Crazy Freakin Awesome Build

[TheGuy275]

ok so im looking to build a new gaming computer. i still need a few components to complete my build. i havent bought any of the parts but money isnt that much of a problem.

 

Heres what i have selected so far:

 

evga geforce gtx 780 hydro copper GPU

corsair dominator platinum 2400mhz (mainly for the looks :)   16gbs

corsair ax1200i PSU

two 256gb samsung pro ssd's (which will be configured in raid 0)

 

i still need a motherboard, CPU, a Case, and liquid cooling components.

 

im having trouble with the motherboard and CPU because i dont know if z77 or z87 is better

 

any recommendations would be appreciated .

[SMURG]

Z87 is for Haswell, which is ~10% faster clock per clock than Ivybridge on Z77. Haswell is also on socket 1150 which will support Broadwell chips coming in 2014 whereas Ivybridge is on socket 1155 and is a dead platform with no upgrade path.

Z87 > Z77 if you're buying new.

[Dim]

If the dominators are mainly for looks, edge toward 1600 or 1866 MHz to save money (without losing real-world performance).

Z68 is for Sandy Bridge overclockable processors, Z77 is for Ivy Bridge, and Z87 is for Haswell. Since you're purchasing now, get the Haswell - but if you can get a cheap deal on a Sandy or Ivy Bridge processor, you won't lose much performance (5-10%)

 

I wouldn't recommend RAIDing SSDs - it does give performance, but in general it's not really worth it unless you were going to get two 256GB SSDs anyway.

You don't really need 8GB RAM, though I'm not sure what you're doing - for gaming, I'd say stick to 8GB, but you may want to fill all DIMMs.

 

I wouldn't recommend an AX1200i, either, unless you plan on doing a tri-SLI configuration of GTX 780s. The scaling isn't great; if you plan to upgrade to two GTX 780s in the future, get an AX860 or AX860i (if you want Corsair).

[extremescouter]

Is the computer for purely gaming? The dominator platinums are overkill, and even if they are for the looks, the 1600 MHz versions are cheaper. The extra RAM speed really isn't useful for gaming, and is usually too expensive to warrant getting them.

For purely gaming, get an i5 4670k and a Gigabyte G1 Sniper 5, but it's pretty hard to go wrong with Z87 motherboards. I would suggest going with Asus or Gigabyte.

The Corsair 900d is a great case for liquid cooling, and it comes stock with compatibility for more rads than you could ever need. Also, the AX 1200i is overkill for wattage, unless you plan to do some serious overclocking and upgrading. Linus used a 550w PSU in his build guide with a 4770k and a GTX 780, so with some extra headroom for water-cooling, I would go for the AX 760i.

Also, you really don't need the Samsung 840 Pros. There is not much of a real-world performance difference between the 840 and 840 pro, so to save some money go for the non pro.

[TheGuy275]

i forgot to mention that i will also be adding another GPU for SLI later so thats why im going to get the bigger power supply. and ive looked into gigabyte and im not very impressed. i was thinking of a asus or evga motherboard

im trying to stick to a red and black theme

also im completly going for overkill. i need this computer to last me a few years before another upgrade

[WoodenMarker]

i forgot to mention that i will also be adding another GPU for SLI later so thats why im going to get the bigger power supply. and ive looked into gigabyte and im not very impressed. i was thinking of a asus or evga motherboard

im trying to stick to a red and black theme

also im completly going for overkill. i need this computer to last me a few years before another upgrade

Even with that, it's overkill. The 1200w is meant for something like a triple 780 sli.

Also, 2400's won't even give a noticeable performance increase.