I'm building a high end custom gaming computer for the first time in many years and I've been researching the latest and greatest for weeks now. Here is what I've come up with and I wanted to get a few opinions before I click BUY on NewEgg / Amazon.
Case: Thermaltake Level 10 GT VN10001W2N No PS Full Tower Case(Black) ($249.99 amazon)
Power: Corsair Professional Series 860 Watt Digital ATX/EPS Modular 80 PLUS Platinum Power Supply AX860i
($199.99 amazon)
MoBo: GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP7 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard
($389.99 (-30 MiR)= $359.99 newegg)
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K Quad-Core Processor 3.5 GHz 8 MB Cache LGA 1155 - BX80637I73770K
($309.99 amazon)
CPU Cooling: Corsair Hydro Series Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler H100i
($109.99 amazon)
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model F3-2133C9Q-32GXH ($299.99 newegg)
Memory Cooler: G.SKILL FTB-3500C5-D Fans
($14.99 newegg)
Video: MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 OC 2GB GDDR5 2DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card N670 PE 2GD5/OC
($379.99 amazon)
Storage: (2x in RAID 0) - Samsung Electronics 840 Pro Series 2.5-Inch 256 GB SATA 6GB/s Solid State Drive MZ-7PD256BW
($219.99x2= $439.98 amazon)
Accessories: AeroCool Touch 2100 Touch control 5 sets of Fan/Temp. Up to 25W per fan channel, USB3.0, Audio/Mic, LCD Display
($63.99 newegg)
Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound AS5-3.5G - OEM
($7.99 newegg)
TOTAL PRICE (minus tax)= $2466.88
I was looking to stay around $2000, but I don't mind paying a bit extra for some nice stuff. I do plan on over clocking the CPU / Memory / Video to reasonable levels.
My main concern so far is with the memory. Some people say that the specific memory needs 1.6v and the i7 3770K doesn't support anything over 1.5? This doesn't sound right to me, I figured it would depend on the MoBo being capable of handling overclocked memory, which of course the Gigabyte UP7 does. If someone could please clarify this and add/subtract anything from this I would be deeply grateful to you all.
The last thing I kept toying with back and forth is either putting in a SLI MSI GTX 650 TI Boost setup or the one single GTX 670 or 680. I settled on the 670 to cut down on heat output from the case and future scalability to SLI 670's, but please advise.. This is just what I came up with from weeks of reading and flip-flopping back and forth on mobos/memory/video/etc..
The one thing that kills me on most of these Z77 MoBo's, is that the minute you put in more than 1 PCIe v2/3 card into any of the extra x16 slots, it automatically drops your video card down to x8... So if I want to put in a video capture card or something else that is x4/x6/x8, I then have to drop my video card to x8. Anyway!
THANK YOU ALL!
Case: Thermaltake Level 10 GT VN10001W2N No PS Full Tower Case(Black) ($249.99 amazon)
Power: Corsair Professional Series 860 Watt Digital ATX/EPS Modular 80 PLUS Platinum Power Supply AX860i
($199.99 amazon)
MoBo: GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP7 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard
($389.99 (-30 MiR)= $359.99 newegg)
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K Quad-Core Processor 3.5 GHz 8 MB Cache LGA 1155 - BX80637I73770K
($309.99 amazon)
CPU Cooling: Corsair Hydro Series Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler H100i
($109.99 amazon)
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model F3-2133C9Q-32GXH ($299.99 newegg)
Memory Cooler: G.SKILL FTB-3500C5-D Fans
($14.99 newegg)
Video: MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 OC 2GB GDDR5 2DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card N670 PE 2GD5/OC
($379.99 amazon)
Storage: (2x in RAID 0) - Samsung Electronics 840 Pro Series 2.5-Inch 256 GB SATA 6GB/s Solid State Drive MZ-7PD256BW
($219.99x2= $439.98 amazon)
Accessories: AeroCool Touch 2100 Touch control 5 sets of Fan/Temp. Up to 25W per fan channel, USB3.0, Audio/Mic, LCD Display
($63.99 newegg)
Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound AS5-3.5G - OEM
($7.99 newegg)
TOTAL PRICE (minus tax)= $2466.88
I was looking to stay around $2000, but I don't mind paying a bit extra for some nice stuff. I do plan on over clocking the CPU / Memory / Video to reasonable levels.
My main concern so far is with the memory. Some people say that the specific memory needs 1.6v and the i7 3770K doesn't support anything over 1.5? This doesn't sound right to me, I figured it would depend on the MoBo being capable of handling overclocked memory, which of course the Gigabyte UP7 does. If someone could please clarify this and add/subtract anything from this I would be deeply grateful to you all.
The last thing I kept toying with back and forth is either putting in a SLI MSI GTX 650 TI Boost setup or the one single GTX 670 or 680. I settled on the 670 to cut down on heat output from the case and future scalability to SLI 670's, but please advise.. This is just what I came up with from weeks of reading and flip-flopping back and forth on mobos/memory/video/etc..
The one thing that kills me on most of these Z77 MoBo's, is that the minute you put in more than 1 PCIe v2/3 card into any of the extra x16 slots, it automatically drops your video card down to x8... So if I want to put in a video capture card or something else that is x4/x6/x8, I then have to drop my video card to x8. Anyway!
THANK YOU ALL!