Help With Specs

[ballri]

Hi Guys,
I have asked a couple of questions before on this board and you have always been helpful, so here comes another!
I am looking to build a new PC for myself to replace by aging AMD X2 4800 build. It has a couple of 8800GT's but is starting to lag a bit.
I use it mainly for standard office, a bit of photo editing, some photo-raytrace rendering work and a bit of gaming. I want to build a quiet powerful system and have so far come up with the specs below. I would be interested on your thoughts please?

1. I7 3770K
2. Asus Sabretooth Z77.
3. 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V
4. 2GB Gigabyte GTX 680 Windforce3X 28nm, PCIe 3.0, 6008MHz GDDR5, GPU 1071MHz,
5. OCZ Vertex 3 240GB SSD - Solid State Drive - VTX3-25SAT3. I have a couple of 1TB Sata 3 hard drives to add for storage.
6. Corsair H100 Hydro Series Extreme Performance CPU Cooler. Mainly because it should be quieter when running the system is running at a small overclock.
7. Corsair CP-9020003-UK Enthusiast Series TX750M 750W Modular Power Supply (PSU). Will this be enough if I wanted to get another 680 and run in SLI? Also I was thinking of using one of my 8800GT's for PhysX so I guess I could end up with three GPU cards in the PC?
8. Coolermaster HAFX V2 case
9. Win 7 Pro
10. Some kind of Lightscribe DVD burner.

This lot comes to roughly £1300 here in the UK.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to any suggestions? Oh and have I got everything I need? I have keyboard, mouse, and 24" screen already.

 

[adgjlsfhk]

You only need about 500 watts for a GTX 680. I would also suggest getting a GTX 670 because it has 90% performance at 70% the price.

 

[geekapproved]

Look decent, enjoy!

 

[JackNaylorPE]

1. The CPU and Cooler are a concern in that anyone who would be considering a H100 will be seriously overclocking and the IB CPU's simply aren't very good overclockers because of their poor thermal performance. If heat is a concern w/ your OC, I'd get a 2700k......

The H100 offers perhaps 1/4 degree advantage over the better air coolers. To my mind, the potential leak risk from introducing water inside a PC case has to give me more than 1/4 degree especially when that small advantage comes at increased noise. I'd use the Thermaltake Silver Arrow or Phanteks PH-TC14PE

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/phanteks_ph_tc14pe_cpu_cooler_review,14.html
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=674&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=4

The Vertex 3 is 2 tiers below the Chronos Deluxe. The latter is not only faster but uses Toshiba premium toggle flash for extra long life.....and its the same price to boot.

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4328/mushkin_chronos_deluxe_120gb_solid_state_drive_review/index13.html

To sum it all up with a bow on top, you get amazing performance, extremely long service life and a hassle free low price point on a drive that literally has very little competition in the marketplace.

$120 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226318

Case / PSU - I'd recommend one of the following combos

Corsair 500R w/ HX850
Antec 1200 V3 or DF-85 w/ CP-850

Both are 10.0 performance rated PSU's

GFX - Is this the card you are considering ? If so it's a 3-slot card which will likely put a damper on your SLI plans.
http://wccftech.com/gigabyte-gtx-680-soc-windforce-5x-pictured-glory/

There's another Windforce version that is two slot ...... Here's how it compare with the Asus model

http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-680-oc-edition-review/25
Gigabyte Windforce
Original : This sample : Overclocked
Core Clock: 1006 MHz Core Core Clock: 1071 MHz Core Clock: 1171 MHz
Boost Clock: 1058 MHz Boost Clock: 1123 MHz Boost Clock: ~1250 MHz
Memory Clock: 6000 MHz Memory Clock: 6000 MHz Memory Clock: 6612 MHz

http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-geforce-gtx-680-asus-directcu-ii-top-review/25
Asus DCII TOP
Original : This sample : Overclocked
Core Clock: 1006 MHz Core Core Clock: 1137 MHz Core Clock: 1227 MHz
Boost Clock: 1058 MHz Boost Clock: 1267 MHz Boost Clock: ~1367 MHz
Memory Clock: 6000 MHz Memory Clock: 6000 MHz Memory Clock: 7200 MHz

As you can see.....

Core Clock on factory overclocked Asus model is 6% faster than Gigabyte model
Boost Clock on factory overclocked Asus model is 13% faster than Gigabyte model

Core Clock at maximum OC on the Asus model is 5% faster than Gigabyte model
Boost Clock at maximum OC on the Asus model is 9% faster than Gigabyte model
Memory Clock at maximum OC on the Asus model is 9% faster than Gigabyte model

I'd grab this burner if for no other reason that if you have a problem upon assembly, and you call tech support, you can avoid the "it must be the other hardware guy's problem" excuse. It's also a very good unit

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135247

 

[ballri]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your replies so far. Adgjlsfhk I had made a mistake with the GPU I actually did mean to got for this one:

Gigabyte 2GB GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X NVIDIA Graphics Card

I couldn't afford a 680 and was thinking of a 7950 originally but the 670's seem to be the new price/performance king at the higher end. The windforce seems to offers good cooling at lower noise levels.

I'll see if I can track the Chronos down in the UK and check out the specs.

I know that the Ivy Bridge don't seem to overclock so well as the SB but I do like the lower power envelope. My PC stays on 24/7 and has done for the last 4-5 years so I would like low-ish idle draw, which the 670 also seems to give.

The PSU was spec'd to give me enough power to run 2 670's and possibly 1 8800GT for physX or GPGPU if my rendering software can use it. Probably I will never bother with the extra 8800 GT and so maybe a 650 watt PSU would be big enough?

Thanks very much for your input

 

[megamanx00]

That's such a huge upgrade over your current system. OMG. You'll be rather happy .