Help Upgrade HTPC to High Spec Gaming Machine Ready for Oculus Rift!

[Killer Nads]

not essential but i would recommend it although you can do without

ok thanks, so is the 7950 the best one for me to go for? or is there a better one at slightly higher price? Even if its a nvidia one??

 

[Killer Nads]

im assuming by 670s you mean the nvidia series?

Yeah the gtx670 goes to atleast £270-320, how does the gtx660 compare with the ati 7950?

The thing is that im not sure if the 7950 will fit inside this case either?! It looks massive!

 

[Killer Nads]

How sure are you about the 7950 being better then the 660 Ti, those benchmark results show the 660 being quite a lot better then the ati for the major games such as Skyrim, portal, bf3 amongst others. Another benefit i see from the nvidia is the noise level seems a little bit less on this?!

Also the price of the 660 Ti is less then the Ati card!

Thanks

 

[Killer Nads]

hmm.... In this analysis i see:

7950 = 86%
660 Ti = 91%

Only the 7950 catalyst (whatever that is) is ahead with 92% (just 1% more) - which sounds to me that the nvidia one is on top? (obviously i might be wrong as i dont know about these cards and am learning for the first time).

I understand that the 7950 can be overclocked for higher fps, but then that works both ways right? Surely the nvidia can also be over clocked. To be honest im not sure i would over clock them considering they might get a lot louder and hotter that way.

 

[Killer Nads]

OK cool, so sounds like the 7950 is the better card then?! Anyone object

Now to find a type of 7950 to buy, why is there so many different types? Are they just different company releases of the same model card? (ie. same specs)

Oh man, building a pc just doesnt get any easier does it the decisions never seem to stop!

Ive also seen that there is a 7950 with turbo boost?! Which seems to be even better?

 

[Killer Nads]

yeah pc building doesnt get easier...but it gets really fun when all the parts arrive and you feel like a kid again at christmas...and your parents/sisters have NO IDEA what you have just bought and look at you like ......your a 5 year kid at christmas


YOUR BASKET
1 x VTX3D HD 7950 V3 Boost X-Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £245.99
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) £239.99
Total : £497.38 (includes shipping : £9.50).



either of these are good it gives a slight overclock to the cpu without you having to do it yourself and as you said sound is a problem so this is better than a stock 7950

personally i would go with the HIS 7950

thanks ill take a look at these

 

[Killer Nads]

Lol, just when i thought i had it all worked out in going for the ATI card. Someone told me this:

They look pretty similar on average to me in terms of FPS, the 7950 is only a little ahead. Normally, that would be enough to make the 7950 the obvious recommendation, but for your situation, the important metric is load power draw. The GTX 660 Ti uses about 40W less power, which also translates to 40W less heat that you have to dissipate. In a tiny case like the Sugo, that's important.

Back to square one!

 

[Killer Nads]

Oh i just realised that the case: Silverstone Sugo SG05 HTPC Case with 450W Power Supply has a limit on the card length to be under 10inches.

I think this EVGA is just over at around 12inches and same with the ATI Radeon 7950.

 

[Killer Nads]

the 660 ti i speced is aparently 10x1.4.4 inches so it will "just" squeeze in

Thats good to hear!

Firstly, id really like to thank you for all the help that you have provided me with in this forum topic, really appreciated. You have been top notch in responding to my queries right away aswell.

Thank you so much!

----------------------------

Now secondly, ive had a good think about this upgrade last night and also had a talk with the misses and some other people.

After a lot of debate, we think its actually better for me to not touch the HTPC - and instead get a new GAMING Machine with high rez monitor etc...
Now i know this initially started off with a requirement to just play oculus rift games, but i think it will also be used to play high end games on ultra settings in the future (hence should be easily upgradeable) and i will probably also use it to develop games/demos for VR.

Now after looking at the home cinema room layout, we think we can make place for this in the same room in the corner with a small desk workstation.

Now the thing is to do a search for this gaming bundle and get the right one to choose, i had a look last night on OC, lets just say that i found it quite baffling to know what one to choose after looking at all the choices available to me - the case was the hardest part i thought!

So just wondering if i should start a new topic thread for this search in the appropriate forum topic or if i can just continue in this one and right down the sort of specs im looking for.

 

[Killer Nads]

emmm... you can just continue in this if you want I keep my eye out for this thread but if you want you can start a new one what would your budget be for a new build and what spec would u be looking ?

Hi, i started a new thread in the appropriate column. This can be found here:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=24162124#post24162124

Please let me know if you can help with this, thanks.

 

[Killer Nads]

a shoebox?! ya poor fella, i'll have a whip round soon we'll get ya a propercase mate

haha, thanks for your concern mate but this was a month ago! I went and bought a new gaming machine from here now on the link above. So dont worry about it.

thanks