PC Upgrade, any recommendations?

[XeroS1x]

Thanks for the info guys. I have been looking at the P8P67 Deluxe board from Asus, read some reviews, seems to be fine and fits under my budget. I originally planned on getting the i5 2500k, but realized that for futureproofing, I should get the i7.

@Silverlight - So true, that was one of the reasons I considered the i7 over the i5. The GTX570 unfortunately, only has 1.25GB's of memory, not really on par with the 2GB on the 6970. In terms of a dual card set-up, the AMD 6970 seems to do better than the GTX570, the scaling appears to be better and it seems there aren't driver issues or bottlenecks. Although the 6970 is a little over my budget.

[snakker]

Asus P8P67 Deluxe - have on of these: it rocks for easy OC'ing
Intel Core i7 2600k - I'm running i5 2500K at 4.3 Ghz on auto-OC (easy as pie)
Huntkey X7 900W modular - have smaller Huntkey PSU; they are dependable & affordable PSU's
AMD HD6970 -- great card, although you may get equal performance from flashed 6950 2Gb (mine unlocked flawlessly to 6970 -- could save you some dough)

Just my 2 c

[DarthSWNT]

The 2500k is not a lot slower than the 2600k for over a grand less. if you are tight on budget don't bother with the 2600k.

I.t.o. psu: you can get the brands i recommend, so even though they have a small amount less wattage their quality is better and with the big brands come great warranties.

The thing is, i would not trust my 5k gpu to a make that has not become established and gone through a lot of end-user testing.

Although it does say up to 50C and 80+ certified on the huntkey which usually indicates quality. You want something that has reliable and stable power output.

[Kuga]

Unless you are running three monitors, don't change anything. Maybe drop to a 2500k and get a SSD.

The specs you have are almost identical to what I have currently. I would maybe recommend getting an SSD for your OS. It's freaking phenomenal.

I'm running 2 x 5870's and the X7 does a bloody good job. I have a friend that reviews hardware as well, he tried blowing one of those Huntkey PSU's up with 3 x GTX 480's iirc, and was pulling 1100w off the wall socket.. He didn't blow the PSU in the end.

[XeroS1x]

Thanks for the replies guys. From what Kuga said, it seems that that Huntkey PSU is pretty darn good for the price. If I were to go for an SSD, is there anything in particular I should look out for? Does this mean that the Windows installation itself is stored on the SSD, and all program files/documents etc. are stored on the actual HDD?

@Snakker - I did have a look at the 6950's but I am not too keen on the flashing bit, I don't want to void the warranty or anything like that. There is also a clear margin between the 6970 and 6950 but that is not including the flashed 6950. How easy is it? and are there any flaws/restrictions that prevent you from flashing it?

BTW, what make is your card?

@DarthSWNT - True, I did look at the Coolermaster 1000w silent pro option, but it is priced quite a bit higher than the Huntkey. After what Kuga said, surely it's ok to assume the Huntkey is ok?

(Sorry Kuga, didn't see that you replied to this thread already, before I posted on this one)

Another decision I need to make, is whether I should go for a 6970 or a GTX570. They seem to come neck and neck in benchmarks, but the 6970 has 2GB of memory rather than 1,25GB. I have heard that the GTX570 bottlenecks in SLI. Which do you guys reckon is best? Please bear in mind I could be running them in SLI/Crossfire at a later stage.

[DarthSWNT]

What is the warranty on the huntkey?


Edit: http://www.itocp.com/htmls/47/n-647.html
This might interest you as it interested me giving it a read. Technically it performs well. Their comments were good save for a few minor problems.

They also commented on the warranty, a 2 yr one instead of the usual 5yr warranty on similarly placed products.

[XeroS1x]

What is the warranty on the huntkey?

Good question, as far as I know it has a five year warranty. But I need to confirm that as the Zaps website doesn't seem to mention it.

[DarthSWNT]

Sorry i edited.

[XeroS1x]

Sorry i edited.

Interesting. I am at two minds with which PSU I go for. It's sitting at a very reasonable price bracket, but I am maybe thinking of going for a Corsair 750w rather, or 850w.

[DarthSWNT]

I agree. the TX750 is a great psu... the output on the 12v is 744w which is brilliant! And it got a jonnyguru score of 9.5... they haven't tested the huntkey yet.

Tbh, i have been biased due to older huntkey psu's, the X7 900w looks half decent.

The price between the two are very similar, but the extra warranty would turn me to the corsair. The only issue would be if you wanted tri-cf on the 6970s. dual-cf would be fine on the corsair.