Theoretical System Build, your thoughts?

[RikuoAmero]

So Kametsu, I've had a lot of fun with my first build, but I feel the hunger for a better system. I am going to build the most ridiculously over-powered system. This will take me a while, as I'm not exactly a high wage earner, but I'm patient. I can pay on my pre-paid Mastercard (bypassing my VISA credit card, thus avoiding going into debt)

CHASSIS - Cooler Master Cosmos II http://www.coolermas...product_id=6792

Motherboard - I'm looking at the Asus Maximus V Extreme board http://www.asus.com/...mus_V_Extreme/. Question - Does anyone know if the ThunderFX USB DAC from the Maximus V Formula mobo will be available for purchase separately? I don't think so, as a quick search on Amazon comes up negative.

CPU - Going for the Intel Core i7 3770K (4 cores/8 threads/3.5GHz), as at the moment, the 3770(S/K/T) is the ONLY core i7 processor that supports PCI-E 3.0. I did check for AMD processors, but none of them, at least as far as I can see, support PCI-E 3.0. I will change this if better CPUs are released. For cooling, since my Corsair H80 has treated me well, I'll get the Corsair H100, with a push-pull config.

RAM - 4 sticks of 8GB = 32GB RAM, whatever the fastest speed the CPU and mobo support.

OS - To go beyond 16GB of RAM, I'll have to get either Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate.

PSU - Haven't a clue yet which PSU, but I'm thinking the Silverstone 1500W http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817256054 should be sufficient.

HDD - Seagate Barracuda 3TB, for storage. Outside the actual rig, I'm going to get a hard drive cage, most likely a Drobo, that houses 5 drives in a RAID config, connected by USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt

SSD - 480GB Intel SSD, whatever model their best one is, in terms of performance and reliability. If you check out my mobo above, you'll notice it has an mPCI-E slot. I'm gonna put in a 64GB mSATA SSD for caching with the Hard Drive. Plus, the mPCI-E card that comes with the mobo will allow me to fit in both an mSATA SSD and a wireless card at the same time, sweet ^^ Two great devices in one!

Optical drive - Blu-ray burner, like my current build. Truth to tell though, I rarely use optical discs these days, but I'll need a drive to install Windows 7.

Graphics cards - I was initially stuck between 4x Geforce GTX 680s in Quad SLI, liquid cooled or 2x Geforce GTX 690s (a 690 card is two 680 cards in one, slightly underclocked), but upon reading the techical specifications of the CPU, it wouldn't be able to handle 4 separate cards, so it looks like I'm going with the two 690s. That's over €2000 for the graphics cards alone! The only thing I don't like about the 690s is the fact their memory is mirrored: they are advertised as having 4GB GDDR5, but it's really 2GB mirrored. So I won't get a full 4GB frame buffer. Anyone know if there are plans by any of the card manufactures to sell real 4GB 690s? I'll see about liquid cooling the cards.

Fan controllers - Will see if I can get a fan controller that slots in the drive bays.

Sound - Will more than likely reuse my Creative sound card and get these sexy speakers. http://www.logitech....ker-system-Z906

Monitors - Check this list out http://www.nvidia.co...n-displays.html

If I can, I'll get the Acer HN274H, three of them, for 3D Vision Surround.

EDIT: For the SSD, I'm going to keep an eye out for this http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-revodrive-hybrid-pci-express-solid-state-drive.html

It's a PCI-E x4 card housing a combo 100GB SSD and 1TB hard drive, and on certain motherboards, it can be used as a boot device. Since my mobo of choice has either not been released yet or has just been released, OCZ have yet to test if the Maximus V Extreme mobo can use the Revodrive as a boot device.

Edited August 1, 2012 by RikuoAmero

[JohnFlower]

Lol. All I can say is have fun.

You obviously have too much money on your hands if you're thinking about 4x680's (pointless, 2 is enough). And, if you're going to have 32gb ram, you might as well go all the way and get the new SRX motherboard from EVGA.

[G Bass]

You can save money on a lotta places, but this isn't that kind of build.

