Building new Gaming Rig, would love your thoughts on my specs

[drewpnutz]

Hi guys,
I've made the decision to purchase a new gaming system before Skyrim comes out..Here's what i'm looking at:

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Case/PS - $174.98
Rosewill Blackhawk Gaming ATX w/ Rosewill Hive 750W ATX12V
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more!

Mo'bo - $254.99
ASRock Z68 Professional Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Newegg.com - ASRock Z68 PROFESSIONAL GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Cpu - $314.99
Intel i7 2600K quad-core
Newegg.com - Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K

Ram ($99.99) x2
Corsair Dominator 8GB (2x4GB) x2 = 16GB
Newegg.com - CORSAIR DOMINATOR 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMP8GX3M2A1600C9

Ram cooling
Corsair dominator airflow $15

CPU cooling - $68.74
Corsair CWCH60-1 High Performance CPU Cooler
http://CORSAIR CWCH60 Hydro Series H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

GFX - $499.99
EVGA overclocked GTX580
Newegg.com - EVGA SuperClocked 015-P3-1582-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

GFX cooling - $74.99
Zalman VF3000F
Newegg.com - ZALMAN VF3000F(GTX580/570) EBR Bearing Dual 92mm Fans, FanMate 2, IHD Technology for Nvidia Fermi GTX580/570 VGA Cooler

OS drive - $484.99
Mushkin Enhanced Chronos Deluxe MKNSSDCR240GB-DX 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive
Newegg.com - Mushkin Enhanced Chronos Deluxe MKNSSDCR240GB-DX 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Storage Drive - $79.99
WD 1TB 7200RPM sata 6g/b
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

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So for about $2200, I think i'm getting a pretty monstrous box here. (I forgot to mention, I already own a LG 23" LCD monitor)
I've never water cooled and I'm still kinda iffy on it and which one to get, so far i like the Corsair products but i'm still looking into it.
I will be overclocking my cpu and further overclocking my gfx card,
I'll be running Win7 64-bit (and may possibly dual boot xp 64bit),

I'm ready to hit the nuke button on my bank account for this one,

What do you guys think??

And any suggestions on water cooling hardware?

Thanks for your time!

 

[Prophet]

You can save 300$ by buying a smaller SSD and using the SSD caching feature the new MB's have. If your serious about water cooling, you have many options. Depending on what you want to cool, you can get a simple setup for your CPU or a custom setup for your CPU and GPU which could cost up to 500$ If you do decide to go the water cooling route you will have to do some research and probably look into a bigger case. But for a standard build your looking good. Might want to buy a PSU to power your system though

 

[drewpnutz]

Yes, i've been debating the SSD space, I originally wanted 500GB of SSD, why? not sure just feel weird buying a hard drive under a TB.. not too familiar with the SSD caching, so, i'd install my OS on the TB HD and cache applications off of the SSD? I was planning on installing OS straight to the SSD and just having the TB for music/movie storage, but i will look into that more since it is a feature of the Z68..

Didn't realize I could have one cooling system for cpu and gpu, i'll have to look into that as well.
Do you think the mid-tower ATX case i listed is big enough for water cooling?
Also the tower is a combo deal with a PS - Rosewill Hive 750W, never really used rosewill products so i'm still open on the case..
Maybe i'll just dip all this stuff in mineral oil??

 

[Sean W.]

dont get an after market cooler for your 580, get a580 with a cooler already on it...

in order of awesomeness...


Newegg.com - ASUS ENGTX580 DCII/2DIS/1536MD5 GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-N580UD-15I GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Newegg.com - MSI N580GTX Lightning GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Newegg.com - MSI N580GTX Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

dont use a roseiwll powersupply, get this one instead

Newegg.com - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply

The NZXT Source 210 Elite is an awesome case, look into that. also the Corsair 400R is my current favorite case, look into that one too...

 

[Roark]

I'm with Sean on the GPU cooling, if you're OCing above what those cards can handle then you'll want to go water on it anyway.
Corsair Carbide 400R + Corsair HX750, so much better than the Rosewill combo.

