First build - i7 quad core. Could use some advice!

[rakkon]

Hello!

I am new to the whole custom built thing so I could use some advice. I'm trying to buy pretty much the best PC I can buy without going bankrupt on CyberpowerPC.com. My budget is around $1300-1500. It's basically whatever the cost is to get what I need. I do video editing, gaming, and rendering so I wanted high-end everything. The only problem with high-end everything is powering it and that's really where my trouble is. So if you have advice on a PSU or changing anything else, let me know! Any help is much appreciated!

CASE: Apevia X-Trooper LED Light Mid-Tower Case w/ Side Window
MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 Chipset
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-3820 Quad-Core 3.60 GHz 10MB Intel Smart Cache LGA2011 (10% OVERCLOCK)
RAM: 16GB (4GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Quad Channel Memory (Corsair Vengeance)
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB 16X PCIe
COOLING: Corsair Hydro Series H60 High Performance Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan
HDD: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
PSU: ????

All my options are here
http://gyazo.com/2f1121c20f9f738babcbdf4c8cb44836

I was thinking about the Standard 1000W power supply until I saw the efficiency on generic power supplies... what do you guys recommend? I want a little more than I need just in case... and once again if you have any recommendations and/or questions on the rest of the build feel free to include them. Thanks!

 

[Deleted member 217926]

A GTX550 Ti is in no way a high end gaming card. It is very underpowered compared to the rest of your system.

The H60 does not perform as well as a cheaper air cooler.

You need at most a 450w power supply for a GTX550 Ti. Even running 2 x GTX 550s in Sli you would need 650 watts at most and that factors in overclocking.

Build your own and get much higher quality parts for the same money or less.

I just looked at that list and the only good power supplies on it are the Corsair the Silverstone and the NZXT at a little lower tier than the other 2. Coolermaster, Thermaltake, In Win and Raidmax are crap. All are extremely overpowered for your selected build.

 

[rakkon]

A GTX550 Ti is in no way a high end gaming card. It is very underpowered compared to the rest of your system.

The H60 does not perform as well as a cheaper air cooler.

You need at most a 450w power supply for a GTX550 Ti. Even running 2 x GTX 550s in Sli you would need 650 watts at most and that factors in overclocking.

Build your own and get much higher quality parts for the same money or less.

I just looked at that list and the only good power supplies on it are the Corsair the Silverstone and the NZXT at a little lower tier than the other 2. Coolermaster, Thermaltake, In Win and Raidmax are crap. All are extremely overpowered for your selected build.

Alright I can do that. With my brother's help I'm sure we can figure it out. What would you recommend for liquid cooling, video card, and PSU to go with? Still keeping between the $1300-1500 budget. And do I price out these parts on Newegg or is there somewhere else you suggest?

EDIT: Scratch that. I have the case, the same motherboard, the i7, a WD black 1tb hdd... at a total of $790. What exactly should I add for all that I want?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

16GB RAM. $90

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231497

EVGA GTX570. $329.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130593

600w modular power supply. $99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256064

Hyper 212 Evo. $35.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

Should put you at $1353. If you really want to add to overall performance include an SSD.

128GB SSD $199.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231497

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Just as an option the Hyper 212 Evo is a great budget cooler and will get you a great overclock but if you want true high end air cooling this is it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018

If you like the closed loop water coolers then the H80 is a good chioce but it will be louder and perform about the same or a little worse than the Noctua. You really need to move up to the even more expensive H100 to equal and beat high end air cooling.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181016&Tpk=corsair%20h%2080

 

[rakkon]

Just as an option the Hyper 212 Evo is a great budget cooler and will get you a great overclock but if you want true high end air cooling this is it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018

If you like the closed loop water coolers then the H80 is a good chioce but it will be louder and perform about the same or a little worse than the Noctua. You really need to move up to the even more expensive H100 to equal and beat high end air cooling.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181016&Tpk=corsair%20h%2080

http://gyazo.com/eb052301d7ca7bb9b41a3a0f4a9e67cf

Good? Should I find a motherboard that isn't open box?

I might buy a SSD when I get back to working.

Thanks for your help! And the 600w PSU will be good enough for all this + a 10% CPU overclock? If I ruin a $1.4k system I will probably cry... haha.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Personally I would never buy an open box motherboard.

The Silverstone power supply is not only very high quality, 600 watts gives you headroom to upgrade to a more powerful graphics card in the future. Yes even overclocking the CPU. And you should get more like a 30% overclock with that CPU/cooler.

 

[rakkon]

Best answer selected by rakkon.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Good luck with the build and enjoy.

 

[rakkon]

Personally I would never buy an open box motherboard.

The Silverstone power supply is not only very high quality, 600 watts gives you headroom to upgrade to a more powerful graphics card in the future. Yes even overclocking the CPU. And you should get more like a 30% overclock with that CPU/cooler.

