Been awhile

[Knight51]

Hi everyone,

It's been awhile since i built my last system, and I'm a little rusty so I was wondering
if i can get some good unbiased feedback on my future build. Also I was wondering if
I should wait till Win 8 comes out or stick with win 7.

Here's the parts list below.

-ASUS Sabertooth X79 LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

-2x ASUS GTX660 TI-DC2O-2GD5 GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

-CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

-CORSAIR HX Series HX850 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

-Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound AS5-3.5G - OEM

-SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC512D/AM 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Desktop Upgrade Kit

-NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Steel / Plastic Enthusiast ATX Full Tower Computer Case

-intel Core i7-3930K Sandy Bridge-E 3.2GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 2011 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor BX80619i73930K

-CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 Desktop Memory Model CMD16GX3M4A1866C9

-LG Black 14X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 12X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA BDXL Blu-Ray Burner with SW, 3D Play Back - BH14NS40

-Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit

-intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 for Desktop IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n PCI Express x1 Up to 300Mbps Wireless Data Rates WPA, WPA2, 802.1X

-COOLER MASTER Megaflow 200 R4-LUS-07AB-GP 200mm Blue LED Case Fan

-COOLER MASTER Turbine Master MACH1.8 R4-TMBB-18FK-R0 120mm 1800 RPM Case Fan

-bgears b-Blaster 140 140mm Case Fan

-Nippon Labs CT-4MINI-NA Nippon Labs 4" Mini Cable Ties Natural Color 100pcs/Bag

 

[PP Mguire]

I'm guessing this is for gaming, and if so save yourself the extra few hundred and get a 3770k and Z77 setup instead. Clock for clock IB is faster and that is better for gaming. With that money saved you can get SLI 670s. There is also absolutely no need for 16GB for a gaming rig.
I'm only assuming this is a gaming build simply due to the SLI setup.
Also, unless you plan to OC there is no reason for an H100. My H50 actually handles this 3960x quite well surprisingly.

Also yes, skip Windows 8, it's a turd.

 

[Knight51]

I've read a lot of reviews that the 660ti is very similar to the 670, and yes i'm mostly using this system for gaming but I might use it for CAD as well, also if i switch to the Z77 setup can i easily stay up to date in the future, or would i need to completely get a new motherboard. These are the new parts I'm considering if I go with the Z77 setup. What do you think of theses?

-EVGA Z77 FTW 151-IB-E699-KR LGA 1155 Intel Z77 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard

-Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770K

-G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model F3-17000CL9D-8GBXM

and I might get the 670's and most likely the H80 instead of the H100.

thanks for the help,
Knight51

 

[patonb]

Yes to the future upgrades, the z77 3770k is the baby brother to the x79. That said itp's totally all dependant on Intel. As the 1156 and 1366 only lasted 1 generation, where as 1155 has now had 2 or 3 generations.

As for Win 8, i'd look for promo's where they give upgrades for cheap or free.

 

[Knight51]

I see, so should i go with the X79 since its newer and hope that intel will continue with revising the X79 platform?

Thanks

 

[PP Mguire]

They don't intend on releasing an IB-E chip any time soon for X79. I believe Haswell will be released on the 1150 socket (another mainstream platform like 1155) before they release more for X79. Not only that, but in a lot of scenarios the 3770k can outperform even my 3960x in heavy CPU tasks simply because stock for stock it is faster clocked and the Ivy Bridge architecture can perform more cycles per clock per core than the Sandy Bridge chips.
Lately Intel has only been releasing one set of chips for their enthusiast platforms because people pay the money to jump ship for the newer stuff. Their take on it is, if you can afford that chip now, you can afford another one later.

As to the cards, in a lot of cases to the reference cards the 670 is still about 6FPS quicker than the 660ti. It has more ROPs and a higher VRAM bandwidth so if you are doing 2D or 3D surround the 670s will have even more of an edge. It really is up to you if the cost difference is worth the extra ~10-12FPS in SLI between the 670s and 660s. It was just a suggestion since ditching the X79 rig will grant that extra cash. Also, if you plan to CAD then go ahead and leave the 16GB kit up for either platform you decide to go with. Games can't use more than 3GB, but 64bit programs can.

 

[Knight51]

interesting, I think ill go with your advice on using the Z77 setup, its seems like a better fit for me. Also I'll probably go with 12GB and 670 sli. Thank you for the great advice, mcquire. Just one last question. If you had to go with a EVGA Z77 motherboard and video card, or an Asus one, which one would you suggest? I've only used EVGA products in the past but there's a lot of good reviews with Asus.

Thanks,
Knight51

 

[PP Mguire]

Why 12GB? 12 is normally for triple channel setups (3x4 on X58).

Idk I had a DirectCU2 580 and the board sag was just terrible. I would go with an ASRock board and eVGA GPU personally. I had 2 P55 eVGA boards that even though they overclocked like beasts they didn't last long.

 

[Knight51]

Sounds good, I've never heard of ASrock till now, but I'll take your word on it. I do like EVGA video cards also.
Thanks for the help.

 

[Matt77]

Seems decent. No W8 though.