High end build, please give your professional suggestions!

[Annisman*]

These are the parts I am considering, I have done a good amount of research into most of it, but would very much appreciate any tips/comments before I pull the trigger on these fairly expensive components.

Case: Cooler Master Cosmos 2

Motherboard: Gigabyte X79 Assasin2

CPU: Intel 3930K six core processor

RAM: 16GB Quad Channel G.Skill RipJaw 2133

CPU COOLER: Corsair H100

PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1000W

SSD 2X Crucial M4 512GB in RAID 0

HDD 2TB WD Black (already own this)

GPU: 2X GTX 670 4GB SLI (already have these)

Thermal Grease: Tuniq TX-4

Case Fans: (4) Corsair AF 120 High Airflow Case fans, (1) Corsair AF140mm Case Fan

Radiator Fans: 2X Corsair SP120 Hight Static Pressure Case fan


This build is for my triple monitor (6000X1080) gaming PC.

I figured the 4GB of Vram on the video cards would be beneficial for that resolution.

Here are some of my questions:

Should I use the pre-applied thermal grease on the H100 or use the Tuniq TX- 4 ?

Will the Cooler Master 1000W power supply be able to handle a possible thrid GTX 670 4gb in the future ?

What kind of a 24/7 OC can I expect to get from the H100 and 3930K ? What should I be shooting for to get rid of any gpu bottleneck ?

Will two high static pressure fans be enough for the H100's cooling, or should I try and do a push/pull configuration with 4 of them (noise is not an issue) Also, if I do a push/pull config, where the heck should (or can) I mount the radiator in the Cosmos 2 ?

Does anybody have any tips on setting up RAID0 on this particular motherboard ? I have seen some places say to do it via software in windows (can that be done ?) And other places say to set it up in the BIOS before a fresh install of Windows.

Lastly, I have looked all over for information on what stripe size to use in an SSD RAID0 setup, and the answers all vary, some say it makes no difference at all. Anyone here have experience with this ? What stripe size do you reccomend ?

Thank you for looking, please if you have any tips on these questions or any advice/suggestions about the build in general I would greatly appreciate it.

- Annisman

 

[Zap]

These are the parts I am considering, I have done a good amount of research into most of it, but would very much appreciate any tips/comments before I pull the trigger on these fairly expensive components.

How "for sure" are you about a third GTX 670? Have you considered going socket 1155? I don't think there would be much performance difference in games with two GPUs, but there would be a huge cost difference.

Should I use the pre-applied thermal grease on the H100 or use the Tuniq TX- 4 ?

Use the pre-applied stuff.

Will the Cooler Master 1000W power supply be able to handle a possible thrid GTX 670 4gb in the future ?

It should - might be close if everything was super overclocked and fully loaded, but I can't see how you would fully load it using games. Only TRYING to torture it using synthetic tests can load it up that much.

What kind of a 24/7 OC can I expect to get from the H100 and 3930K ? What should I be shooting for to get rid of any gpu bottleneck ?

I don't know. 4.5GHz sounds reasonable. Just remember YMMV, so be happy with whatever you get.

Will two high static pressure fans be enough for the H100's cooling, or should I try and do a push/pull configuration with 4 of them (noise is not an issue) Also, if I do a push/pull config, where the heck should (or can) I mount the radiator in the Cosmos 2 ?

It should be okay with two fans.

Does anybody have any tips on setting up RAID0 on this particular motherboard ? I have seen some places say to do it via software in windows (can that be done ?) And other places say to set it up in the BIOS before a fresh install of Windows.

Enable RAID in BIOS, then use the now enabled RAID BIOS to create the array.

Lastly, I have looked all over for information on what stripe size to use in an SSD RAID0 setup, and the answers all vary, some say it makes no difference at all. Anyone here have experience with this ? What stripe size do you reccomend ?

Use the default, which is probably 64k.

