New high-end rig build

[Tjj226_Angel]

Guys, with your way of thinking, you'll get me to buy a EVGA Classified SR-X mobo and two Intel Xeon E5-1660 processors and 4-way SLI GTX680 Thanks but no thanks, I'll be getting the Z77 Sabretooth, 3770K and a single 7970 for sure, if the Silver Arrow cooler doesn't fit the mobo I will sell it and get a Corsair H100 instead, I'm dead on 2x8GB RAM, and that's that. Getting 5 HDDs of WD RE4 2TB for a total of 10TB. Not getting any SSD. I'll have to ask some more about the PSU, but other than that, thanks for the help so far. I'm sure that will work best for what I'll be using it. Now I'm saving the money

Ah, and one more thing. I will not be upgrading it in the future. I might replace the 7970 with a newer Radeon card in the future, but other than that this will stay like that for as long as it's lifespan doesn't end. And after I buy that, I'll be saving money for a Honda S2000 or a Nissan 200SX S14 Or maybe a Toyota GT-86

 

Yeah, that is why I said to make sure you set a cap. People will start getting too excited.

 

Honestly, I think where you are heading will give you a great system. The only recommendation I would like to point out is to make your system a bit more silent. Because of the TDP on the CPU, you could put a dual tower air cooler on your CPU without any fans, and just let the CPU be passive cooling. OR... you could get the noctua NH-D14 in specific and use the 140mm fan in the rear of your case for exhaust and the 120mm in the front for intake and maximize the airflow and minimize the cost and sound. You could only do that if you leave your CPU at stock though. However, you won't need to overclock your system since it won't make a difference in games or boot times like it used to

 

I know you said your were an AMD fan boy, but I am just throwing it out there that the GTX 680 is faster and cheaper. Do with that information what you will.

 

I respect your own right not to get an SSD, but I must respectfully ask you to at least reconsider. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148844 If you order 4 of these by the 29th you will have more memory, and you will have a space (extra sata port) available for an SSD. Just throwing it out there.

 

I am with you on the RAM.

 

The PSU should only need about 750w. You are running a stupidly low voltage system, so while I would say that you are cutting it close with your current selection, 1000w is just silly. 750 is probably overkill but it would provide plenty of head room for any expansion you might want to do.

 

This will cost you more then what you have, but not by a whole lot, and I think you would be happier. Pick and choose what you like

[viperk1]

I've got some good tips from this thread

[God Of Gaming]

Is not simply because of being a fanboy. Well there is that too, but AMD has stuff that Nvidia doesn't - AMD Overdrive lets you overclock it very easily, and AMD Eyefinity I hear supports way more games than Nvidia Surround Vision. And although I gave up on getting triple screen at the initial purchase, that doesn't mean I won't reconsider at a later point

 

What PSU do you recommend? I like how the XFX 750W XXX Edition looks, it will go perfectly with my theme, but it's not full modular and I suppose a Seasonic X-760 would be more effective since it's gold 80+?

 

I really don't want a SSD boot drive, I like to keep my OS on a huge partition and put music in the My Music folder, movies in the My Videos folder and so on. Can I use a SSD cache drive with multiple HDDs? Or I need a separate SSD for each HDD? Or it wont work at all unless I only have one HDD?

Edited March 28, 2012 by God Of Gaming

[VaporX]

Well there is that too, but AMD has stuff that Nvidia doesn't - AMD Overdrive lets you overclock it very easily, and AMD Eyefinity I hear supports way more games than Nvidia Surround Vision.

 

You do know that works both ways? nVidia has PhysX which is actually in games now, something AMDs solution does not seem to be doing. nVidia CUDA as well as DirectCompute support means they have broader support in GPU computer based apps. nVidia also has a more widely used 3D system. Oh and finally nVidia seems to have better driver support in new game releases out of the box.

 

 

 

 

 

[God Of Gaming]

Of course that's true, but I have more use for Eyefinity than 3D and PhysX. Since I probably will get a triple screen at some point in the future, but I'm sure as hell that I won't be getting 3D glasses.

 

This sure looks amazingly usefull for hardcore gaming:

 

 

 

Imagining it in 3x 32" 1080p LED TV makes me drool

Edited March 28, 2012 by God Of Gaming

[Tjj226_Angel]

Yeah that has changed with the GTX 680. That card now supports 4 monitors with nivdia surround on a single GPU. Literally, the GTX 680 is all the positive aspects of Nvidia and AMD shoved into the fastest single GPU chip on the market right now for LESS money than the 7970.

 

More games support Nvidia cards, and now that all the GPU features of the nvidia 500 series and the AMD 6000 series are shoved into the 600 series, it is sort of a no brainer.

 

As for PSU, I would only recommend the Corsair Gold rated fully modular 750w PSU for this build http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139016 which has an awesome sale on it right now.

 

You get a really high quality product at a great price. I would jump on that while you still can.

[Fogel]

I've got some good tips from this thread

That was a tongue in cheek comment, yes?