Only thing I have to say is for the monitor, do you really need 3D? Personally I'd rather get this monitor if you want 16:10:

/>http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-2676&~ck=baynoteSearch&baynote_bnrank=5&baynote_irrank=0

or this one if you want 16:9:

/>http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-2807&~ck=baynoteSearch&baynote_bnrank=1&baynote_irrank=0

and just grab three of one of those.

[Dae314]

Ok, there's a difference between an extreme high end system that you threw over $5000 into, and a bloated high end system that you threw $10,000 into because you just got whatever the most expensive thing on newegg was at the time you looked. For the most part you're doing pretty OK choosing parts that make up a nice "reasonable" extreme system. I'm going to call you out on some of the fat (as in stuff that's just there taking up money not doing very much) on your system though.

Quad SLI (although I do have that in my extreme build in the guide) is a waste of money. You're better off getting 2 680s (or 1 690) and throwing the extra thousand dollars on a NICE 30" IPS monitor. Trust me on this one. If you already have a nice 30" IPS monitor, get a second one. If you're gonna tell me that you have 2 30" IPS monitors already I'm gonna tell you to get a third.

Also a PCI-E SSD is (I think) just extra fat on your build. What on earth are you going to use all that bandwidth for? Throw that extra money into additional storage. Make a RAID5 array inside your case of 2TB HDDs. Anime takes up a lot of space, and from my conversation with Sakura over irc, I don't think encoding gets any benefit from a faster hard drive. Also, I might've understood you incorrectly when you were talking about caching... Don't cache your SSD with another SSD . That's not going to help you at all. Maybe cache your main storage with a small SSD if you can afford it, but you probably don't need to do that since caching's benefits rely on consistency of data requests which you probably won't have on a storage array. I would also keep the drives in your rig. Use external stuff for backups.

If you're only doing dual graphics cards you won't need a 1500W PSU. 1000W or even maybe 850W would be enough. Go for a nice Corsair, Antec, or Seasonic one.

PCI-E 3.0 support shouldn't be too much of a concern for you. Here's an article comparing the 2 from a gaming perspective.

For case, I highly recommend silverstone, RV04 is supposed to come out soon.

Edited August 2, 2012 by Dae314

[RikuoAmero]

You obviously have too much money on your hands if you're thinking about 4x680's (pointless, 2 is enough)

Nope, I make roughly €400 euro a week/about €1600/month. I'm just really patient and can just save up bit by bit and get the components. Instead of using my VISA credit card this time, I'll use my pre-pay Mastercard, which I top up whenever I want to use it. This way, I'll avoid going into debt at the end of the month. This happened last time, where I ended up losing an entire week's wages as soon as I got them: they just went straight out to pay off the credit card.

As for the four GTX 680s, I've decided not to do that. For one, there isn't a single processor that can handle four cards in PCI-E 3.0, at least not at 8x minimum bandwidth for all of them. Not only that, but liquid cooling four cards would be too much of a challenge for me: I think I would need at least two separate loops. I'm going to do two GTX 690's instead, and liquid cool them.

Only thing I have to say is for the monitor, do you really need 3D? Personally I'd rather get this monitor if you want 16:10:

No, I want to try out 3D and for that to work with Nvidia cards, you HAVE to use one of the monitors listed on the Geforce site. At least, that's my understanding. Although, I may change it down to at least two, given that the area I'm thinking of using for my computer, where I'm going to put the desk, doesn't look all that big, at least I guesstimate it's not big enough for a desk that will hold three separate monitors.

Also a PCI-E SSD is (I think) just extra fat on your build. What on earth are you going to use all that bandwidth for? Throw that extra money into additional storage. Make a RAID5 array inside your case of 2TB HDDs. Anime takes up a lot of space, and from my conversation with Sakura over irc, I don't think encoding gets any benefit from a faster hard drive. Also, I might've understood you incorrectly when you were talking about caching... Don't cache your SSD with another SSD . That's not going to help you at all. Maybe cache your main storage with a small SSD if you can afford it, but you probably don't need to do that since caching's benefits rely on consistency of data requests which you probably won't have on a storage array. I would also keep the drives in your rig. Use external stuff for backups.

