Building a Powerful Desktop

Intelligence

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Hey guys, I am building a high-end desktop computer for multi-threaded purposes. I will be attempting to overclock my components. I do not have any major budget restrictions ($2,500). Could somebody please review my parts below and tell me if they are compatible or not? My main concern is that when I build this rig, parts won't be working with one another. Will I be able to mount all these external cards onto my motherboard? Is the power supply sufficient? And so forth... Any help is appreciated and will be graciously thanked!

Case: COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case


PSU: COOLER MASTER Silent Pro Gold Series RS800-80GAD3-US 800W ATX 12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.92 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply


Extra heatsink:
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible with Intel 1366/1155/775 and AMD FM1/FM2/AM3+


Motherboard:
ASUS Maximus V EXTREME LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard


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


RAM: (x2, 16BG) CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B


HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive


SSD: SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128B/WW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)


Graphics card: EVGA SuperClocked+ 02G-P4-2684-KR GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card


Optical drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM


Sound card: ASUS Xonar Essence STX Virtual 7.1 Channels PCI Express x1 Interface 124 dB SNR / Headphone AMP Card


Network card: Intel PWLA8391GT 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI Desktop Adapter PRO/1000 GT - OEM


Additional USB card: Rosewill NEC 4+1 Port USB2.0 PCI CARD Model RC-101
 
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Get a different power supply, Corsair, Antec, Seasonic 800W more than enough for those components.

Get a better cooler. Well depends on your overclocking hopes.. the 212s are okay/good coolers, but for higher clocks you'll need better. Or atleast get a matching fan to push pull it.

You do not need 16Gigs of RAM, unless you are doing serious Photoshop or movie production

AN extra NIC is useless, just use the mobo's nic.

Unless you are really into sound, again just use the onboard card.

I'd say get a 240Gig SSD, 12Gigs great size but the extra cost for 240Gig is't much.

If you're just gaming, the i7 is cool and all but a waste. Games don't use all of an i5 so the extra is up to you.
 
He is doing multi-threaded things. Care to elaborate on just exactly you are doing OP?

I agree on many things he said.
Get a Corsair TX or HX PSU.
Get a Corsair H series cooler if you want to overclock an IB CPU.
There is no need to get such an expensive motherboard at all. You would be fine with a cheaper Z77 board. If you get a different board it'll be smaller and you wont need such a mammoth of a case.
Since you put 2x 16GB I'm guessing you want 32GB total RAM? Pointless unless you are doing multiple VMs that need that much RAM or some super CAD/Maya production.
Again, sound card is useless unless you have studio quality bookshelf speakers and a high grade A/V.
The extra NIC is also pointless.

To answer your original question, yes everything is compatible but if you are really doing some stuff that requires all of this then I suggest going with a hex on the X79 platform. 3930k, 16 or 32GB of quad channel RAM, ect.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys! I have taken them into consideration and made some modifications. Just to clarify, I will be doing a lot of extreme video editing and gaming with many programs open at once, so I need some of the parts I currently want. I'm also an enthusiast who wants a great rig without going too overboard on his parts. Again, my main concern is compatibility. But will I have enough power and will my cooling be efficient enough for OC now?

Case: COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case

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

Cooling: CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

Motherboard: ASUS Maximus V EXTREME LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard

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

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B

HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

SSD:
SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128B/WW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Graphics card: EVGA SuperClocked+ 02G-P4-2684-KR GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Optical drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM

Sound card:
ASUS Xonar Essence STX Virtual 7.1 Channels PCI Express x1 Interface 124 dB SNR / Headphone AMP Card

Additional USB card:
Rosewill NEC 4+1 Port USB2.0 PCI CARD Model RC-101
 
If you're just gaming, the i7 is cool and all but a waste. Games don't use all of an i5 so the extra is up to you.
While the i5 can run any game today on maxed out settings and the i7 is totally overkill for most purposes, it would still be a good idea to buy an i7 if it's in your budget.
Why? An i5 may be able to run anything on max settings today but what about in a year? What about 2 years? What about 4 years? You will most likely wish you bought a better processor later.

Since you put 2x 16GB I'm guessing you want 32GB total RAM? Pointless unless you are doing multiple VMs that need that much RAM or some super CAD/Maya production.
This is total and complete overkill. A wise man once said that we will never need more than 640k.. wait..
In all seriousness, you should buy at least 16GB just to save you the hassle of upgrading later if you're willing to spend that much money.
If you would rather not, 8GB will get you a long way too.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys! I have taken them into consideration and made some modifications. Just to clarify, I will be doing a lot of extreme video editing and gaming with many programs open at once, so I need some of the parts I currently want. I'm also an enthusiast who wants a great rig without going too overboard on his parts. Again, my main concern is compatibility. But will I have enough power and will my cooling be efficient enough for OC now?