 

Is not simply because of being a fanboy. Well there is that too, but AMD has stuff that Nvidia doesn't - AMD Overdrive lets you overclock it very easily, and AMD Eyefinity I hear supports way more games than Nvidia Surround Vision. And although I gave up on getting triple screen at the initial purchase, that doesn't mean I won't reconsider at a later point

 

What PSU do you recommend? I like how the XFX 750W XXX Edition looks, it will go perfectly with my theme, but it's not full modular and I suppose a Seasonic X-760 would be more effective since it's gold 80+?

 

I really don't want a SSD boot drive, I like to keep my OS on a huge partition and put music in the My Music folder, movies in the My Videos folder and so on. Can I use a SSD cache drive with multiple HDDs? Or I need a separate SSD for each HDD? Or it wont work at all unless I only have one HDD?

 

Nvidia vs AMD:

Right now Nvidia wins on all fronts but one - AMD still has the advantage on large over the top resolutions. I would trust Nvidia 10x over on SLI versus Crossfire. Though since you are planning on 3 screens AMD would be your best bet. For some reason AMD always kick's Nvidia's butt on the higher end resolutions. Well Nvidia closed the gap by quite a bit but AMD still has the advantage. Since the 7970 has 3GB of memory vs the GTX 680's 2GB, it is yet another reason the 7970 would be the better bet for triple monitor gaming.

 

PSU:

I would go with 850W to be safe, but a Seasonic 750 should be able to handle the load. You don't need a Gold certified PSU though, bronze or silver is fine. The Gold is really for people who want to feel like they are saving money on their power bill. The best way to save money on a power bill is to turn the PC off when it is not in use. You say you run yours 24/7 ...you will see savings but it will still take awhile before the savings adds up to the price premium you pay for gold/platinum certified PSUs.

 

SSD vs HDD:

Sounds like for your use going platter drives is the best bet. SSDs provide a greater benefit than you think but the way you describe your computer use I'm not sure you would get your money's worth. An SSD used as a cache drive (e.g. Intel's SRT) only works with multiple drives if those drives are in a RAID config. The problems with SRT, especially in your scenario, is that:

 

1. It only caches up to a max of 64GB ...so if you have 4TB of storage, only 64GB will be cached
   
2. You cannot pick what is cached, it is based on your most frequent files/programs ...so some stuff (64GB) will be fast, rest won't
   
3. Yet another drive bay filled for something that be of little use to you
   

 

I would stick to normal HDDs since you have above average storage needs. If funds allow later on and when prices on SSDs drop you can always add in an SSD and then install Windows on it. Though I wouldn't store music/movies on them till they can make 1TB and up SSDs for a good home use price. They obviously can make them, but currently have astronmically high prices on them.

[Coors]

First & most basic problem of the selection, PSU: Seasonic X-660 won't serve you.

>= 1000Watt PSU is what you should go for.

 

Wrong. If he knows he will only be using a single card a 660w psu is plenty enough for about 95% of all single card systems. I still have a Corsair 620HX i'd use for any single card system right now.

[God Of Gaming]

 

1. Yet another drive bay filled for something that be of little use to you
   

 

That shouldn't be a problem, If I were to get a SSD I'd probably shove it behind the motherboard tray. Thanks for all the other tips, they helped me a lot. I have a pretty good idea of what I want right now.

Here is something that I wonder about, are there any copper heatsinks that I can put one or two 120mm or 140mm fans on and get a better performance than the Silver Arrow? I'm asking since copper is supposedly more effective (and more expensive) than aluminium when it comes to cooling. I tried googling for that but didn't find any.

[El_Capitan]

That shouldn't be a problem, If I were to get a SSD I'd probably shove it behind the motherboard tray.

That's what I've been doing on a few builds. Works wonders.

[Tjj226_Angel]

That shouldn't be a problem, If I were to get a SSD I'd probably shove it behind the motherboard tray. Thanks for all the other tips, they helped me a lot. I have a pretty good idea of what I want right now.

Here is something that I wonder about, are there any copper heatsinks that I can put one or two 120mm or 140mm fans on and get a better performance than the Silver Arrow? I'm asking since copper is supposedly more effective (and more expensive) than aluminium when it comes to cooling. I tried googling for that but didn't find any.

 

Two things that I wanted to get back to you on in particular.

 

1. I just remebered that the Z77 boards will have mSATA slots directly on the motherboard. This means that you could get a mSATA SSD as your boot drive and stick it in this special slot rather than having to use up a precious sata port. Food for thought.

 

2. I believe that the Noctua NH-D14 is copper with a nickle coating so the copper doesn't tarnish. However, that is for the base plate. I do not know if that is the way it works on the pipes as well, and furthermore, I do not know if that would hold true with the silver arrow.

 

Side note: You might want to wait on the cooler when you get your CPU. I would just keep the stock heatsink on it and see what kind of volts and such it would take to get a good OC on it. I would hate to see you buy a 80 massive air cooler to get the same OC as a 40 dollar one. With IB you are getting a lower TDP that the current i5 2500K, and considering you can hit 5GHZ on the i5 with a NZXT Havik, you could probably get a corsair H70 and use a noctua fan with the low speed adapter and have the PC be dead silent.

[God Of Gaming]

^That (2.) was optimistic idea, but now that ivy bridge came out, the results are tragic ^_^