Input on gaming rig much appreciated

Hey, and thanks for any advice in advance. I am looking for a gaming computer that also will be used for everyday tasks. The build I made is at the upper end of my budget, and any way to save some money without sacrifice in performance would be appreciated. I am hoping to play Crysis on Ultra on a 1920 x 1080 monitor. If what I have now won't get me up to that power, let me know that too.


Ticket Number: 424212
Total Price with Instant Savings: $5,565.00

Direct Load URL: http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=424212

Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Black OPS HailStorm Edition
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 980X 3.33GHz (Six-Core) (Extreme Performance)
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage III Extreme (Intel X58 Chipset) (Features USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 1250W Enermax Galaxy EVO (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) (Recommended)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (128GB Solid State (By: Corsair) (Model: CMFSSD-128GBG2D)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM)
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: Blu-Ray & DVD Writer/Reader (Burn + Play Blu-Ray & DVDs) (12x BD-R) (Lite-On iHBS112)
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 480 1.5GB (PhysX Tech.) (EVGA SuperClocked 015-P3-1482-AR)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional (PCI-Express Slot Based)
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 4: Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System: CPU Only
H20 Tube Color:Blue Tubing with High-Performance Fluid (UV Lighting Reactive)
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Blue)
Enhancements: Touch V12XT Aerocool Temperature Display & Fan Controller (Requires Chassis Airflow Upgrade)
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: FREE: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Cooling Upgrade Recommended)
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: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-Bit Edition)
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: FREE: Hot-selling game with a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 or above graphics card
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 5 Year Limited Warranty

Keep in mind that Crysis is a horribly unoptimized game that takes ridiculous amounts of video card power to 'max'. For example at the resolution of 1920x1080 a single GTX 480 can run every single game currently out except 2-3 with max settings and achieve around 60 FPS or more. But those few games like Crysis and Metro 2033 will give you 20-30 FPS at high anti-aliasing settings. It takes 2-3 480s in SLI to get those two games up to 60+ FPS with full AA settings, OR you could just save the extra $500-1000 and play them just fine with everything maxed except the AA settings.

So point is, don't use Crysis as a metric for configuring a system, you'll waste thousands of dollars just to be able to play one extra game with marginally higher settings.

Also, hexa-cores will not help gaming at all. So waste of money there if you're just making a gaming rig.

You have a lot of other wasteful and unhelpful things selected as well. You'll want something more like this for a baseline.

Ticket #424216, Price: $2449

Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master HAF 932
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 930 2.8GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: EVGA X58 LE Edition SLI (Intel X58 Chipset)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 1250W Enermax Galaxy EVO (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) (Recommended)
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 Hitachi/Seagate (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache)
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 480 1.5GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 2: Noctua NH-D14 Extreme Performance (Does NOT fit on the regular EVGA X58 3X SLI)
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: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Cooling Upgrade Recommended)
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 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: FREE: Hot-selling game with a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 or above graphics card
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: FREE: Digital Storm T-Shirt - Black (Large)
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

OS/apps and a few games on the SSD, rest of the games/music/movies/media on the HDD. If you want more room for games pick the larger 160GB Intel SSD. Do not pick any of the non-Intel SSDs offered by DS, they are all total crap with literally 8-10 times worse small file performance than the Intel offerings.

I know your budget was a lot higher but again this will already max every game currently out at 1920x1080 except Crysis and Metro 2033, and you only have to turn down one setting on those games to run them buttery smooth as well. This is at the point of diminishing returns and you just can't get much more performance without significantly inflating the price, and for gaming this would have zero benefit anyway. Better to just save the money and couple years down the road if the need develops add in a second 480 or swap out the current one for a better video card altogether. The larger 1250w PSU will allow you that optional expandability.

You may also want to consider the 2 year parts warranty for +$99 or the 3 year parts warranty for +$199, both are great deals for the price.

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=424217%20 $1500 less, you would not see 1 fps difference in crysis

As an aside, might I suggest spending some of the money you save toward a really nice monitor since you're willing to spend that much anyway?

yeah.. major overkill here. generally, once you get past around 3K, the amount of extra performance you get out of it for the money you put in it goes way down. The 2 480's are definitely overkill, as is the Hex core, unless you have a good reason for it. You probably don't need that powerful of a PSU either. Could get away with a 1000 watt i think.

However, if you save some of that cash, and get a nice monitor, you might want the 2 480's

Edited by chanman - 21 Jul 2010 at 11:16pm

All the 900-series quad cores are the same product with different factory settings, so drop your 975 down to a 920. DS will overclock the 920 up to 3.8 or 9 for you whichever one you choose.

Same thing with the 480's. Just buy the regular version (if you want the brand, go for it), and let DS do the overclocking for you.

I'm not sure about the mobos.

Edited by Runes - 21 Jul 2010 at 11:42pm

Originally posted by SuperSoldier1 1) Motherboard, how much difference do the options make?

Once you get the core basics covered, almost none at all. Unless you are pushing for record setting overclocks and have extra special voltage needs and extra chipset cooling because of it.

In other words, don't worry about fancy motherboards and drop back down to a EVGA x58 LE.

