Complex Automaton 7 (rebuilding my rig)

[at0m]

Just bought a GTX560, and realized the bottleneck is now going to be my CPU/Mobo/RAM, so I figure I should probably upgrade. Anyone know where the current version of the price-comparison matrix is? Or has a suggestion for a reasonably-priced-per-performance CPU/Mobo combo?

[CaffeinePowered]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813131802


Might purchase with tax return along with an i7, why...because, thats why

[at0m]

Go on NewEgg, search for ASUS i7 motherboards, filter by highest price, copypaste, trololololol. Thanks for that.

Tempting, but a bit higher than I was hoping to spend. Was thinking $200ish each for CPU & Mobo, up to another $200 for RAM to match. Can flex on price but I'm trying to stick to a budget for my own sanity's sake.

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

Jesus, caff, that thing looks like a beast lol  At0m, what you using for cooling right now?

[at0m]

Current rig specs, from memory/a list I made in 2007 when I built it:

Mobo: ASUS M2N32-SLI Premium Vista Edition socket AM2
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Brisbane (unsure of clock, likely 2.6GHz)
Graphics: GT260 or whatever you sold me like 6mos ago I think, was an 8600GT in the original build
RAM: 4GB of something running the fastest that motherboard can handle. Not the original RAM from the build, that crapped out a few years back.

[at0m]

Now that I'm looking at Intel's release schedule, I'm pondering holding off until the IvyBridge CPUs come out. Hrm.

[at0m]

looking at
$240 ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 w/ 5 year warranty
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813131821

$320 Intel Core i7-3770S Ivy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.9GHz Turbo)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819116503

Thoughts?

[cbre88x]

looking at
$240 ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 w/ 5 year warranty
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813131821

$320 Intel Core i7-3770S Ivy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.9GHz Turbo)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819116503

Thoughts?

As an early adopter of a Sandy Bridge i7. Go for it.

[at0m]

The only thing I'm really waffling on at the moment is the base clockspeed on the CPU. If it's going to be 3.9 when I'm playing games, what does it matter what the base clockspeed is? Because usually lower heat dissipation = better for my utility bills.

[HeK]

The only thing I'm really waffling on at the moment is the base clockspeed on the CPU. If it's going to be 3.9 when I'm playing games, what does it matter what the base clockspeed is? Because usually lower heat dissipation = better for my utility bills.

Water cool it, using your water heater input as a heat exchanger.
Now you are keeping your PC cool and lowering your energy bills.

[at0m]

Can't tell if serious

[Luinbariel]

Can't tell if serious

[at0m]

Parts ordered. Already have a new GPU from a few months ago. Ended up going with the base model Ivy Bridge (the 3.1 and the 3.4 were the same price, but the 3.4 had $20 off when bought with the mobo).

Intel Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819116502
ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813131821
Crucial Ballistix 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820148563

[at0m]

Trying to determine if I need to reinstall again, since it didn't take my Win7 key the first time and is now refusing to activate, but new rig is assembled.

Base score  7.6  Determined by lowest subscore
Component Details Subscore
Processor Intel® Core™ i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz 7.7
Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB 7.7
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560  7.7
Gaming graphics 4095 MB Total available graphics memory 7.7
Primary hard disk 68GB Free (112GB Total) 7.6

Considering that scale only goes to 7.9, I'd say I'm doing pretty well.

[rilnac]

If it's a legit key you can call the 800 number just say your motherboard fried so you replaced it and they will free up the key so you can use it again

Sent from my bathroom sink using Tapatalk 2

[Didzo]

If it's a legit key you can call the 800 number just say your motherboard fried so you replaced it and they will free up the key so you can use it again

Sent from my bathroom sink using Tapatalk 2

[StolenToast]

Just bought a GTX560, and realized the bottleneck is now going to be the rest of my computer

[at0m]

Swapped out my ancient 320GB gaming HDD for a 256GB Vertex 4. Also found out that my swap file has been living on that HDD the whole time, which was contributing to general sluggishness. Moved the swap back over to the 120GB Vertex 2 I'm using for a system drive, and dumped all my game files onto the vertex 4. Holy shit games load fast now.