Help me finish building a 4ch. Core 7i system

[coras]

Hi Guys,

I'm in south asia region and this time around I'm going to stick with mainstream brands that I can buy locally. Better to be safe than sorry as four years back I had ordered parts from abroad and many of the parts came dead and I was not able to RMA them as it would cost me more to ship the items back than buy new ones. Past aside, now I sort of have a dilemma deciding the best choice of parts for a "4 channel Hexa-Core" build, so I thought I'll seek out help finalizing build.

Now, I'm not planning to do crazy overclocking other than upping the processor to 4.2 GHz or more without playing around with the settings much. I just do not want any of the parts introduce a bottleneck. I'd love some recommendations with motherboard, sound card, and PSU for sure as I'm not entirely sure what to choose.

So here goes the 4ch hexa core build:

Chassis: CM 690 II Advanced. (comes with two silent fans attached I figure)
I think this is a good chassis this build. Let me know if the choice of chassis is bad.


Chassis Fans: 2 x XtraFlo 120 Slim.
Adding to the existing fans it totals up to four fans to control ventilation. I'm thinking of pushing air IN from the front + top, AND push air OUT through back + side.


Processor: Intel Core i7 3930K 3.2GHz, 12 MB Cache.
It's Sandy Bridge-E I think. I want to overclock it just about enough while keeping settings as close to stock as possible... a safe zone of sorts as I have a very traumatic experience of burning up dad's expensive processor in his office workstation last year. Obviously I'm very in experienced when it comes to overclocking and have come to believe its not meant for me as I don't have the money to bear the accidental loss. So, how much can I push it with minimal voltage changes? 4.2 Ghz? 4.6 Ghz? What can I expect?


Processor Cooler: CORSAIR H100 (liquid cooler).
I read very good reviews about it and being a non-maintenance liquid cooler is also a great plus. My choice of chassis is also designed to fit this cooler so it sounds like a perfect choice.... what do you guys think?


RAM: 4 x Corsair Vengeance 4GB DDR3 1600MHz.
I'm pretty sure this is what I want. 16 GB of ram should be able to shine on Win 7 64-Bit right? Should I get the memory fans from corsair as well or is that not necessary?


Motherboard: Please recommend.
I can only get one of these brands locally: ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, or Intel.


Graphics Card: 2 x GeForce GTX 680 (to run on SLi). OR 1 x GeForce GTX 690.
Is there any benefits going SLi over dual GPU? If brand makes a difference please do recommend one. I can only get one of these brands locally: ZOTAC, ASUS, or Gigabyte.


Speakers: Logitech Z523 OR Logitech Z623. 2.1 Systems
My home theater and 55" LED TV are just in the other side of the room, plus I don't want to clutter my desk like my current Creative 5.1 T6060. So I thought of getting Logitech Z523 but a lot of people I know said it will be a downgrade from my current four year old creative t6060 even with the rear and center speakers put away. I'm not too sure what to choose.... so threw in Logitech Z623 on the table as well. I'm not too keen about spending a fortune on a 2.1 system but I do want a quality speaker system...


Sound Card: Please recommend... OR do I even need one?
I can only get one of these brands locally: ASUS or Creative. Most of my entertainment will be routed to my 55" LED TV and Home Theater via HDMI from my graphics card, so people tell me I don't need to invest in a sound card as my home theater system would take care of processing the digital audio. Even so I would like to get excellent audio when I play mmorpgs with my twin on the PC itself. Online games are the only things I don't play on my 55" TV. Would the on-board audio of these high-end motherboards handle that?


HDD: 1 x 120GB Corsair SSD, and 1 x 1TB SATA II Seagate.
I plan to install Windows 7 and all my software on the 120GB SSD and all other stuff on the 1TB Seagate. Is that the right way to get best performance?


Power Supply: Silent Pro Hybrid 1050W OR Silent Pro Gold 1000W
I'm not sure which to get. Do I need to get a 1200W? is 1000W really needed to run all the specs so far? I would like to cut some cost on PSU if possible.


UPS: APC Back-UPS Pro 1500
This is the highest available, but I'm worried about the watt output. It says 865 Watts / 1500 VA.... does that mean my power supply (1000W+) will not be able to function well during peaks? If I can't buy this UPS then what else can I get?


Keyboard and Mouse: Please recommend.
I can only get the following brands: Logitech OR Microsoft. I currently have a Logitech MX 5000 and it served me extremely well for four years now! I was planning to get Logitech MX 5500 Revolution as a potential upgrade until last year but now it seems Logitech is no-longer offering its rechargeable series of combo (see here). What would give me the same feel and performance of MX 5000? I'm terribly addicted to the touch volume and zoom control it provided on the left side of the keyboard but that's not important. The mouse felt so perfect in my hands~


What I use the system for:

I will have it on for about 18 hours everyday. On some rare days I would give it few extra hours of well deserved break if I get engrossed with a console game.

