PC purchase that I've been holding out on forever. http://www.amazon.com/Asus-VG278H-27...782422&sr=1-10

I'm glad I got the VG236 cause it a was an upgrade path for my 3xVG236 setup. If I was going one screen the 27in would be the way to go.

[Shambles]

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-VG236H-23...6782422&sr=1-1 Amazon lowered the price of the Asus VG236H to 305.99 for the new models. My amazon warehouse model doesn't come till Monday. Hope I didn't make a mistake. Would have totally went with this given a choice at the time. SHAZBOT! And the 27 inch model has broken the psychological barrier of 600 and is selling for 594. I swear, prices always plummet whenever I make a PC purchase that I've been holding out on forever. http://www.amazon.com/Asus-VG278H-27...782422&sr=1-10

Do some of you rich people want to be my token rich friend? I see all this gear, and could even be tempted to buy some of it if it wasn't a blind buy. I still don't even know of a single person who owns a 120hz monitor but from what I hear online it might force me into the dreaded 16:9 aspect ration instead of picking up more 16:10 IPS panels. Now if there was a 120hz IPS 16:10 display i would be in nirvana.

[scogoth]

Do some of you rich people want to be my token rich friend? I see all this gear, and could even be tempted to buy some of it if it wasn't a blind buy. I still don't even know of a single person who owns a 120hz monitor but from what I hear online it might force me into the dreaded 16:9 aspect ration instead of picking up more 16:10 IPS panels. Now if there was a 120hz IPS 16:10 display i would be in nirvana.

what about 16:3?

[ParityBit]

Hi All. Thanks to mkenyon's assistance today, and my new RAM (G.Skill Ripjaws X) I got delivered, my machine is purring smoothly with 1866 mhz RAM.

Tonight I will be running Prime95 to make sure it is stable and do a quick 3DMark11!

[j2theizzay]

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-VG236H-23...6782422&sr=1-1 Amazon lowered the price of the Asus VG236H to 305.99 for the new models. My amazon warehouse model doesn't come till Monday. Hope I didn't make a mistake. Would have totally went with this given a choice at the time. SHAZBOT! And the 27 inch model has broken the psychological barrier of 600 and is selling for 594. I swear, prices always plummet whenever I make a PC purchase that I've been holding out on forever. http://www.amazon.com/Asus-VG278H-27...782422&sr=1-10

Just ordered my VG236H from Newegg. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236092
$306 after 15% off promo, plus there's a $30 rebate.

[ParityBit]

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-VG236H-23...6782422&sr=1-1 Amazon lowered the price of the Asus VG236H to 305.99 for the new models. My amazon warehouse model doesn't come till Monday. Hope I didn't make a mistake. Would have totally went with this given a choice at the time. SHAZBOT! And the 27 inch model has broken the psychological barrier of 600 and is selling for 594. I swear, prices always plummet whenever I make a PC purchase that I've been holding out on forever. http://www.amazon.com/Asus-VG278H-27...782422&sr=1-10

I JUST bought the 27 inch 2 weeks ago! I emailed Amazon for a price match! Thanks :). Hope I get it!

[PaladinsArc]

My build.

I need to order my parts by Monday but nobody has the ASUS GTX 680s in stock. :(

(I like ASUS products.)

I guess if I can find an ASUS 690 I'll go with that since, based on this review, "95% of the performance of the GTX 680 SLI at 5760x1200 and 96% of the performance at 2560x1600." Hopefully one of these pops up too.

[ParityBit]

So I just ran 3Dmark 2011.

P15555

Not too bad I don't think. I will have to try OCing my CPU maybe.

[DiabolicalBagel]

Do some of you rich people want to be my token rich friend? I see all this gear, and could even be tempted to buy some of it if it wasn't a blind buy. I still don't even know of a single person who owns a 120hz monitor but from what I hear online it might force me into the dreaded 16:9 aspect ration instead of picking up more 16:10 IPS panels. Now if there was a 120hz IPS 16:10 display i would be in nirvana.