16GB of RAM is going to be overkill, even if you dual-boot OS'.
Go for 1.5v as that is the standard it should be running at, 1.65v has been factory OC'd to reach its speeds stable.
8GB G.Skill Ripjaws X 1600 CAS8 is probably your best bet.
Also, from what I've read RAM cooling isn't really necessary unless you plan on pushing a ton of volts through it.

Get any SSD you want, personally 120GB is the perfect size for me, it will hold the OS and games I use, then all the random junk goes on the storage drive.
Regardless of what size SSD you get you can use caching though (source):

you can choose to use up to 64GB of the SSD as a cache for all accesses to the hard drive. Any space above 64GB is left untouched for you to use as a separate drive letter.

Why people use it is beyond me though, you can cache 64GB of your hard drive, or just store 64GB worth of stuff on your SSD...

 

[drewpnutz]

Awesome, here's my changes so far based on your recommendations and some research into it:

-changed my ram to G. Skills you recommended, (noticed that it is sandy bridge and Z68 friendly++) and just went with 8GB, only..saved me some money too, THANKS!!

-changed the case to the corsair enthusiast series with a TX750W PS and 500R Carbide (a little more expensive, but I really dig the carbide case..)

-went with the ASUS ENGTX580 GFX, really dig the dual fan action on there, Thing is a monster though, looks like it will take up a few pci slots with the width of it, however, I won't have much other than maybe a wireless NIC on PCI. With this GFX, would I still need to water cool if I O'C?

-Still very much on the fence about the water cooling, mostly because i'm still learning about it. At first, to me it looks like I can just buy a single unit that attaches to CPU and has a radiator that goes outside of the case?? Is that it??? Sounds simple, however, upon looking at some forums, i've seen some different ways to look at it..buying heat sinks for gpu and cpu, having a radiator that is as big as the case and having tubes and different parts to it..anyone have any experience on this and can lead me to the right information?

Or does anyone have any good experience overclocking without water cooling?

As soon as I finalize the water cooling aspect here i'll be ready to blast a hole in my bank account's head..

Thanks to all for your time and help!!

 

[Roark]

Yeah, its kind of hard not to like the Corsair Carbide series IMO, easy on the eyes and good cooling.

The Asus takes up 3 slots, but it looks like you would still have a few free on the motherboard you've chosen.
You don't need watercooling with any of the cards Sean listed, unless you plan on voltage tweaking really high.

There is a nice guide on these forums [url]http://www.techist.com/forums/f115/water-cooling-101-depth-guide-taking-plunge-203866/[/URL].

You can overclock without watercooling by buying an aftermarket air cooler, or get a closed-loop setup like the Corsair H60 you posted originally.
It all really depends on how high you want to overclock, if its 5GHz or less you don't necessarily need a watercooling loop.

 

[Prophet]

Theres a lot to water cooling, if your serious about it then you will essentially need to start form scratch and look at what you want to watercool, how much you want to overclock it and then from there looking at the radiators you will need. I would suggest sticking with the H60 as well. When you include the gpu in water cooling the loop gets complicated.

 

[drewpnutz]

alright,
I think i'm closer to making a decision on the cooling. I'm going to forego the gpu cooling and look at the H100 series cooling..This is compatible with the 500R that I was looking at, and installation seems really easy..I have seen some worries on H100 recalls but it doesn't worry me too much..(as long as they've recalled of the ones with issue)..
I've also seen people using different fans than the ones provided by corsair, but the ones provided by corsair seem legit..any other reason why to replace these?


So now i just have to redo the math and make sure the 750W PS will supply power to everything here and i think i'm ready to go...unless anyone has any objections??

 

[patonb]

As roark has postd my thoughts already, I'm not going to post that.

If youre going all in one vwth the 400, just get an h100 cooler. OR get adventurist and do the kit slaymate reviewed.

edit.

The 750 will be way more than you need.