First Build, high end gaming rig

WarbNull

February 25, 2012 3:58:32 PM

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Approximate Purchase Date: Next month to 6 weeks.

Budget Range: Approx 2k (not including monitor)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Streaming Gaming, watching movies (not video or photo editing), office applications

Parts Not Required: keyboard & mouse

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg or Frys

Country: US

Parts Preferences: by brand or type: Would like any intel based system with an nvidia card, I've done amd and radeon but not my personal preference now.

Overclocking: Prolly not

SLI or Crossfire: Yes

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200

Additional Comments: First time building a PC (have always had friends assist me with it, but its time I did it myself), so little concerned about putting it all together correctly as well as not having a bottle neck from too little memory or processing power.

Want to make sure I get the cable management correct.

Concerned about heat management due to living in an arid environment on the upper levels of an apartment that tends to get warm in the summer.

Also, some friends were telling me to wait until April when the new intel chips come out for potential price drops or a better chipset for the same price as the sandy bridge chips.

Unsure what would the best power supply for this system.

Thanks for any assistance and advice you provide!

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Case

Fractal Design Arc Midi Black High Performance PC Computer Case w/ USB 3.0 and 3 x Fractal High Performance 140mm fans
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Mobo

MSI Z68A-GD55 (G3) LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Vid Card
EVGA 015-P3-1580-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card x2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

CPU
Intel Core i7-2600 Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 ...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

System Drive
Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) with Transfer Kit

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Memory
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8R

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Storage

Western Digital Caviar Blue WDBAAV3200ENC-NRSN 320GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 / ATA-6 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Blu ray drive
LG Black Blu-ray Drive SATA Model UH12LS28 OEM LightScribe Support - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

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g-unit1111

February 25, 2012 4:48:00 PM

Looks pretty good for the most part (love the Arc MIDI). These would be my suggestions:

1. Drop the 2600 to the 2500K - invest the difference in upgrading your HD and adding a cooling solution like the Hyper 212 Evo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

If you don't want to use a Hyper 212 try this article for some alternate cooling solutions:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/LGA-2011-i7-3960X-A...

2. 320GB for storage won't get you much these days - you might want to look into a 500GB or 1TB HD, I know HD prices are ridiculous right now but if you look enough you can find something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

3. Don't get the Vengeance RAM with the tall heat sinks. If you add any aftermarket coolers they will be difficult to install. Try the Crucial Ballistix or Kingston Hyper X instead:
- Crucial: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
- Kingston: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

4. The EVGA 580 is a good choice and if you're set on that I won't stop you but you should at least consider the 7950 and 7970. Try one of these:
- Sapphire 7970: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
- Power Color 7950: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

5. I also wouldn't recommend that motherboard either. I had an MSI board die on me after 3 days of it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

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WarbNull

February 25, 2012 5:59:29 PM

What do you think about the upcoming intel chipset release? Do you think they are going to be priced similar to that of the sandy bridge chips? Better to wait until April to purchase?

Also, what sort of power supply would you recommend to power this?

Edit: Oh, and I was thinking about trying liquid cooling but i'm really concerned i'll mess the install somehow.

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Silvune

February 25, 2012 6:57:56 PM

You shouldn't choose the HDD you listed as it is an IDE drive, I believe modern Intel chipsets don't natively support IDE anymore, so there will be very few Intel chipset based motherboards that will support it.

To support a system with two GTX 580s you will need a PSU with two 6pin and two 8pin (6+2pin) PCIe connectors. More than that you will need 850W as a minimum, 1000W preferable. However even with a system with two 7970s an 850W unit is more than enough.

NZXT Kingwin Lazer Platinum 1000W 80Plus Platinum Modular $210 ($20 rebate, $4 shipping)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Silverstone Strider Gold Evolution 1000W 80Plus Gold Modular $214 ($11 shipping)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

The XFX Pro 1000W Black Edition and Seasonic Platinum-1000 use the same internal design, however the Seasonic has the better fan in terms of noisiness. For me the difference would be worth it, if you don't care about the fan then I don't see why you shouldn't get the cheaper unit.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... ($243, $11 shipping)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... ($260, $11 shipping)

Enermax Revolution87+ 1000W 80Plus Gold Modular $260
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

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