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Building a Gaming PC

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So Gouri, whats you favorite brand of GPU? I normally buy EVGA. Had pretty good luck so far with them. But I know other companies like MSI, Gigabyte and Asus make good quality. Never tried Zotac. Thoughts?

Lol, you already said it.. EVGA.. If I had to go with a backup, it'd be MSI.

My reasoning is because of both companies history of making (1) excellent reference boards; (2) expanding on the reference design, consistently, producing much improved updated boards; (3) solid warranty's; (4) leading the way when it comes to overclocking software, support, forums; (4) having AIO and waterblock hybrid kits available quickly.

Take a look at the past 3 generations going back to Maxwell and EVGA and MSI have been on top of their game. EVGA's SC2/ACX/ICX boards were fantastic, cheap, well-built, quiet, with great firmware that wasn't gimped for broke out of the factory. These boards were real upgrades over the reference design.

MSI's SEA HAWK X and the EVGA FTW Hybrid series cards were among the best cards on the market.

My personal card started out as an EVGA 1080 SC2. I bought it then found a deal on an FTW3 through B&H. I sold my card and bought the FTW3 and only paid $125 for the very minor upgrade. I put the EVGA AIO FTW3 Hybrid Kit on that sucker and its fantastic and exceptionally quiet. I know the SEA HAWK X is very quiet too.

But the reason I think EVGA is just a great buy, is because the SC2 + Hybrid is/was almost as good as the FTW3 + Hybrid. It wasn't gimped in firmware, and the hardware supports massive overclocking at a cheaper price point than the reference board. Same goes for MSI, but my only thing there is that MSI doesn't sell the hybrid kits... That, to me, is the one big difference maker between the two; but overall, both card manufacturers make solid cards (reference and non-reference) that aren't designed to force you into the next higher tier of product.

Simply put, if you bought a 1080 SC2 at $600, you can be sure that within reason, that card is as good as EVGA could make it. That to me is important. Same goes for MSI.

Lastly, ZOTAC is great for small builds.. I built a mini-ITX gaming rig for my brother as a birthday gift. I used a very compact cube case, and put a ZOTAC 1080 Mini in it (the one I got had to be imported though). But here's where ZOTAC excels:

03-arctic-mini-supercompact-size_rev01.png




This allowed me to free up a great deal of space in the case since the card is 57mm shorter than the EVGA SC2. Being watercooled, you can clock it however you want, with no loud fans or heat dissipation in such a tiny rig.

IMHO, ZOTAC is the king of this kind of shit.

I think Gigabyte and Asus make competent products (I'm typing this on a Gigabyte laptop), but, EVGA and MSI are the best card manufacturers for Nvidia cards IMHO, with ZOTAC being the best for the smaller cards.
 
Lol, you already said it.. EVGA.. If I had to go with a backup, it'd be MSI.

My reasoning is because of both companies history of making (1) excellent reference boards; (2) expanding on the reference design, consistently, producing much improved updated boards; (3) solid warranty's; (4) leading the way when it comes to overclocking software, support, forums; (4) having AIO and waterblock hybrid kits available quickly.

Take a look at the past 3 generations going back to Maxwell and EVGA and MSI have been on top of their game. EVGA's SC2/ACX/ICX boards were fantastic, cheap, well-built, quiet, with great firmware that wasn't gimped for broke out of the factory. These boards were real upgrades over the reference design.

MSI's SEA HAWK X and the EVGA FTW Hybrid series cards were among the best cards on the market.

My personal card started out as an EVGA 1080 SC2. I bought it then found a deal on an FTW3 through B&H. I sold my card and bought the FTW3 and only paid $125 for the very minor upgrade. I put the EVGA AIO FTW3 Hybrid Kit on that sucker and its fantastic and exceptionally quiet. I know the SEA HAWK X is very quiet too.

But the reason I think EVGA is just a great buy, is because the SC2 + Hybrid is/was almost as good as the FTW3 + Hybrid. It wasn't gimped in firmware, and the hardware supports massive overclocking at a cheaper price point than the reference board. Same goes for MSI, but my only thing there is that MSI doesn't sell the hybrid kits... That, to me, is the one big difference maker between the two; but overall, both card manufacturers make solid cards (reference and non-reference) that aren't designed to force you into the next higher tier of product.

Simply put, if you bought a 1080 SC2 at $600, you can be sure that within reason, that card is as good as EVGA could make it. That to me is important. Same goes for MSI.

Lastly, ZOTAC is great for small builds.. I built a mini-ITX gaming rig for my brother as a birthday gift. I used a very compact cube case, and put a ZOTAC 1080 Mini in it (the one I got had to be imported though). But here's where ZOTAC excels:

03-arctic-mini-supercompact-size_rev01.png




This allowed me to free up a great deal of space in the case since the card is 57mm shorter than the EVGA SC2. Being watercooled, you can clock it however you want, with no loud fans or heat dissipation in such a tiny rig.

