New build looking for some input!!!

[Raistlin Majere]

Hey everyone I'm currently building a new Gaming Desktop ( been about 12 years since I've messed with a tower) and looking to get some info for people who have been at it for a while. I'm looking to build with the best and money is not an issues. Please any info from y'all would be great. Thanks in advance and I know that these thread sometimes break done into flame wars, so please keep on topic...


Currently have CM Haf X tower, but thing might trade in for Storm Trooper or Cosmos 2.
Got a Corsair AX 1200i power supply
Got the liteon iHas324

Still need Motherboard (been looking at ROG motherboards Maximus and Intel Z77)
CPU (been looking at i7-3770k)
video card(been looking at Nvidia 680)
SSD and extra storage
Memory

 

[smeezekitty]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($32.97 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($95.85 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB 3.5" 10000RPM Internal Hard Drive ($219.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card ($453.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1277.75
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-04 03:44 EST-0500)

 

[g-unit1111]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($32.97 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($95.85 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB 3.5" 10000RPM Internal Hard Drive ($219.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card ($453.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1277.75
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-04 03:44 EST-0500)

Do not purchase a Velocraptor HD. They're way too expensive for zero benefit from a 7200 RPM drive. For gaming you don't need the i7 or 16GB of RAM, you are wasting money there.

You might want to return that PSU - The AX1200i is a great unit but you will never use 1200W in this day and age when everything is getting more energy efficient. This will handle everything you need: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703038

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9B SE2 37.9 CFM CPU Cooler ($60.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP4 TH ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($192.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Vector Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($369.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($369.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1490.79
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-04 14:49 EST-0500)
Here's what I would suggest:

 

[smeezekitty]

Do not purchase a Velocraptor HD. They're way too expensive for zero benefit from a 7200 RPM drive.

Expensive yes, but not zero benefit. It has peak transfer rates of 170+MB.
Finding a 7200 RPM drive to exceed 120MB would be unlikely. Also check out the reviews on the raptor.

For gaming you don't need the i7 or 16GB of RAM, you are wasting money there.

That is true but the OP already picked out the I7 so I went with it. He seems to want the best and seems to have a big budget.

 

[g-unit1111]

Expensive yes, but not zero benefit. It has peak transfer rates of 170+MB.
Finding a 7200 RPM drive to exceed 120MB would be unlikely. Also check out the reviews on the raptor.

I do not trust store reviews even slightly. There's too much BS associated with them and it takes a long time to seperate good from crap.

Yeah that's true about read - write times but if you have a solid SSD as your primary you don't really need to worry about the speed of your secondary. Windows recognizes the primary boot drive as the fastest drive in your system and it will most of the time run all your drives independent of each other.

That is true but the OP already picked out the I7 so I went with it. He seems to want the best and seems to have a big budget.

You're spending $300 for no reason with the i7, the Velociraptors, and the 680. By the time you cut that out - you could have dual GTX 670s and that's where it really matters. That setup will match the speed of the $1K 690 for $300 less.

 

[smeezekitty]

Yeah that's true about read - write times but if you have a solid SSD as your primary you don't really need to worry about the speed of your secondary. Windows recognizes the primary boot drive as the fastest drive in your system and it will most of the time run all your drives independent of each other.

Respectfully, I disagree. Having even a background operation ongoing on the storage drive like search indexing, file copying or searching will drag the CPU down as it waits for data to be available.

The windows task switching system will struggle to schedule the tasks. A multi-core processor helps but cannot solve it.

Having a faster storage drive will help the overall computing experience.

There are advantages and disadvantages but I suggest you list them and let the OP make the decision rather than just say do not buy "xxxyyyzzz"

 

[g-unit1111]

Yeah that's true about read - write times but if you have a solid SSD as your primary you don't really need to worry about the speed of your secondary. Windows recognizes the primary boot drive as the fastest drive in your system and it will most of the time run all your drives independent of each other.

Respectfully, I disagree. Having even a background operation ongoing on the storage drive like search indexing, file copying or searching will drag the CPU down as it waits for data to be available.

The windows task switching system will struggle to schedule the tasks. A multi-core processor helps but cannot solve it.

Having a faster storage drive will help the overall computing experience.

There are advantages and disadvantages but I suggest you list them and let the OP make the decision rather than just say do not buy "xxxyyyzzz"

I personally can't see too many times where you would be copying more than 100GB of data at a time while playing games and doing a bunch of other tasks on your PC, to me I always try to emphasize cost per GB on builds and I've found the best that works is 128GB SSD / 1TB HD. The Velociraptor HDs have a much higher cost per GB and then that eats into your other funds. The GPU is the most important part of a gaming PC bar none - everything else comes second.

