Critique my new build... Opinions please!

[Convicted1]

Hey all,

New guy to the forum. I've been doing alot of reading and will continue to do so. So first off let me thank you all for the awesome library of information!

Now... I'm working on building a new rig for my upcoming school year, and have decided I want to go ahead and build something a bit future proof, and that will allow me to enjoy some real hardcore gaming, as well as spend some time tinkering with overclocking.

I've been building my own computers since I was about 13, (28 Now) and used to keep up with the latest and greatest advancements in hardware. The last couple years though, life and school have kept me from paying as close of attention to the reviews and such as I once did.

So I'm coming to you all for advice.

First off... My budget. I'd like to stay right around the 5000-5500 mark... Maybe a bit more if necessary.

I'd like to ultimately do water cooling, but for now I want to settle on getting the good hardware, then I'll go back in a couple months and work on water cooling it. I'll keep to simple O/C's until then. IF you think water is a must right now... I could sacrifice one of the GTX580's for a bit and cover the water cooling. I have NO clue what to do on the water cooling department though. This would be my first build with water.

Operating System - Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Internet Security Software - Haven't decided... Open to suggestions.

Here's what I had chosen so far... But wanted to check with you all before I pull the trigger. Theres a bunch of smaller stuff such as sleeving equipment for the wires, tools, switches, lights, fans... Blah Blah Blah... But none of that is really important to the meat of the system... So I've kept it as simple as possible here.

1) Case: Antec Twelve Hundred V3 - I like full towers, and I like the look of this case.

2) PSU: Antec CP-1000 - 1000W PSU designed specifically for the Twelve Hundred.

3) Motherboard: Asus Rampage III Black Edition - Always been a fan of the ASUS Boards, and this one seems to be their top of the line offering. I like the fact that it comes with an upgraded NIC, and Audio Solution.

4) Processor: Intel Core i7 990X Extreme Edition Gulftown - Intels nastiest offering... Chosen for that reason.

4b) CPU Fan: Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme Rev. C - Found this to be one of the top rated air coolers.

5) Memory: Corsair Dominator GT DDR3 2000 12GB (3x4) -

6) Graphics: 2X ASUS Matrix GTX580 in SLI - Have always wanted to try an SLI Setup, liked the idea of having graphics cards that are manufactured by the same company as the MoBo.

7) Primary Boot Disk: OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD - This will only be used for the OS.

8) Secondary Storage Disk: Western Digital VelociRaptor 10K RPM 6Gb/S - Will be partioned to several different drives for program storage. One for system utilities, such as an AV software, tweaking software for the board or GPU, another for productivity such as Photoshop and Office, and the third for games.

9) Media Storage Disk: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 7200RPM 6Gb/s - Will be used solely for media storage. Photos, Video, Audio, etc.

10) Blu-Ray Burner: LiteOn Blu-Ray with 3D Playback and Lightscribe Support - Always had good luck with LiteOn drives.

11) CD/DVD Burner: LiteOn 24X DVD Writer with Lightscribe Support - Once again... I like the LiteOn drives.

12) Monitors: 2X Asus VS248H-P HDMI LED Backlit - No real preference here. Just thought they'd look nice on my desk, and they are LED backlit with decent response times.

13) Keyboard: Logitech G19 - This thing just looks cool!

14) Mouse: Logitech G700 - Once again... Just a decent mouse that I like the feel of.

I think that just about covers it... If you all have an opinion good or bad... I'd love to hear it!

Thanks guys! Sorry for the noobish post as well.

 

[\dev\goat]

7) Primary Boot Disk: OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD - This will only be used for the OS.

See my post Here

See this section of the OCZ support forum


You might get lucky and get an awesome drive but I wouldn't risk it. I'm sick of mine. Hoping this next firmware update will fix it finally

 

[Mjolnir]

Is there a reason you need a 990x? Do you need 6 cores/12 threads? If not; change the platform and go to a 2600K with a Asus Maximus IV Extreme Z.

Also; I'd say for your screens; 2 options that'd I'd go for..

Either a single 27 or 30 inch from Dell (U2711 or U3011); or 3xU2311H.

Or do what I did and get a single 27 + another dell that turns vertical and put it beside it haha. It's great XD.

I don't think the Velociraptor is worth using. I think you'd be better off with 2 WD Blacks.

