22 replies to this topic

[viperk1]

Hey guys, here's my current build. Comments or suggestions welcome

Background info - Location: Toronto; Budget (Used/Max): $1,695/$1770.00. I'm willing to go a bit above budget.

CPU.....................$350: Intel 3770K (change to 3570K maybe?)
Motherboard..........$195: GA-Z77X-UD5H (rev. 1.0) (needed for DTS Connect, beats buying a discrete sound card)
Cooling.................$ 90: Corsair H100 (want to reduce weight on mobo because case is on the move a lot. Plus nice and neat)
Memory................$ 45: Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600MHz CL9 (It will actually fit since I've got the H100)
Graphics...............$600: Gigabyte Windforce GTX 680! (To be released soon hopefully. If not, then some other kind of 680)
Power...................$140: Corsair HX750 (can't go wrong here)
Case....................$155: CM Storm Trooper (Handle for portability was key! )
Storage................$120: Mushkin Chronos 120GB (cheap and well reviewed. I already have HDDs to use for storage)

Cheers!

[SpikeSoprano]

Looks like a nice build, you tought every thing out to your personal needs.Good luck with it.

edit- Just googled the case, it is a heavy one and also make sure the 120 water cooler will fit, you might have to get the h 60 or h 80 instead.

Edited by SpikeSoprano, 16 April 2012 - 07:33 PM.

[vandreadstriker]

Agreed, you've researched well!
Just a bit of advice: Get the i5 3750K instead of the i7 3770K if you're going to use it for gaming mainly. The extra price wont provide any benefit on games.
Also, bare in mind that the Storm Trooper is a very heavy case. Even with the handle you'll likely have a tough time carrying it!

[viperk1]

Heavy huh. I don't have much of a sense of how much weight all the components would add. The case itself is about 30 lbs so I figured that when loaded it would be maybe 50 lbs? Maybe I'll mod it with some roller wheels, haha.

Also, I checked out whether the H100 would fit in there and it looks fine (about 60mm clearance for a 240 rad), although only in the stock push config. There might be some room for pull fans on the top of the case, but I'll wait to see what my temps are like first before investing in that.

And I like that I can fit another 80mm (more if I remove the first hdd cage) thickness of rad in the bottom of the case so that gives me options for later.

[vandreadstriker]

In that case, why not get a full WC setup with 2 rads?

[Rofltroll]

You really seem to have made yourself an awesome build there. Since you seem like the enthusiast, why not get a WC case and then later get some awesome water cooling action

edit: if you get a HX 850 you will be able to easily SLI another 680 in the far future.

Edited by Rofltroll, 17 April 2012 - 07:40 AM.

[viperk1]

In that case, why not get a full WC setup with 2 rads?

Mainly price. From what I've seen, adding a full WC setup would run me a couple hundred bucks. Also, I've never done water cooling before and I was wary of jumping right into it. I figured the H100 would be a good stepping stone for my next build. I'll most likely get a new computer for either broadwell or skylake and I'll have a bigger budget for that one

You really seem to have made yourself an awesome build there. Since you seem like the enthusiast, why not get a WC case and then later get some awesome water cooling action

edit: if you get a HX 850 you will be able to easily SLI another 680 in the far future.

It would bring me over budget, unfortunately. An HX750 wont be enough for two 680s? The issue is the HX750 is $140, but to go to the 850 it costs $45 more. I also don't have any plans to go to SLI in the near future (I usually get a high power single gpu card)

For the case, I was also looking at the Switch 810 with its triple rad space at the top, but ultimately didn't get it because it didn't have a handle and I don't have any tools to mod it with.
And none of that bungee cord business. I want my case to be pretty. At all times.

[Fogel]

Looks good! Obviously bigger in budget than is needed but who here isn't guilty of that.

Nvidia certifies the HX750 all the way up to a two 570s in SLI ...and 570s use more power than 680s do. You know they wouldn't certify it unless it was truly ok to use. Be interesting to see if Nvidia actually ceritifies it for two 680s in SLI but even if they don't, I really don't see any reason why it wouldn't work since every benchmark I have seen shows the 570 being a power hungry slob.

GeForce SLI Certified Power Supply List

Enjoy the possibilities

[Rofltroll]

Well, OP the fact is ... we can't really say anything else about your build. Thing is that this i7 will last for a very long time and in a few years if you SLI another 680 you'd have a high end computer for gaming without having to buy a new build. About the PSU Fogel seems to be right, though I don't know how a 750 will fair in an overclocked SLI rig. You said you didn't want SLI so then the 750 will provide a ton of headroom in a single card rig anyway.

[Fogel]

They do not take OCing into account. Think I only saw 1 700W psu certified for a SLI GTX 570 configuration, so 750W seems to be the cut off.

Though take into account they will play it safe because they don't want to get sued. I'm sure it is also an industry standard to help the PSU companies out as well. Though that said, I wouldn't try a monster 5Ghz OC or a monster OC and volt OCs on the GPUs as well. I think the 750W would be able to sustain a mild cpu OC and two 680s in SLI.

El_Capitan has all of his cards on WC and pushes them as far as they will go and it gives him 5-10fps more. I don't see it being worth it. Though if you're going WC as well, I would probably beef up to nothing less than a 850W to account for the rad power draw. If you're going WC you might as well push your OCs, so beef up the PSU as well. But we are talking a completely different system at that point - WC, SLI/CF, monster OCs. Might want to think about 1000W and up at this point.

[El_Capitan]

El_Capitan has all of his cards on WC and pushes them as far as they will go and it gives him 5-10fps more. I don't see it being worth it. Though if you're going WC as well, I would probably beef up to nothing less than a 850W to account for the rad power draw. If you're going WC you might as well push your OCs, so beef up the PSU as well. But we are talking a completely different system at that point - WC, SLI/CF, monster OCs. Might want to think about 1000W and up at this point.

The main reason I watercool all my set-ups isn't just for the performance gains (it's more of an added bonus). I do it because I wouldn't be able to stand the noise of having 7 computers in one room running at the same time. If you came into my home office, you wouldn't be able to tell that I had 7 computers running at all, much less if I had all of them running load tests - except by how warm the room was.