Build help please

i want to find out how much it will cost to make a top of the line gaming rig without spending unnecessary money ik the basics but not everything i dont really have a budget but i dont want to go crazy unless its worth it resolution id be playing at would be 1920 x 1080 unless higher will give me a better picture read display before answering the resoution question also i will be overclocking this thing to the max i can for 24/7 usage i wont be leaving it on 24/7 but i do game for LONG periods of time 16+ hours sometimes i will order from DS anything they dont have that would be great for the build i want i will order and send to them as ive heard you can do i just did a build with what they already have and it was 5000 didnt think that was bad was expecting higher this is pure gaming build anything else i plan to do idc about performance as much like video editing ik it wont be as good as it could be with more memory and stuff but not worried about that plan to play black ops diablo 3 and starcraft a lot but i will play most big name games as well on it because i prefer PC

Case: what case has the best cooling air not liquid dont want to deal with the maintenance that will fit the best amount of video cards
Fans: what case fans would be the best idc about how loud it is really but if it wont make that much of a difference in cooling and it will be quite id rather that
PSU: 1200w corsair or are there other reliable options that are higher watts? will i need more then 1200w for this PC?
Motherboard: what the best mobo? will i see a benefit from 4 way sli? is it worth the money?
CPU: what will be the best with overclocking? i dont think that 6 core CPUs r worth the money right now so only quads
CPU Cooler: ive heard noctua NH-D14 over and over guessing that the best
Thermal Compound: what keeps it the coolest
Memory: ive heard 2 things about memory ive heard not to get anything over 1600Mhz and ive heard that anything more then 2 sticks of memory brings down how much you can overclock what memory would be the best
Video Cards: GTX 580s worth the extra? what is the ATI equal of this? what about the ASUS Ares idk they are very expensive but are they worth it can you have 4 of them?
SSD:heard that intels were the best for awhile but ive seen charts for others recently saying they were faster i want the fastest drive out there that will last i want it to be SATA not a PCIe one idc about how much storage is on it really no min GB i want i mean
Hard Drives: i want a few TB of space because i like it to have it is the extra cache worth paying for? at least 1TB drives no lower
Sound Card: if 4 way sli isnt worth it i would have a extra and would fill it with a sound card unless something else would be more useful? whats the best? the auzentech ive seen u can upgrade the OPAMP and get better / louder sound for sound whoring would this be worth it? i remember justin said he had problems with his auzentech tho
Killer Cards: if 3 way sli isnt worth it are these worth getting ive heard no but i mean they have to do something what is it?
Optical Drives: Definately 1 blu ray player and probably a blu ray burner for back ups ik its a lot of space but i plan to do video editing
Lighting: any cool ideas?(homemade or not i would pay some1 to do it)idk what all can be done with this stuff really id prefer blue but depending on case might change that
Chassis Mod: any for whatever chassis is best that would be good? (homemade or not i would pay some1 to do it)
Noise Reduction: as far as i know not a good idea with air cooling right? is there anything that can be done without changing the cooling much
OS: Windows 7 Professional from what ive heard linux or anything a good idea? i use windows but open to change if its better
Display: currently have a Samsung PX2370 i love it ik there is better out there probably will upgrade and go multimonitor but do i need it? i want the best picture anything after 1920 x 1080 from what ive heard doesnt really look better... not that it looks worse but not much of a difference in actual picture ik you can see more and all that because of resolution

Paint Job/Modding: is there a website or anything that you can send them the stuff and they will paint you case or maybe more like keyboard and mouse to match or mod the case(if theres anything good to do)
if i forgot anything let me know or anything you think i should look into let me know im open to anything i want the best without paying 600 for 2 extra cores for example stuff like that i can wait till the price comes down like i asked about the asus ares i doubt id ever talk myself into spending the money for that i was really just wondering

i had a post like this before but never ended up doing it decided to wait but will be doing it now and i know that DS for the most part is gonna have everything i need but if there is anything that will make it better and worth it ill definately do it

