My Ongoing Pc Build. Comments and Advice Greatly Received.

Hi Everyone,
I have just joined the forum but been a lurker for many years and am no stranger to overclocking but lost interest in recent years. However, having been sat in front of Crysis 2 for a few hours this last month I decided its time I built myself a proper gaming rig again, so here goes... been building it on and off teh last 3 nights and the current hardware as now as follows:

Main Pc Specifications:

• Case: Coolermaster Stacker 830.
• Fans: 3x 120mm
• PSU: Enermax Infiniti 720 (720W) with twin fans.
• Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V-Pro/GEN3
• CPU: Intel i7 2600K
• CPU Cooler: Arctic Cool Freezer pro.
• Ram: 16Gb Corsair Vengeance DD3 (1800mhz)
• Video: Radeon Hd 7970 with 3GB DDR
• Monitors: 2x Dell 2408WFP (24")
• HDD 1: OCZ Vertex 3 SSD (240GB)
• HDD 2: Seagate Barracuda 500GB. (7200rpm)
• HDD 3: Seagate Barracuda 1TB. (7200rpm)
• HDD 4: Seagate Barracuda 1TB. (7200rpm)
• Sound: Onboard
• Mouse: Microsoft Razor habu optical.
• Keyboard: Saitech Eclipse II.
• Network. Gigabit LAN cabled through whole house.
• OS: Windows 7 64bit.

Backup Solution:
HP Mediasmart EX495 running windows server 2003 with 7TB Of Storage.
This backs up both my main PC's and my laptop every evening and provides a one click restore function for any drive or whole system as required.

Overclocking:
The i7 is running at 4.7ghz and the 7970 currently maxes out at 1260/6900/1.3v but needs fans run at 80% to keep it sub 72 degrees. And what a damn noise they make!

Benchmarking,
I will be running some more overclocking tests tonight to see what is what, but so far its loooking god. Ran heaven and Super Pi tests at 4.7GHZ already, and the results are as follows:





My Questions:
How much power do you think this lot is going to consume at full chat with an extra 7970 in there running crossfire with a Coolermaster 100 water cooling setup and a 3rd 24" monitor? Those items are all ordered and will be with me Monday if not before. Very Excited to benchmark this system again... The PSU is the one from my last system, so I dont mind upgrading it if required, i need stability and dont want to risk anything after all this outlay, but surely 720 will be enough?

Also, what are currently the best CPU & GPU monitoring programs?

Can the 7970's be watercooled? Has anyone tried them in crossfire with the current god awful driver set?

Thanks in advance for advise and comments.

Monitors are not powered by your PSU, so that doesnt matter for power consumption (they are plugged in to the wall, not your PSU).

As far as the PSU with 2 7970's.... A 750W will be fine. Not sure about the quality of the one you have however...I would look at Corsair 750HX/TX,850HX/TX or Seasonic X750/X860.

CPU and GPU monitoring.. like speeds and such? CPUz and GPUz. For temps, Realtemp/Coretemp. For everything in one, HWInfo.

7970's can be watercooled like most other cards...the blocks are not out yet. And you will need WAY more radiator than you have to support that heatload.

Plenty have tried in Crossfire, there are reviews all over the place.

Hi EarthDog,
Thanks for the welcome and reply.

I realise monitors power iis from the mains, but thought the cards driving them may require some more voltage so thought it worth mentioning in case.

Just downlaoded HWinfo, thanks for that, looks like just what I need.

Just been looking around at PSU's and have my eye on one as want to buy this extra stuff tomorrow.

Just looking round google now, thanks.

EarthDog said:

Monitors are not powered by your PSU, so that doesnt matter for power consumption (they are plugged in to the wall, not your PSU).

As far as the PSU with 2 7970's.... A 750W will be fine. Not sure about the quality of the one you have however...I would look at Corsair 750HX/TX,850HX/TX or Seasonic X750/X860.

CPU and GPU monitoring.. like speeds and such? CPUz and GPUz. For temps, Realtemp/Coretemp. For everything in one, HWInfo.

7970's can be watercooled like most other cards...the blocks are not out yet. And you will need WAY more radiator than you have to support that heatload.

Plenty have tried in Crossfire, there are reviews all over the place.

Click to expand...

Make sure its a QUALITY PSU. Link in my sig to the quality PSU's.

EarthDog said:

Make sure its a QUALITY PSU. Link in my sig to the quality PSU's.

Click to expand...

Thanks, been looking around the net all night and have pretty much opted for this one:

Along with this cooling for the CPU.

Would you say those were reasonable choices?

You dont remotely need that much power...

EarthDog said:

You dont remotely need that much power...

Click to expand...

Agreed, I realise that, but I am considering (Only considering) a 3rd 7970, and the last thing I want to do is buy yet another PSU in a months time, so better to futureproof now, and its reviewed to be almost silent up to 50% Load so should keep noise down, as those 7970's are going to make a hell of a din!