My newest build contains the Sabertooth Z77 in the Corsair 650D. I'm cooling the i7 3770K processor with the Zalman liquid cooler, with the Zalmam fan on it. 32GB Crucial Tactical Cas 8 RAM. 128GB SSD for the OS/Programs, and 4*3TB Seagate Barracudas divided into 2*6GB striped drives (one SATA 3 and one SATA 2). It is visually stunning, functionally powerful, whisper quiet (powered with the Seasonic 1000-watt Platinum-certified power supply which seldom engages it's own whisper-quiet fan). I was going for quiet/efficient/powerful/huge storage capacity and I'm finding the fun factor to be more than fulfilling with all the overclocking/tweaking that is so easy with this setup- but entirely unnecessary. For quiet, I went with the best -fanless-video card I could find, the ASUS HD7750-DCSL-1GD5 (for now). Add on the ASUS PCE-N53 network adapter, the Logitech MX 5500 bluetooth Keyboard/Mouse combo, and a long HDMI cable, and this computer turns my 60" Sony LED into my own little Matrix/paradise.
ONLY drawback I found with the Sabertooth is the limited number of SATA3 ports (4) [2 capable of RAID, 2 not], so instead of running all the spindle disks in a RAID 10 array via SATA3, I opted to wire the case's top-mounted external drive bay as plug-n-play (bios setting) SATA3, with the SSD on SATA3 as well, with the two virtual drives (RAID drives) divided between SATA3 (2 physical drives) and SATA2 (2 physical drives). I originally wanted to run the 4 HDD's in a RAID 10 array, but decided not to, since there weren't enough SATA3 ports to do that while having the SSD plugged into a SATA3 port, which is necessary to optimize the OS/program performance. It is pretty slick having the plug-n-play top-mounted drive bay in SATA3- now my old 1TB Barracuda's are like big, heavy USB drives with incredible capacity.
ONLY complaint about the 650D is that I did manage to pack enough wires behind the motherboard to make the panel on the right side of the case a little tricky to get back on without wanting to bulge out ever-so-slightly; but I did manage to get everything settled completely to my liking. Volume is nil. Temps are reptilian.
I'm in heaven! The only noise I really hear is from the spindle disks firing up. The case's wiring management system is awesome (except it could use a few more millimeters behind the motherboard, especially considering how thick thecables are to the front USB3 ports). I try to bog this mofo down just for fun, and I'm finding myself entertained by the futility of my efforts to do so. Use a more robust video card if you want for gaming; but I'm eager to find out how much fun I can have pushing the fanless design to its limits. For most of the stuff I do, I will have to wait to see if I've succeeded in making a performance machine that will still breathe freely in several year's time (10 years would be so nice!). Alright, hope this helps. However you decide to go, I hope you have a ton of fun!
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