Need Help/Recommendations For New Build

[PissOnApple]

Hello all,

I'm new on here, I'm looking for some suggestions and a couple answers to some questions.
This is my first build so please pardon any idiocy.

The build is as follows:
Case: COOLER MASTER HAF X

MoBo: Asus Rampage IV Extreme (hopefully you guys can put my mind at ease, it got very poor reviews on NewEgg)

CPU: Intel Sandy Bridge-E Core i7-3930K (I'm debating on waiting on Ivy Bridge, but heard it's not worth it on the desktop side so any input there would be appreciated as well)

CPU Cooling: Corsair H100

GPU: 2 EVGA 02G-P4-2689-KR GeForce GTX 680 Hydro Copper 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 (I see that a cooling system is required, any recommendations on that, maybe I need to rethink the whole cooling system itself)

HDD: I will have a SSD for OS/OS's, another drive for installs, and another for storage and backups

PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower Grand TPG-1200M 1200W

RAM: And here is my question, can I run 2400 memory with the Rampage or do I need 2133 or 1866? I'm looking at G.Skills 16GB something or other

This is going to be a decent chunk of change so before I drop it I want to make sure that everything is going to work properly together, lifespan will be decent and that I do not encounter any major expensive problems along the way.

Any better solutions or products to recommend are welcome as I am not dead set on these.

I look forward to your replies and please do not hesitate to point out any problems or This-Is-What-I-Would-Do's!!

Thanks!

[WHO_FARTED?]

first off, if your getting h2o gpu's, then you should reconsider the h100. its a sealed unit and it wont do both cpu and gpu. it's not hard to build a water setup and theres people here to help with that if you need it. i dont know if you'll need 2 video's cards (if its for gaming)but it's your money.

second be sure your psu has the correct connectors to suit your motherboard.

third, ivy bridge wont be a bad option if you want to save some money.

fourth, in some cases higher speed memory doesnt mean better performance. a good 1600 with a xmp should safice most for gaming.

[PissOnApple]

Yeah, I'll be honest. I pulled the PSU and GPU out of my ass. I had the post typed up once and it had logged me out and my auto save ended with the H100, irritated, my reiteration was not as of much quality as my first.

You bring a valid point up on the memory. So, Thanks for that!
And as for the GPU's it comes back to my frustration and irritation and I did not feel like redoing it again, apologies on that matter.

Reasoning of 2 is I enjoy my multiple monitors, can I get away with one or no? But you are correct, it is for gaming...

I know that first post probably came off as "I'm the arrogant little **** that wants the latest and greatest, top shelf stuff"

It's simply that this is my first build, and I want to do a lot with it because I actually have some spending money to do it. Being a broke ass college student gets old, case in point, I have a old Dell desktop sitting on a AMD dual core at about 2.2 GHz and a upgraded ATI 1600 (yes I said upgraded) video card, with upgraded 4GB ram...I get out performed by low end laptops, my little gerbils just can't run fast enough :D

I'm probably the most Ignorant IT professional you'll ever meet, not saying I'm not intelligent or I don't know my stuff, I just don't have time to keep up with specs and acronyms and new features. Can't be great at everything or know everything.

All that jazz aside... Have you worked with the Rampage IV at all?

[kkn]

try whit one 680 first and see how it will work for you, they are expensive i guess ( dono what they cost your way ).
and i would drop the H100 since your gona do wc on the vid card.
mabye do a 240 or a 360 rad in the top ( inside ).
hdd try ssd for os and game and hdd for storage ( cheeper per gb then ssd ( my opinnion ) )
and im whit "who_farted?" on the memmory.
i recomend a reservoar that "block" the air from going to the highest point in the waterloop ( witch is the radiator ) and that way you will reduse the cooling.
mabye do a push/pull on the rad?
go over and watch some of the builds in this link : http://rog.asus.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?40-Case-Modding-amp-PC-Build-Pics
mabye you can get an idea on how you can set up yours? ( not thinking of modding out the case and so on ) but for an insight of how it can be done in the watercooling way :)

[PissOnApple]

Yes one other thing I forgot to correct was the HDD section, to be clear, SSD drive for OS, HDD for games and storage.
I will definitely consider RAIDing 2 SSDs for OS and games. Thanks for that input!
And the H100 can be assumed gone unless I tune down the GPU...
I'll have to do a little more digging as I am not too familiar with WC and push/pull did cross my mind.
Thanks for the input and I'll definitely check that link out!

