Any suggestions on my 2.7k gaming build?

xaugerx26

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Aug 3, 2012
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http://pcpartpicker.com/p/OjWn

Hey i just finished making my build for 2.7k. I know the dual 7970's are unnecessary for single monitor but i plan on getting a 3rd in the near future and doing eyefinity. I am probably just going to use the second for social networking and such while one will be primarily for gaming, for the time being at least. Well, Do you guys have any suggestions? I will be overclocking my CPU hence the H100.
 

NCG-Sam

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I would take Toms article regarding water cooling to heart.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/water2.0-extreme-kraken-x40-hydro-h90-elc120,3434.html

Unless you require the quiet, or you plan on moving the system around - you are probably better off with the air - Noctua NH-D14
 

xaugerx26

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Aug 3, 2012
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Thanks for the response ;D Will definitely go with the noctua NH-D14
 
Points about Crossfire/SLI:

1) SLI is superior in number of games and frame rates within games.

2) 2xSLI/Crossfire is very problematic for microstutter (please no rants about it's a non-issue now. This issue is being heavily studied now and it IS a big problem. For example, most experts recommend the Titan rather than a GTX690 because the Titan provides smoother gameplay whereas the 690 has higher frame rates but has stuttering issues like all dual-GPU setups).

3) 3xCrossfire strangely exhibits far less microstutter.

4) 3xmonitor AND 3xCrossfire/3xSLI (*This is an area I'm uncertain of though I've heard people mention issues with having Crossfire/SLI and using multiple screens at the same time. AMD has an FAQ section for Eyefinity you should look for.)

Other:
Personally, I would far rather game on a single LARGE, high-res monitor. Dell has one for $700 that is awesome (not the U2711). I forget the model but it's a 27", 2560x1440 screen and there are two with similar names but it's the cheaper one.

I have a GTX680/i7-3770K setup and game mostly at 1920x1080. There's roughly a 30% frame rate hit to up to 2560x1440 but the games rarely look any different. Exceptions tend to be games like Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 which have small text/HUDs so the interface looks much sharper.

SSD:
You're going to want to do two things:
1) upgrade the firmware (may have to use a CD or USB boot method with Windows 8 and Samsung's Magician software)
2) apply overprovisioning (Samsung Magician). You never want to exceed 80% usage so overprovisioning simply pre-allocates this for you so you can't use it.

HDD vs SSD and gaming:
I've been testing this and discovered SSD's have little overall impact on gaming. Load times can be greatly affected (Skyrim, Fallout 3 etc) and some stuttering due to frequent loading is improved (Assassin's Creed 2 and other games) but overall it's not a big deal.

In the end, I have a setup like this:
SSD#1 - Windows/apps
SSD#2 - Second Steam folder (ONLY for game I'm playing. When done, I backup with Steam and delete the game locally to free SSD space).

HDD - everything else, including STEAM

WINDOWS:
Get Windows 8 64-bit OEM, and Start8 from Stardock. Don't buy into the "Windows 7 is better" hype. For example, Win8 has a Secure Boot function to prevent malware hijacking Windows at boot time. Requires a UEFI BIOS motherboard to work.

Corsair H100:
No big beef, but isn't there an improved H110 model?

Summary:
My main issue is the Crossfire problems, and my recommendation that you go with a single card (Asus GTX680 DC2T or similar 3-slot HD7970) and game on a 27" 2560x1440 Dell monitor rather than a 3x screen setup. That doesn't preclude a second non-gaming monitor though.

Just my thoughts.