New Gaming / VM Rig

ras2k2

ras2k2

ras2k2

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Joined
20 Nov 2010
Posts
17
Hello and thank you to anyone about to suggest a spec.

I am planning on using this PC primarily as a Gaming rig, however I'm a programmer / consultant and will from time to time host up to 4 VM's (Oracle DB and an IBM Maximo cluster, I may increase the RAM to 32gb). I do not require a keyboard / mouse but I'd really like a new 27 inch monitor.

A lot of people are going to look at this spec and say I can get exactly what I need for a lot less money (which would be great) but based on past experience I have a few reasons why I've chosen some of the components I have:

Graphics - I've chosen two EVGA 680's over a single 690 because I want some redundancy in the graphics , graphics are the only component I've had consistently fail on my rigs and I really hate being without a PC while things are getting fixed / replaced under warranty. I chose EVGA due to the extended 10 year warranty (I expect to run the rig for about 3-4 years at which point they generally get handed to family). Why Nvidia? I've always used Nvidia and I like their website and drivers more than AMD's (never liked ATI either) if anyone has a reason to go AMD I'm happy to give them a chance. I chose two 4gb graphics cards because of the monitor resolution (I like running all games at max everything and not having to worry about performance).

MB - This is one of the areas I am really unsure about, I've got no interest in overclocking what so ever... however in my experience you get what you pay for and I want to stick to either Gigabyte or Asus.

Case - Simple really, I like the way it looks. The Cooler Master Cosmos II Ultra Tower Case is better but I'm not spending £300 on the case alone.

PSU - I have no idea what manufacturer is considered decent, I chose the same make as the case... as long as it can power the above spec plus a couple mechanical HD's I'm happy with other suggestions.

CPU Cooler - I chose this cooler because I believe the radiator will be easier to clean than normal CPU mounted coolers. Any suggestions would be great.

RAM - I just chose mid-range RAM I think? (minimum 16gb).

Sound Card - Ok now I have had some terrible problems with sounds cards and poor drivers in the past so for my last two builds I've avoided them and used on-board sound. That said after reading some very good reviews on the Asus Xonar I wanted to try it. If people think this is a waste of money I won’t get it.

Optical Drive - Probably never watch blue rays on this PC but I figured they may be handy for backups.

Finally I'd like to add a big thank you to the person who posted the link to the add-on needed for chrome to post baskets (sorry I can't find the name) and to anyone who actually read the entire post to this point :p

YOUR BASKET
2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Classified 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £539.99 (£899.98)
1 x Asus PB278Q 27" Professional LED Multimedia Monitor - Black £499.99
1 x Asus Z77 Maximus V Formula Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £249.98
1 x Intel Core i7-3770 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £239.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £209.99
1 x Corsair Professional Series HX+ 1050W '80+ Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020033-UK) £169.99
1 x Corsair Graphite 600T Midi Tower Case - Silver £149.99
1 x GeIL EVO Veloce Hot-Rod Red 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEV316GB2400C11ADC) £139.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £96
1 x Asus Xonar D2 7.1 PCI Sound Card £89.99
1 x Pioneer BDR-207EBK 12x BluRay RW / 16x DVD±RW 128GB - Retail £79.99
Total : £3,023.58 (includes shipping : £14.75).



*EDIT : or I wait until new CPU's and GPU's are released*
 
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How likely are you to need a 10 year warranty ? I reckon that you would have upgraded the cards way before then.
 
for me id go for a noise dampened or pre done water cooled case, and if i was spending that amount i'd also get OC to build it for me

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=2362&catid=2297
noise dampened case

and pre water cooled cases,

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=2362&catid=2087

also i'd get not only my cpu water cooled but those 2 cards as well and make it next to silent, well less noise than those fans in the cards anyway

give OC a ring and ask them
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus HD 7990 ARES 2 6144MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £1199.99
1 x Asus PB278Q 27" Professional LED Multimedia Monitor - Black £499.99
1 x Asus Z77 Maximus V Formula Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £249.98
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £239.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £209.99
1 x Seasonic X-Series 1050w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £189.98
1 x Antec P280 Super Midi Tower Case - Gun Metal Black £99.98
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £96
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV316G213C1K) £89.99
1 x LG BH10LS38 10x BluRay-RW / 16 x DVD±RW Lightscribe Drive - Black (Retail) £79.98
Total : £2,982.52 (includes shipping : £22.20).