Case: COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case

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

Cooling: CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

Motherboard: ASUS Maximus V EXTREME LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard

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

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B

HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

SSD:
SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128B/WW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Graphics card: EVGA SuperClocked+ 02G-P4-2684-KR GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Optical drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM

Sound card:
ASUS Xonar Essence STX Virtual 7.1 Channels PCI Express x1 Interface 124 dB SNR / Headphone AMP Card

Additional USB card:
Rosewill NEC 4+1 Port USB2.0 PCI CARD Model RC-101
The 850w is overkill unless you plan to add another 680 later on. The 600 series cards don't take as much power as the older Fermi cards do. A 670 only requires a 550w PSU to give you an idea on that.
I know you want to overclock, but the Maximus is still overboard. Unlike critical parts in your build like the CPU or GPU, the motherboard now really doesn't make that much of a difference because they only get better with heavy and extreme OCing. For instance, if you were to do dry ice or LN2. They also grant 3 or 4 way SLI/Crossfire. All of the lesser boards offer the exact same things and the same OCing capability under regular air or water cooling.
Yea, the H100 is pretty nice. I have a 3960x under an H50 and it does fine which is 2 more cores and about 40 more watts TDP than a 3770k. The H100 should take the 3770k to about 4.6 easily.
I can't stress enough how much you don't need that sound card unless you have a couple grand in your audio setup.

While the i5 can run any game today on maxed out settings and the i7 is totally overkill for most purposes, it would still be a good idea to buy an i7 if it's in your budget.
Why? An i5 may be able to run anything on max settings today but what about in a year? What about 2 years? What about 4 years? You will most likely wish you bought a better processor later.

This is total and complete overkill. A wise man once said that we will never need more than 640k.. wait..
In all seriousness, you should buy at least 16GB just to save you the hassle of upgrading later if you're willing to spend that much money.
If you would rather not, 8GB will get you a long way too.
An i3 can run every game on max and still do more CPU intensive tasks quite easily. People don't realize how much it isn't so much core count but cycles per clock in games. The i5 750 (first gen) I had for 3 years will still probably do quite well for the next 3-5 years easy. A 2500k for 5+ years, and a 3570k is even faster than that. Try to realize, an i5 is the exact same chip as an i7 besides the HT. Don't get confused with thinking an i7 is that much quicker because it isn't. Especially in games.

By the time we need 16GB of RAM in a desktop DDR4 will be out and mainstream. It will be introduced to the consumer desktops around 2014. By then, IB-E and Haswell will be out and maybe even something better than that from AMD (hahahaha we can only wish on AMD). So unless you are doing workstation tasks on a PC you don't need 16+. I have 8GB and run remote desktop to my server, run an OS-X VM in the background, and still have plenty of room to game since no game can use over 3GB of RAM.
 
An i3 can run every game on max and still do more CPU intensive tasks quite easily. People don't realize how much it isn't so much core count but cycles per clock in games. The i5 750 (first gen) I had for 3 years will still probably do quite well for the next 3-5 years easy. A 2500k for 5+ years, and a 3570k is even faster than that. Try to realize, an i5 is the exact same chip as an i7 besides the HT. Don't get confused with thinking an i7 is that much quicker because it isn't. Especially in games.
Correct me if I'm wrong but the i7's are more stable when overclocked too. Don't forget that an i7-3770k has a whopping 100mhz more than an i5-3570k as well.;)
How long do you think it will be until games utilize hyper-threading?

By the time we need 16GB of RAM in a desktop DDR4 will be out and mainstream. It will be introduced to the consumer desktops around 2014.
Will DDR4 really make enough of a difference that 16gb of DDR3 ram is inferior to 16GB of DDR4 ram?
 
While the i5 can run any game today on maxed out settings and the i7 is totally overkill for most purposes, it would still be a good idea to buy an i7 if it's in your budget.
Why? An i5 may be able to run anything on max settings today but what about in a year? What about 2 years? What about 4 years? You will most likely wish you bought a better processor later.

Nope because in 4yrs that top of the line chip will be 100 bucks... And that's only an option if i actually kept the system that long. I actually game more on my Acer laptop, with upgraded x9100 ($165 upgrade) than my main rig.

This is total and complete overkill. A wise man once said that we will never need more than 640k.. wait..
In all seriousness, you should buy at least 16GB just to save you the hassle of upgrading later if you're willing to spend that much money.
If you would rather not, 8GB will get you a long way too.

I have 12Gigs right now... No choice i'm running triple channel and running a Ubunttu VM folding bigadv unit and a Finite Element Analysis program, I'm still only 50%, aka 6Gigs

Again, as with the cpu ram will fall in price and upgrading taskes 43secs.... My 650D is easy to open

PLUS populating all slots dcreases ocing ability.
 
