Best PSU and Case

[ares1214]

hello all, i am building a no budget (lol well no more than 20,000$) for a rich friend, and i was wondering what case and psu to go with. i was looking at these for cases:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119122

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119213

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811103028

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133080

any suggestions are nice and for psus, i was looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341027

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371032

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194046

once again any suggestions are welcome, and i know that cases are more personal preference, but i want the BEST case and psu. the TT level 10 isnt really what i want, and any system build suggestions are nice too. lastly, are there any major difference between the 975 and 920, i know the 975 is a waste, but can it oc any higher or perform any better. thank

 

[LePhuronn]

No, the i7 920 will clock as well as the 975 if it's cooled well, and as you have effectively unlimited budget you might as well watercool it (or even Vapochill) and go with the 975 because of the unlocked multiplier - just easier to OC then.

For somebody who wants the best case, you've chosen some dogs lol plus there's a few obvious omissions from your case selection: Silverstone Temjin TJ07 and Lian Li Tyr X2000 - depends if he wants a window or not.

As far as a system goes, again go right to the top and it'll last him for years:

Core i7 975
EVGA X58 3-way SLI Classified
2x Radeon 5970 in Crossfire
2x Intel X25-E 64GB SSD (32nm version) in RAID0 for system drive
4x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HDD in RAID0+1
Top-end X-FI or Asus Xonar sound card
Watercool the lot on a custom dual-loop and overclock the i7 to 4.5GHz
OR
Vapochill and hit at least 5.5GHz

The only PSU I'd recommend for such as system is the Corsair HX1000.

If you're looking at extreme cooling, you can get a Thermaltake Xaser VI or Vaochill-ready case, or look at the Zalman Reserator XT stuff like the LQ1000 Z-Machine Hybrid case.

If you get a case that has 9 or more expansion slots then you could go 3x 5870 instead of 2x 5970, but when Crossfire drivers mature the two 5970s will beat 3 5870s.

 

[ares1214]

k, now earlier i asked what was the best i7 mobo for this same build, and somebody said an 80$ one...which doesnt exist??? so what do you think is the best i7 mobo, future proofness of the sata 6 and usb 3 (even though it may be a while) so i was wondering if the GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD7 or ASUS P6X58D Premium would be better. i only really need one with 2 pci 2.0 x16 slots, since i will be using 2 dual gpus. also i hear the evga boards are more compatible or in favor of nvidia. moving on, the enermax psu got some great reviews, and the specs look amazing, so what about that one? the temjin he didnt like, and idk about the lian li, so which one of the cases i said is best, im kinda leaning towards the TT, but whats your opinion. lastly, would those ssds outperform:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227502

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227474

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227443

i was planning on using the vertex as the boot drive, but now the collosuses are out, and idk how the intel stacks up. would i really need the spin points, cuz arent ssds more reliable, and if i put the ssds in raid, impossbily fast and reliable???

 

[MagicPants]

For the PSU I'd go with the enermax galaxy, checkout it's review on jonnyguru.com.

For a case, go with a silverstone. I like the Fortress FT01 but the FT02 just came out and it looks pretty good.

If money is no object it might be fun to build a system with the thermaltake level 10 case.

 

[LePhuronn]

He doesn't like the TJ07? More money than brains if you ask me because it is one of the very best cases you can get, especially if you're watercooling and you want an internal system.

Mechanical hard drives are more reliable because they don't wear themselves out anywhere near as quickly as SSDs (not that SSDs wear themselves out quickly). To be honest I don't know much about the Colossus drives because I can't comprehend spending thousands of dollars on a SSD, but if he has the cash then get the 1TB, or even 2 of them and JBOD them together.

You can't beat the Intel Extreme drives though so I'd use them for boot.

EVGA don't favour NVIDIA over ATI, they just traditionally tout their NVIDIA allegiance - Radeons work just as well on EVGA boards.

As far as future-proofing goes, if your friend has this sort of money available then why bother? Get the best board now and wait for the dust to clear on SATA III and USB 3.0 then get the best board in 6-12 months time - nothing exists NOW that will make use of SATA III or USB 3.0, and buy the time there is there'll be a lot more other kit available too - Fermi GPUs, new Radeons, etc. so if your friend wants to keep to the cutting edge then he'll want to buy a lot more stuff.

Also don't forget that the 6-core i7 980X is out soon too.

 

[ares1214]

yea, the mtbf on the ssd is like something around 171 years if its accurate, and im not too worried about the eventual wear. also, the specs on those make it look better than the intel 250 and 170 seems like it would lose to 260 and 260, but the intel is slc, so idk. also, i know i dream of having the TJ07, but he thinks its ugly, so he wanted one of them, or maybe the lian li p80. also, does anybody have any specs or benchmarks on the fermi, or the 980x, cuz it might be worth the wait for them to come out (lol he has a core 2 qaud extreme so i think he can deal with infinite fps). please say what case, and all your help has been great

 

[Darksword]

Might as well just wait for the 980X seeing as how people are getting over 6Ghz with watercooling.

I would love to see some gaming benchmarks with a 6Ghz 980X and dual 5970's.

 

[ares1214]

lol i wouldnt mind seeing some of those benchmarks too. does anybody know the clock speed of the 980x.

 

[LePhuronn]

The 980X is stock 3.33GHz

There's no benches or specs for Fermi because it still doesn't exist. All we "know" is that it's supposed to be more powerful than the Haydron collider.

Personally I wouldn't wait for Fermi - it's just too far away.

 

[obsidian86]

980x ? thought it was 3.06?

but for the best no holds barred case and power supply

thermaltake xpressar

http://www.xpressar.com/product/rsc100/rsc100-features.html

the colest case ever no seriously i have seen this keep an i7 975 at 5c idle and 24c loaded

or the best looking case thermaltake level 10

a power supply to power anything short of a small town

silverstone strider 1500watts

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256054

 

[obsidian86]

gaming bench marks no but how bout 3dmark 06
gulftown at 6ghz and trifire 5870

http://www.ocxtreme.org/opb/1230ln2/6g3d06tri5870.png

 

[LePhuronn]

The Level 10 really disappointed me - a lot of the promo shots depicted a gloss, almost mirror shine, to the black finish. Then the actual product photos (like above) were released and it's just boring, matte black plastic that attracts fingerprints. It's not even aluminium, and it costs £400?

I don't think so.

 

[obsidian86]

and its heavy i mean really heavy on its own its 30kg

 

[LePhuronn]

As far as the 980X's clock speed goes, leaked info put it at 3.3GHz but other recent spots say 3.06GHz from what I've just seen.

It's due in the next month or two so we'll see then.

 

[obsidian86]

there will be 2 versions they say a 2.4 ghz and 3.06 ghz version

http://www.ripping.org/benchmarks.php?act=graphicscores&cpuid=1139

http://www.ripping.org/benchmarks.php?act=graphicscores&cpuid=1131

 

[LePhuronn]

The 2.4GHz can't be considered Extreme Edition then - here's hoping it's sensibly-priced!