http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Publi ... er=9293349
Just would like to know if anything is incompatable or if there are any higher quality parts I could get for the same price.
Going with nvidia because i freaking hate ATI drivers, they always fail hardcore.
Also need suggestions for a water cooling pump and radiator that would fit in the case, would like to cool the cpu and both vid cards.
Thanks!

Dude for $4000 it better be compatible.....LOL!

But u could definitely have a very good computer for much less, no need to go over the top. I spent $600 on Newegg last year for upgrades and I'm still playing the latest stuff. True since DX11 came out I could use a videocard upgrade but my 4870 is serving me well atm.

Few suggestions and questions, to start off, why 6 500GB HDDs? Is all of the space nessesary, and furthermore, why no solid state drive for your operating system+games? Also, most motherboards(the one you listed included) have their own build in RAID controllers so the add-on card is quite unnecessary. If I were you I would go with RAID 0+1 array with two 60GB SSD's + a 2TB storage drive if you need the space.

Secondly, the RAM. If you're going to build a new system and especially in this case if you're dropping a nice chunk of change, there is no reason not to go with the most current hardware available. DDR3 1600 is slightly dated, its not bad at all, but I would go for perhaps DDR3 2200+mhz. And you don't necessarily need 12GB's of the stuff, I have 8GB of 2200mhz ram and I beat everyone into loading maps in BC2, not mention the fact that RAM is more unstable in higher quantities like that, especially when getting to the upper echelon speed of 2000+ mhz.

PSU looks good, video cards look good, you won't be unsatisfied, I have two of the GTX480s and they're amazing(a little hot though), even one of them doesn't choke on anything thats out right now at 1900x1200 with two monitors. Motherboard is a great board, again with a good raid controller making the add-on card purchase somewhat moot.

You're going to want an aftermarket HSF though for your i7 980X if you want to take full advantage of it and push at or near 5ghz. I saw you mentioned water cooling, i've never treaded in that direction as i've found it unnecessary, so I can't really make any recommendations there. Air has been fine for me and i've overclocked the crap out of all of my hardware. The case you chose is nice I had a coolermaster one for two years, very solid.

However from my experiences (no favortism or anything..), once I went silverstone I haven't looked back. They're the only company that manufactures cases with this particular design that is just flat out amazing for cooling, and I absolutely LOVE mine. SILVERSTONE Fortress Series FT02B-W. The main focus here is the 90 degree rotation of the motherboard, so that the heat from the case is all pushed up, the video cards will fan air directly into the air above, which is just an amazing idea for cooling. I have a different version of the case, but this one has the same general idea. I've built plenty of computers in my time for friends and family and i've never worked with such great craftsmanship, its just an idea for you, those nVidia cards do get quite hot and sifting through some of the reviews on the HAF, some people are running into issues with keeping their rig cool.

Anyways, thats my two cents, take if for what you will. I have recommendations for the HSF, SSDs, RAM, also just wondering is there any particular reason for the MOBO you chose? It's a good choice but just curious.

Good luck with the build though, if you need help with anything hit me up with a PM i'm always happy to help, building new computers is always exciting to me, lol.

It looks like you got on newegg and picked out the most expensive stuff you could find; this is not always the best way of getting a good pc.

That being said, I agree with what has been said mostly.

You really do want a SSD as your primary OS drive. I would not put your games on it though. Get 2 raptors and put them into raid 0, you will notice a ton of performance from that. You do not need 6 small drives which means you dont need that raid controller card either. For mass storage get yourself a 2TB internal or external drive (or a few if you think you really NEED that much storage).

Since you can drop the cost of the raid card and a few HDDs, i would suggest getting some kind of pci sound card. These onboard sound cards arent bad, but they arent good either. You can snag something with audio in and whatnot for pretty cheap (by cheap i mean it looks like you have an endless credit card so around 2-300) and i think you would be happier with that.

12GB of ram is a bit excessive, most games wouldnt use that much and its going to be some time before they do. You can always expand it later. I would up it a notch to the 2200 version and take it down to maybe 6GB for now. Having a whole shit-ton of ram is great, but ive heard of instances where having too much puts a bottleneck on the bus which ultimately slows stuff down.

I think you should reconsider the ATI solution. Their Crossfire (SLI) is better (IMO) and you will get more performance for the close to the same price with the 5970's. I am in no way an ATI fanboi btw, so take it as you like. It seems like people really hate one or the other these days though.

So, take suggestions as you will.

Man, i wish i had 4k to build a PC

I actually had the 5970 right before I purchased the 480s. One thing I noticed was in BC2, I was capped at 12x AA, when I switched to nVidia I could go up to 32x AA. I dunno, things like that kind of bother me about ATI. I gave them a chance again and was unhappy with the inability to overclock it quickly and efficiently. I had to increase the voltage on the card to literally overclock it 1MHZ otherwise I was getting screen tearing issues while even sitting idle on the desktop.

And hes right about the sound card, forgot to mention about it. Its an ABSOLUTE must if you plan on gaming unless you like hearing your sound through a trash can. I'd grab an Asus XONAR card, perhaps the D2 since you're budget looks pretty unlimited. Not sure about the raptor drives though, all I know is a solid state drive is much faster than any mechanical hard drive if you choose the right read/write speed. And again with the allotted budget theres no reason not to.

Honestly what you were saying was what I was thinking I would do in the first place, but when I asked a friend from PONG (yum yums) he told me that mobo raid controllers are pretty shoddy and so much can go wrong with them. He recommended raid 6, which is what I would need the card for. Im still looking for whats right for me (which is why im asking here)
Anyone have any experiance with both of them?

True, Thanks! im really looking for a system that will stand the test of time.

