Monster Build Advice Appreciated

Interloper

Hi Everyone,

After 10 year of using computers that have been made from parts I've found in skips and recycling centers, I've finally got the money to do a proper self build. I'm a programmer / 3D modeller / video editor / gamer / general computer fetishist and want to put together something special that I’ll be happy to be in front of for up to 16 hours a day. On a side note, I’m going as far to moving into a new apartment so I’ll have enough room to house this computer.

I’m looking to spend around 3000 euro (2400 pounds, 3800 dollars) not including monitors, of which I’m hoping to have 3.

I’ve done a bit of digging about and this is the spec I’m currently investigating;
Asus P8Z77-V DELUXE S1155
Intel Core i7-3770K
2x Sapphire Technology ATI Radeon 7970 1000MHz 3GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI OC
G.Skill 16GB (4 x 4GB) TridentX DDR3 2400MHz
2x Western Digital 1TB Caviar Green
Crucial 256GB m4
Corsair H100 High-Performance CPU Cooler
Corsair 800D - Obsidian Case
Corsair 850W Modular PSU

I have four questions:

1) I really need some advice so I can put the thorny issue of graphics cards to bed, I’ve been humming and hawing for about a month over it now. The only reason I’m leaning towards the Radeon is for the Eyefinity multi monitor support.
2) On the heels of that I need some tips on power consumption, as I’ve got wildly different results from various calculators. eXtreme Power Supply Calculator. Came in at 660 Watts, but the NewEgg calculator said 930 Watts. I’m planning on doing a bit of overclocking, so I assume I’ll need a bit of headroom.
3) Monitors, any suggestions? Should I be aiming for Display Port over HDMI? Or does it really make a difference?
4) Retailers. I’ve specced and priced this on Dabs.ie but haven't dealt with them before. Has anyone got anything positive or negative to say about them? Or any suggestions for alternate sources?

Thanks in advance for your help, I’m looking forward to your suggestions.

ShadowHearth

i presume its for gaming?

drop to 2500k or that ivy one
swap 7970 to gtx 670. better card for same money and they support multimonitor too.
8gb ram is more then enough.
monitors. 3x u2312hm around 190eu each. cant go wrong with those things.

edit: get 1x2tb hdd.
drop psu to 750w

we all recomend www.hardwareversand.de here. way cheaper for full builds m8.

Dapics

That GPU is brilliant, i have it for my planned build. It's the best on the market currently, quiet cheap as well.
I would defo go with it, particularly in how easy it is to crossfire and how well it performs. The fans it comes with are quite good, yet maybe a custom built fan mounted onto the chassis of the case near the GPU may help it cooldown as it can get very hot, especially when crossfired.

Im not that good with calculations, il leave that to the pro's no doubt haunting this forum.

G-skillz are a brilliant series of ram modules. Work brilliantly, take a look at Corsair vengeance 16gb ram, its a bit cheaper and does the same job.

Im planning on getting the exact same motherboard for my build, it seems to be the one to get.
you could build a very good desktop computer for 1300 euro's nowadays that will play any game for the next 2 years on high settings as it is becoming more and more about GPU's and their dedicated memory.
Seeing as you have the money, nvidia have released a 3gb graphics card and so have asus, i dont have the time to go digging but do take a look. Nvidia graphics cards can be paired up using their sli mechanism.

ShadowHearth

Dapics wrote: »

That GPU is brilliant, i have it for my planned build. It's the best on the market currently, quiet cheap as well.
I would defo go with it, particularly in how easy it is to crossfire and how well it performs. The fans it comes with are quite good, yet maybe a custom built fan mounted onto the chassis of the case near the GPU may help it cooldown as it can get very hot, especially when crossfired.

Im not that good with calculations, il leave that to the pro's no doubt haunting this forum.

G-skillz are a brilliant series of ram modules. Work brilliantly, take a look at Corsair vengeance 16gb ram, its a bit cheaper and does the same job.

