Building My First High End PC

[Mondrayish]

Hi all,

Just wanted to say hi to all the ROG members here as I'm new here.

The first time I assembled a PC on my own was back in the Pentium 3 days. Ever since then, I just bought pre-assembled PCs from NCIX and whatnot.

Now that I work, I can afford some of the higher quality stuff in the market and decided to take up the costly hobby of DIY PCs. So I did some reading these past couple of weeks to catch up with today's technology. And these are the parts I decided to aim for.

Motherboard: Rampage IV Extreme
Chipset: 3930K
GPU: ROG Matrix II GTX580 (plan to get a 2nd one to SLI in the future if performance start declining on new games)
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws Z 2133 MHz DDR3 CL9 16GB kit
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100
PSU: CoolerMaster Silent Pro Gold 1200W
SSD: OCZ 240GB Agility 3 SSD SATA III
HDD:
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion
Chassis: Cosmos II / HAF-X RC-942 / NZXT Switch 810 / Thermaltake lvl10GT / Corsair Obsidian 800D (All the forums and reviews say they are all good with regards to air flow and space management, can't decide)

The goals for this rig are as follows (in order of importance):
1. Gaming Performance: 80 - 90 FPS on Crysis 2 @ Extreme/Ultra setting (w/o overclocking)
2. Aesthetics (Internal/External): Aesthetics is pretty important to me but not the deal breaker
3. Practicality vs. Price: Looking for a balance between price and practicality. (Preferably below US$2,800 just to prove to a friend that the Razer Blade is a waste of money)
4. Overclocking: Because I'm still noob at this, overclocking is quite low on my list... for now... But I chose to go with ROG components as they seem pretty overclocking friendly for the new overclocker.

Just wanted to hear your critique/advice/tips/suggestions on what works, what wouldn't work and what I can do and what I shouldn't do, what's effective and what's not and how to get the most out of the hardware and software. Basically I just want to learn whatever I can from the rest of you more experienced ROG folks.

Without the chassis and HDD right now, pricing is slightly under US$2,800. Since it's a purely gaming machine, I decided an SSSD alone would be enough. I'm willing to go over if the performance justifies the cost.

Your thoughts? All feedback is appreciated

Mondrayish

[trailer_park_bo]

welcome to the ROG,i tried but cant find anything wrong with your choice of parts, the cosmos II is cool looking case, and you must show off your build after

[ugapug]

I don't see too much wrong with your build.
Only a couple of changes I would make.

I personally would suggest this power supply instead:
Seasonic X-1250
These guys are who make most of the high end power supplies, it's ridiculously future-proof, and is fully modular.

Although I like the ROG 580s, honestly I prefer the EVGA GTX 580 Classified Ultra 3gb. The ROG is a great choice too, though. I'm just a huge fan of the 580 Classy due to its insane build quality and extreme overclockability.

I've seen the Cosmos II up close and in person, and I can say three negative things about it:

1. A LOT of plastic, and the aluminum side doors are a veneer over plastic parts.
2. It's H E A V Y. I mean, the damned thing is 48 pounds empty.
3. If you're using an H100, you will run into major issues if you try to push/pull it due to low clearance between the top of the motherboard and the roof of the case.

I've had a Cooler Master ATCS 840 for a couple of years through 2 builds now, and I love it. Alas, it's discontinued. If I were building a machine from scratch today, I'd probably go with a Lian Li PC-P80NB. It's all aluminum, can also hold XL-ATX motherboards, and is pretty aesthetically pleasing. Also, it uses toolless PCI slot holdowns that aren't fail and has a video card bracing system (which might be pretty desirable considering your choice of video card(s) ). Either that or another Lian Li, the V2120x. It's about 100 bucks more than either the Cosmos II or the PC-P80NB, though.

Lastly, I would suggest dropping the cash on a platter HDD (I'd suggest a WD Caviar Black 1TB or 1.5TB). Reason being, it's always nice to have a data drive for storage of pictures, music and for your page file so you don't gimp the SSD. Also, if you back up the SSD using Acronis or another backup program, it would make it easier to restore your system in the event of a primary SSD failure.

Just my .02, and other than that I like your equipment choices and welcome to the high end 😉

[Mondrayish]

ugapug wrote:


Lastly, I would suggest dropping the cash on a platter HDD (I'd suggest a WD Caviar Black 1TB or 1.5TB). Reason being, it's always nice to have a data drive for storage of pictures, music and for your page file so you don't gimp the SSD. Also, if you back up the SSD using Acronis or another backup program, it would make it easier to restore your system in the event of a primary SSD failure.

I intend to make this system purely for gaming. So there will not be any music or pictures or any unrelated programs on it. It will just be Windows 7, Steam, maybe vent and games. I have my current computer for pictures, music and movies. By page files, you mean temporary files from web browsing?

Although I would like to hear from you guys the pros and cons are for doing this sort of thing.

[redsuns03]

I have a CM HAF X 942 and having the h100 is a little tricky but no problem at all with clearance. There is a potential to equip 2 200mm fan on the top case and have it instead of the 2 120mm. I can't say for sure yet since I'm still figuring that out myself but there is adequate space for sure.