If you're only doing dual graphics cards you won't need a 1500W PSU. 1000W or even maybe 850W would be enough. Go for a nice Corsair, Antec, or Seasonic one.

PCI-E 3.0 support shouldn't be too much of a concern for you. Here's an article comparing the 2 from a gaming perspective.

The build will have (hopefully) a Revodrive in a PCI-E slot, as a boot drive. If that won't work with my chosen mobo, then I'll just go for a standard SSD connected to a regular SATA port, along with a single internal hard drive. When I mentioned the mPCI-E, I meant this:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uu23eBtLd8

That goes in the corner of the mobo, and will have a small SSD and wireless card. That mSATA SSD will act as a cache drive for the 3TB internal hard drive. OUTSIDE the computer, I will have something like a Drobo (see here [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOtbNd3TVGE), although I probably won't use Drobo, since Linus mentions the unit uses its own special type of RAID, that makes RAID'ed drives in it useless if they're not in a Drobo.

You're right though about not needing 1500W for just two graphics cards. I have a 1250W at the moment and that is still overkill. So, I'll change the PSU.

As for PCI-E 3.0, that link was actually quite surprising. Although, I did find another article here http://www.overclock...0#post_16915399 that contradicts it. (quote from the article: "Down to the nitty gritty; if you run a single GPU, yes; a single 16x speed PCI-E 2.0 slot will be fine. When you start to run multiple GPU's and/or run these new cards at 8x speed, especially in Surround/Eyefinity, make sure to get PCI-E 3.0. " Although I have to take the author of this article with a grain of salt, since according to my research, he used a CPU that Intel says isn't compatible with PCI-E 3.0

As it is, I'm going to stick with a PCI-E 3.0 motherboard, although I will change the selection, I'll go with this one (the Formula V/ThunderFX www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/Maximus_V_FormulaThunderFX/) rather than the Extreme, as it comes with superior onboard audio as well as what looks like a high quality USB DAC for some odd reason (seriously, why give us a USB DAC with a motherboard with supreme onboard audio?)

Edited August 2, 2012 by RikuoAmero

[ZeroPenguins]

Ah you're in that zone where you greed for more processing grunt hey? Lol I was in that zone for awhile myself, but then I realise it was stupid and upgrading every few years was more ideal then upgrading every few months.

[Leviathan87]

yeah if i was you... back out before its to late

[Odeiux]

I'd keep this theoretical and save my money.

[RikuoAmero]

yeah if i was you... back out before its to late

Why? And I guess I should say, this isn't a theoretical build anymore, as in I plan to go full steam ahead with this. Not right away of course, there are a few other things I want to do first, like get a Canon EOS 7D DSLR, a new bed, potentially a holiday to Belgium if my best friend gets work and stays there...so I'm looking at the Christmas season before I start buying components.

[CRCGamer]

I've also been an obsessive gear monkey in the past. The only thing I can say is you can crank the numbers higher and brag about it (and most people won't really care). Realistically you can "max" any current games for the next year or two with parts one or two passes back from what came out just in the last 3 months and end up spending a third as much.

And to be completely honest, if you want to spend a small fortune a desktop replacement laptop that is considerably more LAN party portable and can be taken with you when you travel is far more economical in the long run.

[RikuoAmero]

Oh yes, I'm promising to do full build vlogs as well as unboxings of each component as I get them. Given that I'll be using a Canon EOS 7D at that point, video quality will be much better than what I did for my first build.

As for LAN friendly, I can just chuck the computer (protected of course by styrofoam!) in the back of a car and go to LAN parties that way.

[Dae314]

If you want to make a big case easier to bring to LAN parties, all you need to do is mod the case slightly and put a handle on it. As long as there's some room in the top middle that's usually possible. Failing that you can try to put something on the sides. Search me how you're going to get your monitor there safely though.

