Need help for new build

[SHNS0]

Hey, I'm going to build a new pc by the end of october/first week of november.
Basically, after lurking for months, I've come to this plan, I find it pretty good, and has a lot of upgrade potential:

CASE: NZXT Phantom
Mobo: ASRock X58 Extreme6
CPU: Intel Core i7 950
CPU cooler: I have no. goddamn. idea. I was kind of thinking about the H50, but looks like it doesn't fit in the case. Do you have any idea? I would like something REALLY silent and very efficient. I'm not going to overclock the cpu, but I don't really care if you recommend me something a bit overkill for my needs: all I want is temps really low and no noise.
RAM: 6gb 2x3 Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600mhz
Graphics: (not yet decided, I'll wait the release of the ATI 6xxx, I'm anyway thinking about getting a GTX 460 1gb + 1 old-but-good card to use for PhysiX)
SDD: In the future
HDD: now, 1 1TB WD Caviar Black Sata3 64mb cache + 2 640gb WD Caviar Black Sata3 64mb cache in raid 1 for music. In the future, I'll add another 1TB Caviar Black for more storage.
Power supply: Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 850W (should be 80plus gold)
DVD/CD: a random one

And that's it. I would like to hear what you think about this, in particular about the mobo, the graphics card and the cpu cooler. Budget is not really much of a problem.
Thank you very much!

 

[dndhatcher]

Thats a big case. Any cooler should work.

I like the following sub $50 aircoolers.
Kingwin 1264
Coolermaster Hyper 212+
Scythe Mugen 2 (scmg-2100)
Xigmatek Balder
Xigmatek Dark Knight

Why would you think the h50 wont fit? Its grill would replace the rear 120mm fan.

 

[Wamphryi]

Unless you are going to implement SLI then I would reconsider the board. I stopped getting SLI / Crossfire Boards due to the way the Graphics Cards would knock out the ability to use any PCI slots. This can sometimes be a liability. I got a P7P55 LX Asus and while it is certainly a plain board its design is very functional. Even though its a Lynnfield if you could find a similar design in the X58 architecture then you may want to consider it.

PS: I discovered that the P7P55 LX supports Crossfire so it is possible to have your cake and eat it too.

 

[rand_79]

its pretty pointless to have a seperate phyx card.

most games right now dont use phyx.. and the ones that do.. get at best a 10% or so boost from a seperate card.

you might want to go 1 460 then add another later though...

 

[boiler1990]

Unless you are going to implement SLI then I would reconsider the board. I stopped getting SLI / Crossfire Boards due to the way the Graphics Cards would knock out the ability to use any PCI slots. This can sometimes be a liability. I got a P7P55 LX Asus and while it is certainly a plain board its design is very functional. Even though its a Lynnfield if you could find a similar design in the X58 architecture then you may want to consider it.

PS: I discovered that the P7P55 LX supports Crossfire so it is possible to have your cake and eat it too.

The X58 chipset supports more bandwidth than the P55 chipset, so the PCI slots wouldn't be limited.


I would also agree on getting 2 GTX 460s at some point; I tried PhysX with a GTX 460 + 9800GT (before I got my second one), and it really did absolutely nothing, and I tested several games that use PhysX. The SLI setup will handle it in a part of one of the GPUs.

Also, the 850W PSU is overkill; I'm running my GTX 460s in SLI and OCed on a 650W (stable, of course). The most you'd need is a 750W. I've never heard of that brand, but I would strongly suggest Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, or XFX's Black Edition.

 

[SHNS0]

@dndhatcher: seems like the H50 and the H70 won't fit because of the top fans

@Wamphryi: yes, I'm going to sli.

@boiler1990: be quiet is a german brand, still pretty much underground but their products are really top notch. It's a 80plus gold if I remember correctly, no ***. It's the only piece I already have, since I bought it on ebay for half its retail price
Plus, I'm planning to keep it for a long time!

For the cpu cooler, I was pretty interested in Scythe ones. Have you got any other ideas? I would like something reeeeaaally quiet but powerful (although I'm not going to overclock the cpu)

As for the graphics, yes maybe I'll stick with 2 768mb 460's. Will more vram improve performance on a full hd monitor?

 

[SHNS0]

What do you think about the Scythe Heatlane series? They look pretty nice - and silent

 

[dndhatcher]

More VRAM means you can run anti-aliasing, which makes things smoother and more realistic looking.

