Tom's Gift Guide for System Builders (High-End)

[ucd]

OK, I can't help but ask this question, mostly because I can't get this build off my mind. In the past I've always had two separate systems, my personal pc geared more toward gaming and my work pc, cad. Mostly because I never used to work from home but my situation has changed and I need to build a multi-purpose rig that I can comfortably work from and still play gpu intense games. I need to run two monitors, both 27” one @ 2560 x 1600 and a 3d @ 1920 x 1080

I would really like to hear what everyone thinks of this build. It's right out of Tom's Gift Guide for System Builders (High-End).

CASE - NZXT Phantom 820 $250 (I'm not a big fan, this will change for sure. Thoughts?)
PSU - Corsair AX860i $230
MOBO - GIGABYTE GA-X79S-UP5-WIFI $330
CPU - Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2GHz $570
COOLING - Thermalright Archon SB-E X2 $80
RAM - G.Skill Ripjaws Z-Series 32 GB DDR3-1866 Kit (F3-14900CL10Q-32GBZL) $170
GPU - EVGA GeForce GTX 690 $1000
HDD/SSD - Western Digital Green 3 TB $150 / 256 GB Samsung 840 Pro $270

$2900.00

 

[theloveablemoose]

personally i would go with two lighting edition 680's also another option for the case is the fractal design r4 it is a well regarded case and very quiet also unless your going to do heavily ram dependant programs such as adobe premier pro or photoshop you will really only need 16gb at the most for just gaming a h100i would be an option in the stead of the thermalright sb-e extreme if you don't like the colour just make sure your case can fit the rad in the roof.

 

[ucd]

I've read about the dual 680 thing a few times now, what's the reasoning behind that? I was under the impression that the 690 is basically 2-in-1 and wouldn't you want to avoid the extra power/heat and space required? Thanks for the sugguestion, I do like that case and no I'm not a big fan of the color of the Archon SB-E X2 either, not sure what they were thinking there. I'm looking into the h100i, just a little leary about the maintanance needed with h2o.

 

[camohanna]

Maybe wait till haswell comes out before making your mind up? only a few month to wait and if you have moderately suitable rigs already, this might be an option for you.

 

[theloveablemoose]

there isn't really any maintenance when it comes to pre-filled closed water loops the advantage of the separate 680's are clocked higher than the 690 and the lightning edition are pre overclocked and can be overclocked even further as they can be overvolted and about the colour of the thermalright i think they were trying to emulate noctua fans as the nh-d14 is the thermalright is the closest competitor to the thermalright excluding the closed loop water coolers