Just remember the Asus Matrix is a tri-slot cooler.. Keep that in mind.

I'd personally change your case to a 800D with a Corsair AX-850 over the Antec options. Gives you a nicer path for Water Cooling IMO. But that's me. XD. (I say 850, because I don't believe you'd need more than 850W with SLI GTX 580's; even with everything overclocked. Especially if you swap to the 2600K, which uses less power than the 990x).

As for Security; Microsoft Security Essentials works great for me! =D. Free and all

 

[Convicted1]

Regarding the SSD Drive...

I looked on the OCZ site from the link you posted, and one of the reps posted that less than 1% of customers are having problems with the drives. Have alot of people had this issue?

Regarding 6 Cores...

I believe the only program I use currently would be some parts of the Adobe Master Collection CS5.5. I use Photoshop and Premiere Pro quite a bit.

I'm not sure if it utilizes all 6 cores.. but I also run S@H.

Main reason for the 6 core selection... Future proofing as best as possible.

I'll look into those suggestions though!

One thing I like about dropping down to the 2600K... I could save some duckeys for when the new Intel architecture is released... Or go ahead and do my liquid cooling now as well as maybe upgrade the monitors as you've suggested. I'd love to have more opinions on this....

I'm not a big fan of super huge monitors though. I've never understood the appeal of a big 27" or larger monitor. I sit about 2-2.5 feet away from my 21" WideScreen and sometimes that almost feels like too much. So I really like the idea of staying around 21-23" monitors.

The U2311H you recommended has an 8ms response time... Seems a little slow for gaming isn't it?

 

[Mjolnir]

The Dell monitors I mentioned are IPS panels. I don't believe the 8ms response time makes a huge difference (if any at all). I've yet to notice any ghosting on my U2711. So ya.. :\.

6 cores won't benefit you at all; and not at that price. I'd highly suggest dropping to the 2600K, it's better for gaming overall, especially with the OC's it gets. The 990X is not worth the price premium! Not for someone who doesn't require it. Save some money! (well, by some; I mean a lot!) The gap between a Asus Black Edition Mobo + 990x vs 2600K and a Asus Maximus Extreme Z is huge price wise. And don't be worried about 8x 8x vs 16x 16x. The actual difference is less than 2% usually. If that.

 

[Knufire]

120GB SSD is overkill for just OS. I have Win7 Ultimate and Office on mine and i'm barely over 30GB. Just get the 120GB SSD and the Caviar Black.

You want the Z68 platform, for sure.

Dominator GTs? Waste of money, save it for the benchers.

Matrix cards are awesome, but if you want to WC, you gotta stick with the reference PCB if you want to get a full cover block.

Why not 3 monitors for surround gaming? The Dell's that

Went with the ASUS BD Drive since Lite-On BD drives can't burn DVDs.

Went with the UD7 since you can put the soundcard in the top slot and not block airflow to any of the 580s.


Antivirus, Kaspersky is the best.

Win 7 Ultimate is also a waste...sitck to Home Premium or Professional.

 

[Efonzerellie]

Maybe look into going after 120hz monitor. Just got mine, much smoother overall experience. ASUS VG236HE and Planar SA2311W look to be best choices

 

[Knufire]

IMO, unless you want 3D, IPS>120Hz. Now if someone made a monitor that was 120Hz+IPS+LED...

 

[Convicted1]

Alright...

Well I'm still debating back and forth what to do on the rest of the hardware, but I guess I'm going to build on the 2600K idea.

I was under the impression that Photoshop CS5 would make use of all 6 cores... and I do enough photo editing and such that I get REAL tired of waiting on it... But I'll take the advice and stick with the quad core.

Dropping the Rampage Black means I'll have to pick up some sort of audio card... I need something with optical out since I'm running a Z-5500. Any suggestions on this?

I'm also going to choose some sort of reference card for the 580's... Hadn't thought about the problem of watercooling the 3 Slot design.

I've taken the V-Raptor out of the cart also... I'll just stick to the SSD for boot disk duties, and I'll utilize the WD Black for everything else. Might even pick up a second one.

Monitors... Still way confused on what to do there. I like the idea of the IPS panels, but I'm not a fan of non LED backlit monitors. I'm also a bit worried about the slower response times for gaming. I've been told anything slower than 5ms is too slow for good gaming.