Don't give up! 120Hz 16:10 IPS must come eventually. I'm still holding out hope that the LG DM92 will be a decent panel, although rumour suggests it'll be 1080p and 60Hz passive 3D.
If it is I'll probably just stick to my single 16:10 'til the end of time.

[MooMoo]

Hey PC-GAF. Building a PC has always been on my list of things to do and it seems like I finally might have the money to do so! It has been a while since I've actually looked at/built a desktop though, so advice would be appreciated :3

• Price Range: < $1000
• CPU: Intel i5 2500K
• Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V LK
• RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance
• Graphics Card: GTX560Ti
• Hard Drive: Samsung F3 1TB
• PSU:Antec BP550 Plus 550W
• Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST
• Case: Bitfenix Shinobi

Not a complete list as there's a few things I'm confused about:
1. With front USB slots, how does that work exactly? I imagine that it's either the motherboard has front USB slots built in or you just wire the front USB slots to the ports on the motherboard. Which is why I kind of left the motherboard blank. Any suggestions for a particular type/brand would be nice.

2. Does the brand of the graphics card really matter? i.e. Are there any particular brands to avoid? I noticed a PNY brand on tigerdirect.com (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...409&CatId=3585) and it seems to be the cheapest of all the places I checked but wasn't sure if the brand was trustworthy.

3. Is there a potentially better bang/buck graphics card I should get? Currently planning to play D3 at 1650x1050 and near max settings would be nice. There are a few other games I play too like SC2, RE6 (in the future), and a few steam games like Batman: AA/AC.

4. I was reading through comments about the Samsung F3 1TB and it seems like the one listed on newegg is actually a Seagate hard drive/not the spinpoint? Kinda wondering if this matters/what other 1TB hard drives are out there.

5. A suggestion for a case would be helpful. Kind of want something sleek and simplistic.

6. Is applying my own heatsink necessary? I'm currently not interested in overclocking (but may consider it in the future).

Sorry if the questions are kind of newbish. Any major revisions to what I have listed is appreciated. Thanks for the help!

[mkenyon]

Hi All. Thanks to mkenyon's assistance today, and my new RAM (G.Skill Ripjaws X) I got delivered, my machine is purring smoothly with 1866 mhz RAM. Tonight I will be running Prime95 to make sure it is stable and do a quick 3DMark11!

Glad it worked out!

[CSX]

Anyone know if they make bridges that connect two screwholes for the back panel? Im thinking if they exist, i can bend the backpanel and maintain the bend by screwing in the bridge. That will be one way to fix my misalignment for my video card.

[dmann]

Hey PC-GAF. Building a PC has always been on my list of things to do and it seems like I finally might have the money to do so! It has been a while since I've actually looked at/built a desktop though, so advice would be appreciated :3 Price Range: < $1000 CPU: Intel i5 2500K Motherboard: ?? RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance Graphics Card: GTX560Ti Hard Drive: Samsung F3 1TB PSU: BP550 Plus Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST Case: ?? Not a complete list as there's a few things I'm confused about: 1. With front USB slots, how does that work exactly? I imagine that it's either the motherboard has front USB slots built in or you just wire the front USB slots to the ports on the motherboard. Which is why I kind of left the motherboard blank. Any suggestions for a particular type/brand would be nice. 2. Does the brand of the graphics card really matter? i.e. Are there any particular brands to avoid? I noticed a PNY brand on tigerdirect.com (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...409&CatId=3585) and it seems to be the cheapest of all the places I checked but wasn't sure if the brand was trustworthy. 3. Is there a potentially better bang/buck graphics card I should get? Currently planning to play D3 at 1650x1050 and near max settings would be nice. There are a few other games I play too like SC2, RE6 (in the future), and a few steam games like Batman: AA/AC. 4. I was reading through comments about the Samsung F3 1TB and it seems like the one listed on newegg is actually a Seagate hard drive/not the spinpoint? Kinda wondering if this matters/what other 1TB hard drives are out there. 5. A suggestion for a case would be helpful. Kind of want something sleek and simplistic. 6. Is applying my own heatsink necessary? I'm currently not interested in overclocking (but may consider it in the future). Sorry if the questions are kind of newbish. Any major revisions to what I have listed is appreciated. Thanks for the help!

