First time build

[chr1s5opherr]

I believe the jump to a 660Ti is supposed to be quite big in terms of performance. Might wanna see if you can find a good one :-P

I haven't heard much about PNY. I'll repeat what I said earlier : EVGA, ASUS, Gigabyte.

Msi make good cards. The only reason they're not high on my list was because of the whole incident with the PWM design on some of their cards. (a part which was designed to take 3A was redesigned to allow 9A,improving performance but lowering reliability and life)

Thanks MEHTA ive taken your advice and gone for this card http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...A1V6Z2X9I7KSQG as i said im aware the 3gb is probably useless but the 2gb version is only £2 cheaper.

I have considered the Ti but i am already very much pushing my budget, i was only intending on spendin £120 on a gpu, but have decided to take a step up.

[Willzzz]

Well don't buy off Amazon.

If you want a good GTX660 get this one:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-m...098mhz-cores-9

If you want a cheap one get the PNY.

EVGA are far from the best and I would seriously doubt that they are any better than PNY.

[chr1s5opherr]

That looks pretty good, im trying to bunch everything together to save on postage however i like the look of the MSI. and its a fair bit cheaper

[Willzzz]

You'll have free postage from Scan when you hit 20 posts, only 6 more to go! Or it's like 20p extra on ebuyer with free postage.

[chr1s5opherr]

cheers having had a good look on scan im actually going to get everything from there as they have everything i want and it works out a bit cheaper

[Mehta23]

Well don't buy off Amazon.

If you want a good GTX660 get this one:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-m...098mhz-cores-9

If you want a cheap one get the PNY.

EVGA are far from the best and I would seriously doubt that they are any better than PNY.

Why wouldn't you buy from Amazon? Apart from slow delivery and sometimes bad packaging. I can't think of anything wrong with it.

EVGA have a solid reputation for good graphics cards. I'm not saying they're the best,but I will always consider their cards.


@OP

The 660 seems ok to me ^_^ you might wanna check reviews, especially seeing how the 7870 is around the same price point.

I would say that it's usually better to try nd get the best graphics card you can. But £120 usually won't get you much good unless you look on the second hand market. On ebay, I've seen almost new 560Ti's and 570's sell for less than £120 :-D

[Willzzz]

I just meant in this particular case.

EVGA have a solid reputation, they sell an awful lot of cards and are basically the mainstream seller. This doesn't mean they are better than others and certainly doesn't allow them to charge a premium over other manufacturers.

Well the next one up would be the 7870 Tahiti really, regular 7870s are pretty much pointless now, they cost the same and perform worse.
http://www.dabs.com/products/best-va...86460000&src=3

[Mehta23]

I agree. I wouldn't pay a lot more for an evga card over another.

I didn't know about the Tahiti being the same price as the regular. I always assumed they'd be more :-P

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Out of interest do you really need SLI or Crossfire??

i would look at one of these motherboards:

http://www.dabs.com/products/gigabyt...200&origin=pla

http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-m5...200&origin=pla

The only issue with the Gigabyte is whether you get the earlier version or not. The earlier version lacks LLC.

This Antec HCG520 is made by Seasonic and is under £50:

http://www.ebuyer.com/245671-antec-5...761345-06205-3

I would also get the Asus M5A99X Evo R2.0 if you want Crossfire or SLI:

http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-m5...S%20990&src=16

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-M5A99X-...words=asus+990

However,I would go for the XFX 650W PSU if you want to go Crossfire or SLI in the future.

The Samsung HDD division was sold to Seagate a while back too,and the Seagate branded HDDs are cheaper.

[chr1s5opherr]

Thanks CAT, this is the best bit of advice i have had so far,
I did not realise the only diffrence between these boards was the additon of SLI/CROSSFIRE, seeing as i wont be using this ill go for the cheaper one.

[Mehta23]

I'd recommend an XDX psu either way. My 750W xxx runs well, and so does my cousins 500w.

[Venomz1337]

I wouldn't recommend a XFX PSU because they only have a one year warranty, believe me, if it blows, you're doomed.

[Mehta23]

I wouldn't recommend a XFX PSU because they only have a one year warranty, believe me, if it blows, you're doomed.

I think it has a 3 year which might be upped to 5 if you register.
The only bad thing I've heard about XFX is that their CS isn't that top notch, like Corsair. But if you get one from scan, you can use the 3 year RTB