Ten Years Since my Last build!!!

[megadp]

Ok, so I'm gonna be building a system for the first time since I was in High School (back when the Pentium 4's were hot and I didn't think technology could get any better, since they released 1GHz CPU's). For about the past year and a half, I've kept up with all of the latest technology advancements (I stopped paying attention for a few years cuz I was distracted by other things LOL)... so with that said, I'd like to hear some feedback regarding a build I'm going to embark on soon... any help would be appreciated!

CPU: Intel i7-3930k (Not sure if I'll OC it yet, cuz I've never OC'd a CPU before)
Mobo: Originally, I wanted to get the new MSI Bigbang board that's gonna be released, but those bullet design heatsinks look like garbage, so I need some suggestions on an alternative... If I really have to, I'll spend up to 500 on one (The new Asus Rampage IV Extreme), but prefer not to spend more than 350
Tower: Corsair Obsidian 800D (Not interested in any suggestions with any other case)
PSU: Corsair Pro Series Gold 1200W 80+ (May be overkill for what I want in my tower LOL)
RAM: Corsair Dominator (Starting to see a pattern here?) 12Gb 2000MHz DDR3 (Do any of the new X79 mobo's allow more than 12Gb of 2000MHz? I wanna overkill the living **** outta the RAM!)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100 with OCZ Freeze Thermal Compound
GPU: MSI GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme Ed. 3Gb (Not sure I'll even need SLI if there's THAT much GDDR5 on it... also open to your feedback if I should)
SSD: Corsair Force Series 3 120Gb (Windows 7 x64 Home Premium and would prefer to install SC2 and SWTOR on it, instead of regular HDD)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda XT 3Tb (One of the only 7200 RPM SATA 6G 3Tb drives I can find) x2... one for my media storage and a second one for storing HD-quality movies to access on my TV's via Xbox 360 Extender (I'm a HUGE movie and TV show fanatic!)
Capture Card: None chosen yet... I wanna be able to capture 1080p and burn it to BD, but all of the HD cards have poor reviews... if I really must, I'll go with a USB device, but I'd prefer a PCI card
Burner: Lite-On BD Writer x2 - That way I don't have to babysit the drive when it comes time to swap out discs that I'm copying... NON-COPYRIGHT material, of course!

Sounds like quite a bit, but I plan on using this leviathan for gaming, HTPC and video editing (and an occasional soundboard prank call)! If there's anything I missed, feel free to let me know!

 

[megadp]

PS -- I'm comfortable buying parts from Amazon, Newegg and TigerDirect.

 

[DelroyMonjo]

Corsair Dominator (Starting to see a pattern here?) 12Gb 2000MHz DDR3 (Do any of the new X79 mobo's allow more than 12Gb of 2000MHz? I wanna overkill the living **** outta the RAM!)

The entire dream you have is overkill. Troll.....

 

[Emelth]

Please fill the outline out that is on the forums its one of the stickies at the top so we can get a better idea of what you want to do and what your budget is

 

[phyco126]

Overclocking the 3930K will be a breeze, believe me. It'll take you more time reading about how to access the settings in the Bios than it will to actually do it. I say, at worst, it'll take you 5 minutes to overclock it to 4 GHz.

You don't NEED a ultra expensive epic motherboard. Evga's works just fine at $300 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188115)

That PSU is extreme overkill. However, if you want to SLI later, then might as well leave it as is.

The new motherboards are quad-channel, so you'll want quad-channel RAM (which won't be 12). I'm guessing money really isn't an issue either. These boards can handle up to 32 GBs of RAM (using 4x8GB sticks). Since you are video editing, and since I can max out all 8 GB of my RAM, I suggest a minimum of 16 GB, or if you can afford it, 32 GB of RAM.

Now, you can go with 16 GB of RAM with these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231489, but they are 1600 Mhz. However, that will allow you to buy another set in the future if you want. OR You can go this route: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231473 , these run at 2133 Mhz. However, to upgrade to 32 GB of RAM, you'll have to replace all of the sticks.

If you go for 32GB RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231487. Only 1333 Mhz, but its also $450. For $600, you can get Corsair kit that is 32 GB of RAM that runs at 1866 Mhz.

How big is your monitor? Are you going to use multiple monitors? If you are not gaming on anything beyond the resolution of 2560 x 1600, then 3 GB of VRAM is a waste. Also, SLI'ing will not give you 6 GB of useable VRAM, from what I understand, it will simply remain at 3 GB. Also, you can SLI two 560 Ti's for better performance than a single 580. Or you can get the 590 GTX (which is two 580s on one card). It will be slightly cheaper than just buying two 580s, if you can get one. They sell out pretty quick on Newegg.

The SSD might fill up quickly depending on the programs and how many games you install. SWTOR apparently takes up around 20 GBs all on its own. Still, not a bad choice. If you really want to blow some dough, buy two of those SSDs and RAID 0 them. XD

HDDs are good. Maybe it's because I'm unnecessarily anal about it, but I would get a third HDD for a scratch disk. I know you can utilize one of the other HDDs for it, but if it was me, I'd grab a 40 GB SSD for it.

