Help With My First Real Build

[ChrisK41]

About Me:
I have built myself a new $700ish computer every four years or so for the last 15 years. My current computer is really struggling again so now it’s time for another upgrade. I have always wanted to build a really nice “high-end” computer, and this is the first time I have had the time and funds to try it. I have never liquid cooled, overclocked, done RAID 0, SLI, or anything fancy before; but I have been pouring over this forum for four months or so now trying to understand it all.

What My Computer Will Be Used For:
The games I try and play the most on my computer are: StarCraft 2, Crysis 1 and 2, Half-life 2, and hopefully Diablo 3. My wife spends a lot of time on Photoshop CS5 and I would like to be able to compress blurays, but our current system takes ~19 hours a disk.

The Computer:
I bought a Corsair Obsidian 800D and Corsair AX1200 PSU last week, so I already have those. I am also carrying over a 2 TB Seagate HDD from another computer.

Motherboard – Asus Maximus IV Extreme - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131700

Video card – Asus Matrix GTX 580P - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121467

CPU – Intel 2600K - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070

Memory – Corsair Vengeance 16GB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233143

Cooling – Corsair H100 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181017

SSD’s – (2) OCZ Vertex 3 MI 120 GB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227714

Other Notes:
I plan to overclock the CPU as much as I can, but it is the only part I plan on overclocking so the H100 should be adequate? I also plan on trying to RAID 0 the two SSD’s using the P67 chipset. My monitor can run at a resolution of 1920x1200, although my current computer cannot reach that.

Any help/info on my build would be greatly appreciated. Since this is a lot more expensive/complicated than anything I have built before I would like to make sure I have everything right before I order it.

 

[Theocnoob]

The 800D doesn't lend itself that well to air cooling. It's for hard core large water cooling. Their 650 and 600 are more air cooling friendly as is the 400/500. The H100, like the 50/60/70, still isn't as good as a cheaper air cooler, so no need. Also, the 16GB of RAM is overkill for almost any conceivable situation, unless you're looking at having a very large number of PS sessions going while also doing many other things. That board is overkill unless you plan to run 3 GPUs at some point, although I have one 'just because', so that's still a valid reason. No logical reason though. The AX1200 really isn't necessary unless you're running 3 average GPUs or two overclocked 6990s or something. I'd scale back the RAM and motherboard and CPU cooler (get a Thermalright Archon or an NHC14 at most) and you can put more $ into GPUs, ie, 2 570s, or a 590, or a 6990, and have more visible computer performance.

Get a Z68 board that has discrete out that you can use (ie, DVI if you have DVI or HDMI if you have HDMI). You can then use the ingetrated GPU on your cpu to do your video encoding while you do other stuff.

Remember that current CPU coolers were designed for 45nm 130W versus the 2600K which is 95W 32nm.

 

[EarthDog]

Unless you are becnhing, dont go with a MIVE. You can get away with a board that costs hald that amount... and go Z68 if only for future CPU support.

Id also downgrade the PSU as well. 1 GPU and you can have a 750W PSU EASILY.

As far as 800D air vs. water... how is water cooled... by air.

 

[ChrisK41]

I have already bought the 800D and AX1200, so replacing them is out. I do want to eventually go to a custom water loop (and that is why I bought the 800D), but since I have never water cooled before I would like to tackle that after I get the computer running and stable.

I realize the AX1200 is overkill now, but I wanted the option of adding more 580’s down the road if I felt like I needed them and they came down in price. My only worry there is I don’t think the Maximus IV can hold 3 Matrix’s since they are 3 slots tall. (Correct me if I am wrong)

As far as the cpu cooler goes, I was originally planning out the NHC14, but the H100 from what I understood performed just as well, and I am willing to pay the extra $20 just for what I think is a much cleaner look.

16GB of memory is overkill for what I am doing, but it was only $25 more dollars than 8GB at the time, so it was one of those “why not, I don’t get to build a nice computer that often anyways” moments. I figured for the 2.5k I was going to spend on this system what is another $45 bucks if I think the cpu cooler looks a lot nicer and I get a little more bragging rights on my memory

As far as the board goes, like I said a few paragraphs above, I do want to be able to add more GPU’s in the future, plus the color scheme went well with the matrix 580 , but if you think there is a better board for what I am trying to do I will be happy to consider it. I really want to be able to build on this computer over the next year, however. (more GPU’s and a water cooling loop)

Thanks for the input, and once again, if I am missing something please correct me.

 

[ChrisK41]

Apparently I need to do more research on the motherboard. I do not understand why I would want to have onboard HDMI if I am running standalone GPU's. I also don't understand why I would go with z68, I though p67 gave me better overclocking abilities, plus worked best with the ssd's?

Another reason I thought the MIVE was because I thought the EATX size would help me more easily fit additional GPU's and it was only $249 for the openbox at newegg, making it the cheapest mobo in that form category.

Like I said, I have never built anything like this so please be patient with me and thanks for all your help.

 

[Knufire]

Nope, overclocking is the same. But you said you want to compress Blurays, and what Z68 can do is use the integrated GPU to make the transcoding process MUCH faster. Plus you can game at the same time since it's not stressing the CPU or GPU as much.

EK is making a full cover block for the ASUS DirectCuII version, so I assume they won't be making one for the very similar Matrix.

Btw, I don't think there's a board that will fit 3 triple-slot cards. The only one is the Marshall Big Bang, but due to the slot configuration you'll be running at x16/x8/x1 due to the card being in the wrong slot...

You can go two now, and when you decide to get your loop, you gotta take the plate off the graphic card and dremel off the third vent slot so it's a dual-slot card. Then they'll fit.

 

[EarthDog]

GOod points...

To add to that, unless you have a multimonitor setup, there is no point to use more than one GPU. By the time a 580 wont run games at their highest settings at 1920x1200 or less, A future mid range card will perform better than it.

 

[ChrisK41]

I'm suprised you think the 580 will age that well, but I will take your word for it! If I will only want one GPU what would be a good mobo then for $250 or less since that it what I was going to pay for the MIVE? Are there any other changes that you would make other than the PSU since I already bought that thinking I would need more GPUs?

 

[Knufire]

If you're paying $250 for a LGA1155 motherboard and you're not going subambient/running tri-SLI or more, you're wasting money. They're not for the average overclocker.

Something in the $150-$200 range is much more reasonable.

About video card aging, my 4890 will run every modern game with some settings turned down. Witcher 2 was lag free at medium settings, and this card is two generations old and is going for $80 on the classies right now.

 

[Trottel]

A big thing about how well video cards are aging these days is due to the fact that almost all games are console ports. There is only so much they can do to jazz up the graphics of a game meant to run on bottom of the barrel hardware. Once new consoles come out (next year?), expect new games to not be so old-card friendly. However, the GTX580 is probably going to be at least as good as what the next gen consoles are going to have. They always seem to use a tweaked top end card of the previous generation of either ATI(AMD) or Nvidia.

One suggestion I would make is to buy a GTX 580 with 3GB of ram and not one of 1.5GB of ram. It will last you a lot longer. 3GB is superfluous now, but it won't be 2-3 years down the road. Look what happened with 512MB vs 1GB cards a couple of years ago.

 

[ChrisK41]

I thought Nintendo was the only one comming out with a new system, and it didn't support any games anyways!

 

[Trottel]

I thought Nintendo was the only one comming out with a new system, and it didn't support any games anyways!

They are all coming out with new consoles. Also the 3GB Zotac GTX 580's are not much more than the 1.5GB GTX 580 you linked to. Right now it won't make much difference, but within a couple of years, the 1.5GB version will suffer a large performance deficit compared to the 3GB models.