Thoughts on this Gaming build to purchase today

[nygamer]

Hi all, This is the first pc I ever "built" and would like some thoughts. In general, I'm a noob with pc hardware. Had help from my friend who's knows a lot. Keep in mind the following:

1) Primarily for 3D gaming GW2 as well as FPS games, ideally at very high or max settings.
2) What are your thoughts on the dual graphics card choices? Also, planning on triple Asus 3D monitor setup, I assume I'll have no probs?
3) Please review if I have sufficient cooling (I'm scared of liquid cooling so I went fan route)? Also adequate power supply?
4) What do you think of my hard drive set up? My friend is a proponent of Raid 0+1 or Raid 0 SSDs saying it would help with speeds in games where many large textures are frequently loaded. After much research however, I decided on going with 1 SSD instead since I'm unsure if the benefits in games like GW2 outweigh the cons of data security and the complexity/maintenance of a Raid 0 setup for a noob like me. Cyberpower I'm assuming will install the OS on the SSD and I'll install the 2-3 games I primarily play on the SSD as well. I chose a secondary HDD for all other data. Never did a 2 hard drive setup like this before.
5) CPU is i5 2500k. Will all the components in general sync well together? In other words, no bottlenecks?

Lastly, aside from the monitor/3D glasses obviously, I assume I have all other components I need here and didn't make a noob mistake by forgetting something? Many thanks for your help!

View link here: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1E76VM

Case: Corsair Carbide Series 400R Mid-Tower Gaming Case
Internal USB Extension Module: NZXT Internal USB 6-PORT Expansion Module + USB Bluetooth 2.X EDR Dongle with Led Light Thumb Size
Extra Case Fan Upgrade: Maximum 120MM Color Case Cooling Fans for your selected case (White Color)
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-2500K 3.30 GHz 6M Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)
Performance Tuning Protection Plan by Intel: None
Venom Boost Fast And Efficient Factory Overclocking: Extreme OC (Extreme Overclock 20% or more)
Cooling Fan: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo Gaming Cooling Fan
Coolant for Cyberpower Xtreme Hydro Water Cooling Kits: Standard Coolant
Motherboard: [CrossFireX/SLI] ASUS Sabertooth Z77 Intel Z77 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ Lucid Virtu MVP, TUF Thermal Armor, 7.1 HD Audio, Intel GbLAN, Display Port, 3x PCIe x16 (2 Gen3, 1 Gen2) & 3x PCIe x1 (All Venom Ultimate OC Certified)
Intel Smart Response Technology for Z77: None
Memory: 16GB (8GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Vengeance)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
Video Card 2: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
Power Supply Upgrade: 1,050 Watts - Corsair HX1050W 80 Plus Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready
Hard Drive: 240 GB Intel 520 Series SATA-III 6.0Gb/s - 550 MB/s Read & 520 MB/s Write (Single Drive)
Data Hard Drive: 2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Drive)
Hard Drive Cooling Fan: None
Optical Drive: LG UH12LS28K 12X Blu-Ray Player & DVDRW Combo Drive (BLACK COLOR)
Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
Network: Killer™ 2100 - Gigabit Maximum Network Performance Online Gaming Network Interface Card
Keyboard: Razer Blackwidow Ultimate Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: Razer Naga Epic USB Wired/Wireless Dual Laser 5600 DPI Gaming Mouse
IEEE1394 Card: None
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 7 Professional (64-bit Edition)

 

[Niklas_13]

Does your friend know how to build a system ? you could do a Sli 670s kickass gaming rig for about 1800

 

[nygamer]

He lives in Florida now unfortunately. Yea I'm going with Cyberpower b/c I don't know a thing about how to set up bios and knowing me I may break a part while putting it all together. I had this discussion w him already, rather someone else build it. Also nevermind the price, keep in mind there's a few perks here like Razr keyboard/mouse, and some other stuff. If I'm overpaying a bit for them to build it for me, that's fine by me.

Also, I wanted it engraved, but found out at last min engraving it renders it un-returnable, thank goodness I opted out.

 

[JukeBox360]

Why would you worry about it being returnable? You should be sure it's what you actually want before purchasing. Also, it's much quicker and easier for you to buy all the parts and do it yourself. Even have someone do it for you.

 

[Niklas_13]

He lives in Florida now unfortunately. Yea I'm going with Cyberpower b/c I don't know a thing about how to set up bios and knowing me I may break a part while putting it all together. I had this discussion w him already, rather someone else build it. Also nevermind the price, keep in mind there's a few perks here like Razr keyboard/mouse, and some other stuff. If I'm overpaying a bit for them to build it for me, that's fine by me.

Also, I wanted it engraved, but found out at last min engraving it renders it un-returnable, thank goodness I opted out.

I understand about it being intimidating if you have no skills with PCs, ok now on to the next question, do you have any local PC shops around ? not bestbuy < Why well because its not the bestbuy lol

I would really try to find a shop to build it for you!!! I know mircocenter builds PCs for about 200 bucks

That PC you have Speced M8 is about 1K over priced

plz my friend try to find a place to put it together for you, then we can help you out finding the best parts for the best price.

