New Build Advice - $5000 PC

[Tensor2]

I'm finishing the planning/research stage of a new build this week, and I was hoping someone could look it over to see if they can suggest something that is a better price or performance than what I have selected. I am not new to building PCs, water cooling, or any of that; I mainly want to see if I can shed $300 off the cost or squeeze out more performance. Any comments, constructive criticism, or benchmarks that say I'm wrong are welcome!

Approximate Purchase Date: Starting now, modding will be from now through September. The rig sould be done by November.

Budget Range: $5000 goal, currently priced at $5300-5400 with tax before shippng

System Usage from Most to Least Important: compiling mass amounts of code, Photoshop, coding and 3D application performance profiling, rendering high resolution videos, HD video editing, 3D Studio Max, Folding@Home and bitcoin mining during down time just for fun, the occasional few minutes of gaming, and benchmarking once or twice for curiosity (from most to least important, approximately).

Are you buying a monitor: Not until 4k monitors reach <$2000

Parts to Upgrade: Everything

Do you need to buy OS: No - MSDN account

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: NewEgg.ca, TigerDirect.ca, DazMode.com, FrozenCPU.com, CanadaComputers.com (local)

Location: Ontario, Canada

Parts Preferences: See bottom**

Overclocking: Yes, 4.7-5.0 Ghz or bust!

SLI or Crossfire: 2-way SLI for now, potentially 2-way Crossfire (if released this summer with good drivers) or 3 way in the futue

Your Monitor Resolution: 1x 3D 120hz 1920x1080 occasionally, 3x 1920x1080 (separate from 3D monitor, not simultanously), 4k when becomes <$2000

Additional Comments: Aiming for silence: my current rig is ~75 db and I want to try for <40 db with still good overclocks. My goal is lowest possible noise at a 4.7-5.0 Ghz CPU performance point.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Because I can and because my current rig is too loud(multiple 15k RPM 250 CFM Delta fans on a radiator!)

**This is my parts list so far:

- Corsair 900D case, every surface lined with accoustic dampening mats/blocks
- 2x XSPC RX480 radiator: top and bottom; may add another one or two 120.2 rad if needed; sub 8 FPI great for low noise justifies the XSPC selection.
- Swifttech modded D5 Vario pump with new controller for quieter operation
- 16x Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition fans for radiators with thin foam spacers if they fit to reduce noise and keep air from escaping
- AF140 rear exhaust fan with rubber mounts
- 3x AF120 Quiet Edition front intake fans with rubber mounts
- Raystorm CPU block OR Koolance CPU-380I, undecided
- Bitspower cylindrical reservoir, $40, nothing sepcial but functional
- RAMPAGE IV motherboard - May wait to see if new 2011 ones out in September; undecided which model
- i7 4930k CPU - May just get a 3930k if it does not appear to come in September
- 16 GB Corsair Dominators CL9 1600 - use these in all builds
- 2x GTX 780 Hydrocopper or GTX 780 stock with other block
- Corsair AX1200i - may change to AX1200 to save money, but its louder ("i" version turns off fan at below 50% load, runs cooler)
- Modded individually sleeved PSU cables, either in white, red, black, or combination (undetermined)
- Phoybia (speling?) hard acrylic tubes bent to shape with heat gun for piping
- NZXT sleeved LED string, white, 2m
- LCD pwm capable fan controller - undetermined model, prefer <$50, must be 12+ Watts each of 5+ channels (4 SP120 fans per channel comfortably)
- 2x Sata 6gbps 120-128 GB SSD, whichever brand is cheaper, in raid 0 for Photshop scratch directory and paging file, etc
- 2 TB 10k rpm enterprise class drive for data storage
- Weird elasticy mounting thing to dampen hard drive noise
- 2x 1L FrozenDragon high performance fluid
- Window etching (tapped and sand blasted) and air brushed case art (not included in budget)

So, my questions are as follows:
1. Does anyone have a suggestion to cut costs slightly if I can without losing much performance?
2. Anything here that could have better performance without going way over budget? Researched each part thoroughly to max out every angle for under $6000, but sometimes a part at the same cost performs better.
3. Can anyone recommend a fan controller with LCD screen, PWM capable to display fan RPMs, preferably 12+ watts per each of 5+ channels? Every one I see has terrible reviews so far!
4. CPU block: Koolance CPU-380I is pretty good, or does anyone have definitive benchmarks to recommend a better performing block?
5. Can anyone recommend which of the Rampage IV motherboards for such a build, or would it be better to see what comes out with the i7 4930k in September that I want in this build? I'm new to 2011 socket, going from a 4.7 ghz 3770k
6. Will the 3 GB GTX 780s suffice for 3x 1920x1080p monitors, or should I wait for a 4 GB version or the next AMD cards? 2x GTX 780 vs 3x HD7970? 2x GTX Titan is over budget, and 1x GTX Titan is insufficient.

Any criticism, comments, or suggestions are welcome!

 

[manofchalk]

1. Theres a fair few places
Pump controller isnt that necessary, only need an 850W PSU for that rig, No point RAIDing SSD's, Dont bother with 10k drives, Corsair Dominator is literally just throwing money away, get a cheaper model and get 32GB, dont need elastic mounts for HDD's, use Distilled water not a pre-bottled coolant.

2. I use XSPC Xinrullian fans, pretty good considering how cheap they are. Fan controller you want something with 30W+ per channel, which eliminates anything with an LCD on it.