Alright thanks again! Won't be buying until we move into our new house in April. Maybe prices will drop by then haha. Might think about dropping the graphics card 1 tier lower though. I'm not THAT big of a PC gamer. I'll play cod4 and battlefield with buddies but that's about it.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Have a look at the GTX 560 Ti then. Also the new Nvidia cards should be out in April. I am going to upgrade this GTX460 1GB then. If the rumors are true the GTX 660 should be priced at $300 and perform as well as the GTX580 that is $500 now. Even if the new 6xx series is not as good as that prices on the 5xx series should drop when the new cards are released so you might get a better deal.

 

[rakkon]

Have a look at the GTX 560 Ti then. Also the new Nvidia cards should be out in April. I am going to upgrade this GTX460 1GB then. If the rumors are true the GTX 660 should be priced at $300 and perform as well as the GTX580 that is $500 now. Even if the new 6xx series is not as good as that prices on the 5xx series should drop when the new cards are released so you might get a better deal.

I did some researching on the water cooling and it shows the H100 is worse on some reviews and better on others... I don't know if I should go with H100 or the Noctua but I also don't know if the Noctua would fit in the case with the 200mm fan on the side window or with the Gskills RAM.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

It will fit with the GSkill RAM that I am sure of. It's one of the reasons I recommend GSkill because it fits under the large air coolers. I have a Scythe Mugen 2 and my Ripjaws fits fine. You do have to install the RAM before the cooler. I'm not sure about the case. It should list dimensions. The Noctua is 160 x 140 x 158mm.

 

[rakkon]

It will fit with the GSkill RAM that I am sure of. It's one of the reasons I recommend GSkill because it fits under the large air coolers. I have a Scythe Mugen 2 and my Ripjaws fits fine. You do have to install the RAM before the cooler. I'm not sure about the case. It should list dimensions. The Noctua is 160 x 140 x 158mm.

Alright. I think I'll go with the H100 just in case the Noctua won't fit in the case. The dimensions are big enough but I think it would hit the 200 mm side window fan. I looked at a bunch of cases but the only bigger ones I liked were around $120 more and I'm pretty much at the very top of my budget as is haha. I'll probably save up after I buy the build to get some more 120 mm fans for a push pull configuration on the H100.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

The Noctua fits in most cases. What case are you looking at? The Apevia X-Trooper ?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144266

It should fit fine. You could always save money and guarantee a fit by getting the Hyper 212 Evo I orignally linked to. People are getting 4.5Ghz easily with them and the 2500k/2600k. You don't sound like an extreme overclocker anyway.

The 3820 should be more voltage limited than temp limited in overclocking just like the 2500/2600k. You want to keep the voltage at under 1.4v and ideally at under 1.36 for long term chip life. At 1.4v and over you start to see the chips degrade over time due to electromigration. My 2600K has been rock solid for over a year at 4.5Ghz and 1.32v. I idle in the upper 20s - low 30s C and top out in the upper 60s - low 70s C running Prime 95. Temps stay much lower in daily use.

I could squeeze a few more hundred megahertz out of my 2600K but in all honesty 4.5Ghz is the chips sweet spot. There is no reason to go faster.

 

[rakkon]

The Noctua fits in most cases. What case are you looking at? The Apevia X-Trooper ?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144266

It should fit fine. You could always save money and guarantee a fit by getting the Hyper 212 Evo I orignally linked to. People are getting 4.5Ghz easily with them and the 2500k/2600k. You don't sound like an extreme overclocker anyway.

The 3820 should be more voltage limited than temp limited in overclocking just like the 2500/2600k. You want to keep the voltage at under 1.4v and ideally at under 1.36 for long term chip life. At 1.4v and over you start to see the chips degrade over time due to electromigration. My 2600K has been rock solid for over a year at 4.5Ghz and 1.32v. I idle in the upper 20s - low 30s C and top out in the upper 60s - low 70s C running Prime 95. Temps stay much lower in daily use.

I could squeeze a few more hundred megahertz out of my 2600K but in all honesty 4.5Ghz is the chips sweet spot. There is no reason to go faster.

So I've seen the new Ivy Bridge coming out soon... haven't really looked it up much should I wait for that? And then I'm not really an overclocker. I've been buying HP and DELL for all my computers but with what I want... DELL is insanely expensive so I decided to go custom. The most I'll probably over clock my 3820 is to 4.0. I don't buy computers too often (6 years since last one) so I'm trying to get just a little boost without cutting the lifetime down too much.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Ivy Bridge should be out in April. It will not be a huge improvement on Sandy Bridge but will offer more powerful 6 core CPUs for people who need the extra cores. It also will be based on a 28nm manufacturing process and will use less power than the Sandy Bridge 32nm chips. That should make it run cooler and maybe overclock better. It will not be much faster clock for clock than Sandy Bridge.

If you only plan on going to 4Ghz then save yourself the money and get the Hyper 212 Evo. It is a great cooler for the money. No reason to waste money on something you don't need. The Evo is only $35.