NEW COMPUTER ACQUIRED - Need a Graphics Card.

[Salamok]

If that is the case there is better alternative though: Intel Xeon E3-1230V3 (3.3GHz 8MB L3). Newegg price $ 249.99, so saving $ 80 vs getting a 4770k. Xeons are the Server equivalent of the desktop i7 variants, but with the same features (except the IGP).

Last I checked motherboards that support Xeons cost a fair bit more $$, then again that may just be the boards needed for the Xeons I have looked at, which were all the equivalent of 2 Intel processors (so the core i7 equiv Xeon has 8 physical cores + 8 virtual cores).  

On the graphics card front how well is nVidia doing on pushing 3+ monitors from a single GPU?  AMD got the jump on everyone in this department (I think my current card can do 6), although the the Intel 4000 HD on chip graphics can do 3 displays fairly easy now, I haven't really heard much about how well newer nVidea cards handle this...

edit - price for the 4770s on amazon is flipped can get a 4770 for $303 and a 4770k is $319, IIRC originally Intel had planned on selling the K for $20-$30 more than a non K, looks like the market over ruled them.  People buy an i7 for the number of cores, one of the primary reasons you need a lot of cores is to run VMs, disabling the VT-d and vPro extensions on an 8 core chip is pretty stupid.  One of the other main reasons to want a lot of cores is to run multi-threaded programs faster for the K series Intel has also disabled the TSX extensions which impacts the performance of multi-threaded apps.

[Trippy]

Assuming your power supply is beefy enough I'd get a GTX 770. This one is available in your Fry's right now, though it doesn't come with any bundled games:

http://www.frys.com/product/7717518

[schild]

Assuming it's not beefy enough, what's the next step down?

[calapine]

Assuming it's not beefy enough, what's the next step down?

I looked up the 770 power consumption for you and it's not particular bad. If your PSU can't handle it you'll have issues with most cards.

Edit: Computerbase gives ~277 W (under load, Assassin's Creed 3, entire system), Anandtech has 374 W in BF 3 (again system, not card, measured at the power plug)

[Ghambit]

Find a microcenter and buy whatever mATX/cpu combo they have on sale.  Slap in last year's GPU (software is light-years behind hardware) and put in as much ram as possible.  Find a diablotek with a PSU included and add more cooling than necessary as those cheap mobos dont shed heat really well.

You shouldn't spend more than $800 this way.

[Trippy]

Assuming it's not beefy enough, what's the next step down?

GTX 760.

Here's a chart showing power consumption for the GTX 770, 760 and 660 Ti:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7103/nvidia-geforce-gtx-760-review/16

[Jeff Kelly]

The Radeon 280/290 series is the series of choice for... bitcoin miners? How stupid.

It's the series of choice for clueless bitcoin miners. OpenCL/CUDA is great for number crunching but the way bitcoin mining is setup means you won't turn a profit on mining if you factor in the cost of those cards.

[schild]

Looks like the MSI 760 is in stock for $260. Is the 770 actually worth the extra $110?

[Trippy]

It will give you a noticeable boost in frame rates at higher settings and resolutions. That may or may not be worth the extra $110 to you. You can review some of the benchmarks from that same review above.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7103/nvidia-geforce-gtx-760-review/4

As I said in my computer build above, though, the video card is the easiest thing to upgrade so if you want to save some money now and get something better later that's fine too.

[schild]

The most graphic intensive game I own is Diablo 3, and I'm pretty sure that's processor-bound.

I am a terrible gamer.

Edit: I guess I own Bioshock Infinite also.

[schild]

Ugh, looks like I might need to make a Win7 disc and acquire a educational or msdn key.

[Trippy]

Just go buy an OEM copy of Windows 7 at Fry's.

[schild]

I'm not buying Windows because I have a key. I just don't have the disc and have no clue what version (OEM, Upgrade, Full, etc) it was.

I think I've got the problem licked already anyway.

[Quinton]

For 1080p gaming the GTX760 seems to be enough to get the job done with mid-high quality settings on most stuff.  It's what I put in my living room gaming box (little shuttle cube) and I've been happy with it.

[schild]

Picked up a Seagate Hybrid (wtf only 2.5"?) and the MSI Gaming N760.