2) I'm guessing the audio card isn't worth it from your builds, how much difference does it make?

That depends. Are you an audiophile, do you have a good set of headphones or speakers to pair with one?

3) cooling, what should I do about that?

One of the Noctua air coolers for CPU is plenty. No need for add-on video card cooling, their cool themselves just fine.

Processor: !PROMOTION: Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 975 3.33GHz (Quad-Core) (Extreme Performance)

So you know Intel Core i7 920, 930, 940, 950, and 960 processors are the all the exact same chip, some are just factory overclocked a tiny bit and Intel charges hundreds of extra dollars for it, go figure. They all overclock exactly the same and perform exactly the same at identical overclock settings, as they are indeed all exactly identical chips.

The 965 and 975 will also perform extremely similar to the above at the same clock speed, but do have a few tiny advantages such as higher memory bandwidth so they will outperform slightly in a benchmark or two, but only by an extremely small amount. They are a complete sucker buy, not even remotely worth the extra +$750.

So just go with a 920 instead. (These are no longer in production and were succeeded by the 930, but DS got some more in stock again, hurray!)

Originally posted by !ender_ http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=424217%20 $1500 less, you would not see 1 fps difference in crysis and you can overclock the crap out of the 480s since they would be on water, which means this would outperform that system, and do it quieter, and for less money. more storage space more gaming power 1500 left over to get yourself a new monitor that deserves 2x 480s

Edited by !ender_ - 22 Jul 2010 at 8:51am

So I'm looking at this now. Dropped almost 2k, nice.

Ticket Number: 424289
Total Price with Instant Savings: $3,871.00

Direct Load URL: http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=424289

Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master HAF 932
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: !PROMOTION: Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage III Extreme (Intel X58 Chipset) (Features USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series  (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 1000W Digital Storm Certified (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition Highly Recommended)  
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 Hitachi/Seagate (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache)
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: Blu-Ray & DVD Writer/Reader (Burn + Play Blu-Ray & DVDs) (12x BD-R) (Lite-On iHBS112)
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 480 1.5GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional (PCI-Express Slot Based)
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 3: FrostChill Cooling System: CPU Only
H20 Tube Color:Blue Tubing with High-Performance Fluid (UV Lighting Reactive)
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Blue)
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Cooling Upgrade Recommended)
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: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-Bit Edition)
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: FREE: Hot-selling game with a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 or above graphics card
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: FREE: Digital Storm T-Shirt - Black (Large)
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

i would likely go for the 1250 psu also

oh you dont need an email, just click "load config" at the VERY top of the webpage

Edited by !ender_ - 22 Jul 2010 at 6:24pm

yea, fixed

Edited by !ender_ - 22 Jul 2010 at 6:27pm

Thank you. OK, I'll post what I have and give it a bit of time to see if everyone agrees with us.

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=424402

I upped the SSD to 160Gb. For an extra $200 I feel it's worth doubling the SSD space.

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=424403

Edited by SuperSoldier1 - 22 Jul 2010 at 8:17pm

I feel like a baby reaching for a bottle... I want I want.  That is basically what I built, but with the extra 480 and LC, which I decided to wait and upgrade to in a year or so. 

Very nice.  I think you have it pretty well sorted out. 

depends on the game..there is at least 10 games that a single GTX 480 at that res will not run smooth on max settings, and there is a lot of games coming out in the next 6 months that I bet a couple will also need more than one GTX 480 to run at max settings. So if the person plays those games, then yes a GTX 480 will gimp them, if they want to play easier to run games, then one is plenty.

So with the current build I have (yes, SLI 480s) and the expectation to OC the processor to about 4Ghz, what cooling would you recommend?

IDK if you are going to go for that 4g oc on your own, but I sure wouldn't pay for it. DS has been pretty consistently getting 3.9 lately on air, and it's free. Another .1-.2 isn't likely to be very noticeable.

Originally posted by SuperSoldier1 So with the current build I have (yes, SLI 480s) and the expectation to OC the processor to about 4Ghz, what cooling would you recommend?

A Noctua NH-D14 for the CPU. That's it, nothing else, video cards already come with their own air cooling systems built in and need no additional aftermarket cooling unless you try to push high overclocks out of them.

You'll notice from my signature that Lilim is running 4.2GHz on a Noctua NH-D14, and maxed out at 79°C during a 24-hour Prime95 stress test. This is a stock NH-D14 in a stock HAF 932 case and an ambient temperature of 72°F, nothing special done. Mileage may vary of course, but 4.0GHz should be easy peasy with any 920 or 930.

And her stock 480, in said stock HAF 932, idles at 32°C at 50% fan speed and hits a max of 79°C at 79% fan speed under load (using this fan profile). Not even remotely close to their rated max of 105°C, thats a whole 26°C to play with.

Higher end video cards like the 480 use closed case air cooling, in that they are sealed and only have two openings, one opening with an intake fan that sucks in cool air from inside the PC and blows it across the card's internal heatsinks, and the second opening that is an exhaust port on the back of the card which exhausts the warm air completely outside the back of the PC. So don't expect much of a rise in temperatures from running multiple 480s, 2-3°C at worst.