- Work on web development projects
- Intensive 3D modeling and animation for game development on some months when I'm inspired.
- Play several hours of MMORPGs.
- Play PC Games on max settings via HDMI to my 55" LED TV.
- Watch lots of animes and movies via HDMI to my 55" LED TV.
- Heavy video processing (infrequently)

Looking forward to your interesting posts!

 

[Knufire]

Stick to ASUS or Gigabyte for the motherboard. Probably Gigabyte, as not OCing much = don't need an expensive board, and generally Gigabyte boards are better at the low-end, while ASUS boards are better at the high end.

Do you need two 680s? 670s are very close in power, but significantly cheaper. A single 670 can play almost any game out there at max settings. MMORPGs are typically not very graphically intensive, and I would imagine that web development/3D modeling/game development doesn't really benefit from SLI.

Don't need more than 650W for SLI 670s or 750W for SLI 680s.

Correct on the SSD/HDD setup.

Sound cards only benefit if you have the speakers to match. Correct on the theater setup processing the sound. But I doubt you'd be able to hear a difference between onboard and discrete sound with Logitech speakers.

Keyboard/Mice, stick to Logitech. G500/G9X are nice mouses, and if you're spending this much money, please get a mechanical keyboard.

 

[coras]

Thanks! I've been talking with my local supplier on pricing and such and decided to go with the crazy build even if its an overkill as I'm building two of these exact systems (twins), reducing the pricing of the parts is not giving me any significant reduction other than $300-$400 total of the $8000 spend.

I think I'm going to get myself a Corsair 850W or Cooler Master 1000W as both their pricing are the same.

Now, I'm trying to decide on a mother board:

1) Asus MotherBoard - Rampage IV

2) ASUS P9X79 DELUXE

3) ASUS Sabertooth X79

Which board do you think is the nicest of the three?

 

[Knufire]

All a waste of money for you, as you'd never use the features that they have over cheaper boards.

Realize that sometimes you are literally throwing away money for zero increase in noticeable performance. What I suggested, if you actually look, are significant reductions in price. 2x680s = over $1000, while a GTX670 = $400. That's more than $1200 in savings if you're buying twins, and single GTX670 can max out almost every game on 1080P, let alone MMORPGs which are less intensive.

A RIVE is $430, while an ASRock Extreme6 is $230, another $400 in savings.

An 850AX is $200, while I would suggest a ZT550 (as SLI is not needed) for $70 or a ZT750 for $110. That's another $180-$260 in savings.

In total, that's $1780 to $1860 in savings, based on US prices. For either no reduction in performance or a reduction that you would never notice.

As soon as you say that you're going "crazy" or "overkill", you're probably throwing away money. There are other things you could spend it on. Get a nice pair of headphones that would actually warrant the use of a sound card, for example.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CPU: 3930K
Motherboard: ASRock Extreme6 or Gigabyte UD3
RAM: 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 1.5V, brand doesn't really batter
Graphics Card: ASUS GTX670 DC2
SSD: 120GB Force GT
HDD: 1TB Hitachi or Samsung (more reliable than Seagate)
PSU: OCZ ZT 550W, Corsair CX500, Corsair CX600
Headphones: A really nice pair, Audio Technica/Sennhiser, etc.
Sound Card: ASUS Essence Xonar STX (only if you get the high end pair of headphones, probably want the built in amp to drive them)

 

[coras]

MMORPG aside I will be playing other PC games like Crysis 2, Skyrim, Metro 2033, Assassins Creed 2 and 3, and several others in max settings. All of these games will be passed on to my HDTV to get 120hz and play on the big screen. Even Crysis 2, Skyrim, and Metro 2033 would not benefit from SLi?

I have discarded the idea of going for SLi for now but I do want to add a 2nd card at a later time. I know I'm wasting a LOT of money, and I do feel like I'm wasting a lot. But for the past few days I was convinced I'm going to get a hexacore build and everything I look at now seems like a serious downgrade.

Most 68 and 77 chipset boards seem to only have four slots of memory and no room for upgrade. These also have very little resale value should I have to move abroad in a year or two (uncertain atm) and at the same time does not seem worth it to have them shipped abroad if I do move. It feels like if I downgrade the setup then I'll be stuck with it while having to buy a new set if I do move. I'm pretty sure I won't be upgrading my systems for the next couple of years, I'll never have the money or chance to upgrade after this threshold.

I thought of headphones but I can't really wear them owing to weak ear cartilage, about five minutes of headphone usage is enough to make my ears so numb and painful.

I'll try to look into the sample config you suggested though~

My typical usage scenario:

Running programs side-by-side: Photoshop, z-bursh, blender 3d, Unity 3d, Firefox, VLC player, Skype and Live messenger. I'm a fast multitasker... BUT my attention span is very limited. A moments "not responding" or slowness would throw me off and I won't be able to get back in the same frame of mind.