Edited by CStormO - 16 Jan 2011 at 3:12pm

ok so higher res actually does give a better picture quality after 1920 x 1080? now yes thats probably 1 of the best monitors out if not the best but that seems like a complete waste of money to me to pay that much when yes it might look better but is it worth the money probably not also i would like to stay at 22-24" monitor because ive found its the best for FPS gaming reaction time and and you can see everything fine with it so is there a monitor in that size range that isnt $1000? if not then id say 1920 x 1200 for now because the other is just not worth the difference for me

Case: the 942 isnt any better? or the hailstorm ones DS offers? and whats with the huge box that anything worth looking into?
CPU: the i7 sandy bridge that was my real main question about this is how good are they for overclocking ive heard great but wanted to know if the i7 920 was better
Mobo: Asus good? ive always liked eVGA for whatever they have because they are usually reliable im always willing to try different brands if people knowing recommend them(with 21.5k posts if u didnt know id hope some1 would have stopped you by now)
Memory: ok so what i heard about memory isnt true or no longer true? is that 2 sticks of memory or 4? and 1600 is the best for overclocking i take it?
PSU: would this handle 3-4 GPUs if i needed it to... im sure id upgrade whole comp long before id need this to run 3-4 GPUs before id need it to play games on best settings but would it?
SSD: ok so the x25 r still the best because ive seen a lot about crucial and i think a OCZ SSD that were better (again not questioning your knowledge just making sure)
HHD: so the cache is worth paying the extra u will notice a difference?
GPU: 3 of them is worth it? ik before i heard that more then 2 u dont see a big difference this was with the 480 tho so might be different also not the 580s? just wondering i like to know why about stuff
CPU Cooling: not the NH-D14? why just wondering?
OS: not professional thats no longer recommended? also is there any point to ultimate lol?

there is nothing that would be better that DS doesnt offer?

thought of a few more things what is the best brand of video card to overclock? i think i remember justin sayin MSI but im not sure if he said its the best to overclock or the easiest because of the MSI after burner program i think its called? also the SSD u said i want the x25-m not e correct? also are the lower sizes just as fast or are the speeds different?

Well to be honest if you have ever seen a good 30" like that dell up close then you would say it is worth the price, that is a great monitor, the price is high because you are getting an ips panel that has great picture quality and you won't get no ghosting or anything like that.

now if that is out of the price range or not something that is what you are looking for then look at the dell Dell UltraSharp U2311H 23 that is a 23" IPS panel with 1920 x 1080 res.

Case, I gave you the best case with best airflow, the 942 can have better airflow but you have to add another 200mm fan to the top, if you like the 942 then go for it, I have the hailstorm, great case for LC, airflow is not so great.

Mobo: I like evga myself but right now for the SandyBridge cpu all the offer here are asus.

PSU:

1. AT 1900 x 1200 you don't even need tri sli, I will reconfig the build to handle the lower res of 1900 x 1200.

2. you don't want quad sli/cf, its scaling is worst then tri sli/cf, in short, if you were at 2560 x 1600 then you would want tri sli/cf cause it beats quad sli/cf.

3. that psu can do tri sli, which is why its in the build.

ssd: x25m gen 2 is out now and gen 3 will be out in a couple of month, for reliability and wear and tear those are the ones you want, they are very fast also, they may not be number one in speed but they are right there number 2 or 3, but they are number one in reliability and wear and tear.

HDD, I like cache in my HDDs, but the black caviar itself is a afast good drive, anyways if you follow the setup method I posted, the big drive is for storage so its speed is not that important.

GPU, as I mentioned earlier, tri sli is for 2560 x 1600, for 1900 x 1200 all you need is one good gpu, you seem like the person that wants to spend extra money on the bells and whistles, so for you we will do dual sli, but is going to be more then you need, to see a difference you have to be in an environment where the difference is noticeable, for example tri sli and dual sli at 1900 x 1200, will not see a difference in most games, at 2560 x 1600 its a different story.

I do recommend win7 pro myself, I got ultimate but I got it cause I test stuff so I need to have it, but I like the pro cause it give you xp mode, remote desktop., as long as its the 64bit, I also like the fact that pro sees more ram, home only sees 16GB total, thats system ram and gpu ram combined.

Depending on what you want, there are things better that DS offers, but mostly I would say its in the LC area, I would like to see some evga mobos for the SB tho.

