Need to build future proof gaming rig for 80k

1. What is the purpose of the computer? What all applications and games are you going to run? (Stupid answers like 'gaming' or 'office work' will not work. Be exact. Which games? Which applications? Avoid the word 'et cetera.')
Ans: Gaming and watching HD movies. Games like BF3, Crysis2, Metro, etc. Also should be able to play future titles like Crysis 3, GTA 5, etc

2. What is your overall budget? If you can extend a bit for a more balanced configuration, then mention this too.
Ans: 80k.. can be extended by 5k if really needed..

3. Planning to overclock?
Ans: Never

4. Which Operating System are you planning to use?
Ans: windows 7 home premium (I already own a licensed copy)

5. How much hard drive space is needed?
Ans:1 TB

6. Do you want to buy a monitor? If yes, please mention which screen size and resolution do you want. If you already have a monitor and want to reuse it, again mention the size and resolution of monitor you have.
Ans: Already have monitor. 22 inch.. 1920x1080

7. Which components you DON'T want to buy or which components you already have and plan on reusing?
Ans: - Keyboard and Mouse

8. When are you planning to buy the system?
Ans: before 10th Jan 13

9. Have you ever built a desktop before or will this be done by an assembler?
Ans: This will be my first one..

10. Where do you live? Are you buying locally? Are you open to buying stuff from online shops if you don't get locally?
Ans: Pune.. Prefer to buy locally (Pune or Mumbai)

11. Anything else which you would like to say?
Ans: I will be playing only at 1920x1080.. Motherboard should be future proof so that I can upgrade to SLI/Crossfire in next 1 year.
So far, I have done research on only graphics cards.. But still not sure if I should go for GTX670 or 7970..

H

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K , 13900
GC: Sapphire HD7970 OC 2Gb, 28500
MB: Asus p8 z77 v pro 15500
RAM: 8GB DDR3 G Skill RipjawsX (2133Mhz), 4000
PSU: Corsair TX 850, 7500
COOLER: Cooler Master 212 Hyper Evo cooler 2100
CASE: Corsair 500r, 6460
HDD: WD Black SATA 1TB 7200rpm, 6040
OD: Asus DVD Burner DRW-24B3ST, 1000
TOTAL 85000

hitman4 said:
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K , 13900
GC: Sapphire HD7970 OC 2Gb, 28500
MB: Asus p8 z77 v pro 15500
RAM: 8GB DDR3 G Skill RipjawsX (2133Mhz), 4000
PSU: Corsair TX 850, 7500
COOLER: Cooler Master 212 Hyper Evo cooler 2100
CASE: Corsair 500r, 6460
HDD: WD Black SATA 1TB 7200rpm, 6040
OD: Asus DVD Burner DRW-24B3ST, 1000
TOTAL 85000

Thanks.. Will I be able to mount 2 7970 in crossfire on the ASUS motherboard you suggested? I am planning to have second GPU in next 12 months..

Yes you can but the belive me, you're never going to add another HD 7970 after 1 year. Reason, on that time newer GPU will be available with at lesser price point.

H

i would suggest asus maximus v gene for single gpu and asus z77 v pro for multi gpu because its an atx motherboard

Cilus said:
Yes you can but the belive me, you're never going to add another HD 7970 after 1 year. Reason, on that time newer GPU will be available with at lesser price point.

Agreed. But after 1 year I will have two options, first is to get another 7970 and run it in crossfire mode and second to get top graphics card at that time and get rid of existing 7970. I guess 7970 in crossfire mode will perform much better than top single graphics card (8970 or whatever) after one year.
Please correct me if I am wrong.

hitman4 said:
i would suggest asus maximus v gene for single gpu and asus z77 v pro for multi gpu because its an atx motherboard

Point noted. Micro ATX for single Graphics card and ATX for double..

H

pain4ever said:
Agreed. But after 1 year I will have two options, first is to get another 7970 and run it in crossfire mode and second to get top graphics card at that time and get rid of existing 7970. I guess 7970 in crossfire mode will perform much better than top single graphics card (8970 or whatever) after one year.
Please correct me if I am wrong.

