Help! Too many options, not enough knowledge

[Castiel]

That case id go for the 3770k then.

I am leaning that way, mainly because I really like the Z77 sabretooth, I'm just not sure whether s2011 would be better longterm, although I generally change sockets with each upgrade anyway....

 

[Castiel]

Sabretooth is indeed a cracking looking board, excellent PCIe slot spacing. Which is a must have with xfire/sli. I tend to stick with asus boards myself due to familiarity with their bios setup.

I had looked at s2011, but was put off by the price more than anything.

And the Corsair CX750w PSU will be enough for that, along with a couple of HDDs and a SSD and Bluray writer? Or should I use my older coolermaster real power M850?

 

[Castiel]

How old is the coolermaster psu? As a rough guide, my i5 3570k at 4.5ghz and a gtx 670 at 1310mhz core, 7586mhz memory oc, (rather high on this card). Draws 330w from the wall in games, ssd, 1 hdd, audio card and 9 case/cooler fans. My psu is a 4 year old corsair HX850w.

Power draw of theese new cpu's/gpu's is amazing compared to the old i7 900 series setups and earlier gpu's. My 920 with sli gtx 470's was pulling 630w from the wall in game.

The Coolermaster is just over 3 years old, but I would rather not swap it out as that is a nightmare..if I can use the newer corsair 750 in the new system then that's what I would prefer.

 

[Castiel]

Not sure about the corsair CX range, they seem to be targeted more towards lower end systems. As an alternative id suggest this.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-013-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1497

xfire/sli certified, single 12v rail and seasonic manufactured.

I have the bought the Corsair on the recommendations above, I also own the CM as well....I did a PSU calculator and 750 seems plenty, we shall have to test it.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-118-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084

 

[Castiel]

Ok Final build was:

Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor
MSI Z77 MPower Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 ATX Motherboard
2xHIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards
16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz (out of current machine)
Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB (out of current machine)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB (out of current machine)
Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB (out of Current machine)
Corsair Hydro H80i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
LG CH10LS28 BD-ROM 10x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive
NZXT Aperture M 5.25" Card Reader
Corsair Graphite 600T Midi Tower Case - Limited Edition White
Corsair Builder Series CX 750w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply

I am hoping the PSU is man enough, I have contacted ocUK CS for clarification and a possible swap if not......

Total cost for new components: £1236.36. so within my initial budget, which I had pretty much ignored as I was ordering stuff anyway so that was more luck than judgement.

 

[Castiel]

Yeah, I didn't initially realise that when I ordered it, I was going on a recommendation without really checking it out myself. Depending on what someone at OCuk says I will return that one and buy something with a bit more oomph. I was looking at

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-097-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084
or
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-023-SS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2383

 

[Castiel]

X-850 is a Corsair AX850 (well, the other way around actually).

Both good choices.

Rest looks OK. Nice case, and with the H80 and the IceQ, should have no problem with temps (case, GPU's, CPU).

One GPU will run hotter due to being plugged to the displays. At least one of my CF 6950 did (with two displays).

So with Crossfire you plug the displays (I have three monitors and 1 TV) into a single card?

 

[Castiel]

All my monitors have displayport so that's not an issue. Thanks for the info.

 

[Castiel]

Well my final build is now complete. Final specs:

Intel i7 3770k.
Corsair H80i Cooler.
MSI Mpower Z77 Motherboard.
16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz Ram.
Corsair HX850+ Gold PSU.
HIS Iceq boost 7950 GPU (2 in Crossfire).
512Gb Crucial M4 SSD.
Seagate 7200rpm 2TB + WD 7200rpm 2TB HDD.
LG Bluray Rom/DVD RW.
Corsair T600 White case.
Asus Xonar Essence STX soundcard.
Card Reader/USB3.0 front panel.

pics:

Total build costs were roughly £1600. I'm very happy with the performance and I think it looks pretty good as well.

 

[Castiel]

Thanks for everyone's help as well, its been invaluable.