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

[Area_66]

Mondrayish wrote:
Are there other single slot water cooled 580s like the EVGA ftw hydro copper out there that you can recommend? .

This is the best option if you don't want install a water block yourself

[UltraNEO_]

Mondrayish wrote:
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.

Aye, it might be but those evga gpu's apparently come with an awesome warranty, unmatched by any other competitors. From my understanding they overclock pretty well. Also, I believe the company even allows part-exchanges when the time comes for upgrading - but you'll have to buy a evga card I think.

[Mondrayish]

UltraNEO* wrote:
Aye, it might be but those evga gpu's apparently come with an awesome warranty, unmatched by any other competitors. From my understanding they overclock pretty well. Also, I believe the company even allows part-exchanges when the time comes for upgrading - but you'll have to buy a evga card I think.

The EVGA FTWs sound like fun. Since you put me in this dilemma, and because I know jack diddily squat about water cooling, you are now responsible for teaching me the ways of the hydro PC. 😄

Do you have a favorite water cooling brand?

If I were to invest in a water cooling system, doesn't that make the Corsair H100 pointless as water cooling systems encompasses all components?

What is that bridge to connect the tubings between each GPUs water blocks called?
https://public.blu.livefilestore.com/y1pt1tCuUleeB86APZiXAM33PfrVmBnimZV2XVQ985hb5JGp7sE-HVTDH0YPeSq...

[UltraNEO_]

Mondrayish wrote:
The EVGA FTWs sound like fun. Since you put me in this dilemma, and because I know jack diddily squat about water cooling, you are now responsible for teaching me the ways of the hydro PC. 😄

Do you have a favorite water cooling brand?

If I were to invest in a water cooling system, doesn't that make the Corsair H100 pointless as water cooling systems encompasses all components?

Sorry to disappoint mate, I'm totally new to the whole "liquid cooling" way of life!!

Though I can tell you this much... Choosing parts to build a high performance liquid cooled machine is much like buying performance parts to build a games machine; there are literately 100's of choices. And like building a games machine, I think it's a win win situation to choose an array of performance blocks from a variety of manufacturers for each component without mixing metals.

Currently I spend alot of time reading the brilliant martins liquid lab... There's just soo much information!!

Mondrayish wrote:

What is that bridge to connect the tubings between each GPUs water blocks called?
https://public.blu.livefilestore.com/y1pt1tCuUleeB86APZiXAM33PfrVmBnimZV2XVQ985hb5JGp7sE-HVTDH0YPeSq...

Don't quote me but I think they're just called "SLI Connectors"... and you can only use them if ALL your GPU's use the same identical block!

[Mondrayish]

I think I may have strayed from my intended goal lol. I was going around looking at 3-way, 4-way setups. Then I remembered I just want today's top of the line system; A PC that can run all of today's most demanding games at around 60-90 FPS at the highest setting on 1920x1080.

I think both the EVGA 580 Classified or the Asus 580 Matrix are both fully capable of doing this. I will probably end up with the Matrix though just because that card, according to the reviews I've read, can be pushed further than the EVGA 580 classified despite being 1.5GB vram. To me, that translates to "you can squeeze the most performance out of this card thereby prolonging its life". And in the future, after I've saved enough, probably just slot in another Asus 580 Matrix.

My only doubt left concerning this build is that the thickness of these Matrix cards are no joke... I'm not sure whether I'll be able to slot 2 Matrix on the RIVE and still squeeze a Creative Titanium Fatal1ty sound card without it being a detriment to the rest of the components. Hoping an owner of the RIVE can help me out on this one.

[InnervateD]

Mondrayish wrote:
I think I may have strayed from my intended goal lol. I was going around looking at 3-way, 4-way setups. Then I remembered I just want today's top of the line system; A PC that can run all of today's most demanding games at around 60-90 FPS at the highest setting on 1920x1080.

I think both the EVGA 580 Classified or the Asus 580 Matrix are both fully capable of doing this. I will probably end up with the Matrix though just because that card, according to the reviews I've read, can be pushed further than the EVGA 580 classified despite being 1.5GB vram. To me, that translates to "you can squeeze the most performance out of this card thereby prolonging its life". And in the future, after I've saved enough, probably just slot in another Asus 580 Matrix.

