First Pc build.

[Arforyon]

Hey how's it going?

I have been thinking of a build, mainly for gaming and some 3d modelign and texturing but considering that my knowledge on the matter is close to zero, i would like a few tips and opinions on this.

I have a few things that i am unsure about, for starters the case, i don't know which one would be better between a Corsair C70 or 800D. I really like the tight look of the C70 and the utility of being able to carry it better than the 800D but i don't know if with all the hardware i have picked for my build, if i would need the 800D instead. I was going to pick 2 gtx 680 in sli but since the titan came out i am going to start with one titan and then perhaps add another in sli in the future.

Another component that i am unsure about is the power supply since i have no clue if the one i picked is too much power.

I don't really intend on doing any extreme water cooling. I have the cpu cooler picked already but don't know if the air cooling on either cases would be sufficient for the graphics card/s or not.

As for budget, well even thought i would prefer to spend less, i really want to go with what would work best so don't mind the budget much. It's a logn term project.

Either way feel free to make suggestion if i should change any of the components or not and why. Thanks for the help.

Build so far:

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler

Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Storage: OCZ Agility 4 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk

Storage: OCZ Agility 4 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX Titan 6GB Video Card

Sound Card: Asus Xonar Essence STX 24-bit 192 KHz Sound Card

Power Supply: Corsair 1200W 80 PLUS Platinum Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply

Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)

Monitor: BenQ XL2420T 120Hz 24.0" Monitor

Keyboard: Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2013 Wired Gaming Keyboard

Mouse: SteelSeries Sensei Wired Laser Mouse

[iTonyy]

Judging by your parts, I see you're going for a very premium build with no budget limits, so with that I'd recommend the 800D which has a lot more expandability in the future should you choose to do a custom loop or add any additional components

Also you might want to consider upgrading to a 2011 cpu that would provide much better future proofing

As for cooling, the H100i is a decent cooler, but if you hadn't of already picked it up, I would of recommended the H220

​and air cooling is already sufficient for the 680sli not to mention the better cooling only a single titan would get

For your build, at this time a 800W is enough but if you do plan to add more gpu/custom cooling then a 1200W would really be the safest way to ensure you can power all of those

[Glenwing]

Looks good for the most part. The Agility 4 is kind of crap :P Try going with G.SKILL Phoenix III or the ADATA XPG SX900... The Samsung 840 Pro is also good if you're willing to spend a bit more.

If you want to get a second Titan that's fine but you should expect to get some more monitors if you want to see any benefit from that kind of graphics power. On a single Titan, a good 650W power supply is more than enough, SeaSonic's X Series is good.

As for whether the Vengeance C70 is big enough, yes it has plenty of room.

[Arforyon]

Thanks for the replies first of all.

I haven't really looked into the H220 yet actually, what are the differences mainly with H100i?

When you mention that i should consider upgrading to a 2011 cpu, what do you mean exactly, i don't know much about the matter so i would appreciate some examples.

Thanks for the tips.

[iTonyy]

The H220 is just generally a better performing AIO liquid cooler than the H100i and it has the expandability to become a full custom loop should you choose to do so in the future (obviously cost more than H100i but it doesn't seem like that matters to you)

By 2011 cpu I meant the chipset, the 3770k is a 1155 chipset cpu and the 2011 chipset would allow you better overclocking and hyperthreading so that means better performance for graphics rendering and such (these are significantly more expensive than the 3770k, about price of titan for the most premium 3970X)

However there are cheaper ones at $500 for the 3970k.

Either way upgrading your cpu would require you to upgrade your motherboard to accommodation the new chipset so keep that in mind

On a side note, I just personally think the ROG boards look way more baller than the sabertooth

[Glenwing]

I don't think an 800D is necessary unless you want a large form factor motherboard. You can fit nearly any build including multiple GPUs in a good mid tower case (see picture). LGA 2011 and LGA 1155 are CPU sockets. X79 and Z77 are the chipset. LGA 2011 are more powerful CPUs but significantly more expensive (both for the the CPU and motherboard). They are updated less often though this means that the socket will have upgrade options extending further into the future. However I consider this a moot point as the CPUs are powerful enough that by the time they are insufficient the socket will have most likely changed anyway. If you go for an LGA 2011 CPU the best choice would be the i7-3930K.

In a Vengeance C70:

[Arforyon]

Thanks for the tips guys, they are helping a lot on tweaking the build.

Glenwing, i see you have quite the custom water cooling, do you think that with one titan or even two in a C70, the air cooling of that case would be enough or would i really need to get more into the water cooling?

Thanks.

[Glenwing]

That's not my build :) I would give credit (it's from someone on this forum) but I don't remember who it is :( Given that the Titans use shroud coolers so the air will be ejected out the back, it should be fine with up to 2 of them. Since you'll have a full ATX motherboard as well you'll be able to space them out a bit with the right board so there is a slot or two between the cards to give the top one more air.

[ijKs Snow]

An advice I always give to first time system builders that have the money to build a $4000 rig that wants their computer to last 2-3 generations is, it's almost always better to just spend $2000 and 2 years later spend the other $2000 to upgrade/switch out parts.

It seems like your computer will be mainly for gaming and light 3D textures/rendering. As others have pointed out, the 2011 socket is currently the top consumer end right now, but an overclocked 3770K should be more then enough for your needs for processing power. Also, for a single 1080 monitor, a 680 or 7970 should be enough since the Titan starts to show it's true colors on higher res monitors or multi monitor setup.

There are also other high-end cases you could be looking at like Silverstone line up and custom case manufacturers like Caselabs or Little Devil.

[Chris Barry]

I think that you may want to go with a 900D if you would wait or 800D now but the NZXT Phantom 820 I use a 600t the white one and I really like it so you could go for that maybe if you want to you could go with a 650D.

[Glenwing]

Why on Earth would he need a 900D... An ATX or EATX board with a graphics card or two is not exactly an otherworldly build... A mid tower will fit it with room to spare. If you do a lot of modelling and texturing, then the extra 2 cores on the i7-3930K might be worth it. If it's just occasional or fairly light work then I agree the i7-3770K would be plenty of power.

[Frosticles]

Looks like a really epic build you got going on there, should have great fun building it. I would recommend changing the OCZ agility 4 SSD's to OCZ Vectors which are better performance SSD's. The soundcard is seriously high end so unless you've got some seriously high end headphones with like a 200 ohm impedance or a really high end surround system its probably a bit overkill. Power supply is probablly a little too much, I'd go with something around 1000 Watts which is still way than what would be physically capable but you want to aim for something double the total power draw the system is capable of because most power supplies are most efficient at 50% load. You could go for something like this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151105&Tpk=seasonic%20P1000W). Apart from that it looks pretty freaking awesome.

[Arforyon]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I will probably look for another power supply, one that it isn't so overkill. Also might add another Titan in SLI sometime in the future but i will stick with just one for now.

Assuming that i will end up going with the C70 case and considering all the fan spots in it and the H100i already in there, what would be the most optimal configuration for air cooling in that case? Thank you.

This is how i have it right now:

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler

Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 512GB 2.5" Solid State Disk

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX Titan 6GB Video Card

Sound Card: Asus Xonar Essence STX 24-bit 192 KHz Sound Card

Case: Corsair C70 Gunmetal Black (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case

Power Supply: Corsair 1200W 80 PLUS Platinum Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply

Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)

Monitor: BenQ XL2420T 120Hz 24.0" Monitor

Keyboard: Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2013 Wired Gaming Keyboard

Mouse: SteelSeries Sensei Wired Laser Mouse (Done)

Headset: Raze Megalodon 7.1 (Done)