Is this a good gaming setup?

That PC is fantastic.
Just among all that expensive hardware , an Intel i7 would complete the whole package. Don't get me wrong , i5 is very good.
Also 120GB Hard drive seems kind of limited don't you think?
But that depends on how you will use your PC. If you think you can manage with 120GB then it's fine but let me tell you , 120GB is limited
All in all , except for the hard drive , your gaming PC is ready  

120GB is more than enough for a boot drive. Perhaps ZakX11 doesn't realize you also put in a 2TB drive. Anyway, yeah. It is an excellent PC. It will play any current game at maximum settings. An i7 isn't really necessary unless you plan on doing video editing.

I can't think of anything to change. You've selected good parts.

Thanks for the replies. ive done some changes to the list, ill put then here shortly

Oh I thought he didn't know what he was taking about when he said boot drive so I assumed he was mentioning his Hard drive space as he hadn't mentioned it.
Yea that's what I get for overthinking.
Anyways yea seems a pretty solid setup.
As I mentioned before i7 is not necessary as long as you want to use your PC for only gaming.

P.S By "pretty solid setup" I mean drop dead amazing  

Yeah, ive been reading on the i5 vs the i7 for gaming, and the extra $100 doesnt really help me if I'm not going to be ding rendering.

i changed a few things

GPU - 2x MSI Twin Frozr Geforce 680 4GB GDDR5 in SLI

RAM - switched to 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 CORSAIR Vengeance 1866MHz

is it better to have 4x4GB or 2x8GB for ram, that has always confused me

and im going to be playng a lot of fps games and probably some mmo games too, and i personally like the feel of the Madcatz R.A.T. series, so I'm getting the R.A.T. 7 and the RAZER Blackwidow Ultimate 2013 Mechanical Gaming keyboard

there is room to get another 16GB of ram, if i go the 2x8GB route, will that make any difference to just 16GB?

Unless you are planning to host servers (which I'm guessing you are not) , there is no need for you to upgrade to 32GB RAM.
16Gb is fine and dandy. I suggest you get 4x4 as it is cheaper. You can never trust hardware completely right? So if you get 2x8 and one stick fails you will be left with 8Gb but if you get 4x4 and one stick fails you will be left with 12GB.
So I recommend 4x4 as you won't notice much difference between 32 and 16 for only gaming.
Hope I helped you.

it actually costs a little more to go with 4x4GB when it comes to the CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB

and i cant seem to find the CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) in dual channel, it seems to only come in quad channel, which isnt supported by the motherboard

Hi  

This is my card.. better than both yours...put in 2 of these...

http://www.powercolor.com/us/products_features.asp?id=4...

All the best Brett  

Really good setup. You got 16GBs of RAM, a 4GB 690, a ivy-bridge CPU, an SSD for boot drive. However, I'd say go down to a 64GB SSD since you won't be needing 120GB for a boot drive, and get yourself a 2.5 - 3TB HDD.

in doing an intel system, so i would get more performance from using NVidia compared to AMD, bu thanks for the suggestion

the dual 4GB GTX 680 give a small performance increase over the GTX 690 for around the same price, and i may be installing some programs on the ssd, hence the larger size

Hi  

The system does NOT know whether is an AMD card or Nvidia....

And Intel has NOTHING to do with either company...

All the best Brett  

no changes needed this is perfect for gaming

sorry to tell you, but im more of a Nvidia fan boy than AMD. and the games that i have in mind have actually stated that Nvidia cards will perform better than AMD in game

I'm trying to find a better cooling system though

Ah, okay. Thought you were going to be using the SSD strictly for a boot drive, enjoy your build  

Forgot to mention that this is true, games these days to run better/smoother with nVidia then ATi/AMD.

Hi  

NO they don't lol..if they did them AMD would sue them in court...

All the best Brett  

yeah, sorry brett, thanks for the recomendation though

they have no right to sue then, thats the same as saying that mac is allowed to sue game companies for making their games perform better on windows

If you can afford things like Corsair Platinum RAM and SLI GTX 680's then i assume you can afford this build as well.
It will deliver better performance.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master TPC 812 86.2 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme6 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($48.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($157.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($169.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (3-Way CrossFire) ($379.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (3-Way CrossFire) ($379.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (3-Way CrossFire) ($379.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill THOR V2 ATX Full Tower Case ($115.88 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: OCZ ZX 1250W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 Full (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $2347.76
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-02 13:38 EST-0500)

thats a good setup, but like ive previously stated. I am a Nvidia fan boy.

but i will see how things work out before making a final decision

Hi  

They would sue because it would be a lie... that's the way the law works...

Not like your mac example...

More like Ford saying Toyota cars were crap...they would be in court so fast lol...

All the best Brett  

What about this - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/picturestory/37-lga-2011-...
Considering money isn't a problem for you and you will need a good cooling system for a PC like that.

No lol. sorry to say bro, but if you think about it just a little bit. say for instance the games were made using Nvidia cards, there will be a slight, and i cant stress how slight the advantage would be. but the card you suggested seems REALLY good. so if money doesnt become an issue, ill just get 2 and crossfire 'em XD

but the issue would be, will it fit in my case. cause i really like this case

Hi  

If you did crossfire them, I suspect you would be the first in the world to do so...  

I actually have two of them (in two different games machines I own) and keep thinking about putting them in crossfire, but even one is so totally OUTSTANDING, there seems little point...

All the best Brett  

but brett, this card needs soooo much power, 550watts for the card alone

I would have to change my PSU if i was going to crossfire 2 of them. could you recommend a PSU with 1200watts and the necessary connectors to power the cards?