 
In terms of long life, would buying the highest end possible single GPU not be better than crossfire/SLI due to dust/heat build up?

Hella lotta monies tho :D I tend to stick <1k for my machines :(
 
Idleman said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus HD 7990 ARES 2 6144MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £1199.99
1 x Asus PB278Q 27" Professional LED Multimedia Monitor - Black £499.99
1 x Asus Z77 Maximus V Formula Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £249.98
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £239.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £209.99
1 x Seasonic X-Series 1050w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £189.98
1 x Antec P280 Super Midi Tower Case - Gun Metal Black £99.98
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £96
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV316G213C1K) £89.99
1 x LG BH10LS38 10x BluRay-RW / 16 x DVD±RW Lightscribe Drive - Black (Retail) £79.98
Total : £2,982.52 (includes shipping : £22.20).

Click to expand...

Where do you plan on putting those radiators then? :rolleyes:

Also the Ares II is a complete waste of money.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus PB278Q 27" Professional LED Multimedia Monitor - Black £499.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £455.99
2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 670 Superclock w/Backplate 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99 (£719.98)
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £209.99
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £179.99
1 x Seasonic 860w '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply £169.99
1 x Corsair Graphite 600T Midi Tower Case - Silver £149.99
1 x Toshiba (7K3000.D) 3TB SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA300) HDD £119.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £96
1 x Pioneer BDR-207EBK 12x BluRay RW / 16x DVD±RW 128GB - Retail £79.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML16GX3M2A1600C10) £79.99
1 x Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card £79.99
2 x Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure - Dual Pack £25.99 (£51.98)
Total : £2,911.56 (includes shipping : £14.75).



The monitor that you picked.

3930K over the 3770K as it is a 6 core SB-E CPU with far more grunt than the 3770K. It will also be in the loop longer as Ivybridge will be superceeded by Haswell soon, and there is little to no leaked info about the successor to Sandybridge E (Ivybridge E) yet.

A pair of GTX670 4GB's instead of the 680 4GB's as you will see little to no performance difference in reality. The GTX680's are generally considered a waste of money on here, and I can see why. GTX670 vs GTX680 (also remember that the card used in those tests was the 2GB model not the 4GB model)

256GB Samsung 840 Pro as it is one of the best SSD's out there at the moment.

Gigabyte X79-UD3 as it is plenty enough for this setup, but there is still some money left when compared to your spec if you wish to get a better X79 board such as this one for whatever reason.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD5 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £241.99
Total : £253.39 (includes shipping : £9.50).




Seasonic 860W Platinum as it has more than enough grunt for the system, and Seasonic are considered the best manufacturer of PSU's in the world. This PSU is one of the very best. Again, you could use the left over to get the 1000W model if you wish, though the 860W would be plenty.

Corsair Graphite 600T as in my personal opinion it looks amazing, and it has sufficient space for the as-of-yet unmentioned CPU cooler, great cooling properties and plenty of cable management potential. Of course case is personal preference, so pick whatever case you want, making sure that the rest of the components will fit comfortably.

Toshiba 3TB storage drive as it is one of the fastest storage drives out there at the moment and it is at a fantastic price-point.

Corsair H100i with four SP120's for push-pull will allow for an immense overclock on the CPU without worrying about the hassle of setting up a custom watercooling loop.

The same Pioneer BDR as in your spec as I assume you need it.

16GB Corsair Vengeance (2x 8GB) again, could be changed for any 2x 8GB kit of your choosing. The general consensus is that faster RAM is not really worth it on any current platform apart from Llano and Trinity as their IGP's can make good use of it. You could get 1866MHz or 2133MHz if your heart is set on high speed memory, but 2400MHz RAM is extremely overpriced at the current time, and is most certainly not mid-range :p it is approaching top-of-the-line territory.

