New Build Advice for 5 Boxing

[Hor]

Hi guys, I've been away from boxing since Wrath and now I'm in the process of building a new computer after my old one crapped out. Here's what I've got. Currently I have the motherboard, video card, hard drives, and memory listed below (all new except the card). The rest is what I came up with to finish the machine trough Newegg. Coincidentally, as I write this there's a 24hr sale on those Samsung SSDs for $99, they each come with a free stick of the G Skill ram listed below. Heads up if you're in the market.

Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair V Formula AM3+
Processor: AMD FX-8350 Black Edition, Visheera 8 Core
System Storage: Samsung 850 EVO, 250g SSD
Game Storage: Samsung 850 EVO, 250g SSD
Mass Storage: Seagate 500g SATA HDD
Memory: G Skill Ripjaws X Series, 4g (2x, 8g total)
Video: PNY GTX 560 TI
Power Supply: Rosewill Arc-M650 Series, 650w Modular PSU

I'm in the process of getting the last few bits together for the new machine, I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts on how this should hold up five boxing? Also, as I intend to upgrade the memory and video card in the future, if you had any suggestions in that area. Thanks in advance.

[ebony]

At work and unsure on my and system but your going to need more ram for sure

[Hor]

Thanks ebony, I'm thinking I'll have the computer running in a couple of weeks. I'm thinking that in June I'll grab 4 8gig sticks, which will max me out on this board. It'll take that long for me to get my team all leveled. I'm going to be working on two or three different groups, ie got the accounts already so won't be going the raf route.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Personally, I'd use those two 850 EVO drives in RAID0 for both OS and games, which I do with my 840 Pros. I've done that with the last three pairs of SSDs and had no issues with it.

1445

[Cluch]

Hi Hor,

I run something similar to this system. Same CPU, Samsung 840 SSD, 8 Gigs, with a Radeon HD 7870 video card, can't remember the motherboard. It's worked very well for me five boxing through WOD, haven't really had any troubles at all. Although, I do have everything low on my slaves besides view distance. Main has a couple settings bumped up but certainly not many.

The 8 gigs are maxed out when I play, I noticed there is basically no memory available. But, I've played for about a year like that and haven't bothered to buy another 8 gigs. My 8 gigs are all one stick, two different sticks might increase performance, I don't know.

This was certainly a good budget system for me to start boxing again. I still feel the performance I get for the money spent was/is well worth it.

FYI - Five box dungeons, garrison, world boss. Three box (DPS) LFR with the other two toons in garrison. No PVP.

[Hor]

Tanks guys, quick update: when I got to work cleaning parts I found the ASUS board was sadly fried. So, had to replace it. I'll update the parts list when I have the PC finished next week. Expecting the last parts to arrive Monday. I'm going to be trying Linux since my Windows money went into a replacement motherboard. I had intended to dual boot windows/Linux anyways so not too big of a deal.

[Hor]

Tomorrow I place the order for the final round of parts, so I should be assembling thing soon. I have a newfound respect for the internet after discovering pcpartpicker.

PCPartPicker part list (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FrdKLk) / Price breakdown by merchant (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FrdKLk/by_merchant/)


CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-fd8350frhkbox) ($157.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X61 106.1 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/nzxt-cpu-cooler-rlkrx6101) ($119.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI 970 GAMING ATX AM3+ Motherboard (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-970gaming) ($87.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f314900cl9s4gbxl) ($32.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f314900cl9s4gbxl) ($32.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f314900cl9s4gbxl) ($32.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f314900cl9s4gbxl) ($32.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5 Solid State Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e250bam) ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5 Solid State Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e250bam) ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB 3.5 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st2000dl003) (Salvaged from Previous Machine)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-n750titf2gd5oc) ($128.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/nzxt-case-cas340wb1) ($62.10 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1550bbefx) ($96.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/microsoft-os-gfc02050) ($86.88 @ OutletPC)
Other: NZXT AC-GRIDP-M1 GRID+ Digital Fan Controller ($29.99)
Total: $1098.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-19 16:29 EDT-0400

Also, I've decided to build a second machine very similar to this one to offload some of the work when I box. The second machine will only have one drive for example. And possibly a 6350 processor instead of the 8350.