Most probably you are right...... But we cannot predict the performance of the card and also the release of new drivers after one year.....

hitman4 said:
Most probably you are right...... But we cannot predict the performance of the card and also the release of new drivers after one year.....

Yes. So, I just want to have a motherboard, cabinet and PSU which will be able to hold 2 graphics card.. I am fine with 7970 but I am just concern with it's huge size occupying 3 slots making it hard to fit in second 7970..

H

pain4ever said:
Yes. So, I just want to have a motherboard, cabinet and PSU which will be able to hold 2 graphics card.. I am fine with 7970 but I am just concern with it's huge size occupying 3 slots making it hard to fit in second 7970..

sapphire cards occupy only two slots.....
so no need to worry

and for motherboard you will be fine. but if you can spend more go for asus z77 sabertooth.
same with psu 850 watts are enough for dual crossfire but if you plan on triple or quad crossfire than better get Corsair AX1200.... Which is again quite a bit expensive.

pain4ever said:
Thanks.. Will I be able to mount 2 7970 in crossfire on the ASUS motherboard you suggested? I am planning to have second GPU in next 12 months..

How many displays are you gonna use and at what resolutions? If its 1920 x 1080 and one , you will be wasting money with two HD7970 in CF. Simple

The Incinerator said:
How many displays are you gonna use and at what resolutions? If its 1920 x 1080 and one , you will be wasting money with two HD7970 in CF. Simple

Thanks for highlighting this.. I am going to use only one monitor with 1080p and can't see using multiple displays in future as well. All I want is to have more than 60 FPS on titles such as Crysis 3, GTA 5 and games coming out in next 3/4 years at 1080p resolution with all settings maxed out.

So, do you think 7970 CF will be overkill for my requirement? If yes, will GTX 670 SLI be a better option for me?
Please note than I am planning to build the rig which will be able to handle games @60FPS and @1080p for next 3/4 years.

I dont know honestly as to what Crytek and Rockstar is up to ,even if I say an yes or no that you will be ON for the next 3/4 years on a 670SLi it will be a mere prediction.

But for a single monitor running at 1920 x 1080 lines Horizontally and Vertically (Progressive or Intrelaced)and refreshing at 60 frames a second, I think you are pretty secured with a good variant of an HD7970 OC at least for two years down the line, IMO and under predictions!

The Incinerator said:
I dont know honestly as to what Crytek and Rockstar is up to ,even if I say an yes or no that you will be ON for the next 3/4 years on a 670SLi it will be a mere prediction.

But for a single monitor running at 1920 x 1080 lines Horizontally and Vertically (Progressive or Intrelaced)and refreshing at 60 frames a second, I think you are pretty secured with a good variant of an HD7970 OC at least for two years down the line, IMO and under predictions!

I guess I will go with single "Sapphire HD7970 OC 2Gb" which hitman4 suggested for now. With "Asus p8 z77 v pro" I will be able to go for Crossfire in future if needed.

I am happy with Graphics card, Mobo and Processor which hitman4 suggested. Is Corsair 500r good enough to handle 2 HD7970? (Just trying to be future proof here)

500R is around Rs 7500 ... IMO for Rs 300/400 more it is better to get a NZXT Phantom any damn day. 500R is way too overpriced for what it is. 400R makes more sense. A Phantom with a side 200mm Intake moving 166 CFM of air and two 200mm Exhausts on the top will be the best bet when its cooling. It has a 5 Channel fan controller built in too.

The Incinerator said:
500R is around Rs 7500 ... IMO for Rs 300/400 more it is better to get a NZXT Phantom any damn day. 500R is way too overpriced for what it is. 400R makes more sense. A Phantom with a side 200mm Intake moving 166 CFM of air and two 200mm Exhausts on the top will be the best bet when its cooling. It has a 5 Channel fan controller built in too.

