[Solved] Help designing an enthusiast build

Approximate Purchase Date: This week, unless there is a compelling reason to hold off

Budget Range: Whatever it takes (4,000 USD max, but hoping to build it for less)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: (Gaming, Entertainment, Video-editing)

Parts Not Required: No peripherals needed

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: No preference

Country of Origin: (USA)

Parts Preferences: N/A

Overclocking: If recommended

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Additional Comments: I intend to build a dream gaming setup with money I have earned over the summer. I hope for the computer to be upgrade-able in the future, and I am willing to pay extra to get the computer to run quieter (in a dorm situation). Oh, and looking cool would be a plus

P.S. As far as the budget is concerned, I would happily spend more for meaningful upgrades, but I don't want to spend money simply to spend money.

4000 USD seems a marvelous price for building a PC
so here is my recommendation
MOBO : Gigabyte 990FXA-UD5
CPU : AMD X6 1090T (till bulldozer comes out)
RAM : G.skill 8GB DDR3 1866 (will be native support for the bulldozer)
GPU : HD 6990 (you don't need to go crossfire in order not to experience a driver issue or a drop in FPS)
SSD : 240 GB OCZ vertex 3
HDD : 2 ×WD 1 TB Caviar Black
Case : Cooler Master HAF X
CPU Cooler : Corsair H70 (water cooled system)
PSU : NZXT Hale 90 1000W

that's what you said

...check Tom's Charts:
I would go i7 2600K....beats all AMD cpus.
Anything above that gets to pricey for the performance gains.
Besides, your gaming so sink your money into your GPU, Power Supply, and most importantly your COOLING.

The GTX590 is right up there with the 6990 but is QUIET in comparison. Again I think Tom'sH did a review on just that. The 6990 is to loud to use daily...unless noise isnt an option. Oh this is random, but from personal experience....if you ever got into 3D cad design you would have to buy a workstation card as this will work (ATI gaming GPU architecture does not support CAD environment).

SSDCZ Vertex 3 is great. I have OCZ Max Iops.....you wouldnt feel/see the difference for the price. Get the Vertex 3...intel has best reliability fyi but not speed. Those are the only two SSDs I would buy (OCZ or Intel).

How do you want to handle your drives? Storage?
Personaly I like speed, saving $ and loss prevention so I would do this....SSD for OS & Mirrored HDDs for storage.

^+1000 on that build.

That GTX 580 is good...I have a Sparkle Caliber GTX480....If you dont mind the color of the fans (face down when installed so you dont see it actually) the Sparkle Caliber GTX 580 should have the same awesome cooling and extreme low/no sound profile as my 480. You cant beat an OC'd GTX thats very quiet and has awesome low temps. Caliber delivers all that. I have tried and returned many GTXs looking for just that.
GTX580 is the way to go vs GTX590 due to availability and price point. Not worth it unless you are going to 30" monitor status.


Need CPU cooling though.
I think he should go to Water Cooling. About $100 gets you there.
Cleanest solution that frees up space, provides better airflow to other hardware and looks awesome. Better then air cooling. DO IT!

That sounds really good, actually. Thanks for the suggestions.

why would he go intel while we all know that bulldozer is a real Bulldozer ?
Tom's recommended a pair of 6970s or 580s in crossfire
OCZ has better reads and writes / IOPS than intel

no one will ever know what AMD is gonna produce when the Ivy bridge comes out, all the expectations say that AMD has a new era after APU and Bulldozer

buy 2 of those Caviar Blacks and mirror them. Its easy to do and will give you peace of mind that you wont loose your stuff one day. Totally worth it.

No not at all.

Raid 1 (called a mirror) two HDDs so you wont lose anything.

Put only programs on OS drive (SSD so they can be really fast) and EVERYTHING else on your mirrored raid.

Raid 0 (called a stripe) doesnt copy data to both drives (like a mirror does) but instead copies parts of that data to both drives simultaneously. Making both stripped drives faster then if they were working alone.

So what are your thoughts now on the build? Cool with the case (can add more water and or leds to your liking), gpu, cpu, etc?
To get those combo deals I wouldnt wait long.
You should post your new build edit that has all the stuff you want in it for a new forum jockey review.

^+1 for Samsung F3

nice case...90 Degree mobo mounting? That means all mobo input face up rather then out the back right? COOL!!!!!! If true then all your cpu etc heat can now escape upward (heat rises) rather then try to get out the back of the case.....NICE.

U sir are awesome for considering micro stuttering and the NF200 bridge....Now I want that mobo to replace my P8P67.

Sparing no $ what's the best mobo to date for the build?

Why_me has posted a superb build!

My best bet would be a cheap i3 2100 or 2120 for now. You can throw it off when Ivy Bridge processors release. i5 2500K or i7 2600K isn't that kind of a thing.

+1 for the ASRock Gen3 Z68 board.

That case is set up for at least one 2.5" SSD, and that Asrock motherboard comes with a USB 3.0 and 2.5" SSD front bezel.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview. [...] me7%20Gen3 <----- Scroll down towards the bottom of that page until you see: "The Front USB 3.0 Panel supports 2 x USB 3.0 ports and provides a 2.5” SSD/HDD rack."

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Imag [...] otherboard <----- There's another pic of it there...on newegg.

2133mhz ram is ridiculous 1866mhz is fast enough for everything and gives the best performance per price. for 4k i would throw a bigger ssd than 120gb's especially considering how fast they are

$100 for 2133mhz ram isn't bad at all. Just a few months ago that was what 2x4GB of 1600 was going for. With that budget...why not?

Thanks everyone for all of the help! My only issue was a quickly corrected PEBCAK.... Forgot to purchase Windows for it!