Here's the rig I plan on building in a few weeks.

So here's what will be my future rig of doom. I've got a whole black and red theme going on. I know looks don't really matter but I'm kinda OCD like that. I want things to match haha so some of my choices where taking into account aesthetics.

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131854
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504
Cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181017
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121637
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139015
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231429
Boot SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227791
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533
OS: Windows 7 Professional 64bit.
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119245

I'm pretty sure everything checks out though I'll wait for the gurus to deem this rig worthy of PC master race status.

The Mobo I got because it had all the features I wanted and was in my color scheme. It's also got some pretty decent on-board sound which is a plus. I'm still unsure whether I want to add a dedicated sound card or not.

I plan to overclock the CPU to somewhere in the neighborhood of 4.5ghz. I know ivy bridge isn't ideal for OCing due to some heat issues at higher clock speeds but I'm going for a fairly moderate overclock so it should be fine plus I have the H100 so I should be good.

I mostly went ivy bridge for the PCI-E 3.0 aspect since I do plan to SLI a second GTX 670 at some point (christmas maybe) which also explains my massive PSU choice.

The 16gb of RAM is due to my audio editing needs. I do some orchestral stuff with multiple instances of very RAM hungry plugins. The more instances I can have the more accurately I can model instruments. And the particular RAM I've chosen goes with my theme and just looks cool in my opinion.

Booting from SSD and other stuff will go on the HDD. Pretty self explanatory there. I'll probably add a second 1TB HDD around christmas too. Might get into capturing some game footage or something.

And the case well I like the way it looks and it looks to have fairly decent airflow and it can fit all the shit I'm gonna put in it haha.

so that's my rig...what say you SeC?

Edit: changed PSU

Edit 2: Picked a different SSD and RAM

Edit 3: Different SSD again

Looks good man,

GPU is a beast

1200 Watts it totally over kill. I didnt even realize that haha

I have a 1050 watt PSU and its way more than Ill ever need.

Mr. Lundegaard wrote:1200 Watts it totally over kill. I didnt even realize that haha

I have a 1050 watt PSU and its way more than Ill ever need.

ah so I guess I'll drop down on the PSU. I had used an online calculator and it said I needed like 1000W so I figured I didn't want to max out the PSU and the next step up was 1200W.

I don't know if you caught the part where I said I'll probably be running 2 GTX 670s in the near future. Is 1050W gonna cut it?

HydrasBreath wrote:

Mr. Lundegaard wrote:1200 Watts it totally over kill. I didnt even realize that haha

I have a 1050 watt PSU and its way more than Ill ever need.

ah so I guess I'll drop down on the PSU. I had used an online calculator and it said I needed like 1000W so I figured I didn't want to max out the PSU and the next step up was 1200W.

I don't know if you caught the part where I said I'll probably be running 2 GTX 670s in the near future. Is 1050W gonna cut it?

Yes it will be enough. More than enough.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-670-2-and-3way-sli-review/4

Read this

Ah cool thanks sym right so an 850w would probably be good for my build.

Shinma wrote:Looks good. I'm not too crazy about the case though to be honest. Looks too... something... round maybe? You're making making me wonder if I should kick up my power supply as well... I think the one I chose was 750w.

To each his own I guess...I dig it. It was between that case or maybe a HAF X or something. Was maybe looking at a nzxt phantom but none of them really worked with my color scheme.

Yea that sounds about right.

I have a HAF case. Its bad ass.

that looks about what I'd want to build,except I wouldn't need that much ram,but I guess it couldn't hurt lol

SSD is crap, motherboard is very expensive for what it offers and i would generally advise against liquid cooling unless you doing a massive overclock (and know what you are doing). Everything else looks great though. Could I ask what resolution you will be gaming at? For SSD's I would recommend either a Samsung 830, Crucial M4, or maybe the OCZ Vertex 4. Also 16GB of ram is a bit much, unless you will be done a massive amount of editing.

Edit: Ram is 1.65 volts, pick some different ram that is 1.5 volts or lower.

Tom you know alot of SSD's

Way more than me.

I'm personally using OCZ Vertex 3, and its great.

