3XS Z77 Vengeance OC - Help Configuring System

[Nocode]

Hi All

I'm looking at getting a '3XS Z77 Vengeance OC' system very shortly and wanted to understand whether there's scope to choose a graphics card not on the pickable radio-button list?

e.g. I want a GTX 670, but not the stock edition. Could I add a EVGA GTX 270 FTW Edition, or an Asus GTX 270 DirectCU II TOP instead?

Cheers, Paul

[drharvey12]

Hi Nocode.

Scan are generally very good at putting whatever you want into the PC as long as they don't envision their being any incompatabilites with the parts you have chosen..ie not fitting in the case!!!

I'm assuming you are actually wanting to change to a different type of 670. The 670 is a good choice over the 680 as with a slight overclock it's pretty much as fast for about £100 less

I'm 99% sure there shouldn't be any problems with this but they'll confirm if there is an issue when you ring them up to place the order. Assuming that the default PSU is able to power any single gfx card including a 7970 then any variation of the 670 including overclocked models should be fine too. They know their stuff and won't let you build a PC that won't work!!

Just thought I'd mention that it might be worth getting a slightly larger PSU to accommodate running a 2nd 670 in SLI at a future date.

I've been very happy with the service I received from Scan recently and I would certainly encourage you to go through them

[Nocode]

Thanks for the quick response.

Indeed, I'm still after a GTX 670 but a factory overclocked version such as the EVGA FTW - just so I can get closer to, or out perform a GTX 280. As you said the 670's are about a £100 cheaper so it's a no brainer as far as I'm concerned.

Good advice re: the larger PSU in case I want to add an additional GPU later on. I've never gone down the crossfire/SLI route but I guess it's worth bearing in mind.

Has anyone got any advice on the motherboard selection? Trying to choose between the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H or UD5H.

The latter is £50 more but seems to have more heatsinks/cooling on the board, dual LAN, more SATA ports, the Realtek ALC898 vs the D3H's VIA VT2021 (not sure if there's an appreciable difference between the two?)... Or really mixing it up and paying another £15-20 on top of the GA UD5H and getting the Asus Sabertooth but not sure if all that 'cooling armor' is a bit gimmicky

[cactusjack]

Scan are very accomodating with changing the graphics card - I went from one 4GB 670 to another SC 4GB 670, and then today changed again to a SC 680 :-) All was done without a problem over the phone.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-e...ores-1536-2x-d

[Nocode]

Very nice card, just not sure it's worth me spending the extra to go from a GTX 670 to a 680 :-S

[drharvey12]

This card at just £283.97 seems like a bargain to me:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-e...x-dl-dvi-dp-hd

Think the EVGA price drop is just till Friday.

However the Superclocked GTX 680 at just a tad under £400 is a very good price too IMO:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-e...es-1536-brown-

If I was trying to go for the best value I would definitely choose the 670 and then whack in this SSD too for £68.54:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120gb...83000-iops-max

You should get 5 or 6 games on that easily and open world games like Skyrim with a lot of mods love being on an SSD.

[Nocode]

Personally I think the EVGA GTX 270 FTW is the best buy. Review here.

[drharvey12]

Personally I think the EVGA GTX 270 FTW is the best buy. Review here.

That certainly is a great deal on that card. I always tend to go for a card with a better than reference cooler which this one has. I'd certainly get this one if I was planning on overclocking it.

The reference card that I posted is still a good bargain though and it is likely that you could overclock it to similar levels as the stock on the FTW card. However the FTW card with it's better PCB & cooler is more likely to attain a higher overclock overall. As with any graphics card sometimes they are good overclockers and sometimes they're not. With the reference card you'll probably get a decent overclock out of it but there is a risk that it might not overclock at all stabily. This is unlikely but a possibility.

One good thing about having a reference card is if you decide to go SLI at a later point in time it's generally quite easy (and cheap) to pick up another reference card from any manufacturer which will play nicely together.

If it was me buying today with a budget of £300ish I'd go for the card Nocode posted (the 670 FTW) as the better coooling would swing it for me and I would almost certainly overclock it further anyway.

However it really depends on what you are planning on doing with the card and whether the games you are going to play will make a difference with a slightly faster card. I certainly think the reference card and a fast SSD for games which benefit from having one is a viable alternative.

[Nocode]

I also read somewhere that EVGA 'cherry-picks' the best GPU's to use in their FTW edition cards, so they should be capable of going higher than their factory-clocked speeds - and if better cooling is required you can always pick-up a 3rd party cooler. I use a 3rd party cooler on my aging GTX280 and temps are MUCH lower than the stock cooler. I also think EVGA allows you to do that without voiding the voiding, as long as you don't deface the serial number sticker in the process and re-attach the stock cooler when RMA'ing.

[cactusjack]

Very nice card, just not sure it's worth me spending the extra to go from a GTX 670 to a 680 :-S

You are right it isnt worth spending the extra - the increased benefit is minimal - however, I like the dual fans and I got carried away And am happy now that I did.