My PC build

[John_rs]

Hey,

I'm wanting to build a PC for gaming, multimedia and demanding programs used for design.

I have chosen the motherboard and CPU i think i am going to use and just wondering if someone could spare there time to help me with a few things.

my chosen hardware so far is :

Motherboard: ASUS Rampage II Extreme
CPU: i7-965

I'm going for 6gb ram at first im sure that will be enough, a decent speed HDD etc.

The graphics card im unsure of, i will be wanting to use it on my 720p screen, i will be wanting to play fairly demanding games, use high definition multimedia, and hopefully a HD tuner. all depends on the money i have, but i can always save and add the optionals later.

so my questions are

what graphics card do you recommend for me?

Is their any decent cases? i would like one with a removable motherboard tray as ive read reviews that the motherboard layout isnt great in some aspects. and looks cool

what voltage PSU, i have no clue in how you know what you need for the job.

oo and the last thing, what type of cooling do you recommend? again i have no idea, from reviews i see air cooling is no problem, and that it has multipul headers for fans that can be controlled separately, how would i go about that? or is it just in the drivers and its as simple as plugging in the fans?

even if you answer one of my many questions i would be highly grateful

thanks for your time

john

[shattered.likeness]

First things first, welcome to the forums!

Now, as for your questions:

- 6GB should be enough for you to start out with, but there will be a very noticeable difference in your design work if you switch over to 12GB. The 12GB will make the biggest difference in programs like Maya, 3DS Max, and any other renderings or photoshop filters.

- As for the HDD, I would go with a Western Digital Velociraptor. You don't want to end up limiting the performance you get from running a slower hard drive for your OS. You can always add a 1 TB HDD in there for your storage needs.

- For graphics cards it all depends on your budget after the $1000 processor. The ATI HD4850X2 2GB is recommended by Adobe to of workstation card quality, and is only ~$275, but for gaming it would be highly suggested to run two of these. They will run 90% of the games out there on max, with the exeption of some of the more graphics intensive games.

But for overall ease of use, I would say to use nVidia instead. Most anything in the GTX 200 series in SLI should do well. Stick with the GTX 285 or GTX 295. (The reason that I don't mention the GTX280, is that the 285 is about the same price.) Which ever way you go, get the graphics cards that have the highest amount of memory onboard. It will make a big difference in your design work.

- Considering that you will probably be running multiple graphics cards and overclocking your processor (you are at pureOC ), you will need a powerful PSU to run it all. Try to stick to one that has a single +12v rail with high amperage. For example, SilverStone's DA1000 is a 1000w power supply with 80 amps on its +12v rail. Or, their 1200w Zues series can be switched from 6x 17A rails to a single robust 95A rail. I would try to stick to an amperage close to these on a single rail system, and you shouldn't have any problems with your PSU.

- Honestly, TEC cooling is the way to go, but is much more expensive than a good air cooler. As far as air coolers go, try to stick to one of the high end copper tower style coolers. As for water cooling, Deton or HESmelaugh would be of the best help here. As for TEC cooling, there are quite a few of us around here that use products from CoolIT Systems. I personally use their Freezone Elite, and it does wonderful for keeping my processor cool. Doctor Death and a few others use their Boreas cooler, and it does even better (with a much higher price tag to boot).

Yes, your fans should pretty much just be plug and play, unless you want to control them. That is eiter done through the BIOS or by using a fan controller.

- One more thing to mention here. I know that you said that you want to use your 720p screen to run your games on, and that is all good. But depending on the types of design work you do, I wouldn't recommend using that screen for designing. If you are doing any kind of work where your colors need to be as close to what your printer puts out as possible, or if any of your work will end up being published, you need to look into getting an S-IPS monitor. They offer far superior color reproduction, and can be viewed from extreme angles without losing the quality of the image. These are used by professionals, and carry a price tag to match, with most starting at around $1000 and higher. If you do print work, or anything that is color sensitive, get one of these and calibrate it properly and you won't be disappointed. The IPS monitors are not recommended for gaming though, as most of them have a response time around 15ms, and suffer from a bit more input lag than TN panels.

