preliminary specs for a gaming rig

Resolution and budget?

Things to improve anyways
- 912 is chunky and too low end IMO, get a 922 or 932.
- Down to 750w unless you really want to SLI.
 ( Wait, did you say 750 volt? LOL?! Oh my god, if your rig really ran 750 volts of power ...It's 750 WATT, haha, there's a big big difference between volt and watt....)
- Two lower end cards are NOT better than one better card. As the GTX 460 demonstrated, it had a higher max fps in most games than a single GTX 480, BUT, the minimum FPS sucked compared to the 480 even though it was 2 vs 1.
- Asetek's and other basic liquid cooling setups don't have the liquid capacity that allows for efficient cooling, and they are on par with regular air coolers. The sole advantage is that they're great for small rigs because it's smaller, but tower air coolers still dominate in low-cost cooling. With liquid cooling, it's go the whole hog or don't go at all.
- I personally don't like fan controllers. Too finicky, too annoying to setup, too much gunk, some fail, and really your rig should be stable 100% of the time. Really, I shouldn't be paying attention to my temps all the time when I'm gaming and dialing up my fans manually.
- I don't really like overclocking graphics cards unless they're on liquid cooling...just my taste.
- McAfee? ESET Smart Security ftw, haha. That's just my opinion.
- Where's your internal lighting and free game?! The lighting makes all the difference and why would you pass up a free game, lol.

*configs rig to hit price point...

Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - HAF 922
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 (Intel P67 Chipset) (Features USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s)
System Memory: 4GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 750W Digital Storm Certified (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition 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 (500GB Western Digital/Seagate/Hitachi/Samsung (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM)
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: Integrated Motherboard Audio
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: Upgrade Chassis With LED Performance Fans (Red) (Up to 6 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 Home Premium (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: 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

Edited by ablahblah - 15 Feb 2011 at 12:08am

For gaming at 1920 x 1200/1080 is a single Geforce 570 sufficient?

Change your psu to corsair, its a better psu and has its own 5 year warranty.

IMO 80GB for HDD1 is not enough, either request the intel 120GB ssd or choose the 160GB they have here, more room and faster write speeds, if that is not in the budget, then just go with the black caviar as HDD1 for now and in a few months upgrade to intel gen 3 ssd when they come out.

don't go with fan upgrade its loud and not necessary, instead spend $30 and get a third 200mm fan for the top of the case so that you have 4 x 200m fans in the haf x:

Here you go Ticket# 486873 --- $1930 (To see this build click here)

Copy of Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master 942 HAF X
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 Deluxe (Intel P67 Chipset) (Features USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s)
System Memory: 4GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair Dominator DHX (High-Performance)
Power Supply: 1000W Corsair (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (1TB Western Digital Caviar (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache) (Model: Black Edition WD1002FAEX)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks
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 560 Ti 1GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
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: - No Thanks
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 Home Premium (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: FREE: Digital Storm T-Shirt - Black (Medium)
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

the haf x has one 200mm fan on top, with room to add a second 200mm fan up there, ask DS specifically for this fan to be added to the top:

haf 200mm non led fan

if you add that fan the case will have total of 3 x 200mm fans and 1 x 230mm fan, the 230mm is the front fan and its already red led, instead of asking DS to add a non led 200mm fan to the top, ask them to for the red 200mm led fan, and then ask them to change the other two 200mm fans with the red led version also, leaving you will all 4 big fans being red led, this will cost more money, its something you can do yourself down the road also, but either way, here is the fan you would want:

200mm red led fan

the above config comes with one 570, but its setup so that you can add a second 570 anytime you want with ease.

Edited by DST4ME - 15 Feb 2011 at 7:20am