Burner = awesome. People don't understand why some of us like having two optical burners in our computers. XD

 

[megadp]

Wow... I had no idea they already released so much LGA2011 stuff! I've been surfing TigerDirect and they've only got a small selection of mobo's... thanks for the input, BTW... I checked out the EVGA mobo, but I'm looking for one that has more SATA 6G ports on it and 8 DIMMS... again, I just wanna go all-out on RAM! LOL after you sent me that link to the 16GB Quad Channel RAM, I found out they also have a 32GB 2133MHz set (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231504)! As for the mobo, the ASUS Rampage IV Extreme looks good... I know I was unsure with the mobo's, but it sounds friggin' amazing!!! And as far as the GPU is concerned, are you saying one GTX 590 is the same thing as two 580's in SLI?! I'm never gonna leave my house when I get this thing built LOL! RAID'ing a couple SSD's came across my mind, but then I started stumbling across other posts on this site where people say it's pointless to RAID them on the kind of SSD I'd like to get, since the failure rate is practically non-existent. The term "scratch disk" is new to me... what's that? Thanks again, buddy!

 

[megadp]

Please fill the outline out that is on the forums its one of the stickies at the top so we can get a better idea of what you want to do and what your budget is

My apologies... will do!

 

[megadp]

Approximate Purchase Date: Before year's end

Budget Range: Haven't really set one LOL... maybe 4500?

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, video editing, HTPC

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, mouse

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Amazon, Newegg, TigerDirect

Country: USA

Parts Preferences: Intel, Corsiar, ASUS

Overclocking: Maybe, if necessary... never OC'd anything before

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe, if necessary... never had a computer with any kind of dedicated GPU, so I've never been able to play games beyond Star Wars: Battlefront LOL (Even that goes slow on the AMD 64 x2 4400+ I have right now with 2Gb DDR2)

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200

 

[phyco126]

scratch disk is a partition of a hard drive, or an entire hard drive, that is selected when working with video editing. Basically, the video needs to get processed, but RAM may not be enough. So the temporary file gets slapped onto the disk. Much faster to do it on another disk than the same disk you are working with, because the main disk is already working really hard and you'll suffer from some major slow downs.

The description isn't perfect, but eh, should be laymens enough for ya.

Yes, the 590 is exactly like two 580s SLIed. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130693 But like I said, it sales out quickly, and right now they are sold out again (from having them in stock for about a couple days, lol).

 

[megadp]

Awesome! Sounds like I'm getting a 590 then! And as for the scratch disk, I can settle for a SATA 3G connection on that without affecting performance, right?

 

[phyco126]

Yup.

 

[geekapproved]

IMO you would be a idiot to spend that kind of cash on a dissapointing and overpriced Sandy Bridge-E.

You'll be in the same boat as all those though bought into X58. Pissed off when something faster comes out for 1/3 the price 3 months later and then Intel tells you they aren't making any more cpu's for your new X79. They already said X79 won't even last as long as X58 did, and that was pretty short. Don't be a sucker.

Go Ivy Bridge. It'll be faster and A LOT cheaper.

 

[madchemist83]

^ true story
I'm hoping IB comes out by the end of the year

 

[phyco126]

IMO you would be a idiot to spend that kind of cash on a dissapointing and overpriced Sandy Bridge-E.

Perhaps you missed the part about video editing? The 3960K would NOT slack in that area. The 3960K is not disappointing in anything other than its ability to match the 2600K in gaming benchmarks. But in software like that is where this processor will really count.

 

[geekapproved]

Perhaps you missed the entire point?

Ok so pay $800+ more for a system on a socket that will likely be obsolete in 6 months, with no upgradability so you can shave 3 seconds off your video editing.

When something will likely be out that's even faster for 1/3 the price in 3 months that will be upgradable..

 

[phyco126]

Socket 2011 will be around until Haswell. It is upgradeable, because you can upgrade to Ivy Bridge-E if you wanted to. Haswell won't be out until Q2 2013, that's more than 6 months away. What is coming out in 3 months? Ivy-bridge. And you know what? One, it won't much faster than Sandy Bridge, and Two, its a socket 1155 release with no more than quad cores. IB quad-core will not beat a 6-core processor at video editing. Games, maybe, but not video editing.

IB-E will have a 6-core processor, but don't expect that until Q4 of 2012... a year away. And even then, again, it won't be much faster than SB-E. But, you can upgrade to it. And no, it won't be 1/3 the price either.

 

[phyco126]

All of this and you can't even afford 3 monitors or 3D monitors?

I say we being trolled.

Maybe, or maybe not. I had a friend do the same as this guy, basically. Went from a P4 system to a 980x system that he dumped $6,000 on. But he skipped a lot of things the people that spend that much may normally partake, such as SSDs, a ton of RAM, and multi-monitor setup (he is super happy with his new 23" monitor that he bought).

 

[madchemist83]

seems like a waste of money