LOL.. Anything will be an upgrade from the junk I've got laying around right now... It'll be nice to set these older machines up in the garage for nothing more than SETI crunching.

 

[Efonzerellie]

if you can, goto a store that has 120hz monitors on display, there's ups and downs for ips vs 120hz. 120hz is required for 3d vision when you plan on getting it later since you're getting a gtx580. Also you will be able to get away with using a 60Gb SSD if you're sure you're going to use it the OS only. If you're a Steam gamer check this
http://www.stefanjones.ca/steam/

 

[Convicted1]

OK guys... One again, thanks for the advice so far!

Here's my updated list... Let me know what you think.

Still up in the air on displays... But thats not important to the meat of the system.

Went with a reference card on the 580 also. Gonna stick to just one of them to wait and see what nVidia has around the corner for now.

I'm planning to use the onboard Optical out for audio... Optical to my Z5500's... and I believe the control panel for the Z5500's will act as an amp for headphone use. Opinions? Will this be decent sound quality or should I go ahead and add a sound card?

All this will be stuffed into a HAF X Case, Looking at an Ultra X4 1050W Modular for the PSU.

 

[Knufire]

That's a 3GB 580, a 1.5GB will run you more then $100 less. Next-gen stuff is due out late 2011 for AMD and early 2012 for NVIDA, nothing new for a while, just go with the three now.

Onboard should be fine for those speakers.

 

[Convicted1]

Yeah... I went with the 3GB unit since it seemed for the extra 100 it was worth it to double the memory. Might be nice when working in 3D in AutoCAD also.

As for the On-Board Audio... The plan is eventually to upgrade my audio also. But thats a discussion for a whole other thread and I'm not gonna worry about it till after the PC is built and the W/C Solution is in place.

So it's good to hear that for now the on-board audio will work fine. Later I'll upgrade to an XFi or something... Once I figure out what I want to do with the rest of the audio system.

I've got alot of my watercooling solution roughly figured out... Would like to run that by everybody and ask for some help in filling in the blanks. Would it be OK to ask opinions about that HERE or should I start a new thread in the W/C Section? I've got alot of stupid little questions that I'm unable to find the answers too, even with all the guides and about 16 hours of just random reading now.

When I say stupid questions.. I mean stupid questions... Like...

How does the 120.3 Radiator mount in the top of the HAF X? I'm assuing it mounts up there with the 12 screws on one side holding it to the case, and then the fans mount with 12 screws on the other side. What I don't know is if there are stand offs or whatever? Do I need to seal the radiator to the top of the case for maximum flow out of the case?

The fans I want to use (Deltas) come with either NO plugs, or a 4 Pin Molex with 2 wires for power, and a 3 Pin Fan Plug for RPM... Can I just wire everything to a standard 3 Pin Fan Plug and use a high current fan controller? Obviously the MoBo headers can't handle the kind of load these need.

What I'd REALLY like to do is wire all 3 fans together (do I use series or parallel?), with a 3 way switch... One way supplying say 6volts, the other 12, and the 3rd position off... But I can't find a controller that'll handle that kind of load.

 

[Knufire]

If you don't mind wiring, the yellow on molex is 12V and the red is 5V. You can't really wire them in series, they'd be parallel.

 

[Theocnoob]

I wanted to comment vs 990 vs 2600-- there will be new 1155 CPUs later this year. A leaked (possible fake) review with a very early stepping of the new six core Sandy bridge showed it beating the 990 by between 25 and 80 percent depending on the application at identical clocks. That's not bad. The CPU will likely be faster by release. Also it'll be the same price or cheaper than the 990. Probably cheaper. You can get more out of your money that way. Either wait or get a 2500/600 now and swap later.

 

[Convicted1]

If you don't mind wiring, the yellow on molex is 12V and the red is 5V. You can't really wire them in series, they'd be parallel.

Thats what I was thinking on the parallel wiring... But for some reason my brain wasn't fully wrapping around the concepts.

As for the Yellow and Red wires... I don't think these fans have those...

Check this link to see which fans I'm planning to use on a Black Ice GTX...

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8...ead_PFB1212UHE-F00.html?tl=g36c435s1109#blank

I think these fans might be a bit on the overkill side, but thats kinda what I'm after... Thus the reason I want to be able to have at least 2 speeds. the 5 or 6 volts for just normal computing tasks... 12V for when I'm gaming or crunching.

