Help refine my next mega build. Cost reduction or feature suggestions.

[Locut0s]

OK so I've got about $3500 saved away for my next build and I'm planning this build to be something of a killer machine as you can probably tell from the price. None of the specs bellow are finalized and I'm definitely no going to be pulling the trigger on this system for AT LEAST 3 or 4 MONTHS. Reason is I don't have a job right now and it would be a little nuts to spend the money right now without one, though even with a job it may only pay minimum wage At any rate I mention this cause some may be able to help me by making suggestions for products that may be coming out in the next 4 or 5 months. So here is the system I have as it is in the NCIX shopping cart:

Swiftech APOGEE XT LGA1366 CPU Water Block G1/4 Chrome HI-FLOW 1/2IN Eurostyle Barb Fittings
$79.99

Swiftech MCP655 12V Industrial Water Cooling Pump 1/2IN Barbs
$73.90

Swiftech MCR320 Quiet Power Triple 120MM Water Cooling Radiator Black G1/4 Threaded *IR-$12*
$39.99

Swiftech MCRES-MICRO REV2 Clear HI-FLOW Water Cooling Reservoir 3/8IN & 1/2IN Barb Fittings
$20.68

Swiftech 7/16IN ID Vinyl Tubing 10 Feet
$8.00

Ek Water Blocks EK-FC 5970 Nickel Plated Full Cover Radeon HD 5970 GPU Block G1/4
$169.99

Swiftech MCB-120 Radbox Revision 2 Black
$18.11

Feser One Fluid UV Orange NON-CONDUCTIVE Water Replacement for Liquid Cooling
$19.99

Corsair Obsidian Series 800D Full Tower Case EATX 5X5.25 4X3.5 Hotswappable 2X3.5INT No PS USB 1394
$309.99

Intel Core i7 930 Quad Core Processor LGA1366 2.8GHZ 8MB L3 Cache 130W 45NM OEM
$324.99

ASUS P6T X58 ATX LGA1366 DDR3 3PCI-E16 PCI-E1 2PCI CrossFire SLI SATA2 GBLAN Motherboard
$247.27

Powercolor Radeon HD 5970 725MHZ 2GB 4GHZ GDRR5 2XDVI Display Port PCI-E Video Card
$699.99

Corsair XMS3 TR3X6G1600C8 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL 8-8-8-24 Core i7 Memory Kit
$209.99

AuzenTech Bravura PCI-E 7.1 Sound Card X-FI EAX DTS Neo DTS Interactive Headphone AMP *IR-$15*
$119.99

Corsair TX750W 750W ATX 12V 60A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 140MM Fan
$144.99

Arctic Silver 5 HIGH-DENSITY Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound 3.5 Gram
$12.99

Intel X25-M 80GB 34NM Postville 2.5IN SSD SATA Solid State Disk Flash Drive Retail Box
$269.99

2x Western Digital WD20EARS Caviar Green 2TB SATA2 3GBPS 64MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM
$289.98

LG BH10LS30 Bluray Writer 10X BD-R 16X DVD-RW Lightscribe SATA Retail Box
$199.99

nGear 30FPS PC Webcam Camera with High Quality Microphone
$19.99

3x Yate Loon D12SL-12 120MM RED/BLACK Fan 1350RPM 47CFM 28DB 3/4PIN Sleeve Bearing OEM Sleeved Retail
$29.97

Scythe KM03 Kaze Master Pro 5.25IN Bay 6 Channel Fan Controller with Temperature and Fan Alarm Black
$49.99

Total price right now: $3,360.76 before taxes. Remember this is in CANADIAN dollars.

As you can see I'll be water cooling this system (water cooling newb here and I'm exitied to be putting together my first water colled rig). I won't be overclocking the CPU or RAM but I will likely overlcock the 5970 to at least 2x 5870 stock settings. The water cooling is more for a combination of longevity, heat reduction and most importantly noise reduction. I don't have a monitor in there as you can see because I will be keeping my current DELL WFP3007 30"er. I chose the sound card that you see there because I will mostly be using headphones on this system.

So any suggestions for how I should change this system up. Either suggestions for reducing it's price or other things that you would recommend I add remove or switch out? The current price is a bit high but within the budget I'm working with. So if you want to recommend adding something significant then something else would have to come out.

Thanks. And for those who think I'm nuts, yes... yes I am. :awe:

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

From what I recall, the Heat Killer (?-3.0) is the best CPU HS block to get.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Well ...

