All out build! Advice needed!

Awesome forum you have here guys!  I've found a ton a useful information which has helped a lot in putting my build together.  This is where I'm at right now, but nothing set in stone yet.  My main uses will be gaming, trading, poker, and all around a$$ kicking!

Will be using a 30 inch monitor with this system.  Keeping this thing as quiet as possible is a top priority so I'm considering custom ordering some noiseblocker fans to replace the stock fans.

I'm having a really hard time not upgrading to the 980x w/ the rampage board and OCing that bad boy to 4.5!  But that is probably overkill and most likely will wait until Ivy Bridge to upgrade. 

My other concern is only having 80gb of SSD storage.  I may add another 80gb drive and raid them.  Windows eats about 40gb correct? 

Also does my configuration include the AR 480's?  If the 580s are worth upgrading to I want to be able to use the step up program.

Looking forward to a DS Xmas!

Total Price with Instant Savings: $4,709.00

Direct Load URL: http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=452795

 

Chassis Model: Black OPS HailStorm Edition
Processor: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: MSI Big Bang-XPower (Intel X58 Chipset) (Features USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair Dominator with DHX
Power Supply: 1200W Corsair Pro Gold Series (CMPSU-1200AX)
Hard Drive 1: 1x (80GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Model: X25-M MLC Edition)
Hard Drive 2: 1x (1TB Western Digital Caviar Black (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache)
Optical Drive 1: Blu-Ray Player/DVD Player (Play Blu-Ray and Play DVDs)
Optical Drive 2: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x)
Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Sound Card: ASUS Xonar Essence STX Virtual 7.1 (PCI-Express Slot Based)
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 6: Sub-Zero LCS Dual Loop: CPU & Dual SLI/CrossFire Video Cards & Chipset
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Red)
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: Noise Suppression Package Stage 1 (Optimized Airflow & Fan Speeds Only)
Boost Processor: FREE: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz
Boost Video Card: FREE: Yes, Overclock the video card(s) as much as possible with complete stability
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Boost OS: FREE: Yes, Disable and tweak all of the non-crucial services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)

I would stay far far away from that MSI board, or any MSI board actually.  I'd recommend either the ASUS Rampage III Extreme, or EVGA x58 FTW3.

Solid state is a bit small, might recommend upping it to 120GB if you're planning to store more than a few games on it.

Everything else looks good.

A 1200w certified should not be recommended for a build of this caliber.  The original 1200w Corsair was the right way to go.

"corsair did a 180 on us with that psu it is modular like the dso cert is a extra 2 years warranty worth the extra money? in my mind not really. they both have dual 12v rails so your good."

Warranty has nothing to do with it.  Maximum wattage on the 12v rail is 1080w with the certified, while the Corsair has all 1200w available to the 12v rail.

Ripple and noise are extremely low on the Corsair, 29mv fully loaded, and voltage regulation is within 1%.   Certified I know the noise and ripple suppression isn't the greatest, voltage regulation within ~3%.

Corsair is a single 100A 12v rail, the Certified is split 20A 4 rails if I remember right.

Corsair ~90% efficiency, Certified only ~80%.

"with ssd space it all depends on your needs and desires and how much money you want to waste. if you want to have a decent size library of games upgrade to the 80. if you want a ton of games 160 or raid smaller ones for increased speed."

Keep in mind RAID disables TRIM functionality.


Edited by venom - 30 Oct 2010 at 4:52am

Awesome guys thanks for the help. I'm going to go w/ the rampage 3 and stick w/ 80GB SSD. That should hold me over until SSD comes along a bit anyway.

As far as OC I should be fine to hit stage 2, 4.0-4.2, correct?

Just say no to the temptation to RAID your SSD's.  Added Complexity for performance gains that really wont matter in almost all normal situations and you automatically double your chances of losing all your data in one fell swoop (or one swell foop as someone once said)

RAID should be kept where it belongs, In NAS devices (for bulk storage and make that RAID 5) and Enterprise situations  Mirroring really isnt cost effectiv for Home builds either, far more Bang for the buck in making regular backups images.


Edit: (Warning everything in the above post is personal opinion and your mileage may vary)


Edited by MagiK - 30 Oct 2010 at 5:20pm

If you wait for awhile (less than 1 month but more than 1 week :P), you wont need the step-up at all. ;)

6970 will be here before Christmas if I remember right.


Why not get an i7 970, still 6 cores, and just get the free overclocking (3.9GHz will most likely be what you get) and tweak it yourself later.


Edited by venom - 30 Oct 2010 at 9:43pm

Also, remember that the 6970 isn't made to directly compete against the 580.  The 6970 is the high end single card being released by AMD to beat the 480.  As for the dual cards we will be having Antilles vs. the 580.

assuming the pictures/info that has been leaked is accurate the 580 is indeed a single gpu card which is great news, dual gpu cards are fail fail fail

MSi Has been beddy beddy bad to  me in the past, They probably have some good products but one bad experience and Im soured on them.

I got 2 friends with the MSI Big Bang both love it and have no problems with it. I like the asus rampage III myself.

Have any of you guys tried Patriot Sector 5 memory? They make a 2500mhz model I'm interested to see how it performs.

Nice thanks ender.  I figured after OC there wouldn't be much difference, but I'll probably go for it anyway.

Originally posted by justin.kerr Just because the RAM can run @ 2500Mhz does not mean your mobo and or IMC will be capable of it

Originally posted by !ender_ assuming the pictures/info that has been leaked is accurate the 580 is indeed a single gpu card which is great news, dual gpu cards are fail fail fail

 

That makes sensen. Thanks ender.