Am I heading in the right direction with the pc i want to build?

[Aleckazee]

Hi, I have planned out what I'm roughly want to get in the pc im going to build, but I don't want it to cost a lot and have mistakes in it.

Approximate Purchase Date: Late June-Early July

Budget Range: $2200 before rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Photo Editing, Gaming, Watching Movies

Parts Not Required: Mouse, Speakers, OS

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php http://www.techbuy.com.au/ http://greenboxit.com.au/index.php

Country of Origin: Adelaide, Australia

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU, AMD GPU, 23-27" LED monitor

Overclocking: Yes (CPU, GPU, RAM)

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: Liquid cooling, quiet pc would be nice, has to look nice and I just want it to be very fast and responsive overall.


Here is what I have come up with but I might have gone a completely wrong direction.
Corsair Obsidian 650D
i5 2400
XFX Radeon HD6950 2GB (flash to 6970)
OCZ Vertex 2 80GB (for OS, main programs)
x2 500GB Western Digital Caviar Black (RAID 0) (for games, movies and other storage)
x2 4GB G.Skill PC3-12800 1600MHz 8-8-8-24 (tighten latency rather than increase speed?)
XFX Core Edition Pro 850W (would it be enough juice?)
Asus P8P67

Cost: $1566

Cooling:
CPU-360
VID-AR697
Black Ice GT Stealth 280mm
160mm Liquid Fusion
EK-DCP 4.0 12V DC

Cost: $417

Total Cost: $1985 aud (doesn't include monitor) (and doesn't include shipping but thats ok)

Feel free to completely re-list all the parts lol

EDIT: Two questions I have in particular, is that PSU enough to power it all without any issues? and is a dual 140mm slim rad enough to cool cpu and gpu? I'm not looking for amazing temps, I just like liquid cooling and a quiet pc. And if not, if I add a single thick 120mm to the loop, would that fix it?

 

[WR2]

Hello aleckazee;

You'll definitely want a i5 2500K to take advantage of CPU overclocking.
Asus P8P67 "Pro" model motherboard so you'll have CrossfireX option @ x8/x8 vs x16/x4 of the plain P8P67.

XFX Core Edition Pro 850W will handle 2x HD 6950->6970s.

How much power does that Liq cooling kit draw from the PSU?

 

[Aleckazee]

hmmm, im more worried about the gpu than the cpu (so i don't really care if I can't overclock a lot if at all).
I just saw some gaming results comparing the Nvidia 560 and ATI 6970 from bit-tech. According to the tests the 560 performs about 5fps worse on most games and in a couple it performs 10fps better, and the 560 is a lot cheaper too. am I missing something here?

thanks for the heads up with the mb, might change it to the pro but it's $70 extra and im pushing my budget as is.

 

[WR2]

How set are you on water cooling?
That's hella expensive for something you 'don't really need'.

 

[WR2]

That's about how the GTX 560 Ti and HD 6970 settle out - trading off performance leads depending on the game.
Here is a review with a few more games included than Bit-Tech used.

THG article: Best Graphics Cards For the Money: March 2011 gives the nod to the HD 6950 in a price/performance mix.

 

[boiler1990]

I would recommend scrapping that LC system and using that extra money for A) a full tower (better cooling) and B) the i7-2600K for hyperthreading (and overclocking, if that interests you).

have you done any research into LCing at all?

 

[Aleckazee]

Valid points, I don't need it and it is a lot of money. But I don't really need to build a computer in the first place, I have a laptop that does just about everything I want it to.
It's just the point of building it myself. And I love the concept and look of liquid cooling. I'd rather make it look really good than have a better comp but it doesn't look good. (dont get me wrong, I want a good computer but if I was to chose between a 8/10 comp that looks great and a 10/10 comp I would go for the 8/10
I'm pretty happy with what I've planned out, I mainly just wanted to confirm there would be no conflicts/bottlenecks with that setup

There is one more option here, just build the computer for now and then upgrade the wc later on like in a year or so.

 

[boiler1990]

I would take your second route. Its not that water cooling is a waste, its that you need to take the time to do it right; plus there's no prescribed set of parts that works for every person. I don't have a LC system (yet), but I've been doing research for months on end as to what kind of radiator/fan combos will dissipate the necessary heat from 3 GTX 470s. I just want you to do it properly so you're not wasting money on a kit that doesn't work.

You should take the necessary time (~a few months) to read up on LCing and get exactly what you need rather than a generic system. That way you're not wasting any money, and you get a completely custom system that works for your components. For instance, in that kit you have, the 280mm radiator will not be enough to manage your CPU and GPU.

Head over to the liquid cooling section and also try overclockers.com (or is it .org?), and start reading up now so you'll be ready in a few months to start getting parts for your loop.

 

[Why_Me]

Here's a build worth looking at. This build includes dual factory over clocked gtx 560's in SLI, a 120GB SSD. LED Back Light monitor w/2ms response time, etc...

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=25_31&products_id=11652 $129.00
CoolerMaster HAF 922

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_215&products_id=11180 $35.00
CoolerMaster MegaFlow 200 Red

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_215&products_id=16491 $15.00
CoolerMaster 120mm XtraFlo PWM Fan

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_290&products_id=16692 $155.00
Enermax NAXN 750W Modular 82+

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_711_1183&products_id=16802 $229.00
ASRock P67 Extreme4 Motherboard B3

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=187_346_1184&products_id=16531 $249.00
Intel Core i5 2500K

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=207_23_845&products_id=16155 $75.00
Zalman CNPS9900MAX CPU Cooler with Red LED

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186_912&products_id=13931 $125.00
G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=210_344&products_id=12711 $69.00
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HD103SJ

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=210_902_909&products_id=14674 $249.00
OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=658_667&products_id=16272 $55.00
ASUS DRW-24B3LT 24X DVDRW LightScribe

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1193&products_id=16576 $279.00
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti Overclocked 1GB

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1193&products_id=16576 $279.00
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti Overclocked 1GB

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=558_1087&products_id=16708 $219.00
ASUS VE247H 23.6inch Widescreen LED Monitor

Total: $2,163.99 AUD

http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6606 <---- specs, info, and pics of that case

http://www.pureoverclock.com/review.php?id=1234&page=1 <--- review of that psu

http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/power/enermax/NAXN_750w/p1.asp <---- another review of that psu

http://www.madshrimps.be/articles/article/1000116#axzz1EqpvWFEN <---Review on that Asrock motherboard after the latest bios update

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1098/pg2/asrock-extreme4-p67-and-fatal1ty-professional-p67-vs-x58-with-core-i7-950-review-asrock-p67-extreme4.html <---Review on that Asrock motherboard after the latest bios update

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4080/welcome-to-sandy-bridge-with-the-asrock-p67-extreme4 <--- Review before the latest bios...and it still smoked the Asus and Gigabyte boards in it's class

http://www.asrock.com/news/events/201102ex/warranty.html <----- Asrock two year warranty

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=P67%20Extreme4 <--- ASRock P67 Extreme4

 

[Aleckazee]

Best answer selected by aleckazee.