I've decided to change to the 750W PSU model, hold off on the sound card (I do love audio though, but with my current stereo setup it is probably overkill), opt for 2x4GB RAM, and remove the USB card. I still am uncertain about my motherboard though. This is a long-term investment because I plan on using the same motherboard for years to come. I also plan to add on more cards over the next few years, so I like the options it provides, and more. Of course, it is exorbitantly priced, but budget does not concern me much. Two questions that follow are:
1. What advantages/disadvantages does using a PSU that is more than needed bring?
2. Would you recommend a specific replacement motherboard that is compatible with all the parts I have right now with the option and capacity to add in more peripheral cards? I generally favor ASUS mobos, but one with good OC abilities, BIOS, ease-of-use, and many slots is more important than brand.

Case: COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case

PSU: CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Cooling: CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

Motherboard: ASUS Maximus V EXTREME LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard

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

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B

HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

SSD: SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128B/WW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Graphics card: EVGA SuperClocked+ 02G-P4-2684-KR GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Optical drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
 
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Correct me if I'm wrong but the i7's are more stable when overclocked too. Don't forget that an i7-3770k has a whopping 100mhz more than an i5-3570k as well.;)
How long do you think it will be until games utilize hyper-threading?

Will DDR4 really make enough of a difference that 16gb of DDR3 ram is inferior to 16GB of DDR4 ram?
Actually, having HT on generates more heat while overclocked so most of the time an i5 will overclock more. An extra little 100mhz wont really matter much because each chip is binned differently. You could have a 3570k that could do 5ghz and a 3770k that could barely do 4.5ghz. It's all in the chip itself.
It is my personal opinion from being a reviewer talking closely with developers that they will never consider HT in game development because you can't substitute fake cores for real ones. With that being said, an i5 will almost always be the better buy for gaming. In all reality, HT hardly makes any difference to anything.
We can add on to that argument from what I said in another post about how you can't split a single thread into multiple instances to be processed at the same time. That is why most games only use about 2 cores at 100% and quads barely get any increase over that.

You misunderstood me. I was saying that by the time 16GB of RAM will actually be needed DDR4 will be the norm. So therefor, most people will already be upgrading their systems to DDR4 based RAM and getting 16GB of that instead. Again from before, it is my personal opinion 16GB of RAM still wont be used for a while to come. I'm talking 4-5 years here. The reason being is this, games today can't use more than 3GB of RAM due to their 32bit nature. That includes "native" 64bit games, because the API is still 32bit. When the new consoles come out that could change a bit but I don't see the use getting any larger for the simple reason that PC's will always have more memory and horsepower than console counterparts due to their life span. ALL games are console ports unless directly developed for the PC. The new consoles I believe will have 4GB of RAM total.
Other programs only take up large chunks of RAM for few reasons:
1. They cache large files into RAM for speedy access (Photoshop, CAD, 3D, ect)
2. They run multiple instances of itself in RAM instead of swapping to the drive or reading from the drive directly.
3. Something like VM, where you can allocate multiple machines to use smaller chunks of your current hardware as dedicated machines.
4. RAMDisk, but most people either don't know of this or don't know how to properly use it.

I've decided to change to the 750W PSU model, hold off on the sound card (I do love audio though, but with my current stereo setup it is probably overkill), opt for 2x4GB RAM, and remove the USB card. I still am uncertain about my motherboard though. This is a long-term investment because I plan on using the same motherboard for years to come. I also plan to add on more cards over the next few years, so I like the options it provides, and more. Of course, it is exorbitantly priced, but budget does not concern me much. Two questions that follow are:
1. What advantages/disadvantages does using a PSU that is more than needed bring?
2. Would you recommend a specific replacement motherboard that is compatible with all the parts I have right now with the option and capacity to add in more peripheral cards? I generally favor ASUS mobos, but one with good OC abilities, BIOS, ease-of-use, and many slots is more important than brand.

Case: COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case

PSU: CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Cooling: CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

Motherboard: ASUS Maximus V EXTREME LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard

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

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B

HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

SSD: SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128B/WW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Graphics card: EVGA SuperClocked+ 02G-P4-2684-KR GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Optical drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
The best CPU that you will be able to use on any 1155 motherboard will be the 3770k. The next CPU architecture being released (Haswell) will be on a new socket. Intel changes sockets and boards every 1 to 2 generations.
1. My friend runs dual 680s overclocked on an AX 850 and I think they would even be fine on an HX 750. There is no advantage to having a bigger PSU than you need.
2. Most all motherboards with the UEFI bios have the same basic options. For general OC of the CPU all you need is to change the core voltage and raise the multiplier. If budget really isn't an issue then just go ahead and keep the Maximus if you really like it that much.

System looks good and is compatible. If you really need all the extra USB ports then go ahead and keep the USB card or get a hub.
 
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