My first custom build. How did I do?

[Joeyb8775]

This is my first custom PC build. The system is intended to be an upper echelon gaming computer.

Motherboard: Asus Crosshair IV Formula

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T (O.C. 3.8 Ghz)

CPU Cooler: Corsair CWCH50-1 Hydro H50 CPU Liquid Cooler

Video Card: PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 6970 (I like the dual fans, big heat sink, and factory O.C.)

Hard Drives: Samsung Spinpoint F3R 1TB (Four of them in Raid 0, short stroked to outer 25% of disk) I will only have 1TB of usable space.

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) CAS 7 Latency

Power Supply: COOLER MASTER Silent Pro Gold Series 1200W

CD-Rom:Lite-On iHBS112-29 12X 3D Internal Blu-Ray Writer (All in one drive)

Case: Nzxt Phantom (Full tower in white w/ extra 120mm and 140mm fan.)

Price: $1799

 

[aznshinobi]

It's not good but it isn't bad either.

Motherboard - Asus ROG boards are extremely overpriced and easily a 150$ or 90$ board could be sufficient. Plus it's an ROG board of a DEAD platform.

CPU - @ 230$ you could've gotten an i5 2500K and that kills the 1100T for the same price point. Plus it's overclockable to 5.1ghz depending on the grade of the CPU, 4.6ghz minimum.

Cooler - Loud and fake water-cooling, if you got it for a good price then, It's sweet I suppose.

Video Card - Expensive, a 6950 2GB could perform at the same level once unlocked and is cheaper by 100$. Course I guess the 6970 is fine if you don't want to void warranty.

PSU You don't need such an expensive PSU, let alone one of 1200w. 1Kw would be good enough for even SLI 580's.

Bottom line - For the budget, I'd give it around a 5-6 out of 10. Sorry if it wasn't the response you were looking for.

2500K vs 1100T: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=203

 

[galeener]

Yes the h50 isn't any better than air cooling that cost about 1/2 as much such as a Hyper 212+ or similar cooler.
The processor and mother board or even platform such as amd or intel is a personal choice but for what your spending I would have went with a sandy bridge as (intel) has stated that the chipset will have an upgrade path with the ivybridge processors. And the Power supply is way over what you would need even with a lot of head room left. I mean you could run 2 6990s with that PSU. For 2 of the GPUs you have listed even a quality 850w would be enough and still give you some head room.
But thats just my opinion.
I mean if your happy with your build thats really what counts.

 

[Joeyb8775]

I know I went big on the power supply, but I was able to find it for $209. Very reasonable. I wanted to make sure I would have enough power to run crossfire later. I didn't want to go Intel. I just like AMD. I like the value and the fact that they are the underdog battling the Intel giant. Plus it is a hexa-core processor for $230. Intel's hexa-core processors cost $600-$1000. I was able to get the H50 cooler for 65 bucks.

 

[aznshinobi]

^ Umm... Did you read the benchmark I posted? The 2500K (Quad-core) kills a Hexa-core of AMD. Who cares about Hexa-core if the every day functions can't compete with a quad core. Also the H50 @ 65$ is quite a lot of money when a Hyper 212+ (as listed by galeener) is only 30$ and does the same job. Though it is preference i suppose.