If I want to gaming in sort of a "steambox" fashion from my living room, what would you think would be the best card for keeping a constant 60FPS with little to no drops for the best price?
It depends on what settings you want to play at,it also depends on what your other parts are,even hard drive cause i have an 8150,16gb ram,and a 7970,but if i run some game off my hard drive i get fps drops that i don't get with my ssd.
I want to run everything around high-ish. What would you reccomend?
7950 and OC it would be my choice, unless you have the extra money to get a 7970.
I dont think you need that much power, heck, a 660TI Logan just reviewed can hold it's own weight pretty well.
what case do you have EVERYTHING is dependent on the case and its other contents when it comes to HTPC
If you have more horizontal room behing the card and not enough vertical room above the card to plug in PCI-E power pins then get this card as its the fastest card that has rear facing PCI-E power pins
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202025
Node 605.
well theyre both the same price and a 7950 is definitley faster than a 660TI
okay get GPUs with top facing PCI-E power connectors (almost every decent GPU being sold other than the one I linked) and shorter than 11 inches in length
THat['s what I was thinking, a 7870. Maybe XT if it has that orientation of power connections.
Give me a budget and I'll make a gaming rig around that case
do you intend on OverClocking the CPU?
No. Just a HTPC that can play games at 60FPS consistently. Plan to install XBMC for media (movies, TV shows, etc.) Just something to replace a set top box and a console :)
well I'm only really good at it when I have a solid price to start with, hows 750$ sound to you? Let me know if you need it to be cheaper or have more budget
I'm not really too set on a budget, but 750 sounds like a sweet spot!
How's the build coming along?
well with a 7870 the build was 900 a bit more expensive than I anticipated
for optimal cooling this is how you should have your fans
stock_120______Front_of_Case___________Cooler_Master_120mml
l l
l l
l l
stock 120mm otherXigmatek 80mmon the Heatsink as 2nd fan l
l_slim_80mm_Fan___Xigmatek_80mm____________________PSUl
DAng! That's a bit more high end that what I was thinking. I don't think I would need all that power. I was looking at the i3-3220 on pcpartpicker. Haha I just need the basics. Nothing special:) Just something that does what it does, and is good at it.