First Post & First Build in a long time

Hey everyone. Been reading here a bit, but haven't posted before.

I'm putting together my first system in a long time. Its probably been almost 15 years now (I'm 30). Things have changed quite a bit since I remember putting the likes of 386's together. For one, Computer Shopper has gone from a black & white encyclopedia to a tiny color magazine.

I own and run a small B2B computer software company and recently I've only bought pre-built systems from the major manufacturers as they've been more of a business tool than a hobby or interest. However, I've been doing a bit of gaming to unwind and I wanted something fast. I figured it might be fun to dive back into putting it together myself rather than overpaying to have someone else do it.

Here is the hardware list I've put together. The items marked with a * are already purchased and delivered.

*CASE: Cooler Master Cosmos CX-1000 CSX Red Dragon
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119162

*MB: ASUS Rampage Extreme
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131334

CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115051

*PSU: ABS Tagan BZ Series 1300W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817814011

*RAM: 8gig Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600 (4 x 2GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145190

*HDD: 2x WD Velociraptor 300gig in Raid 0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136260

*Optical Drive: LG GGW-H20LK BD-R/BD-RE/DVD+R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136155

*VGA: 2x ASUS EAH4870X2TOP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121279

Cooling: Liquid cooled, undecided on details. This will be my first LC system and I'm still reading up on it and trying to decide which parts to use. Every brand seems to have its lovers and its haters. Tho some do seem to have more of one than the other.

Monitor: Leaning towards the 30" Dell 3008WFP, but not 100% decided yet.
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...etail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=223-4890

I'll be sure to take pics along the way and post them if you guys would like.

And a quick teaser pic:

Welcome to the Forums!!!

You certainly are not messing around, that is going to be a mean build. Looks like you have pretty much picked everything up and you have made some excellent choices. For the CPU it is a toss up. I you are going to go with a heavy duty water system and want to OC to the max(i.e. north of 4.0) then you can justify the Extreme to take advantage of the multiplier. If you intend to stay with a more reasonable(4.0) then stick with a 9650 or 9550 and save a ton of cash and get the same performance. The 30" Dell is a nice monitor and for that size is probably your best option. I know you said you own your own business but if you can find the time I know the guys on the benching team would love to have you join them with that set-up.

For your cooling don't worry about sticking with a particular manufacture, just the best for each part. In general I like Switftech and D-Tek for water blocks and pumps, and Thermochill for radiators. Were you going to try and water cool the GPU as well? That is going to be a ton of heat for a single loop. Make a post in the cooling section to get some more experienced thoughts on it, I have been out of the water game for a while.

Thanks Ou.

Well, its all put together Unfortunately I didn't take too many pics along the way.

I added a 3rd VR 300gig in the array and added a 1 TB drive for some more room.

It's all air cooled now and I'm getting around 19,300 in 3dmark06 without overclocking anything (other than the slight GPU OC on the Asus 4870x2's).

3dmark06 is biased towards nVidia's IMO. People get mid 15000's with just one 8800GTX. Use Vantage. One 4870x2 should blow an 8800GTX away anyday of the week. Hell, a 4850 can tear it apart.

jayfella said:

3dmark06 is biased towards nVidia's IMO. People get mid 15000's with just one 8800GTX. Use Vantage. One 4870x2 should blow an 8800GTX away anyday of the week. Hell, a 4850 can tear it apart.

Click to expand...

OC'd the CPU to 4.0ghz (400x10). Still on air, but 30deg outside, so I ran it next to some open windows

Got to 20471 on 3DM Vantage

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=534089

hey thats pretty darn respectable. I got 7000 odd haha. Im sure with a little bit of tweaking, graphics card-wise - and OCing your memory (using a 1:1 divider, playing with timings, chargers) - you can get s few more points outta her and still keep it on a 24/7 status.

I'm curious why you didn't go for the new i7 over 775?

jayfella said:

hey thats pretty darn respectable. I got 7000 odd haha. Im sure with a little bit of tweaking, graphics card-wise - and OCing your memory (using a 1:1 divider, playing with timings, chargers) - you can get s few more points outta her and still keep it on a 24/7 status.

Click to expand...

I'll be fiddling with it a lot more for sure once I get the cooling finalized. Hopefully get that done sooner rather than later, lol.

LilBuddy said:

I'm curious why you didn't go for the new i7 over 775?

Click to expand...

Was just overly anxious

However, I just put together an i7 extreme 3.2 for work purposes (the QX9770 is for gaming). The i7 won't get the video card treatment or much overclocking at all tho.