New high end gaming rig

[BenTriskelion]

Hi, everyone!

I am considering specifications for a high end gaming rig that I intend on building in the coming months. This will be my first build, so I would like to get some advice on such things as intercompatibility of the parts listed here, as well as whether they are the best for the purpose simply because they are at the top of the manufacturer's list.

I would also like the rig to be fairly future proof, so if 6 cores (for example) would not presently be used by any game, I would still like to have them if they would be usable, say, in a year or so.

Here are the parts I'm looking at so far;

Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 900D

Power supply: Corsair AX1200i

Cooling system(s): Corsair Hydro Series H100i CPU Cooler
• Would this be sufficient as the only water cooling part?

Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme

CPU: Intel i7-3970X
• I have heard that an Intel i7-3930K may be a better choice for gaming when overclocking capabilities are considered. Are either of these the best for gaming?
• What would the overclocking potential be with this setup? Or with the i7-3930K?

GPU(s): Asus NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN
• What level of cooling would be required to overclock this GPU?
• How much use is 2 or 3 of these GPUs compared to just 1?

RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum (64 GB DDR3 memory — 8 x 8 GB 240-pin DIMM — Dual / Quad channel — Voltage: 1.5 V — Speed: 1,600 MHz — Latency: 9·9·9·24)

Storage 1: Corsair Neutron Series GTX SSD (480 GB — SATA 6 Gb/s)

Storage 2: Western Digital WD Black HDD (4 TB — SATA)

Thanks for any input!

 

[manu2b]

PSU: 1200w is overkill. Even with a tri-fire/tri SLI, a 1000w is more than enough.

CPU: Best gaming CPU is the 3570k (socket 1155), 4 core, no HT. You need the 6 core/12 threads of the 3930k/3970x if you do heavy CPU calcultation with heavy multi-threaded apps (not games). A good compromise is the 3770k (socket 1155), 4 cores/8 threads.
If you still want to go for a 6 cores SB-E, the 3930k is the way to go, as it has the same OC capabilities as the $500 more 3970x.

GPU: if you play @1080p, one Titan is enough. If you plan on multi-monitor gaming, 2x7970 3GB will do a perfect job for $100 less than a single Titan.

EDIT:
RAM: 64GB is not what you need, unless you are an heavy images/movies/sound worker. 16GB is more than enough.

 

[Fearthe1337]

Holy ****, if this ever happens i want to see pictures. As far as compatibility goes its all good i would suggest the 3930k though that's about all i suggest. Maybe just 32gb of ram for now you can easily buy more in the future if needed(which you wont). For the cooler look into the new Swifttech H220

 

[LoganG]

That's a lot of overkill but if you want to throw money at it, by all means.

 

[EarthDog]

"In the coming months".. you may be better off contacting us then honestly. Things change so fast that planning a pc now and buying unable couple months isn't the best idea. New and parts come out all the time, for example haswell will be out in june.

When are you planning on buying this?

That said, what you picked is massive overkill yikes! 1.2kw Psu? Multiple titans? Hexcore for gaming? Oooof.

What resolution monitor are you gaming on?

 

[BenTriskelion]

Thanks for the replies so far!

I should have mentioned the monitor… I plan on using a 2560x1440 monitor initially, and hopefully a 4K / x2160 monitor once they become affordable. It seems to me that the Titan is one of the few GPUs that can handle 4K.

Speaking of which, is the GPU all that matters when it comes to 4K and the like, or do the motherboard and / or CPU have to support it as well?

As for overkill, this is why I'm looking for advice, so that I don't go uselessly over the top. Of course, like I said, I would like the computer to be future proof, and I imagine that games will ultimately use more cores / threads than they do now, I guess the question is whether it's better to be super future proof or just upgrade from time to time.

I'm waiting for money to be available for this, and it could be any day, or it could be a year from now, just hopefully sooner rather than later of course.

Since I'm new to building a computer such as this, even if there is a n month delay, I would like to get a feel for this anyway.

Thanks!

 

[anhikilator]

I spent around 3k on my rig including monitor and peripherals. I can play all the games at 2560x1440 on ultra and I'm not maxing my pc at all and haven't overclocked it yet. I've also could have run all the games with a cheaper proc and less mem but I use it for work too.

There's no such thing as future proof nowadays since we have 3 brands trying to get our money (Intel, Nvidia and AMD).

Knowing that PS4 won't be very powerful (in terms of hardware) lot of games we will play will be ports hence no need of bad *** hardware to play them.

I was aiming at the 3930k but with the help of the forum I changed my mind. Same thing happens with the motherboard. This cheap *** Asrock does all the things I'll ever need since I'm not benching.

Think that the money you don't spend now, you can save it to do some upgrades as new hardware is released.

 

[manu2b]

Hey, you could bench with your MoBo!!

EDIT: Back on topic, I think you can build a great rig with a 3770k with a h110 (aiming for 4.8GHz), or an 212+ (aiming for 4.4/4.5GHz) , an Asrock Extreme6 (or Fatality if you like the color scheme) z77 MoBo, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD Sata3(no need for PCIe like the RevoDrive, but if you have the money, the bigger the better), one, or maybe two AMD 7970/nVidia 670 if you go 3D or surround (multi monitors, usually 3), a good 1000w PSU (corsair, OCZ, BeQuiet...). That would cost around $1500/$2000 for a rig that would play everything maxed out for 1.5/2 years. You sell it for 60% of its price in 2 years and get a new up to date machine.

 

[Mjolnir]

Dat overkill.

Honestly; I'd drop that budget. A LOT. And doing so means you can get it earlier.

i7 3770k /w H100i + Case of your choice (The 900D is VERY much a full water cooling build case; it's overkill and too large for your build unless you plan to WC everything)
Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H/Asrock Extreme4/6
16GB of Corsair/G Skill RAM (2x8GB sticks)
A single titan if that's what you want. Or 7970/670/680.
A quality 850W PSU is enough to run dual Titans easily; or any of the other cards.
256GB SSD as boot, 2TB as storage.
Etc etc.

That'd all be what, half your current build budget lol. Think smaller. Like Manu2b said; spend less now; resell in the future, stay up to date, profit.

Though I'd argue that the 3570k is the 'best' gaming CPU . Surely you've seen the recent benchmarks for the 8350 vs it. I still prefer intel; don't get me wrong but the 8320/8350 is also a solid choice.

 

[EarthDog]

Ok hen.. when you have the money, let's talk.

Until then, enjoy the forum..LEARN a bit about what you doing. Its a great place to be.