The D2X, fantastic sound card. If you consider yourself an audiophile then the Essence STX would be a worthy successor, if you are going to be playing games mostly rather than listening to music, then the DGX or DSX would be fine.

I also tried my best to keep a sleek black and silver theme throughout. You could inject colour with LED lights, braided cable extensions or other such items.

*edit* just one pair of SP120's would be fine as the H100i already comes with a pair of SP120L's which are essentially the same but with less visual appeal. They could be the 'push' fans that sit atop the radiator, so you wouldn't see them, or you could ignore my addition of extra fans altogether. The H100 will be fine alone, the additional two fans would be relatively unnecessary unless you plan on extreme overclocking.
 
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i tend to only like amd so classed as bias towards them in build spec's, but i wouldn't pick the Ares II either, reasons are,

1, the price, fastest single card it maybe, but a preium price for it
2, customer wanted nvidia / cuda support maybe etc
3, ram, customer picked 8gb GDDR5 but the Ares II only has 6gb, if the customer will be moving large graphics etc around, the extra ram maybe more useful.

while myself don'y like sli / crossfire and would always pick a single card over 2, i wouldn't pick it in this instant.

also for a single card, even the Ares II wouldn't warrant that size of psu (1050w), yes for 2 cards, no for one.

plus case needs to be something with built in support for water cooling unless you do a custom job, something maybe like the BitFenix Shinobi XL Full Tower Gaming Case
 
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zakblood said:
i tend to only like amd so classed as bias towards them in build spec's, but i wouldn't pick the Ares II either, reasons are,

1, the price, fastest single card it maybe, but a preium price for it
2, customer wanted nvidia / cuda support maybe etc
3, ram, customer picked 8gb GDDR5 but the Ares II only has 6gb, if the customer will be moving large graphics etc around, the extra ram maybe more useful.

while myself don'y like sli / crossfire and would always pick a single card over 2, i wouldn't pick it in this instant.

also for a single card, even the Ares II wouldn't warrant that size of psu (1050w), yes for 2 cards, no for one.

plus case needs to be something with built in support for water cooling unless you do a custom job, something maybe like the BitFenix Shinobi XL Full Tower Gaming Case
Click to expand...

1. Agreed.

2. Agreed.

3. Only the VRAM of the top-most card will be used as is the way that crossfire and SLI work, so in his spec and my spec 4GB will be used. 4GB is still more than sufficient for an IPS screen.

The 1050W PSU is overkill for two cards as well these days, the times of the GTX480 are long gone now. Cards use half the power they used a couple of years ago.

The case does support the cooling which I have specced. The H100i will fit in the top of the case with two fans, or in the front of the case with four.
 
sorry acme15, wasn't meant for your build, i was writing it when you posted and edited it a few times as well :)

also didn't know ram of both wasn't used, learnt something new again, ty :)
 
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RAM over 1600mhz on the 1155 socket makes no odds really fella. It also makes sense to get a K CPU which is multiplier unlocked. Ok you might not want to OC now but you might change your mind and it helps resale value. Personally I think a good air cooler is better value but if you want a CLC then fair enough.

That's a lot of poppy to spend on a rig but I'll post a suggestion......

YOUR BASKET
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2913WM 29" Super-Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £479.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £455.99
2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 670 Superclock w/Backplate 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99 (£719.98)
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 256GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-256M5P) £185.99
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £179.99
1 x Seasonic X-Series 850w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £149.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 650D Gaming Midi Tower - Black £149.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £96.00
2 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV316G213C1K) £89.99 (£179.98)
1 x Pioneer BDR-207EBK 12x BluRay RW / 16x DVD±RW 128GB - Retail £79.99
Total : £2,704.51 (includes shipping : £22.20).



Acme has kindly taken the time to cover most of what I would have to say.

