Custom Desktop build

[Nikkoped]

Hey guys I'm kind of new to this whole building a desktop thing and would love your opinions on what I should get. Also it would be great if you made sure I'm not missing any critical parts or putting in non essential ones. Anyways here's what I have so far.

Antec Lanboy air Blue Black / Blue ATX Mid Tower Computer Modular Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129093

ASUS Crosshair V Formula AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Gaming Motherboard with 3-Way SLI/CrossFireX Support and UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131735

AMD FX-8150 Zambezi 3.6GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8150FRGUBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103960

I'm actually going for 2 of these in Crossfire: XFX HD-685X-ZCFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150573

Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840

Intel 330 Series Maple Crest SSDSC2CT120A3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167121

CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233143

Thermaltake Black Widow W0319RU 850W ATX 12V v2.3, EPS 12V v2.91 CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153106

ZALMAN CNPS20LQ Ultimate Liquid CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118129

LG Black 10X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal 12X Internal Blu-ray Drive 3D Playback & M-DISC Support Model UH12LS29 LightScribe Support - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136246

INTELLINET Network Solutions 524810 Wireless PCI Card IEEE 802.11b/g/n/e PCI Up to 150Mbps Wireless Data Rates 64/128-bit WEP data encryption WPA and WPA2 Cisco CCX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833425006

ASUS VW246H Glossy Black 24" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 ASCR 20000:1 (1000:1) Built-in Speakers
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236049


Thanks for your help guys.

 

[ssddx]

Antec Lanboy air Blue Black / Blue ATX Mid Tower Computer Modular Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129093
-are you planning on moving the case around? if not and if you have room a fulltower is much better for airflow. the more 120mm or larger fan ports the better.

ASUS Crosshair V Formula AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Gaming Motherboard with 3-Way SLI/CrossFireX Support and UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131735
-see below

AMD FX-8150 Zambezi 3.6GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8150FRGUBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103960
-any particular reason for going with amd? i would check the tomshardware cpu charts to see performance but to my knowledge intel was still in the lead when it came to price/performance ratios.

I'm actually going for 2 of these in Crossfire: XFX HD-685X-ZCFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150573
-check the gpu charts for performance. i'm not too well versed on ati/amd since i use nvidia.

Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148840
-samsung spinpoint f3's and western digital caviar black's seem to be the current trend in harddrives. not saying your choice is bad.

Intel 330 Series Maple Crest SSDSC2CT120A3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820167121
-for a boot drive? more than enough. i forget the exact difference in performance between mlc and ... i think the others were slc. you might want to look this up.

CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820233143
-16gb is a bit exessive but your choice. at most i've used 3.5gb out of the 6gb on my rig. having more is really only required if you have applications that take advantage of it such as 3d modeling, video editing, photo editing, etcetera.

Thermaltake Black Widow W0319RU 850W ATX 12V v2.3, EPS 12V v2.91 CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817153106
-make sure you do a power calculations check since you are running two video cards. also verify that it has enough connectors for what you are trying to hook up. 850w sounds like it should work without doing any calc checks though.

ZALMAN CNPS20LQ Ultimate Liquid CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835118129
-why? stock coolers work fine. if anything a good air cooler is much better if you compare price per performance.

LG Black 10X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal 12X Internal Blu-ray Drive 3D Playback & M-DISC Support Model UH12LS29 LightScribe Support - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827136246
-should be fine.

INTELLINET Network Solutions 524810 Wireless PCI Card IEEE 802.11b/g/n/e PCI Up to 150Mbps Wireless Data Rates 64/128-bit WEP data encryption WPA and WPA2 Cisco CCX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6833425006
-no comment.
ASUS VW246H Glossy Black 24" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 ASCR 20000:1 (1000:1) Built-in Speakers
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824236049

-built in speakers are typically crap. if i were you i would use the money i shaved off to buy a decent speaker system and upgrade the monitor to a decent e-ips. your choice though.

--

keyboard?
mouse?
speakers?
do you want a fan controller or extra fans?
front bay device for sd cards/camera cards, etcetera?