I'll take a stab at your questions.

1. Most mobos have additional usb i/o connector ports near the front of the motherboard. Whatever case you have, the case's front usb ports must be connected to those usb connector ports on the motherboard. Look at your motherboard and/or case manual for more info.

2. For Nvidia cards, I usually pick EVGA. For Radeon cards, I usually go with Sapphire but any of the manufacturers will do. A lot of times, the manufacturers just follow the reference design boards.

3. I think the GTX 560Ti you selected will serve you well and is good value.

4. Seagate bought Samsung's hard drive division. Thus all future Samsung hdd will be branded Seagate. If its made in China, it probably came from a Seagate manufacturing plant. Only (2) major players left in the HDD market: Western Digital or Seagate so go with either brand.

5. There's been a lot of recommendations for the Fractal cases, which has a simple and sleek design.

6. Grab a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo (~$25 - $30), your cpu will thank you later.

[Takuya]

My build. I need to order my parts by Monday but nobody has the ASUS GTX 680s in stock. :( (I like ASUS products.) I guess if I can find an ASUS 690 I'll go with that since, based on this review, "95% of the performance of the GTX 680 SLI at 5760x1200 and 96% of the performance at 2560x1600." Hopefully one of these pops up too.

680 http://ncix.com/products/?sku=69860&...nufacture=ASUS
690 http://ncix.com/products/?sku=71419&...nufacture=ASUS

[Doc Holliday]

Holy crap i thought i was gpu limited on a i7 930 @ 3.5 amd 7970. Bf3 is so much smoother on a 3770k. Pleasantly surprised :) Didn't even fresh install!

[PaladinsArc]

680 http://ncix.com/products/?sku=69860&...nufacture=ASUS 690 http://ncix.com/products/?sku=71419&...nufacture=ASUS

Ahh thanks. The 690 is sold out in the US but the 680 is avail. $50-80 more than most vendors but at least it's in stock.

[Skel1ingt0n]

Holy crap i thought i was gpu limited on a i7 930 @ 3.5 amd 7970. Bf3 is so much smoother on a 3770k. Pleasantly surprised :) Didn't even fresh install!

Really?

What video card? I always feel like I'm GPU limited on my 930 @ 3.4. I have a OC'd 570 right now, and most the time my GPU utilization is at 99%, but my CPU usage is less than 70% on every core.

[KieferCrimson]

Another question for you all. When do I need to apply thermal paste? I'm getting another motherboard but will keep on using the same processor and heatsink.

Even if I have good temps and I'll just switch things from one board to the other do I need to apply it? Or is it only when you're having overheating issues or installing brand new stuff? Thanks in advance.

[scottXplosion]

Holy crap i thought i was gpu limited on a i7 930 @ 3.5 amd 7970. Bf3 is so much smoother on a 3770k. Pleasantly surprised :) Didn't even fresh install!

You shouldn't be anywhere close to being CPU limited in BF3 with an i7 930.

[Takuya]

I just bit the bullet on a 690 GTX =_=

I feel so dirty... but happy at the same time.

[Doc Holliday]

Really? What video card? I always feel like I'm GPU limited on my 930 @ 3.4. I have a OC'd 570 right now, and most the time my GPU utilization is at 99%, but my CPU usage is less than 70% on every core.

7970

I thought the same thing but I was never able to run with HBAO and AA at max the way it's running now.

I didn't think going from a 930 to ivy bridge would make that big of a difference in gpu heavy games like bf3. It probably has to do with how intense multiplayer is. I do have faster ram and pcie 3.0 maybe that helps.

[Deputy Moonman]

5. A suggestion for a case would be helpful. Kind of want something sleek and simplistic.

Definitely not as sleek or simple looking as the Fractal cases, but the Lian Li Lancool pc-k63 (people either like the look of it or hate it) has a nice set of features and moves a lot of air. And it's at a good price right now with promo code. Probably shouldn't be listed as a mid-tower though. It's a little bigger. I have the pc-k62 and would really like to switch to this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ncool%20pc-k63

[faceless007]

Is there any reason the Sandy Bridge overclocking guide linked in the OP couldn't also be used for IB?

