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martinpa88

martinpa88

martinpa88

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Joined
28 Oct 2013
Posts
24
Hi Guys,

Im new to OCUK so this may be in the wrong place, i apologise.

My old gaming unit is pretty redundant now and barely plays anything i want to play. I'm in the process of putting together a list of parts for what i consider a pretty extreme gaming build.

Here it goes.

Corsair 900D
Maximum VI Formula Motherboard
i7 4770k
16gb corsair vengeance 1600mhz ram
2 x gtx 780's
1000w platinum psu
2 x 2tb storage drives
1x 256mb samsung SSD

I will be running a full custom water loop, Mainly EK parts, Alphacool rads. Quad in the bottom of case triple up top, 240 in the front. This is the get the best out of boost 2.0.

Is there anything you guys would change to get the most out of this build WITHOUT increasing it's cost. I am already looking at this build costing me the best part of 3k including water cooling.
 
The reason i went with the formula was because of the built in water cooling, i have built a few pc's but have never really gone in depth mobo spec's etc, i normally just look for a mobo that supports what i want and the chip i want to use.

Im already sat on 3k with that set up above including the water loop. What board do you recommend?
 
Gave it a go, went a bit over:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel 4930K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail (BX80633I74930K) £443.99
2 x HIS Radeon R9 290 Boost 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with BattleField 4 PC Game Included £323.99 (£647.98)
1 x Asus Rampage IV Formula Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £287.99
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Primo Full Tower Case £199.99
1 x Seasonic X-Series 1050w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £173.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
1 x XSPC D5 Photon 270 Reservoir/Pump Combo £139.99
1 x XSPC AX480 Quad Fan Radiator - White £109.94
2 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC R9-290X - Acetal £89.99 (£179.98)
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY8GX3M2B2133C9R) £89.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Silver 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY8GX3M2B2133C9) £89.99
1 x XSPC AX360 Triple Fan Radiator - White £89.99
1 x XSPC AX240 Dual Fan Radiator - White £74.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £65.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy - Acetal £49.99
9 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm 1850 RPM - 3 Pin £16.98 (£152.82)
1 x Mayhems Pastel - Ice White Concentrate 250ml £11.99
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 24pin ATX extension 30cm - Red £8.99
2 x XSPC HighFlex Hose 1/2" ID, 3/4" OD, 19/12.7mm, 2m, White £6.98 (£13.96)
4 x BitFenix 6+2-Pin PCIe Extension 45cm - sleeved red/black £5.99 (£23.96)
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 8pin EPS extension 45cm - Red £5.99
2 x Mayhems Ultra Pure H20 Watercooling Fluid 1L £4.99 (£9.98)
3 x BitFenix Alchemy Molex to 3pin x3 Fan adaptor 7V 20cm - Red £4.99 (£14.97)
14 x XSPC G1/4" to 1/2" ID, 3/4" OD Compression Fitting (Black Chrome) £3.49 (£48.86)
Total : £3,112.92 (includes shipping : £22.20).



290's are better value than 2 780's and will perofrm the same. :)

Gone for a red/black/white theme.. You can switch the colours between the cables, fluids, tubing and other bits.

Gone for the enthoo, i much prefer it to the 900D. It can also fit a 480 in the top, 360 bottom (upto 480 i think) and a 240 in the front.

Its all ready for you to add a 3rd card too.. (the board can actually support quad-fire)

Though you could get a 3rd in if you went 4770k, though it may bottleneck.. im not sure. I will be back with a 4770k spec. :)

I don't see the advantage in cooling the motherboard. If the components on the motherboard are good enough (like the ramage will be) it should need to be watercooled, its purely cosmetic in my eyes.
 
Well thank you very much for your time and effort putting that list together.

It has not gone over too much, so that's not so bad. You honestly think the 290x performs the same as the gtx780? Several comparison sites say otherwise. Also i am a bit put off AMD as a whole.

My last gaming system had a 6970 which randomly caught fire and destroyed the entire system, I spent 12 months chasing 2 different companies, the guys who built it, and AMD. In the end i am still out of pocket.

This has caused me to go back to my very old system which can barely run anything modern on low, im having to play things at reduced resolutions to get them to play.

The whole thing has put me off ever buying a pre-built system again and sort of put me off AMD.

It's taken me a little while to get the money together for a new extreme system lol... I don't wan't to experience that again. I will carefully go through the list you provided and have a good look. What are the benefits of going with x79?
 
No worries..

Actually, the 290X out-performs the the 780 but the 290 is on-par/just behind the 780.. Considering the 290 are £330 and the 780's are £420 (for a ref card) i think the few FPS lost (at stock only) are justified..

That being said you're more than welcome to swap in some 780's.. If you want to switch sides (its understandable after your tradegy with the 6970. :()

Nothing should burst into flames under water. :)

Well, the CPU i have picked is a Hex-core. Its only avalible on X79 (2011) motherboards. I thought it'd be a good idea because games are starting to get more CPU bound.. Even BF4 is CPU bound (slightly) all the way to the top of the tree..

Underwater you should be able to get 4.8-5.0 ghz out of it..(silicon lottery)

Another benefit of X79 is multi-card usage, you could put 3 GPU's in this rig and have them run x16/x8/x16 where as 3 cards in the Z87 (1150) will run x8/x4/x4.. You can also get a 4th in this rig. :)

The case is great, it comes with 2 PSU slots, so if you decide to go tri-fire/quad-fire you can just add another PSU. :)
 
I just went and had a look at the case on youtube, very nice indeed and £100 cheaper than the 900D.

So you think the chip you have listed out performs the 4770k then?

I don't want to build something now i need to change a lot in 2 years. I was aiming to play top spec games for 3/4. I know nothing is future proof, but you can try lol!

Colour scheme wise i was going to go clear tubes, UV Green coolant and uv green cables etc however i really like the scheme you have picked out. I might get UV red tubing though.

How would you rate 2 x r290 vs a single gtx 780ti?
 
I know right, Its a very clever bit of kit. :)

It will, though it does cost a fair bit more but itll last for a good 4-6 years..before it starts to struggle.

Green can be done, ill let my mate ethermaster [ethel] (you'll see him soon, im sure) give that give that a go. I like the red/white/black myself too. :) From a colour scheme point of you, if you get red tubing id suggest white cables and red fluid too. :)

They would outperform it..

Take a look here and lets do some maths: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2013/11/07/nvidia-gtx-780-ti-3gb-review/6

The 7990 is a dual 7970, the increase there is 70%..

so if the 290 scaled at that level (which is pretty poor by xfire scaling) that would mean the 290 Xfire would get 142FPS (minimum) while the 780ti achieves 98FPS (min)..

Considering the 290's are £100 more than a single 780 i still think its the better option. Though it is your choice.
 
Very interesting.

Does that mean the 290 will overclock to 290x performance anyway?

I might look at those flashed 290's, need to make sure the water blocks fit though, first time fitting water cooling and a friend of mine bought a 670 and said the block he bought for his 670 did not fit his gigabyte model. Maybe he messed up, not sure.
 
All 290s are ref versions at the moment. There's no PCB differences so the water blocks will be standard.

It sounds like he had the Gigabyte 670 that was actually built on the 680 reference board, hence it needs a 680 waterblock.
 
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