Please critique these components for a new gaming rig

[peppergomez0]

I put this list together based on some advice on HardOCP, user and professional reviews, and the advice of a friend. Goal is to game at 7560x1440 at about 30+ frames per second on games like BF3 and Skyrim.

Wanted to get folks' advice before I buy (I plan to buy in the next few days).

A few questions: Is 1200W going to be enough for Trifire, and will heat and noise be within acceptable limits?

Also, might I need a longer crossfire cable in order to connect the 6970 and 6990 together? (PS- I went w/ two cards of the same brand, Sapphire, because a friend suggested that its a good idea to get the same brand to avoid any problems due to different BIOS from cards of different brands)

Trend Micro comes free with Win 7, btw. I have plenty of HDD drives at home, so I am only ordering 2 SSD drives for a RAID config. Will only have OS install and games on the SSDs.

The Plextor SSD drives are on sale at Newegg, hence my choosing them.

Many thanks for feedback.



CART


Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Full

TREND MICRO Titanium Internet Security 2012 - 1 User for System Builder


2 x Plextor PX-M2 Series PX-256M2S 2.5" 256GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)


COOLER MASTER Silent Pro Gold Series RSC00-80GAD3-US 1200W ATX 12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.92 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model F3-17000CL9D-8GBXM

ASUS MAXIMUS IV EXTREME (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i7-2700K Sandy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623i72700K

2 x COOLER MASTER SickleFlow 120 R4-L2R-20AR-R1 120mm Silent operation Red LED case fan

COOLER MASTER CM Storm Series Trooper (SGC-5000-KKN1) Black Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case


SAPPHIRE 100311-2SR Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

"Sapphire Radeon HD 6990 4GB DDR5 DVI-I/QUAD MINI DP PCI-Express Graphics Card 100310SR"

LITE-ON Black 12X Blu-ray Burner with Blu-ray 3D feature SATA IHBS112-29 (Including CyberLink BD Solution)

"Noctua 6 Dual Heatpipe with 140mm/120mm Dual SSO Bearing Fans CPU Cooler NH-D14 - Retail"
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[lehtv]

Alright, here goes

i5-2500K is just as good for gaming. Fast RAM won't benefit you either, get e.g. this 1600mhz kit.

The 6990 is quite expensive and noisy - you might want to consider a board that can handle tri-SLI, e.g. EVGA P67 FTW, and going triple 6950, like Sapphire 6950 (unlockable to 6970) or XFX 6950 for the transferable lifetime warranty (sell and upgrade to 7950's). The three 6950's cost the same as one 6990.

The case, fans and cooler are probably fine; check Noctua's site to make sure D14 is compatible with the EVGA mobo if you go that route.

I don't know about the Plextor SSD, would lean towards Crucial M4 256GB. I'm not convinced you need more than just one 256GB drive though, do you have like 300GB worth of games? Also, SSD raid means you lose TRIM support. The M4 is a fast drive without RAID, you'd only really notice the difference between single and RAID when moving large amounts of data.

1200W is more than enough for TriFire. JonnyGuru criticized the ripple suppression on the CM Silent Pro 1200W unit. I'd recommend Antec HCP-1200 instead (a bit cheaper on SuperBiiz). Reviews: JonnyGuru [9.5/10] TechPowerUp [Editor's Choice] HardOCP [Editor's Choice]

Why Windows 7 Ultimate...? Just get Home Premium 64 OEM for $100, if this is just a gaming rig it's pointless to pay for any other version.

That's about it 🙂

 

[nubki11a]

Sick, wish I could spend that much 😛 GL

 

[Zap]

I'd mostly agree with everything lehtv said.

2500K, 2600K and 2700K are EQUIVALENT for gaming. That is, unless you were banking on the possibility of hitting 5GHz on the 2700K. Not sure if they are binned any better. There are some threads on it in CPUs.

Almost ZERO gaming benefit of DDR3-2133 over 1600.

Paying more $$$ for a motherboard doesn't make games run better. Only thing is more PCIe slots to run more graphics cards. If you run the Tri-fire with a 6990+6970, you only need two slots, so you can go much cheaper on the motherboard.

Nothing in Windows 7 Ultimate makes it game any better than Home Premium.

That Trend Micro software better be free. Even if it is, I'd rather just use Microsoft Security Essentials, which is free.

Those Plextor SSDs use the Marvell controller. That being said, they aren't quite as fast as other SSDs using the same Marvell controller (but different firmware). Still, will run circles around hard drives. BTW, the Crucial m4 256GB is the same price ($350) and has faster firmware.
Buy.com
Amazon
Both places have it in-stock for $350 with free shipping. Buy.com participates in various cashback programs, so that may end up even cheaper. For instance it will cost $332.45 when purchased through Shop Discover (5% cashback).

 

[peppergomez0]

Thanks, lehtv and Zap. I went with the Antec PSU as per your suggestion, lehtv. Also removed the 6990 and instead am going w/ 3 MSI 6970 Lightning cards in trifire. And going w/ Win 7 Home Premium, too. Finally, I switched out the Plextor w/ the Crucial SSDs.

Thanks!

 

[lehtv]

I've read that MSI Twin Frozr III cards shouldn't be placed in adjacent slots, there's a risk that the fans will rattle against the back of the lower card.

As you can see, the propeller type fan actually extends beyond the surface of the cover. The unlockable Sapphire 6950 Dirt3 edition suggested earlier should work better, or you can ensure compatibility in a foolproof way with a traditional blower type cooler, like Sapphire 6970 $350 each.

That'll cost you nearly $300 more though compared to 3x 6950 Dirt3... The main difference between 6950 and 6970, in terms of performance, is a measly 80MHz or 10% difference in core clock speed. Most of the extra performance of 6970 comes from this; a small additional amount comes from the extra shaders. Even if for some reason you'd be unable to unlock the Sapphire 6950 Dirt3, you'd get 97% of the performance for $300 less just by overclocking the 6950's to 880Mhz manually. They will probably not require any voltage increase for that overclock.

 

[mfenn]

Agree with Zap and lehtv. There is a difference between spending money for legitimately needed performance (Tri-fire at high resolution) and spending it just to be spending it (Win 7 Ultimate, Maximus IV Extreme, DDR3 2133, etc. etc.).

I would give serious thought to getting 6950s instead of 6970s. You can almost get three $250 6950 Dirt3 editions for the cost of two 6970 Lightnings. The performance difference between the two GPUs will be almost wiped out by Tri-fire scaling anyway.