One thing I didn't add here, I'm putting in Be Quiet Silent Wings fans, so it should be relatively quiet despite being in a cheap case.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I used silent fans in mine and honestly, the loudest thing in it is the GPU fan by a wide margin, with either my older 460GTX or my new 580GTX. Second place goes to the PSU fan, which has to be bought as a "silent" supply unless you wanna do some interesting mods. Only thing louder than the NVidia cards is the ATI 9800 in Mom's machine; that thing turns into a small turbine engine in certain conditions.

[Hor]

Yeah, a bud of mine built a machine with a bunch of Be Quiet stuff and I was really impressed, he decided on their Base 800 case. Which is nice, but I'm looking for something a little more compact since it's not going to be the only machine in the room. And a quick update...

I just got off with Newegg, I had to rma the motherboard and ram I'd ordered earlier. Would not post, everything was working fine (the PSU I got is a bamf btw). But the processor/motherboard just would not function. So, apparently somewhere between here and there one of the posts was bent on the CPU. I verified that BEFORE I sent it. So, a $180 problem for me. Which REALLY grinds my gears. I went ahead and got them to do a refund on the motherboard, deciding if I want to switch to an i5 instead of the AMD based system I was going to do before.

My current thoughts are:

MSI Z97-G45 + a Core i5-4590, if I do that I'll have to wait on getting the water cooler added. But being Intel, I don't think it'll be as big a deal either. Thoughts? It's either that or pick up an AMD FX 6350 and the MSI board listed above.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Out of curiosity, did you try booting the unit with one stick of RAM first and let it auto-detect speeds/etc., then populate the rest? I had to do that recently when upgrading RAM as it would absolutely refuse to post, beep, blink, make me coffee, or anything else until I removed 3 of the 4 and left just slot 0 installed. Once it booted, I was able to power it off and install the rest, no muss, no fuss.

[Hor]

Yeah, I always do 1 stick of ram when I first set up a new rig.

I ran the numbers, and it just doesn't make sense to go with the Intel proc I was looking at. Only way I could do it would be to not get a video card or the cooler, then it would be the same price as just getting the 6350. Annoying, but it is what it is.

[Hor]

All right Ug, after some serious consideration here's what I'm thinking. I'm trying to iron everything out before I order the remaining parts today from the various places that have what I need.

PCPartPicker part list (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FZszxr) / Price breakdown by merchant (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FZszxr/by_merchant/)


CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54690k) ($219.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-cpu-cooler-rr212e20pkr2) ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-z97g45gaming) ($124.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f314900cl9s4gbxl) (Purchased For $0.00)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f314900cl9s4gbxl) (Purchased For $0.00)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f314900cl9s4gbxl) (Purchased For $0.00)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f314900cl9s4gbxl) (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e250bam) (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e250bam) (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st2000dl003) (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-n750titf2gd5oc) ($128.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/nzxt-case-cas340wb1) ($62.10 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1550bbefx) (Purchased For $0.00)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/microsoft-os-gfc02050) ($86.88 @ OutletPC)
Other: NZXT AC-GRIDP-M1 GRID+ Digital Fan Controller ($29.99)
Total: $679.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-20 12:18 EDT-0400

After a long think, I realized that going to the Intel side would leave me open to upgrade to an i7 down the line if I'm so inclined. Which will probably happen after the new hotness is released and the price of the i7 chips comes down a bit. I do wonder about the 1866 ram on this board, but I had plans to upgrade these stick later anyway. Any thoughts before I start clicking buy would be appreciated.

[Hor]

I decided to pull the trigger, grabbed everything except the video card. I might actually be able to pick up a 700 series card for cheaper off of a friend (a 780 for $75). So, yay me.

[MiRai]

It might be too late, but I'll mention that a 550W PSU isn't really all that much if you're looking to power close-to-current-generation GPUs. For instance, nVidia recommends that the 780 has 600W system wide (http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-780/specifications). You can probably get by on slightly less than that since the minimums are usually set a bit high, but if you run into issues with the system I might suspect that the PSU doesn't have the juice to power everything efficiently.

