Reducing Price on an Enthusiast system

[Guest]

Hey all,
Im new to the enthusiast world of computers in terms of building, although Ive purchased very high end ones before. This will be the first super high end computer I build (>3000). I have been given a great opportunity in which the price of the components will be much less than what I would normally have to pay for them therefore I decided why not...
My main issue is getting rid of "unnecessary costs", meaning that while I can get good deals, money doesn't grow on trees and I want to downgrade where it won't hurt the performance of the system, because what the certain part offers is just not necessary.
Heres the build so far-Please note that these are not the prices I would get the parts for but rather the stock prices, I expect 25-30ish% less from the lowest price(including the Christmas sale prices coming up)
CPU Intel Core i7-3970X Extreme Edition 3.5GHz 6-Core $1079.99
CPU Cooler Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme 81.3 CFM Liquid $124.99
Motherboard Asus Rampage IV Extreme EATX LGA2011 $409.99
Memory Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 $429.99
Storage Samsung 830 Series 512GB 2.5" SSD $496.41
Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB 3.5" 10000RPM $229.00
Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB 3.5" 10000RPM $229.00
Video Card Asus GeForce GTX 690 4GB $1057.86
Sound Card Asus Xonar Essence STX $180.99
Case Silverstone RV02B-EW ATX Full Tower $200
Power Supply Corsair AX860I PSU $249.99
Optical Drive Lite-On iHBS212-08 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer $114.98
Monitor Asus VG278HE 27.0" $488.00
Operating System Microsoft Windows 8 Professional (OEM) (64-bit) $129.99

These are the extra parts that aren't required to use the computer but I will need/want-NOTE it includes a wireless adapter/external card

Keyboard Corsair Vengeance K90 $114.00
Mouse Logitech G9x Wired Laser $68.95
Custom Logitec G13 $79.99
ASUS EA-N66 Wireless $109.99
Astro A50 $299.99



In conclusion, thanks for any help you can give me. If the statements above were kinda confusing I basically want to downgrade where it wont hurt. Also, does anyone know more "cool" cases other than the rv02e? I really like it but the limit to 2 readily available usb ports is going to be annoying.
thanks!
blacktiger

 

[excella1221]

Forget the 3960X, the difference of it compared to the 3930K isn't worth it even with the discounts you're getting.

I suggest getting this instead, Tom's just did a review about it and they were quite impressed.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227917

I won't suggest getting 10000RPM HDDs anymore, especially now that you have a 512gb SSD, they'll only be used as storage and RPM stops having much of a use there. You can just get 5400RPM or 7200RPM.

Drop the Thermaltake.
Closed-loop water coolers are mediocre compared to the custom ones and are matched in performance by high-end air coolers like the NH-D14 and Silver Arrow.
If you're gonna water cool, do it the real way.

That's a great monitor.

Motherboard looks overpriced to me, you can get this if you want - more features, less price. It has the a better onboard sound card as well, I don't think you'll need the Xonar unless you have like.. a ~$500 audio system.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157318

I personally like either of these two cases.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119225
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147157

The 2nd one is a super tower, a bit bigger than normal full towers.

 

[unksol]

Driving a 1080p monitor with a 690 seems like a huge waste, unless you want to play at super high fps. Why people do I'll never know. I can't imagine it will look good at that size either.

Is much rather.have a high res panel and a couple 7970s but that's just me.

 

[Guest]

Driving a 1080p monitor with a 690 seems like a huge waste, unless you want to play at super high fps. Why people do I'll never know. I can't imagine it will look good at that size either.

Little confused here....do you mean that the monitor would look bad? I dont understand since both super high fps and a good quality monitor both seem like pluses to a visual experience.

Motherboard looks overpriced to me, you can get this if you want - more features, less price. It has the a better onboard sound card as well, I don't think you'll need the Xonar unless you have like.. a ~$500 audio system.

I was considering this, but alot of users were giving this mobo bad reviews. Apparently, despite have the ability to run 4 way sli, it actually is resulting in worse performance. What about this? I know its not exactly the same class as the Rampage IV extreme, but if its not going to severely bottlekneck me...why not, its less than half the price
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=13-188-122&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=3&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29#scrollFullInfo

Drop the Thermaltake.
Closed-loop water coolers are mediocre compared to the custom ones and are matched in performance by high-end air coolers like the NH-D14 and Silver Arrow.
If you're gonna water cool, do it the real way.

I actually really wanted to do a custom water cooler. they seem awesome and with all the personalizing you can do aesthetically they look great. However, what i also believe, correct me if im wrong, is that they require lots of maintenance. Well maybe not tons, but every 6 months or so im told, you have to chance the liquid, wash it out, ect. Believe me at the price im paying, ill do everything I can to maintain my system in top shape, but with very limited knowledge about building a water cooler system, I highly doubt its worth the risk of making a mistake and essentially flooding my case.
The high end air coolers are an option though and I will look into that for sure.

