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Thread ID: 135586 2013-11-21 00:04:00 Thoughts on New PC Components MrRandom (17197) Press F1
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1360428 2013-11-22 22:57:00 You could even go for a GTX 690 or an HD 7990. They would last for a long time I imagine. About future proofing, an mATX motherboard may limit you a lot. I find my mATX board has a lack of expansion slots and where I have one it is covered by my GPU. I'd go for something like this: www.asus.com
With that mATX board you won't be able to use many add on cards e.g. extra SATA ports , USB expansion card, PCIe SSDs etc. You could even future proof even more with a larger case such as the CM HAF X or a Corsair Obsidian 700D. These a pretty big by the way. With these you can add more fans, HDDs, More GPU's etc. 		ChazTheGeek (16619)
1360429 2013-11-23 00:19:00 I wouldn't mind trying something like this if it were my own build, however (and I may be wrong) but doesn't replacing the cooler void the warranty? Since this build needs to last such a long time I would like to keep all products protected under warranty for as long as possible, just in case.

I guess I'm just going to have to wait and see if the new coolers come out by next month and hopefully some price drops with them. If not I definitely wont be buying a GPU with a reference cooler I never liked the idea of something running so hot and 90 degrees (in the 290x's case) is a bit ridiculous.

If the coolers haven't become available in time (My friend wants this build before Christmas) do you think getting SLI/Crossfire would be a good option? With the current budget for a GPU I could potentially get 2 GTX770's or 2 R9-280x's.

Thanks everyone for all of your help so far :)

Crossfire/SLI generally isn't recommended if you can get both gpus at once as a single card experience is always going to to be nicer in terms of less errors and incompatibilities. The drivers for multi gpu setups are getting better but are not great (yet). Generally multiple gpus is going to be overkill for a single screen (unless we are talking 4k or similar), the only times I would recommend going to sli/crossfire root would be:

1) You needed to (multiscreen gaming which single gpus can't handle, keeping in mind that the top end gpus can handle multi screen setups)
2) You want to upgrade and you have $X but that won't get you a better gpu than what you have (you obviously need the system to accommodate the 2nd gpu as well)

If you do go multi gpu make sure you get high vram cards, 2gb won't be good enough for multi screen.

In regards the gpu cooler, you'll need to contact individual manufacturers. 		icow (15313)
1360430 2013-11-23 04:40:00 well if you can afford 2x 280x then why not get what is literally the best gpu that money can buy right now (780ti). The reference cooler on these nvidia cards not only looks the part but it is a very efficient reference cooler that runs very quietly.


Crossfire/SLI generally isn't recommended if you can get both gpus at once as a single card experience is always going to to be nicer in terms of less errors and incompatibilities. The drivers for multi gpu setups are getting better but are not great (yet). Generally multiple gpus is going to be overkill for a single screen (unless we are talking 4k or similar), the only times I would recommend going to sli/crossfire root would be:

1) You needed to (multiscreen gaming which single gpus can't handle, keeping in mind that the top end gpus can handle multi screen setups)
2) You want to upgrade and you have $X but that won't get you a better gpu than what you have (you obviously need the system to accommodate the 2nd gpu as well)

If you do go multi gpu make sure you get high vram cards, 2gb won't be good enough for multi screen.

In regards the gpu cooler, you'll need to contact individual manufacturers.

Well it looks like the GTX 780ti is the best option, thanks to everyone who helped I really appreciate it. If anyone has anything else they would like to add please feel free. :D 		MrRandom (17197)
1360431 2013-11-23 19:26:00 I always recommend against SLI/Xfire also. It just takes more work to get it right and doesn't always work how you want it to. I ditched dual GTX 460's for a single GTX580 a while back out of sheer frustration with SLI not helping in some games, the improvement was huge even though on paper it was more of a side-grade than an upgrade. On top of that you have to worry about the thermal properties of your case, the card placement options on your motherboard, the cooler design of the graphics cards, and the power requirements. If you do what I did and just buy two matched cards and slap them in without any research it can end badly and did in my case. dugimodo (138)
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