Next week you will be able to compare #s with something like a Thuban 1055T with (most likely) an 890FX motherboard. I don't know if you are locked on Intel or not.

What really jumps out ---- no USB3 or SATA 6Gb/s, and for a 80Gb SSD $270 seems a bit pricey.




--

 

[Locut0s]

From what I recall, the Heat Killer (?-3.0) is the best CPU HS block to get.

Thanks I'll take that into consideration. However NCIX doesn't carry Watercool products. They only have blocks from EK, Enzo, Kingwin, Koolance, Swiftech, and Zalman. Remember since I won't be overclocking the CPU that killer performance here is not as important as for the GPU block which I will be OCing a bit.

 

[Locut0s]

Well ...

Next week you will be able to compare #s with something like a Thuban 1055T with (most likely) an 890FX motherboard. I don't know if you are locked on Intel or not.

What really jumps out ---- no USB3 or SATA 6Gb/s, and for a 80Gb SSD $270 seems a bit pricey.

--

Yes I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for the numbers on that. I am no fanboy of any brand and will go for whatever is best for the money. As for the USB3 and SATA6 I can get those by going for the "deluxe" version of the ASUS mobo I have there. I originally had that in my list but wasn't sure if I really needed it. The reason I went with the Intel drive is because despite its price I thought they still produced the best drives and 80 GB is all I will need for the OS and most used apps. However I do see that the latest crop of SSDs from other manufacturers are just as good, but they are even more pricey than this dice!

 

[MJinZ]

OK so I've got about $3500 saved away for my next build and I'm planning this build to be something of a killer machine as you can probably tell from the price. None of the specs bellow are finalized and I'm definitely no going to be pulling the trigger on this system for AT LEAST 3 or 4 MONTHS. Reason is I don't have a job right now and it would be a little nuts to spend the money right now without one, though even with a job it may only pay minimum wage At any rate I mention this cause some may be able to help me by making suggestions for products that may be coming out in the next 4 or 5 months. So here is the system I have as it is in the NCIX shopping cart:

Swiftech APOGEE XT LGA1366 CPU Water Block G1/4 Chrome HI-FLOW 1/2IN Eurostyle Barb Fittings
$79.99

Swiftech MCP655 12V Industrial Water Cooling Pump 1/2IN Barbs
$73.90

Swiftech MCR320 Quiet Power Triple 120MM Water Cooling Radiator Black G1/4 Threaded *IR-$12*
$39.99

Swiftech MCRES-MICRO REV2 Clear HI-FLOW Water Cooling Reservoir 3/8IN & 1/2IN Barb Fittings
$20.68

Swiftech 7/16IN ID Vinyl Tubing 10 Feet
$8.00

Ek Water Blocks EK-FC 5970 Nickel Plated Full Cover Radeon HD 5970 GPU Block G1/4
$169.99

Swiftech MCB-120 Radbox Revision 2 Black
$18.11

Feser One Fluid UV Orange NON-CONDUCTIVE Water Replacement for Liquid Cooling
$19.99

Corsair Obsidian Series 800D Full Tower Case EATX 5X5.25 4X3.5 Hotswappable 2X3.5INT No PS USB 1394
$309.99

Intel Core i7 930 Quad Core Processor LGA1366 2.8GHZ 8MB L3 Cache 130W 45NM OEM
$324.99

ASUS P6T X58 ATX LGA1366 DDR3 3PCI-E16 PCI-E1 2PCI CrossFire SLI SATA2 GBLAN Motherboard
$247.27

Powercolor Radeon HD 5970 725MHZ 2GB 4GHZ GDRR5 2XDVI Display Port PCI-E Video Card
$699.99

Corsair XMS3 TR3X6G1600C8 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL 8-8-8-24 Core i7 Memory Kit
$209.99

AuzenTech Bravura PCI-E 7.1 Sound Card X-FI EAX DTS Neo DTS Interactive Headphone AMP *IR-$15*
$119.99

Corsair TX750W 750W ATX 12V 60A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 140MM Fan
$144.99

Arctic Silver 5 HIGH-DENSITY Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound 3.5 Gram
$12.99

Intel X25-M 80GB 34NM Postville 2.5IN SSD SATA Solid State Disk Flash Drive Retail Box
$269.99

2x Western Digital WD20EARS Caviar Green 2TB SATA2 3GBPS 64MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM
$289.98

LG BH10LS30 Bluray Writer 10X BD-R 16X DVD-RW Lightscribe SATA Retail Box
$199.99

nGear 30FPS PC Webcam Camera with High Quality Microphone
$19.99

3x Yate Loon D12SL-12 120MM RED/BLACK Fan 1350RPM 47CFM 28DB 3/4PIN Sleeve Bearing OEM Sleeved Retail
$29.97

Scythe KM03 Kaze Master Pro 5.25IN Bay 6 Channel Fan Controller with Temperature and Fan Alarm Black
$49.99

Total price right now: $3,360.76 before taxes. Remember this is in CANADIAN dollars.