About the cases-----the ones excella proposed look great. Another case I was looking at was this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147158
This case has a similar look too
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119260&Tpk=storm%20stryker

Im not really familiar with rosewill, even though their case seems to be better in terms or quality control. Anyone have experiences with them?
I kinda liked the easy connect hard drive thing on the RV02-e, but I think its more something I could brag about than a realistic feature I would use.
Finally, what about lian-li cases? All I know about them is they are based in taiwan, but ive seen more and more people mention them as ive been doing my case search.

again thanks,
blacktiger

 

[excella1221]

[/quote]
I actually really wanted to do a custom water cooler. they seem awesome and with all the personalizing you can do aesthetically they look great. However, what i also believe, correct me if im wrong, is that they require lots of maintenance. Well maybe not tons, but every 6 months or so im told, you have to chance the liquid, wash it out, ect. Believe me at the price im paying, ill do everything I can to maintain my system in top shape, but with very limited knowledge about building a water cooler system, I highly doubt its worth the risk of making a mistake and essentially flooding my case.
The high end air coolers are an option though and I will look into that for sure.

About the cases-----the ones excella proposed look great. Another case I was looking at was this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147158
This case has a similar look too
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119260&Tpk=storm%20stryker

Im not really familiar with rosewill, even though their case seems to be better in terms or quality control. Anyone have experiences with them?
I kinda liked the easy connect hard drive thing on the RV02-e, but I think its more something I could brag about than a realistic feature I would use.
Finally, what about lian-li cases? All I know about them is they are based in taiwan, but ive seen more and more people mention them as ive been doing my case search.

again thanks,
blacktiger

Closed-loop water coolers have more or less the same risks as the custom ones, if you think you're not ready for it, just get the high-end air coolers. They're cheaper but give the same performance.

Those cases look good to me too, the THOR-V2 has ... really big fans. :lol:
Really though, casings are mostly personal preference, just pick the one you like most.

As for the motherboard, those reviews were like half a year ago and the problem wasn't what people thought it was; it's not the motherboard, it's the CPU. The problem there is that Intel didn't officially certify PCI-E 3.0 support for SB-E. Also, the problems appeared to happen only on the nVIDIA 6xx series, which has long been fixed now with a driver update.

Anyway, if you'll feel more comfortable with other motherboards, here's another. Sorry, I don't really like EVGA boards. :lol:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128563

Driving a 1080p monitor with a 690 seems like a huge waste, unless you want to play at super high fps. Why people do I'll never know. I can't imagine it will look good at that size either.

Is much rather.have a high res panel and a couple 7970s but that's just me.

The monitor he chose has a refresh rate of 144Hz.
Imo, that's more than enough reason to justify dual GPUs.

+1 though on getting 2-way 7970s instead. It should outperform the 690, while being ~$250 cheaper.

 

[Guest]

Best answer selected by blacktiger826.

 

[Guest]

Thanks guys, ive basically figured the fastest way to dumb down the price is going to be gpu/cpu side. I kinda already knew that in a way, but its alot more obvious now. Changing/reducing ram will also help.
Ill look into both those motherboards excella proposed. If the original one has the problem fixed...why not, it has more features for a bit less.
The case will probably come down to a last minute decision for me. I like white cases for some reason, but the haf x is really nice too. The Rv02-e would have been an instant sale for me, but the difficulty to connect directly to the mobo usb slots seems like a drawback in terms of ease of access. Good thing is that there isnt a large price difference, its all +- $25.

I don't mean this to be a closing post btw...if any of you guys have more ideas continue to propose them. I won't be purchasing this system for 3ish weeks

 

[excella1221]

Actually, yeah, what will be the system usage? In most cases, 16gb of RAM will be already more than plenty. In gaming, 8gb is already a lot.

I would really just do SLI/Crossfire 2-way GPUs, it's cheaper than the 690 but has better performance.
Also, the 690 is simply 2 680 2gb cards in SLI, so it's not even really a 4gb card since VRAM doesn't stack, it's only 2gb usable.

 

[Guest]

Sorry was out of the house all day. The usage will be in order of priority-Gaming; Video editing; adobe style programs. That said, its a gaming oriented pc. I won't be editing giant videos or doing huge adobe projects. I will use multiple monitors(3), but that is a gpu intensive thing and I think that all 3 proposed options for gpus: the dual 7970s; dual 670s(by another person); or original 690 can all handle that.

 

[excella1221]

No, the 690 can't since it's only 2gb VRAM usable. You need at least 3gb of VRAM for 3-monitor setups which is why AMD cards are better for Eyefinity.

 

[Guest]

little confused since..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA_b-wL_qLY

 

[excella1221]

It's possible to do, yes.
But the VRAM will bottleneck performance especially on high resolutions and graphics intensive games.