In the coming month, I plan on upgrading my current PC. Buying a Noctua NH-D14 to overclock my i7 920, adding the Samsung 830 Series 128gb SSD and purchasing a new GPU (undecided between the 7970 or the GTX680).

Any good links/tips for first time overclocking?
Suggestions for the GPU? I currently run a 5850 single monitor setup and I have no plan on adding another monitor.

Any other changes you would make?

GPU: 690

lol what a step up that would be, 5850 to 690.

And by GPU: 690 we can assume u meant 690 in quad SLI configuration

it would be the only possible upgrade that made any sense for his "mainly for emails and looking at facebook" machine

forgot to add that I would prefer to keep this below $800 total

Edit is it worth the extra cost to get the 680 over the 7970?
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($84.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.00 @ Scorptec)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($519.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Total: $702.00

vs.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($84.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.00 @ Scorptec)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card ($579.00 @ Scorptec)
Total: $762.00

id go with the gtx680 over the 7970

If you buy it all from pccasegear you can get it for under $700 with the gtx680 they have a few on sale for under $500 atm (zotac gtx680 $479 and msi gtx680 $499) and the ssd and cpu cooler are the same price at pccasegear

all the grief i hear about ppl trying to get the latest games going is because of not using a Nvidia card - so u decide if its worth it

I can personally recommend you get a EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Superclocked Signature, it costs $639 from pccasegear, I have this card atm and think it's awesome even though the card comes factory overclocked I increased it even more to just over 1100Mhz, and when the card is under load it has a boost function which takes it to around 1300Mhz which is **** great.

I know you are on a budget but I suggest you wait a few extra weeks and get this card and I promise you that you won't regret it, this is my first Nvidia card since 2004, although I never had any problems with ATI/AMD cards I will not purchase another one of their products until they release cards which are faster than Nvidia cards.

If you choose to stick with your $800 budget then I suggest you stick with AMD as they are cheaper, here's a link to the Nvidia card I mentioned http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?mai ... s_id=20289

In all seriousness if you want a card that is going to last a few years then I recommend the Nvidia card I linked.

buy a 690 and change that budget to $2000 that should fix it ya bum.Nah **** it buy 2 690's and change th budget to 3k.

My own personal experience is that the moment I switched from AMD/ATI to Nvidia I haven't had any driver or card troubles.

I've never even owned an ati card :O

never have never will

Holy **** you're spending like $640 on a 2GB EVGA 680?

I'm getting each 4GB EVGA 680 for $490 including postage..

The advantage of pricing your system over a period of weeks and not in a day I guess..

ph33x, how about you be constructive and give him a link to this better price?

I bought the Asus Direct CU II GTX680 http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_li ... sid=100427

After installing the card, I realised that I need to take some time and to cable manage my case better.

Edit: the card is huge, I had to remove the spare fan slot on my top HDD cage for it to fit.

Good for you for going Nvidia, if it craps out (it wont) blame Asus not nvidia.
Lol, I only realised how big those coolers were when I seen a pic of them on the show us ya rig thread.

hi jaze18

dont it worry you umart only advertise a 1 year warranty, when for example arc computers have a 3 year advertised on the same product

If Asus craps out I would be surprised.



I haven't really thought about it too much. All the products I have bought from them haven't crapped out or been DOA, so until I have an issue I don't have a problem. Not sure on my information, but you also got the manufacturer warranty on top of the umart warranty. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

most of the time if the hardware installs fine and runs fine for a week then you dont have to worry

Sorry to resurrect and old thread, but i was curious to know if you have overclocked your card, and what the settings are.

I got the ASUS GTX680 DirectCU TOP, but having some trouble finding a stable overclock for all games. Also, im fresh from the ATI camp, returning to nvidia and im not very familiar with the overclocking options.

I understand the GPU boost, memory overclocks, but then theres a couple voltage options as well.

I got it set to 1240/7000, which ran fine in 3dmark11, crysis2 and Project CARS. But then it crapped out to desktop playing Blackops 2. I tried setting one of the voltage settings (forgot the name of the option) from 100 to 159 (max allowable using asus software), but didnt make a difference.

It seems to be hampering the o/c potential by using the asus software, maybe a 3rd party o/c utility would be better??

MSI afterburner.

It did the trick!
Thanks Mack.

Was almost tearing my hair out when all my benchies and games were running great with my overclock, except Black Ops 2.

A google search later, turns out the level im up to (second water/boat level) is known to crash on nvidia cards. Was a relief to find out my card wasnt a dud! Ill leave that game for a while till a fix is sorted. Incase your wondering, im currently using 310.70 drivers.