Looking for constructive input on my new system build.

[Darth Sicaedus]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: NLT July 31st BUDGET RANGE: 2500-3000 USD

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, Music, Movies and Internet.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, mouse, sound system, watercooling system and OS

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Preferably Newegg for consolidated shipping, but I will buy from another site if the price is right.

PARTS PREFERENCES: I pretty dead set on the case, Mobo and the drives, but the i7 975 and 2 Geforce GTX 260's are subject to change. Brands are up to suggestion on the GTX 260's, ram, PSU and monitor.

OVERCLOCKING: H*** to the YES SLI OR [strike]CROSSFIRE[/strike]: Definitely

MONITOR RESOLUTION: I want something in 1920x1200

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Im looking for extreme performance, versitility and overclockability.

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NZXT TEMPEST Crafted Series CS-NT-TEM-B Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

ASUS Rampage II Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition Bloomfield 3.33GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601975 - Retail

EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI ... - Retail x2

Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM x2

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ANY AND ALL SUGGESTIONS WILL BE CONSIDERED!

 

[gkay09]

Hi...
From the looks of that setup, its worth drooling over...But when I regain my senses, I see that you are wasting about $700 on i7 975 instead of getting i7 920 D0 stepping, which would happily overclock to 4GHz stable and run 24X7 with a very good air-cooling or good watercooling...And you wont even notice any significant performance difference between running those 2 CPUs @ 4GHz...

i7 920 D0 stepping.
http://www.antaresdigital.com/customer/product.php?productid=16135&cat=0&page=1

The ASUS Rampage II Extreme mobo is worth the extra if you have planned for extreme overclock...

Change the GTX260 to this -
GTX 275 - Extra $30 but definitely worth it...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130475

And some high performance RAMs to compliment that mobo -
mushkin 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model 998691
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226050

or

Corsair Dominator
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145224

You are seriously wasting money on the Velociraptors...
Instead for that cash, SSD FTW...Less heat and incredible speed...
OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX60G 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227394

For backup -
WD Black 1TB...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

Power supply -
CORSAIR CMPSU-850HX 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail
Winner of HardOCP Editor’s Choice Gold Award
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011

Monitor - One of the best 24" - 1920X1200 monitor
DELL ULTRASHARP 2408WFP
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Monitors/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-6272

But if it is costly, then get any of these...
SAMSUNG T240HD
or
ASUS MK241H Black
or
SAMSUNG ToC T260
or
ASUS VW266H Black 25.5"

 

[kubes]

I think I'd restructure this build quite a bit....

I write this up with the idea you plan on pushing your cpu to 4ghz+ and it will be under a water cooling sytem.


Combo Deal (MB, RAM, CPU) $600
MB: ASUS P6T V2 RAM: OCZ GOLD 1600 3x2gb kit CPU: I7 920

Combo Deal (Case and PSU) $370
Antec 850 signature - argubly the best psu out there Antec 1200 - Simlar case to the one you have above but much better cooling preformance - also supports watter cooling.[/ur]

[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143182]GPU: GTX 295 BFG WaterCooled $760

Monitor X2: Asus MK241H Black 24 $560

HD: G.SKILL FALCON FM-25S2S-128GBF1 - $319 - Primary drive

HD: WD Black 1TB x2 - $200 secondary stoarge

Total = ~$2608

 

[Darth Sicaedus]

I really only popped on to see if anyone bit on lure of the thread. Thanks for input, you've both got me thinking pretty hard, but I dont have the time to look into everything as thoroughly as I would like right this moment, so I will have to put it off for a couple of hours, if you come up with anything else that you would recomend, please share, its been too long since I built a computer.

 

[Darth Sicaedus]

I think I'd restructure this build quite a bit....

I write this up with the idea you plan on pushing your cpu to 4ghz+ and it will be under a water cooling sytem.

