Need opinions . . go desktop? Just bought a 1080!! Regret?!?

So. .. . I need some wisdom fellow Clevo friends.

I saw a 1080 FE on ebay for 550 shipped. I couldn't help myself and bought it, total impulse buy, but I have not seen a 1080 for so cheap!

Sooo what is the best choice? Sell my clevo laptops (P150EM w/7970m ~ $400/P370EM w/970m ~$800) (maybe keep my old trusty P150HM - to stay in the clevo family!) and build my first desktop in over 5 years? Could I build a "budget" 1kish PC and it be good bang for buck for a while?

Or just sell it?

I dunno I just literally bought it 5 minutes ago and I have never bought such a expensive GPU before!

Of course I will be overclocking it

Seeing what ideas people have. Will it last me a few years to make it worth it? A good budget ITX build?

 

If you mean 1000 bucks not including the gpu you just bought you can make a very very good build. Could easily get an i7 6700k or 6800k.

 

A 1080 in a desktop build even with an i5 will remain relevant for a long time.

 

The GTX 1080 will blow any prior GPU out of the water pretty much.

I've gone back to desktop gaming, no regrets. The only reason to do mobile gaming is if you really do need the mobility.

Everything else about the desktop gaming experience is better. More power, better keyboards, MUCH better displays, etc.

 

If i were you, I would just build my (your) own desktop.

 

Thanks for the replies, the more I think about it, the more I will be doing a desktop again . . . or a mix of both . I have actually been toying with idea of using this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Ivy-B...257138?hash=item25b445b4f2:g:USYAAOSw5dNWjAy4
+ ITX Case, good psu and use my existing: 3820qm, 1866 Kingston PnP RAM, Samsung EVO SSD to create a strange hybrid, I have the parts and i doubt they will be a bottleneck too. The idea was going to buy a cheap 970 or something for it and also try to overclock the 3820qm. But now that I have a 1080 . . . do the same thing for unique build that no one else has? it has a PCI-E slot so it seems possible!

 

Why not both?!

I mainly game on my desktop, but I'm out and about a bit so I have the P750DM-G as well. The desktop GPU will always out-do the laptop due to TDP constraints.

There's one alternative you haven't mentioned yet, and that's EGPU. You could pair it with a Razer Core or similar and TB3 laptop.

In your budget, also remember you'll need a monitor in there. Given it's a GTX1080, you'll actually want a GOOD monitor to make the most of it and they're not cheap. Ideally you'd pair that with a 1440p/144hz panel.

 

That would be ideal. But with the cost of the core being 500 and a laptop with TB3 and a decent CPU also being a good deal I will probably hold off with that. I hope in two years cost will come down and more laptops will have TB3 support as well as more choices of eGPU enclosure.

As for a monitor I have a okay one, 21:9 2560x1080 IPS panel it is only 60hz so I will see if I can get it up to 75hz. Of course ideally I would have a 1440p IPS HDR Gsync etc monitor, but that can wait now that I have a good GPU that will last me a while!

Since I do have the monitor limitation, (bottleneck? ) I think pairing it with a QM77 itx mothboard (another bottleneck PCI-E 2.0 x8?) Just found out it the chipset PCI-E slot is 2.0 x8 . . . not sure if that would be a good idea even as interesting and unique it would be use a 3820qm + other laptop components with the 1080? Not sure but it would be interesting.. hmm

 

It would be a good idea.. I know someone here did something like this too with a 1080.. I would get a proper motherboard though, the one you linked is a bit too old for my tastes..

Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk

 

My external 144hz 1440p monitor is good enough for now but over the next year or two I will swap it out I think for something better.

 

Hmm,

Why not sell the 1080 for a profit, and sell both of your laptops and then buy/build a new Clevo laptop with a 1070 or 1080?

 

I'd use a newer mobo, that one you linked is pretty dated.

 

Didn't actually think of that, a 1070 would be fine but we have no idea on pricing yet as they aren't out, but it seems like a good idea.


The other idea I have been toying with is selling everything laptop related (except P150hm) and it seems like a x58mobo + Xeon X5650 will be a great bang for buck combo with RAM, Cooler, Case PSU - basically the whole setup except for GPU and OS can be done for ~300. With a nice overclock the X5650 will let my Monitor @60hz be the biggest bottleneck and last me the next two years I think. I want to wait out Zen and whatever Intel comes out with after that, I think 6,8 core CPU's will become more common, VR and DX12/Vulkan, HDR monitors, all of that will be more stable and established so I can do a actual good build. Right now its too big of a transition state IMO, so no point in buying even good last gen setup. The X5640 will give me 6 cores, 12 threads, and with a 4.2~4.5 OC I think it will be fine, even with DDR3 1600, PCI 2.0 x16.

 

X5650s are woefully slow and they're old as hell. Same as the 1st gen Core series.

Seriously, a single Skylake i5 would be quicker in single AND multi-threaded and use half the power. There's a reason these old Westmere CPUs are flying out of datacentres as well, they have a major ring-1 vulnerability which allows programs to escape to root level. I've been replacing these with Xeon D 1540 systems. A single Xeon-D/1540 is 45W (less than half the tdp), 8-core/16thread chip at 2ghz and it's faster than TWO X5650s. I really cannot understate just how slow those things are now. You also have other downsides like only SATA2 and USB2 support without the addition of outboard chips.
If you're looking for a super budget build, check out old Sandy Bridge or Ivy bridge workstations. Preferably Ivy as that gets you PCIE3.0.

 

Thanks for the info!

I was going based off this:
https://linustechtips.com/main/topi...4770k-i-just-bough-it-worth-it-for-60-pounds/

Seems like a 4.0Ghz x5650 performs like a 3770 which shouldn't bottleneck a 21:9 2560x1080 60hz monitor.

