mortonww said:
This isn't the most efficient way to spend $2600. I'm assuming it's a gaming rig because of the 2 6970's. What is your monitor resolution?
+1^!
1) Few games use more than two cores, so hyperthreading on the 2600K is not much use. A 2500K will OC just as high as a 2600K spend the $100 elsewhere.
2) At 1080P resolution, just get a single GTX580. Some games do not do well with dual gpu's. If you really think you might have second thoughts, get a EVGA card. They have a 90 day trade up program where you can just pay the difference for a better card. You won't need it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
If you think you might want triple monitor gaming, or a 2560 x 1600 monitor, then sli would be appropriate.
With a good single card, you will preserve your option to go sli later. That said, I think the next upgrade will be kepler next year. At that time a top end card like the GTX580 will sell better.
3) The motherboard is waay to expensive. It is intended for record seeling overclockers, and triple and quad sli users.
You can get a Z68 motherboard with all you need for half the price.
4) 8gb of ram is the sweet spot for gamers. But, sandy bridge is largely insensitive to ram speeds or latency. The memory controller is that good. Synthetic benchmarks may look impressive, butt there is little difference between the slowest and fastest ram in terms of real FPS or application speed. Think 1-2%. Better to spend the difference on more ram. Also, fancy heat spreaders are largely marketing. Ram runs just fine with minimal or no heat spreaders. Only if you are seeking insane overclocks aould it make sense to get expensive ram.
Here is a 8gb(2 x 4gb) kit of corsair DDR3-1600:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
You could get the version with tall heat spreaders for the same price, but these low profile sticks will work with air coolers without interference.
5) As a first time builder, I would avoid liquid cooling. That said, the all in one units are ok. But, there is really no need for one.
A $30 Xigmatek gaia or cm hyper121 would do the job. Or, you could spend more for a noctua NH-D14. It will be quiet, and the cooling is about as good as it gets.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Sandy bridge chips have an upper OC limit which is different for each sample. It turns out that better cooling does not let you OC past this limit.
6) A SSD for the os and some apps is probably one of the best perfoemance components you can buy.
But, 60gb is too small. Look for 80gb to 120gb.
Also, today, I would only buy Intel 320 or 510 ssd's. They have had fewer issues.
7) The velociraptor was a fine drive in it's day for the OS. primarily because of the 10k rpm and consequent better random response time.
But here, the SSD takes over that role. It would be better to get a 1tb drive such as the WD black for overflow and storage. Because a large drive is denser, it actually will have better sequential performance than the velociraptor.
8) The Corsair850 is a good unit, and appropriate for cf 6970. It is a gold certified, but expensive. If you get a single GTX580, all you need is a good 600w unit which is much cheaper. But to accomodate the possibility that you might want sli GTX580, I suggest the PC P&C silencer 950W unit. It is silver certified, and only $130. Use it regardless, there is hardly a better psu buy out there:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
9) Lastly, for a first build, take the time to download and read, cover to cover, the case and motherboard manuals.
-----------good luck----------