My current Core 2 Duo E6600, 4 GB DDR2 Ram, OCZ 750W PSU, XFX GeForce GTX 8800 XXX all hardly supports me and can't keep up with me at all. I have about 12+ tabs open on Firefox at all times too. Its same for me and my twin.

 

[Knufire]

Well you never mentioned those games before. Info would be helpful. FPSs are MUCH different than running MMORPGs. (Give up the idea of Metro 2033 on max though...the game is just so badly written. You need something crazy to run that on max settings...and BF3 looks better anyway.)

Note how I never said that the CPU was a waste of money, it was certain from the beginning that your uses (Firefox tabs couldn't matter less, more 3D modeling and game development) were what the X79 was made for, people who do need hexacore CPUs and lots of RAM. Here are some scenarios:

• Example 1: 3770K vs 3930K - Your program is written to take as many cores at it can handle. With large p=Photoshop files and others, rendering speeds are significantly increased. WORTH IT.
• Example 2: RIVE vs ASRock Extreme6 - You don't overclock very much. The RIVE, despite it's "Republic of Gamers" marketing and nice looks, is built to be a benchmarking board for extreme overclockers. You don't take advantage of many of the extra features. NOT WORTH IT.
• Example 3: Between the GTX680 and GTX670, you only gain a few FPS difference. You cannot tell the difference in the speed or quality without an FPS counter like FRAPS. NOT WORTH IT.

I can also do it like this. Say I took all your money, built the computers for you, but locked the case and blocked any spec reading programs. If I told you I put a RIVE in there, but I actually put an Extreme6, would you ever notice the difference? If something provides a significant difference in performance...it's worth it. But if you're never going to physically notice the difference in your day to day usage of the computer...it isn't.

I also never said the games wouldn't benefit from SLI, I said 3D modeling/game development/web development wouldn't benefit from SLI. If you want to run those games at 120Hz, you'll probably need SLI. Still though, the 670 smashes the 680 in terms of price/performance.

New Configuration:
CPU: 3930K
Motherboard: ASRock Extreme6 or Gigabyte UD3
RAM: 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 1.5V, brand doesn't really batter
Graphics Card: ASUS GTX670 DC2 SLI
SSD: 120GB Force GT
HDD: 1TB Hitachi or Samsung (more reliable than Seagate)
PSU: OCZ ZT 750W, Corsair TX750M
Speakers: Get a nice receiver and some bookshelfs. SPDIF out from the motherboard is sufficient.

 

[Merlin7777]

Knufire is right, no sense it spending useless money.

The sample rig he posted will be freakin' screamin' fast, especially with just a bit of overclocking. The ASRock and Gigabyte boards are some of the best available right now, and their feature set is all you really need.

If you really want to spend $8k, buy a rig similar (if not equal to) Knufire's, and pour the rest into a ridiculous reciever/speaker set.

 

[coras]

Well you never mentioned those games before. Info would be helpful. FPSs are MUCH different than running MMORPGs. (Give up the idea of Metro 2033 on max though...the game is just so badly written. You need something crazy to run that on max settings...and BF3 looks better anyway.)

Well... I did sort of mention them. See below ^_~*

- Work on web development projects
- Intensive 3D modeling and animation for game development on some months when I'm inspired.
- Play several hours of MMORPGs.
- Play PC Games on max settings via HDMI to my 55" LED TV.
- Watch lots of animes and movies via HDMI to my 55" LED TV.
- Heavy video processing (infrequently)

Thanks for your suggestions Knufire. I'm now gonna build something very similar to the new config you suggested, except going to go with 850W PSU has my shop offered me a very good deal to buy it at 1.5 the price if I'm buying two. Since I'm building two identical systems that works great!

Now I have another dilemma would two 850W systems run off one APC Back-UPS Pro 1500 VA UPS? I will be buying two of the same UPS but it would be great if i can use one of these for the two PC and the other one for my home theater setup.

 

[Knufire]

PC games is generic. You only listed MMORPGs as games you play, which lead me to believe that you wanted to play MMORPGs at max settings.

 

[coras]

Umm do you think the config would work on a 750W PSU? All things said and done I will be over clocking the cpu to 4.6GHz now. I know Knufire already suggested 750W in config but just confirming. It turns out the deal my shop made was for two 750w PSU and not two 850W.

 

[Knufire]

If you didn't overclock, that rig wouldn't even break 500W. Overclock everything you want, you won't break 650W. 750W is more than enough.

 

[coras]

Thanks guys for all your suggestions and help. Especially knufire. I think I'm good to go now.

 

[MongGrel]

Once again I concur with Knufire, I guess got here late today hehe.