My first gaming rig, I need some advice so I don't screw this up.

[ahatzz11]

Hello,

I am building a desktop that I want to last for quite awhile.
Here is my current configuration:

--Intel® Core™ i7-3820 Quad-Core 3.60 GHz 10MB Intel Smart Cache LGA2011

--3-Way SLI/CrossFireX Support) ASUS P9X79 LE Intel X79 Chipset Quad Channel DDR3 ATX w/ Remote GO!, 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, 3 Gen3 PCIe X16, 2 PCIe X1 & 1 PCI

--16GB (4GBx4) DDR3/1866MHz Quad Channel Memory (Corsair Vengeance

-- AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card (HIS IceQ Edition)

--850 Watts - Standard Power Supply - SLI/CrossFireX Ready

I am going to be doing a lot of gaming, (bf3, borderlands 2, etc.). My main concern is using multiple monitors. To start, I will have two 1920x1080 monitors, but I eventually want to upgrade to 3 or 4 monitors.

Those are the stats that I am currently looking at. Now for my questions:

1. I know that the HIS Radeon 7970 3gb is going to be able to run up to 4 monitors pretty well due to the eyefinity or whatever. The memory card I was looking at before was the Nvidia 660 Ti. I have heard very good things about this card, but due to the 192 bit memory channel, it doesn't run multiple displays very well. From there I was looking at getting a Nvidia 670 2gb card. Now, would it be better to get the Nvidia geforce 670 or the HIS AMD Radeon 7970? I have also played with the idea of getting two 660 Ti's, but I feel that the 670 or the 7970 would be better overall, so which is best? For a deal that I am getting right now, the 670 would be 21 dollars more than the HIS 7970.


2. Is this 3-ay P9X79 a good motherboard? there are so many different factors to motherboards thatI don't really know what is what anymore. There is a lot of technology out there that I don't even know about. From the cyberpowerpc site though, they make it sound like this is a pretty good motherboard and that it would do everything that I need it to and it has enough slots for the peripherals in my current set up.

If there are any other recommendations that you have for me, I would love to hear them! I am open to new ideas and new configurations.


Also, overall, is Nvidia better or AMD? I know that Nvidia has the physx or whatever, but the AMD has the ability to do many monitors.

 

[Sunius]

First of all, change the power supply unit. Do not get a standard generic unit. Get something decent from either Antec, Seasonic, Corsair or XFX.

Secondly, HD 7970 is a very decent card. It is the best card in the world to use with 3 monitor setups.

Lastly, I am not sure why you would go with an X79 motherboards - they are so expensive. You should instead get a second HD 7970 or a third monitor and get an i7-3770k and z77 motherboard.

 

[larkspur]

1) You want a radeon 7970. You really want two of them. Forget socket 2011 and build on socket 1155 using either a i7-3770k or a i5-3570k. The 3770k really makes very little difference in games so if you want to save a few more bucks (to afford the 2nd card that you will want) then get the i5-3570k.

2) A good socket-1155 Z77 motherboard with one of the above mentioned CPUs will handle your gaming needs. Any more than two graphics cards is usually problematic anyway.

3) I agree with Sunius - make sure your PSU is quality.

 

[ahatzz11]

First of all, change the power supply unit. Do not get a standard generic unit. Get something decent from either Antec, Seasonic, Corsair or XFX.

Secondly, HD 7970 is a very decent card. It is the best card in the world to use with 3 monitor setups.

Lastly, I am not sure why you would go with an X79 motherboards - they are so expensive. You should instead get a second HD 7970 or a third monitor and get an i7-3770k and z77 motherboard.

Thank you for the quick response! It's nice to hear that a cheaper motherboard would be able to handle what I want to be doing. Would the z77 i7-3770k still be able to run high-graphic intense programs? Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. I know that the i7-3820 is a very awesome processor, but if the 3770 is an un-noticeable difference in power, that would be very cool. Looks like I have to go do a little rebuild. I will post my updated build on here for further review.

And I was wondering about the power supply, but I didn't know a whole lot about them. What about the liquid cooler? What would be recommended there?


EDIT: My plan was to have 8 memory slots, so in the end I could have 4x8. I was only going to fill up the first four now (each in it's own channel, since there are 4 channels in the x79), and then I could add more later to finish up at 32gb. I am going to be running windows and osx at the same time through a virtual machine, so each machine will have 8gb memory each. Is it worth the x79 board to have the ability to upgrade later on? Or is it at the point where the difference in performance is going to be un-noticeable?

EDIT2: Would the 850 Watts - Corsair CMPSU-850TXV2 80 Plus Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready be a good power supply to use? There is also the Thermaltake Smart Series SP-850M 80 Plus Bronze Modular Power Supply that is probably comparable.

Sorry for all of the questions, I am pretty new to this and I want to make sure that I get it right the first time. Thank you for your help, if you are willing to help, I'm sure I will have more questions along the way.

 

[Sunius]

I'd go for Corsair power supply over the Thermaltake one.

Sure, there will be a difference in power between i7-3770k and i7-3820. However, it will be small, and in some cases (like games), i7-3770k would be faster (due to being able to overclock it higher).

Also, check this review, although it doesn't contain i7-3820, but it compares i7-3770k to the higher end i7-3930k:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/core-i7-3970x-sandy-bridge-e-benchmark,review-32564.html

Liquid cooling: do you really want it? I personally think it's a hassle. I would just get a very decent air cooler personally.

Lastly, I don't really think you need 8 memory slots. If you want 32 GB of Ram, you can just get 4 sticks of 8 GB each.

 

[calumconroy]

I agree with all the other Peeps of Tom's Hardware. Sure socket 2011 is future proof what with the Extreme i7s and everything, but it's unnecessary. Take a look at a 3770K:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Generation-i7-3770K-3-50GHz-Technology/dp/B007X1JM30/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1352656283&sr=1-1
Then for the motherboard take a look at something like an ASUS P8Z77:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-Motherboard-PCI-Express-CrossFireX-Intelligent/dp/B007KZQEGC/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1352656454&sr=1-1
I would suggest a GTX 670 or 680 as the GPU but as you want to run a multi-monitor setup the 7970 would be better.
As for a PSU, a branded one would be better - Corsair are really good:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-TX850-Enthusiast-Series-Bronze/dp/B004O0P9XK/ref=sr_1_5?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1352656640&sr=1-5
Otherwise everything looks good and great RAM!
I'll be seriously jealous when its finished xD
Hope this helps!