Gaming PC Upgrade

[yawa77]

Hello,
Currently my PC as:
I5 3570K
MSI 7970
Corsair 850TX PSU
MSI Z77-G45 MB
240 Gb SSD
3 TB 7200, 2 TB WD Green HD
Corsair 750D Case
27' LG 1080P Monitor 60Hz

My budget is $800 USD to include the tax on the items. What upgrades would you recommend I get? I was thinking of either a EVGA 780 or Crossfiring and a ASUS 144hz 1080P Monitor. I realize people favor either AMD or NVidia but please keep the comments constructive. Also the games I play range from BF3/4, Assassins' Creed, Borderlands 2, Batman Games, FEAR, Far Cry, COD etc.

Thank You all for your input

 

[Supahos]

Your best bang for buck would be to crossfire another 7970. Doesn't matter what you buy on the other end of this that should out perform any single card you can purchase. I'm an Nvidia guy, but you would be silly to trade a 7970 for a 780, when 2 7970s is faster.

 

[random stalker]

well, you already have a great cpu and a gpu... so, as long you're getting decent fps, there is little to upgrade there...

I would go either for a 2560x1600 monitor or a sound card - like sound blaster Z f. e. and a pair of decent headphones/speakers...

 

[tc983x]

how much memory is on the card? remember when you crossfire you only use the ammount of memory on one card. how about a 780ti? a little over your budget i know, but i have two titans, and i was running just one for awhile and it BLEW everythiing away.. and i hear the 780ti is even better for gaming. the titan is 6gb ddr5. just food for thought =)

 

[maddogfargo]

I'd do a 2nd 7970 in crossfire, H80i or H100i water cooler, OC the i5 if you haven't already, and upgrade the PSU if necessary for the 2nd GPU.

 

[yawa77]

I have an MSI 7970 BE..3 Gigs VRAM. Reason I was thinking the 780 was its cooler and I've seen them pull 80s to 100 fps in BF3/4 on ultra 120hz monitors with a single card. My processor isn't overclocked yet, I still have it on the stock fan that's included with the processor.

 

[NormH]

I'd do a 2nd 7970 in crossfire, H80i or H100i water cooler, OC the i5 if you haven't already, and upgrade the PSU if necessary for the 2nd GPU.

+1
sound advice. the 850w psu should be plenty and an OC i5 with crossfire 7970x2 will be a tough build to beat. a water cooler to be sure not to overheat that system wouldnt hurt. if there is any money left from the budget after that find a nice girl to take on a date and call it a day.

 

[yawa77]

I'd do a 2nd 7970 in crossfire, H80i or H100i water cooler, OC the i5 if you haven't already, and upgrade the PSU if necessary for the 2nd GPU.

+1
sound advice. the 850w psu should be plenty and an OC i5 with crossfire 7970x2 will be a tough build to beat. a water cooler to be sure not to overheat that system wouldnt hurt. if there is any money left from the budget after that find a nice girl to take on a date and call it a day.

Wife would like dinner but already hooked her up. 7970 crossfire will give me more frames no doubt, something like a H100i that's $400 so far. What else would you recommend another monitor if so which one? Sorry if these questions sound very noobish but I only started PC gaming and building after a very long break and would like your opinions. Thank you again.

 

[NormH]

honestly your build is great otherwise. you can get a cool looking case if you want. here is a few i like that are actually good cases and look good as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007583%204017%204018&IsNodeId=1&page=4&bop=And&CompareItemList=7|11-129-021^11-129-021-TS%2C9SIA3KX16D3202^11-133-220-02%23%2C9SIA3KX16D4619^11-156-287-02%23%2C11-146-068^11-146-068-TS%2C11-233-121^11-233-121-TS&percm=11-146-068%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24%3B11-233-121%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24

 

[CNCSIT]

When looking for monitors for gaming you want to get one with a low response time. And something with a high contrast ratio to get the sharpest colors.

 

[tc983x]

asus has a nice 27" 3d 144mhz monitor. i have 3. LooooVE them!!!

 

[yawa77]

asus has a nice 27" 3d 144mhz monitor. i have 3. LooooVE them!!!

I was looking at the 23 inch they have.

 

[yawa77]

honestly your build is great otherwise. you can get a cool looking case if you want. here is a few i like that are actually good cases and look good as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007583%204017%204018&IsNodeId=1&page=4&bop=And&CompareItemList=7|11-129-021^11-129-021-TS%2C9SIA3KX16D3202^11-133-220-02%23%2C9SIA3KX16D4619^11-156-287-02%23%2C11-146-068^11-146-068-TS%2C11-233-121^11-233-121-TS&percm=11-146-068%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24%3B11-233-121%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24

Thats why I bought the Corsair 750D

 

[yawa77]

I'd do a 2nd 7970 in crossfire, H80i or H100i water cooler, OC the i5 if you haven't already, and upgrade the PSU if necessary for the 2nd GPU.

+1
sound advice. the 850w psu should be plenty and an OC i5 with crossfire 7970x2 will be a tough build to beat. a water cooler to be sure not to overheat that system wouldnt hurt. if there is any money left from the budget after that find a nice girl to take on a date and call it a day.

Also I was just informed that my motherboard http://only has one 16X and a 8X PCI slot. Would this even make Crossfire worth it?

 

[SimonGranstrom]

I'd do a 2nd 7970 in crossfire, H80i or H100i water cooler, OC the i5 if you haven't already, and upgrade the PSU if necessary for the 2nd GPU.

+1
sound advice. the 850w psu should be plenty and an OC i5 with crossfire 7970x2 will be a tough build to beat. a water cooler to be sure not to overheat that system wouldnt hurt. if there is any money left from the budget after that find a nice girl to take on a date and call it a day.

Also I was just informed that my motherboard http://only has one 16X and a 8X PCI slot. Would this even make Crossfire worth it?

There is barely any performance loss comparing 16x to 8x.
Btw, can i have a 7970 too?

 

[yawa77]

I'd do a 2nd 7970 in crossfire, H80i or H100i water cooler, OC the i5 if you haven't already, and upgrade the PSU if necessary for the 2nd GPU.

+1
sound advice. the 850w psu should be plenty and an OC i5 with crossfire 7970x2 will be a tough build to beat. a water cooler to be sure not to overheat that system wouldnt hurt. if there is any money left from the budget after that find a nice girl to take on a date and call it a day.

Also I was just informed that my motherboard http://only has one 16X and a 8X PCI slot. Would this even make Crossfire worth it?

There is barely any performance loss comparing 16x to 8x.
Btw, can i have a 7970 too?

LOL If ya buy your own lol...and actually I pulled these off MSI and not newegg http://
If I read this right its more than one 16X right?

 

[Supahos]

All boards that aren't X79 (socket 2011) only have 16 lanes of PCI anyway. All boards will be 8x/8x when in crossfire. So anyone running sli or crossfire is running the same thing as you. It won't hurt anything.


that board has the slots, but still only 16 lanes of PCI to split between them

 

[tc983x]

trust me dude 27" is soooo awesome.. lol.. it blew my mind at first... than i got two more to span my desktop.. so i play bf4 with the extended resolution and its just craaazy...

 

[yawa77]

All boards that aren't X79 (socket 2011) only have 16 lanes of PCI anyway. All boards will be 8x/8x when in crossfire. So anyone running sli or crossfire is running the same thing as you. It won't hurt anything.


that board has the slots, but still only 16 lanes of PCI to split between them

Cool was worried for a bit