[† Emotional Outlet]

As for LAN friendly, I can just chuck the computer (protected of course by styrofoam!) in the back of a car and go to LAN parties that way.

Sorry, I'm just imagining you literally throwing your computer into a car through the still rolled up window, then following suit by diving into the driver's seat through the window and driving off, swerving chaotically.

Java and I had to move four monitors--we ended up putting them on the floor in front of the back seat so they wouldn't flop or slide around. I don't know how viable that option is for long drives, since the distance between our new and old places was about fifteen minutes. Or if, you know, you got other people or things in the car. We live on the wild side.

Edited August 4, 2012 by Emotional Outlet

[RikuoAmero]

As for LAN friendly, I can just chuck the computer (protected of course by styrofoam!) in the back of a car and go to LAN parties that way.

Sorry, I'm just imagining you literally throwing your computer into a car through the still rolled up window, then following suit by diving into the driver's seat through the window and driving off, swerving chaotically.

Java and I had to move four monitors--we ended up putting them on the floor in front of the back seat so they wouldn't flop or slide around. I don't know how viable that option is for long drives, since the distance between our new and old places was about fifteen minutes. Or if, you know, you got other people or things in the car. We live on the wild side.

Lol. Got a good chuckle out of that. It would be quite a feat for me to drive, chaotically or not, seeing as how I don't have a driver's licence. No, what I meant was either getting a taxi or getting either my roomie or one of my mates to drive me. I highly doubt though I could fit 3 27" monitors. At most, I would just bring the one (or hire a taxi van to bring all three...)

[dark4yoyo]

The thing is, when are you going to start this build ? because when haswell goes out in april 2013 (pretty sure date btw), ivy bridge is really gonna be obselete (especially since ivy wasn't better than sandy for the most part). And the gtx 7xx series and HD 8xxx series will probably go out pretty early in 2013 (especially the HD 8xxx). Also, did you even check if it was possible to get gtx690's, they are a limited edition and it's hard to get one, let alone two. Also, a revodrive is REALLY USELESS, when will you ever use all that speed ? Might as well get a ramdisk, it'll be much cheaper and faster than any SSD.

[RikuoAmero]

The thing is, when are you going to start this build ? because when haswell goes out in april 2013 (pretty sure date btw), ivy bridge is really gonna be obselete (especially since ivy wasn't better than sandy for the most part). And the gtx 7xx series and HD 8xxx series will probably go out pretty early in 2013 (especially the HD 8xxx). Also, did you even check if it was possible to get gtx690's, they are a limited edition and it's hard to get one, let alone two. Also, a revodrive is REALLY USELESS, when will you ever use all that speed ? Might as well get a ramdisk, it'll be much cheaper and faster than any SSD.

I estimate I'll start buying components in the winter season of 2012. I'll start with components that by design don't go obsolete, such as the PSU and the Cooler Master chassis, providing one better than the Cosmos II hasn't been released. As for the GTX 700 series, I haven't heard any news about them. Since I'm going to stagger my purchases, if they are released, I might be able to get one by then.

As for the Revodrive, well, as I said in the OP, this is supposed to be the most ridiculously overpowered home desktop system. Plus, the Revodrive may not even be compatible as a boot drive with the Maximus V Formula motherboard, it's still too early to tell.

As for RAM disk...thanks, I literally had not heard of them before. Although, as far as I can tell...the only practical use I can think of for a RAM disk would be as a cache drive for another hard drive, much like you can do when pairing an SSD with a HDD: since it's using RAM, it can't store data after you turn the computer off. I'll have to look into this.

EDIT: Question, dark4yoyo. I've looked up RAM disks and they seem pretty straight forward to setup, and to assign them as Windows cache drives. What about my set up below? I've got my SSD as boot drive, and one of the 2TB hard drives has all my most commonly used programs and games installed on it (including Steam). Will changing the Windows TEMP and TMP also mean that the computer will notice that, for example I play a certain game very often, and copy the game data into the RAM drive, and then, as I go on in the game, load the level data from the RAM drive, thus speeding up loading times?