[WHO_FARTED?]

an ssd raid config isnt going to be a big improvement over a single ssd. if it were me you consider cloning the drive incase one goes out. which sometimes happens. we are talking maybe 4 seconds faster on start up with raid0 if your lucky.

[PissOnApple]

This is all a big learning experience for me, as I have never worked with a lot of these technologies (SSDs, WC, big GPUs, high grade MoBo's and extensive RAM applications). So thank you for all your help and input!

[HiVizMan]

Best game set up I would wait for ivy.

ASUS ROG Ivy board.
Ivy CPU 3570K
2 x 120GB SSD Raid 1
680 or 7970 (both are really good)
8GB DDR3 2133MHz ram.
Any hard drive for storage

The water cooling I will leave for others. As that is a slippery slope that once you get on you never ever leave. :)

[kkn]

*cant find the like button" :o

[PissOnApple]

Never ever leave because its just that great or because its a complete hassle and mess? Lol

[HiVizMan]

Water cooling is like the crack of PC's it is so addictive. But unlike crack water cooling is legit and you do not end up behind bars.

This is how it starts - You think ok I will just get a little water cooling system, a taster you could say. So you get a enclosed system.

Then you look at some of the kit that is out there in the wild. Maybe you look at some of the outstanding custom builds on ROG forum even.

Man they are sweet. Those lovely water blocks, or a chipset cooling solution. The nifty tubing is almost artistic. And you look at your enclosed all in one cooling unit...upgrade time. :D

Katching the cash register goes. So now you have a 120 or a 240 RAD a dinky pump and a cool CPU block. A few days pass and you start thinking hmm should have bought a bigger pump.

Katching the cash register goes. A shiny new pump is delivered. But man now you need a res.

Katching the cash register goes one more time. And as soon as the next item is in your system you find you need something else.

The cash register keeps on ringing. Now a new rad, next week just a few more feet of Tygon tubing. A few extra barbs. Maybe a VGA block or two.

Next thing your kidney is on Ebay but you do have the sweetest water cooling system in your town.


:D :D :D :D

[kkn]

im thinking of changing mine ( just an external unit and a cpu block ) and a few parts that i havent instaled, becouse i buster my left hand 3 weeks ago ( ordered the parts on saturday and fed up my hand sunday ) and got them in the mail tuesday.
im thinking of external 240 or a 360 rad, inside pump , res ++ ( gona cost me :S ) and im drooling over evga's card you posted ( and my mobo dont suport pciex 3.0 or else it would been ordered the same day you posted this tread :P )
but right now my monny is stoping me from doing it ( or is it my bether side of my self? i dont know )
"gets whitdraws" ( know my spelling sucks )

[Zka17]

HiVizMan, do you think after "your kidney is on Ebay but you do have the sweetest water cooling system in your town" is still room to go? After all, water cooling can reduce your system's temps only to the ambient... :D

[PissOnApple]

Lol great, I'll be broke for months.

And the EVGA is definitely pretty slick and something to consider, even if it is a tad pricey.

[Menthol]

Water cooling is like the crack of PC's it is so addictive. But unlike crack water cooling is legit and you do not end up behind bars.

This is how it starts - You think ok I will just get a little water cooling system, a taster you could say. So you get a enclosed system.

Then you look at some of the kit that is out there in the wild. Maybe you look at some of the outstanding custom builds on ROG forum even.

Man they are sweet. Those lovely water blocks, or a chipset cooling solution. The nifty tubing is almost artistic. And you look at your enclosed all in one cooling unit...upgrade time. :D

Katching the cash register goes. So now you have a 120 or a 240 RAD a dinky pump and a cool CPU block. A few days pass and you start thinking hmm should have bought a bigger pump.

Katching the cash register goes. A shiny new pump is delivered. But man now you need a res.

Katching the cash register goes one more time. And as soon as the next item is in your system you find you need something else.

The cash register keeps on ringing. Now a new rad, next week just a few more feet of Tygon tubing. A few extra barbs. Maybe a VGA block or two.

Next thing your kidney is on Ebay but you do have the sweetest water cooling system in your town.


:D :D :D :D

You hit that nail on the head, It all starts so innocent doesn't it.