As you can see I'll be water cooling this system (water cooling newb here and I'm exitied to be putting together my first water colled rig). I won't be overclocking the CPU or RAM but I will likely overlcock the 5970 to at least 2x 5870 stock settings. The water cooling is more for a combination of longevity, heat reduction and most importantly noise reduction. I don't have a monitor in there as you can see because I will be keeping my current DELL WFP3007 30"er. I chose the sound card that you see there because I will mostly be using headphones on this system.

So any suggestions for how I should change this system up. Either suggestions for reducing it's price or other things that you would recommend I add remove or switch out? The current price is a bit high but within the budget I'm working with. So if you want to recommend adding something significant then something else would have to come out.

Thanks. And for those who think I'm nuts, yes... yes I am. :awe:

Hmmm, let's see:

1) Crappy PSU
2) Ancient thermal compound, anything is better than AS5
3) Are 920s no longer available? I'm pretty sure 920s > 930s for overclocking, though I haven't read up on anything recently.

Otherwise, looks good. I wouldn't get a Powercolor anything though, and EVGA > Asus. Personally, I don't think your system is quite powerful enough for $3,300 to justify all that cooling gear either.

And Barbs? If you're going high end, no-no to barbs. Actually no barbs, ever. Compression fittings and be done with it.

You should research your board's compatibility with the waterblock as well, some boards are not as happy as others.

Also, X58 boards run hot. With basically no airflow, your VREG and IOH (Northbridge) are going to be scalding. If I had to watercool anything, I would be watercooling my board, not my components. Though the 5970 makes sense, that card does not have enough cooling capability.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Thanks I'll take that into consideration. However NCIX doesn't carry Watercool products. They only have blocks from EK, Enzo, Kingwin, Koolance, Swiftech, and Zalman. Remember since I won't be overclocking the CPU that killer performance here is not as important as for the GPU block which I will be OCing a bit.

I would seriously consider a better CPU HS though. I had a EK Supreme LT, swiftech 3x120 QP rad, 355 pump and temps with a stock i7 920 would still get ~ 55*c in 80*f ambient temps.

 

[Locut0s]

Hmmm, let's see:

1) Crappy PSU
2) Ancient thermal compound, anything is better than AS5
3) Are 920s no longer available? I'm pretty sure 920s > 930s for overclocking, though I haven't read up on anything recently.

Otherwise, looks good. I wouldn't get a Powercolor anything though, and EVGA > Asus. Personally, I don't think your system is quite powerful enough for $3,300 to justify all that cooling gear either.

And Barbs? If you're going high end, no-no to barbs. Actually no barbs, ever. Compression fittings and be done with it.

You should research your board's compatibility with the waterblock as well, some boards are not as happy as others.

Also, X58 boards run hot. With basically no airflow, your VREG and IOH (Northbridge) are going to be scalding. If I had to watercool anything, I would be watercooling my board, not my components. Though the 5970 makes sense, that card does not have enough cooling capability.

Thanks for all this I'll look into it all. usually I do research everything well before buying but I'm new to water cooling so I'm asking here first thanks. The barbs on the blocks just come default with the blocks, will have to get some clamps seperately then. The 920 is available and is only about 20 bucks more. However I'm likely not going to be OCing the CPU or ram. The water cooling is mostely for silence and the vid card. I'll look into cooling options for the Vregs and bridge but I thought that these parts on most modern mobos were ok with passive cooling so long as you weren't ocing? I

 

[Locut0s]

I would seriously consider a better CPU HS though. I had a EK Supreme LT, swiftech 3x120 QP rad, 355 pump and temps with a stock i7 920 would still get ~ 55*c in 80*f ambient temps.

Ok will look into it thanks.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hmmm, let's see:

1) Crappy PSU
2) Ancient thermal compound, anything is better than AS5

Corsair is crappy now? Since when?