In addition, if you skip the 780 and go with the 750 Ti, it's probably not going to get you the performance that you desire—Especially once you reach Pandaria or Draenor where textures increase in quality. However, I really have no factual data on that, just my hardware/performance-related gut feeling. The GPU itself is almost 1.5 years old, and when it launched it was meant to contend with very low-end/low-power GPUs. Anandtech's review (http://www.anandtech.com/show/7764/the-nvidia-geforce-gtx-750-ti-and-gtx-750-review-maxwell/11) shows that it struggles to hit 60 FPS on games at 1080 using low settings, so I can't imagine how good it's going to be when trying to run multiple WoW clients now that the new engine is more GPU intensive than ever before.

I don't know what resolution you find acceptable to use while multiboxing, but I'm guessing you won't be able to do 1080 x5 without a bit of struggle, and you'll likely have to drop it down to something like 1600x900 or 1280x720 in order to gain a good bit of performance. You can always "un-sync" the resolutions (assuming you're starting out with ISBoxer), but then you tend to lose accurate mouse broadcasting.

This is just my take on everything at the moment.

[Hor]

Thanks MiRai,

Currently I consider the PSU to be temporary, once I upgrade the video card I'll be upgrading to the larger XFX XTR PSU (the 750w) which should, I hope be sufficient for a mild overclock. Over the next month or two I'll be doing individual runs with my characters, they've been sitting at 91 in their Garrisons collecting rested and I already bought a full year of time with gold. I'll be using a 560 Ti from my old machine until I finish the upgrades (I'll be upgrading from 8g of RAM to 16 in that time as well). Currently, I'm on a single 24 inch screen, I tend to run my tank larger resolution with my DPS and heals running small.

Once the upgrades are finished, the PSU will be going to my File Server and I'll be working on a second, stripped down version of my main rig to offload some of the boxing duties. I'll be running on 3 BenQ 24 inch panels at that point. When boxing, I'll be turning my settings down for performance, when solo I'll be running more aggressively pretty settings. I imagine I'll be doing quite a bit of tinkering meanwhile.

[Hor]

Also, I'm tinkering with the idea of running 4 apu based systems for the dps and heals. Assuming they run smoothly, that's possibly the cheapest way to go.

[MiRai]

Also, I'm tinkering with the idea of running 4 apu based systems for the dps and heals. Assuming they run smoothly, that's possibly the cheapest way to go.
Is there a reason why you don't want all of the game clients on the same machine? Or are you just trying to make the cheapest possible multiboxing build(s) you can? Your second set of parts come in at under $700, but how is building five separate machines going to be cheaper than that?

In addition to that, are you going to want several monitors on your desk? Do you have the room for that? What are the other four machines going to be doing when you're not multiboxing? Doing nothing and taking up space? And, if you're using ISBoxer and ever want to utilize VideoFX, then you can't do that over multiple machines.

First an AMD build, then an Intel build, and now five separate machines with four of them using an APU. I thought you bought most of the parts for this build already, no? I'm so confused.:confused:

[Hor]

I can absolutely understand the confusion MiRai. Originally I was building an AMD based system, I ordered the bare bones and ended up with a bum processor and motherboard. I RMAd them, Newegg wouldn't exchange the processor so I decided to switch to Intel after seeing how much more optimized Intel is for WoW than AMD. So, today I ordered the NEW motherboard, cpu, case, os, cooler, and fan controller. The price listed above is not correct, as it's only showing the parts I hadn't already purchased at that point. The actual price of the rig is at $1163 after Mail In Rebates.

So, now I'm thinking of how I want to expand, yes I'm okay having multiple monitors on my desk. I'll be moving out to my office/cave in a couple of months after I finish the furniture and cabling out there. So, space for monitors is not a concern at all. My main concern right now is do I do it all in one PC, all in 2, or all in 5. If you have suggestions for scaling this machine up for running 5 mans, I'm all ears. I haven't boxed at all since early Wrath, and then I was doing it on 3 computers rather than 1 with Keyclone. So, yeah I've got a lot to unlearn and relearn I'm sure. Ideally, I think I would like to have two capable machines and box across them with DPS and heals on the second machine. Possibly powerful enough to ten box with five on each once in a while. But mostly 4 on one machine and 1 on the other. In that scenario, I'd have the second machine for web browsing, music, etc when I'm running solo. Which would be handy imo.

