New i7 Build... Looking for a little input. :confused:

[Soothesayer]

Alrighty... Where to begin?!

This would be a first post for me, so "Hello, how are ya?" I'm mildly experienced with PC's. By mildly I mean I have one build to my name and learned a few of the in's and out's. My current system is outrageously dated and unfortunately dying. Long story really.

All that being said, onto the build. For this build I'm not exactly setting a budget. Please don't confuse that with, "I want to buy a $900 processor". My budget is "within reason" . Some things are currently set in stone such as my build WILL have an i7 and WILL be SLI and tri-SLI in the future however not right off the bat.

A few things this system will be used for: Everyday use, many many many hours of gaming and a workstation for Visual Effects / Computer Animation.

Now that last item on the list will be in the future, mainly the first part of next year. The reason I name it is for ease of preparation when it comes to selecting the hardware for this build NOW and replacing it in the FUTURE.

Here is a list of the items I've selected so far from my own limited knowledge:

Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor

ENERMAX Galaxy EVO EGX1250EWT 1250W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Compatible w/Core i7 Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive Plus a storage drive yet to be determined.

Cosmos S Full-tower Case (Already bought)

Now as you can see, those aren't very 'daring' choices. After all my searching I still cant find which Mobo I want to settle for and more over that will determine the memory kit I get. Graphics cards are another story.... I was planning on going with HD4870 x2 to start with and maybe move elsewhere more powerful for my tri-SLI in the distant future, keep in mind these are my starting choice but if you the reader have a better option please present it!

The motherboard I am most drawn to is the EVGA X58 Classified E760. Now I've never OC'd before but I do plan to get into it. I'm not going to get into the extreme stuff, just mild at best. As of right now this PC will START air cooled and over the year become fully Liquid Cooled .

This is where you all come in! In light of the information I've given you, which direction should I go? I've still to pick out the memory I need and on top of that is my mobo a solid option when it comes to starting with Air cooling and mild Overclocking.

Thanks for your time and input!

 

[Muffin Man]

welcome.

for the mobo, i dont think you should spend your money on the classified if youre not gonna do some extreme OCing with it. you say youre gonna do some mild OCing at best, and even if you go further than that, IMO you would be well suited just as good with a less expensive mobos that still offers great OCing potential.

you could take a look at these other options.
Newegg.com - EVGA E758-TR 3-Way SLI (x16/x16/x8) LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards
Newegg.com - ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

for the gfx card, i wouldnt look at the 4870x2, there are single gpu cards that offer the same or greater performance now with more features. heres some you could look at.
Newegg.com - XFX HD-585A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card w/ATI Eyefinity - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100281SR Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card w/ATI Eyefinity - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
or if you really wanna go all out, this is currently the fastest gfx card out.
Newegg.com - XFX HD-597A-CNF9 Radeon HD 5970 (Hemlock) 2GB 512 (256 x 2)-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Dual GPU Onboard CrossFire Video Card w/ Eyefinity - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

but howcome youre set on going with 3 gfx cards sometime. its been shown that even with a huge monitor, the benefits of multiple gpus in 3 or 4 way sli/xfire are really not much. plus, since you want to run 3 high end cards together, they will consume alot of power and generate alot of heat.

btw, sli is for nvidia cards; crossfirex is for ati cards

for the hdds, you could look into an ssd (solid state disk/drive) instead of a raptor as an os/programs drive, and a fast storage drive for your data, like these, depending on your storage needs.
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives -Bare Drive

btw, (if we're thinkin the same thing about your name), buckethead is the shiz

 

[Soothesayer]

Hey, yeah! It is buckethead! Greatest guitarist ever in my opinion! Glad someone else knows who he is. I always say EVERYONE has heard him, they just don't know it. He did the Power Rangers intro song, haha .

Anyways... Thanks for the input! I think your right about the mobo. It's a pretty nice piece of hardware but I just would be using what I pay for. I had my eye on that other EVGA you link I just wasn't sure if it would get the job done.

Thanks for the gfx links as well. Yeah... I got so used to just focusing on SLI I call crossfire SLI pretty often, so it goes. I'm liking that HD5850 .

As for Hard drives... Oh the choices....

Thanks again!

 

[wafflehammer]

Uhm ditch the PSU and get this one
Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies

EDIT:

or maybe this one if you're dead set on 3 cards
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139007&Tpk=corsair 1000w

but just to warn you : last time I looked at SLI/xfire it wasn't that big of a boost past 2 cards. The second card usually adds 40-90% power (just a general estimate) while the third only adds like 5-20%. This is what I've seen ..but it's been awhile since I looked into it. Plus unless you're playing on like a 28inch+ monitor with a huge resolution a third card is useless anyway :\

 

[Hefemeister]

for a OS drive take a peek here:
Newegg.com - Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M080G2R5 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD) - Solid State Disks

If that is too much which they really are use a WD black until the prices come down. Stay away from the velociraptor.

Good call stepping down from the classy. The evga board Mr. Muffin linked wii do you just fine.

I second the Corsiar 850tx for 2 vid cards. You would need the 1000watt for 3 but that setup is really a waste of cash for a very small increase.

 

[Soothesayer]

for a OS drive take a peek here:
Newegg.com - Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M080G2R5 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD) - Solid State Disks

If that is too much which they really are use a WD black until the prices come down. Stay away from the velociraptor.

Good call stepping down from the classy. The evga board Mr. Muffin linked wii do you just fine.

I second the Corsiar 850tx for 2 vid cards. You would need the 1000watt for 3 but that setup is really a waste of cash for a very small increase.

That is a nice drive you linked! Yeah it is a little expensive but so it goes right?

But I have to ask, and this brings waffles link in as well. I picked a bigger power supple for tri-SLI / Crossfire but also keeping in mind I'll be doing a double coil liquid cooling setup (One coil for gfx cards and one for chipset and CPU). In light of that I figure I would want a beefy PS to run all that including everything else the machine will have, haha. Am I just thinking the cooling setups will suck up more juice than they really will?

 

[Soothesayer]

Yeah that EVGA board he linked was something I had been eyeing for awhile but I have a go big or go home mentality, haha.

That drive Hef linked is pretty mean as well. Maybe an eBay search will turn up something around 250'ish!

I'm a little unnerved by the power supply maybe going smaller. I want to do a double coil liquid cooling setup and I figured I would want something with some room to run also from the OCing point of view. More insight into the power supply would be helpful .

Thanks for all the input so far, guys!

 

[Hefemeister]

Two loops you would want more power no doubt.

Have you cooled with H2O before? You may want to start with just a cpu look to get your feet wet. It would suck to have a leak and kill all this nice equipment.

I do like the go big or go home attitude.

 

[Soothesayer]

Yeah I was going to do the CPU / chipset in blue UV first and after that's success I was going to do the gfx cards in red UV, etc... So on and on, haha. So yeah, that's why I'm looking for a big PS and the Galaxy was the one that got the best marks (From what I saw at least). This will be my first liquid experience but I'm confident this whole build will prove to be successful!

I did hear good things about that corsair 1000, maybe I should read up on it again!

 

[Hefemeister]

Yeah corsair or pc power and cooling are my two favorites.

With either of the evga boards you will want to cool the chipsets so getting those blocks will be nice on your cpu loop.

As for boards either of the evga should give you the same OC as you will be limited by heat. The classy comes into play with high bclk on phase of Ln2.