My First Build [Gaming and work desktop]

Whitehawk

Hi all,

So i have used Dell for years and years, have a pile of old XPS etc however i find that after around 2 years they start been very outdated and one cant really upgrade parts as you find out the motherboard wont take more ram etc.

So ive decide im going to build one myself, however i am lacking in some information and some guidance so i though i would see if anyone here could help me out with some advice.

Info
Im going to want this for gaming and for work, at the moment i have 3 screens but i would like a forth to start with on this new pc.

Budget - im looking around around 2500euro for the desktop (around) and then maybe an extra 500 for the screen and maybe a new mouse (have the Logitech G9, but its falling apart from so much use.

I have found my biggest problem so far is not knowing the best brand for parts to get btw so this is really something i would like to get some feed back on!


Specs (draft)

Case: Corsair 600T - not sure if i should go bigger on this?

Power:Corsair 1200 Watt Pro Series AX1200 - from what ive read, one needs over 1000watt these days,

Motherboard: Really not sure on this, i like the following:
MSI Big Bang Xpower II (x79)
then there is Asus and i just saw the ASRock X79 Extreme 11 S2011 Intel X79 DDR3 ATX (but this is around 240e more then MSI above..)

Processor: Intel Core i7-3930K

Graphics card: I am thinking to start with something good for gaming like MSI GeForce GTX 690 (again not sure if MSI one is best or an other brand would be better??) and then getting something else around 1GB in like 6 months from now for maybe a 5th screen if i ever needed it!!

Memory; starting with Kingston 16GB (2 x 8GB) 2133MHz, BIG question though MSI motherboard above says bus clock of - 1600 MHz, 1333 MHz, 1066 MHz ... what dose this mean can i use a 2133 in it or is it max 1600.. (tryed to google this but did not work ever well, got a load of images of bus etc)
was thinking if i need in again a year from now i would be able to go to 32Gb easy with above ram.

Hard drive, i dont know yet thinking 256 GB SSD as i have a few 3TB SATA here already.

Soundcard (internal) is this a good idea?

Card reader - Akasa 5.25" InterConnect Pro USB Panel Multicard Reade

Optical drive from old pc.

O forgot Processor cooling - from what i have see i really need this and was thinking - Corsair Memory Cooling Hydro Series H80 High-Performance CPU.

yes and fans, really dont know what i need to get when it comes to fans at the moment.

Overall the above came to around 2800e.

However this is a first draft im really open to ideas and would love some feedback and support if someone has the time

Ta. [sry for any bad spelling above, in a rush here!]

Serephucus

Now here's something I can help with! :P

I'll tell you right off, the AX1200 is overkill. A good 600W unit will do. If you want to be absolutely sure, you could look at a 700W unit.

The only reason to go for an Extreme11 is if you plan on running a local RAID 5 or 6 array. You're paying a lot of the money for the LSI controller onboard, as well as the two PLX chips for multi-GPU setups. Since you're only running one, you won't need those.

Before I go any further with this, just what sort of work are you going to be doing with this? Would you benefit from a 6-core CPU? If not, you could drop down to a faster quad core and save a good chunk of money.

Whitehawk

thats great

I was thinking 1200watt maby be too much alright, though i was told i really should keep it over 1000watt for future additonal graphics cards etc, so they all have enough power to run at there best.

With work, i do a lot of multitasking host so many screens needed, also some of the software i uses runnes faster the more cores you have, so at the mo i have four and it also used my graphics card, so ya i really do need to go to 6.

And thanks for your feedback so far,

Whitehawk

Question:

What are the feelings on

Two - GeForce GTX 670 915MHz 4GB (AKA X 2)

OR

One - GeForce GTX 690 915MHz 4GB (AKA X 1)

Over all both options come in around the same price, Just dont know what is the better option to go with...

Whitehawk

Anyone?

ED E

If you were to go with the 690 you could get another in 18-24months for a bit less again and bump your performance again.

Gbear

What's the Sapphire Toxic HD7970 like? Maybe an option? At any rate it's about 50% cheaper than the 690.

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/6144+MB/62359/Sapphire+Toxic+Radeon+HD+7970%2C+6GB+GDDR5.article

Serephucus

And only about 50% as powerful.

I'd go with the 670s, personally. If you buy EVGA, you can step-up to two GTX 700 series cards when they arrive in March.

Whitehawk

Gbear wrote: »

What's the Sapphire Toxic HD7970 like? Maybe an option? At any rate it's about 50% cheaper than the 690.

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/6144+MB/62359/Sapphire+Toxic+Radeon+HD+7970%2C+6GB+GDDR5.article

Link did not work but really like nvidia over other brands