Tom wrote:SSD is crap, motherboard is very expensive for what it offers and i would generally advise against liquid cooling unless you doing a massive overclock (and know what you are doing). Everything else looks great though. Could I ask what resolution you will be gaming at? For SSD's I would recommend either a Samsung 830, Crucial M4, or maybe the OCZ Vertex 4. Also 16GB of ram is a bit much, unless you will be done a massive amount of editing.

Edit: Ram is 1.65 volts, pick some different ram that is 1.5 volts or lower.

Thanks for the suggestions Tom. I have a 1920x1080 monitor but might add another to run dual monitors.

Could you elaborate a bit on why the SSD is crap? I did read up a bit on it and didn't hear anything bad about it. I'm still fairly noobish at all this tech stuff so the more I can learn the better. I'll look into a different SSD though. Probably go with the Samsung 830.

Also why pick different RAM? Why should I be worried about the RAM voltage? (again just for my personal knowledge). I'm guessing it's the same issue as pushing a CPU with alot of volts? I'll look into some different RAM. Any thing you'd recommend in particular?

Mr. Lundegaard wrote:I have a HAF case. Its bad ass.

Yeah they are sweet for sure but over all I prefer the aesthetics of the CM Storm Trooper.

HydrasBreath wrote:

Tom wrote:SSD is crap, motherboard is very expensive for what it offers and i would generally advise against liquid cooling unless you doing a massive overclock (and know what you are doing). Everything else looks great though. Could I ask what resolution you will be gaming at? For SSD's I would recommend either a Samsung 830, Crucial M4, or maybe the OCZ Vertex 4. Also 16GB of ram is a bit much, unless you will be done a massive amount of editing.

Edit: Ram is 1.65 volts, pick some different ram that is 1.5 volts or lower.

Thanks for the suggestions Tom. I have a 1920x1080 monitor but might add another to run dual monitors.

Could you elaborate a bit on why the SSD is crap? I did read up a bit on it and didn't hear anything bad about it. I'm still fairly noobish at all this tech stuff so the more I can learn the better. I'll look into a different SSD though. Probably go with the Samsung 830.

Also why pick different RAM? Why should I be worried about the RAM voltage? (again just for my personal knowledge). I'm guessing it's the same issue as pushing a CPU with alot of volts? I'll look into some different RAM. Any thing you'd recommend in particular?

Well in regards to the ssd you did have it uses the sandforce controller. This controller has been known to have a variety of problems and issues ever since it launch. Even though firmware after firmware update has tried to fix it, older sandforce ssd's still have stability and longevity issues. The only sandforce SSD I could really recommend is the Intel 520, but that is because of the amount of work Intel put into sandforce so that it would not have these issues. Still the 830 is a great SSD, but with the Vertex 4 being only $110 i would recommend that over the 830.

Ram voltage is a tricky thing. Intel's own documentation of both Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge says that only 1.5v or lower or should be used. In reality 1.65v ram does work, but know one knows the long term effects it could have on the lifetime your CPU has. Just get some ram with good reviews that is 1.5v. (I actually have 1.65v ram because no one told me, will probably replace it later this year)

Well shit, I wish I would have known that. I got 1.65v ram too. Was really close to getting 1.5v ram but I decided to go a bit cheaper...

I think I'm gonna try and sell mine and just get a 16GB kit of vengeance ram. I doubt the used RAM market is a sellers market though...

Woah, there's a bunch of 2x8GB kits for $20 off right now on newegg. Think I'm gonna get me one of them.

Tom wrote:

HydrasBreath wrote:

Tom wrote:SSD is crap, motherboard is very expensive for what it offers and i would generally advise against liquid cooling unless you doing a massive overclock (and know what you are doing). Everything else looks great though. Could I ask what resolution you will be gaming at? For SSD's I would recommend either a Samsung 830, Crucial M4, or maybe the OCZ Vertex 4. Also 16GB of ram is a bit much, unless you will be done a massive amount of editing.

Edit: Ram is 1.65 volts, pick some different ram that is 1.5 volts or lower.

Thanks for the suggestions Tom. I have a 1920x1080 monitor but might add another to run dual monitors.

Could you elaborate a bit on why the SSD is crap? I did read up a bit on it and didn't hear anything bad about it. I'm still fairly noobish at all this tech stuff so the more I can learn the better. I'll look into a different SSD though. Probably go with the Samsung 830.

