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Asus & Corsair Build - Sanity check please

Xaero1369
Level 7
This is the current list of components I plan on buying & putting together in my next custom rig. The goal was to keep a hard focus on using Corsair & Asus parts as much as possible, while maintaining enthusiast performance. I may upgrade the GPU to CF in the future, but I feel this design plan is quite solid & should last a few years to stay ahead of the ‘power curve’ with future game releases. Any feedback or substitution suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am mainly looking for a sanity check & thumbs up on if this proposed plan will be a solid one for using in Jan/Feb 2013, when I get to order the parts & assemble my rig. With that in note, I will continue to make tweaks as needed/desired.

Case: Corsair Obsidian 800D - CC800DW
(Have been a huge fan of this case since it first came out & look forward to building in it)
PSU: Corsair AX860i - CP-9020037-NA
(Originally planned on using the AX1200i as it was the only Corsair Link Digital PSU available, but should be sufficient for powering this rig & possible upgrade to a CF GPU setup)
Motherboard: Asus Maximus V Formula - Maximus V FORMULA
(No desire to upgrade to Extreme version & like the idea of SupremeFX IV Audio onboard)
CPU: Intel i7-3770K - BX80637I73770K
(Great LGA 1155 CPU w/ good overclocking headroom, can’t beat the price/performance ratio either)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB (4x8GB) 1866MHz - CMZ32GX3M4X1866C10R
(Will be using 16GB as a RAM Cache to boost performance, red coloring to match color scheme)
GPU: Asus Matrix 7970 Platinum - MATRIX-HD7970-P-3GD5
(Asus ROG Flagship card with amazing performance in 2560x1440 resolution)
SSD: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB - CSSD-N240GBGTX-BK
(Might switch this one to 2x 120GB in a RAID 0 instead)
HDD: 2x Seagate Barracuda 3TB - ST3000DM001
(Plan on running these in a RAID 0)
ODD1: Asus BW-12B1ST Blu-ray Burner - BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS
(Probably will be used as a Blu-ray player only, but nice to have the option to burn Blu-ray as well)
ODD2: Asus DRW-24B1ST DVD Burner - DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS
(Will be used as DVD/CD Burner/player to reduce wear on Blu-ray burner)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i - CW-9060009-WW
(Great cooling performance on i7-3770K for overclocking)
Cooler Fans: 4x Corsair SP120 High Performance - CO-9050008-WW
(Will be mounted on H100i in a Push/Pull configuration)
Case Fans: 2x Corsair AF140 Quiet Edition - CO-9050009-WW
(Will replace stock case fans)
Display: Asus PB278Q 27” WQHD LED Monitor – PB278Q
(27” 2560x1440 resolution LED, need I say more?)
Keyboard: Corsair Vengeance K90 - CH-9000003-NA
(A nice upgrade to my Logitech G15)
Mouse: Corsair Vengeance M90 - CH-9000002-NA
(Good pairing w/ K90 Keyboard)
Speakers: Corsair SP2500 2.1 - CA-SP211NA
(Currently using Klipsch ProMedia 2.1, but these are from Corsair)
Headset: Corsair Vengeance 2000 7.1 - CA-9011115-NA
(I enjoy my TurtleBeach X41 headset for my Xbox, why not have a wireless headset for PC as well?)
Mouse Pad: Corsair Vengeance MM200 Standard - CH-9000013-WW
(Can’t have a Corsair Mouse/Keyboard/etc w/o the matching Mouse Pad)

As of Nov 8, 2012 total price w/o tax & shipping is about $3,900. This fits in my budget, but I might cut a few corners to bring it down a bit.
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16 REPLIES 16

InnervateD
Level 10
Get yourself a larger PSU, if you want room for upgrades, specially with multi-GPU configurations like Crossfire/SLi, better to spend the money now than having to buy another PSU, dismantle everything you had before, and re-wire everything up again with another PSU.

Krindor
Level 11
Sanity, close to insane aiming for a full out Corsair/Asus build..... Buuut, you should have no problems with the build, though are you sure about 2x3tb hdds It takes like 3 years to fill one 3tb hdd... Are you sure about using Wireless headset, I have not used wireless headser myself but shouldn't wired be better no chance of low battery?
If you're going to have another 7970 might be clever to get the 1200w one
| Chassi: Phantom Fulltower White Edition | Mobo: Maximus V Extreme | CPU: i7 3770k
| Memory: 2x8gb G.Skill Trident X 2400mhz | GPU: PNY Geforce GTX 670 | PSU: NZXT Hale 90 750w
| SSD: Intel 120gb 330 series (OS) | Intel 120gb 330 series (Games n stuff)
| Monitor: LG 29EA93 | Cooling: Custom Loop

Krindor wrote:
Sanity, close to insane aiming for a full out Corsair/Asus build..... Buuut, you should have no problems with the build, though are you sure about 2x3tb hdds It takes like 3 years to fill one 3tb hdd... Are you sure about using Wireless headset, I have not used wireless headser myself but shouldn't wired be better no chance of low battery?
If you're going to have another 7970 might be clever to get the 1200w one


It takes you 3 years to fill a 3TB Drive?
I bought a 3TB drive about 2 months ago, and if it wasn't for my 200GB bandwidth cap a month, I'd filled that drive in a month. Thought it's about 60% filled so I'm getting there.

