Looking to build a new Desktop $2400

[thalakosis]

I asked some advice on a choice between upgrade options in an earlier thread so I'm asking for help with a new desktop gaming rig.

Approximate Purchase Date: 2 to 4 weeks

Budget Range: $2400 in parts, I'll scrounge up the shipping + tax

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming @ 5760x1080, general use, publishing photos (part-time), editing gopro footage

Are you buying a monitor: No, own three

Parts to Upgrade: Essential everything, but I do have a five year old coolermaster full tower and 1000W power supply, but I think it is probably time to start from scratch.

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg, then Amazon

Location: Santa Barbara, CA is the nearest

Parts Preferences: Intel CPUs, I do have a slight preference for ATI GPUs, but if the alternative nVidia is heaps better I'll go with that.

Overclocking: Yes/Maybe - I'm open to doing this, but not extremely good at it.

SLI or Crossfire: Yes/Maybe - If a single card is better than dual or vice versa

Your Monitor Resolution: 5760x1080 for gaming and sometimes on the desktop, otherwise 3 desktops of 1920x1080

Additional Comments: I play mostly games launching from steam, a few that aren't linked to steam and a few origin games soon. I use Adobe Lightroom for photo editing, and PowerDirector for editing GoPro footage. I do those two for hobbies not for my main source of income. I was looking at using a SSD for the OS & games, and new freshly exported pictures/video. Would move them over to the storage drive afterwards. 1TB for storage of photo/video and a 1TB backup drive.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: My last desktop was built almost 5 years ago, I have an Alienware m18xR2 that I'm using as a desktop, I'm looking to upgrade to a proper desktop that will be better than the laptop:
i7 3820qm, 7970m in crossfire, 16Gig of RAM, 750GB hybrid drive, Killer Wireless, Creative Recon audio.

I'd was looking at something like this build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3820 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($299.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek Dark Knight II SD1283 Night Hawk Edition 89.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth X79 ATX LGA2011 Motherboard ($338.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Corsair Force Series GS 360GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($319.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($309.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($309.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 922 ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro M 1000W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $2308.38
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-30 23:51 EST-0500)

Leaves room for a good wireless card, as I've not decided where I'm going to locate the wireless router and modem.

EDIT: I should also add that I want something that for the budget is going to do the least amount of melting from Crysis 3.

 

[thalakosis]

Will it be better to trim some parts and go with Crossfire 7970, or a single 7990?

I don't NEED to max out settings at 5760x1080, but I'd like to get very close to max with close to 60fps without hitting $3k, I do have some wiggle room in the budget.

 

[mastrom101]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ALWW

This would be my pick if you can stretch your budget. I would also recommend a larger case if you plan to upgrade.

You get a hexa-core CPU, a 500Gb SSD, Water-cooling and 7970's.

 

[thalakosis]

Upping to a six-core to handle the all the editing or to handle the GPUs?

I've been out of the loop for PC building for a few years, technology has grown so much since then.

 

[thalakosis]

Is LGA1155 or LGA2011 better for Crossfire/SLI? I'm a bit confused by all the interwebs I've been reading about the difference. LGA 2011 is supposed be able to do 16x/16x but only at PCI-E 2.0, but LGA1155 can do PCI-E 3.0 but only at 8x/8x.

Is this the same thing? Does it even matter?

Is a 3930K setup markedly better than a 3770K for processing videos/photos as a hobby?

 

[boulbox]

If video editing is a hobby, get the i5 3570k(can go i7 if you will be spending a lot of time on it but is not necessary)

If you can do a 2Hr drive, go to microcenter in orange county located here
http://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/tustin.aspx

pick up a i5 3570k + good motherboard for a decent price(also they have 2560x1440p monitors for $300 which is pretty crazy)

the LGA 2011 has fixed the PCI-E slots to run at 3.0 instead of the 2.0, another Pro about going with 2011 is that it will get much more bandwidth than the 1155 socket and can 4-way SLI/CFX and a stronger overall CPU so a 3/4-way SLI/CFX will not bottleneck as much. Again it is pretty pricey so i would stick with the i5 3570k which will do it's good fine.

also here is a video that shows that the FX 8350 is also a solid choice for high res games
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4et7kDGSRfc&feature=youtu.be&a

it shows that the FX 8350 beating the i5 3570k in many scenarios at high res