Also why pick different RAM? Why should I be worried about the RAM voltage? (again just for my personal knowledge). I'm guessing it's the same issue as pushing a CPU with alot of volts? I'll look into some different RAM. Any thing you'd recommend in particular?

Well in regards to the ssd you did have it uses the sandforce controller. This controller has been known to have a variety of problems and issues ever since it launch. Even though firmware after firmware update has tried to fix it, older sandforce ssd's still have stability and longevity issues. The only sandforce SSD I could really recommend is the Intel 520, but that is because of the amount of work Intel put into sandforce so that it would not have these issues. Still the 830 is a great SSD, but with the Vertex 4 being only $110 i would recommend that over the 830.

Ram voltage is a tricky thing. Intel's own documentation of both Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge says that only 1.5v or lower or should be used. In reality 1.65v ram does work, but know one knows the long term effects it could have on the lifetime your CPU has. Just get some ram with good reviews that is 1.5v. (I actually have 1.65v ram because no one told me, will probably replace it later this year)

Thanks for the info Tom. You clearly know a hell of alot more than me. I'll check out the vertex 4 then. I've also heard good things about kingston hyper x...any opinion on those? Better than a Vertex 4 or no?

And I dropped down to some 1.5V 1600mhz RAM.

Thanks again for the help Tom.

a noob question,but something I had been wondering....would it be better to have 1 beast card like the GTX 670 alot seem to like here(more expensive route), or two weaker GPUs working together(cheaper)? I'm assuming just 1 beast card....

hmmm.....for the next gen I'm either going sony or pc gaming. microsoft did me dirty with all these faulty xbox's this gen...

HydrasBreath wrote:

Tom wrote:

HydrasBreath wrote:

Tom wrote:SSD is crap, motherboard is very expensive for what it offers and i would generally advise against liquid cooling unless you doing a massive overclock (and know what you are doing). Everything else looks great though. Could I ask what resolution you will be gaming at? For SSD's I would recommend either a Samsung 830, Crucial M4, or maybe the OCZ Vertex 4. Also 16GB of ram is a bit much, unless you will be done a massive amount of editing.

Edit: Ram is 1.65 volts, pick some different ram that is 1.5 volts or lower.

Thanks for the suggestions Tom. I have a 1920x1080 monitor but might add another to run dual monitors.

Could you elaborate a bit on why the SSD is crap? I did read up a bit on it and didn't hear anything bad about it. I'm still fairly noobish at all this tech stuff so the more I can learn the better. I'll look into a different SSD though. Probably go with the Samsung 830.

Also why pick different RAM? Why should I be worried about the RAM voltage? (again just for my personal knowledge). I'm guessing it's the same issue as pushing a CPU with alot of volts? I'll look into some different RAM. Any thing you'd recommend in particular?

Well in regards to the ssd you did have it uses the sandforce controller. This controller has been known to have a variety of problems and issues ever since it launch. Even though firmware after firmware update has tried to fix it, older sandforce ssd's still have stability and longevity issues. The only sandforce SSD I could really recommend is the Intel 520, but that is because of the amount of work Intel put into sandforce so that it would not have these issues. Still the 830 is a great SSD, but with the Vertex 4 being only $110 i would recommend that over the 830.

Ram voltage is a tricky thing. Intel's own documentation of both Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge says that only 1.5v or lower or should be used. In reality 1.65v ram does work, but know one knows the long term effects it could have on the lifetime your CPU has. Just get some ram with good reviews that is 1.5v. (I actually have 1.65v ram because no one told me, will probably replace it later this year)

Thanks for the info Tom. You clearly know a hell of alot more than me. I'll check out the vertex 4 then. I've also heard good things about kingston hyper x...any opinion on those? Better than a Vertex 4 or no?

And I dropped down to some 1.5V 1600mhz RAM.

Thanks again for the help Tom.

The hyper x is still sandforce so I would advise against it, plus it is slower and more expensive than the vertex 4.

JrTapia1991 wrote:a noob question,but something I had been wondering....would it be better to have 1 beast card like the GTX 670 alot seem to like here(more expensive route), or two weaker GPUs working together(cheaper)? I'm assuming just 1 beast card....

hmmm.....for the next gen I'm either going sony or pc gaming. microsoft did me dirty with all these faulty xbox's this gen...

