1st upgrade in 6 yrs. Big x79 Build. Advice & suggestions please.

lazysuperhero

lazysuperhero

lazysuperhero

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Time to upgrade my dead 6 yr old computer and i would appreciate any advice or suggestions.

Going for an x79 build for the following reasons:

It'll be used for primarily Photo and video editing work.

When i'm not doing that i doing a lot of intensive gaming

I won't be able to buy a new computer for a long while so the system has to last and offer upgrade paths for the next 4 or so years.

X79 platform seems to let me do that in terms of Upgrading CPU. Maxing out RAM and going SLI/CROSSFIRE mad.

here is what i have so far

CPU: Intel Core i7-4820K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme EATX LGA2011 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Case: Corsair Air 540 ATX Desktop Case
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120mm Fan
Power Supply: Corsair RM 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card

Questions:

Ram: is it right/ necessary to go with 4 modules. As i understand it my chosen motherboard takes 4 channel ram? Also does RAM speed matter in this, should i go higher than 1600 considering the photo and video editing?

Case: I picked the Air 540 cos it looks nice and sounds like it does a great cooling job. I would rather have something smaller though, so can you recommend anything else that can take EATX mobos, twin radiator water cooling and has good air circulation? (also space for multiple gfx cards in the future)

( cooling This is extra important since i might go for the non reference 290/ 290x gfx card & i read the fan cooling blows hot air into the case)

Graphics. Was kinda set on the GTX780 then read the reviews & news of the good non reference 290 cards coming out. Should i hold off on buying a GFX card. See what options come out and prices or buy in the next few weeks?

I'm still keen on the gtx780 cos of their good reference cooling and i'm not sure how cards with those massive cooling set ups work in sli/ crossfire/

Anyway, look this over please and let me know of any conflicts or recommendations over whatever i picked.

Thank you.
 
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Yeah, I'd go for slightly faster RAM, maybe Team Group 2133mhz ram, very good and cheap. I'd go for the 780 anyhow, great card, but I'm not a fan of AMD/ATI cards :P Many run the 780s in SLI with not many problems.
 
What is your budget?

1. For your requirements, you can't go wrong with the air 540, i have it myself and watercooling in this case was very easy.
2. In terms of graphics, I am looking to buy a 290
Myself but the black screen issues are putting me off It, but if your ok with that you can consider 2x 290 watercooled (arround £660 plus blocks etc)Which will pretty much destroy a 780ti arround the same price tag but then again the issues with CF can put you off. But for now if you want a single gpu go with the 780 or 780ti.
3. For a build like this, I would ditch the corsair RM and go for a superflower psu which is a lot better.

One thing to consider, if you want to make this build as future proof as it gets, you might want to wait for Haswell-E and maxwell gpus.

Hope this helps :)
 
Won't get any socket right now that has much of an upgrade path for the next 4 years - the next generation of 2011 CPUs will NOT work in current X79 boards - the only advantage X79 has over some of the alternative sockets is more readily available 6+ core CPUs (maybe might even be able to pick up the 8-10+ core xeons for it down the road but not really sure what the story is there).

If your doing a mix of desktop stuff and gaming with the intention of multi GPU down the line then I'd reccomend 2133MHz CL9 RAM (might have to do a little overclocking) as that gives the best overall balance of performance, but above 1600MHz gains diminish steeply except in highly specific application - i.e. silly high frequency 3000MHz stuff can give good gains with high end multi GPU gaming/compute use but can be worse than some decently tight timing much lower frequency RAM for CPU heavy compute.

X79 is quad channel so you will need to populate RAM in multiples of 4 for best results.

I'd also vote for a decent overclocked model 780 over anything else right now if you can get hold of something reasonable for under £400 anything else is poor value for money IMO.

I've done a pretty similiar build recently complete with 540 air case - I'd reccomend going for 140mm fan(s) with this case - I've currently got one Akasa Apache on the rear exhaust PWM controlled and 2 of them as intakes on the front set to silent mode but with the option of over-riding it via a front bay fan controller if needed.
 
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Thanks for all the advice everyone. Took some of what you guys said on board and re-jigged accordingly.

The logic behind the RIVE & x79 is that my future upgrade path will be:

Go hex core eventually when i need to. Grabbing an i7 4960x when prices drop.

Max out RAM if and when i need to 64GB. That seems enough for the next 3 years even as my video editing work ramps up and i demand more off the system.

Gaming wise, I'll pick up more GTX780s or 780ti as prices drop and sli the hell out of it.

That too is the logic behind the Corsair 540 Air. Excellent cooling and capacity for modification/ added fans. so the fans on GPU won't be an issue hopefully.

The graphics card i ended up going with was the Gigabyte GTX 780 GHZ Edition. It was neck and neck between it and the GTX780 Classified but The gigabyte seemed to have more bang straight out of the box for the price compared to 780 Classified.

RAM: I'd already bought Corsair Vengeance Pro silver 16GB (4X4) 2133 so i'll stick with em for now.

PSU: I went for Corsair 860W AXi Modular 80 plus Platinum. I hope that'll do me for now?

Will be Overclocking the 4820k CPU to 4.4mhz. Any advice or heads up?

