Normally, I'd agree, but from the raw numbers alone, it looks like Pascal is going to be about 50 - 100% more powerful than the current crop of Maxwell cards. It would suck to buy a 970 now (even though it's a fine card; I have two), because in six months it's going to be at the low end of Nvidia's high-performance card lineup.
New hardware for Elite and other gaming...
- Thread starter JesusOnEez
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Find a cheaper win 7 or win 8 key and upgrade to 10. Use the saving to get the unlocked K version of the processor.
Your paying out for an overclocking motherboard (z170) after all.
If you have no desire to overclock go with a cheaper board.
Keep an eye out on deal sites for best prices (UK hot deals for example) or sign up for retailers news letters.
Don't forget a CPU cooler.
CPU usually isn't too important but some games are using too much (Rise of the Tomb Raider for example)
Your paying out for an overclocking motherboard (z170) after all.
If you have no desire to overclock go with a cheaper board.
Keep an eye out on deal sites for best prices (UK hot deals for example) or sign up for retailers news letters.
Don't forget a CPU cooler.
CPU usually isn't too important but some games are using too much (Rise of the Tomb Raider for example)
I would certainly wait to see the new generation of NVIDIA cards. The next gen 970 tier equivalent will probably be the same price and crush it. It's tempting to jump in now but you may have buyers remorse as the next round of games and patches start to push the graphics settings down and makes your system sweat a little.
Some good points about GPU here, also get the K processor overclocking and fan control on these asus boards is stupidly simple. Are you hoping to get VR in the next year or so? in which case the single 970 is the very minimum you will need, Frontier are recommending a minimum of a gtx980.
I built systems for my two teenagers about 6 months ago i5 4690k z97 8gb with gtx 960's(£153) and they play horizons brilliantly on ultra. One PC has an ssd but apart from a faster boot up, can't see any benefit in game. Although I don't think SLI is an option for VR atm, I gambled it will be of some merit once the consumer headsets are shipping well and for the price of a headset we can combine cards in one machine and give it a blast.
One system is built in the same case the OP is considering with stock coolers and a single extra case fan temps are:- gpu 51c, cpu 48c, Cset 31c running Arma3. There is a tiny noise from the gpu fans which kickin over 50 degress otherwise total silence.
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I think a huge overlooked component is monitor. As you go up in GPU power and framerate screen tearing will become a real issue.
You may want to consider a 24 inch 1080p g-sync monitor as prices come down if that is your target resolution
You may want to consider a 24 inch 1080p g-sync monitor as prices come down if that is your target resolution
OP could always save some money by getting bare minimum GPU to get a playable experience and then get a new card in 6-9 months. Then you'd probably be set for VR if you decide to go down the route at a later date.
Nice powerful machine
You should definitely play XCom2
(Just make sure you turn AA off or it will cripple _any_ system)
This is what I currently have anyway. Thanks all for the advice. I get the GPU advice, but I can't wait that long, and I'm not a big gamer...I'll be happy to go Pascal in a couple of years as an upgrade if needed. I'm not planning on VR. I'll also look at lesser boards since I'm also not interested in over clocking.
I was rooting around in old DVDs and games and found a legitimate copy of Windows 8 (downloaded from Microsoft) so that's saved me £60...I think I'll double the RAM to 16GB and get the more powerful PSU.
from what i have read polaris is going it hammer pascel i could be wrong if i was building a system now i put a used r9 290 and wait and see who come out on top
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umless your vidio eddting i dout you will use 16gb
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umless your vidio eddting i dout you will use 16gb
a. There are three new releases this year, Polaris (AMD), Pascal (Nvidia) and Vega (AMD).
b. The 970 will plummet in price when the new Pascal cards arrive, this will be in a few months.
c. If the OP wants to build a rig that will take advantage of DX12 games and the features it brings then the 970 is not the card to go for. To be ready for DX12 and get the most from it you need either a current AMD GPU or wait for Nvidia to finally get their act together and produce a card that can handle multiple threads. Maxwell really was a bit of a turkey in that respect.
I do a bit of video editing...just home movie stuff at 1080p. I have Pinnacle Studio for all that.