500R IS overpriced.
Price of 400R is 4.5K, which is VFM, but not 500R.

H

go for 400r and get a better cooler....

hitman4 said:
go for 400r and get a better cooler....

He wants to cool the GPUs.......primarily.

@OP - Do not buy anything from Pune... I repeat.. do not buy anything from Pune... Sellers here just rip off the customers. Its better to get components shipped from Mumbai from likes of primeabgb. You can try contacting havoknation (Rajat) here on TDF. He owns a shop in KP and would be able to give you a competitive pricing.

pain4ever said:
I guess I will go with single "Sapphire HD7970 OC 2Gb" which hitman4 suggested for now. With "Asus p8 z77 v pro" I will be able to go for Crossfire in future if needed.

I am happy with Graphics card, Mobo and Processor which hitman4 suggested. Is Corsair 500r good enough to handle 2 HD7970? (Just trying to be future proof here)

If you are planning for multigpu in future, opt for Gtx 680 instead. Sli gives a better experience than crossfire in most games. Note that i said better experience and not outright better fps.
A custom gtx 680 is more than enough to start with. A factory overclocked gtx 680 ( 50-70 mhz) performs almost on par with a 7970 ghz edition. So you don't sacrifice much even for a single gpu.

When you sli, the difference will be there as it will give a much smoother experience.

The card to get is this imho:

GIGABYTE GRAPHIC CARD GTX 680 2GB DDR5 OC

You can also consider a 670 sli and lower the overall cost.

GIGABYTE GRAPHIC CARD GTX 670 2GB DDR5

Vicky, he isn't talking about SLI or CF setup for now, he is thinking within 1 year. On that time span, there is a high chance that newer AMD driver will reduce Micro shuttering out of the box which still can be achieved using RadeonPro third party tools. And GTX 680 sock versions alone cost higher than some of the factory overclocked version of HD 7970, the factory overclocked versions are priced way higher. You can find a MSI 7970 OC edition around 28.5K whereas a stock GTX 680 costs around 32K.

^^ Ya i know and his reasons are justified as well. Even after a year, whether 8970 or gtx 780 comes up, they will still perform less than a 680 sli or even 670 sli.
The cards i suggested are factory overclocked and not stock( except for the 670). This is the famed windforce cooler and is excellent for overclocking.

I would still vote for sli over crossfire for the reasons we had discussed earlier. Its upto op to decide what's he gonna choose in the end. Besides the 310.70 performance drivers had also upped performance in most games. Far cry 3 and hitman absolution perform brilliantly in nvidia even in 2560x1600.

Vicky, price of the Gigabyte card with tax is 33.26K. M.D prices are without tax although they have mentioned it including tax. The extra 5K you are paying for it, is it justified? And you can't judge the performance improvement by two games, when AMD released their 12.11 beta driver, they brought performance improvement in every single game out there, and by a huge margin. So we can expect more performance improvement with their upcoming latest WHQL release.

Let's not discuss about SLI or CF here, but for single GPU, HD 7970 is still better option, both in performance as well as in value segment.

H

Cilus said:
Vicky, price of the Gigabyte card with tax is 33.26K. M.D prices are without tax although they have mentioned it including tax. The extra 5K you are paying for it, is it justified? And you can't judge the performance improvement by two games, when AMD released their 12.11 beta driver, they brought performance improvement in every single game out there, and by a huge margin. So we can expect more performance improvement with their upcoming latest WHQL release.

Let's not discuss about SLI or CF here, but for single GPU, HD 7970 is still better option, both in performance as well as in value segment.

hd 7950 and 7970 are the most value for money cards in the market currently...

IMO all the 7 series are vfm at the moment.

GTX 680 is out of my budget. So, its between GTX 670 and HD 7970. I am more inclined towards 7970 because of it's 384-bit memory interface and larger VRAM. Only problem with 7970 over GTX 670 being Crossfire is not as much smooth as SLI. I hope that Crossfire matures in next one year so that if needed I can go for another 7970 at that time.