OK now the build is reconfiged for 1900 x 1200, keep in mind I'm putting sli in this config but my recommendation is for you to go with one gpu and then see if you need a second and add that later, its real easy and could endup saving $400:

Here you go Ticket# 479009 --- $3240 (To see this build click here)

Copy of Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master HAF 932
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 2600K 3.40GHz (Unlocked CPU for Extreme Overclocking) (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 Pro (Intel P67 Chipset) (Features USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s)
System Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 1000W Corsair (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (160GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Model: X25-M MLC Edition) (Extreme Performance)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (1TB Western Digital Caviar (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache) (Model: Black Edition WD1002FAEX)
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1.2GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion (Includes Front I/O) (PCI-Express Slot Based)
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 1: Noctua NH-U12P SE Dual 120mm Fans High Performance Cooler
H20 Tube Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Red)
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: FREE: Overclock the processor between 3.6GHz to 3.9GHz
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-Bit Edition)
Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows 7 CD)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: - No Thanks
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty

as I said, my recommendation is that you take the above build and remove one 570, and leave the rest alone, that means that your system is ready to go sli anytime, all you do drop in the second gpu if you see you need/want it.

Case, CPU temp is mainly due to cpu cooler, case fans here won't mean much to the cpu.

Cpu, SB ocs higher and much easier.

Mobo, this is upto you, personally I would wait, but I doubt you could go wrong with either.

Ram, 8GB is 4 x 2GB sticks. 1600MHz is all you want/need.

Gpu, single 570 will give 50 or higher fps in most games with highest settings, but some people like to cover the minimum, fps some don't notice much of a difference and don't think its worth it, that is why its best you go with one and see if you are happy with one, if not then drop a second yourself down the road when you see you want the extra power. Some games you need sli just to get over 50 fps avarage, so it all depends on what games you gonna play.

cpu cooling, D14 is a great cooler but the difference is like 3c or something like that but if you like it, go for it, not sure if it will cover some of your ram access.

Display, you can't compare ips panel to tn, ips wins every time, it has better picture quality, which means the screen looks much better then tn panel, its not just the viewing angle, you also don't have to center yourself in front of an ips either, you can be anywhere in the front.

when looking at monitor, never pay attention to response time and contrast ratio, there is no real way of measuring them and they are bs numbers, also forget cnet, I never go by any of their reviews, I tend to think they have people that have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to reviews.

the dell U2310 is the newer version of the old U2410 which was a great monitor also.

As far as performance goes, there is nothing for you to add that DS does not offer to get more performance.

best brand to oc IMO Is evga, you use MSI Afterburner to oc and set fan profiles and etc.

If you want to oc this thing to the max, I recommend you go stage 4 cooling on cpu, for gaming tho you won't notice a difference over 3.9GHz.

I wouldn't oc the gpu if you don't need it, oc the gpu, you have to set its fan to high, and gpu fan on high = loud as heck.

Memory: I don't think 8GB will put enough stress on teh controller to matter, above 12GB might make a little difference on the top end of the oc. The x58 platform moved up in 3GB increments, the p55 and p67(SB) move in 2GB increments, but when you saturate the channels its best to do 2 or all 4, so in x58 that would mean 6GB or 12GB and in p67 it would be 4GB or 8GB.

I'm not so sure about the 4GB sticks, I know they are way more expensive, I'm not sure how reliable they are.

Cpu cooler, I have not seen the d14 on these mobo yes so I'm not sure how it will endup.

Display, As I said before, response time is pure bs, there is no real way of measuring it, closest to it would be white to white, but that would be a huge number so manufacturers don't go by that, instead they go by black to black b2b or gray to gray g2g, cause they produce a smaller number, but that number don't mean nothing, and I mean nothing at all, on top of that, there are different ways of measuring this g2g or b2b and each way will produce a different number, what that means is that we can't even compare numbers from one monitor ot another because we don't know what method was used to do the BS test of g2g or b2b.

So whoever told you about response time, does not have proper info, the same goes for contrast, BS.

what matters is the quality of the panel, its processor, resolution, Brightness, Color Depth, refresh rate, etc.