It seems there are two schools of thought here. Wait for the latest tech and/or for the 970 to plummet in price, or just go for it.
I haven't really kept up in tech. 10/15 years ago I built systems all the time, but my feeling is that things haven't changed much...there's always something around the corner that will blow your socks off, and your shiny new rig will be obsolete within the first 30 seconds of you building it...in fact, I don't think this is the case now nearly as much as it was back then. Back then you had to update your PC, be it GPU, RAM, CPU once every 18-24 months to keep up. Now the race between the companies for bigger and better doesn't seem nearly as vocal and 'urgent' as it once was. The PC I got rid of last year lasted 5 years with only one graphics card change, and I could still play the latest games on low settings on that when I got rid of it.
Right now, I want to play Elite and X-Com 2 and some older games (I never finished the first X-Com, I have Civilization V and expansions and so on), and I play a bit of Indie stuff like Prison Architect, Factorio, Big Pharma.
What doesn't interest me in the slightest is the latest COD (or any first person shooter for that matter), WoW, Assassin's Creed, Fallout and so on. The only game that could bring me back to FPS would be Half-Life 3.
Right now, I have no computer. I haven't had a computer for 2 weeks and I'm going stir crazy, not to mention driving the wife nuts. I can't wait months and months.
I'm happy to go with the spec I've got and stick a Pascal/DX12 card in there in a few years if and when I need it.
Also, thanks to everyone for the advice!
EDIT: People seem to be raving about Pascal...but are these wondrous specifications coming from the chipmakers themselves? Sure it'll be better, of course it will, it's the latest tech. I doubt very much it'll be as amazing as the press releases say it will...they never are.
I haven't really kept up in tech. 10/15 years ago I built systems all the time, but my feeling is that things haven't changed much...there's always something around the corner that will blow your socks off, and your shiny new rig will be obsolete within the first 30 seconds of you building it...in fact, I don't think this is the case now nearly as much as it was back then. Back then you had to update your PC, be it GPU, RAM, CPU once every 18-24 months to keep up. Now the race between the companies for bigger and better doesn't seem nearly as vocal and 'urgent' as it once was. The PC I got rid of last year lasted 5 years with only one graphics card change, and I could still play the latest games on low settings on that when I got rid of it.
Right now, I want to play Elite and X-Com 2 and some older games (I never finished the first X-Com, I have Civilization V and expansions and so on), and I play a bit of Indie stuff like Prison Architect, Factorio, Big Pharma.
What doesn't interest me in the slightest is the latest COD (or any first person shooter for that matter), WoW, Assassin's Creed, Fallout and so on. The only game that could bring me back to FPS would be Half-Life 3.
Right now, I have no computer. I haven't had a computer for 2 weeks and I'm going stir crazy, not to mention driving the wife nuts. I can't wait months and months.
I'm happy to go with the spec I've got and stick a Pascal/DX12 card in there in a few years if and when I need it.
Also, thanks to everyone for the advice!
EDIT: People seem to be raving about Pascal...but are these wondrous specifications coming from the chipmakers themselves? Sure it'll be better, of course it will, it's the latest tech. I doubt very much it'll be as amazing as the press releases say it will...they never are.
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As yet know one can show you the specs for Pascal or even a video of a system running it while AMD have shown what Polaris 10 can do. This is the working name for the GPU and it seems it will be their new mid/low range chip performing at the same or similar rates as the 390X while the Polaris 11 seems to be the replacement for Fury.
For those interested give this a watch, this guy knows his stuff:
[video=youtube;nZ7VCOgMZ9I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ7VCOgMZ9I[/video]
Looks like a really good build. I have nearly the same except that I saved a little money on the motherboard. I find the top end motherboards are usually only for the people who want to overclock and I'm not really into that. The gtx 970 is a really great card, I've had mine about 2 months and I love it.
I've tweaked it a bit since the initial post, and at the advice of someone above, downgraded the mobo from a Z170 base to a H170 base. I'm not interested in overclocking either.
I would recommend motherboard with M.2 Socket for SSD for example:
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H170-PRO-GAMING/specifications
And M.2 SSD too, you will have slightly faster SSD for same money.
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