(planning)Project kingdom Of Darkness

[xToFxREAPER]

Hey all, so a few people know i had a build planned in my tj11 and a custom loop, well some un for seen changes have come up and i find myself having to do something a little different i needed to get some monitors budgeted in and get a much smaller case. I really wanted to keep my plan for triple 770 lightnings in sli and so i have kind of a "ghetto" setup plan with some arctic accelero hybrid gpu coolers that ive had laying around for ever, Im testing one on my 770 lightning thats in the system now in my sig and with it running at 1.283 volts constantly im able to hit 1411mhz core speeds and the gpu, vrm and memory never break 60 degrees, with that being said ill show you the parts list i have planned and try and explain a little bit as to whats going on.

 

Cpu - I7 4770K

Mobo - G1 Sniper 5, sabertooth z87 or msi x power

(considering ivy-e depending on boards availeble and such)

Cpu cooling - Corsair h100 (have) may just toss in an h110 for slightly better cpu cooling

Gpu's - 3x 770 Lightning (have 1 right now 2 more are going to be picked up from a local shop within a week or so)

Gpu coolers as mention above

Ram - Thinking crucial ballistix tactical tracer if not that then some adata xpg v2 dual channel 16gb @ 1866mhz other suggestions welcome

Case - Corsair Carbide series Air 540 will be the new smaller case that im switching to and still able to hold the rads i need it to

Sound card - Creative Soundblaster Zxr (already ordered, early bday present from family)

Speakers - There was a bit of debate over these but i have the edifier s550's on order with the sound card

All cables with be black bitfenix alchemy for a cleaner look

Monitors - 3x asus VE278Q, Currently own one and will run a triple display setup (already own 1)

Laptop (expecting some hate for this but oh well) - Alienware m17x r4, near perfect condition for $800 from a friend running a 7970m and 3610qm cpu, pretty tough deal to beat

 

So basically ill have my plasma tv wall mounted probably by sunday evening and 2 more monitors purchased as well by then, sound card and speakers should be here end of next week and the rest is going to be roughly a month away and all purchased at once at which time ill update this thread with the actual build and pics of everything happening. I will be updating this thread as much as is possible throughout this process.

 

Quick explanation of why the plan changed so drastically so quickly is basically school.

 

Also for the kingdom hearts fans out there this system is sort of a reference to it in a very minor way, on the window side panel of the case in each corner i will be creating a "sandblasted" logo in each corner that relates to kingdom hearts, Organization xiii's logo, soras crown, heartless logo and nobodies logo also going to try and find a relatively small metal crown of sora's to use as a case badge to go over the corsair logo on the front of the case x3 so why am i doing this you may ask? Just cause i feel like it and itll look pretty cool

 

Feedback would be great and provided youve actually read this post youll know whats already ordered and on its way and what can be talked about and possibly changed for better uses

[Analog]

I think that the Asus Sabertooth Z87 will look much better than any of the other two options. Either way, I can't wait to see some pics of your work in progress.   

[Legnacra]

ok I agree its cool ...but here is a suggestion  doing two video cards will be enough 3 is kinda overkill...ok...lets see go with an asus board, z87 the gold ones....get the new corsair with gold on it...two 770's...which is plenty...540 air flow is good choice...id see if I could paint the fans a gold color...as for cooler id go for the h110i....and then do all your kingdom hearts things....

[xToFxREAPER]

ok I agree its cool ...but here is a suggestion  doing two video cards will be enough 3 is kinda overkill...ok...lets see go with an asus board, z87 the gold ones....get the new corsair with gold on it...two 770's...which is plenty...540 air flow is good choice...id see if I could paint the fans a gold color...as for cooler id go for the h110i....and then do all your kingdom hearts things....

Keep in mind this will be driving triple monitors and ill be in school for the next two years so i cant make changes after this hence the overkill dream build i may sell this 770 and just get 2 780 lightnings we'll see how goes

 

I think that the Asus Sabertooth Z87 will look much better than any of the other two options. Either way, I can't wait to see some pics of your work in progress.  

Thanks man ill update as often as i can and yeah the sabertooth would look the nicest i think but if i run triple gpu's i cant use it which is why im considering a nice ivy e platform since itll be launched by the time i do that part of the upgrade

[Legnacra]

I am keeping in mind of that...I would do two sli with 780's if you want overkill...as for motherboards...if your only doing two sli...which I think u should even with triple monitors, the sabertooth is a good choice...

[Vitalius]

Well I can already tell you I like this build. My build will be heavily KH themed (Of darkness and light is it's name but that is tentative). 

I would not go with Haswell for water cooling simply because it hits a pretty hard wall on it's own and you would get more performance, imo, out of a 3770k because you have a better chance of over clocking it more. That is my opinion. Others may disagree.

Obviously I do not know anything about Ivy-E, so yeah. 

If you are considering selling the 770 for 780's later, I would consider the 9970's depending on their pricing/performance when they release.

