So I just upgraded my PC

[Lethean]

Went from...

Q6600
Gigabyte UD3LR
OCZ Titanium DDR2800 (4GB)
GTX 260
WD Black HD

To...

I5 3570K
EVGA GTX 660 SC
G.Skill Sniper DDR3 1866 (8GB)
Crucial M4 128GB SSD
Gigabyte Z77X UD3H

Keeping my WD since it really isn't a bad HD and I went over budget anyways...

I *might* use EVGA's step up and get a GTX 670 or 660Ti...Even though I can OC to 660Ti speeds. And Madster don't tell me I should have gone with ATi

Oh and I see a lot of people mention the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - is that one of the best heatsinks to get without spending a ton?
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[madster111]

Should've gone with ATI.

...Seriously though, i've been thinking about switching over with the GTX7xx series. I'm starting to use more programs that utilize CUDA and i've played a couple games on a mates laptop with PhysX turned on, and it actually does make a surprising difference.
Combine that with us finally getting away from the fermi inefficiency and i might be spending a little bit more for a little bit less performance in the future.

As for the 212 EVO, yes it is. I use the TX3 Evo - it's a smaller, cheaper version of the 212, and i can air-cool at 5ghz. At 4.5 it never goes above 55 degrees. Sandy/ivy bridge is ridiculously efficient, and unless you're planning to daily over 5ghz, you really don't need a big cooler. Hell, if i left mine stock clocked and undervolted it, i could run a little passive cooler.

If you get the money later, don't bother with the 660Ti - it's only a small jump. Just go straight to 670 if you need more power, or just wait a while and get a new card when you get a 4K monitor.
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[Lethean]

[Sourdeez]

I have a CORSAIR Hydro Series H80. They are really easy to install if your case will fit them. I had to dremel out part of the back of mine.
$89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181016


When my friends build systems and need a air cooler at a great price I tell them
XIGMATEK Gaia SD1283 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler $20.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233082

The cooler master COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO is really good to just a few dollars more.

Sli is great when it works. If you ever need help getting yours to work feel free to pm me. Sometimes its as simple as tweaking the sli profile.
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“Yeah but when does EA come in when your trying for auto erotic asphyxiation and decide that you are really trying to commit suicide? Then they force you to do what they want.”

[madster111]

^That Xigmatek looks pretty good, too.

I was gonna suggest swapping out the M4 but i didn't know if you'd bought it yet. They're actually fairly slow for SSDs these days. How much more or less is a Samsung 840 series for you? Because they're some of the fastest SSDs on the market, with the 840 Pro being THE fastest on the market.

And good choice on the PSU. Honestly, i recommend corsair PSUs for every build, because i am yet to hear of one failing before the computer is obsolete. Other PSUs may be perfect, reliable and cheaper, but i'd never cheap out on the PSU.


On an almost completely unrelated note, i've been hearing a lot about haswell recently, but the only thing i can think of is... Why?
Sandy/Ivy bridge is so powerful, especially the K versions, that i don't see how intel are going to persuade people to upgrade. Even with next gen RAID SSDs and the HD9xxx & GTX8xx series of cards we won't see a bottleneck, and if we do we can just laugh and overclock some more. My 2500k is running at 4.4ghz these days which gives me a theoretical 900mhz more overclock if i buy a H80 or similar, and yet i never see it even come close to struggling. Sourdeez can attest that not even SLI GTX680s bottleneck the CPU, right? So why would people buy Haswell?
I'm thinking people might just skip right over it and grab Skylake+DDR4 in 2015/2016. That's definitely my plan - late this year i'll grab a GTX770 and do away with my HDDs in favor of RAID SSDs.
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[Lethean]

Yeah it seems the 840 wasn't that much faster and wasn't consistently so but the Pro blew everything away. The pro was also fifty dollars more for the same amount of space Good to hear it about the Corsair. I was going to go full modular and 80 Plus Silver but...Ehh....I don't really need full modular and the difference between silver and bronze from everything I've read is negligible.

I agree completely about Haswell. That seems to be a sentiment shared with a lot of people. It's like okay...That's cool and all but...Why bother?
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[LawnGnome]

I've got a Samsung 830 SSD in my current rig and love it, but Samsung is pulling some serious shenanigans with the 840 series. They released the substandard 840 (with its awful triple-layered cells) at the standard price point while seriously jacking up the price on the excellent 840 Pro. They should have just released the Pro as the "840" at a competitive price. I hope more companies don't follow suit.

[Lethean]

So newegg has the Samsung 840 PRO 128GB for 119.99 right now. Tempted to pull the trigger on it but I don't really want to go through the hassle of uninstalling my Vertex, packing it up, submitting a return request to Amazon, then waiting for the Pro. I mean, I doubt the performance difference is THAT huge.
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[madster111]

The performance difference isn't big enough for you to swap out the SSD you already have.
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[Lethean]

[madster111]

I couldn't be bothered with Win8 - i'm waiting for the inevitable revision, much like Vista turned into Win7. Might upgrade then, although at the same time i'm so used to Win7 i know where everything in the godmode menu is, so i might just keep it until there's no such thing as desktops or laptops anymore and we're all using flexible tablets and google glass.
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[Sourdeez]

For anyone who does get Windows 8, They completely removed the start menu.

There is a free program called "Classic Shell" Allows you to bring back all the old functionality. You can choose classic, winxp, or win7 theme and customize it even further if you want.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/classicshell/files/

I actually really like windows 8 pro. Boot and shutdown times are quicker. I just don't like how they didn't ship it with a option to turn the old start menu back on.
And to all those at Microsoft and tech blogs who say "You dont need the start menu your just not familiar with how the new one works" Go fuck yourself. I have my start menu setup in a specific way with programs in specific places. I shouldn't have to pull out of my desktop into a full screen tile interface when my start menu is simple, clean, and works while still using my desktop.

Ive used both interfaces for months now and I understand how each works and while I like the search for anything idea with metro it really is just Microsoft trying to hard to fix something thats not broken at all. Yes this interface works great on my friends tablet but to force desktop users TO HAVE TO USE IT. is fucking bullshit.
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“Yeah but when does EA come in when your trying for auto erotic asphyxiation and decide that you are really trying to commit suicide? Then they force you to do what they want.”

[Lethean]

Yeah I downloaded StartsBack. Works flawlessly.
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