£3000 All-around PC build

GFXZombie

GFXZombie

GFXZombie

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16 Oct 2011
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Some of you may have seen this before in a thread i posted a couple of weeks ago, but i have decided that we do not need watercooling (i pretty much wanted it for the aesthetics ;) ), so i have just drafted a new spec.

The two HDDs will be in a RAID0 config as the guy i'm building it for already has an external hard drive for backup. What do you guys think of it? (he wants to spend nearer to £2.5k if possible


YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 690 4096MB PCI-Express Graphics Card £899.99
1 x Samsung Eyeinfinity Bundle - 3x S23A700D 23" 120Hz 3D Widescreen Gaming Monitor - Bundle £551.96
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £274.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £178.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £161.99
1 x OCZ ZX Series 1000W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £154.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 650D Gaming Midi Tower - Black £145.99
1 x Corsair Dominator 16GB (4x4GB) PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (CMP16GX3M4X1866C9) **SPECIAL** £139.99
1 x Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Elite Mechanical Gaming Keyboard £119.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/LGA2011/AM2/AM3) (CWCH100) £84.98
2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £74.99 (149.98)
1 x Steelseries 9HD Gaming Surface (63100) £22.99
1 x LG GH24NS90 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £2,926.04 (includes shipping : £16.85).

 
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YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 690 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £859.99
1 x Samsung Eyeinfinity Bundle - 3x S23A700D 23" 120Hz 3D Widescreen Gaming Monitor - Bundle £551.96
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £274.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £161.99
1 x Corsair Professional Series AX850 High Performance 850W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (CMPSU-850AXUK) £154.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC256N/EU) £153.95
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML16GX3M2A1600C10) £109.99
1 x Silverstone Raven 3 Full Tower Windowed Case - Black/Gold (SST-RV03B-W USB 3.0) £99.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance K90 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard £99.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £89.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1156/1155/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1) £56.99
1 x Logitech G400 3600DPI Gaming Mouse (910-002279) £22.98
2 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99 (39.98)
Total : £2,698.00 (includes shipping : £16.85).



Loads of variations. I'm not big on the H100. I would select a air cooler. Temps are not a problem with Ivy, voltages and heat dissipation are. I'd keep the voltage low (1.3-1.325V), and hit whatever speed is stable.

As for the rest, fine really. It's expensive but obviously there are areas you can cut. 256GB SSD is a bit of a conundrum. It's too small for a dedicated gaming drive, and too big for a OS drive.

I wouldn't bother with RAID0, and just use a normal 2TB drive.
 
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Not really sure you need RAID. From what i've read it causes more trouble than it is worth due to RAID controllers or built in RAID on motherboards being pretty low quality and afterthoughts in design. That and the performance gains aren't really so great. If you have an external hard drive like you say i'm still not convinced it's worthwhile but meh...

By the way you haven't got a mouse that I can see there.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - SLI PACK with FREE Max Payne 3 PC DVD Game & NVIDIA GPU Keyring £649.99
1 x Samsung Eyeinfinity Bundle - 3x S23A700D 23" 120Hz 3D Widescreen Gaming Monitor - Bundle £551.96
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £274.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £178.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £161.99
1 x OCZ ZX Series 1000W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £154.99
1 x NZXT Switch 810 Big Tower Case - White £149.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML16GX3M2A1600C10) £109.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/LGA2011/AM2/AM3) (CWCH100) £84.98
2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £74.99 (149.98)
1 x Roccat Isku Illuminated Gaming Keyboard £59.99
1 x Logitech G400 3600DPI Gaming Mouse (910-002279) £22.98
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £2,591.04 (includes shipping : £16.85).




My 2 cents (trying to keep it down to 2.5 as the guy your building it for would prefer), G-Card is abit OTT really, possibly two 670 4GB's would be better however they are still pre-order. Case is down to personal preference, I prefer NZXT. Cooler may perform slightly better than some of the air cooling solutions, Again personal preference, Also the Samsung SSD is a good option but still pre-order.

Keyboard and mouse are really just personal preference again, depends what you like :)

What is you friend going to be using this thing for? it has some serious power :p
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £459.95
2 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £311.99 (623.98)
1 x Asus P9X79 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £197.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £178.99
3 x Samsung S23A550H 23" Widescreen Ultra Thin LED Monitor - Glossy Black £143.99 (431.97)
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX) £94.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 500R Midi Tower Case - Black £92.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £89.99
2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £74.99 (149.98)
1 x Roccat Isku Illuminated Gaming Keyboard £59.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1156/1155/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1) £56.99
1 x Roccat Savu 4000DPI Hybrid Gaming Mouse £44.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £2,542.25 (includes shipping : £32.90).

 
I can't see the point in RAID 0 for those hard drives (unless you were using RAID 1 for storage). I would personally RAID 0 the SSD for the Windows and application installs then just have 1 of the older drives.
 
Nanoman said:
I can't see the point in RAID 0 for those hard drives (unless you were using RAID 1 for storage). I would personally RAID 0 the SSD for the Windows and application installs then just have 1 of the older drives.
Click to expand...

RAID 1 for a home user is pointless. Far safer and better off buying an external hard drive and simply backing your stuff up.
 
Ok so far we've decided that we will drop the M4 to 128GB, and have a 2TB 7200 HDD for storage. If he wants speed, he can use the SSD for files then transfer them across to the HDD when he's not using them. In terms of graphics cards, we're considering 2* 670 4GBs, as he will probably got tri-SLI in the future, and apparently it is worth going for the 4GBs for that, especially at 3D 3*1080p monitors.
 