And what's wrong with AS5? It's easy to work with, and it works well. It's the old standby. None of the new-fangled pastes are as easy to use, and they only make about a 1-3C difference anyways.

 

[Locut0s]

Corsair is crappy now? Since when?

And what's wrong with AS5? It's easy to work with, and it works well. It's the old standby. None of the new-fangled pastes are as easy to use, and they only make about a 1-3C difference anyways.

Yeah my current PSU is a Corsair and I have no complaints at all.

 

[MJinZ]

Corsair is crappy now? Since when?

And what's wrong with AS5? It's easy to work with, and it works well. It's the old standby. None of the new-fangled pastes are as easy to use, and they only make about a 1-3C difference anyways.

3C is enough of a difference to not use AS5. AS5 is messy and capacitive, I would not want it to get near my sockets.

Corsair makes good supplies and average ones. THe TX750 is pretty crappy, actually quite crappy, all things considered. It's an old unit and design, and isn't efficient, and I would say, a bare minimum to be running a 5970 and a bunch of watercooling stuff.

At this price, I would not consider anything except the Corsair HX850 or better yet, an Enermax.

Also, Corsair TX power supplies have been known to be completely be incompatible with Asus X58 boards for some reason. I've been a regular on the Corsair forums for many months.

 

[MJinZ]

Thanks for all this I'll look into it all. usually I do research everything well before buying but I'm new to water cooling so I'm asking here first thanks. The barbs on the blocks just come default with the blocks, will have to get some clamps seperately then. The 920 is available and is only about 20 bucks more. However I'm likely not going to be OCing the CPU or ram. The water cooling is mostely for silence and the vid card. I'll look into cooling options for the Vregs and bridge but I thought that these parts on most modern mobos were ok with passive cooling so long as you weren't ocing? I

920 should be cheaper than 930 lol... very strange. It is here in the US anyway (if they still carry them).

$3,300 is way too much to be not overclocking. Your 930 running at 2.8ghz is going to be a big bottleneck for your 5970.

Honestly, if you silence is your number one concern, then forget about watercooling. Watercooling is as silent as the fans you use, and then with the pump noise, your system will not even be as silent as a comparable air cooled system. Fan wise, the Yate Loons are not going to be quiet enough. Servo Gentle Typhoons are the only standout fan I have ever used. Perfect balance and noise characteristics. Completely silent at low RPM, and very quiet at highest. They are so good that when you hold them in your hand running at 1800RPM, they don't even vibrate


The 5970 then becomes the only good reason to watercool.

I can think of a very good system build with a Intel 980 and 2 GTX 480s or Tri-fire 5870s for $3,300

 

[Locut0s]

3C is enough of a difference to not use AS5. AS5 is messy and capacitive, I would not want it to get near my sockets.

Corsair makes good supplies and average ones. THe TX750 is pretty crappy, actually quite crappy, all things considered. It's an old unit and design, and isn't efficient, and I would say, a bare minimum to be running a 5970 and a bunch of watercooling stuff.

At this price, I would not consider anything except the Corsair HX850 or better yet, an Enermax.

Also, Corsair TX power supplies have been known to be completely be incompatible with Asus X58 boards for some reason. I've been a regular on the Corsair forums for many months.

OK will look into this. Right now I have a Corsair HX520. I basically just picked a PSU at random to fill that item in the shopping cart so I had an idea of price points. I was going to research everything much better before locking anything down.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Well ...

Next week you will be able to compare #s with something like a Thuban 1055T with (most likely) an 890FX motherboard. I don't know if you are locked on Intel or not.

What really jumps out ---- no USB3 or SATA 6Gb/s, and for a 80Gb SSD $270 seems a bit pricey.




--

USB 3.0 is not catching on at all.......it probably will never catch on..

 

[JEDIYoda]

OK will look into this. Right now I have a Corsair HX520. I basically just picked a PSU at random to fill that item in the shopping cart so I had an idea of price points. I was going to research everything much better before locking anything down.

You need to take what MJinZ is telling you with a grain of salt.....
As far as the Power supply goes we hqave a corsair rep who lurks in these forums and Jonny`s forum and Hard forums......ask the rep...

 

[Locut0s]

USB 3.0 is not catching on at all.......it probably will never catch on..

