My New Computer Upgrades... :D

Looks amazing, great job Wrend

Thanks, Dude!

I enjoyed researching what components I wanted and setting it up... and upgrading from my cramped and dated Antec Nine Hundred case (actually still a pretty decent case for what it is, just not ideal for my setup).

I'm definitely liking that I upgraded to these components.

Can I ask something? How does the GTX Titan, Titan Z, and Titan Black compare to the GTX 780 and 980?

RoasterMen said:

Can I ask something? How does the GTX Titan, Titan Z, and Titan Black compare to the GTX 780 and 980?

I'm not as up as some on the 980s. But here's the basic run down on the others...

Compared to the Titan Blacks, the regular Titans are the older version of the chip/card, clocked a little lower and with fewer CUDA cores, but same amount of on-board memory (6GB), Titan Zs are the same as two Titan Blacks on one card, only clocked a little lower overall and only using one PCIe 16x gen. 3 slot, so less overall performance potential, and the 780 Tis have much lower double precision (DP) compute performance (not an issue for gaming at all), and lower on-board memory.

The 780 Tis, or possibly the 980s are the way to go for gaming and likely also most other applications, especially when cost effectiveness is taken into account.

I personally do very much make use of the higher memory of the Titan Blacks for crunching multiple work units simultaneously for BOINC while sometimes also gaming on the side. The DP could come in handy if I decide to ever prioritize one of the BOINC projects I crunch for that can make use of it (MilkyWay@Home).

When the Titan Zs first came out, they were a horrible option for most people's needs as they offered lower performance in every way than two Titan Blacks, with a price tag of $1000 (USD) more than two Titan Blacks. They have since come to their senses and lowered the price for Titan Zs, but that was likely implemented to sell off their remaining stock, so you're unlikely to find them at that more reasonable price.

Edit:

After looking up some more info on the 980s, it looks like they offer less memory than Titan Blacks (4GB compared to 6GB), but have a higher clock, and use the new (more power efficient) Maxwell architecture. I think most gaming type benchmarks put them on par with the 780 Tis and the Titan Blacks, but with a slight advantage in some as well.

Ooo..Thanks for the info. Because most videos I see on YouTube are all about the gaming on the Titans which is unecessary unless if you want to game and/or work at the same time. Do 3D Movie creators use such cards too?

RoasterMen said:

Ooo..Thanks for the info. Because most videos I see on YouTube are all about the gaming on the Titans which is unecessary unless if you want to game and/or work at the same time. Do 3D Movie creators use such cards too?

Yeah, a lot of the YouTube personalities don't really dig all that deeply into all aspects of these kinds of cards, but that makes sense to a degree, considering the likely majority of their viewers. (Titan Zs vs. 780 Tis instead of vs. Titan Blacks, for example.)

I'm sure some do, or other similar encoding/rendering type needs. It really comes down to finding out what you need, what would work best for you, and what is within your budget, on a case by case basis. That isn't everyone's cup of tea though, and/or they don't have the time for it. Good thing there are internet forums like this, at least, for people to share what they know.

Nice job, Wrend. Looks excellent. Very well done indeed.

essenbe said:

Nice job, Wrend. Looks excellent. Very well done indeed.

Thank you, sir.

Yeah, the components seem to mesh quite well together, but then, I might have a slight bias.

Actually, I got pretty lucky with some of the wiring up, with some of the cables being just the right length and spacing, so that I didn't have to use extra power leads, like barely getting the optical drives and the HDD all on one power lead (almost like it was meant to be, though I did have to also flip the plugs and twist the lead between each drive with the way I ran it), and similar. I had to use an extra lead for the SSD, but that's hidden on the back side of the case. I also took a fair amount of time on it to sort out what worked best while trying to still follow a general layout plan. Took me a bit to figure out how I wanted to mount the HDD too, but ended up getting a drive bay converter for it so I could also take out the HDD mounting racks on the bottom of the case.

A little bit of research on getting components that work well together and planning things out does seem to pay off, if I may say so. (Took me long enough though. This is about a two and a half year old build in total, upgrading different components along the way, and it's just now "done.")

The next build I do (when this one gets a bit longer in the tooth, and when I can afford new components) will likely at least need a new motherboard, RAM, CPU, and GPUs. Probably won't get there until around mid 2016 to 2018. (I also have a one year old daughter now to look after, so we'll see how much "extra" spending cash and free time I can allocate to these kinds of endeavors... and she's already got her daddy wrapped around her fingers, but I don't mined. )

Daughters are sort of that way. They think they are really pulling one over on us when we know exactly what they are doing. But, we don't care. There's nothing I miss more than when mine was young and would come sit in my lap and say Daddy, I have been thinking about something, as she puts her arms around you. You just smile and say what is that, darling, when you are thinking 'how much is this going to cost me'. She gets down thinking I really pulled one over on him, and you are thinking you knew what was happening all along, but enjoyed it so much you never let on.

Now, Granddaughters, or at least mine, are different. She's 12 and was over the other day. She just told me, I'm your Granddaughter and I always get whatever I want. You won't tell me no. A somewhat different approach than her Mother had, but technically correct. So far at least.

Looking great Wrend mate. A very nice job all round.


Don't talk to me about Daughters. Steve is so dam right on that!