3. Because 12W per channel is pretty weak, my NZXT Sentry Mix has 50W per channel.

4. Blocks are blocks, you could pick one at random and still make a good choice. Go for the one you like the look of.

6. Two 780's I think would be plenty for 5760x1080 gaming.

 

[smeezekitty]

Dont bother with 10k drives

I have a old 36GB WD Raptor (paid $3 LOL)
The 7mS response time and 100MB/s transfer is VERY noticeable

My 7200 RPM drive has 20mS and 80MB/s.

 

[g-unit1111]

I can't really vouch for the water cooling as my knowledge when it comes to full loops is very limited. But for the tower I'd recommend something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($539.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Swiftech H220 55.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($150.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme6 ATX LGA2011 Motherboard ($228.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Redline 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($259.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Vector Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($259.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($663.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($663.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 800D ATX Full Tower Case ($279.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series 1050W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($205.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $3546.33
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-19 23:13 EDT-0400)

 

[Tensor2]

1. Theres a fair few places
Pump controller isnt that necessary, only need an 850W PSU for that rig, No point RAIDing SSD's, Dont bother with 10k drives, Corsair Dominator is literally just throwing money away, get a cheaper model and get 32GB, dont need elastic mounts for HDD's, use Distilled water not a pre-bottled coolant.

2. I use XSPC Xinrullian fans, pretty good considering how cheap they are. Fan controller you want something with 30W+ per channel, which eliminates anything with an LCD on it.

3. Because 12W per channel is pretty weak, my NZXT Sentry Mix has 50W per channel.

4. Blocks are blocks, you could pick one at random and still make a good choice. Go for the one you like the look of.

6. Two 780's I think would be plenty for 5760x1080 gaming.

Thanks for the suggestions. It seems that raid 0 SSDs only increase performance for large sequential reads and synthetic benchmarks, so that is correct. I did not look into that thoroughly, I guess.

Do any of the lower wattage Corsair power supplies support turning off the fan at less than full loads for silent operation? Or any other power supplies that preferably have te individually sleeved cables available from the manufacturer(not a requirement, but my last sleeving task was a pain). You are quite likely correct in that I overestimated the PSU; I just assumed the PSU from my last build without over thinking the watt requirement.

The Corsair Dominators I was looking at were $138 for 16 GB on Newegg.ca, about $9 more than the cheapest 16 GB kit. I didn't mean the Dominator Platinum model as those are overpriced for the specs. I've very rarely run into occasions where I had to do multiple batches of processing for lighting since 16 GB of ram was not enough, and I'm not sure 32GB would noticably benefit me at this time. I could upgrade to 32 GB easily later.

I suppose I did not say it, but I already have some prebottled coolant, unopened distilled water, 99.995% silver kill coils, and all that laying around unused and unopened from other builds. Still a valid point, however.

I'm unfamiliar with the XSPC fans. I've read a number of fan benchmarks for noise, and found that the Scythe Gentle Typhoon AP-15s, Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition, some model of Noctura fans, and potentially Yate Loons looked like good choices. I think there was another I'm forgetting. The wattage I said was based on 0.08 amps for SP120 Quiet edition, 0.18 amps for SP120 Performance, and about 0.1 amps for the AF120; all very low.

Thanks for the great advice!

 

[Tensor2]

I can't really vouch for the water cooling as my knowledge when it comes to full loops is very limited. But for the tower I'd recommend something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($539.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Swiftech H220 55.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($150.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme6 ATX LGA2011 Motherboard ($228.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Redline 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($259.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Vector Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($259.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($663.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($663.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 800D ATX Full Tower Case ($279.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series 1050W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($205.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $3546.33
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-19 23:13 EDT-0400)

I will likely go for 16 GB of ram for now, potentially change it to 32 GB shortly after since its only a short walk for me to do so. The brand of ram is relatively inconequential. Other than that, though, what you've listed is about what I listed. It seems you are both correct that I overestimated the PSU wattage and I will look into the most silent PSU I can find.

The cost discrepency from what you quoted and $5000 comes from the water cooling. Going from a heavily water cooled current rig, I probably wouldn't want anything less on principle. The last PC I built a year ago was built on purpose to be very loud to get attention at a big event (15k RPM 250 CFM Delta fans along the top) and this time I'm aiming for silence just to see if I can. That is why I want more radiators than neccessary (2x 120.4 radiator, each 480 mm long) internally with undervolted fans. Unfortunately, that limits the case selection to Mountain mods, Caselabs, Little Devil, and the Corsair 900D. I did consider that it is possible to mod a Corsair 800D to fit two quad radiators, but wih fan grills, tools, and a lot of time required the Corsair 900D appears the most cost effective option to go all out on radiators.

$3400-3500 in parts (what you quoted) is also what I budgeted for, along with $900-1000 in water cooling (both video cards, cpu, lots of big radiators), and $400-500 in tax and shipping (a lot of which is the case). Your input will be taken into consideration, though, especially on looking into PSUs.

 

[manofchalk]

PSU noise I wouldn't even worry about, everything in else in the rig will drown it out if it even makes a noise to begin with. My Silverstone 750W, dont think I'v ever heard it make a sound.
Corsair offer sleeved cables, and Silverstone do on their Strider series of PSU (which I have). Cant think of any others that do.

I was saying upgrade to 32GB because for the price of the Dominator's (which I did think were the Platinums) you could likely get it it a cheaper model. But if you can get the other Dominators at a low price (and their ridiculously tall heat spreaders aren't an issue) then go for it.

Noctua NF-F12's I think you mean, Silverstone Air Penetrators?
Hmm, you may in fact not require a 30W controller to run multiple fans.

 

[Tensor2]

manofchalk, thanks. That about covers it, I think. My thought process for a quiet PC was to get the quietest option for every component, but it may not be neccessary. Definitely would have selected "best answer" if I had the option to.