New i7 build, w/ aim of future-proofing - 2.5K - any comments before I order?

[gingerbee]

yup have to agree board is over kill but if that what you want then

[_dangtx_]

1156 and 1366 are supposed to be eol pretty soon so future proofing not workie .

follow above advice.

[DarkVixen0]

Regarding the over-the-top motherboard: it's from my sister and brother-in-law, and they're the take-it-or-leave-it sort of people. The said I could have any one computer part and that I just had to choose. I already have a processor, so I chose that motherboard. With them, it just wouldn't work to take the monetary value and scatter it across more items. *sigh* So I'm sorry about the title including "future-proofing" and the $2500. I just didn't want to get into the family stuff; but I guess I should have explained from the start.

So please reset: I already have the processor, the motherboard is a non-negotiable gift, and my budget is $1500.

Thanks, CroSsFiRe2009, for the price matching suggestions. I just listed things to look like a parts list for easy digestibility. I'm using newegg.ca mostly and also bewawa.com (they deliver free, in person, the day that an order is placed, within the city and suburbs).

jcmaz, I'm not trying to get the most expensive stuff on the market. There will be various audio recording and editing programs open simultaneously. Recording at a bit depth of 24 and a sample rate of 96 K, each channel of audio will be at least 100 MB. Take 20 channels, and that starts to add up. I suppose that 6 GB would be sufficient.

I have had my eye on the 5970 for a while. I have dual monitors at 1920 x 1200.

rjbarker, the reason for the chassis I chose is that there are only certain ones that will allow the bottom slots in the motherboard to be used, and those are 10-slot chassis. Any recommendations from that list?

chriskwarren, that's an excellent suggestion for a motherboard. If, however, I were to have two video cards in the future, I'd like to have at least two PCIe x4 slots without taking the video card slots down from x16. But again, I cannot change the motherboard.

I like the Corsair TX Series 850W PSU. Is there a modular one, though, that you'd suggest?

In what way(s) is the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus is better than the Noctua NH-D14?

Is the WD2001FASS reliable, on average? For the non-SSD drive, I just chose one rated near-highest on Newegg.

What about Corsair XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-pin DDR3 1600MHz CS7?

steers, I'm looking into whether the HAF X will be sufficient in terms of expansion slots. On the UD9 product page, it reads that a case with 9 or more is needed, so maybe the HAF X just didn't get on the list of supported cases because it's new.

*phew*

[rapmaster]

why not tell them to give you the 5970 and buy yourself a cheaper motherboard?

For the PSU, there are the Corsair HX850, Silverstone Strider Plus 850W, Antec truepower new 750W and Seasonic M12D 820W. All those are modular and they are solid units.

Coolermaster 212+ is much better in term of price/performance, but if you want high-end, you could get away with Megahalem or Venemous-X.

[CroSsFiRe2009]

I should mention that the TX is old and not only is not as efficient as newer models but is also not modular. The Corsair HX850 wins my vote with the Seasonic M12D or X750(budget permitting) being other good options
NH-D14 is almost in a class of its own. It performs exceptionally well but is humongous. I say go with the D14, Megahalem or Ven-X. However with your budget I think you should consider watercooling as an option if you have enough budget left over.
The 2TB WD is fast but since you have a SSD as a boot drive I'm not sure how much more it'll help speed up the system but I'm no expert on this so I'll let others chime in.

As for choosing between a 5970 or a 5870, I'd go with the 5870 since somebody has already said above, resale value is much better. However, if you're watercooling and don't care about selling it later on, having to only get one block is certainly easier and cheaper

[chrisk]

Yep the HX850 is good if you want modular. More expensive though, and the TX is still a fine power supply. But if you wanted modular the the HX850 is still more than enough...I say excessive.

As for the Corsair ram you mentioned, it depends on the price difference. The lower latency will help in some benchmarks, but in real life no difference. I would not spend more than 20-30 bucks on that ram, as it is no real difference.

As for the 212+ heatsink I mentioned, you can get a decent overclock with it. If you plan on no serious overclocking, then def stick to the 212+.

I mentioned the 2TB Black because you wanted the most 'future-proof' rig. I figured that with a $700 mobo, a $700 video card, the 2TB Black hard drive for some extra storage might be more 'future-proof' than those components. The Black HDDs also have a longer warranty than regular HDDs. The Black is also pretty fast for a HDD. Again, I looked at the components you were choosing and thought that lots of storage is a good long-term investment, even if its a lot of money.

[gomer]

so you should take the mb back and exhcange it for evga classified 3sli or alternative, you wont be able to utilize 12gb of ram, its too much go with 6gb of good stuff no more. and if you want something future proof your gonnna need sli or xfire so you can add gpus every year or so and if your gonna be running 3 gpu your gonna need a way better power supply. i personaly when with a antec quattro 1200w

heres what i went with:
i7 920 d0
evga x58 classified 3sli
6gb corsair dominator 8-8-8-24 (upgrade later on)
gtx 480 (sli later on)
antec quattro 1200w
corsair 800d case
didnt buy any ssd's they will drop in price quickly ill pick one up round christmas and use raided 1tb hitachi's for now.
and abunch of water cooling bits

[DarkVixen0]

Thank you for your helpful and in many cases detailed information thus far.


All right. The PSU has become the Corsair HX850.

The CPU cooler will be the Noctua NH-D14 or the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus. Water cooling will be left as an option, but I'm not going there just yet.

The HD will be the 2TB black, but depending on the answer to a question below.

gomer, I cannot change the motherboard.


I have a few questions:

Can any drives that have not been having problems utilize the SATA III connectors yet? Having attempted to read up on the matter, the answer seems to me to be no.

Is a fan controller with temperature readings (provided either via hardware or software) something to look into? Suggestions?

If I do not plan on playing around with memory (i.e., if I leave it at stock for now), I'm assuming a RAM cooler isn't at all necessary. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[DarkVixen0]

Another question:

What is the lowest profile memory of the ones we've discussed?
(Corsair XMS3 Classic 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL9
Corsair XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-pin DDR3 1600MHz CL7
or even G.SKILL Trident 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 2000MHz CL9
or others at 1600MHz, low-ish cas latency, and high quality)

[Toyoracer]

Welcome DarkVixen0, You mentioned doing lots of recording, so add a

Western Digital WD20EARS Caviar Green 2TB SATA2 3GBPS 64MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM

very good drive for storage. Work on the black drive save to green drive.
No hdd is fast enough to take advantage of Sata III .