Built a system for a mate today.

[Gorman]

i7-3820
P9X79-LE
8x8gb ARES RAM
GTX 210
120gb Samsung 840 SSD
450W Antec PSU

My mate already had 5TB of HDD storage.

This system is going to run finite element analysis - the software recommends 8gb per CPU, so I opted for a quad core with virtual cores, and 64gb RAM - it's hard to find boards with more than 64gb RAM so this is really as much as could be fit in. To get more than that we would have had to swap to server architecture and the price would have been a lot more.

W7's performance tests maxed out the RAM and HDD rating, and the CPU got a 7.7 (it's not OC'd or anything, we'll have a look at temps under load first).

I really like this box, the P9X79 is a nice board.

[Chino]

Nice configuration you did there. What frequency is the RAM?

[Gorman]

1600, I tried to convince him to get 2133 instead, but he wasn't keen on the 50% price increase 😞
He payed $400 for the 1600, 2133 would have been $600 (all prices in AUD, YMMV)

One day when he upgrades I have dibs on the ram though 🙂

[Chino]

Bad call on his part. RAM prices have been rising since January and they will continue to do so through out the year. LOL

[Gorman]

25% more speed for 50% more price though? I dunno man, I know it's definitely better, but not sure if it's worth it 😛

He had a $1k budget, and we went up to $1.1k, so it worked out 😉