[X-ROG]

My 2p:

I wouldn't bank on getting any additional GTX 580 beyond a month or two (they are already scarce), so if you're going SLI - go now. That's any vendor.

Check out the Rampage forum to see the BIOS guides and look how 2133MHz is possible on quad-channel.

Agree that the Seasonic X series is the best PSUs I've ever owned. I have a 650 and 750W.

The Cosmos II is a beautiful case, as is the Storm Trooper and the Corsair Carbides. I'm not a a fan of the 800D though personally.

[Mondrayish]

ugapug wrote:
Although I like the ROG 580s, honestly I prefer the EVGA GTX 580 Classified Ultra 3gb. The ROG is a great choice too, though. I'm just a huge fan of the 580 Classy due to its insane build quality and extreme overclockability.

I need to actually go buy the parts before you can welcome me into the high-end 😛

But now that you brought my attention to the GPU, thought I'd just bring up the SLI discussion. The ROG 580 Matrix takes up 3 PCIe slots while the EVGA 580 Classified takes up 2 slots. Now, I haven't physically played around with the Asus RIVE mobo yet so I'm not too familiar with its dimensions and spacing.

Theoretically, the mobo can support 4-way SLI. But in practice, how many Asus 580 Matrix or EVGA 580 can actually fit into SLI given that there will be an additional Creative Titanium X-FI sound card taking up 1 x PCIe slot?

MarshallR@ASUS wrote:
My 2p:

I wouldn't bank on getting any additional GTX 580 beyond a month or two (they are already scarce), so if you're going SLI - go now. That's any vendor.

nVidia's stopping product of GTX 580s in two months? So what's next?

The reason I want to do 1 video card now and 1 video card later is because from what I've read that GTX570 and upwards can pretty much handle any games today with flying colors. So it isn't worth blowing the money on two pieces on the high end GPU right now. However, in the future, when my computer starts to struggle, I want to have that option of adding an additional card in.

[Sir_Lord_Derpin]

I agree with everything you have listed and that will make a high end PC. However The Choice of the CM cosmos 2 isn't very good because you do not need alot of room. The cosmos 2 is an "ultra" tower. I would recommend A full tower case because you wouldn't need an 11kg case for your parts. If you really want extra cooling, then all you need to buy is a few case fans. Otherwise your rig is very good.

[UltraNEO_]

Mondrayish wrote:
I need to actually go buy the parts before you can welcome me into the high-end 😛

But now that you brought my attention to the GPU, thought I'd just bring up the SLI discussion. The ROG 580 Matrix takes up 3 PCIe slots while the EVGA 580 Classified takes up 2 slots. Now, I haven't physically played around with the Asus RIVE mobo yet so I'm not too familiar with its dimensions and spacing.

Theoretically, the mobo can support 4-way SLI. But in practice, how many Asus 580 Matrix or EVGA 580 can actually fit into SLI given that there will be an additional Creative Titanium X-FI sound card taking up 1 x PCIe slot?

Well.... You do have options, take for instance the EVGA 580 ftw hydro copper 2 3gb, this is a single slot card but you'll need a water cooling system to cool the thing. It's possible to converter some other cards into a single slot liquid cooled gpu too.

Mondrayish wrote:

nVidia's stopping product of GTX 580s in two months? So what's next?

The reason I want to do 1 video card now and 1 video card later is because from what I've read that GTX570 and upwards can pretty much handle any games today with flying colors. So it isn't worth blowing the money on two pieces on the high end GPU right now. However, in the future, when my computer starts to struggle, I want to have that option of adding an additional card in.

Dude... Every so often products are refreshed, this is the same for nVidia... Their next GPU is called Kelper, it's 680 is supposed to make mince meat outta the current 7970 though it's rumoured to arrive towards the end of the year. Now I don't know how needy you are for a new machine. I fyou can't wait.. then get what you need now and upgrade later.. or wait it out - it's up to you!!

[Mondrayish]

UltraNEO* wrote:
Well.... You do have options, take for instance the EVGA 580 ftw hydro copper 2 3gb, this is a single slot card but you'll need a water cooling system to cool the thing. It's possible to converter some other cards into a single slot liquid cooled gpu too.




Dude... Every so often products are refreshed, this is the same for nVidia... Their next GPU is called Kelper, it's 680 is supposed to make mince meat outta the current 7970 though it's rumoured to arrive towards the end of the year. Now I don't know how needy you are for a new machine. I fyou can't wait.. then get what you need now and upgrade later.. or wait it out - it's up to you!!

You've just opened my eyes to the world of water cooled GPUs. 😄

But Isn't the EVGA 580 ftw hydro copper 2 3gb even older than the Asus 580 matrix?

Are there other single slot water cooled 580s like the EVGA ftw hydro copper out there that you can recommend? I doubt I'm ready for any kind of tinkering with the hardware so converting cards to something that it wasn't designed for is out of the question. I will have to work with stock for now until I have more knowledge and a better understanding of how things work.