Will post pics and updates when the bits arrive this weekend and the build takes shape.

Cheers for the advice guys.
 
Mine went straight in at 4.4GHz all I had to do was increase the multiplier to 44 and vcore to 1.35v (only needs 1.3 but this board wasn't really intended for overclocking so droops a bit). With the RIVE should get it on between 1.28 and 1.32.
 
I just built a very similar PC last month in Dec. (see sig)

Everything looks good on your build. A few key notes.

1. I would go for 2x8gb ram sticks versus 4x4.

2. Don't forget to get a decent size SSD (256GB+) if you want to future proof. Games and apps are only going to get larger in the future unless the scene goes cloud-based like M$ envisions.

3. Overclocking was easy. Multiplier set to 47, LLC set to 75%, all energy-saving features disabled. Viola! 24/7 at 4.7 ghz no sweat.

Cheers!
 
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Hi, have just built a X79 Asus X79 Deluxe Mobo +4820k+Teamgroup 4x4gb 2133 ram. Works a treat very good mobo have OC'd to 4.7ghz.

The mobo is fully optimized for IVY-E and is well made got to be the best Asus DLX yet.
 
Chaapa'ai said:
I just built a very similar PC last month in Dec. (see sig)

Everything looks good on your build. A few key notes.

1. I would go for 2x8gb ram sticks versus 4x4.

2. Don't forget to get a decent size SSD (256GB+) if you want to future proof. Games and apps are only going to get larger in the future unless the scene goes cloud-based like M$ envisions.

3. Also if you are going to go for the 780 GTX you might consider one of the more optimized editions. Mine, for example, has virtually NO coil whine unlike most other 780s on the market.

(EDIT: Just noticed quite a few chaps have the same vidcard. Nice!) :)

Cheers!
Click to expand...


Hey thanks for the tips. Questions:

Why 2x2? I'd read that the Rampage IV Extreme prefers quad channel ram and it's better to chuck 4x4 in there. I'm going for 2133mhz

How's the 4.7 overclock on the 4820k? I'm cooling with the H100i so it's enough but does the system run stable and how are the temps vs lower overclocks say 4.4

Yep i do indeed already have a 250gb Samsung ssd

And like you i just bought the Gigabyte gtx780 GHZ Edition and i'm pleased, cos' outside of the excellent reviews i keep hearing good things from users in forums everywhere.
 
lazysuperhero said:
Hey thanks for the tips. Questions:

Why 2x2? I'd read that the Rampage IV Extreme prefers quad channel ram and it's better to chuck 4x4 in there. I'm going for 2133mhz

How's the 4.7 overclock on the 4820k? I'm cooling with the H100i so it's enough but does the system run stable and how are the temps vs lower overclocks say 4.4

Yep i do indeed already have a 250gb Samsung ssd

And like you i just bought the Gigabyte gtx780 GHZ Edition and i'm pleased, cos' outside of the excellent reviews i keep hearing good things from users in forums everywhere.
Click to expand...

4.7 GHZ is mind blowing coming from a Q6600 chip.

Regarding memory. You are correct. Sigh... I'm RMA'ing my 2x8gb now and picking up 4x4gb QUAD. Haha... Happy though I happened across this post.

Good luck with your build.
 
Chaapa'ai said:
4.7 GHZ is mind blowing coming from a Q6600 chip.

Regarding memory. You are correct. Sigh... I'm RMA'ing my 2x8gb now and picking up 4x4gb QUAD. Haha... Happy though I happened across this post.

Good luck with your build.
Click to expand...

HA! I was on a Q6600! Great chip on its day. Do you have any temperature issues running at 4.7? How are you cooling it?
 
lazysuperhero said:
HA! I was on a Q6600! Great chip on its day. Do you have any temperature issues running at 4.7? How are you cooling it?
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No temp issues yet. Granted it's winter so I might need to down clock in the summer months. I'm using a closed loop H90 water cooling system sandwiched between two 120mm fans. I got it on a push & pull system which works really well. This CPU is amazing. I was able to push up to 4.9ghz at 1.4 vcore. :D I know it's arbitrary but my WEI Index shows 7.9s except CPU at 7.8. :rolleyes:
 
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Chaapa'ai said:
No temp issues yet. Granted it's winter so I might need to down clock in the summer months. I'm using a closed loop H90 water cooling system sandwiched between two 120mm fans. I got it on a push & pull system which works really well. This CPU is amazing. I was able to push up to 4.9ghz at 1.4 vcore. :D I know it's arbitrary but my WEI Index shows 7.9s except CPU at 7.8. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Nice, i'm glad i picked it, i'll have the Corsair h100i so that should be sufficient cooling, gona overclock to 4.4 and see how things go. New to the OC'ing lark so gona take it easy.
 
Got my quad memory delivered yesterday. Wow! Word of advice. Install into the grey or blue memory slots on the mobo to get the quad speeds. Otherwise you will have 2 x Dual Channel. I made the mistake of putting them all next to each other. Black/Gray/Black/Gray when it should have been Gray/Gray/Gray/Gray. Guess it happens after not building a pc for 5 years. :)

Cheers
 
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