As of right now, I'm focused on getting the main rig up and running, then messing around and finding what works for me afterward.

[MiRai]

The price listed above is not correct, as it's only showing the parts I hadn't already purchased at that point. The actual price of the rig is at $1163 after Mail In Rebates.
This is true. I didn't take that into account.


If you have suggestions for scaling this machine up for running 5 mans, I'm all ears.
In my opinion, it pretty much comes down to this...

If your game clients are being displayed in their full resolution, each on their own monitor, it's nice and easy to just look over to that monitor and see what they're doing, but where are these monitors going to be placed? Wherever they're placed, most of them are likely going to be outside of your immediate line of sight, or even your peripheral, and when you begin tunnel-visioning on your main character/screen you're going to have no idea what's happening on another character/monitor unless you physically turn your head away from your main and move your mouse cursor way over to another screen (assuming you have to interact with them in the heat of battle).

When all of your game clients are on one or two screens, they're just a quick glance away, as well as a fraction of the distance away in terms of the amount of pixels you have to move your mouse to get to them, and then back to your main.

Sure, a setup with a bunch of monitors looks cool in screenshots and in person when you show it off, but if you have to do so much head turning and mouse moving... well, that's only increasing your reaction time, and I would say that the game is a bit less forgiving than it was back in Wrath. :) Disclaimer: The end of that statement is dependent on many variables.

As for what hardware you should be using to run five game clients—I don't know, what's the budget? You're going to need a much better GPU, and in turn, a much better PSU to run it. If it's in the budget, you might as well just start off by getting an i7 with hyper-threading rather than an i5 without it. I would have said some of this in the beginning, but the thread started out as an AMD thread. :)

[Hor]

MiRai, thanks a lot for your feedback. You and Ug are both helping immensely. You've given me a lot to think about, so here's where I'm at.

First, I think I might need to boil things down to the most basic. I'd prefer to have everything contained on 2 machines, rather than 1. However, I actually totally get what you're saying. I will have three screens on my desk regardless of how I do all of this because of my own workflow needs. I would like to split my characters as follows: Tank and Heals on 1 machine, DPS on secondary machine. This would allow I think the most flexibility and quick response for when I need to do focused heals, etc.

I haven't decided on the software I'll use, but ISBoxer definitely looks promising, I just know nothing about it at this juncture. Does a 2/3 split across 2 machines like I have listed above sound reasonable? And are there any serious hurdles to be aware of in terms of the software? I have plenty of experience with KVM between multiple screens (I'm going to have 3 wide, with another mounted top/center for monitoring external systems like the server, streaming, etc).

Originally I had considered boxing on a single machine, however knowing that I need a second machine for work anyway, it seems best to try to make it work on two rather than 1 to utilize the resources I have.

A quick note on power/video, I'm definitely sticking with a single video card. And I've heard the criticism of using smaller PSUs on bigger cards before. It's understandable, however despite how power hungry video cards can be I've found that they haven't really risen as sharply in how much they require from generation to generation, (it's actually gone down in places) this is almost certainly due to advances in tech. For example taken directly from the NVIDIA website:

Minimum System Power Required for a GTX 970 or 980, 500w
Minimum System Power Required for a GTX 960, 400w

Minimum System Power Required for a 770 or 780 Ti, 600w
Minimum System Power Required for a 760 is 500w
Minimum System Power Required for a 750 Ti, 300w

I will be upgrading to a 750w PSU, next month most likely. So, I should have ample overhead for a solid card. Actually, after having done more research I'm pretty certain I'll be going for a 900 series card, which seems to be not only more powerful in general but less power hungry.

[MiRai]

I haven't decided on the software I'll use, but ISBoxer definitely looks promising, I just know nothing about it at this juncture.
The reason I keep asking this is because ISBoxer, by default, is going to run all of your game clients at the same resolution. This increases the load on your hardware, but also allows you to take advantage of 1:1 mouse broadcasting, as well as other features of the software—Other software solutions don't do this unless you set up each region of your layout to be the exact same size. However, you can easily disable this in ISBoxer at the cost of losing some features if you're fearful of how it will impact your machine.