I cant in my right mind to tell you go and buy that, Sorry i wont


Also you dont need 16 GB of ram for gaming and that 1000W psu is overkill

 

[nygamer]

I doubt the PC is 1k overpriced, i checked every single part down to the PSU on newegg and prices were comparable. I have a lot of extra perks on here as I said and I don't think you're accounting for those in the price you see. ANywho.. can we get off the price topic please?
1) No I don't know any established names around me (that are not best buy as you mentioned) that can build a PC for me otherwise I'd go that route.
2) No there's no Microcenter near me.
3) No I'm not building it myself

16GB is recommended for Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate. I would go with 12GB but they don't have that option only 8GB which is not enough. I'm OK w 16GB.

That Corsair PSU was the best rated on newegg so I'm not changing it. Since I have 2x 2GB gtx 560 ti cards, the Cyberpower configurator recommends a 970 watt PSU. I'd rather go with what they recommend and not have any probs ESPECIALLY since a common complaint I've seen with Cyberpower customers is their PSU blowing out, so no I'm not skimping out here.

What are the thoughts on my other questions above 1, 2, 3(cooling), 4 and 5.

Thanks

 

[Niklas_13]

1 It should run games without and problems at high to very high settings.

2 I Would do a single 7970 and Croddfire down the road, or you could spend the same now and have to buy a new GPU down the road.

3 I would look into a Full Tower, Yes the PSU is fine, its overkill

4. I will lets other fill this in ( not my cup of tea ) raids and all

5 The i5 2500K is a grate CPU and will not bottle neck even 2 7970s in Crossfire ( down the road you can OC it, if need be )

gl with the build, looks like it will be a grate PC

 

[nygamer]

7970? Isn't that Radeon? I'm going for nvidia for 3D.

 

[Niklas_13]

Well AMD has HD3D and that card would be grate and you can add another down the road in 3 years, when games need more GPU power.

Your GTX 560 Ti 2 GB well be grate also,

Just trying to think down the road

 

[nygamer]

Would I need Intel Smart Response technology w this build? Not too sure what that is.

 

[Niklas_13]

You can read about it http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Intel-Smart-Response-Technology-Explained/1292

I guess it uses your SSD to help speed things up by pulling the information you use the most off your HDD drive.

I have a SSD for OS/Programs..... Games and music go on my HDD

You could post in the storage part of THG maybe get more for detailed info there.

My i5 750 with a GTX 560 plays skyrim well @ high settings 1920x1080 ( your rig should have NP playing games @ max )

I might be do to add a 2nd GTX 560 tho

 

[nygamer]

Yes, I'm planning to put the OS and games on the 240 GB SSD and use the HDD for storage like you. So I take it I won't need an Intel SRT? I thought SRT is for HDD set ups only?

How many GB is your SSD and do you also have an SRT ssd chip as well?

 

[nygamer]

ah! ok i think i found the answer here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/284085-32-using-intel-hosting so my guess is no.

 

[nygamer]

Grrr! I just found out Diablo 3 doesn't support SLI??:

SLI and Crossfire (Multiple Graphics Cards)
Diablo III does not support SLI or Crossfire configurations. If you try to play Diablo III with either configuration enabled, you may experience serious performance issues, or the game may not run at all.

http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/D3supportedvideo

 

[Niklas_13]

Grrr! I just found out Diablo 3 doesn't support SLI??:

SLI and Crossfire (Multiple Graphics Cards)
Diablo III does not support SLI or Crossfire configurations. If you try to play Diablo III with either configuration enabled, you may experience serious performance issues, or the game may not run at all.

http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/D3supportedvideo

This is why its best to go with one higher end GPU, sli/crossfire does not mean all games are going to add twice the FPS by adding a 2nd GPU

Sometimes you gain 2x the FPS, Sometimes if you get 40 FPS sli might give you 65 and other times you get a game that wont play well with others

You could disable sli when playing games that dont work well with it.

40+ FPS @ mid to high settings works for me

 

[nygamer]

I want a triple monitor setup for Nvidia 3D, primarily to work well for guild wars like in this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEs9ZLBq3nk

What nvidia graphics card do you recommend?

Thanks for all your help btw

 

[DarthTengil]

To get room with all that components and still have enough air and airflow to cool your PC you will need a much bigger case! Those 120mm fans your case use does NOT cool enough - using SLI myself and those two GPUs + everything else will generate a massive heat, buy instead a Full Tower with large fans (200mm)!

The Cooler Master HAF 932 and HAF-X have 3 200mm fans (on in front, one at the side and one at the top blowing the hot air up and out), and a good 140mm fan in the rear for extra cooling. Have the HAF 932 Advanced myself and it was a builders dream to work with and in. Those big fans are spinning at a low RPM and just sound 20 db but cool the entire case extremly well!

I use two Scythe KAZE Server fan controllers (KS01-BK) and they controls 4 fans each and have a superb Semi-Automatic mode which aloud you to set both a wished temperatur target mode and a whished RPM target mode and it will both cool the component you have attached the heat sensors to (say a SSD) and do it at the lowest possible RPM. Highly recommend both products!!! Thus its important to notice that its ONLY the Server controller that have this Semi-Automatic mode!

You dont need to worry for watercooling, its safe! Every (or at least every good) motherboard have some kind of watercooling underneath the heat-spreader fins around the CPU, Northbridge and Southbridge. Its perfectly safe and efficient to use a watercooler for your CPU, I use Corsair H60 and it is cooling noisless even when overclocked. OK, if you really want to OC your CPU above 3,60-3,85 GHz you will need very high-end air cooling but if you want a quiet PC watercooling is the way to go.

A little extra than what you ask for but still interresting to mention!