Im planning on getting the exact same motherboard for my build, it seems to be the one to get.
you could build a very good desktop computer for 1300 euro's nowadays that will play any game for the next 2 years on high settings as it is becoming more and more about GPU's and their dedicated memory.
Seeing as you have the money, nvidia have released a 3gb graphics card and so have asus, i dont have the time to go digging but do take a look. Nvidia graphics cards can be paired up using their sli mechanism.

gtx 670 says hello

Dapics

Tell the gtx 670, he is too expensive for my tastes and he behaves like a beached walrus sometimes, just like his other gtx friends who get hot-headed really easily and then blow up with anger

Interloper

Thanks for the fast reply, I will be doing quite a bit of gaming on it, but also 3D work using Cinema 4D / 3DS Max, Nuke / After Effects, and game development using Unity. Currently my poor Dell can take 7-8 hours to render out a 30 second animation with the fans screaming like a crashing 747.
@ShadowHearth I went for the 2x 1 TB for two reasons; drive failure paranoia and separate work and play drives. Will 750 Watts be enough with the corsair cooler factored in?

Interloper

ShadowHearth wrote: »

we all recomend www.hardwareversand.de here. way cheaper for full builds m8.

Wow, that is cheap, thanks for that...

glynf

Hi Interloper,

1) Most AMD cards since the 5XXX series have Eyefinity support, granted you'll have to use adapters etc. and if you are more of a casual gamer, there's better value to be had than the 7970's. The good thing about the 7XXX series is they are bundled with various adapters to cover most monitor connection configurations.

2) I'm currently running 2 x 7970's off a corsair AX850. A good quality 850W should be fine if you don't plan on any major overclocking.

3) What is your monitor size preference? Depending on budget you could go 120hz, in which case DVI-D or DP are the way to go.

4) Dabs.ie are saucy. A lot of people here use hardwareversand.de, great value but payment through bank transfer is the best option with them. Other than that there's Komplett, not the cheapest but free shipping, or scan.co.uk, again not the cheapest but a huge range.

ShadowHearth

Dapics wrote: »

Tell the gtx 670, he is too expensive for my tastes and he behaves like a beached walrus sometimes, just like his other gtx friends who get hot-headed really easily and then blow up with anger

gtx 670 is cheaper then 7970 and is more powerful, less power consumtion and you can get better aftermarket cooler, oced versions too.
i am not a fanboy at all, i got 6870 in old pc and gtx 680 in new pc ( upgraded from gtx 570 ). all cards are are briliant for what they are, though 680 is a very bad value now, with 670 out.

op: if you do go 7970x2 you might as well stick to 850w. just to be on a safe side m8.

Interloper

ShadowHearth wrote: »

gtx 670 is cheaper then 7970 and is more powerful, less power consumtion and you can get better aftermarket cooler, oced versions too.
i am not a fanboy at all, i got 6870 in old pc and gtx 680 in new pc ( upgraded from gtx 570 ). all cards are are briliant for what they are, though 680 is a very bad value now, with 670 out.

op: if you do go 7970x2 you might as well stick to 850w. just to be on a safe side m8.

I've read good things about about the 7970s power consumption. At some point I'll upgrade to water cooling, hence the ridiculously over sized case

deconduo

ShadowHearth wrote: »

gtx 670 is cheaper then 7970 and is more powerful, less power consumtion and you can get better aftermarket cooler, oced versions too.
i am not a fanboy at all, i got 6870 in old pc and gtx 680 in new pc ( upgraded from gtx 570 ). all cards are are briliant for what they are, though 680 is a very bad value now, with 670 out.

op: if you do go 7970x2 you might as well stick to 850w. just to be on a safe side m8.

The 670 is about the same performance as the 7970 at stock, however the 7970 far surpasses it when overclocked. Basically if you want to overclock your GPU get the 7970, otherwise get the 670.

Interloper

glynf wrote: »

Hi Interloper,
3) What is your monitor size preference? Depending on budget you could go 120hz, in which case DVI-D or DP are the way to go.

Anything would be better than the 19 inch I'm on at the moment, I'm just scoping out this at the moment:
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/22+inch/56629/Dell+U2312HM+silber.article

ShadowHearth

Interloper wrote: »

I've read good things about about the 7970s power consumption. At some point I'll upgrade to water cooling, hence the ridiculously over sized case

performance. its higher then 7970 m8.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-670-review,3200-4.html

power consumption. its 55w lower at full load thenb 7970

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-670-review,3200-14.html

Now 7970 can overclock very well, but 670 can do that too. thought in the end of the day it will be more expencive. more hungry, more noisy card.

trust me, its very hard for me to recomend gtx 670, because i am one of those idiots who bought gtx 680 for 520eu. i hate nvidia for bending me over and releasing 670 cheaper and almost same performance. i still have to admit it is a great card.