Also with this:


As I bought Witcher 3 during Steam Summer sales and have been waiting to play it because I wanted to play it at decent settings for a good expereince (970m wasn't going to cut it) - anyhow it shows that for intensive parts all 8 threads of the 4790k was being used, and a decent i5 seems to cost close to 200 w/ okay 100 dollar motherboard already puts me at 300. Due that I was hoping for more cores and OC'd to 4.0Ghz + seems like it would keep my minimum frames higher even if the average frames where a little lower compared to newer i5/i7's ??

I would prefer Ivy bridge workstations but they are usually locked and have low clock frequency or if it is decent the price definitely also goes up exponentially. --- you easily seem more knowledgeable then me though so please correct me if I am wrong.

The other option of course is just be patient and wait to see what kind of deals I can put together between ebay and craigslist.
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What about the E5-2670? 2.6ghz octo-core boosts to 3.3Ghz (locked) with a x79 mothboard? Mobo ~~$200 CPU ~~$75 with RAM, etc I think I could do that for ~370 - worth it?

Or this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-...745639?hash=item2ef038bc27:g:sxoAAOSw0fhXkJE0
That would push my price up a bit too high though I think if I include all the components


Part of my rational is that the new API's will be better at using multiple cores, and zen will make 6/8 core CPU's more common and usable, so getting a 6+ core xeon should keep my system stronger for a while, it also has more PCI lanes and solid motherboards. I honestly think in general most i5/i7 are just overpriced since they have no competition.

 

What they don't tell you, is the motherboard is probably quite high end, if only to deliver enough power. They're a 95W chip as it is, I wouldn't be surprised if pushing it to 4ghz chewed over 200W on it's own. You'd actually have to be careful with your PSU at that point as well.

Exactly, so why not get an old 3770 workstation and use a quarter of the power even at stock clocks?

I don't know what region you're in, but you can find old i7-3770 equipped workstations for around AU$400-500 (keeping in mind we often operate over 30% higher than USD). For ~$300 you can find older i7-2600 stuff which would probably work fine. Your only problem is there are a tonne of SFF ones which won't fit a full-size GPU. You could get one and re-house it in a full case and get around that though.

 

Good question - just searched a bit, (ebay) used 3770 costs around $210. + motherboard ~100 = 310ish USD. I am pretty sure I can for 50ish dollar pick up a older 850 or so PSU on craigslist without much problem, many of the older rigs needed more powerful PSU's so I don't think that would be hard to find. But it is a valid point on power consumption. As for the mobo, in order to run the x5650 i will be getting a x58 motherboard and most are pretty solid as it is a high end chipset.

Bang for buck the x5650 + x58 motherboard costing ~200 seems pretty solid for gaming taking into account I will OC it as far is it will go. I would LOVE you to show me better combo's though.

as for i7-2600 non K seems to go for ~150+ USD, honestly the prices are pretty high considering the age, just shows how little competition has been brought to the table for the prices to drop so little - and performance gain in general between generations.

 

That would be great but I don't know many mobo's that support the 3820qm? What should I search for?

This:?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jetway-NF9G...771247?hash=item1eb2fa5d6f:g:NBYAAOSwfcVUBkSN

But then if I consider selling the fully built P370EM with 3810qm + RAM and etc that would I would need to use for the mobo it seems like it costing $200 makes it loose it value for what I could maybe get by going full desktop. ?? Dunno - I love other options and a interesting Frankenstein build would be fun.


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I think I am going to set my budget for everything (CPU/MOBO/RAM/CASEetc -NO GPU) for 450 so do a total build cost of 1k.

Right now the x79 + E5-2670 does look like it could actually work nicely. If I get lucky some bclk overclocking for the E5-2670 could net some more performance.

Just found a older Alienware motherboard that is x79 for $180! Seems like we might have a winning combination here. Hmmmmm

 

I also went back to desktop. Very happy with my choice. I also have my old Clevo for mobility and DOTA! Yes, this 8 year old machine still plays Dota pretty well. .

 

Looks like my base system has been decided! x79 is a good platform I think, has enough features and continuing use. So I picked up a Aurora R4 7JNH0 x79 refurbished motherboard for $160!

Looks like its starting to take shape!

EDIT:

wow.. holy crap everything changed quick. There was a 4820k going for $180, I thought what the heck and gave a $110 offer... it was accepted!!!

So x79 refurbished board ~$160 + 4820k ~$110 = $270. That is more then I would of liked to pay.. but honestly I think it will work great!

 

Oh yeah, a 4820k should still be a solid performing CPU for a good while. I think you should be good once it shows up.

 

The extra cores will help keep it relevant for longer, especially if you like doing anything in the background.

 

I was wondering how long it has actually been since I have had a desktop and remembered the first and last Desktop graphics card I bought for my own rig was a 7600 GT XFX, I even found a newegg link for the exact graphics card!! Back when there was a difference between GTX, GT, GTS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150182



So that was roughly 2007! Now almost ten years later for my second graphics card and its a 1080

I think back then I started to find Alienware, Clevo laptops on craigslist that needed basic fixes that I could do myself and could resell to make a few bucks, never went back to desktops after that.

Wow... I didn't realize its been so long. Can't wait!!

 

Welcome back. You're going to love that 1080.

 

Thanks I can't wait! I just realized also that back then everyone used the F.E.A.R. in-game benchmark tool since back then it was one of the heavy hitters, downloading it now to play through again for old times sake, and run the benchmark to see how the 970m compares to those old GPU's... Still got less then a month before I am back in the U.S. and put my rig together again! Sorry for rambling . . .

 

My last full on desktop build for myself had a pair of HD5870s and an X58 mobo with an I7 920