Im not sure if Im going to go with watercooling for sure, I live next to a lake so im very worried about condensation and dont want to have to RMA my parts every 2 weeks or so. Any suggestions you can make on a heatsync?

Its a nifty idea. ill have to check it out, not sure what i think about wires coming out of the top of my rig though


Im a fan of the rog series really, nothing really made it a MUST HAVE for me (besides the usb 3.0) but im using an asus crosshair on my current rig and besides the lcd poster going haywire on me its worked perfectly. The one thing im worried about though, is your previous suggestion of the 2200 ram and this quote from the newegg description (Get even more performance – up to 2200MHz – through overclocking.) Will this be a problem? Ive never overclocked ram before >>

I'm so stoked, you dont even know.

kind of. I have a site that pulls in about 5k a month... i figured i could avoid taxes by writing it off as a business expense... i mean id rather put the money into my computer rather than give it to the government right?

I had more info I tried to post earlier and failed, but here is a condensed version:

If running SLI, dig a little deeper to find out if the mobo supports v/v/s or only v/v/v on the PCIe bus. If it is not able to support both video and storage on the PCIe bus, that raid controller will cause you problems. I was trying to find an answer to this on the asus site and in the manual but did not find a conclusive answer.

For power supply, I would choose a different manufacturer. Here are 3 that I would choose over that one:
1st - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817151083
2nd - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817371012
3rd - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817139013

As for a sound card, you will not be able to use a PCI soundcard. To run the grfx cards SLI in 16/16 you need to use PCIe slots 1 and 3 on that mobo. PCI slot is right below PCIe slot 3 and those cards take up to slots, so the PCI slot will be covered. That leaves you with only a PCIe x4 slot available. Another thought, there is a handful of really nice headsets and speakers that use usb. And, onboard sound has gotten much better. if you use SPDIF out of onboard to a SPDIF device, it is all digital transfer so the soundcard doesn't make any (well, almost any) difference.

I'm not totally against Nvidia, but they really need to take a cue from AMD and try to do more with less. Huge videocards that gobble power and churn out ungodly amounts of heat are unacceptable imo.

5970: 12" L x 4.376 H" x 1.5"
GTX480: 4.376" H x 10.5" L

5 Celcius difference under load. Keep in mind anything under 105 celcius is acceptable.

Again, barely much of a difference between the watt consumption between the two cards under load and idle

I've personally owned both cards, and like I have mentioned before you HAVE to increase the voltage on the 5970 if you want to overclock it, unless you want it to sit at stock speeds. And ATI's 5970 is a bigger card..tbh i don't see how size really matters with cards, as long as it fits in the case. I'm sitting at 805mhz/1600mhz/2090mhz on the gtx 480 (from 701/1401/1848..) and my temps are sitting below 90c on full load playing bc2. On air. Just make sure you have good case airflow and you're good.

hey piknik, i asked some questions in my post, dont know if you saw them at all. any ideas?

I worry when my 4870 gets to 80C, couldn't imagine 105C. That would be insane.

Temperature and heat are not interchangeable. Two different chips can be running at the same operating temperature and one may need to dissipate more heat than the other to maintain that temperature. Energy can be transferred without the temperature changing. This is known as latent heat and is a factor that is not often considered when comparing temperatures and cooling solutions.

dear lord.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835608018
according to their site the heat dispersers on the top of corsair dominator need to be removed in order for this heatsync to fit...
http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=faqs ... &lng=en#14


good idea or no?

I would definitely grab a kit of this. The mobo i'm listing below is double channel board, and even with DDR3 it'll be fine. I have the same kit sitting at 2206mhz, fastest RAM i've ever had. I've never been a fan of kits that come with fans, I would suggest this CPU cooler, it'll cool your RAM as well. You're free to ditch the fan that came with the RAM.This one right here, the TEC technology is amazing in all of the professional reviews i've read.

I would stick with the two GTX480s, and also strongly suggest the case that I posted in a previous thread.


Edit: I didn't see your last post for some reason commenting on my suggestions. But yeah, the HSF you posted is just a monster. It doesn't do that good of a job as doubling up on cooling the RAM too, so I would definitely take a gander at the one I posted. If you're worried about condensation, you'll be getting the same amount of that with watercooling hehe. The main heat source is going to be the video cards, but as long as you have good airflow you'll be fine.

ASUS did release a new motherboard recently: Clickie TBH, I would go with that, the reviews i've seen on it are solid, very good board. Infact i'll just give you a full build list as my suggestions and you can take it from there since i'm bored.

After reading a lot of reviews and looking at the specs, I think you would be better off with this for an air build, and the space for watercooling if you decide to switch in the future:

Corsair Obsidian Series 800D Case

Intel Core i7-980X CPU

Coolermaster V10 Hybrid TEC HSF

Crucial RealSSD C300 6GB/s SATA III 128GB x2

Western Digital VelociRaptor 600GB SATA III (However much space you need, buy more if you need more.)

Patriot Viper II 'Sector 5' Edition 4GB DDR3 2400mhz x2(The memory standard will be default set at 1333, your mobo is capable of going up to 2200mhz, this will ensure stability if the RAM has been tested and works at 2400mhz.)

ASUS Maximus III Extreme LGA 1156 Intel P55 Motherboard

Antec TPQ-1200 1200W PSU

EVGA GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) SuperClocked+ x2

ASUS Xonar Essence STX Virtual 7.1 Sound Card

Misc:
SSD Mounts

I would suggest a very high end headset, and if you want a nice setup with speakers, I would definitely look into steelseries and senheisser. (I do that, put my music over my speakers and then use my headphones for games and such.)

i looked at some reviews for that heatsync a lil while ago. Saw a bunch of stuff about the fans failing or outright not working, and that the tec only activates when the cpu is about overheated.