My only doubt left concerning this build is that the thickness of these Matrix cards are no joke... I'm not sure whether I'll be able to slot 2 Matrix on the RIVE and still squeeze a Creative Titanium Fatal1ty sound card without it being a detriment to the rest of the components. Hoping an owner of the RIVE can help me out on this one.

I'll tell you this much. You're not likely going to find some ASUS ROG MATRIX GTX580s unless you are very lucky with a local computer store or score them off ebay or some online retailer. I think when I got my pair (back in November) it was just about the last time you get get them. I had to wait about 3 weeks for my local computer store to get stock of them and I dropped quite a bit of cash on the pair.

As for the sound card fitting in between the two ROG MATRIX GTX580s, it'll fit. I plan on waiting for the ASUS ROG Phoebus Soundcard and I plan on putting that in between my Matrixes. I"m using a Coolermaster HAF-X case.

Here's a few pics of my setup on the R4E with a pair of ROG MATRIX GTX580s:

[Mondrayish]

That looks like a very powerful machine.. kinda like what I had in mind. 😄

Fortunately or (unfortunately depending how you look at it) for me, I'm residing in Asia and they still have stocks of the 580 Matrix. Over here, with regards to the high end category, it's a choice between the 580 Matrix, 580 Classified, 7970, or wait indefinitely for Kepler.

I was actually drawn to the whole EVGA ftw hydro copper 2 but it's not available on this side of the world. So I'm just going to work with whatever they have here.

As for the chassis, looks like Cosmos II will be the weapon of choice. The more space, the better. The only bad side I've heard so far about the Cosmos II is its weight. But that won't be an issue because I don't plan on hauling around town with the case on my back. Again also because of the limited choices they have over here. It was a choice between, CM StormTrooper, CM HAF-X, CM CosmosII, Corsair 800D, and Thermaltake lvl10 GT in the high end category for chassis

So much for not breaking US$2800... lol

Thanks a lot for the advice and tips everyone. I learned quite a fair bit lol. I will be trying to scrounge around for the lowest prices around. Probably won't be so soon for my system to be ready. But will be sure to post some pics when it's up 🙂

[Mondrayish]

Reviving this old thread. I'm still working on this high end PC. I've revised some of my hardware choice In light of new products and technology and I would like some of your feedback again with revised specs. I've already bought some of the components.

On hand I have:
RIVE + 3930K
OCZ Vertex 4 128gb
WD 3TB Caviar Green

Revised Specs:
Case: MM U2-UFO (Side: Large Window Side x2, Back: 10 PCI, Top: Triple Original, Front: Standard, Horizontal MB Brace)
RAM: G.Skill RipJaw-Z 1600 C10 (32GB=4x8GB)
HDD: 3TB Caviar Green x2 (RAID 5)
PSU: Seasonic x-1250 or Platinum-1000
GPU: Asus GTX670 Direct CU II Top x 3 or EVGA GTX680 Hydro Copper x2 or Mars III x2 (If I can get my hands on them)
Sound Card: Asus Xonar Phoebus

CPU Waterblock: Swiftech Apogee Drive II
Radiators: MCR-QP line Triple Rad x1, Dual Rad x1, Single Rad x1 (May only get the triple rad for CPU if no waterblocks for 670 or 690 launch)
Fans: Scythe GT1850 x 9 for push config
Reservoir: FrozenQ Liquid Fusion V Series

Budget is now about $6k. Inputs and advice? Should I swap anything in for another? And why? With this budget, I'm looking for an extreme performer.

[Area_66]

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.

Scarce like in Kepler is probably comming soon ? I know NDA ..........

[UltraNEO_]

Outta curiosity...

Have you looked at the new AMD Radeon HD 7970? From their benchmarks and various youtube reviews I believe just one those cards can match the performance of a GTX 580 in SLI... and at 1920 by 1080, you'll be looking more 125-175fps (realistically).

Well... If your gonna dive into them awesome GTX 580's, I'd go buy now!!! They're quickly vanishing.