Please critique my $5k build plans...

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earwicker7

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I'm ready to build my first PC, with the following goals: fast and quiet as possible. I set about $5k as the limit, although this is before shipping and taxes, so that's going to go up a bit :(

This is what I've come up with as a "first draft"... I'm hoping that those more knowledgeable than me can help with any conflicts that I might not be seeing, or have any ideas for better fits.

I do plan on overclocking.

Here it is:

Case: Cooler Master HAF X RC-942-KKN1; Newegg.com - Suggested Products $199.99

Power Supply: CORSAIR Professional Series AX1200 1200W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 SLI Certified 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply; Newegg.com - Suggested Products $309.99

Motherboard: Asus Rampage 3; Newegg.com - Suggested Products $299.99

Processor: i7-960 3.2 GHz; Newegg.com - Suggested Products $579

Cooler: Koolance EX2-1050Bk; http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=668; $374.99
Chipset Block: MB-ASR3E (ASUS Rampage III Extreme); http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=1034 $134.99
CPU Block: CPU-360; http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=978 $84.99
GPU Block: VID-AR597 (Radeon HD 5970); http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=947 $139.99 x 2
Assorted Hardware ???

RAM: G.SKILL Trident+ Turbulence II 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory Model F3-16000CL9T-12GBTDD; Newegg.com - G.SKILL Trident+ Turbulence II 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory Model F3-16000CL9T-12GBTDD $469.99

Hard Drive: Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) ; Newegg.com - Suggested Products $569.99
Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD); Newegg.com - Suggested Products $134.99

Graphics Card: 2 x ATI 5970; Newegg.com - XFX HD-597A-CNB9 Radeon HD 5970 Black Edition 2GB 512 (256 x 2)-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card $1429.98

DVD Drive: HP 8X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA BD Combo Model BD240I-h01 LightScribe Support; Newegg.com - Suggested Products
$119.99

Fan Controller: ZALMAN MFC1-Combo 5 Channel Fan Controller Newegg.com - ZALMAN MFC1-Combo 5 Channel Fan Controller $49.99
 
If you plan to OC then i would drop the 960 to a 930 and simply use a custom water loop. That Koolance is not powerful enough to handle an i7 and dual 5970s overclocked. That RAM on the other hand is excelent. Kingpin himself has used that RAM under LN2.

I also dont see the point in buying current gen SATA3 SSDs considering they barely go over the SATA2 spec for a huge price. You would probably be better off doing a RAID 0 array with 2 SATA2 Sandforce based SSDs like 2 OCZ Vertex 2s or something. Trust me, you dont want to skimp on the write speeds. You also want TRIM support.
 
If you plan to OC then i would drop the 960 to a 930 and simply use a custom water loop. That Koolance is not powerful enough to handle an i7 and dual 5970s overclocked. That RAM on the other hand is excelent. Kingpin himself has used that RAM under LN2.

I also dont see the point in buying current gen SATA3 SSDs considering they barely go over the SATA2 spec for a huge price. You would probably be better off doing a RAID 0 array with 2 SATA2 Sandforce based SSDs like 2 OCZ Vertex 2s or something. Trust me, you dont want to skimp on the write speeds. You also want TRIM support.

Thanks for the hints! I'm kind of new at this, so a few questions:

Why the 930 instead of the 960? I would have thought that using a more powerful overclocked CPU is always better than a lesser powered pverclocked CPU.

So a 1000W of cooling power isn't enough? Yikes... where can you find something more powerful that doesn't take a degree in engineering to construct? I'm kind of worried about putting together something too custom, figuring that it will end with a lake in the middle of my computer lol.

I noticed something about TRIM support on another thread... what is this, and is it missing from those SSDs?
 
Basically what i said already Slay.

The 960 is the same CPU as the 930 just with a higher stock clock so they can charge more.

As for the water loops, just go by some of the guides that Slay posted to help you get started. When i first did water cooling back in the day i was scared too, but i just used my own motto. If im gonna do it, im gonna go all the way. It worked out better in the end that way anyways.

Heres what TRIM is. It explains it better than i do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM
 

So the six-core will work on the same motherboard as a four-core? If so, that's probably what I'll do.

I think the case comes with the adaptor brackets, but I'll double check.

Looks like I need to do more research on water cooling if two people in a row are slamming Koolance... I just based it on seeing a good review somewhere. Are they considered crap or just overpriced?
 
Well you have to take into consideration how much heat an i7 and 4 5870 cores (Dual 5970s) will make. It exceeds well above the 1000w limit. Heat in watts != the amount of watts consumed power wise. A custom loop would be more practical for your high end setup.

All 1366 CPUs will work in all 1366 motherboards just so you know.
 
Well, I'm still a little iffy on the custom loops... I had to do some plumbing with my old reef aquariums, and it was one of my least favorite parts. Would I be better off going with one of those refrigerated cases?
 
Oh, one more thing I forgot to add... I want to have a small (6" or so should be good enough) side display to run temp monitoring software and things of that nature.
 
You plan to spend 5k on a computer and not one dollar on some fans to keep that hardware cool!?
 
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