Hi  

I increased my PSU from a 550 OCZ to an 850 ocz for ONE 7990...

For TWO i would increase to a minimum of 1200 ...

All the best Brett  

oh, zak, i see that the cooler you recommended isn't liquid cooling. I want a really good liquid cooling system

Hi  

Any decent make 1200 would have the four 8 pin connectors you would need...

All the best Brett  

is there a PSU with the required amount of connectors?

doesnt it use 3x6pin connectors?

I won't touch on the fanboyisms, but I'm going to throw some things out here:

1) The Sabertooth is a very bad pick on the motherboard. It's not a high-end board as you'd believe - it's a mid-range board with "thermal armor" attached. (And as you might guess, the thermal armor just acts as insulation and makes the board run hotter.) You also really only need a $150 motherboard or so - the Gigabyte z77x-ud3h, AsRock Extreme6, and the Asus P8Z77-V LE PLUS are all good options. (But the Gigabyte and AsRock are better - Asus is overpriced till the cream of the crop, where it really shines.)

2) That PSU is just pointless. With TWO 680s, you'd still only need a 750w power supply... more is just meaning the power supply runs inefficiently, which produces more heat and a greater chance of failure. If you want one card, get a 550w PSU. If you want to use SLI in the future, get a 750w PSU - you already know the reputable brands.

3) You're overspending on your RAM to no benefit. With 8GB of RAM and no page file, I can run battlefield 3, photoshop, AND 50 tabs in chrome all at once without even breaking 7GB used. You don't need 16 for basically any reason - you want more if you're rendering, and need nowhere close if you aren't.

4) Okay, that graphics card is a bad pick for two reasons. The first is this: you're paying for 4GB. There's no reason to do that unless you're buying two cards and putting them in SLI to run three monitors. It doesn't make the card ANY faster whatsoever, all it is is more VRAM to hold the images before they display on the screen. The second reason it's a poor pick is this: A 680 is only 5% faster than a 670 (that drops to 2-3% after both are overclocked), but it costs 25-30% more. Why in the world would you buy that?
A 2GB 670 is going to max out games JUST as easily as a 4GB 680, and does it for $200 less... even if you have the money to spend, you wouldn't throw it down the sink, would you? So don't waste it for no benefit here - save it and use it to upgrade the card in three years, instead of sitting there wishing you had the money to upgrade the card.

5) I personally would get a faster and more reliable SSD, following this order of preference: OCZ Vector, Samsung 840 pro, Samsung 830, OCZ Vertex 4. (Stay away from the 840 non-pro, though.) The Vector is the fastest, and the Vertex 4 is the best price / performance, and all four drives are equally reliable.

6) Bad, bad pick on the cooling. Yes, it's the best closed-loop water cooler out there, but the fact of the matter is that it's still a closed-loop water cooler. They have more moving parts, so they're more likely to break. When they do break, they don't have a huge metal heatsink letting the CPU downclock safely, and if they fail catastrophically, then you have liquid ALL over your computers' internals. To top that off, they don't cool any more efficiently than an air cooler - sure, a Noctua -D14 will be a couple degrees behind, but it's $30 cheaper. (And safer for your computer, so just get that, or invest more and get a real watercooling loop, which is miles better.)

Then you have to do it yourself. There isn't a "really good" pre-assembled liquid cooler out there, and they should be avoided at all costs.

Hi  

Oops just looked through the window... it actually uses 3 x 8 pin connectors PER CARD ...

All the best Brett  

THIS is what i was looking for in a reply! pointing out things like this, thanks, so i guess ill maybe go for the hd 7990 after all, what is your take on the asus rampage IV?

any cooling system you can recommend that will fit in my case then?

Okay... may I ask you what your monitor set-up is?

I have a 1080p, 120Hz monitor, and a single 2GB 670, and I can max out almost every game at 120fps. Those few I can't I run maxxed out at about 55-65 fps.

Unless you have a three-monitor setup, you don't need a 7990... and I'd be more inclined to get two 7970s anyways.  

As for the motherboard, well... Look at its features compared to the ones I named, and ask yourself if you need any of them. All of the boards I named will get your i5 to 4.4-ish GHz with ease, even with a low-end air cooler. With a high-end air cooler or real water cooler, you're looking at 4.8-5.0 GHz. Other than that, the only big difference is the number of ports the high end motherboard has... but are you going to really be using them?

Haha, that case is HUGE. You could probably fit an elephant in there and not notice.
My recommendation is for the Noctua NH-D14. It's got 140mm fans, which run quieter and more powerfully, and it cools like nobody's business.

The other option is a custom watercooling loop, but you're looking at $2-300 and a bit of modding.

I'm planning on going 3 monitors, and possible crossfire with another 7990 in like 5-7 years if it's needed. i just wont be going for 3 monitors right off the bat, unless i can find some good deals. what is your take on the Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 850W?

The Noctua NH-D14 looks epic. oh, what s a great lighting system you would recommend?

Hi  

For what its worth, my monitors are like this... on two different machines (both with 7990`s ...)

Machine 1 , 7990 + ONE 27 inch IIYAMA 1ms Monitor

Machine 2 , 7990 + THREE 27 inch IIYAMA 1ms Monitors

All the best Brett  

Hmm... I'd recommend going with two 4GB 670s over a 7990. They'll be easier to sell, because you'll want an upgrade in about four years, and it'll be a far better option to sell what you have and upgrade your cards to new than try to deal with quad-sli/xfire.

Whatever you end up getting, make sure it has at least 3GB of vram per chip.

The -D14 is epic, it's an amazing cooler. As for the lighting system, I've heard nothing but good things about the NXZT hue. (I personally use white lighting, so I haven't played with it at all.)