 

[Ken g6]

Dustin Sklavos says, on the main AnandTech site:

It's been well established that Sandy Bridge-E's value proposition is a dubious one, and for gamers it's nigh nonexistent. I've actually even upgraded my personal workstation from a Gulftown i7-990X to an i7-3770K; unless you're doing a lot of serious video editing and doing it frequently, the extra two cores just aren't worth the increased power consumption and expense. Even then, editors routinely posting video to YouTube and Vimeo may find more utility out of Intel's Quick Sync than they would from two extra cores (as I have).

Suffice it to say, nine times out of ten, the market HP is targeting with the Phoenix[, gaming,] is going to be best served by an Ivy Bridge quad-core.

So, get a 3570K instead of a 3930K.

 

[DSF]

Are you using this PC for anything other than gaming? If not, you're probably going to find that a lot of that computing power (and thus, money) is going to waste.

As Ken says in Zap's sig, the best way to future proof is to save money and spend it on future products.

 

[Annisman*]

Thanks for the replies, espescially Zap, you've answered alot of my questions!

Fortunately for me, I have been blessed with a very good job a couple months ago, and now I don't mind spending a little over the top. I understand from a gaming perspective the extra 2 cores won't do anything, but the chip is only a couple hundred bucks more than the quad core, so that's why I want it.

I'm not saying I have no budget on this build, just a very flexible one.

@DSF I'm just using it for gaming.

@Ken, thank you for that quote, and I understand it may seem like a waste, but I really want the six core!

@Zap, I am almost positive I will add a third GTX 6704gb in the near future, which is part of the reason 1155 did not seem like a reasonable platform for me. With this X79 mobo, I would get PCI-E 3.0 X16, X16, and X8 with three video cards.

Oh, and does anybody have any real world experience with these expensive Corsair case fans ? Is it all hype or are they something special.

 

[Knavish]

Oh, and does anybody have any real world experience with these expensive Corsair case fans ? Is it all hype or are they something special.

If I was building a high budget system, I'd follow the fan advice from SPCR, like this Quiet Fan Roundup. I guess you may not value quiet fans as much as airflow since you're going with 3X video cards, though Perhaps it would still be nice to be quiet if you can get sufficient CFM for your needs.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Get the 6 Core. It doesn't increase your frames per second but it does help in other ways IF your game-engine utilizes all cores. The Unreal Engine 3 uses all 4 + my HT threads on my i7 920, and you'll find the Unreal 3 Engine used in alot of games, maybe even yours.

EDIT: if you go with an 1155, get one with HT e.g. the 3770K

 

[Annisman*]

If I was building a high budget system, I'd follow the fan advice from SPCR, like this Quiet Fan Roundup. I guess you may not value quiet fans as much as airflow since you're going with 3X video cards, though Perhaps it would still be nice to be quiet if you can get sufficient CFM for your needs.

There are corsair quiet edition fans, but I wasn't impressed by the cfm ratings, also there are even higher airflow corsair fans that had great cfm but very high dba, so I went with the ones rated in the middle.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

As far as the SSD RAID setup goes, someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that TRIM does not function on drives in a RAID array at this point. Without TRIM, you'd need to do all the garbage deletion manually from the drive to clear out free sectors. Now, this won't be an issue if you aren't doing a lot of deletion and rewriting to those sectors, but I would think the hassle of having to do that stuff manually is not going to be worth the small increase in speed that RAID 0 will offer on SSDs which are already very fast. Also, with the price of SSDs dropping rapidly, I'd hesitate to buy a terabyte worth of drives if you don't need the space immediately. There's a solid chance that 6 months down the road, those drives will be $100+ cheaper, so it might be in your best interest to just start with 1.

 

[Annisman*]

As far as the SSD RAID setup goes, someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that TRIM does not function on drives in a RAID array at this point. Without TRIM, you'd need to do all the garbage deletion manually from the drive to clear out free sectors. Now, this won't be an issue if you aren't doing a lot of deletion and rewriting to those sectors, but I would think the hassle of having to do that stuff manually is not going to be worth the small increase in speed that RAID 0 will offer on SSDs which are already very fast. Also, with the price of SSDs dropping rapidly, I'd hesitate to buy a terabyte worth of drives if you don't need the space immediately. There's a solid chance that 6 months down the road, those drives will be $100+ cheaper, so it might be in your best interest to just start with 1.