@Cilus - Could you please give me exact model of MSI card (7970) which you say will cost around 28.5k? I will go through some reviews of that card.

Regarding cabinet, NZXT phantom looks very good but I am confused between phantom and HAF 922. Both of them almost have the same price.

pain4ever said:
GTX 680 is out of my budget. So, its between GTX 670 and HD 7970. I am more inclined towards 7970 because of it's 384-bit memory interface and larger VRAM. Only problem with 7970 over GTX 670 being Crossfire is not as much smooth as SLI. I hope that Crossfire matures in next one year so that if needed I can go for another 7970 at that time.

@Cilus - Could you please give me exact model of MSI card (7970) which you say will cost around 28.5k? I will go through some reviews of that card.

Regarding cabinet, NZXT phantom looks very good but I am confused between phantom and HAF 922. Both of them almost have the same price.

If you choose multi gpu then pick a single gtx 670 now and add another later down the line. It will be in your budget.
Besides, a single gtx 670 or even 7950 gives similar gameplay experience as that of a 7970 in fullhd and also sometimes in 2560x1600.

Since you are gaming at 1080p, pick a 670 now and keep headroom for sli. With 310.70 performance driver out, nvidia cards now perform toe to toe with their amd counterparts with 12.11 drivers. I'm not recommending 7950 because you are planning sli. That 384bit bus and 3gb vram won't matter at 1080p.

If you plan to go for a single gpu and never add a 2nd one, pick 7970. Else go with 670.

pain4ever said:
I guess I will go with single "Sapphire HD7970 OC 2Gb"which hitman4 suggested for now. With "Asus p8 z77 v pro" I will be able to go for Crossfire in future if needed.

^ Radeon never released a 2GB HD7970 variant & same goes with GPU Manufacturers..Correction, that's Sapphire HD7970 3GB OC or Toxic Edition.

Regarding Sapphire HD7970 CF, a single card occupies more than 2 slots. Hence installation of second card will be only possible on the Third PCIe Slot, if available in the Motherboard.

Regarding 1080p Gaming, i'm pretty much sure a Single Card will rule most of the games with High/Ultra Setting most of the times. CF or SLI is not justified for 1080p gaming, untill unless you go for Multi Monitor Gaming.

Thirdly, Power Consumption is TAD higher in case of CF/SLI Setup's & also with Internal Temps & Noise levels. So you need a Spacier Cabinet as well as a 850w PSU at min. When i say Higher Power Consumption, the same will also reflect in your Monthly Power Bills.

And all these for 1080p GAMING...Not So Wise.

Either Get a Single GTX 680 or HD 7970. Play @ MAX till the next Gen Cards are widely available till next Year End & switch to a newer Gen Card based on good Performance.

You are great with a single HD 7970 @ 1920 x 1080 refreshing at 60Hz. Dont confuse yourself, unnecessarily. An HD 7970 costs Rs 28500 here in Kolkata and nothing beats the Price to Performance ratio of that card.

Now if you want to go Dual Vga route choose a Nvidia card now and another later. Im telling you this because I dont want the mess of third party "Pro" tools to correct the anomalies of the scaling process. The Driver and then the third party tools its too much to take and even then some more.Nvidia driver takes care of these issues while ATi cant and third party is involved,not inspiring when another company does it out of the box. ( If you can deal with the tweaking Ati is okay)

Another point .....IMHO ,I dont see the point of going SLI with two high end cards it looks silly to me. Two mid / entry level cards overclocked and (660/660ti) scaling and doing what a 680 can do is a different high altogether looking at the money saved and the performance gained. My two cents.

H

d3p said:
^ Radeon never released a 2GB HD7970 variant & same goes with GPU Manufacturers..Correction, that's Sapphire HD7970 3GB OC or Toxic Edition.

Regarding Sapphire HD7970 CF, a single card occupies more than 2 slots. Hence installation of second card will be only possible on the Third PCIe Slot, if available in the Motherboard.