Bigger screen, 32GB RAM (will OC to 2400mhz). Alternate case, SSD is just as good but cheaper. By all means add a soundcard if you wish but that's an easy upgrade to do later.

Look forward to seeing what you settle on :)
 
Seems like a lot of money for such a rig but fair play to the OP! I run a shedload of VMs (Servers/Workstations/Juniper Routers/GNS3/Checkpoint) and play most games maxed out or near max settings without any issues and mine cost nowhere near that. :eek:
 
Hi All,

about our warranty, the 680s come with KR part number which means 3 year basic and you can upgrade up to totally 5 or 10 years, in his case probably 5 years. This cost is optional, at eu.evga.com/warranty you can take a look at the prices for extended warranty.

The Classified cards are very special and overclocking monster, if you do not want to "hardcore" overclock them the FTW edition is might the better solution because it is also more quiet. This card do also have a EVGA design with 11 phase power management compared to 4 phase ref design. So at all this is also a superior card and might better for daily usage.
 
So are the chips on the classfied models speed binned i.e checked for their overclockability before hand or is it still luck of draw on what you end up with?
 
Thank you for all the replies.

zakblood - I may consider a noise dampened case, my only concern is that surely this would increase heat? I also question how well it can work since air still has to flow through the case. As far as building the machine goes I enjoy building it more than using it ;)

acme15 - thank you for your in-depth reply, its so much more useful when people explain why they are choosing certain components. Based on your reply I have changed the sound card, ram, mb, optical drive, graphics and added a couple extra fans for the radiator. I agree completely that the price difference between the 670 and the 680 isn't worth it when compared with performance. For the extra £30 or so I went with a 1k psu.

So I now have three builds in the running, it will most likely be one of the top two builds just because I think the board on the bottom build while very nice is likely overkill. It comes down to a i7-3930k or a i7-3770k, I wish there was more info on the new CPU's and GPU's coming out.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus PB278Q 27" Professional LED Multimedia Monitor - Black £499.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £239.99
2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 670 Superclock w/Backplate 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99 (£719.98)
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £209.99
1 x Seasonic X-Series 1050w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £189.98
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £158.99
1 x Corsair Graphite 600T Midi Tower Case - Silver £149.99
1 x Asus Xonar Essence STX Sound Card £119.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £96
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV316G213C1K) £89.99
1 x Liteon IHOS104-06 4x BD-ROM (Black) - OEM £29.99
1 x Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure - Dual Pack £25.99
Total : £2,548.56 (includes shipping : £14.75).








YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus PB278Q 27" Professional LED Multimedia Monitor - Black £499.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £455.99
2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 670 Superclock w/Backplate 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99 (£719.98)
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £209.99
1 x Seasonic X-Series 1050w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £189.98
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £179.99
1 x Corsair Graphite 600T Midi Tower Case - Silver £149.99
1 x Asus Xonar Essence STX Sound Card £119.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £96
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV316G213C1K) £89.99
1 x Liteon IHOS104-06 4x BD-ROM (Black) - OEM £29.99
1 x Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure - Dual Pack £25.99
Total : £2,785.56 (includes shipping : £14.75).






YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus PB278Q 27" Professional LED Multimedia Monitor - Black £499.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £455.99
2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 670 Superclock w/Backplate 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99 (£719.98)
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD5 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £241.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £209.99
1 x Seasonic X-Series 1050w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £189.98
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Quad CHannel Kit (PV332G160C9QK) £169.99
1 x Corsair Graphite 600T Midi Tower Case - Silver £149.99
1 x Asus Xonar Essence STX Sound Card £119.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £96
1 x Liteon IHOS104-06 4x BD-ROM (Black) - OEM £29.99
1 x Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure - Dual Pack £25.99
Total : £2,927.57 (includes shipping : £14.75).

 
a good case which has been noise dampened won't increase heat transfer, it will only dampen the noise, heat escape and air intake won't be altered, just sound proofed, no air vents are blocked, airflow is still the same but you get a sound insulated case with less accoustics over a standard case, same as if you use water cooling, you still get noise, just less of it in most cases
 
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