Need Rig Suggestions

[Bon3z]

Unless you have good case cooling dont go with those aftermarket coolers on the GPU. It will turn the inside of your case into an oven and run up temps on everything.

This is my case. I should be good I think. I was overclocking my E6600 will no issues.

Newegg.com - Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

[Bon3z]

That is a really good card. But for the price, I would get a 6970 instead. The 6970 is closer to a 580 than a 570. So for the price I would get a 6970 all day. However at your resolution, I would save some pennies and get a 6950 2gb or a 560ti. If you plan on going 1080p rez in the near future, than get a 6970 or stick with a 6950...

Not to start a "religious" discussion, but I've always used Nvidia cards and are partial to them since I've had good experiences. But that is an interesting point, my monitor resolution is lower than those usually benchmarked. Maybe the 560 ti would be fine since I'm not getting a new monitor any time soon.

[slice]

Not to start a "religious" discussion, but I've always used Nvidia cards and are partial to them since I've had good experiences. But that is an interesting point, my monitor resolution is lower than those usually benchmarked. Maybe the 560 ti would be fine since I'm not getting a new monitor any time soon.

If that is the case, save your money and get a 560ti. Cool thing is you can add a second later for SLI and will be cheap.

Your case is fine.

[juneau]

Not to go too far off topic here. But i've got a question for all those suggesting the need to double up on RAM if you only have 4GB. BF3 is only a 32bit app right?

[slice]

Not to go too far off topic here. But i've got a question for all those suggesting the need to double up on RAM if you only have 4GB. BF3 is only a 32bit app right?

Being a 32bit app does not matter. I did not monitor my RAM usage while playing, so I have no idea how much RAM it uses, but many modern games can and does use up to 4gb just by it self. You can get away with 4gb, but that just means you will probably start paging your HDD more than you want. 8gb seems to be the sweet spot right now. 16gb+ if you want to run a RAM drive or are just excessive

[Bon3z]

Thanks everyone for all the help.

One last question, any thoughts on the following card? I'm getting ready to submit my order and I think it will include this card.

Newegg.com - EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1563-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

[bobytt]

If you planing to play BF3 on ultra go with GTX570 because of the 12**MB of memory. My friend have 2600K+eVGAGTX570@930MHz and he is played BF3 Beta at ultra withouth any issues. And i had another frind with SLI of 560ti who couldnt run it at ULTRA, because its loading a lot more than 1GB of memory.

Since you are building really good gaming machine and u'll play BF3 i would suggest stretch a little and get GTX570

[{CLR} Cobalt]

The 6970 has 2gb mem. Oh, and I have 6gb of mem on my machine and it never gets over 50% usage during game. Go figure.

[bobytt]

The 6970 has 2gb mem. Oh, and I have 6gb of mem on my machine and it never gets over 50% usage during game. Go figure.

I am talking about VGA memory

[slice]

If you planing to play BF3 on ultra go with GTX570 because of the 12**MB of memory. My friend have 2600K+eVGAGTX570@930MHz and he is played BF3 Beta at ultra withouth any issues. And i had another frind with SLI of 560ti who couldnt run it at ULTRA, because its loading a lot more than 1GB of memory.

Since you are building really good gaming machine and u'll play BF3 i would suggest stretch a little and get GTX570

You also have to remember that BF3 beta was only really medium settings. Apparently the high and ultra settings were broken.

Besides, he is gaming @ 1680x1056, so he will not need quite as much vid memory as those running @ 1080p. You are safe to go with 1gb vram.

[Brian is Huh?!{CLR}]

there go get that!
geforce 560 ti for $117
EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti Video Card - 1GB, GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0 (x16), Mini-HDMI, Dual DVI, DirectX 11, Dual-Slot, SLI Ready. at TigerDirect.com

[bobytt]

there go get that!
geforce 560 ti for $117
EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti Video Card - 1GB, GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0 (x16), Mini-HDMI, Dual DVI, DirectX 11, Dual-Slot, SLI Ready. at TigerDirect.com

I would not get this one for sure.. that like GTX260 or a little better. He was thinking to get GTX570 and 550ti is like joke compared to 570.

[slice]

yeah, the 560ti is also much better than the 550ti. Spend a little more for much more in return.

[juneau]

Being a 32bit app does not matter. I did not monitor my RAM usage while playing, so I have no idea how much RAM it uses, but many modern games can and does use up to 4gb just by it self. You can get away with 4gb, but that just means you will probably start paging your HDD more than you want. 8gb seems to be the sweet spot right now. 16gb+ if you want to run a RAM drive or are just excessive

8GB is only the sweet spot because RAM prices have significantly dropped imo.

During the Alpha i never saw BF3 use over 2GB RAM. However i never got to play Caspian.

Think Brian possibly thought he was looking at a 560ti and not a 550ti. A 560ti at $117 would be a crazy bargain.

[Brian is Huh?!{CLR}]

8GB is only the sweet spot because RAM prices have significantly dropped imo.

During the Alpha i never saw BF3 use over 2GB RAM. However i never got to play Caspian.

Think Brian possibly thought he was looking at a 560ti and not a 550ti. A 560ti at $117 would be a crazy bargain.

yea i thought it was a 560ti hahaha
i just got the email and posted it and left to work lol :P

caspain uses about 3.5gig ram.. during heavy firefights.
but for those other vehicular maps..itll probably use more.