Hope this helps

[_jM]

@ HDD issue

I have a velociraptor and they are fast, but as far as performace goes, the real speed is in 2 WD 640AAKs(black) in a RAID 0 config.. I have 2 500AAKS atm, I will post performace results over the next 2 days in comparison to the WD Velociraptor.

@ VGA I would go for a single Evga GTX 295 or 2 4890's ( if you are looking for maximum performace, go for the Xfire 4890's)

[John_rs]

Wow, thank you very much for such a reply.

You've answered every question i asked and more

Thankyou for all the recomendations and all have being taken to mind

Thanks again for your time it helped a great deal.

john

maybe i put thanks too many times but you get the point, im grateful

[John_rs]

@ HDD issue

I have a velociraptor and they are fast, but as far as performace goes, the real speed is in 2 WD 640AAKs(black) in a RAID 0 config.. I have 2 500AAKS atm, I will post performace results over the next 2 days in comparison to the WD Velociraptor.

@ VGA I would go for a single Evga GTX 295 or 2 4890's ( if you are looking for maximum performace, go for the Xfire 4890's)

Thankyou also

[Deton]

Good advice Shattered.
IMO, any those GPU will be wasted if you primary use 720p screen for games. So any single 98xxx or 46xx will do the job fine with that resolution.

I think you should decide this is a dedicate multimedia rig or graphic workstation. If you do a lot of 3D rendering then you should get a lot of ram that you can afford and powerfull GPU card.

[Skyguy]

I do alot of graphics, rendering, etc. 6 gigs on a Core i7 is usually enough. The i7's are STINKING FAST on workstation applications with 8 threads running. Crazy fast.

Dual HDD's in RAID 0 are a good suggestion.

Power supply.......check our PSU review section, we've tested many lately, with more coming. In Win's Commander is very nice, modular, won't break the bank, strong. Silverstone makes some great ones too.

Graphics card..........entirely depends on your budget and resolution. I'd probably recommend an ATI 4890 or Nvidia GTX285 at least for single cards, though you may want to move to dual cards. IF you do move to dual cards and you use more than one monitor, you may want to go with ATI instead of Nvidia---they're much better in the multi-display department than Nvidia. Plus you can mix and match ATI cards, Nvidia's have to be the exact same, and their drivers are still pretty new and crappy. Something to think about.

[John_rs]

Thanks to all thoses that replied.

i was wondering if anyone could help me with cooling.

Tec cooling sounds cool but very expensive to run, i was going air cooled but i thought water cooling would be easier than having like 7 fans in my case.

i was just wondering how you go about it? you obviously buy the water cooling kit with the correct CPU socket, but how do you go about cooling your other components? i have googled im not just relying on you guys, all i can seem to find is plates for the 'north bridge' sorry i am abit of a newbie when it comes to building a PC but i know the basics , im just trying to save myself some money.

im guessing if i do go water cooled i will still have to have fans to cool hardrives and graphics cards etc.

I was maybe thinking of buying the http://www.thermaltake.com/product_i...Armor%2b&ovid= just to make things a little easier as i don't want to mess up and reck hundreds of pounds of equipment, does anyone have any experience with such cases? or would i be better buying a system separate.

and one more question which is kinda random but would it be more cost effective running the system with a water cooler and less fans or just go with lots of fans in a case like this http://www.thermaltake.com/product_i...me=Spedo&ovid=

Sorry if my question are abit silly, its just my first PC build, and its going to be expenisve, i just want to do it correct and without it overheating etc. as i say i am reading guides and other stuff from the interent i just cant find many to-date and idiot proof lol , if you know any please direct me

thanks for you time

John

[John_rs]

Sorrry i see there's a proper thread for this.

[_jM]

Truthfully m8, stick with a good air cooler for the cpu and go that way if you are looking to save money. You can buy s WC Kit, but most of the kits out there keep the temps about as good as a decent heatsink and fan. Only way your going to see really good temps with water is to custom build one. And that is expensive, like around $300-$600 for a good set-up in just watercooling supplies. Go to newegg and buy a good heatsink like the Coolermaster V8 or a good Zalman cooler and you will be fine.

[Deton]

I believe you're planning to build i7 965 rig then forget about that watercooling kit. It won't be able to handle the overclocked 965, unless you want to run your CPU at stock speed.