Dapics

ShadowHearth wrote: »

gtx 670 is cheaper then 7970 and is more powerful, less power consumtion and you can get better aftermarket cooler, oced versions too.
i am not a fanboy at all, i got 6870 in old pc and gtx 680 in new pc ( upgraded from gtx 570 ). all cards are are briliant for what they are, though 680 is a very bad value now, with 670 out.

op: if you do go 7970x2 you might as well stick to 850w. just to be on a safe side m8.

your chosen graphics card is indeed brilliant and seeing as the op has the money it would be a very good choice. Im just saying that at the moment the op could get a 2 gb o/c 7850for almost half the price, he can get two of them for almost the same price as the nvidia gtx 670. Thats 4gb dedicated memory versus 2 gb.

Thats what nvidia will do to you shadowhearth.
Around december you will find they will release the gtx series cards under a new name and half their original prices..... just like nvivia always do... then they will really have bent you over.

glynf

For multi monitor/resolutions over 2560x1440, the 7970 would outperform the 670. 3GB VRAM has an impact.

glynf

Interloper wrote: »

Anything would be better than the 19 inch I'm on at the moment, I'm just scoping out this at the moment:
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/22+inch/56629/Dell+U2312HM+silber.article

Great choice monitor esp. for eyefinity/surround as the bezels are quite slim. They can be rotated so you can easily switch between portrait or landscape view.

ShadowHearth

glynf wrote: »

For multi monitor/resolutions over 2560x1440, the 7970 would outperform the 670. 3GB VRAM has an impact.

i cant argue about this now, but 680 with 2gb vram still does not drop in performance vs 7970 on 1440p and 3x1080p

http://hardocp.com/article/2012/03/22/nvidia_kepler_gpu_geforce_gtx_680_video_card_review/5

i presume 670 should act similary?

i presume you cant go wrong with both setups, just depends how deep your wallet is.

ShadowHearth

glynf wrote: »

Great choice monitor esp. for eyefinity/surround as the bezels are quite slim. They can be rotated so you can easily switch between portrait or landscape view.

+1. i got it myself thats why i recomended it

i would love to get 2 more of these now, at least one more!!!

Interloper

glynf wrote: »

For multi monitor/resolutions over 2560x1440, the 7970 would outperform the 670. 3GB VRAM has an impact.

That's what I was thinking, more VRAM the merrier

glynf

ShadowHearth wrote: »

i cant argue about this now, but 680 with 2gb vram still does not drop in performance vs 7970 on 1440p and 3x1080p

http://hardocp.com/article/2012/03/22/nvidia_kepler_gpu_geforce_gtx_680_video_card_review/5

i presume 670 should act similary?

i presume you cant go wrong with both setups, just depends how deep your wallet is.

Depends on the games/driver support is a huge factor as well. I went from a 6970 (2GB) > 7970 (3GB) xfire and believe me the VRAM plays a big part in the amount of eyecandy you can display.

I'm no fanboy either, I'm flogging my 7970's to fund a GTX690 as I have a pain in my hole with half arsed ATI drivers of late:D

Dapics

There really should be a sticky thread where users can clearly state whether they are nvidia or ati fanboys cause lets face it, we all have a preference....

For me ati>nvidia, simply because i dont like nvidia's marketing practises, re-releasing graphics cards under new names at half the original price.

But yeah,OP, if you have the money the gtx 670 seems to be the best to get at the moment, but remember you can crossfire two 2gb 7850's oc'd for almost the same price.

Interloper

Dapics wrote: »

There really should be a sticky thread where users can clearly state whether they are nvidia or ati fanboys cause lets face it, we all have a preference....

That's not a bad idea. The choice of graphics card is whats pulling me in circles. At the end of the day I need a card that weighs in around 500 euro, can support 3 monitors, and comfortably last 3-4 year.

Dapics

Interloper wrote: »

That's not a bad idea. The choice of graphics card is whats pulling me in circles. At the end of the day I need a card that weighs in around 500 euro, can support 3 monitors, and comfortably last 3-4 year.

well then i suppose the gtx 670/680 is the way to go as you can bridge 2 of them in sli at any later stage, then you will have some serious GPU. Looking at it that way, if you did that then im fairly sure you could have a desktop that can play games at the highest settings for up to 4, maybe 5 years?