Combo Deal (Case and PSU) $370
Antec 850 signature - argubly the best psu out there Antec 1200 - Simlar case to the one you have above but much better cooling preformance - also supports watter cooling.[/ur]

I was planning somewhere near 4ghz like you said. My buddy is hooking me up with a Swiftech kit that he got before deciding to stick with aircooling. He said the its the one with the gtz waterblock and 120mm dual radiator. My question is, would that radiator mount well inside the Antec 1200 and would I need a second one if I used water for the gpu's. I'm still leaning away from the gtx 295, but i want to be well informed on my options before I buy.

 

[smithereen]

Drop down to a D0 stepping i7 920, just like gkay09 said. SLi GTX 275s would be sweat, I wouldn't spend any more than that on graphics. Save it, and upgrade later. For the amount you're spending on the VelociRapters, get a OCZ SSD and RAID a few Caviar Blacks. The Corsair is a little pricy, but among the best money can buy.

I'm really jealous, enjoy your build!

 

[Darth Sicaedus]

I'm more of a visual person so I am wondering if you guys know if, with the choosen mobo, would I be able to fit a 3rd gtx 275 or 285 in the Antec 1200.? I am definitely dropping to a i7 920 D0 after looking at some reviews and benchmarks. I'm probably going with the Mushkin redline, I've already looked into it before posting this thread and I'm pretty much sold on it.

 

[xaira]

antec 1200 definitely
corsair psu deffenitely
920 deffenitely
would change the 60gb vertex to a 120gb vertex $340
2x gtx285 or 3, come on its a $3000 build
monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009165
dont no if u might find this too much^
and i think that radiator is for outside the case

 

[Darth Sicaedus]

Well, I went ahead ordered most of the stuff for my build, I couldn't get any of my top 3 choices for SSD's(none in stock), so I will have to wait about week for that. Thanks for all the input, I took most of your guy's advice. It got me more for less really. I'll post the list of parts I ordered down below.


NEWEGG:

EVGA GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 x2 = $439.98

ASUS Rampage II Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard x1 = $369.99

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive x1 = $99.99

mushkin Redline 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) ram x1 = $234.99

Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case x1 = $169.99

ASUS MK241H Black 24" 2ms HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor with 1.3M Pixel Webcam x1 = $279.99

CORSAIR CMPSU-1000HX 1000W ATX12V PSU x1 = $239.99


Antares Computing Inc:

Intel i7-920 2.66GHz LGA 1366 8MB Cache CPU w/ D0 stepping x1 = $ 280.00



Total = $2120.42 w/ shipping

 

[gkay09]

^ Good choices... Good luck with your build

 

[Darth Sicaedus]

Thanks

 

[kubes]

I think you've got urself a pretty solid build. post picks for us when you put it together

 

[Darth Sicaedus]

Will do, but that'll be a little while yet, like late September. Im in the US Army and deployed in Iraq and I figured a new gaming rig would be a good B-day/deployment present to myself. I dont go on mid-tour leave until sometime in September. My goal of ordering now is to ensure everything will be at my house well before I get there. If you guys are that patient, there will definitely be pictures.

 

[blackhawk1928]

Before I get into specifics in other posts in this board i would like to give some additions to your system!!

-Having 2500-3000 budget you need to get a nice fast solid state disk as your boot drive and western digital velociraptor for storage.

-Dont waste money on the i7 975, a 920 will handle everything you will ever need, i7 975 is good if you are getting like 2 Asus Mars GTX295's with 4GB ram each and use CS4 with multilayer images or AutoCad or something like that...which are not going to use most likley.

-Shaving hundreds by switching to a 920, use that to get a really nice EVGA classified and get a better GPU like a GTX285 or GTX295...or maybe go SLI with two cheaper cards and get Xtreme performance.

-Oh and, with your budget get 6GB of micron ram! its going to be 2x more expensive but much higher quality(business grade) and much better spent then a i7 975! and will benefit you the most in overall system performance.!

 

[Darth Sicaedus]

Thanks for trying blackhawk, but I already bought everything but a OCZ SSD and the one I want is out of stock.