[Unknown Soldier]

I was ready and I had the cash saved up for an upgrade from my current i7-950@4.0 ghz box to Ivy Bridge. Now I'm not so sure, the money spent just doesn't seem worth it to me.

Maybe I'll buy a new laptop instead, my current one recently passed 3 years of service and I've dropped it a number of times. I actually pulled the optical drive out because it was so fucked from being dropped and would lock the machine on wakeup from sleep.

Is there a Laptop-GAF who can advise me on a new laptop? I really want an IPS screen in the 14-15" range with a decent resolution, if such a thing exists. Decent quality sound out of built-in speakers and good audio out of the headphone jack is a priority. HDMI output would be a plus as well.

[Karmum]

Man, loading games are sooo smooth and quick. It's pretty crazy that I've filled up this whole SSD almost. I'll have ~30GB left after BF3 finishes installing. Hopefully cram a few more games in there.

[MrBig]

Man, loading games are sooo smooth and quick. It's pretty crazy that I've filled up this whole SSD almost. I'll have ~30GB left after BF3 finishes installing. Hopefully cram a few more games in there.

I'd slow down on that. SSDs lose performance and stability as you get them near capacity. Should have gotten a bigger one if you were planning on installing all your games to it.
e: by that I mean <5gb range.

[kharma45]

[*]Graphics Card: GTX560Ti 3. Is there a potentially better bang/buck graphics card I should get? Currently planning to play D3 at 1650x1050 and near max settings would be nice. There are a few other games I play too like SC2, RE6 (in the future), and a few steam games like Batman: AA/AC.

If you can afford the extra outlay I'd go for the 7850 with a good cooler like the MSI ones and OC the hell out of it, beast of a card for the price.

It and the 670 are the two cards in their respective sweet points, hard to look past either (depending on budget of course).

[Karmum]

I'd slow down on that. SSDs lose performance and stability as you get them near capacity. Should have gotten a bigger one if you were planning on installing all your games to it. e: by that I mean <5gb range.

Heh, wasn't ready to cough up like another $100+ for double the amount of memory. Don't think I'll get below the 5GB range, the last few games I want to get on there are actually pretty small.

[Ledsen]

I was actually surprised at how little space I really NEEDED when I installed my SSD. Most of the stuff that fills up a normal 1TB+ HDD is stuff you never use or just "archive" on there. Windows, all the necessary programs, and a couple of games, and I've still got ~60 GB free on my 128 GB drive.

[Unknown Soldier]

I was actually surprised at how little space I really NEEDED when I installed my SSD. Most of the stuff that fills up a normal 1TB+ HDD is stuff you never use or just "archive" on there. Windows, all the necessary programs, and a couple of games, and I've still got ~60 GB free on my 128 GB drive.

Your average MMO is ~10-20GB in size. Install a few of those and you'll find yourself burning through HDD space like no tomorrow.

[MrBig]

Your average MMO is ~10-20GB in size. Install a few of those and you'll find yourself burning through HDD space like no tomorrow.

Yep. I'm banking on 256gb SSDs getting to the <$150 range by the end of the year when Windows 8 comes out so I can grab one of those and do a clean install onto W8. Will be using W8 CP/RC as my only OS though when I build with an HDD soon, since it's pointless for me to buy another W7 license and I want to sell this laptop.

[Ledsen]

Your average MMO is ~10-20GB in size. Install a few of those and you'll find yourself burning through HDD space like no tomorrow.

I don't play MMOs so I wouldn't know. Perfectly happy with 120 GB for all my single player needs though.

[teh_pwn]

Is there any reason the Sandy Bridge overclocking guide linked in the OP couldn't also be used for IB?

Yes, because you would fry your CPU.

Ivy heats up RAPIDLY with voltage.

[Entropia]

Hey guys, if you were to upgrade 1-2 things in my PC what would they be?