EDIT: I suppose I could just use 3 of these instead of 3 of the Deltas... About 100CFM less airflow... But these could be used with any fan controller I wanted. Not to mention they are a bunch quieter in the first place... But are these enough for the Black Ice GTX?

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...PM_D1225C12BBAP-31.html?tl=g36c435s1106#blank

Thanks again for all the help... I greatly appreciate it.

-David

 

[Convicted1]

I wanted to comment vs 990 vs 2600-- there will be new 1155 CPUs later this year. A leaked (possible fake) review with a very early stepping of the new six core Sandy bridge showed it beating the 990 by between 25 and 80 percent depending on the application at identical clocks. That's not bad. The CPU will likely be faster by release. Also it'll be the same price or cheaper than the 990. Probably cheaper. You can get more out of your money that way. Either wait or get a 2500/600 now and swap later.

Yeah... Thats kinda what I had planned.

Stick to the 2600K for now... and look at upgrading once the new chips arrive.

Thanks for the input!

-David

 

[Knufire]

No, look at a molex connector.

Now on a three pin, the red is 12V, the black is ground, and the yellow is the RPM sensor. If you wire the yellow from the molex to the red on the fan, it's running at full speed. If you wire the red from the molex to the red on the fan, it'll run at 5V, which should be quiet.

What you need is a small three way switch. Instead of breaking the connection, it switches between two leads. Either one is connected or the other is connected. You wire the 12V and the 5V from the Molex to the input, and wire the red from the fans to the output. This allows you to switch between full and quiet operation.

EDIT: Or just buy a fan controller. But this one gives you the switch.

 

[Convicted1]

No, look at a molex connector.

Now on a three pin, the red is 12V, the black is ground, and the yellow is the RPM sensor. If you wire the yellow from the molex to the red on the fan, it's running at full speed. If you wire the red from the molex to the red on the fan, it'll run at 5V, which should be quiet.

What you need is a small three way switch. Instead of breaking the connection, it switches between two leads. Either one is connected or the other is connected. You wire the 12V and the 5V from the Molex to the input, and wire the red from the fans to the output. This allows you to switch between full and quiet operation.

EDIT: Or just buy a fan controller. But this one gives you the switch.

Yep.. I get ya... I actually figured out what you meant while I was gone and was coming back to post it... LOL

I could wire all 3 in parallel... Wire them to the 3 way switch like that and have 2 speeds... Just like I was thinking.

I mean... Ideally... I'd love to have a variable setup... But I can't find a fan controller that would handle the 48 Watts EACH or 144 Watts Total.

I guess I could always try to build my own...

 

[Convicted1]

Alright... Last few changes and I think I'm ready to pull the trigger and get these goods on the way.

Wanted to ask one more time if ya'll thought everything looked good...

Here's the changes...

1) Monitors... Decided on IPS since I won't be doing THAT much gaming, but went with a decent response rate IPS Panel w/ LED backlighting for when I do game...

Here's a link to the monitors... I'll buy 3 now... But will only use 2 of them since I'll only have the one GTX-580 for awhile.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824005234

2) Got rid of the Corsair Vengeance Memory, and went with 8GB of Dominator GT in 1866... Still 1.5V memory.

With all the reading I've been doing here lately... I've kind of got a bug to work my way onto the benching team... My plan is to start on Factory air and max that out... Extreme Air and max that out. Then Water.... And ultimately I'd like to try some chilled water. MAYBE at some point later build a bench and play with phase change... But that'll be awhile.

So I want the good memory right off the bat... I'm going to try to document my way through the upgrades and document my findings at each step.

EDIT: I'm having a hard time figuring out what the difference between the memory frequencies are, and why the voltages differ... Been looking for a sticky or thread to tell me what the story is with this and I can't find anything relevant. If somebody could explain to me the difference between a 1600mhz at 1.5V stick and a 1600mhz at 1.65V stick... It'd help immensely.

3) Going with the X4 1200 Watt PSU instead of the 1050... It's only a few bucks more, and I want the headroom. Opinions on this PSU?

So let me know what you all think of these ideas... and if we are all pretty close in agreement that this is a decent build... I'll get the things ordered and we'll start a "Build Log" thread!

Look forward to hearing a few more opinions... Guess I'm just nervous about dropping this kind of change without a little bit of reassurance I'm getting the good gear.

-David