Hi all, It's time to upgrade my 2008 vintage system (see sig) as I find it somewhat lacking in certain games, notably ArmA3 and DCS:A10. I've seen the reviews of Haswell and the latest Nvidia cards as well as most of the other Build Advice threads over the past few weeks so am mostly content with what I am going to pick, but would be very grateful for advice from anyone who plays my sort of games. So..... is there any point in going for the 4770 over the 4670? I know the answer is generally "no" for FPS, but what about for flight sims? I think I'll stick with Nvidia as I've had a poor past experience with AMD (I don't want to go over the whole Red vs Green debate in this thread please!) so am stuck between 770 and 780 - I assume 780 will be a safer choice at 1440p? Or do I need to pay the premium for the Titan? As for RAM - I really don't know the ins and outs of RAM timings, frequencies etc but I have heard that Haswell doesn't require the fastest RAM out there (or so I think). What do I do, just buy a pair of 8Gb sticks from a reputable manufacturer? Any recommendations? Cooling wise, I've heard good things about the Corsair H100i, but has anyone tried the larger 140mm versions (H90 or H110)? Or is it just too much effort to find a case that fits the larger radiators? And finally onto the case. I've read the bit-tech reviews of the Define R4 and Nanoxia Deep Silence cases - both seem nice and quiet but a little warm. What are your thoughts on putting a hotter Haswell chip in these types of case, or should I just go for a decent "cool" case rather than a silent one? Many thanks in advance people. Budget: £1500 ish max. Main uses of intended build: Games will be the limiting factor. I'm into DCS@A10, Rome 2 when it comes out and ArmA3 at the moment, and I find my current system struggles to cope at native resolution with the detail sliders ramped up. Parts required: Case, mobo, CPU, GPU, RAM, cooler, PSU. Previous build information (list details of parts): See signature block. Monitor resolution: 2560x1440 Storage requirements: I plan to reuse my Crucial M4 256 but would like a 2Tb storage drive. I'll likely reuse my LG Bluray multidrive as it doesn't get a whole lot of use these days! will you be overclocking: yes, but not by a huge amount - I like a quiet system! Any motherboard requirements: Not really sure tbh - I just want something fast and stable with a degree of future-proofing. It doesn't need to be a particular colour or design as I plan on keeping it under a desk
CPU: Stick with the 4670. You wont notice the difference in any game, even flight sims GPU: You should be fine with 780, but if you can afford a titan then why not? will be better in the long run. RAM: timings don't matter too much. Any 8GB from the likes of corsair, gskill or kingston is fine. i wouldn't bother with anything faster than 1600mhz either. Cooler. Never tried a 140mm one, but the increased surface area will allow you to run the fans at slower speed and therefore quieter.
In arma 3 you will notice the difference with 8 threads and when its overclocked compared to just the 4 cores. Have done extensive testing between two systems, just have to make sure you set launch options for the game
Has anyone out there tried the Corsair H90 or H110? They were released a while back but everyone seems to be using the 120mm H80 or H100s - just wondering if there was a reason for this?
A10... Have you tried it with Track IR? It is amazing. Your budget is most excellent. I guess Arma 3 will be the most demanding hardware wise.
The H100i is damn good. With Corsair's software you can change your fan speeds on the fly. You can set up different profiles too. They cool very well and if you're going to get a 4670K, you're going to bloody need it; those things get pretty toasty. The Titan is the better choice in the long Run. The GTX 780 is amazing but the TITAN is that little bit better and with ARMA 3 to be as demanding as it's expected to be; you could use the extra oomph.