Interloper

Dapics wrote: »

well then i suppose the gtx 670/680 is the way to go as you can bridge 2 of them in sli at any later stage, then you will have some serious GPU.

Noice.. Any vendor recommendations? Asus, EVGA, MSI Gigabyte?

Dapics

Interloper wrote: »

Noice.. Any vendor recommendations? Asus, EVGA, MSI Gigabyte?

Came across this, all i can say is holy ass! What a card! SLI enabled and all! Im guessing that baby is gonna need a very good cooling system though,


http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-evga-gtx-670-superclocked-28nm-pcie-30-%28x16%29-6008mhz-gddr5-gpu-967mhz-boost-1046mhz-cores-1344-d

Hope this helps.

ShadowHearth

Dapics wrote: »

There really should be a sticky thread where users can clearly state whether they are nvidia or ati fanboys cause lets face it, we all have a preference....

For me ati>nvidia, simply because i dont like nvidia's marketing practises, re-releasing graphics cards under new names at half the original price.

But yeah,OP, if you have the money the gtx 670 seems to be the best to get at the moment, but remember you can crossfire two 2gb 7850's oc'd for almost the same price.

We really dont need a fanboy war thread.

This forums is the only place on Internet, where there is no fanboism. It's shocking how good we have here. Most core forum members, will just go for best option there: perfoamce/value.

It was quite amazing how we all go for intel CPU and almost always recomend ati cards. Not because we like one or another, but just because it is best option.

Dapics

ShadowHearth wrote: »

We really dont need a fanboy war thread.

This forums is the only place on Internet, where there is no fanboism. It's shocking how good we have here. Most core forum members, will just go for best option there: perfoamce/value.

It was quite amazing how we all go for intel CPU and almost always recomend ati cards. Not because we like one or another, but just because it is best option.

I didnt mean to come across that strong, i aint a fanboy, just have grown used to seeing ati outperform nvidia.
Yet thats about to change i think, your suggestion card is good and if i had the money i would prob go for it. Nvidia's recent card releases are undoubtedly better than ati's

Serephucus

I'd go with something like this:

Item|Price
Intel Core i7-3770K Tray, LGA1155|€303.49
ASRock Z77 Extreme6, Sockel 1155, ATX|€164.71
2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 670, 2048MB DDR5, PCI-Express|€817.96
16GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 PC3-10667U CL9|€76.94
Crucial M4 256GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€212.09
Seagate Barracuda 7200 2000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€102.40
Enermax Platimax 850W|€215.26
Cooler Master Cosmos Pure Black ohne Netzteil|€201.95


Leaves you enough left over for three U2412Ms, and a custom watercooling loop. Should just about fit in budget.

Interloper

Serephucus wrote: »

I'd go with something like this:

Item|Price
Intel Core i7-3770K Tray, LGA1155|€303.49
ASRock Z77 Extreme6, Sockel 1155, ATX|€164.71
2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 670, 2048MB DDR5, PCI-Express|€817.96
16GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 PC3-10667U CL9|€76.94
Crucial M4 256GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€212.09
Seagate Barracuda 7200 2000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€102.40
Enermax Platimax 850W|€215.26
Cooler Master Cosmos Pure Black ohne Netzteil|€201.95

Leaves you enough left over for three U2412Ms, and a custom watercooling loop. Should just about fit in budget.

Nice, that looks pretty solid, your a gent.
So the consensus on the graphics card is the GTX 670? That will save a few quid.

Serephucus

Is there anything in particular you want from this system? Silence, overclocking potential, "future-proofness", etc.?

Interloper

I'm not to worried about sound levels, I'm used to computers that sound like a Harrier Jet hovering in my living room.
I'd like to have something I can overclock, mainly for my own amusement, and the "gee whiz" geek factor.
Future proofness is a factor, just because I don't want to be emptying my wallet for another 3-4 years.
The real driving factors are a) 3D modelling, I want a machine that speeds up my render times. This is an old example, it took about 7 hours to render. b) gaming, I've never had a decent computer, my current machine bottoms out when I play Minecraft.