[HiVizMan]

HiVizMan, do you think after "your kidney is on Ebay but you do have the sweetest water cooling system in your town" is still room to go? After all, water cooling can reduce your system's temps only to the ambient... :D


That is the problem you see, because there is always something extra that you want to add or to replace with. A second pump, or a individual loop for your ram cooling. Or wait the hard drives need to be water cooled.

But hey there are other body parts that have a market value. :p

[Zka17]

I think, is nothing wrong with the permanent desire to add or replace parts, make your pc better and better - it's the driving force of the evolution, both for the pc builders and pcs itself. The real problem is that we often miss the border between reasonable and perfect, specially regarding the financial aspects of a build.

Reasonable would be a system what we need and can afford - most of us have builds which are already well over the needs. The perfect, meaning the use of top (latest, most powerful) parts, can be only a dream - there will be always never, better components by the time we finish our build.

With these said, I agree with HiVizMan to start without water cooling - specially for the first builders. It is possible to built a system using top components on complete air cooling. I know from my experience that there are enough challenges in building and setting up even the simpliest systems. Starting with water cooling will add to these challenges, ending up with a big mess... First build a working computer, then make it better!

So, getting back to the subject this thread was started... As I see, PissOnApple selected some pretty components. The case is a good basis for future expansions, even modding. The Asus RIVE mobo may be a little overkill... Are you planning to OC a lot? Even if you do, there may be cheaper solutions there... The Core i7-3930k is a good compromise regarding the OC and price, but why not the top of the line 3960X? Do you feel what i'm trying to say here? Why a top mobo and the second best cpu? I would go with a "second best" mobo for the start and save money for future upgrades.

Actually, I think the Corsair H100 is a good starting point for cpu cooling! It's easy to handle, and the performance is really good compared to the top aircoolers. For a first time builder can be the perfect choice.

Regarding the VGAs, well, that's an overkill too! I would choose something with aircooling for the beginning... The HAF X has good airflow, even if you are going SLI, should be no problems. Then, if you want OC, just put the waterblocks on them - because of this, you have to get VGAs with possibility to put waterblocks (should not be to hard these days).

1200Ws for this system on air cooling would be a little too much. But let's say, you will drop in more VGAs, water cooling loop and will do OC in the future... Are you sure that this Thermaltake psu is the best choice in the market? Perhaps you did your research, but as i see it's price/performance isn't the best... If I would plan for long term with a build, the psu definitely would be the top of the line!

[HiVizMan]

Nice post Zka17 :)

[PissOnApple]

The Asus RIVE mobo may be a little overkill... Are you planning to OC a lot? Even if you do, there may be cheaper solutions there... The Core i7-3930k is a good compromise regarding the OC and price, but why not the top of the line 3960X? Do you feel what i'm trying to say here? Why a top mobo and the second best cpu? I would go with a "second best" mobo for the start and save money for future upgrades.

OC, yes but I want it to be stable. And I was originally looking at the 3960x but I couldn't justify paying over $400 more for .1GHz and 3MB of cache. I was okay with the stepped down model, especially if OC was in the future. As for the motherboard the 2nd best verse top of the line was $100/$150 difference, it'd be rather silly to get everything in and up and running and say okay I need the bigger MoBo now. But I do understand what you're saying.

I knew the video cards were over the top lol I tend to go over the top a lot, but hey who doesnt?
You guys definitely made me see that you have to do a lot of this in steps to be successful, rather than like me, try and jump the gun and shoot for the top. I'll be reevaluating the needs and wants here with-in the next couple weeks, I'm so close to Ivy Bridge I may as well just wait on it now and at least see what it has to offer.

The PSU is not what I was actually going for, it was just picked at random. I was looking more to see if that range of power would be okay or if I need to get bigger and better, sound like it needs more.

And I agree with HiVizMan, great post and response!

[HiVizMan]

What I am looking at putting together is the Formula board with a 8120 and a 7970 card. That is going to be my new 24/7 gamer rig. Air cooled. :)

[kkn]

<- gaming rig, 24/7 ( the one im using )

[Spartan-0804]

Best game set up I would wait for ivy.

ASUS ROG Ivy board.
Ivy CPU 3570K
2 x 120GB SSD Raid 1
680 or 7970 (both are really good)
8GB DDR3 2133MHz ram.
Any hard drive for storage

The water cooling I will leave for others. As that is a slippery slope that once you get on you never ever leave. :)

Agreed, though if you enough money more RAM and the 3770K should do you a little better.