[schild]

OH WHAT THE FUCK IT'S A LAPTOP DRIVE

well suck my ass Fry's

[Trippy]

Seagate has 3 generations of hybrid drives now, 2 of which (2nd gen and 3rd gen) are available for purchase. The Momentus XT is 2nd gen. That's a 7200 RPM laptop drive. The 3rd gen are called "SSHD" and there are laptop and desktop versions -- i.e. "Seagate Laptop SSHD" and "Seagate Desktop SSHD". The 3rd gen laptop drives spin at 5400 RPM. The desktop drives supposedly spin at 7200 RPM though Seagate is being cagey now and is not printing the RPM spec for that anymore. The 3rd gen are more intelligent in using the SSD so on the laptop side even though it only spins at 5400 RPM for the tasks that can use the SSD it'll offer slightly better performance than the Momentus XT. However for tasks that can't utilize the SSD the Momentus XT is faster since it's a 7200 RPM drive. If Fry's has the Desktop SSHD model you'll probably want that one instead as it's 3rd gen and 7200 RPM.

Benchmarks are here:

http://techreport.com/review/25425/seagate-desktop-sshd-2tb-hybrid-drive-reviewed/4

Drive versions are here:

http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/laptop-hard-drives/laptop-solid-state-hybrid-drive/#specs
http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/desktop-solid-state-hybrid-drive/#specs

[Nija]

I've been looking to sell my GTX 680 for awhile. It's this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130769

$350 shipped?

[schild]

I don't "buy" used computer gear. General rule.

[schild]

Ordered this from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Desktop-Solid-Hybrid-ST2000DX001/dp/B00EIQTKAS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1387171994&sr=8-3&keywords=seagate+hybrid

Returning that stupid laptop drive to Fry's ASAP.

[Phildo]

I just finished building pretty much the same system as Paelos and am pretty happy with the GTX770 so far.  Totally echoing the sentiment about not building it myself in the future, though.

[schild]

Hmmmm, how dicky do I want to be this Christmas season. Ordered a retail 2TB SSHD from Amazon, received an OEM one.

[Trippy]

That is the drive-only part number: ST2000DX001

Toggle between drive-only and kit on this page for 2 TB and you can see the different part numbers:

http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/desktop-solid-state-hybrid-drive/

[Furiously]

That is the drive-only part number: ST2000DX001

Toggle between drive-only and kit on this page for 2 TB and you can see the different part numbers:

http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/desktop-solid-state-hybrid-drive/

Do you defrag those?

[schild]

That is the drive-only part number: ST2000DX001

Toggle between drive-only and kit on this page for 2 TB and you can see the different part numbers:

http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/desktop-solid-state-hybrid-drive/

Well that's obnoxious.

[Trippy]

That is the drive-only part number: ST2000DX001

Toggle between drive-only and kit on this page for 2 TB and you can see the different part numbers:

http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/desktop-solid-state-hybrid-drive/

Do you defrag those?

You can if you want though Seagate doesn't recommend you do it regularly, presumably because that causes the SSD contents to become invalidated.

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/216791en

[Amarr HM]

SSHDs just look like more ways for things to break/go wrong. Fuck that.

[Ironwood]

But they are blazing fast.

[Amarr HM]

Nowhere near as fast as a dedicated SSD I'd say, plus you miss out on a major boon, no spinning parts! Multiple points of failure in a hard-drive is not a good thing.


Especially with my history.

[Ironwood]

I misread it.  That's what I thought we were talking about.

Christ, I need sleep.

[calapine]

Nowhere near as fast as a dedicated SSD I'd say, plus you miss out on a major boon, no spinning parts! Multiple points of failure in a hard-drive is not a good thing.


Especially with my history.

SSHDs fill a niche I am not sure needs to be filled. Just get an SSD for the OS and all regularly used software/games and a 4 TB green HD as datagrave.

[schild]

Computer I got is this thing: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&docname=c02504608#N1387

Of course it won't drive a fucking Nvidia 760.

urghhhhhh

[Trippy]

Just get a bigger power supply.

[schild]

Am going to. Gonna love gutting this poorly fucking designed stock HP one from this thing.

What's good ~800 watts these days? Corsair modular still the tits?

[Goreschach]

You don't really need 450w for a single 760. That system shouldn't draw more than 350 watts max. Nvidia always highballs their listed power requirements for some reason.

edit: 800 whats?

Schild go home, you are drunk