GFXZombie said:
Ok so far we've decided that we will drop the M4 to 128GB, and have a 2TB 7200 HDD for storage. If he wants speed, he can use the SSD for files then transfer them across to the HDD when he's not using them. In terms of graphics cards, we're considering 2* 670 4GBs, as he will probably got tri-SLI in the future, and apparently it is worth going for the 4GBs for that, especially at 3D 3*1080p monitors.
Click to expand...

May I ask what his primary use for this setup is? if its heavy gaming then yes 4GB's would be advisable, but if he is only converting/video encoding e.t.c and browsing the web then you might want to put more money on the chip rather than GPU's?
 
Bezzaboy1234 said:
May I ask what his primary use for this setup is? if its heavy gaming then yes 4GB's would be advisable, but if he is only converting/video encoding e.t.c and browsing the web then you might want to put more money on the chip rather than GPU's?
Click to expand...

It's basically for everything. He want to be able to play games like BF3 at the highest graphics across 3 screens, yet will also be doing video editing, 3D modelling, whatever comes up
 
GFXZombie said:
Ok so far we've decided that we will drop the M4 to 128GB, and have a 2TB 7200 HDD for storage. If he wants speed, he can use the SSD for files then transfer them across to the HDD when he's not using them. In terms of graphics cards, we're considering 2* 670 4GBs, as he will probably got tri-SLI in the future, and apparently it is worth going for the 4GBs for that, especially at 3D 3*1080p monitors.
Click to expand...

Tri-sli, outside being expensive and churning out a lot of heat, needs a expensive motherboard, and also a big-ass power supply. X79 has more choice in that regard, but it becomes a lot of dineros.
 
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olivier renault said:
Tri-sli, outside being expensive and churning out a lot of heat, needs a expensive motherboard, and also a big-ass power supply. X79 has more choice in that regard, but it becomes a lot of dineros.
Click to expand...

Doomedspeed said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £459.95
2 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £311.99 (623.98)
1 x Asus P9X79 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £197.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £178.99
3 x Samsung S23A550H 23" Widescreen Ultra Thin LED Monitor - Glossy Black £143.99 (431.97)
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX) £94.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 500R Midi Tower Case - Black £92.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £89.99
2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £74.99 (149.98)
1 x Roccat Isku Illuminated Gaming Keyboard £59.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1156/1155/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1) £56.99
1 x Roccat Savu 4000DPI Hybrid Gaming Mouse £44.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £2,542.25 (includes shipping : £32.90).

Click to expand...

The motherboard in this spec supports tri-SLI (x16 x16 x8)
 
Doomedspeed said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £459.95
2 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £311.99 (623.98)
1 x Asus P9X79 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £197.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £178.99
3 x Samsung S23A550H 23" Widescreen Ultra Thin LED Monitor - Glossy Black £143.99 (431.97)
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX) £94.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 500R Midi Tower Case - Black £92.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £89.99
2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £74.99 (149.98)
1 x Roccat Isku Illuminated Gaming Keyboard £59.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1156/1155/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1) £56.99
1 x Roccat Savu 4000DPI Hybrid Gaming Mouse £44.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £2,542.25 (includes shipping : £32.90).

Click to expand...


I personally think this build is the best however, I'd change the case :p
 
olivier renault said:
Tri-sli, outside being expensive and churning out a lot of heat, needs a expensive motherboard, and also a big-ass power supply. X79 has more choice in that regard, but it becomes a lot of dineros.
Click to expand...

If he did ever want to tri-sli by that time we could get waterblocks and watercool the system. 1000W should be enough surely? And yes, this motherboard supports it.

If not.. he could easily just sell the 2 670s and get the new graphics card of that time
 
Updated spec: (thanks for your posts, i have been reading them, but i've decided to try a slightly different route)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung Eyeinfinity Bundle - 3x S23A700D 23" 120Hz 3D Widescreen Gaming Monitor - Bundle £551.96
2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 670 Superclock w/Backplate 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (02G-P4-2673-KR) £419.99 (839.98)
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Asus P9X79 PRO Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £214.99
1 x OCZ ZX Series 1000W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £154.99
1 x Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Elite Mechanical Gaming Keyboard £119.99
1 x OcUK Tech Labs - NZXT Phantom 410 Midi-Tower Case - Black/Orange - Noise Dampened £114.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10) £109.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £99.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £99.95
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Orange (Socket LGA 2011/1155/1156/1366/775/AMD AM2/2+/AM3) £66.98
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £2,651.48 (includes shipping : £14.75).

 
I did something similar.....(not sure of cost so far):

Asus Rampage Extreme III
i7 990x @ 4.3GHz
12Gb (6x2) G.Skill Trident 2000MHz Ram
4 x 60Gb SATAII SSD's (Raid 0) for Windows 7
2 x 2TB SATAII (Raid 0)
2 x 2TB SATAII (Raid 0)
1 x 60Gb SATAII for Windows XP
4 x MSI GTX680's (3 in Tri-SLI & 1 Physx) @ 1200MHz
Five seperate Water Cooled Loops (1 each for the CPU/MB and the GPU's) each with own pump, res, rad and fans (10 fans in total - Scythe Gentle Typhoons 1850rpm)

All powered by a Silverstone Strider 1500w PSU in a Corsair 800D case.

Pictures if you're interested:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=21799698&postcount=125
 
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