As for the rest, good build overall. You did not list a PSU. 

[xToFxREAPER]

Well I can already tell you I like this build. My build will be heavily KH themed (Of darkness and light is it's name but that is tentative).

I would not go with Haswell for water cooling simply because it hits a pretty hard wall on it's own and you would get more performance, imo, out of a 3770k because you have a better chance of over clocking it more. That is my opinion. Others may disagree.

Obviously I do not know anything about Ivy-E, so yeah.

If you are considering selling the 770 for 780's later, I would consider the 9970's depending on their pricing/performance when they release.

As for the rest, good build overall. You did not list a PSU.

yeah boards I want are haswell which sucks and psu will be re used from my sig rig my bad lol overall I'm not to concerned with my oc even 4.6ghz off an h110 would make me happy we'll see how it all goes

[xToFxREAPER]

I am keeping in mind of that...I would do two sli with 780's if you want overkill...as for motherboards...if your only doing two sli...which I think u should even with triple monitors, the sabertooth is a good choice...

yeah I know what I should do lol but I'm also having fun with the build and buying two more 770's would save me a lot of money, as it is I'm hitting $4000ish

[Vitalius]

yeah boards I want are haswell which sucks and psu will be re used from my sig rig my bad lol overall I'm not to concerned with my oc even 4.6ghz off an h110 would make me happy we'll see how it all goes

Nice PSU.

4.6GHz? Lolno. Most 4670k's that I have seen hit a wall around 4.2GHz maybe making it to 4.4GHz max. If you hit 4.6GHz, you will have gotten lucky. Like 1 in 10 lucky.

That is why I said what I said.

 

yeah I know what I should do lol but I'm also having fun with the build and buying two more 770's would save me a lot of money, as it is I'm hitting $4000ish

Remember, prices are very likely to change in the next 3 months. Based on you saying you are considering Ivy-E, I am assuming you are waiting a few months before you start buying things.

When you do start buying stuff, the 770's and the 780's will likely be cheaper as they will be in a price war with AMD's 9XXX series. Just saying. 

[xToFxREAPER]

Nice PSU.

4.6GHz? Lolno. Most 4670k's that I have seen hit a wall around 4.2GHz. If you hit 4.6GHz, you will have gotten very very lucky.

That is why I said what I said.

Remember, prices are very likely to change in the next 3 months. Based on you saying you are considering Ivy-E, I am assuming you are waiting a few months before you start buying things.

When you do start buying stuff, the 770's and the 780's will likely be cheaper as they will be in a price war with AMD's 9XXX series. Just saying.

uhm I'm going 4770k lol and I just got my friends to 4.5ghz in an h100i so I'm not to worried either way but I love physx in games like borderlands 2 and whatnot so ill probably stray from the amd lineup and it'll be about a month maybe 2 when I buy that portion of it since Ivy e is supposedly launching within a few weeks last I heard. I know that 2 770's are probably gonna be enough but I kinda feel like doing something overkill and unique hence the idea of triple sli

[Vitalius]

uhm I'm going 4770k lol and I just got my friends to 4.5ghz in an h100i so I'm not to worried either way but I love physx in games like borderlands 2 and whatnot so ill probably stray from the amd lineup and it'll be about a month maybe 2 when I buy that portion of it since Ivy e is supposedly launching within a few weeks last I heard. I know that 2 770's are probably gonna be enough but I kinda feel like doing something overkill and unique hence the idea of triple sli

... CPU PhysX. You having a 4770k means it should perform fine. In all honesty, I see no reason to go Nvidia for this sole reason.

I love PhysX too, but my 3570k can push it out enough for me to not see it as an advantage that Nvidia has over AMD. 

As for the overclock, a 4770k = 4670k in this case as they are not exactly different in any way but in hyper threading. They are very certainly produced from the same CPU wafer, so... yeah.

[xToFxREAPER]

... CPU PhysX. You having a 4770k means it should perform fine. In all honesty, I see no reason to go Nvidia for this sole reason.

I love PhysX too, but my 3570k can push it out enough for me to not see it as an advantage that Nvidia has over AMD.

As for the overclock, a 4770k = 4670k in this case as they are not exactly different in any way but in hyper threading. They are very certainly produced from the same CPU wafer, so... yeah.

good point I suppose, either way I got time to think on it and alter but I've always had love for the green team and if I go ivy e then cpu physx would be pretty awesome

[Vitalius]

good point I suppose, either way I got time to think on it and alter but I've always had love for the green team and if I go ivy e then cpu physx would be pretty awesome

Well, I was the same way. Then I looked at some benchmarks from tomshardware comparing the frame latency of the various Nvidia and AMD GPUs. 

To simplify what I realized: AMD GPUs are more consistent but have lower average FPS. Nvidia GPUs have higher average FPS but are less consistent.

An example to illustrate this: 

These numbers are arbitrary to show a concept. 

Let us say that an AMD GPU gets 45 FPS in a game, on average. However, it drops to 30 FPS when hit with a heavy load (such as a graphically intensive part of the game). 