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Processor @ 3.40 GHz
RAM: 8 GB (4x 2GB)
Video Card: eVGA GTX 460
PSU: Corsair VX 450W
HDD: WD Caviar Black 1TB
Case: Coolermaster Elite 330U

I mostly game - World of Warcraft, D3 next week. Planning to play Borderlands when it comes out.

I'm thinking just a RAM upgrade would suffice.

[ShinOkazaki]

Ok GAF, I've decided to jump the fence and build myself a computer, and as soon as i manage to sell my mac pro I'll order the following pieces, would like some feedback about it.

Case: fractal Arc Midi
Motherboard: Asus P8z77-v
Processor: Intel i73770k
GPU: AMD 7950 3GB
Ram: corsair 16gb DDR3 1600Mhz-999 Vengeance
Cooling system: Corsair H100
Power Supply: Corair TX850

Thanks, and lots of love for this thread and the community that drives it, it's awesome and has helped me a lot :)

[1-D_FTW]

Hey guys, if you were to upgrade 1-2 things in my PC what would they be? CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Processor @ 3.40 GHz RAM: 8 GB (4x 2GB) Video Card: eVGA GTX 460 PSU: Corsair VX 450W HDD: WD Caviar Black 1TB Case: Coolermaster Elite 330U I mostly game - World of Warcraft, D3 next week. Planning to play Borderlands when it comes out. I'm thinking just a RAM upgrade would suffice.

For gaming? Adding more RAM is going to benefit you none. And I mean literally. On a scale of 0 to 1,000,000, it's going to provide 0.

[K' Dash]

So guys, I'm thinking of replacing the 6870 for the PC I'm building for a beefier 7850, now, I'm importing everything from the US, is there any reliable place online where I can buy the 7850 for under $250?, newegg is sold out and the ones on amazon are $260 and up from sellers :-/

[MooMoo]

Updated my post with links!

Hey PC-GAF. Building a PC has always been on my list of things to do and it seems like I finally might have the money to do so! It has been a while since I've actually looked at/built a desktop though, so advice would be appreciated :3 Price Range: < $1000 CPU: Intel i5 2500K Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V LK RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance Graphics Card: GTX560Ti Hard Drive: Samsung F3 1TB PSU:Antec BP550 Plus 550W Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST Case: Bitfenix Shinobi

I'll take a stab at your questions. 1. Most mobos have additional usb i/o connector ports near the front of the motherboard. Whatever case you have, the case's front usb ports must be connected to those usb connector ports on the motherboard. Look at your motherboard and/or case manual for more info.

Cool, that's what I kind of figured. Does the motherboard I have now have what I need to be able to do such a thing?

Thanks for the tips! I think I'll go with EVGA just for ease of mind. Don't really mind spending the extra$ 20 for brand name.

Definitely not as sleek or simple looking as the Fractal cases, but the Lian Li Lancool pc-k63 (people either like the look of it or hate it) has a nice set of features and moves a lot of air. And it's at a good price right now with promo code. Probably shouldn't be listed as a mid-tower though. It's a little bigger. I have the pc-k62 and would really like to switch to this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ncool%20pc-k63

I think I'm gonna go with shinobi. I like the one you linked but I kinda want to take the minimalistic look a step further. My current desktop is pretty much a frankenstein (still love it though <3) so I want to do a complete 180 in terms of looks/design. Thanks for the suggestion anyways!

If you can afford the extra outlay I'd go for the 7850 with a good cooler like the MSI ones and OC the hell out of it, beast of a card for the price. It and the 670 are the two cards in their respective sweet points, hard to look past either (depending on budget of course).

Could you check my current configuration and see if I would have the extra outlay?

I have a few other questions:
1. I know dmann recommended me to just get thermal paste, but I'm assuming this isn't a requirement (i.e. my desktop won't melt if I don't do it -- currently not planning to OC but may do so in the future)? It sure as hell looks like a simple enough process but I'm just a little hesitant in doing it myself I guess.

2. What about cooling? Will I need additional fans or the like? Or will I be fine with just buying the parts listed above?

3. What can I expect in terms of sound level/loudness? My current desktop really sounds like a plane taking off and I can pretty much hear it from the other end of the house whenever it's on.