More personal preference. I myself prefer a single card because even though you might get more bang for your buck with 2 cards, there is the heat, noise, psu requirements, and sli/crossfire issues to deal with. I do not see it worth it unless you need the extra power for dual(or more) monitors, 120Hz monitors, or 3D gaming.

Tom wrote:

HydrasBreath wrote:

Tom wrote:

HydrasBreath wrote:

Tom wrote:SSD is crap, motherboard is very expensive for what it offers and i would generally advise against liquid cooling unless you doing a massive overclock (and know what you are doing). Everything else looks great though. Could I ask what resolution you will be gaming at? For SSD's I would recommend either a Samsung 830, Crucial M4, or maybe the OCZ Vertex 4. Also 16GB of ram is a bit much, unless you will be done a massive amount of editing.

Edit: Ram is 1.65 volts, pick some different ram that is 1.5 volts or lower.

Thanks for the suggestions Tom. I have a 1920x1080 monitor but might add another to run dual monitors.

Could you elaborate a bit on why the SSD is crap? I did read up a bit on it and didn't hear anything bad about it. I'm still fairly noobish at all this tech stuff so the more I can learn the better. I'll look into a different SSD though. Probably go with the Samsung 830.

Also why pick different RAM? Why should I be worried about the RAM voltage? (again just for my personal knowledge). I'm guessing it's the same issue as pushing a CPU with alot of volts? I'll look into some different RAM. Any thing you'd recommend in particular?

Well in regards to the ssd you did have it uses the sandforce controller. This controller has been known to have a variety of problems and issues ever since it launch. Even though firmware after firmware update has tried to fix it, older sandforce ssd's still have stability and longevity issues. The only sandforce SSD I could really recommend is the Intel 520, but that is because of the amount of work Intel put into sandforce so that it would not have these issues. Still the 830 is a great SSD, but with the Vertex 4 being only $110 i would recommend that over the 830.

Ram voltage is a tricky thing. Intel's own documentation of both Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge says that only 1.5v or lower or should be used. In reality 1.65v ram does work, but know one knows the long term effects it could have on the lifetime your CPU has. Just get some ram with good reviews that is 1.5v. (I actually have 1.65v ram because no one told me, will probably replace it later this year)

Thanks for the info Tom. You clearly know a hell of alot more than me. I'll check out the vertex 4 then. I've also heard good things about kingston hyper x...any opinion on those? Better than a Vertex 4 or no?

And I dropped down to some 1.5V 1600mhz RAM.

Thanks again for the help Tom.

The hyper x is still sandforce so I would advise against it, plus it is slower and more expensive than the vertex 4.

cool well I'll go with the Vertex 4 then. Thanks for all the help!

JrTapia1991 wrote:a noob question,but something I had been wondering....would it be better to have 1 beast card like the GTX 670 alot seem to like here(more expensive route), or two weaker GPUs working together(cheaper)? I'm assuming just 1 beast card....

hmmm.....for the next gen I'm either going sony or pc gaming. microsoft did me dirty with all these faulty xbox's this gen...

dont go sony, just go for PC. if you choose another console you are locking yourself into the cycle of BS you have put up with from MS. if a console RROD's out of warranty, you pretty much have to get a new console. if a PC breaks out of warranty, you replace the broken part for far less than a new console would cost.

The Adli Corporation wrote:

JrTapia1991 wrote:a noob question,but something I had been wondering....would it be better to have 1 beast card like the GTX 670 alot seem to like here(more expensive route), or two weaker GPUs working together(cheaper)? I'm assuming just 1 beast card....

hmmm.....for the next gen I'm either going sony or pc gaming. microsoft did me dirty with all these faulty xbox's this gen...

dont go sony, just go for PC. if you choose another console you are locking yourself into the cycle of BS you have put up with from MS. if a console RROD's out of warranty, you pretty much have to get a new console. if a PC breaks out of warranty, you replace the broken part for far less than a new console would cost.

Yeah I'd go PC if I were you Jr. I mean the next gen will probably be somewhere between 400$-600$ when it first comes out and by then the current beastly tech will have dropped way down in price so for 600$ let's say you could build a pretty decent rig I would say.

Ill never buy another console as long as I live.

Mr. Lundegaard wrote:Ill never buy another console as long as I live.

yup same here...I'm tired of the compromises and always getting the shaft or just missing out completely on awesome games.