Thanks for your comments, this is the kind of comments I need, ones that make me step back and reconsider my plan.

You are correct, TRIM does not work in a RAID0 setup, but from what I have personally gathered, there is the possibility of that being changed with new Intel Raid drivers (forget what they are called exactly)

So there is that to hope for.

I actually do need the Terabyte of drive space, and my reason is this, I want to move my Steam folder (which is 1.2 TB in size) to an SSD for better load times etc. in 90% of the games I play. Now, I understand the entire folder won't transfer because of how big it is, but I was going to pick and choose about 500GB of games (the ones I actually play) and install them, along with my OS onto the 1TB of SSD.

Currently I run my OS and a handful of games on my OCZ Vertex Turbo 120GB SSD, and have all my STEAM games on a WD Black 2TB.

My other idea, was to purchase a 256GB Samsung 830 for my OS, and run 2X WD 1TB Velociraptors in RAID0 for my Steam folder.

The cost would be about the same for either option. I really want to run STEAM off of an SSD setup, espescially a blazing fast RAID0 setup.

Is my dream not worth it ? What do you guys think, are there any other options I am not thinking of here ?

Oh, and I really want some kind of RAID0 setup in this rig, so that has to be an option!

 

[mfenn]

Once you figure in the total platform cost of SB-E, it makes next to no sense for a gaming rig. $255 AP gets you a Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3 with plenty of PCIe bandwidth. Pair that with an i5 3570K and you're talking about $484. In contrast, the ASRock X79 Extreme3 (overall a much less featureful board) and 3939K is $800. That's nearly another GTX 670 right there.

Also, RAID0 of SSDs is pointless for client workloads. You simple aren't going to be pushing the queue depths that are necessary to extract more than one drive's worth of IOPS from the array. Not to mention the usual reliability issues inherent in a RAID0 config. I'd recommend getting a recent 128GB or 2556GB drive and running most games from the WD Black.

 

[Annisman*]

Once you figure in the total platform cost of SB-E, it makes next to no sense for a gaming rig. $255 AP gets you a Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3 with plenty of PCIe bandwidth. Pair that with an i5 3570K and you're talking about $484. In contrast, the ASRock X79 Extreme3 (overall a much less featureful board) and 3939K is $800. That's nearly another GTX 670 right there.

Also, RAID0 of SSDs is pointless for client workloads. You simple aren't going to be pushing the queue depths that are necessary to extract more than one drive's worth of IOPS from the array. Not to mention the usual reliability issues inherent in a RAID0 config. I'd recommend getting a recent 128GB or 2556GB drive and running most games from the WD Black.

Man, you're a Debbie Downer....

Don't you understand why people like me want RAID0 SSD's ? It's about MOAR speed!

There's nothing wrong with what you are saying, but youre saying it to the wrong crowd. I've got the money, and the desire for a very top end rig, and so that's what I want.

You don't think I know that a six core processor is almost useless for gaming ?

Sometimes people want to create something just to do it, this is one of those times good sir.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I would say go with the 2x512GB SSDs in that case, but don't bother RAIDing them. An SSD is going to load games comparably fast to a Raptor RAID array without the hassle of dealing with a RAID array and the problems that can stem from one (drive failure being the biggest issue). You can use a program like Steam Mover to move some of the games from your Steam folder onto the second SSD so they'll still load quickly and you can manage them all through Steam. But there's not going to be a significant benefit to gaming gained by loading off an SSD RAID array; you will not notice the difference between a level loading in 10 seconds and a level loading in 7 seconds.

Also, over 1 TB of games? That's madness.

 

[Annisman*]

How easy is Steam Mover to use ?

Is there alot to it, like editing registry entries, changing executables etc. or is it a plug and play kind of program ? Have you personally used it ?

Because if it's easy to use, I wouldn't mind that solution at all.

This is my newest thought: Purchase a 256GB Samsung 830 SSD for the OS install
Purchase a 512GB Crucial M4 SSD and put the games I am most often using on it via Steam Mover.
Keep the 2TB WD Black as backup/rest of my STEAM games.

