Hi all, I've not built myself a new system for a long time (5+ years - was in college living on a laptop), and it's finally time to get me something new. I've always wanted to take the H20 plunge and I figured now's a good time. I'm looking at buying and building this by around next month. Oh, also - this is in the US, and I'll be wanting to get all the hardware from Newegg, if possible.
Objectives: I'm aiming for a fairly high-end system for gaming and development; the idea is to have excellent performance while staying shy of stratospheric prices, and remain viable for, say, around 3 years. I'm looking at a budget of let's say $2000, not counting the monitor, but going a bit over is fine, too.
Also, given all the positive press it's been getting, I want to get nVidia 3D vision, so games will be running on a single-monitor 1920*1080 120Hz screen, Asus VG236H or similar. I'll probaly add a second one for work, but likely won't be gaming on it (dual-monitor is annoying in that the bezels are smack in the middle of your viewport, and triple is a bit overkill). Given the 3D, it'll end up effectively being dual 1920*1080 as far as rendering requirements go.
Given all of the above, I'm considering the following setup (current newegg prices listed):
$290 - Core i7 930 (or maybe 950 if the rumored Intel price cuts kick in..)
$460 - GeForce 460 1GB SLI (according to Bench, two of these are faster and cheaper than a single 480..)
$260 - EVGA E758-A1 mobo (or a better recommendation?)
$150 - 3x2GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 RAM (or go for DDR3 2000?)
$150 - Crucial RealSSD C300 (boot drive)
$90 - WD Black 1TB (data drive)
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All that puts me squarely at $1400, with (imo) a pretty solid all-around build that should suit my requirements. Y'all are welcome to blast it to bits if you feel you can do better, of course.
Which brings us to the stuff I haven't mentioned yet: the chassis itself. I haven't built a watercooled system before, so I don't really know what kind of case / PSU is appropriate. However, ideally I want the it to last beyond the lifetime of the components I put inside - i.e. three years down the line when I build a new system, I want to be able to chuck the internals and re-use the case/PSU/radiator/pump setup. Is that reasonable? And what should I get? I know next to nothing about this, so I'm completely open to suggestions here.
Objectives: I'm aiming for a fairly high-end system for gaming and development; the idea is to have excellent performance while staying shy of stratospheric prices, and remain viable for, say, around 3 years. I'm looking at a budget of let's say $2000, not counting the monitor, but going a bit over is fine, too.
Also, given all the positive press it's been getting, I want to get nVidia 3D vision, so games will be running on a single-monitor 1920*1080 120Hz screen, Asus VG236H or similar. I'll probaly add a second one for work, but likely won't be gaming on it (dual-monitor is annoying in that the bezels are smack in the middle of your viewport, and triple is a bit overkill). Given the 3D, it'll end up effectively being dual 1920*1080 as far as rendering requirements go.
Given all of the above, I'm considering the following setup (current newegg prices listed):
$290 - Core i7 930 (or maybe 950 if the rumored Intel price cuts kick in..)
$460 - GeForce 460 1GB SLI (according to Bench, two of these are faster and cheaper than a single 480..)
$260 - EVGA E758-A1 mobo (or a better recommendation?)
$150 - 3x2GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 RAM (or go for DDR3 2000?)
$150 - Crucial RealSSD C300 (boot drive)
$90 - WD Black 1TB (data drive)
-----
All that puts me squarely at $1400, with (imo) a pretty solid all-around build that should suit my requirements. Y'all are welcome to blast it to bits if you feel you can do better, of course.
Which brings us to the stuff I haven't mentioned yet: the chassis itself. I haven't built a watercooled system before, so I don't really know what kind of case / PSU is appropriate. However, ideally I want the it to last beyond the lifetime of the components I put inside - i.e. three years down the line when I build a new system, I want to be able to chuck the internals and re-use the case/PSU/radiator/pump setup. Is that reasonable? And what should I get? I know next to nothing about this, so I'm completely open to suggestions here.
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