I haven't upgraded my PC in about 2 years, so I decided to really overhaul it last weeek. I upgraded everything major but the motherboard and the CPU, because honestly just overclocking the 2600k is enough to keep up with the two GTX 780s. I wanted to go 1440p, so that's why I decided on buying two GTX 780s, and the Dell U2713HM monitor I got is simply beautiful (and I bought it on sale for $549 shipped). I still am on the lookout for a good desk that suits my tastes, but I have yet to find anything and may just end up building one.
Dude, that's fucking ridiculous..... In a really good way.
Holy christ shitting a christmas tree. your video cards in total are twice what i spent on my whole system. and that included all brand new parts and a mini itx mobo in a silverstone case.
Just curious, but what do you do other than gaming? Do you do rending/any of the pro software out there too? Stream? just wondering about the SLI. It seems to me that if you're just gaming on one monitor you don't need the SLI. I could be wrong though.
I bought the same monitor a couple weeks back when it dropped to $575. Then camelcamelcamel alerted me this week that it had dropped to $550 (I forgot to remove my price alert after buying it). It seems to change prices multiple times/day.
Ask Amazon to refund the difference, they say they will for 1 week but I managed to get one around 2/3 weeks afterwards, £30 for less than a minutes work wasn't bad :D
I have to ask some things: How are your experiences with the h100i cooler? Performance and the noise level of the fans/pump , have you oc'd your system?
What's your general airflow/pressure in the system ? Positive or negative cooling , tell me 'bout fans n stuff.
Kind of a cooling freak here...
It looks awesome apart from the tiny mouse space. Beautiful build, really jealous of the 650D! Also I love the fact that you actually filled it up properly with 4 ram modules and a soundcard.
Yeah the keyboard/mouse tray is easily my least favorite part about the entire thing. I have a Goliathus mousepad and it is too large for the tray, so the keyboard sits on the left edge of it.
My next case has gotta be a Corsair. Everything they're coming out with are well made and freakin gorgeous.
I'm starting to really dig Corsair products, they are clean, simple, and sturdy.
I love my 600T white, absolutely love it, but the 650D is just so slick and clean so I've actually considered changing because the 600T is really "bulky" for a midi-tower
The 650D is not a small tower either. I'm 5'9" and I have a tough time carrying it. I'm not familiar with the 600T, but I want to make sure you know how big the 650D is.
The 600T is about 2 inches wider, .5 inch shorter and 1 inch deeper, but because of the way it looks, with the round edges, it seems really bulky, which doesn't feel as clean as the 650D. The big thing that's really holding me back is the fact that the 600T has a really great fan controller where you can set it to exactly whatever you want, while the 650D "only" has a three-mode fan controller.
I have the 500r and I regret not spending a bit more money. Dont get me wrong, it's a great case but its not really beautiful and cablemanagement is still a pain in the ass, even with all those holes.
I built my roomies PC in a 500r and I felt like it's a great case if you're not an enthusiast.
It is a great case for basic computers, but like you said, for enthusiasts its probably a bit too basic.
Your desk is what, 60cm deep? Surely you can fit everything on there?
I used to have that same desk. I used the keyboard on the tray, and my mouse up on the desk surface. It was bit weird at first to have them offset, but it was more comfortable to have more space to move the mouse around.
What exactly makes a soundcard better? I never quite understood that.
Also, what did you take the pictures with? They look great.
Why is it better to use 4x4gb rather than 2x8gb?
Some chipsets such as LGA 2011 support quad-channel ram, where having 4 modules will run slightly faster. If you just have 2 modules they will run in dual channel, and if you have 4 in a chipset which only supports dual channel they will run in dual channel.
1150 doesn't support quad channel, only 2011
It's not, in fact it puts less strain on the CPU on everything except 2011 MOBO's to have 2 x 8gb over 4 x 4 gb. 2 x 8 gb is more expensive though.
Extremely jealous of your build. Looking great! Just one question, isnt one GTX780 powerful enough to max out a single 1440p monitor? Or are you planning to expand to more monitors later on?
With current games I think it would do well, but I don't think a single 780 would run games like Crysis 3 or even Far Cry 3 at max settings at 1440p and get consistently over 60FPS. Plus, the two 780s will have a longer lifespan before I need to upgrade again.