What do you think about that setup ?

And just wondering, why does everybody seem to hate on RAID0 so much ? Besides the fact that if one drive screws up it screws up both, is there really any other issue to expect ? I was just dying to do my first ever RAID setup, and thought it would be cool to use blazing fast SSD's to do it.

I feel like the cool factor totally outweighs the risk, but that's my opinion.

Edit: Found a tutorial on Steam Mover, looks incredibly easy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irCZDF2h6Ys

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I've personally used Steam Mover, it's completely plug and play. You point to your Steam directory, you point to a backup directory on a different drive and then it's literally a single click to move a game between the two drives. It takes care of all the registry entries so you don't have to bother. Great little piece of software.

 

[sm625]

Also, 1TB of SSD seems unreasonable. I just dont see how you could ever find a use for that much flash, given that you have a 2TB HDD where you can easily store your unused files and folders.

 

[krnmastersgt]

I understand that you want a top of the line machine, but you seem to be just burning money with many parts of the build. As sm625 said, I don't see the reasoning behind that much solid state storage, you're burning a grand to load maps just a few seconds faster, and I sincerely doubt you actively play over 500 GB of games unless they're modded to hell and back, not while having a job anyways.

 

[richaron]

+1 on burning money.

You can have a top of the line system without an extreme processor & silly amounts of SSD. Do it smart, you wont notice the difference, & you can burn your money on other things (on top of other things I just ordered a "Zombie Tools" blade... preparing for the apocalypse).

 

[Annisman*]

You guys are right, I'm gonna tone it down on the ssd/raid thing. I'll get one for my os, and a slightly bigger one for a handful of my games. Gives me some extra cash for a new keyboard (logitech g 19) and a better video card for my brother (hes inheriting my old rig, minus the gtx 670s and 2 tb wd black)

 

[mfenn]

You guys are right, I'm gonna tone it down on the ssd/raid thing. I'll get one for my os, and a slightly bigger one for a handful of my games. Gives me some extra cash for a new keyboard (logitech g 19) and a better video card for my brother (hes inheriting my old rig, minus the gtx 670s and 2 tb wd black)

See, I knew we would talk some sense into you.

 

[mfenn]

You don't think I know that a six core processor is almost useless for gaming ?

The point is not that a six core processor is almost useless for gaming (which it of course is). The point is that if you get an 1155 quad, you will save enough money to go tri-SLI immediately which is very useful for gaming.

 

[Annisman*]

The point is not that a six core processor is almost useless for gaming (which it of course is). The point is that if you get an 1155 quad, you will save enough money to go tri-SLI immediately which is very useful for gaming.

Well, I really wanted X79 for the PCI-E 3.0 advantages, because assuming I keep this mobo for a good 2-3 years (which is about my average) there will be Graphics cards eventually taking advantage of that bandwidth, espescially in CF/SLI which I always run.

Plus, it's obvious that within a couple years games will start to utilize 4 and 6 core cpus alot more than today.

Add that to my generally open budget and I just can't make myself go 1155 this round.

 

[mfenn]

Well, I really wanted X79 for the PCI-E 3.0 advantages, because assuming I keep this mobo for a good 2-3 years (which is about my average) there will be Graphics cards eventually taking advantage of that bandwidth, espescially in CF/SLI which I always run.

Plus, it's obvious that within a couple years games will start to utilize 4 and 6 core cpus alot more than today.

Add that to my generally open budget and I just can't make myself go 1155 this round.

Then why not get X79, a 6-core, and a third GTX 670? If you say "budget", then you've proven my point.

If you take a close look at the specs of the Gigabyte 1155 board I recommended, you will see that it offers the same PCIe 3.0 configuration as most X79 boards.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Wasn't PCI-E 2.0 released like 3-ish years ago? Modern cards still can't max out the bandwidth from that so I don't see the point of spending the extra money (a lot in this case) to get a board that supports full support/bandwidth for 3.0 as you likely won't need it for a long time to come.