Just taking a quick look at average HDD, (not SSDs) transfer rates being around say 110 MB/s is there any need for USB3? From a quick look it seems that USB2 should be able to sustain 100-200 MB/s without any problems. That should more than handle most external HDDs (not SDDs) right? Assuming nothing else is on the bus at the same time of course.

 

[MJinZ]

USB 3.0 is not catching on at all.......it probably will never catch on..

USB 3 will be the standard in a few years, but it doesn't mean it'll be incredibly useful. Anybody with USB 2.0 devices will be just fine, and anybody with a USB 2.0 motherboard will not miss the USB 3.0 capabilities. When have I ever needed to transfer a crap load of stuff across USB? Maybe once or twice as a backup to an external drive.

 

[MJinZ]

You need to take what MJinZ is telling you with a grain of salt.....
As far as the Power supply goes we hqave a corsair rep who lurks in these forums and Jonny`s forum and Hard forums......ask the rep...

LOL, I own more Corsair products than you probably even know about. You'd trust a Corsair Rep? Are they going to tell you the bad aspects of their products?

Nearly 50% of my build was made by Corsair, until I sold the 800D & H50.

 

[Locut0s]

LOL, I own more Corsair products than you probably even know about. You'd trust a Corsair Rep? Are they going to tell you the bad aspects of their products?

Nearly 50% of my build was made by Corsair, until I sold the 800D & H50.

One thing I don't see why a 750W unit shouldn't be ok for this build. Using the calculator over here:

http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

I wasn't able to get above about 630W and that's with much more loaded into the system than I'm going to be using.

 

[MJinZ]

One thing I don't see why a 750W unit shouldn't be ok for this build. Using the calculator over here:

http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

I wasn't able to get above about 630W and that's with much more loaded into the system than I'm going to be using.

A small overclock on the CPU (3.33ghz, no real power increase) and 1 HD.

Yea, you'll live with the 750W but you'll have lower headroom for overclocking or adding other stuff down the road.

The only 750W supply I would buy is the HX750 or the Seasonic X750 (Never owned an X750 that didn't have coil whine like crazy though).

Be prepared for coil whine..

 

[Locut0s]

A small overclock on the CPU (3.33ghz, no real power increase) and 1 HD.

Yea, you'll live with the 750W but you'll have lower headroom for overclocking or adding other stuff down the road.

The only 750W supply I would buy is the HX750 or the Seasonic X750 (Never owned an X750 that didn't have coil whine like crazy though).

Be prepared for coil whine..

Yeah I just read a few reviews on the TX750, seems it's a fine unit but has unacceptably high noise on the 12V rail. I'll look into either getting an Enermax or maybe the HX850.

 

[Zap]

I'm definitely no going to be pulling the trigger on this system for AT LEAST 3 or 4 MONTHS.

Then why are you asking now? Stuff can change in 3-4 months. You might find a killer job and then have a higher price limit, or you might still be unemployed and thus need to keep holding off. New hardware can come out, prices can drop, your chosen parts can become discontinued or OOS.

My suggestion to you is to keep saving money and keep looking for a job. When you are 2 weeks away from your build, then start creating these threads. That will give you one week of research and one week waiting for parts delivery.

 

[Locut0s]

Then why are you asking now? Stuff can change in 3-4 months. You might find a killer job and then have a higher price limit, or you might still be unemployed and thus need to keep holding off. New hardware can come out, prices can drop, your chosen parts can become discontinued or OOS.

My suggestion to you is to keep saving money and keep looking for a job. When you are 2 weeks away from your build, then start creating these threads. That will give you one week of research and one week waiting for parts delivery.

Yeah I'm getting ahead of myself. :awe:

 

[Shilohen]

3C is enough of a difference to not use AS5. AS5 is messy and capacitive, I would not want it to get near my sockets.

Corsair makes good supplies and average ones. THe TX750 is pretty crappy, actually quite crappy, all things considered. It's an old unit and design, and isn't efficient, and I would say, a bare minimum to be running a 5970 and a bunch of watercooling stuff.

At this price, I would not consider anything except the Corsair HX850 or better yet, an Enermax.

Also, Corsair TX power supplies have been known to be completely be incompatible with Asus X58 boards for some reason. I've been a regular on the Corsair forums for many months.

Actually, I don't even see a single degree of difference when curing period was respected in the following review: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...k=view&id=150&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=12. If you have another proving otherwise, it would be most welcome as I was planning to use AS5 or Shin-Etsu MicroSi G751 as well.


Regards,