You seriously underestimate the power of your rig. I game at 2560x1600p with two gtx580's in sli. 99% of games I turn off sli because they can run at max settings without it and i don't want the power bill going thru the roof any more than it should. Games like farcry 3 run perfectly at max settings with sli on. I can only assume you want to game with 32X AA on that monitor. I recommend getting a higher resolution monitor or getting more monitors to add to it. Very nice clean rig which I guarantee will be with you for longer than you think. :)
I remember when I went from a single 8800gt to 2x gtx280's in sli years back, it was like I just upgraded from a bicycle to a formula1 car. And when I got my pair of watercooled gtx580's it was like I upgraded to a rocket. I'm thinking of waiting for the next generation of cards before I upgrade again though the 700 series of cards is appealing.
That's more or less how I'm feeling now, it's like when I got my first 1080 monitor - games just seem to really pop. I've heard that the Maxwell cards when they come out will be unreal. Looking forward to seeing how they perform when they are released.
I went from 8800GTSs in SLI to GTX580s in SLI. I know that feel.
Obligatory "who is your daddy what do you do?"
Is that the sound card between the two GTX 780s?
Since you had so much $ to throw around and went so heavy on the 780's why not get a 120hz monitor? It's a huge difference.
I wanted to go 1440p. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe there are any monitors that run 120Hz 1440p out of the box.
Qnix and Catleap monitors with 2b boards (Korean A- panels) don't run 120hz out of the box, but can overclock very easily. I'm running 120hz on a single GTX770. However, as they are 'reject' panels, they can come with some dead pixels, mine has a few. But at that resolution they are unnoticeable unless you look for them.
I don't have the card(s) to power such a monitor but I'm starting to think that throwing a planned 780 at a 1080 screen is going to be serious overkill. You seem to have quite a bit of experience with this. Are there any special threads you would recomend I read up on to get some more information in this department (1440 and overclocking to 120). I'm in a similar situation of wanting to upgrade monitors next, I like the idea of both 1440 and 120hz, but leaning towards 1440. Also any suggestions as to just how much power I'd need? I'm coming from a 560Ti on a Samsung 27" 1080. I'd like to increase in performance and not stay stuck at what seems like a bogged down graphics card. Thanks in advance!
I'd love to actually witness this, because I have a hard time believing I could tell a difference between 120 and 60. Wish I had the opportunity.
You don't have local electronics retailers? Frys sells the BenQ ones.
I think the only way I'd be able to see a true difference is to throw a game up on it. And I am in no financial situation to afford one.
You can just drag a window around on your desktop and see the difference, it's very easy to see.
What skittay is referring to is:
Yeah I understand what you guys mean. When I watch TV on a 120+ television I notice a very smooth "as if I'm in the audience" motion. I'll have to try it out myself, I think it'd be awesome, but I doubt I'll ever have a PC capable of running a 1440p monitor at 120hz. And if I had to choose, I imagine I'd rather a 1440p 60hz monitor over a 1080p 120hz monitor. Would you say the stress on a computer would be equivalent for those two choices?
It depends on what you value more. Although I do a lot of gaming on 1440p, I actually value the resolution more for doing work (documents, spreadsheets, Photoshop, etc...). Gaming on 1080p is more than sufficient.
So, if you get a 120hz monitor, and have a card able to get more than 60fps but not necessarily 120fps, you will benefit by having a monitor that effectively displays those extra frames... That's an interesting way to look at it. A 780 that can run a few games at 1080 over 60fps would be losing overall effectiveness if paired with a 60hz monitor instead of a 120hz monitor, right?
Well, you generally want to have a buffer range of frames, as your frame rate will vary depending on what's being rendered. So with a 60hz monitor you'd ideally want to run something like 80fps so in intensive situations (e.g. explosions and shit) when you lose frames you won't dip below 60fps, which results in choppy gameplay. This effect is less noticeable at high refresh rates, so getting 80fps on a 120hz monitor is fine. For the full benefit of 120hz, you'll want ~140fps, but as long as you're between something like 75-140 you're still going to enjoy smoother gameplay.
Thanks, I will definitely give 120hz more of a chance later down the road. That's some great information that otherwise I wouldn't have ever delved into. Hopefully one day I can fire up my machine and be able to handle it.
This is spot on, though it has to be mentioned and emphasized that you actually do need to run at 120 FPS to get the full effect, which can be a problem for a lot of systems in newer games if you want your settings on high/ultra etc.
I need this in my life.
Nice build, but I would like to see more in the photo framing, i.e. show more of the desk etc, not just the computer and monitor. That is half of the fun of seeing other peoples' gaming setups afterall.
I don't know if this is common as I am new to this stuff, but did you put the 120mm between the cards? How did you mount it? :D
The best thing about this picture is the coaster. I am so happy I'm not the equips my gaming setup with this necessity!
Aw man, with those two 780s you should've went with a monitor that could give you 120hz, because you'd be hitting 60+ often.