[MrBig]

Alright, I've finally got my specs set in stone.

[]Case: $120 Fractal Design R3 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811352014 []Mobo: $190 ASUS P8Z77-V - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131820 [x]RAM: $47 8gb Vengeance LP - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233186 []GPU: $410 Asus GTX 670 DCII - [x]CPU: $230 3570K - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116504 []Heatsink: $53 HR-02 Macho - http://www.amazon.com/ThermalRight-H.../dp/B005ERSN7G []PSU: $90 Seasonic 620w Mod - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151095 []HDD: $90 Samsung F3 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152185 [x]Soundcard: $14 Xonar DG - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829132020 [x]Thermal Compund: $9 MX-4 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835186038 []Monitor: $340 PCBank (27" 2560x1440) - Total: $1578

The benches of the 670 at 2560 convinced me to go $100 over budget. Hopefully it just means I can go an extra year or two without upgrading the GPU, and do that when I do a full system upgrade.
Just buying everything in stages as money comes in, probably going to be a week or three until I'll actually be building :(

[1-D_FTW]

So guys, I'm thinking of replacing the 6870 for the PC I'm building for a beefier 7850, now, I'm importing everything from the US, is there any reliable place online where I can buy the 7850 for under $250?, newegg is sold out and the ones on amazon are $260 and up from sellers :-/

Any particuliar reason you can't do 260?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...YTE-_-14125419

You could easily sell that Dirt Showdown coupon to get that money back.

Otherwise, Provantage has one for 244.xxx

http://www.provantage.com/sapphire-t...g~7SAPP06N.htm

I don't vouch for the guys, but I do think I've ordered once or twice without issues.

[kharma45]

Could you check my current configuration and see if I would have the extra outlay?

At the minute you're $347.28 under your $1000 budget so a 7850 is easily attainable.

I've no real idea what the prices are like over there in the US but as a direct comparison this is £40 less than I paid here for my 7850

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...Tpk=msi%207850

Unfortunate that one is out of stock as I'm very, very pleased with my TFIII one. The Asus and Sapphire ones are OoS too annoyingly and I don't really know much about the rest with regards to how good they are.

The HIS one seems pretty cheap at $220 after rebate so could be worth a serious look although I don't know much about them as a brand with regards to reliability etc.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161406

[K' Dash]

Any particuliar reason you can't do 260? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...YTE-_-14125419 You could easily sell that Dirt Showdown coupon to get that money back. Otherwise, Provantage has one for 244.xxx http://www.provantage.com/sapphire-t...g~7SAPP06N.htm I don't vouch for the guys, but I do think I've ordered once or twice without issues.

does the brand really matter? I mean, I don't mind getting a gygabyte instead of a saphire if it is the same thing.

[1-D_FTW]

does the brand really matter? I mean, I don't mind getting a gygabyte instead of a saphire if it is the same thing.

My old 8800GT was a Gigabyte and it left me with a good impression when it came to Gigabyte and GPUs. I certainly wouldn't have issues with purchasing another Gigabyte branded GPU.

[Cptkrush]

Ok, it's time for a new processor and Mobo as I have come to a situation where i need to sell the old one to a friend asap. Now, I would like an upgrade from what I have Phenom II x4 925 O.C. at 3.4ghz. I would really like to find a used i5-2500k for under 160 bucks, but It seems i've been unable to and this needs to happen by tuesday. So, I'm wondering now, with O.C. included, would it be a better upgrade from what I have to go with the FX-8120 over an i3?
I'm about to pull the trigger on this combo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103961
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157280

for the price, is there anything better(needs to have crossfire support as well)? Keep in mind, it would have to out perform my PII 925.

Also, what's a good price for the old CPU and mobo combo? The mobo is an msi 770g45. I told him maybe 75 and he seems ok with it, however, he's desperate for a cheap combo.


Edit: sorry forgot to include budget, I'd like to stay under 250 bucks total.

[kharma45]

does the brand really matter? I mean, I don't mind getting a gygabyte instead of a saphire if it is the same thing.

If you need to RMA something it will.