Edited August 4, 2012 by RikuoAmero

[Dae314]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6124/the-intel-ssd-910-review/1

^ that might be worth a looksee if you're still looking to get a PCI-E SSD.

You know really if you want to go all out you might as well go enterprise level and build yourself a beastly server.

[RikuoAmero]

http://www.anandtech...sd-910-review/1

^ that might be worth a looksee if you're still looking to get a PCI-E SSD.

You know really if you want to go all out you might as well go enterprise level and build yourself a beastly server.

While I don't mind paying premium prices for premium products...even that's a bit too much ^^

[dark4yoyo]

EDIT: Question, dark4yoyo. I've looked up RAM disks and they seem pretty straight forward to setup, and to assign them as Windows cache drives. What about my set up below? I've got my SSD as boot drive, and one of the 2TB hard drives has all my most commonly used programs and games installed on it (including Steam). Will changing the Windows TEMP and TMP also mean that the computer will notice that, for example I play a certain game very often, and copy the game data into the RAM drive, and then, as I go on in the game, load the level data from the RAM drive, thus speeding up loading times?

Uh I've got absolutely no idea, it depends on windows mostly. And you'll need alot of RAM to have a ramdisk big enough to be of much use.

Also, back on the SLI GTX 690, are you sure you can even get two of them ? With two good GTX 680's (not reference design) overclocked you could probably do as good, with way less heat, noise, power consumption, and issues due to quad-sli.

Also, I don't quite get why you're not going i7 3960X, it's way faster than the i7 3770k, okay it doesn't have PCI-express 3.0 but it has way more PCI-express lines than the i7 3770K, you could have two cards in sli at PCI-express 2.0 x16 which is the same speed as you'd get on a i7 3770k with two cards at PCI-express 3.0 x8.

Also, you won't be able to have max settings in 3D with 3 monitors in the most recent games, no matter what hardware you use. It's equivalent to wanting to have 120hz in 5760x1080, already to have that resolution in 60hz with sli gtx680 you'd have to make some concessions on the graphics quality (and with quad-sli you don't gain much over sli).

[RikuoAmero]

EDIT: Question, dark4yoyo. I've looked up RAM disks and they seem pretty straight forward to setup, and to assign them as Windows cache drives. What about my set up below? I've got my SSD as boot drive, and one of the 2TB hard drives has all my most commonly used programs and games installed on it (including Steam). Will changing the Windows TEMP and TMP also mean that the computer will notice that, for example I play a certain game very often, and copy the game data into the RAM drive, and then, as I go on in the game, load the level data from the RAM drive, thus speeding up loading times?

Uh I've got absolutely no idea, it depends on windows mostly. And you'll need alot of RAM to have a ramdisk big enough to be of much use.

Also, back on the SLI GTX 690, are you sure you can even get two of them ? With two good GTX 680's (not reference design) overclocked you could probably do as good, with way less heat, noise, power consumption, and issues due to quad-sli.

Also, I don't quite get why you're not going i7 3960X, it's way faster than the i7 3770k, okay it doesn't have PCI-express 3.0 but it has way more PCI-express lines than the i7 3770K, you could have two cards in sli at PCI-express 2.0 x16 which is the same speed as you'd get on a i7 3770k with two cards at PCI-express 3.0 x8.

Also, you won't be able to have max settings in 3D with 3 monitors in the most recent games, no matter what hardware you use. It's equivalent to wanting to have 120hz in 5760x1080, already to have that resolution in 60hz with sli gtx680 you'd have to make some concessions on the graphics quality (and with quad-sli you don't gain much over sli).

I'd rather get the CPU that does support PCI-E 3.0, than get a 2.0 capable on and then discover that I need 3.0 bandwidth.

As for max settings...I'm still not entirely sure I am getting 3 monitors. If I do, not all the games I'll be playing in 3D will be high graphic monsters like Crysis 2 or Arkham City. I'm actually looking forward to Torchilight II and a few other games in 3D. If I have to dumb down the graphics settings, so be it.