Does a 2/3 split across 2 machines like I have listed above sound reasonable?
Sure, but again, if you're going to be using ISBoxer you won't be able to utilize some (one?) of its features across both machines. If you had multiple GPUs (you said you weren't going to, but I'm mentioning it anyway), you could always split the load between the two GPUs on a single machine, or you could use SLI in windowed mode to help boost performance if you stuck with nVidia.


And are there any serious hurdles to be aware of in terms of the software?
Nothing that comes to mind, but I've personally never bothered with a multi-computer setup, and, in my opinion, such a setup is generally a hurdle in itself when you're trying to sync things like your UI and whatever else across two machines.


I have plenty of experience with KVM between multiple screens (I'm going to have 3 wide, with another mounted top/center for monitoring external systems like the server, streaming, etc).
I've always used a software KM like Input Director, Synergy, or Mouse w/o Borders.


Originally I had considered boxing on a single machine, however knowing that I need a second machine for work anyway, it seems best to try to make it work on two rather than 1 to utilize the resources I have.
I can understand that. I also have two machines right next to each other at the moment, with the possibility of adding in a third to help with my video editing, but I still only ever desire to multibox using one machine. :)


A quick note on power/video, I'm definitely sticking with a single video card. And I've heard the criticism of using smaller PSUs on bigger cards before. It's understandable, however despite how power hungry video cards can be I've found that they haven't really risen as sharply in how much they require from generation to generation, (it's actually gone down in places) this is almost certainly due to advances in tech. For example taken directly from the NVIDIA website:

Minimum System Power Required for a GTX 970 or 980, 500w
Minimum System Power Required for a GTX 960, 400w

Minimum System Power Required for a 770 or 780 Ti, 600w
Minimum System Power Required for a 760 is 500w
Minimum System Power Required for a 750 Ti, 300w

I will be upgrading to a 750w PSU, next month most likely. So, I should have ample overhead for a solid card. Actually, after having done more research I'm pretty certain I'll be going for a 900 series card, which seems to be not only more powerful in general but less power hungry.
In my opinion, unless you're comparing a "generation" of a certain node, to the same "generation" of another node, then the comparison is slightly flawed. For instance, the 700 series (minus the 750 Ti) was all on the Kepler node, whereas the 900 series is on an entirely different Maxwell node which was praised for being able to save power compared to the prior node. You also have to look at the power connectors of the GPU which dictate how much power the GPU can pull. GPUs with 2x 6-pin connectors (first-generation 900 series) only use 165W at most, whereas the more powerful GPUs tend to use either 6+8-pin or 8+8-pin (or more (http://i1.wp.com/www.ocdrift.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0467.jpg)) and are going to use upwards of 250W (second-generation 900-series and 700-series).

I'm pretty sure it's safe to assume that each new (nVidia) generation is going to use a little less power than the prior node, but only during the first generation of that node. For example, the second generation of Maxwell is the GM200 chip which is currently used in the Titan X and, soon-to-be 980 Ti—Both of which will be using more power than the first-generation Maxwell GTX 980/970/etc, and will be on par with power requirements from the second-generation Kepler node (780 Ti, Titan Black) because they use the 6+8-pin configuration.

Disclaimer: For the record, whenever I say 900-series or 700-series, I am only ever talking about x60, x70, x80, or higher, GPUs. Anything below an x60 in terms of nVidia GPUs is not a gaming GPU in my opinion (no matter how much GDDR they try to sell you with it), and even using an x60 GPU is going to force you to cut down video settings in order to reach favorable performance levels while multiboxing.

[Hor]

MiRai, you've given me a lot to consider. I wonder what your thoughts are on this card.

MSI Radeon R9 290
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127774&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

It appears to be pretty good bang for the buck, $240 after MIR. Even without the MIR it's cheaper than the 770.

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MSI-GTX770&c=CJ

I ask, because I was seriously considering streaming. I was originally intending to use a Raspberry Pi for the streaming, which as I understand requires an NVIDIA card to make it work. But, if the Radeon is significantly better performance for the money, I'd rather go that way and just add a card to another PC or something to stream in the future.

