Im ready to build a nice rig but.....

[Would]

My eyes hurt from the weeks of studying, and before i drop 3+k on a machine I want feedback on my 2 prospective builds. Thank you in advance for your feedback. I plan to play games of course (whatever one i want) and just brag about how impressive the machine is ....i live in the US and will start buying parts in the next few days if your ideas do not divert my budget $500 or so ...or in a totally new direction.

Build 1:
Gigabyte ga-x58a-ud9
Lian li pc-p80-Why you ask? Newegg has a great combo case and board $775 combined
Intel 980x
8gb ddr3 corsair dominator 1600
2 ssd 64 or 128 in raid 1
may add additional drives but storage is not a real issue
2x crossfire ati 5770
it will be win 7 professional or ultimate
power supply? 850w at least help me out
Water cooled


Only 2 changes from first to second build board and case.

Build 2

GA-X58A-UD7
thermaltake spedo advance
below same as above
8gb ddr3 corsair dominator 1600
2 ssd 64 or 128 in raid 1
may add additional drives but storage is not a real issue
2x crossfire ati 5770
it will be win 7 professional or ultimate
power supply? 850w at least help me out
Water cooled


I have read so much crap and there are so many opinions it is getting busy inside a very crowded space between my ears. Am i missing a good idea? am i going the wrong way. I am not new to building just a bit overwhelmed by the amount of shinola they can put on things. Any thing I have is open to suggestions. I will state I am partial to Gigabyte and Msi boards i have had a few Asus pop on me but not against them. It took a lot of thought to pull me off a msi board ....fill my cup with ideas as it is obvious im going to spend a lot of money and i want to nail this machine down for a few years to come.

thank you again

[_dangtx_]

very expensive mobo+cpu vs very low enD video cards

get an ud3 + 920/930 if you want to go 1366

as for video cards, one 5870, maybe 2 gtx 460 (better than gtx 480)

seasonic corsair and the like for psu

[xlilmissmjx]

If you do SSD's in RAID then you'll lose TRIM, so best to go with just 1 large drive from the start. Get a sandforce controller based one for best performance.

Get a 1TB storage drive for data, Seagate or WD are recommended.

Instead of the 5770's in CF, go for the GTX460 1GB's in SLI instead, they kick the 5770's to the curb! or go with a GTX470/480 and get a second one later on. If you want to stick with ATI then go with the 5850's in CF or go with one 5870/5970 and get a second one later on.

I always recommend Corsair, Seasonic, Antec & Silverstone power supplies. I like the Corsair AX & HX series the most due to their modularity and they are 80+ rated or higher in efficiency.

[Luay79]

Here's a few ideas,

I like the case. Check out the Cooler Master HAFX too.

980X + UD9? for games? :) For 700$ less, the 930 will play your games almost 99% as the 980X does. for another 400$ less, the Asus Rampage 3 will offer near perfect performance. I know it's not 100% and perfect as the 980X/UD9 combo but for 1,100$ less you lose less than 3% performance in my estimation. This is a gaming machine that should still earn allot of bragging rights.

If you want GIGABYTE go with the UD4 or UD5, unless the UD3 has SLI then go for that. My recommendation is Asus.

Storing files on a SSD won't make your PC experience that much better. Have a small 64 or 128 GB SSD for OS, Applications and a few lucky games, and another big HDD for files and everything else.

I don't like to recommend SLI/crossfire unless you know your hardware, but the 460 SLI is an exception. It will max out any DX11 game on 1200 resolution, but good luck finding a 1200 display and staying under 3k. If your display is 1080P then 460 SLI will be more than enough for years to come.

[Rison]

Hurray for huge post.


As others have said, the 980x is a waste, unless you're doing multi-threaded encoding/rendering or Folding@home (even then.. a bit extreme of a price)

Grab a Gigabyte UD3R + Intel i7 930 - it will perform similar in games, without the huge price tag associated with it.

