Zanzi's new PC build

[Zanziba'ar]

Hey guys, so i decided to build a new PC. The deciding factor here being my old rig blew up and i threw what was left of it from my window. Anyway here is what i have come up with for the new pc:

MoBo: ASUS Pv8z77v-pro
CPU: i5 3570K ivy bridge
RAM: 16gb corsair vengeance 1600mhz DDR3 (4x4GB)
GPU: XFX HD R7970 BLACK EDITION
BOOT & EVE SSD : OCZ 60gb vertex 4
HDD : 1TB westrn digital black
PSU: OCZ 650W ZS series bronze
Windows 7 ulti 64 bit naturally as i already have it and thats it i think.

Constructive criticism is welcomed were applicable. I have noticed alot of systems playing similiar set ups cause who doesn't love the i5 3570k?.

Thanks gaiz.

[Vicious Horizon]

Need more astro rigs, friend.

[mamba]

I'd recommend taking a nvidia card. That AMD driver support is just awful - couldn't even render a video properly

[Zanziba'ar]

When it first came out yes, but now it is very fast.

[mamba]

I just switched back to nvidia. I had 7850 MSI twin frozr version. GPU without decent software is nothing, just saying.

[Colonel Mitch]

I know a couple of people with 7970 GHZ edition cards (nobody with crossfire), and have heard only praise.

That said I did invest in a 680GTX as at 2560x1440 in certain games the 680 does significantly outperform the 7970, tho it is £100 more.

Driver problems are generally just teething issues, and are usually fixed before a card hits the shelfs (if you count out multi-gpu setups).

Also I must say the AMD/ATi Catalyst Control Center is a feature I miss massively as the nvidia control panel is junk compared to it. I never really understood why ATi won awards for it when they launched it but I hadn't used the nvidia control panel back then xD


Also note that I am an early adopter. I got 2 2900GT (1GB) cards way back in 07 when they were launched and they are amazing (actually minced some 8800 ultras in SLI at i31), then I had a 4870x2 just after it was launched, and recently I got 2 6950s and unlocked them to 6970s on release week. I've never had a significant driver problem with AMD other than some games not supporting crossfire at launch - but those game always run fine on one card anyway so whats the deal?

AMD gets a lot of bad press about drivers since years ago they weren't so up to scratch with updating older models or for newer operating systems, and on review sites when they get the test card in its pre-beta drivers they have which are not yet ready for consumer use. But honestly, I haven't had a driver issue with an AMD card since I first built my PC back in the mid 2000's, but I have had with nvidia in that time.

I guess its just personal experience, I wouldn't hold anything against either company these days as times have changed.

[Zanziba'ar]

I still have two 9800GTs lol. Anyway yeah i am probably going to stick with the 7970 as im comfortable and familiar with AMD unless ofc the 680 somehow dropped price haha. Anyway thanks for the reply colonel. I think mamba is getting his info from very old reviews and are useless as such, no offense mamba. I built the pc minus GPU recently and it starts up fine. Just to buy the gpu and then do some case tweaks

[mamba]

if "old review" is using 7850 for 2 months(since August till last week) and I ran into problems straight away. They released one driver update and 1 beta release with those 2 months while Nvidia has updates nearly every two weeks. My experiece, just a suggestion

And I dont hate AMD. Been using their CPU since 2002.

[Colonel Mitch]

if "old review" is using 7850 for 2 months(since August till last week) and I ran into problems straight away. They released one driver update and 1 beta release with those 2 months while Nvidia has updates nearly every two weeks. My experiece, just a suggestion

And I dont hate AMD. Been using their CPU since 2002.

No problem we're not trying to grill you over it

Maybe you just had an unlucky card or something. The 7xxx cards have been around for a while now so i wouldn't expect many driver updates for them unless new games come out that need optimisation really.

I only update me drivers is there is a problem or new feature I want.