 

[smeezekitty]

I agree about the GPU being more important. I am going to wait until the OP responds though.

 

[marshallbradley]

The thing is g-unit's build undoubtedly has almost twice the gaming performance of the 680 build, at only a fraction more cost. Sinking $220 into a component which is practically made redundant by the SSD is not a good plan. You won't notice the difference between accessing your music/movies/documents from a 10,000 RPM drive than from a 7,200 RPM drive. If you really want the best computing experience get a 256gb SSD so you can have a larger proportion of your apps on that. Also, though it's not important for some people, the Velociraptor's noise levels during seek are rather high.

M

 

[g-unit1111]

The thing is g-unit's build undoubtedly has almost twice the gaming performance of the 680 build, at only a fraction more cost. Sinking $220 into a component which is practically made redundant by the SSD is not a good plan. You won't notice the difference between accessing your music/movies/documents from a 10,000 RPM drive than from a 7,200 RPM drive. If you really want the best computing experience get a 256gb SSD so you can have a larger proportion of your apps on that. Also, though it's not important for some people, the Velociraptor's noise levels during seek are rather high.

M

Yes, that is exactly what I was trying to say. For gaming the GPU is the most important part of the build everything else comes second. I can't stress this enough.

 

[Raistlin Majere]

First of all great comments from everyone. I've been at Frys for half the day looking at parts and comparing this and that. I didn't see any of the comments until now, so I'll go ahead and put down what I was looking at, let me k ow what y'all think.

Motherboard (Asus- Rampage IV EX S2011 or Asus P8Z77-V ProTB)
CPU- still stuck on the I7 series ( I see y'all said not needed, but eh lol)
Memory- I was looking at the Corsair Dominator or Vengence (so right on what y'all posted)
Gpu- was looking to do dual 690
Monitor- still undecided
Mouse- razor maybe?
Keyboard- razor as well

I'll look at the other things y'all posted like the ssd and CPU cooler.


I wish I could pick a few best answers

 

[Raistlin Majere]

Best answer selected by Raistlin Majere.

 

[marshallbradley]

Woah, this is becoming a whole different ball game! If you're considering spending that sort of cash, there are actually quite a few options. The dual 690s is an option (a very pricey one) but another possibility is either a 3-way SLI with 680s or Tri-fire 7970s. These options would both save you in the region of $500-700. It's very hard to come up with comparative statements, since these setups are quite rare, but from what I've read, Tri-fire and 3-way SLI scale much better than the 2 690s. I also remember reading something about Tri-fire going a long way to eliminate micro-stutter when compared with a dual card set up.

As far as peripherals are concerned, I'm not a great fan of Razer (some people are, don't get me wrong). SteelSeries is my outfitter of choice. If you have the time, read up on Mechanical vs Standard keyboards. A proper Mechanical keyboard (I have a SteelSeries 6GV2) is a very nice piece of kit.

M

 

[Raistlin Majere]

Woah, this is becoming a whole different ball game! If you're considering spending that sort of cash, there are actually quite a few options. The dual 690s is an option (a very pricey one) but another possibility is either a 3-way SLI with 680s or Tri-fire 7970s. These options would both save you in the region of $500-700. It's very hard to come up with comparative statements, since these setups are quite rare, but from what I've read, Tri-fire and 3-way SLI scale much better than the 2 690s. I also remember reading something about Tri-fire going a long way to eliminate micro-stutter when compared with a dual card set up.

As far as peripherals are concerned, I'm not a great fan of Razer (some people are, don't get me wrong). SteelSeries is my outfitter of choice. If you have the time, read up on Mechanical vs Standard keyboards. A proper Mechanical keyboard (I have a SteelSeries 6GV2) is a very nice piece of kit.

M

Ok I see what ur saying so what about the 690(I hear ya can only do 2 of those anyways) but what about the new GeForce® GTX TITAN and going 3-way(or at least one or two for now) with that? ya they are expensive, but not worried bout that. I just want to have a system that I don't have to worry about touching for some time. Any opinion on either of those MB that I posted?


I will for sure check out the steel series, I've just been looking at Razor products cause thats all the stores around me carry.

 

[smeezekitty]

Since you seem to have a lot of cash. I stand by my original suggestion (except I would swap out the motherboard to your choice). It is overkill, yes but it will perform well.

You should consider dual GTX680. Should be atleast just as good as a single 690.