PROJECT LOG M.O. Vault3.0 (i5/AMD) 2011 Gamer - Advise Needed

Hello all. Since i wasnt getting much response from another forum, i figured I would post this here and see if this forum could help more.

I am planning a new build, dubbed M.O. (maximum overclocked) Vault3.0, and would like some critiquing on my build.

I want to overclock everything to its maximum potential while staying stable and being air cooled, minus the CPU. I am giving AMD a try with their 6900 series. Hopefully everything will work out. The overclocking is more of a why not kind of situation and not so much I need it.

This build is going to be a gamer first and only that. I have a netbook for all my other needs, web surfing etc.

Here are the specs that I have gotten thus far from reviews and research. Let me know what you think.

Case: Corsair 650D (ordering another windowless side panel)
CPU: Intel i5-2500k
MOBO: Asus P8P67 Deluxe
GPU: x2 MSI Twin Frozr III PE/OC 6950 CFX
RAM: Gskill Sniper 8GB
PSU: Corsair 750TX
Case Fans: x2 Cooler Master Megaflow R4 200mm, Scythe Slipstream 120mm
CPU Cooling: Corsair H60 (w/ Arctic Silver 5 thermal compoud)
SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 120G (have already)
OS: Win7 Home Prem x64

Probably will end up doing triple monitors set vertically in eyefinity.

Like I said, I will be overclocking CPU to about 4.5 maybe more if temps stay where I feel is good, unlocking and overclocking more the 6950s, and doing the RAM hoping to get either 2200 or 2133. So, I am almost certain that the CPU will be ok with the H60, and the cards have the very LARGE fans built on them.

So how does it look so far?

Priced at $1600from Newegg. I'd like to keep it around this, maybe $100-150 more depending on the increase of performance.

Thanks for looking

-Tony

I dont know too much about building, but from what i have seen in other builds, this looks pretty good.

Solid setup and you will see a good level of performance from the cards in crossfire, and the 2500k is that is needed for a gamer, keeps temps down without the HT as well, it is the same CPU layout practically, and it actually allows you to go higher with clocking without the added stress from the HT Overall, i say you have a very solid list and the Fozr cards are solid, they have GREAT stock cooling All good brands, when it comes to parts, you get what you pay for! Dont cheap out either, one bad part, leads to anothers death!

Cant wait to see some pics (Amazing case as well, things beautiful and worth EVERY penny)

Im ordering the PSU first to get the sleeving done before hand.

Where is a good place to order sleeving materials and tools to do so. As well are there any superb tuts here or elsewhere to read?

Do you think that I have enough cooling power for the OC'ing?

EDIT: Well changed up my PSU a bit, im getting the Corsair AX750.

pyrocide said:

Where is a good place to order sleeving materials and tools to do so. As well are there any superb tuts here or elsewhere to read?

Do you think that I have enough cooling power for the OC'ing?

Click to expand...

MDPC-X is the highest quality sleeving and i believe they have a tool for pin removal, if not FrozenCPU has a really really nice, all-in-one tool. But if I were to order sleeving right now, and had the cash to do so (since it is a tad more expensive than other brands, due to the high quality and high density of the material), I would buy MDPC-X brand sleeving. Best computer sleeving on the net right now, in my opinion.

As goes for the tuts. You can just look on youtube and google and fine one that really fits your needs, they are everywhere as well as look at examples and such.

For the OCing... The H60 is a great, all-in-one, affordable, self-contained liquid cooling system, though yes it does have its limits because you are limited to just the 120mm RAD, and also many other factors key in. I dont have any RL experience with the H60 aside from reviews and videos and people talking about them (I own an h50 and did the res/aftermarket tubing mod to reduce temps) but since it is the newest model, i bet you will be fine. At 4.5 im not sure how the h60 will cope with the temps, but I am sure it will be fine, but dont expect AMAZING temps though. With the H60 you can only do some much, but the i5 2500ks do stay pretty cool at those temps.

I say expect to be idiling in the 30s and at load in the 60s, thats just a complete guess, but I would say eventually go full on, custom LCing loop if you want the best performance from your parts, like I said the H60 is more of an intro into liquid, but its a good start and a smart one. But atm, the h60 will keep you pretty stable.

To be honest, im not much of a hardcore OCer, just minor jumps here and there, so for the actual OCing part, I can only help so much, Im more of a hardware guru

PM me for ANY of your hardware issues and/or questions, I am good with that department

-Add3r

I did consider doing a full water cooled system using swiftech and have CPU and gpu cooled by a single reservoir upgrading the radiator and what not. However, I'm not able to find reference 6950 that can unlock on newegg.

The reason I went with the h60 and not a CPU water cooling system and got the frozr III's.

pyrocide said:

I did consider doing a full water cooled system using swiftech and have CPU and gpu cooled by a single reservoir upgrading the radiator and what not. However, I'm not able to find reference 6950 that can unlock on newegg.

The reason I went with the h60 and not a CPU water cooling system and got the frozr III's.

Click to expand...

Yeah i see what you did there, the Frozr will live up to some OCing, though you will not be getting the low temps like you would be with liquid cooling obviously, the two large fans are amazing, I personally have a gtx275 with an accelero 280 cooler on it and i saw at least a 15C temp drop surprisingly and the design is very similar. But i see exactly why you didnt go full cooling due to the fact of the non-unlocking reference cards. I think you will be completely fine on the temp side, but you will not be seeing the temps of a liquid system. Great setup on the part side though, cant wait to see the full build go down Are you doing any case mods or anything of the sort?

Well today i completed the order with some minor changes to the build due to promos and critiquing.

Ordered

Mobo: Asus P8Z68 Pro
GPU: x2 Gigabyte HD 6970
CPU: i5 2500k
PSU: Seasonic X750 Gold
Case: Lian Li PC-9F
HSF: Corsair H60
RAM: 8GB Gskill
Them Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-4

Grand total of $1578.15

Have awaiting installment

SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 120GB
HDD: WD Black 1TB
Monitor: x3 Hanns-G 19" (they were free)

Pics and building and overclocking will commence when arrival of parts begins.

So, this stuff is supposed to be arriving tomorrow and Monday. Which gives me a good amount of time to get some questions answered about overclocking.

This will be my first OC'ing project and would rather NOT overdo it or even get close.

I was told that the MSI Afterburner and Radeon BIOS Editor were some of the better tools to overclocking the 6970s. Is this valid or have a been led astray?

As far as overclocking the CPU and RAM, using the Asus UEFI BIOS it looks relatively straight forward, can someone link a guide or something that can steer me into what i need to be wary of? How much is too much, etc.

Also, I need some way of pitting the stock values against the overclocked values. So what are the better benchmarking tools for GPU CPU and RAM?