New Gaming Pc - Suggestions?

[theyedi]

HD - 2x Velociraptors RAID-0 (300gb)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136322

Mobo - Asus P6T Deluxe 1366
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131365

Memory - Corsair Dominator-GT 6GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145255

PSU - BFG Tech 1200 W 80+ Cert.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817702015

Case - Antec Twelve Hundred
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-043-_-Product

Graphics - Currently waiting on nvidia to release their 300 series before I decide between that and the 5000 series.

What do you guys think?

 

[MisterDonut]

For a gaming PC, the RAM and PSU are overkill, in my opinion. AFAIK, the OCZ Gold does just fine for all of the builds I've seen/worked with for gamers, and the TX750/650 are both finely made PSUs. But your choice would still depend on future plans to SLI/CFX/etc. Raptors are nice hard drives, but with that price tag, Caviar Blacks probably perform just as well. A friend of mine pitted his against a Raptor and held its own (I don't have the actual marks, just the result), but by picking a Raptor, I'm going to assume you have already considered and tossed the possibilities of SSDs. What CPU ? What cooling ? Plans to OC ? How hardcore are you planning to game ? Antec makes extremely fine products, as I own an Antec 900 (GREAT craftsmanship), but do your circumstances really call for a full tower ? (<-- actual question)

 

[theyedi]

Well, for the easy stuff first. I bought the case last year planning to upgrade it then, so I'm just planning on using it. I'm going with an i7 920 and hoping to get it to around 4 ghz on air, with this cooler:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835608014

Also, yeah, the ram is a bit much. After looking further, I think I found something that would be a better match:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145224

As for SSDs, I'm sort of worried about their lifetime. Is it significantly less than normal HD's? Also, is there any one that's reasonably priced that could replace the raptors? I have a 1.5 TB WD one that I could use for backup if I were to get a SSD. I'm pretty much building this solely for games, so I'm trying to optimize it for that.

I find the PSU to be at a great price. I'm planning on adding a high end card once nvidia releases their new one, and hopefully another one 2 years down the line. I'd rather invest in a good PSU now then have to upgrade later.

 

[MisterDonut]

Ah, Nocuta UH-12P is, indeed, a great air cooler, but I actually don't know for sure if you can push 4 ghz with it. A couple of the 920's (D0) I've seen were coupled with a TRUE push/pull, and it hit 4 ghz just fine.

For the RAM, if that does fit within your budget, it is a fine pick . Classic Dominators doing what they always do best, but I wouldn't overlook the Mushkin Red/Black.

Well, I can't comment on the lifetime for SSDs, as I have done minimal reading on them (mostly comparative scores), and don't know anybody that has kept them long enough to see them break down (one buddy has been running two OCZ Vertex 30g's for a while now and has yet to run into any problems. Beautiful machine). The WD Caviar Black is a very, very nice HDD. A friend of mine actually just bought one today to replace his old Samsung Spinpoint 32mb cache, and says he feels there is an improvement (something about dual architecture). Pitted against Raptors, he can strut some stuff.

TBH, unless you are powering up a small city inside that Antec of yours, I don't know if you'll need the 1200w. Run your specs through a quick PSU calculator and see the estimates it shoots at ya. Just for fun, I ran a 5970 cfx, 4 HDD, i7 OC @ 4 ghz, excess watercooling sets, and it shot out 1221w at me. I dunno if Antec's calculator is reliable, but if that setup is what you are shooting for, then by all means. Just hope it doesn't explode cause it is one pricey PSU to replace !

 

[theyedi]

Hey, so I was looking at some other alternatives, and I think I've pretty much found exactly what I wanted for cooling, but it brings up some questions for ram

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/85...0c14s757#blank

Any experience with how high you can get with that? I'm reading reviews of it hitting 4.2 - 4.5. However, I'm afraid of picking ram for two reasons. That cooler also cools the ram, so I need to make sure it fits. Also, is it now required that I get this ram?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-255-_-Product

I know for sure this ram fits in the cooler:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-050-_-Product

The timings are also good. Any idea how loose they would have to get to hit 4.2 (or maybe 4.5, a guy can dream right?) ghz?

 

[MisterDonut]

To be honest, all of that is overkill, especially for a gaming machine. If you'd like to spend that much on a cooler, you might as well shoot for watercooling, then you can get some waterblocks for the GPU and overclock that. Hitting 4.2-4.5 ghz would probably require watercooling to hit safely. I dunno anybody who's used the V10, but that is one hell of a pricey cooler. I don't think you'd really need to cool your RAM; heat spreaders do the job just fine.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

You might want to ask Aigo for a cooler for that. He is really knowledgeable in that area.