Regarding 1080p Gaming, i'm pretty much sure a Single Card will rule most of the games with High/Ultra Setting most of the times. CF or SLI is not justified for 1080p gaming, untill unless you go for Multi Monitor Gaming.

Thirdly, Power Consumption is TAD higher in case of CF/SLI Setup's & also with Internal Temps & Noise levels. So you need a Spacier Cabinet as well as a 850w PSU at min. When i say Higher Power Consumption, the same will also reflect in your Monthly Power Bills.

And all these for 1080p GAMING...Not So Wise.

Either Get a Single GTX 680 or HD 7970. Play @ MAX till the next Gen Cards are widely available till next Year End & switch to a newer Gen Card based on good Performance.

lol it was a typo.....

The Incinerator said:
You are great with a single HD 7970 @ 1920 x 1080 refreshing at 60Hz. Dont confuse yourself, unnecessarily. An HD 7970 costs Rs 28500 here in Kolkata and nothing beats the Price to Performance ratio of that card.

Now if you want to go Dual Vga route choose a Nvidia card now and another later. Im telling you this because I dont want the mess of third party "Pro" tools to correct the anomalies of the scaling process. The Driver and then the third party tools its too much to take and even then some more.Nvidia driver takes care of these issues while ATi cant and third party is involved,not inspiring when another company does it out of the box. ( If you can deal with the tweaking Ati is okay)

Another point .....IMHO ,I dont see the point of going SLI with two high end cards it looks silly to me. Two mid / entry level cards overclocked and (660/660ti) scaling and doing what a 680 can do is a different high altogether looking at the money saved and the performance gained. My two cents.

Good suggestion mate. I second your opinions. Either a high end gpu should be chosen in the beginning or two upper midrange gpu's for a dual card setup.
670 sli is an overkill for 1080p gaming. A 660-ti sli or even a 660 sli is viable as they cost less and thus offer more value.

I guess op will definitely benefit from the suggestions in this thread.

BTW, little off topic here: I have solved the issue of Micro shuttering with Crossfire in Far Cry 3. Solution: Simple, use the Bioshock Crossfire profile from Catalyst Control panel, present under the 3D settings and Enable Vsync.
With RadeonPro, you can enable far better game play. I have lowered the MSAA to 2X and injected ultra quality FXAA and SMAA in the game using RadeonPro. After that, almost every thing set to ultra (except for Post FX and Shadow which are set to high and very high), I am getting around 50 FPS average with my HD 6870 CF without any noticeable Aliasing and no Micro shuttering.

Cilus said:
BTW, little off topic here: I have solved the issue of Micro shuttering with Crossfire in Far Cry 3. Solution: Simple, use the Bioshock Crossfire profile from Catalyst Control panel, present under the 3D settings and Enable Vsync.
With RadeonPro, you can enable far better game play. I have lowered the MSAA to 2X and injected ultra quality FXAA and SMAA in the game using RadeonPro. After that, almost every thing set to ultra (except for Post FX and Shadow which are set to high and very high), I am getting around 50 FPS average with my HD 6870 CF without any noticeable Aliasing and no Micro shuttering.

Amazing dude will that work for other cards like 7950 too?
It also has that problem in some games?

RadeonPro works with any AMD cards, starting from HD 4000 series. For single GPU, you don't need to do anything with Crossfire profile and you can't edit it. But you can inject SMAA and FXAA along with in-game MSAA. Try it with 4X MSAA (in game) and Ultra quality FXAA and SMAA from Radeon Pro and the Anti-aliasing output will be far better.

Cilus said:
RadeonPro works with any AMD cards, starting from HD 4000 series. For single GPU, you don't need to do anything with Crossfire profile and you can't edit it. But you can inject SMAA and FXAA along with in-game MSAA. Try it with 4X MSAA (in game) and Ultra quality FXAA and SMAA from Radeon Pro and the Anti-aliasing output will be far better.

This worked like charm for me in FC 3 ! thx for the tip Cilus.