IMHO, ZOTAC is the king of this kind of shit.

I think Gigabyte and Asus make competent products (I'm typing this on a Gigabyte laptop), but, EVGA and MSI are the best card manufacturers for Nvidia cards IMHO, with ZOTAC being the best for the smaller cards.

Well you backed up my beliefs, 110%. EVGA has never let me down. Great Vid cards. MSI: I also have had great luck with gaming motherboards, and have heard nothing but great reviews on their vid cards.
Now I just gotta wait till Black Friday and get the best deal on a EVGA 1080ti as I can find. (Hoping under $600,on sale) Hit me up if ya see any.
 
I have an EVGA 1080. It's the "ftw" series, but that just means it has some LEDs and a slight factory overclock.

Absolutely love the thing. 0 issues.

Had an ASUS 770 in my first rig that also had no issues. They're now honestly the only companies I'll buy a GPU from because neither of them were broke.
 
Been waiting for the 20 series to drop to see if I wanted to upgrade but I think I'm going to pass. Ray tracing isn't enough of a benefit to spend that much, and the only drastic improvement over the 1080ti is the 2080ti which price point is just too high. Think I might go for a used 1080ti for $400-500. I'm a little disappointed in this generation of Nvidia cards. Was hoping for a similar jump that the 9 series to 10 series had.

On that note, anyone selling a 1080ti? :chuckle:
 
So apparently the 2070 Ti RTX is only "slightly" faster than the 1080 FE... Which means it's still slower than non-FE boosted 1080's like the SC2, FTW, etc.
 
So apparently the 2070 Ti RTX is only "slightly" faster than the 1080 FE... Which means it's still slower than non-FE boosted 1080's like the SC2, FTW, etc.
I was wondering what the specs of the 2070 RTX were going to be. Disappointing.
 
The 1080ti outperforms the 2080 in quite a few benchmarks. I'm not really surprised the 2070 is underwhelming. Other than ray tracing and the 2080ti this line of cards is not a good release by Nvidia.
 
From a selfish perspective, that's good news. I was hoping the 10 series would hold up to its hype and allow me to skip at least 1 generation if not 2.

Think my next big purchase is gonna be a 144hz 1440p monitor with Gsync.
 
From a selfish perspective, that's good news. I was hoping the 10 series would hold up to its hype and allow me to skip at least 1 generation if not 2.

Think my next big purchase is gonna be a 144hz 1440p monitor with Gsync.

(cough) ultra-wide (cough)
 
This is just irritating. If anything the cost of the 1080ti has gone UP since the release of the RTX 2000 series. I'm now contemplating getting a 1070ti. Its around $300 cheaper (at least). I can get a new EVGA 1070ti for $400 shipped. And it will still be a nice upgrade from a GTX 970.
 
This is just irritating. If anything the cost of the 1080ti has gone UP since the release of the RTX 2000 series. I'm now contemplating getting a 1070ti. Its around $300 cheaper (at least). I can get a new EVGA 1070ti for $400 shipped. And it will still be a nice upgrade from a GTX 970.
I heard they aren't producing them anymore so they will likely be increasing in price a bit.
 
This is just irritating. If anything the cost of the 1080ti has gone UP since the release of the RTX 2000 series. I'm now contemplating getting a 1070ti. Its around $300 cheaper (at least). I can get a new EVGA 1070ti for $400 shipped. And it will still be a nice upgrade from a GTX 970.

Why not go to the middle ground and get a 1080?

Also, the new monitor is a dream. high refresh rate on 1440p is so fucking cool, as is finally realizing my 3 monitor dream.
 
This is just irritating. If anything the cost of the 1080ti has gone UP since the release of the RTX 2000 series. I'm now contemplating getting a 1070ti. Its around $300 cheaper (at least). I can get a new EVGA 1070ti for $400 shipped. And it will still be a nice upgrade from a GTX 970.
Why not go to the middle ground and get a 1080?

Also, the new monitor is a dream. high refresh rate on 1440p is so fucking cool, as is finally realizing my 3 monitor dream.

Would definitely recommend trying to get the 1080 vs the 1070 Ti if the prices are within $100.
 
Would definitely recommend trying to get the 1080 vs the 1070 Ti if the prices are within $100.
I went ahead and got a EVGA 1070ti. $425. I don't run anything crazy. Gonna be playing BF5 soon. Actually my 970GTX will run any game I want. The 1070ti should be good for a few years till hopefully the 2070-2080 prices start to drop.
 

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