Buying Today/Tomorrow - Complications

I do not want my post to get lost in the sudden rush, so....

My "blah" at the HAF 932 is an uneducated one-word summation of how exciting that case is to me. There's a part of me that wants something a bit more interesting, I suppose. That's the part of me that doesn't care about value, I'm guessing. I realize the HAF 932 is an exceptional case, but...I like the HAF X over it, mostly for aesthetic reasons. As for the 922? I may have to look into it. The Assassin is a very functional, pleasing, interesting case, but....way expensive.

Cruzing the net and getting a bit more info on it leads me to agree with you, the 64mb cache WD isn't really worth it, especially when used in combo with a SSD (like you said).

I can shave a bit more $$$ off by dropping to a 5870. The benchmarks seem sooo close between the 480 vs 5870. Heating/power consumption are not as bad as everyone originally thought, but is it worth the extra $70 fir PhysX and better fps in some games?

LOL! You may be right, DS. I'm staring at my build screen right now trying to wrap my head around it. I'm better off ditching the HAF-X, it's just a tad too tall. I'm not even sure the Assassin is really worth the moolah.

After even MORE measuring, the only case options I can take at this point (without putting the damn thing on the floor) are the Assassin or HAF 922 (or size equivalent). I'd like to maximize the use of my space so putting the case on the floor is something I'd really like to avoid. The HAF-X is out (I like that case!), the 932 is out (which was probably my best option, really). The 922 is still an excellent case. The Assassin is beautiful. The 922 is going to require a little bit of modification (put in a few extra filters, maybe). I'll post up my final config soon.

Originally posted by Dalthius Any last minute comments, go for it. My intention is to click "buy" before I go out tonight.

Last minute suggestions? Sure thing.

Have you considered the HAF 922 and the GTX 480?

The HAF 922 comes with dust filters. And like, $151 taped to the side of it.

He's an undercover Nvidia salesman!  Beware!  Jk!   Lol, well they are both good cards, however one is more efficient.  It's like this, one you can play hot potatoe with the other you can't.

I'm gaming at 1920x1200, not on an "extremely" tight budget, but I do cringe as it gets closer to $2500. $70 is not a HUGE difference price wise, but if the measurable performance is that much better than the 5870 then the 480 certainly seems to be the way to go.

Ward, are you taking into account the newest drivers for the 480? I've heard it does wonders. The #s appear to be in favor of the 480, as long as you are comfortable with the heat/power.

Yes I know the numbers are in favor of the 480, but what I'm saying is I know nothing of the 5870 crumbling under any game atm.  So, I don't think it's necessary under a budget to upgrade to the 480.

Haha well as for the case, I'm not sure.  I know the 922 is a great case, but I've heard some good things about the assassin.  Plus, it just looks great lol.  Yet, that is completely up to you man.  If you want the assassin then you'd probably be better off getting the 5870.  But, if you go with the 922 that could give you the budget room for the 480.  All I was saying is I haven't heard anything about the 5870 crumbling under high resolutions, I mean its meant to take on high resolutions.  I've seen many benchmarks showing it handling 2560z1600 resolutions no problem.  So don't let that deter you from getting it.  However, I cannot say how long either will last, I mean you have to think that somewhere down the road the heat issues might make the 480 less durable but then again I'm not sure.  Just know that I'm happy with my 5870's, I've been able to handle everything thrown at me thus far.  No complaints, but the 480 is undeniably the better card. 

A few things have changed pricewise on the site, so I'm changing along with it. Are there any recommendations/advice for when you place a case on a carpeted floor? Do you recommend putting down a board or a mat of some kind?

This is going to be my first "top tier" computer, so I'm not sure what is considered hot. The typical temp in my computer room is around 80F.

Lemme settle the 5870/480 debate, lol. The 5870 is the 480 without ridiculous heat and power usage. HOWEVER. The 480 has something the 5870 does NOT have. PHYSX. OooooooOOOooo. So, you can pay more to get PhysX and a heat/power gremlin, or, save money overall with a 5870. :D

MAYbe shouldve opted for WD's 32MB 1TB at least. Seagate and Hitachi have a nice little rep with failing drives, lol. WD's rep is nearly untarnished.

Originally posted by ablahblah Lemme settle the 5870/480 debate, lol. The 5870 is the 480 without ridiculous heat and power usage. HOWEVER. The 480 has something the 5870 does NOT have. PHYSX. OooooooOOOooo. So, you can pay more to get PhysX and a heat/power gremlin, or, save money overall with a 5870. :D

Or you could just drop the fanboy sh*t and stick to the facts. Don't pull that kind of sh*t with other people's money, there are fewer things that tick me off more. You give them the facts and let them decide which is better for themselves, you don't post misinformation to try to sway fool people into buying one brand over another just because you like it more. Fanboys posting misinformation or swaying your option is what you made you waste money on a VelociRaptor, and how did you feel about how that money down the drain turned out?

Luckily neither the 5870 or the 480 are a bad buy, however one can manage things the other can't and if someone gets swayed into buying a 5870 by fanboys and/or just because it is cheaper, only to later find out the hard way it doesn't have enough power for their chosen resolution and games I would imagine they would be rightly disappointed.

Gaming power wise, the tiers go 5850 < 470 < 5870 < 480

I could pull benchmarks if need be, but I shouldn't have to waste my time, you can take 30 minutes to Google "GTX 480 review" your own god damn self, it isn't hard. The 480 has always had a baseline of around 10-20% more power than a 5870, even before the improved drivers that came out recently. In some games the 5870 can keep up with the 480, this is usually with games and settings that both can do over 60FPS so it is pretty moot either way. In some games, or higher settings of some games, the 480 often pulls ahead significantly. Sometimes not significantly but enough to hit the silky smooth 50-60FPS zone where as the 5870 will lag behind in the choppy 30-40 zone.

The fact is, there are already a number of games out that to play at silky smooth frame rates at a resolution of 1920x1200 or higher with a 5870 you will have to turn the settings down, and there are more games coming out in the future that will also have this problem. The 480 has no such problem with 1920x1200, the only games at that resolution that it can't play with silky smooth frame rates and maxed out graphic settings are a few horribly optimized games like Crysis and Metro 2033. It takes 3x liquid cooled and extremely overclocked 5870s or 2x liquid cooled and extremely overclocked 480s to max those two games, so don't even bother trying. There are also a few games that require video cards with more than 1GB of RAM to max out the textures on, you just flat out can't max those out with a 5870 or even three 5870s, you would need a video card with more RAM such as the 470, 480, or 2GB version of the 5870. But considering the 2GB version of the 5870 is the same price or even more expensive than a 480, while also being less powerful, that would be poor choice.

See this thread for specific numbers on how much extra per month it will cost to run a 480 over a 5870. At the national average of ~$0.11 per kilowatt hour it would cost an extra $8.35 a month to run a 480 at full load for 31 days straight, or $2.29 to run it at idle for 31 days straight. And if you're not retarded and turn your 1000w+ PC off when you aren't using it instead of leaving it on 24/7 to jack up the power bill for mommy and daddy then the difference is even less yet.

Heat isn't an issue per se, mine only hits a max of 79°C at 79% fan speed, but running warmer means its fan will run faster which means more noise. But I assure you all high end video cards sound like a jet taking off when under load, including the 5870. Small fans at high RPMs just do that. It can't be helped unless you liquid cool your cards.

And yes, the 480 also has PhysX, but I don't even factor this in because not many games use it.