I don't know what RAM you're specifically looking at, but it's the wrong stuff. You want triple channel ram.. three 2 gig modules. (6 gig total)
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...acture=G.Skill
Or the Trident series
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=38...acture=G.Skill
that's the canadian site, reference the part numbers for wherever you're purchasing from.

You say "at least 850W" but probably don't realize the highest end video card with your setup is only 450W at peak. You can SLI EVGA GTX 480sc's with a 850W.. and still have all the watercooling and extreme fan setups.
Look for something semi or fully modular.. Seasonic, Silverstone, Corsair are popular - I use OCZ power supplies too.. but some don't like OCZ PSUs for some reason. XFX are good - they are basically rebranded Seasonics - whatever is in that window that's on sale.
If you're going for epeen in a PSU, the Corsair AX850 is dressed to impress. (and.. is a wicked PSU to boot)

As for video cards, I wouldn't go with the 5770 to impress.. I am an NVIDIA fan, so i'd probably go with the EVGA GTX 470 as a base.. or a 480 (sc)with your newly expanded budget. If you're an ATI fan, i'd go with an XFX 5850 or 5870. In both setups, ATI or Nvidia, i'd be getting a second down the road if you want the epeen.

As others stated, grab a 120 gig or so Sandforce based SSD - OCZ Vertex2 being the best out on the market right now. I'd grab a second 1TB sata hard drive for storage.. the Samsung F3 is the fastest, and the WD Blacks are popular.

I don't have personal experience with the Lian-Li case you talk about.. but cases are all a personal estetics thing. If you're watercooling, the CM HAF-X or ATCS840, and Corsair 800D are up there for watercooling favorites.

Watercooling loops are a whole different story for a whole different section of this site.. and I don't have the time to type all that out right now, lol.

[Would]

You guys rock, I knew I was off and you gave me things i needed to hear.
I will start re evaluating today and begin my journey anew.

[fishingfanatic]

I wholeheartedly agree. The SSDs in raid isn't such a good idea. The GTC 460 1gb in sli is a knockout imho.
I own the HAF X, and love it. My experiences with Asus have been excellent. If you think it may be ok, look at the P6X58D premium or the little brother -E mobo.
The 930 is one heck of a good cpu and very overclocker friendly.
As for psu, any of the suggested are good. My preference in this case is the new AX series psu, 850 being the recommended one.
No one has mentioned any other memory and any lifetime is good. My preference is Mushkin with the redline being the preferred choice.
The new HDD sata 3 drives are very fast, with the Samsung being fastest and the WD right behind it. I couldn't believe how much faster they are.
Keep checking back with the experts on this site,( I'm still pretty green behind the ears), they really know their stuff!
Good luck wit hyour build and enjoy the new system.

[lcdguy]

drop the cpu down from the 980x it's not needed. and then up your videocard to something like a 5870 or 5970. or get this ->http://www.eurocom.com (look for panther 2.0 under products).

[Would]

Ok I went on a spree at Microcenter today,

I7 940
gigabyte ud5
Nzxt case (my daughter liked it but it is a tight fit)
2 gtx 470
2x g skill trident 4g kits ddr3 2000 total 8 g
Corsair h50 self contained water cooling
Corsair 850hx
samsung f3 1tb
Ocz vertex 2 120gb

lg blue ray burner
lite on cd/dvd
win 7 ultimate
Numerous additional fans and stuff

waiting for ssd/h50 water cooling and ram from newegg should have by Monday

Total price just under 3500..envy drool from others while in line to pay epic ....smile on my face priceless

Thanks for the help everyone :)

[xlilmissmjx]

I noticed you went with dual channel ram there, since your getting an X58 board you'll need tri-channel ram like these

Newegg.com - G.SKILL PI Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7T-6GBPI $160

6GB is the sweet spot for ram on an i7-900 series and you can always get more later on.

The H50 is ok, the H70 is a beast if its available...

Newegg.com - CORSAIR Hydro H70 CWCH70 120mm High Performance CPU Cooler $110

Good luck with your build