I'm finally making the switch from my Alienware gaming laptop to a desktop pc. I tried to do this near the end of the year in 2013 but things got crazy with school. I'm going to game, CAD, code, a lot of MATLAB work, do video editing with after effects and probably premier, some light photo editing in photoshop, and maybe light 2d CFD if I can get my hands on some software. I've never built a pc before but I've been doing research for about a year.
Below is a list of information followed by a pcpartpicker link to what I was thinking.Subsequently, I also have a few questions.
- Budget: $800-$900, my budget is a bit flexible
- Where: USA
- Retailers: Any, I have a Microcenter near me
- Usage: Gaming, Rendering, Multimedia, Data Analysis, CAD
- Overclock: Yes
- FPS:
- Resolution: 1080p, just bought Acer H236HLBID
- Games: BF4, Civ5, Bioshock Infinite, Metro Series, Far Cry 3, Fallout New Vegas, Counter-Strike, Indy Games, emulators
- Game Types: FPS, Side Scrolling, RTS
- Applications: Adobe After Effects, Premier, MATLAB, Siemens NX Unigraphics or SolidWorks (whatever I can get from school), Visual Studio
- What I Render: Videos and Photos
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/98djJx
Questions:
- Should I get an r9 280x or gtx 770 instead of the 760?
- I have seen some really cheap r9 280x, XFX and Power Color, are these brands trustworthy? Will they perform as well as an ASUS or MSI? If so, how are they so cheap? Just because of the brand?
- What are your opinions on refurbished graphics cards?
- I need a wireless adapter, what is a good one? Should I go with pci or usb? Does it really matter?
Looks pretty good to me. Some things to note:
Faster clocked memory will help with stuff like video rendering. It speeds it up quite a bit.
A full tower case is pretty big. You might want to switch to a mid-tower instead, since your build doesn't really require a full tower.
To answer your questions:
If you can afford them, sure. Both are great cards. I would personally take the R9 280X since it has 1 more GB of VRAM compared to the lower end GTX 770s, but both are pretty good cards.
XFX and PowerColor are hit and miss. Check the reviews on newegg to see if that particular card has any problems. Most of the time, though, they are just fine and should perform just as well as Asus or MSI(granted it has a cooler with a similar design/amount of fans)
Too much variance with refurb'd graphics cards. I'd get a new one.
http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WDN4800-Wireless-Express-Low-profile/dp/B007GMPZ0A
I prefer Pci-e over USB.
the current xfx r9 280x from what I have read is good. It is also one of the least expensive on amazon and one of the only ones with a lifetime warranty(not that that matters).
I wouldn't get the powercool.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/4hc66h just a baseline $1000 build
I'd switch out that SSD for a different one, as the V300 uses asynchronous flash, which reduces performance significantly.
Also, the GTX 770's 256-bit memory interface width doesn't allow for full optimization for those 4GB of VRAM. Having extra VRAM will help with higher textures and resolutions, but since he's playing at 1080p, it's not really worth the extra money. The R9 280X has a larger memory interface(384-bit), so it can use the 3GB of VRAM more effectively.
The biuld looks really good, but I think you can fit a R9-290 or GTX 770 4GB into the build.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zGgTP6
This is a little over... case prices seem to be a little high right now. See what savings you can get at a micro center.
In order for from best to worst is R9-290, GTX 770 4gb, R9-280X, r9-280, GTX 760 4GB - This is for stock speeds though. (the r9-280x and the GTX 770 trade blows with different games when they are both overclocked, but the GTX 770 performs better at stock speeds and with most titles... Keep in mind that some major titles perform better on the 280x)
One thing to note is that you will definitely want a dual/triple fan cooler for the R9-290 because every review I have read says they run very hot and very loud with the reference coolers.
How does the VRAM help the card? Will a 3gb r9 280x perform better than a GTX 770 with only 2gb or does it work as there is either enough or not enough to run a game at a particle setting? I understand they are different cards so you cannot make a direct comparison, but what does the VRAM actually do? On the other hand, does more VRAM help with rendering or CAD? Also, if the card has 4gb of VRAM why would it not be able to use all of it? Seems like a terrible design then. What does the memory bus do? Is that the effective range of the card?
It depends.
USUALLY at 1920x1080, the GTX 770 edges out the R9 280X by a small margin. However, the R9 280X will perform better at higher monitor resolutions and will also perform better if high resolution textures are used.
Ok, so more VRAM is good for high resolution stuff. It's also very helpful to have a lot of VRAM(as well as regular RAM) when video rendering. I believe some heavy CAD work will stress the GPU's live rendering abilities as well.
Usually the card won't be able to use all of it's VRAM because either the game is not optimized for it, the GPU itself isn't strong enough to utilize all of it, or there's some limiting factor, like in the memory-interface width.
This is correct, but you can use up your vram with certain games. The more polygons and more HD textures, the faster your vram will frill up. I play on a 1920x1200 monitor and I use more than 2 GB vram on modded skyrim and a couple other games with HD textures. 2gb is good enough for last generations games, but you will want more from here on out, unless you want to turn down the texture setting in the graphics options.. which is fine, but I would rather not.
The biggest thing with the vram is if the game will actually use more than 2gb of vram... pretty much all the games currently made are designed to run on less vram so it is more accessible to gamers out there. They push the processing power of cards, but usually use lesser resolution textures to save on vram requirements. But with new consoles having more shared vram, and the release of higher vram graphics cards, game developers have already started developing games that will use this. That is why a lot of games in the past couple years have released HD texture packs (skyrim, crysis 2, etc) or in the case of metro, they just released an HD version of the game you can buy separately. And this is just the beginning. Games in developement right now will be using a lot higher resolutions and vram will become more important.
The work application is also a very important aspect. You want to be able to give the GPU as much information as possible so it doesn't have to wait for the ram.
***If you plan on buying a new graphics card in 2 years or less, then I would just get the 2gb and upgrade to a more recent card. If you plan on keeping it for longer, then I would highly recommend getting a larger vram card.
Great, thanks for all the help and information. I have attached a link to the changes I plan on making to the build. I understand how VRAM is important so I have upgraded the gpu and have chosen the MSI r9 280x 6gb card. I know 6gb is overkill but it is on sale for the price of the 3gb card so I figure why not, it mught help out in the future. I also found a new ssd, the PNY Optima 240gb, which is not only a very affordable 240gb ssd but also seems to provide pretty good performance.
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/CptColonlSandrs/saved/K8PKHx
I'm not sure if the Hyper 212 will fit in the Source 210. There are some that do and don't. If it does fit, it's really close to not fitting.
That yellow really doesn't fit in with the color scheme. I would prefer red, but blue is the same price.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/kingston-memory-khx18c10k28
Also, there are a lot of cheaper R9 280Xs. I personally wouldn't spend the extra money for the extra VRAM.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/his-video-card-h280xqmt3g2m
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100363l
The 212 should fit in the source 210. It isn't that big of a cooler.
As for the graphics, 6 GB is way overkill for games, but if you are doing some massive rendering or CAD work, then it could come in handy. The difference between the GTX 770 2gb and the GGTX 770 4gb can be a significant difference... 3gb to 6gb is overkill lol, but if it really is the same price at microcenter or something, then why not.
If it cheaper, I like the HIS model. Looks nicer, reliable reviews on newegg, and is overclocked a tad more... and is cheaper!
I've seen a lot of builds online where the Hyper 212 didn't fit in the Source 210. I'd recommend the Corsair
200R if you want to make sure that it fits.
That sounds like a good option. I like the case anyway.