 

[Nikkoped]

Antec Lanboy air Blue Black / Blue ATX Mid Tower Computer Modular Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129093
-are you planning on moving the case around? if not and if you have room a fulltower is much better for airflow. the more 120mm or larger fan ports the better.
-I will move it around a little bit, but the reason I went with this model is that it has room for up to 15 120mm fans, which is pretty baller

ASUS Crosshair V Formula AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Gaming Motherboard with 3-Way SLI/CrossFireX Support and UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131735
-see below

AMD FX-8150 Zambezi 3.6GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8150FRGUBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103960
-any particular reason for going with amd? i would check the tomshardware cpu charts to see performance but to my knowledge intel was still in the lead when it came to price/performance ratios.
- They actually don't even have this processor on their benchmarks to my knowledge. So I used this website, http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html And this is the highest ranked processor under $200

I'm actually going for 2 of these in Crossfire: XFX HD-685X-ZCFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150573
-check the gpu charts for performance. i'm not too well versed on ati/amd since i use nvidia.
- These actually have really high performance both in crossfire and individually, but thanks for the concern.

Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148840
-samsung spinpoint f3's and western digital caviar black's seem to be the current trend in harddrives. not saying your choice is bad.
-Yeah I went with this one because it was relatively inexpensive, got the 7200 RPM, and the 6.0/Gb/s. I believe it's a little faster than the spinpoint.

Intel 330 Series Maple Crest SSDSC2CT120A3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820167121
-for a boot drive? more than enough. i forget the exact difference in performance between mlc and ... i think the others were slc. you might want to look this up.
- Yeah, it's for a boot drive. I was going with it because maybe I could put other things in there as well but I may just go with like a 20GB slc for faster boot. something like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167118

CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820233143
-16gb is a bit exessive but your choice. at most i've used 3.5gb out of the 6gb on my rig. having more is really only required if you have applications that take advantage of it such as 3d modeling, video editing, photo editing, etcetera.
- Yeah I think you're right... Maybe I will just go with an extremely fast 8gb. Would this support my system?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226199

Thermaltake Black Widow W0319RU 850W ATX 12V v2.3, EPS 12V v2.91 CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817153106
-make sure you do a power calculations check since you are running two video cards. also verify that it has enough connectors for what you are trying to hook up. 850w sounds like it should work without doing any calc checks though.
-Yeah should work just fine, 850w is pretty sick

ZALMAN CNPS20LQ Ultimate Liquid CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835118129
-why? stock coolers work fine. if anything a good air cooler is much better if you compare price per performance.
-To be honest I didn't really know if I needed one or not which is why I was asking everyone, so I'm glad to hear your feedback. What would you get instead?

LG Black 10X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal 12X Internal Blu-ray Drive 3D Playback & M-DISC Support Model UH12LS29 LightScribe Support - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827136246
-should be fine.

INTELLINET Network Solutions 524810 Wireless PCI Card IEEE 802.11b/g/n/e PCI Up to 150Mbps Wireless Data Rates 64/128-bit WEP data encryption WPA and WPA2 Cisco CCX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6833425006
-no comment.
-No comment as in bad or good...?

ASUS VW246H Glossy Black 24" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 ASCR 20000:1 (1000:1) Built-in Speakers
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824236049

-built in speakers are typically crap. if i were you i would use the money i shaved off to buy a decent speaker system and upgrade the monitor to a decent e-ips. your choice though.
- Yeah I'm not gonna use the speakers at all, its mainly just being used as a moderately inexpensive 1080p screen. I have a pretty nice speaker system made by Klipsch as well as I have my Logitech G930's to keep me company.

--

keyboard?
I was just gonna go with a Logitech G110
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126087

mouse?
I already have a fairly nice Razer Deathadder I can use

speakers?
The Klipsch ones as well as a G930 headset

do you want a fan controller or extra fans?
What fan controller would you suggest? But yeah I'm gonna get a couple more fans, the case comes with 5 built in already but I may add 5 more of these bad boys:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103060

front bay device for sd cards/camera cards, etcetera?
Oh yeah, forgot about that. This will probably suffice:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820223103

Hey thanks for all your help again man you are awesome! Have any tips or a good guide on the actual building of the beast?