With the same settings and everything, an Nvidia GPU gets 60 FPS in the same game, on average. However, it drops to 25 FPS when hit with the same heavy load. 

For AMD, the difference in FPS is 15 FPS. Noticeable, but not obscenely so. The game is still playable (imo) for the graphically intensive section of the game. 

For Nvidia, the difference in FPS is 35 FPS. Very noticeable and imo questionable on whether 25 FPS is acceptable. It depends on the game.

I would notice the 35 FPS difference and it would bother me. Now, again, these are arbitrary numbers, but the principal is the same. 

For those who cannot read Frame Latency charts, these charts are basically saying that 90% of the time, a GTX Titan has a higher FPS than an AMD 7970 GHz edition. However, 10% of the time, the AMD 7970 GHz edition has a higher FPS than the GTX Titan.

This illustrates what I said above. That, most of the time, the Nvidia GPUs have a higher FPS, but when hit with a heavy load, their FPS tanks harder than AMD GPUs do under the same circumstances.

This is driven further home by how the 7950 Boost even has higher FPS than the Titan when hit with the same load.

Here is the article those graphs come from.

 

Now, it is obviously up to you which team you want (Red or Green), but I prefer Red because, when you go Overkill, higher FPS starts to not matter. At all.

What does start to matter is the drops. The valleys. The moments when your FPS tanks. And that is the most important thing for overkill builds. And AMD is better than Nvidia at mitigating those slowdowns, according to those graphs.

[TheYoungEnthusiast]

Shouldn't this thread be in the build planning section lol. Like the sound of this build though

[Legnacra]

here is another thought...build your computer have two 770's and save your money....in a year or so you can purchase a new graphics card that will be twice as powerful and will cost the same as one of your 770's ...just saying...computer stuff changes quick... ...

[Vitalius]

here is another thought...build your computer have two 770's and save your money....in a year or so you can purchase a new graphics card that will be twice as powerful and will cost the same as one of your 770's ...just saying...computer stuff changes quick... ...

Not fast enough to be twice as powerful in a year. I do not know what you are smoking but it sounds awesome.

I would expect GPUs at this time next year to be about 20-25% faster, at best. 

[xToFxREAPER]

Shouldn't this thread be in the build planning section lol. Like the sound of this build though

well it's sorta started already so it's a log that will be updated with pics and stuff soon

[xToFxREAPER]

Well, I was the same way. Then I looked at some benchmarks from tomshardware comparing the frame latency of the various Nvidia and AMD GPUs.

To simplify what I realized: AMD GPUs are more consistent but have lower average FPS. Nvidia GPUs have higher average FPS but are less consistent.

An example to illustrate this:

These numbers are arbitrary to show a concept.

Let us say that an AMD GPU gets 45 FPS in a game, on average. However, it drops to 30 FPS when hit with a heavy load (such as a graphically intensive part of the game).

With the same settings and everything, an Nvidia GPU gets 60 FPS in the same game, on average. However, it drops to 25 FPS when hit with the same heavy load.

For AMD, the difference in FPS is 15 FPS. Noticeable, but not obscenely so. The game is still playable (imo) for the graphically intensive section of the game.

For Nvidia, the difference in FPS is 35 FPS. Very noticeable and imo questionable on whether 25 FPS is acceptable. It depends on the game.

I would notice the 35 FPS difference and it would bother me. Now, again, these are arbitrary numbers, but the principal is the same.

For those who cannot read Frame Latency charts, these charts are basically saying that 90% of the time, a GTX Titan has a higher FPS than an AMD 7970 GHz edition. However, 10% of the time, the AMD 7970 GHz edition has a higher FPS than the GTX Titan.

This illustrates what I said above. That, most of the time, the Nvidia GPUs have a higher FPS, but when hit with a heavy load, their FPS tanks harder than AMD GPUs do under the same circumstances.

This is driven further home by how the 7950 Boost even has higher FPS than the Titan when hit with the same load.

Here is the article those graphs come from.

Now, it is obviously up to you which team you want (Red or Green), but I prefer Red because, when you go Overkill, higher FPS starts to not matter. At all.

What does start to matter is the drops. The valleys. The moments when your FPS tanks. And that is the most important thing for overkill builds. And AMD is better than Nvidia at mitigating those slowdowns, according to those graphs.

yeah I like amd for their raw power I have nothing against them at all and use them quite often just have a preference for green team.. I'm thinking ill stick with the green team since I already have 1 770 anyway and the used gpu market where I live is kinda dead and I'm not fond of eBay and stuff like that, we'll see closer to the gpu purchase time but I'm aiming for cpu and board end of next week I should have monitors sound card speaker and case this weekend or mid next week

[TheYoungEnthusiast]

well it's sorta started already so it's a log that will be updated with pics and stuff soon

Oh okay I see

[xToFxREAPER]

Oh okay I see

Yup itll just be a matter of finding time between work and school and whatnot