The fans on the phantom will be louder than the fans on any of the coolers I listed above. Big 120mm+ fans and no overclocking means the fans will run at low RPM and thus will be quiet.

The top fans have nothing to do with the H50 fitting. You pull the rear case fan and put the h50s grill/fan in its place. Not that I think the H50 is a good idea. Any of the 120mm air coolers I mentioned are half the price and will do fine.

 

[SHNS0]

More VRAM means you can run anti-aliasing, which makes things smoother and more realistic looking.

The fans on the phantom will be louder than the fans on any of the coolers I listed above. Big 120mm+ fans and no overclocking means the fans will run at low RPM and thus will be quiet.

The top fans have nothing to do with the H50 fitting. You pull the rear case fan and put the h50s grill/fan in its place. Not that I think the H50 is a good idea. Any of the 120mm air coolers I mentioned are half the price and will do fine.

http://www.nzxt.com/forum/showthread.php?8010-Corsair-H50-H70-CPU-Cooler-Incompatibility

This is the problem I was talking about
Thank you anyway for your help, I'm watching right now. The Mugen 2 looks pretty interesting

 

[boiler1990]

Yeah, placing the radiator there would cause *some* airflow issues because it's blocking the top fan. I agree with DND, get an air cooler. With all of the case fans in the Phantom, you won't notice a CPU fan.

My Titan Fenrir can be rotated so that the air can be pulled in any direction, so I have it pulling air into the top exhaust in my Raven case. It also has PWM via the 4pin CPU fan header, so it's not roaring at idle. I get good temps on it too (usually mid 30s C idle; high 40s/low 50s C under load - not OCed).

Here's a review/comparison: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/979/17/

 

[eloric]

This is the cooler for you: Noctua NH-D14 for $92.

Here is a second choice: ZALMAN CNPS10X QUIET for $69.

Are you buying in the US? I noticed the shipping on your case from Newegg is really high. If you are, try Tiger or Frys.

You are right about the GPU. Watch what happens when the 6xxx stuff comes out. It should affect prices on other market offerings, so keep your options open as long as you can. A couple of 1 TB GTX 460 in SLI are such sweet choices right now. It will be interesting to see if they drop below the US$200 mark after the new releases.

You have lots of flexibility since you have that 850W power supply. You could even squeeze in a couple of GTX 470's with that load of power. Be careful though, because the noise will increase when you get close to full capacity on your PSU (so rule out a pair of GTX 480s). Any combination of HD Radeon should be good.

Speaking of PSU's: jonnyGURU has not reviewed the Dark Power Pro 850W model, but they did look at the 600W version. Gave it a 7, mostly based on price, otherwise it would have received an 8, so there should be no worries about your choice.

Oh, btw, with all the extra money you are spending on really extravagant performance parts, seems a shame that you are not going to overclock. You are going to have to go into the set up to get your memory right anyway. If you are determined on running at stock speeds, then the Motherboard, the memory, the PSU and the cooler are all overkill. After you get the machine built, take a peak the the OC utility, and you just might change your mind!

Good luck.

 

[SHNS0]

Well, the Noctua and the Zalman look quite overkill even for me! I buy in Germany, and I use geizhals.at/deutschland to compare prices (it's like a ciao.co.uk of hardware for german-speaking countries).
I like a lot the Scythe coolers, in particular the Rasetsu and the Yasya, and I can find them in Germany for something like 35€.
I get the case for 135€ shipping included, no problems.
Sure, for the VGA I'll wait the 6xxx since they should bring prices down. In this moment, my plan is to buy a 1gb 460 now and a second one for Christmas. 2 460's are really enough for me, I'm also planning to overclock them and squeeze all their power since I won't stick with them for more than 2 years (it's too bad that vga's become obsolete so quickly). one 470 isn't really perfect, and 2 470's are too expensive.
Overclocking is not a priority for me, I'll do a light-to-medium OC to the parts just to squeeze out a bit more power if needed, but nothing more. I don't really want to end with burned hardware after a couple years, and I don't want to go with serious LC (too expensive!).
I'm also going to change the stock fans on the Phantom, reviews aren't really saying good stuff about those fans, and like I said I would like a lot of silence in idle (the computer will be on 24/7 in my bedroom, I don't really want to sleep with a jet engine near me).