 

[ssddx]

a sataII and sataIII HDD should give you the exact same (or similar) performance numbers as even 10,000rpm drives cannot max out the sataII bandwidth. only SSD drives have been known to be bottlenecked here.

minimum ssd boot drive should be around 80gb. this allows you to put some games and programs on it. i use an 80 and its fine but adjust to your needs. i was just suggesting some additional research material.

i use 6gb of top end ram in my system and it works fine. 8gb should be more than enough for gaming. i like my mushkin i purchased with my newest system. before then i used nothing but ocz but i've heard they went out of the memory business.

as far as cpu coolers are concerned, honestly i've never had to use anything but the stock cooler. i always make sure i have good ambient airflow and this matters quite a bit. if you do not plan on overclocking i would start off with the included cooler. do remove the included paste with alcohol and put on some artic silver though. just a dab will do, read up if you dont know how much. if you really wanted to put something else on then a design with a 120mm fan is probably the best idea. look at current cpu coolers and find which is top rated and see if it is available for your cpu.

no comment on the wifi board because i've never used one. all of my connections are physical. i trust you've done your research and have one picked out that has the features you want.

if you will not use the speakers in a monitor then you might want to consider upgrading to a better monitor and dropping internal speakers. personally i use nothing but the best screens but we each have our own preferences. if you dont know what is available then you might want to look through the perepherals subsection at monitor posts. i've described what is out there countless times just search for my responses.

when it comes to fan controllers make sure you remember two things: maximum output of the unit and output per channel. next look at the maximum draw of the fans you wish to connect. this shouldnt be much of a problem until you start looking at large fans or high output models. if i remember right mine is a lamptron fc2 and before that i used one of the budget models. just read the reviews before you buy. i would suggest a knob version without any fancy lcd screen.

when it comes to fans its a hard call. in general the standard thickness fans offer a better cfm per db ratio. standard black fans around 30cfm or so +/- should be adequate for general airflow. 5 fans total is likely more than enough. 3 in, 2 out + output of psu = 3 out. or you can have one more as an output and create negative pressure in the case to draw air in through cracks, vents, etcetera which is generally regarded to be ideal. so 3 in, 3+1psu - 4 out total might be better. personally i would suggest buying some higher cfm fans and just running them on low. most of the crazy fan designs sold on the low end are hogwash. you might want to think about replacing all of the case fans so you can judge the actual cfm in and out numbers to create this negative pressure. not suggesting you buy this but if you want to know what real power is...delta makes fans which will blow themselves across the table. i bought one for shits and giggles... the 120cfm model has virtually no motor noise... its all airflow noise. expensive yes, but cool toys! they make lower cfm models and higher cfm models as well. typically i see them used for watercooling applications.

in regards to psus: modular or semi modular designs are MUCH MUCH MUCH easier to work with. finding room for all the cables in a small case is a mess. just thought i would mention this.

dont forget to buy such things as cable clamps and zip ties.

routing your cables and securing them out of the way will drastically improve airflow. once you have your system up and running you should go back through and reroute the cables in this manner. i wouldnt worry too much until you get windows up and running but after this point once you are sure all of the hardware is good you should organize all of your cables.
--

in general it looks like you did your research. i just stress the fact that people check their own compatabilities since they know the numbers already. here is a small checklist:

cpu socket matches motherboard socket
ram is compatible with motherboard
ram is correct channels for motherboard, correct number of sticks
dual video cards will fit in motherboard slots, are they spaced wide enough
psu supports enough cables for dual video cards, some high end cards take 2 each
psu supports correct main power plug
psu supports enough auxilliary motherboard power plugs
...and anything else i missed...

--

as i said before, youtube has some guides and the internet has plenty of new user guides if you search around.

general tips though....

look at the motherboard diagram showing which ports are where. this helps to find the power ports, correct sata ports, etc.

before you touch a component always touch the case first. every single time. do this and you should be fine for static discharge. you could buy the wrist bracelet and clip but its not needed at all and is sort of dorky. dont wear fleece (yeah in the summer i doubt i need to say this) or other such clothing which generates static.

dont force components into slots. take your time.

most cpu cooler clamps take quite a bit of force to apply. most times i feel like i will snap the board in half but it doesnt happen. just make sure the cpu is in right and that any pins (if the new ones even have pins) are aligned correctly. dont forget the thermal paste.

you might need to set the bios device order to: boot 1- dvd drive boot 2- SSD so that your windows disk will work. personally i wouldnt even connect the data drive up until windows is loaded. just leave the cable unplugged, set up windows then turn off the pc, turn off the power switch, plug the two cables in and restart. this makes sure you dont confuse which will be your boot drive in bios/windows setup!

...any other questions?

i've done about 4 pcs start to finish now... there are quite a few little tricks you learn. the main thing is to take your time and dont get frustrated. make sure you have a few different sized screwdrivers also