[mbox_bob]

In my experience, NVidia cards have lower power draw, are cooler and quieter than the equivalent performing card from AMD. Other than that, AMD cards can be good, and there are certainly those that swear by them.

I do like my 3GB 7970 (or an R9 280 if you want the newer designation), but only because it has 4 DP connections, which I use to drive 3x 2560x1440 displays, rather adequately, even while running a 6 * 2560x1200 LOTRO team (the odd resolution is due to my window layout which is designed to leave me with 2 displays, which I can use for other things or shut off). I can max out the settings in game, and this does strain it a fair bit (usually means shutting down most other applications), and drops down to around 17FPS during the average mob slaughter run. This does heat my computer room (12sq metre) to a toasty 26deg C, which would be nice if I lived in Antarctica, but I don't, so the need to run a aircon unit on a day where the outside temp is over 20deg is a bit frustrating. Funnily enough I don't run max settings on 6 clients most of the time, but settle for the main on almost max, the others on about average.

I can stream too, while playing, although I tend to get near the limit of the CPU here (i7 3770k). 6 clients, streaming, and a few background processes, means I need to be careful with what else is running to keep the stream FPS up, but it can fit within the performance envelope happily (more so now I've o/c'd it a little). I could probably do better here by using a second graphics card to offload the stream, or even another computer (I have one, just not the hardware for it). It might also be alleviated in some fashion if I switched to use the Lucid Virtu gumph. Personally I see it as an excuse to throw down and get me a 6 or 8 core at some point (which I might do if the prices on DDR4 ever come down to sane levels).

The biggest drawback that I know of, from a multiboxing perspective, is you can't do CrossFire in Windowed Mode, but you can with SLI. Yes there is plenty on conjecture and people who say they cannot, but then there are plenty of people who can, and have videos to prove it, along with other respected people to vouch for it too. This particular drawback only ever affects some people of course. It has dissuaded me from getting a second card. I''ve considered shelling out to go back to the green man, if only their monitor ports weren't so sucky (I dislike adapters), and the (possibly outdated) literature on SLI indicates it wont run SLI on 3 displays. Maybe when I can fund a 4k display to go with it.

[Hor]

I think you've convinced me, the 770 looks like a good enough card but the Radeon is just a bit more tantalizing. Im looking into a larger psu, possibly a be quiet one as they've come highly recommended. We'll see, for now the 550w xfx and pny 560 ti will get me started again.

[MiRai]

Are you buying a 770 with the intent on replacing it later, or... ? The 770 is just a hair shy of being two years old (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_700_series#GeForce_700_.287xx.29_series), and if you could scrounge together another $100 somewhere in the budget you could get a GTX 970 and, I'm guessing, be much, much happier (http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1355?vs=1037).

EDIT: In response to your prior post, I know very little about AMD, and I think bob answered the question more thoroughly than I could have.

[Hor]

I ended up with an offer I couldn't refuse, a pair of 290s for $200 from a failed Bitcoin miner. Now, I've got to find the proper psu to handle it.

[Hor]

I got a pretty massive surprise, I ended up with more video cards than computers and enough cash to make something with some oomph. So, I'm going to be giving my setup a real think.im working out a 2k budget rig, I've got the cards for it already, so um thinking I'll take the money is spend there and get a dxracer chair, and probably a new headset/monitors. I'm definitely sticking with 1080p but with the surprise upgrade I have a feeling I won't be as limited in terms of what screen(s) I play on.

[Hor]

Tomorrow I'll be building the machine, I'm just waiting on the OS and Motherboard. I've definitely decided to stick with 1080p for boxing, that said I wonder if anyone has any suggestions for 1080p monitors. I've decided on getting three, with a TV mounted top/center. My main concerns past the resolution are that either I'd like to mount it easily on an a or it should have the ability to tilt. Beyond that, smaller bezels are obviously a bonus. I'm keeping an eye on the new video cards this week for the main rig, but I'm fairly certain I'll be running a pair of 970s in it.