GPU OC, LOL, you gonna hear those fans thru your headphones,but if you don't mind it, then oc the heck out of those cards, but if you don't notice a difference for your use then drop it back to a mild oc at least, or better yet setup a profile with the high oc you like, and every time you gonna game, load that oc profile first and then afer you are done gaming, load default clocks, that the gpus are not oced all day, and your fans are loud only during gaming.

CPU OC, ok IMHO this really is a matter of preference or need, some people just prefer to have a high oc for bragging rights, others are powerusers or benchmarkers, I'm a poweruser, that means I need lot of cpu power/speed cause every bit of it will make my tasks go faster, from folding to encoding and etc, every bit does make a difference in my use, justin is a benchmarker (and a damn good one from what I can tell), every bit of power gives him a higher score, so he needs to squeeze every drop to achieve the highest score, when you get to that level, you gonna want a well balanced system in power from every aspect, psu,mobo,ram,hdd,cpu,cooling etc, they all have to be optimal for him to get the best stable score, as a power user and gamers we can all use a good amount of balance also, but as far as oc goes, gamers won't have much use for oc over 3.9GHz, than you have people that like to brag just to say they have the best or highest, in gaming you won't see much difference pass a certain point, and whatever difference you see in fps, is not gonna be noticeable, there are also people that get a false sense of power/security by getting the most/best/highest. But at the end of the day, we all get one life to live, and if for some unfortunate reason, overkill makes a person happy, then that is the best pc for them, at the end of the day, these pcs get old quick, does not matter what you have today, blink and haswell is here and all these cpus are old and slower, and thats just in 2 years, just 2 years ago i7 came out and we were all existed about the 920, where is it now, look at how much better SB is, and these are not even the high end cpu/platforms of SB, long story short, get what makes you happy, most of us are happy getting most power for our money, some of us are happy getting extras that don't matter, different strokes for different folks

OK well I hope that helped you understand better, please ask as many questions as you like.

My pleasure and You're welcome

Edited by DST4ME - 17 Jan 2011 at 2:58am

CPU OC, the 2300 or the 2500k will get you to 3.9GHz, but they have 4 cores and 4 threads, the 2600k has 4 cores, 8 threads, this won't mean much to gaming but it does to other things.

Be careful waiting, there is always something else to wait for, for gaming all you do is upgrade the gpu, its the cpu I said that is going to get old, the gpu we can change adn keep up with demand for performance, there is a user in the general section that got a pc about 3 years ago and now wants to upgrade his gpu, and that all he needs, he was smart enough to go with a 850w which easily gave him room to grow and drop in a 570 gtx, once he puts that in, gameing-wise, that pc is gonna feel like a new pc.

how is this:

Here you go Ticket# 479027 --- $2588 (To see this build click here)

Copy of Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master HAF 932
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 2600K 3.40GHz (Unlocked CPU for Extreme Overclocking) (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 Pro (Intel P67 Chipset) (Features USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s)
System Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 1000W Corsair (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (80GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Model: X25-M MLC Edition) (Extreme Performance)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (1TB Western Digital Caviar (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache) (Model: Black Edition WD1002FAEX)
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1.2GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion (Includes Front I/O) (PCI-Express Slot Based)
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 1: Noctua NH-U12P SE Dual 120mm Fans High Performance Cooler
H20 Tube Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Red)
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: FREE: Overclock the processor between 3.6GHz to 3.9GHz
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-Bit Edition)
Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows 7 CD)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: - No Thanks
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty

if you want to save more money, we can drop the ssd and you can always add that later, all you do is clone the 1TB to your new ssd, and that will move everything over in one shot, no need to install anything. you can follow my clone guide here

also if you are sure you won't need to go sli, we can drop the psu to 750w corsair, but I like my options open since I don't know what the future holds, so I always recommend 1000w corsair so that sli is an option, but if you don't want that option we can drop the psu and mobo and save more money, so just tell me what you think.

ok tyvm and your right i might not even wait now because like you said there is always something else so but all questions answered so heres 1 more then i decide lol

o ok yea i am like that but if its possible for my windows 7 to be safe and have something else to surf with i would definately do that i use AVG free and zonealarm free i also regularly clean my computer with search and destroy bot ccleaner and ad aware i actually can get a free norton internet security that has firewall and everything and i will do that most likely for windows 7

these r all free?