Time to Rig Up! what GPU?!

[Dustee]

So, the end of 2014 sees me sell off my beloved aging tower which to be fair has never skipped a beat.. but, like the inner child in all of us, the bug has bitten to gain even more power..

So, I placed a new case on my Christmas wish list and to my complete surprise, wrapped up in all its glory, Christmas morning wishes were met.!

So the case in question is; The Corsair Carbide Air 240

I have a general idea of the system I intend to build, ranging from 2x SSD drives with a 3TB Sata Drive for storage, unsure on whether to opt for i5 or i7 yet, the budget will determine this part, but the question I put to you guys is..

I want a DECENT GPU that will provide all the power I could need for gaming/movies, which fits within the 290mm Requirement of space and has the correct pcb to watercool as my intentions are of course to pump liquid through such an amazing looking rig!

My budget for the GFX Card is £2-250 and well, for the right card I might be able to stretch an extra 10/20 to the top end of that budget depending how loud the fiancée complaints get..

Thanks in advance, and Merry Christmas OCUK and all their members!

 

[Rofflay]

No brainer, 4790k and Watercooled 970 paired with 2400mhz ram. I am envy as mine with AF140 is a hoover with clicking issues. And i think the Air 540 is too big for me and getting under the desk. If i had the cash i would probably want to swap to Air 240 with water for my 980 and 4770K. Load optimized defaults, And get uncore/cache to 4.4 with the Boost/stock clock and away you go for 5 years with minimal hassle.


The power is "almost" there believe it or not L4D2 is out of reach on the above rig at 4.4. I just cannot get the last 20fps to stop the stutter on 120hz. And 4K 120hz with Nvidia is teh future.

 

[abui1806]

with a little stretch to £290 you will have a gigabyte GTX 970 G1 gaming which has full board waterblock.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-147-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010
The Galax GTX 970 infinity black edition is another contender but this one does not have full cover waterblock at the moment.

Or if the GTX 970 is a little bit too much you could have another option which is Powercolor R9 290 PCS+ OC
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-166-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

AMD is cheaper. It is a bit weaker (around 10%) compared to GTX 970 series and consumes more power than GTX 970. This one also has full cover waterblock. So it is your choice man.

 

[Orangey]

If you go used you can probably get 290 xfire for 300 or maybe even less. Of course if you're lucky you may also find someone selling a 970.

 

[opethdisciple]

No brainer, 4790k and Watercooled 970 paired with 2400mhz ram. I am envy as mine with AF140 is a hoover with clicking issues. And i think the Air 540 is too big for me and getting under the desk. If i had the cash i would probably want to swap to Air 240 with water for my 980 and 4770K. Load optimized defaults, And get uncore/cache to 4.4 with the Boost/stock clock and away you go for 5 years with minimal hassle.


The power is "almost" there believe it or not L4D2 is out of reach on the above rig at 4.4. I just cannot get the last 20fps to stop the stutter on 120hz. And 4K 120hz with Nvidia is teh future.

I would say Rofflay hit the nail on the head. An i7 and a 970 is what you want.

An i5 would do a stellar job, but I am finding now that the i5 can bottle my 970 in some games. For example AC Unity from watching You Tube video is CPU dependant. That’s not to say the i5 wont give you a smooth experience as it will, but I have had to oc my i5 to 4.5Ghz to improve my performance and I bet it's still a bottleneck. (in AC Unity)

Definitely the i7. The i5 is only if you really are on a budget.

 

[Dustee]

Well thanks for the input guys.. I must admit I do favour the 970 and opting for an AMD card just to save pounds over power isn't really my thing at all. Granted, my last 3 cards have been AMD and as good as they've been I've often had trouble in one area or another with the better of the experiences being the Asus Hd6850 which was faultless almost but gave me tearing in skyrim.. many people have always advised me to jump on with nvidia and I have to say I think that's the way for my next build. The budget.. well depends mainly on how much I can get away with spending before my ear gets chewed off, however in total for everything I'm looking at around the 1k mark.. bearing in mind I need everything minus the case.

 

[JamesM]

The 4690k is a fantastic CPU, 4790k would future proof you more but with a single 970, you'll be fine with the i5

Mines running at 4.7GHz and handles everything I throw at it with a single GPU

 

[Dustee]

with a little stretch to £290 you will have a gigabyte GTX 970 G1 gaming which has full board waterblock.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-147-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010

At first I looked at this card and thought it not to fit, as the cards stock design is 312mm and I have upto 290.. I notice however the heatplate/fans etc overhang the pcb board quite considerably so I'm assuming with the waterblock it should fit within the requirements regarding space..

 

[Combat Fighter]

with a little stretch to £290 you will have a gigabyte GTX 970 G1 gaming which has full board waterblock.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-147-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010

At first I looked at this card and thought it not to fit, as the cards stock design is 312mm and I have upto 290.. I notice however the heatplate/fans etc overhang the pcb board quite considerably so I'm assuming with the waterblock it should fit within the requirements regarding space..

Am I missing something I can't see any mention of a full waterblock in that link?

Please correct me if I am wrong!

 

[Dustee]

Am I missing something I can't see any mention of a full waterblock in that link?

Please correct me if I am wrong!

I believe the link simply points to a card suitable to the requirements of what I asked... I didn't ask for a card that came with a waterblock, simply one that has a block available as various cards of reference/non-reference design do not have blocks designed for them to allow them to be watercooled. the OP simply pointed me in the direction I required to get a card within the price bracket that had the ability to be 'after market' liquid cooled.

I hope this clears up any confusion..

 

[abui1806]

I believe the link simply points to a card suitable to the requirements of what I asked... I didn't ask for a card that came with a waterblock, simply one that has a block available as various cards of reference/non-reference design do not have blocks designed for them to allow them to be watercooled. the OP simply pointed me in the direction I required to get a card within the price bracket that had the ability to be 'after market' liquid cooled.

I hope this clears up any confusion..

indeed, you read my mind.

 

[Rofflay]

So what is the decision? I would save the money on the i5 to be honest and buy into Skylake. 16GB is another thing i slightly doubted on my purchase if i could squeeze out a few more fps from going faster with 8GB.

4690K (4.7 versus likely 4.4 on 4790k)
Tech labs 970?
8GB 2600mhz and trim timings


With HT gone and no games using it crank the clocks and cache up as high as humanly possible. Firestrike will be the only real thing that shows a lack of HT but you can slaw that back with crazy ram and clocks with HT gone. It needs a little bit of luck on the silicon though.