[Hor]

Received the final part yesterday and finished putting it together, running smooth as silk so far.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v353/vertigo_038/Backup/Computer/FC781C58-7192-483A-9DDE-9B6C9BB4324E.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/vertigo_038/media/Backup/Computer/FC781C58-7192-483A-9DDE-9B6C9BB4324E.jpg.html)

This will be used for Streaming/Encoding. As well as logging my AH alt, etc on occasion.

[MiRai]

Looks fancy. :)

With everyone building new computers lately... I may need to piece something together. >_>

[Hor]

I built my last PC in 2006, I can safely say a lot's changed. These new fans are going to take some getting used to, I keep thinking something is wrong because I can't hear them.

In other news, I think I've found the monitor(s) I want to go with.
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=113&cp_id=11307&cs_id=1130703&p_id=12178&seq=1&format=2

I also grabbed some nice headphones off of MassDrop (Superlux HD668B).

[Hor]

Now that I have the secondary PC built, time to get to work on the main event. I've decided I'm sticking with 1080p, though I am going to upgrade my monitor situation. Right now I'm using an ACER P215H, it's a decent 21.5" monitor for the price (got it as a freebie with a machine I bought on Craigslist a bit over a year ago). However, I've noticed now that I have a computer with better stats the thing is really showing it's weakness in WoW. Lots of flickering for example. And it's only connected through VGA.

So, I'm looking at possibly getting an ultra wide 27 inch and mounting the ACER above the main screen, using it for the secondary PC so I can log on to my AH alt, keep my Twitch Stream and chat monitored, that kind of thing. If you have any thoughts regarding monitors (I don't mind buying used if it's a good screen), let me know.

With that said here's what I'm thinking for my main boxing rig, I don't see myself moving up to 4k anytime soon. So, I'm not sure that getting a 980ti is worth it, for a little less I can have a pair of 970s which should perform quite well at 1080p. Thoughts?

PCPartPicker part list (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/6rNR99) / Price breakdown by merchant (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/6rNR99/by_merchant/)


CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i74790k) ($325.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-cpu-cooler-rr212e20pkr2) ($26.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-z97g45gaming) ($137.95 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston Fury Red Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/kingston-memory-hx318c10frk216) ($111.79 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston Fury Red Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/kingston-memory-hx318c10frk216) ($111.79 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e250bam) ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e250bam) ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/hitachi-internal-hard-drive-hds722020ala330) ($55.57 @ Amazon)
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/hitachi-internal-hard-drive-hds722020ala330) ($55.57 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-gtx970gaming4g) (2-Way SLI) ($339.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-gtx970gaming4g) (2-Way SLI) ($339.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/nzxt-case-cas340wb1) ($64.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-120g10750xr) ($84.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/microsoft-os-wn700615) ($87.98 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: be quiet! Pure Wings 2 51.4 CFM 120mm Fan (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/be-quiet-case-fan-bl046) ($10.90 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: be quiet! Pure Wings 2 61.2 CFM 140mm Fan (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/be-quiet-case-fan-bl047) ($8.90 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: be quiet! Pure Wings 2 61.2 CFM 140mm Fan (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/be-quiet-case-fan-bl047) ($8.90 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: be quiet! Pure Wings 2 61.2 CFM 140mm Fan (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/be-quiet-case-fan-bl047) ($8.90 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 industrialPPC-3000 PWM 109.9 CFM 120mm Fan (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/noctua-case-fan-nff12industrialppc3000pwm) ($23.98 @ OutletPC)
Other: NZXT AC-GRIDP-M1 GRID+ Digital Fan Controller ($29.99)
Total: $2031.13
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-08 16:56 EDT-0400

[MiRai]

Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 industrialPPC-3000 PWM 109.9 CFM 120mm Fan (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/noctua-case-fan-nff12industrialppc3000pwm) ($23.98 @ OutletPC)
After having done some recent research on case fans... I hope you're prepared for how loud that thing is, even when not running at 3,000 RPM. :)

Here's a video to a channel I've recently been looking through which shows that fan in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThsuBvPkGcc

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I've had really good luck with the Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F 120mm. I replaced both front fans and the rear fan on my cases and the loudest fans in the room are the NVidia GPU fans, by a wide margin.