InnervateD wrote:
It takes you 3 years to fill a 3TB Drive?
I bought a 3TB drive about 2 months ago, and if it wasn't for my 200GB bandwidth cap a month, I'd filled that drive in a month. Thought it's about 60% filled so I'm getting there.

Wow just wow, I had a 1 tb for 3 years and didn't fill it.
| Chassi: Phantom Fulltower White Edition | Mobo: Maximus V Extreme | CPU: i7 3770k
| Memory: 2x8gb G.Skill Trident X 2400mhz | GPU: PNY Geforce GTX 670 | PSU: NZXT Hale 90 750w
| SSD: Intel 120gb 330 series (OS) | Intel 120gb 330 series (Games n stuff)
| Monitor: LG 29EA93 | Cooling: Custom Loop

Area_66
Level 11
I just give a quic look, but I will change the RAM for G-skill , to many peoples have problem with vengeance ,16 GB is plenty and more easy to deal if you OC, you don't need RAM disk with SSD also if it was me I will get a 5 years warranted Intel 520 series SSD , you better have a good backup system if you plan to have 6 TB of data in Raid 0

Area 66 wrote:
I just give a quic look, but I will change the RAM for G-skill , to many peoples have problem with vengeance ,16 GB is plenty and more easy to deal if you OC, you don't need RAM disk with SSD also if it was me I will get a 5 years warranted Intel 520 series SSD , you better have a good backup system if you plan to have 6 TB of data in Raid 0

If he is making a Asus/Corsair themed build why would he want G.skill and Intel stuff? Also the problem with vengeance is for the X79 chipset not Z77, there should be no problem for the vengeance memory and the MVF.
| Chassi: Phantom Fulltower White Edition | Mobo: Maximus V Extreme | CPU: i7 3770k
| Memory: 2x8gb G.Skill Trident X 2400mhz | GPU: PNY Geforce GTX 670 | PSU: NZXT Hale 90 750w
| SSD: Intel 120gb 330 series (OS) | Intel 120gb 330 series (Games n stuff)
| Monitor: LG 29EA93 | Cooling: Custom Loop

Chino
Level 15
Everything looks nice. A future Asus Matrix 7970 Platinum crossfire is possible with a 860W PSU, but if your budget allows, I'd get a 1000W PSU as a minimum. As for the RAM, have you heard about the Dominator GTs? They're very nice looking and red too plus they overclock very well. 😄

Good feedback so far. On the PSU topic, I know the AX860i seems to be cutting it close if I do go w/ CF 7970 Matrix cards & I will most likely just go w/ the AX1200i anyway since it's only $100 more & will allow more overhead in case I decided to add anything else later. That's a simple mod. As far as changing the SSD, I really doubt I would go w/ anything other than a Corsair SSD since my theme only has 2 parts that aren't Corsair/Asus (CPU & HDD). I know the Samsung 840 Pro is due out soon as well & is quite tempting, but I'll pass. The 2x 3TB RAID 0 is up in the air right now. I originally contemplated a RAID 10 setup for increased performance & security, but due to added cost & pretty much requiring a dedicated RAID controller, I've opted to stick w/ the 2 HDD setup. I'll probably end up just going w/ a RAID 1 instead of RAID 0 for that data security. Another option would be setting up a NAS & performing regular backups. I've looked into the Dominator GTs, but the cost is much higher compared to Vengeance for the same size/speed. I am locked in on using 32GB RAM though since I really do desire that 16GB RAM Cache. Even with an SSD for boot/applications, performance is still increased by quite a bit w/ the RAM Cache. For further details, check this link http://www.corsair.com/blog/vengeance-32gb-memory-caching-performance-tests/ @Krindor - I've noticed in your signature, u have listed 'SSD: Intel 120gb 330 series (OS) | Intel 120gb 330 series (Games n stuff)'. Is it better separate your OS from your apps/games or to combine them on a single SSD? If it is, I might prefer the 2x 120GB SSD vs the single 240GB SSD as indicated in my OP. Thanks for the constructive criticism, opinions, & feedback. Keep it coming 🙂

Krindor
Level 11
It's clever to put the OS on a separate SSD so that SSD uses all its power for the OS, this will give a quicker startup. And then have another SSD for games and other stuff. An SSD will also lose some of its speed when it is filled over 90 or 100gb if you have a 120gb SSD, I don't remember why but this is also a reason to why you have the OS on a separate drive.

Going to sleep and will answer any questions when I wake up.
| Chassi: Phantom Fulltower White Edition | Mobo: Maximus V Extreme | CPU: i7 3770k
| Memory: 2x8gb G.Skill Trident X 2400mhz | GPU: PNY Geforce GTX 670 | PSU: NZXT Hale 90 750w
| SSD: Intel 120gb 330 series (OS) | Intel 120gb 330 series (Games n stuff)
| Monitor: LG 29EA93 | Cooling: Custom Loop