What PC is better for Planetside 2?

[RomanN]

First Build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zK1y

Second Build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zK0U

I have two options, which one is better? Two friends helped me with these builds. Both have different opinions about different brands: ASUS vs. MSI, or what kind of GPU: GTX 670 vs. HD 7970. I want to be able to play PS2 with 30-40 FPS minimum at all times. I'd also like to play BF3/BF4 when it comes out. I plan to OC a month after I get the parts. I'll get upgrades later on when I have more money. I already have decent, but crappy peripherals: monitor, keyboard, mouse, and mic. Any opinions/suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Rbstr]

I prefer the 670 here because of power consumption and the secondary stuff like physX.

Other thoughts.
There's no good reason to spend that much on a motherboard unless you need all the silly ports for some reason. You probably don't. I wouldn't go over like $140. I prefer Asus, but MSI is ok, Gigabyte or ASRock (which is usually quite a bit cheaper) too. Hell screw SLI/Crossfire support too.

You won't need an 850w powersupply...more like 600?
That case is also up in the $$$ and huge but that's a personal preference thing.

[RomanN]

I prefer the 670 here because of power consumption and the secondary stuff like physX.

Other thoughts.
There's no good reason to spend that much on a motherboard unless you need all the silly ports for some reason. You probably don't. I wouldn't go over like $140. I prefer Asus, but MSI is ok, Gigabyte or ASRock (which is usually quite a bit cheaper) too. Hell screw SLI/Crossfire support too.

You won't need an 850w powersupply...more like 600?
That case is also up in the $$$ and huge but that's a personal preference thing.

What does PhysX and Tessellation do? I don't know, my friends just chose those boards. Any exact boards you suggest that are great? I'll ask them what the exact benefits are. I just want the option to have SLI/Crossfire if I ever need/want it. Again, the PSU was just to future proof for more GPUs if I get them. I like the case, it's spacious so it gives me a lot of room/options.

[Ailos]

I think 670 is a better fit for you largely because of the fact that NVidia's drivers are just better at the moment, as are the overclocking tools for Kepler.

The 850 W PSU is so overkill, you could put another 670 in SLI and still have your i5 overclocked (without the GPUs overclocked). Unless you plan on putting really aggressive overclocks on both GPU and CPU (taking the i5 to 5 GHz and the 670 to 1.5 GHz core), a 600-650 W PSU will be sufficient and much more cost effective. Taking either component to such level is going to need more than airflow though, so I don't really see the point.

The mobos are both way too expensive for these features. You can get any number of boards with all the same bells and whistles for $40-$50 less, even from ASUS and MSI themselves. Other good manufacturers (that I have personally had good experiences with): ASRock and Biostar. It just seems disproportionate to spend that much on mobo given how close that's getting to LGA 2011 territory, but if you go that route, a single card (either 670 or 7970) won't really do your system justice. So it's money thrown out into the wind, IMO.

EDIT: Just saw your new post above.
PhysiX is a physics engine supported in some games (including PS2). Its basic level allows realistic representation of in-game events, but an NVidia GPU can also run in a special mode to help out with the physics simulation and make things a lot more lifelike: things like water and fluids, fog, clothing and feathers, etc. In some games, having an NVidia GPU and enabling PhysiX can turn the eye candy level up to "ultra realistic".

As far as SLI/Crossfire: unless you know that you'll be doing this in the next 12 months, buying the 850 W PSU is not very cost-effective. You also need to keep in mind that both the 670 and 7970 can handle pretty much any game you throw at it with ease (even Crysis 3). To see the benefit of a multi-card setup with those two, you need resolutions higher than 1080p - things like triple-monitor surround and such. Such a setup will also almost always be processor-bound by the 3570K, and upgrading that will require the purchase of another motherboard later on, too, on top of needing an i7-type processor. Are you planning on those costs later on, too? If not, simply upgrading to a single GPU two generations from now (a GTX 970 or Radeon HD 9970 or whatever they'll call them) would be much more worthwhile.

[Rbstr]

Tesselation is just a rendering method. It's used in finite element analysis: You generate a mesh that approximates a large object in tetrahedra, because a large body is too hard to calculate.
I'm not exactly sure how they use it in real-time stuff.

I just want the option to have SLI/Crossfire if I ever need/want it.

The way I see it the 670 is going to be plenty for at least a couple years.


As he's saying, at that point, why would you want to upgrade to a second 670 instead of a modern 870 with the new graphics tech bells and whistles on a new lower power process?
You'd "save money" with SLi. But you'll actually pretty much save the cost of getting the brand new card by not bothering with the bigger CPU and overpriced motherboard.

That's the philosophy I think is the most effective: Get something good in the present, don't ever buy with the intent of replacing in the short term. Don't attempt to "future proof" by buying something top-of-the-line. Buy something mid range, at half the cost, twice as often.

[Vancha]

Better (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zSKy).

That'll give you your SLI capability, though I'd agree with Rbstr that one card is better than two.