System Build

[Debrody]

Tundra got it.

The 3570 is enough for any existing video card (except the dual-GPU monsters), if youre playing in, or above full-HD. The i7 would only be an advantage in very small resolutions - but hell, you dont want to play in 600*800, do you?

As for the 7870: its nearly equal to the gtx 580 and the old 6970, also only 15% faster than the 3 years old 5870, what you can get for like 100$... i doubt that many could notice the difference withouth fraps.
(my secret favourite, a 5870 CF from 200-220$ and the 7970s can run for their money  )

[Bino]

...
As for the OP, I would go with the 3570 with a decent board/cooler and OC it, and spend the extra 100$ on a better video card.  A 7870 won't give you 'glass smooth' video in all games, I can assure you of that.  Load up even an older game like Napolean Total War, and put 8 armies on the screen at max, and a 7870 will chug.  Like Brody and others said, go with a 7970, or even a 7850 which will easily overclock to 7970 performance levels.  If not that, then a higher end 670 or lower end 680 evga card.  That 3570 system with any of those cards will smoke a 3770 with a 7870.
...

I want this thing to be totally hands-off once it's built, so I've ruled out any overclocking, or water-cooling, or any other highly-stressed parts. 

However, I will look at prices on the 7950.   

Thanks, all, for the input. 

[morfiend]

  Bino,

  As you know I have the 7950 and I'm less than impressed with it,maybe I havent got it setup properly but I'm wishing I stayed with an Nvidia card.  Also I noticed you have choosen the corsair 650 tx PSU,did you look at the XFX PSU's?

  I'd bet you could find a 750watt xfx for close to same money and have the extra headroom for future upgrades.

  Oh and someone suggested a 250g ssd,if it doesnt break the bank get 1,I have a 120 and I could see it fill up quickly if I saved films in AH.


     

 PS: pretty happy with the 2700K cpu!

[cattb]

I run Ah on second hard drive so I don't fill my SSD. Then to each thier own.

Not saying one way is better then the other.