1st Time Newbie build of LGA2011 System

M

Moltke

New member
Hi All -

I am a complete newbie having never built a system before. I have some general questions regarding PSU and Fans. Please see my questions below my tentative system specs. I am new to this so please do not tell me how dumb I am as I am looking to learn. Thanks for the help!

Motherboard - Intel LGA2011 DX79SR
CPU - Intel i7-3930K 3.2Ghz 12MB Cache (I plan to eventually overclock)
Memory - 32GB Corsair Dominator DDR2 1600Mhz
HDD - 4x WD Caviar Black 1TB drives in a RAID 10 and 1x WD Caviar Black 1TB drive for extra space
Graphics - 1x EVGA Nvidia GeForce 680 Signature + (I later plan on buying another for SLI)
DVD - Generic Blu-Ray el cheapo version
Monitor - 22" HP (from current sys, but plan on upgrading to a 27" LED Viewsonic ????
PSU - Rosewill Lightning 1300W 80+ Gold Cert
OS - Windows 7 Professional

Questions:1
1. PSU - Do I have enough or too much power? Graphic card said it requires 550W on a 12v line with 68A. If I eventually set up SLI with another, will I have enough power for everything? What is a good PSU company?

2. Fans - How many do I need? CPU comes with heatsink, PSU comes with a fan, the Graphic Card comes with a Fan, so how many do I need in the case? Which ones run quietest?

3. Water Cooling - based on the above question do I require water cooling? If so, will a Corsair H80 or H100 do the job?

4. Any case recommendations? I prefer a mid-ATX, but want to be able to have at least 6x Sata, 2x Graphic, DVD, and room for the PSU and Fans, etc. without wires everywhere.

5. Am I missing anything?

Thanks!!!!
 
As above.
If it's just gaming, go with LGA 1155 with a 3570k and 8gb of RAM.
Also, DDR2 RAM on a X79 chipset. That's not gonna work...
And, the 3930k doesn't come with a heatsink, so you're going to need to buy one yourself. The H100 will do.
 
1). That PSU is total overkill, you could probably get away with 850W when you SLI, although for future proofing 1000W would be enough. Corsair is probably the favourite company around here, and it is worth looking at the 1200W model they do. Each 680GTX will only use around 225W, so 1300W is way above two of those plus a processor.

Your memory should be DDR3, but I'm pretty sure that is a typo, otherwise it looks good. I would ask do you need 32GB? Unless you are using Photoshop/Video rendering a lot, 16GB would be fine.

Also I would avoid in built RAID (apart from RAID 0). You are better off getting a couple of 3TB drives and an SSD for your OS, especially as this is a pretty high end build. Additionally avoid the intel board, stick with something from Asus, gigabyte, MSI. The intel board will struggle to overclock as well as some of the better boards.

The CPU does not come with a stock heat sink, you will need to buy one separately. Numbers wise you haven't given us a case. Different people swear by different fans, I recommend Scythe gentle typhoons, but it is worth looking at how many fans come with the case.

Watercooling wise, you are looking at prebuilt with the H100, which will not come near custom watercooling. However it will perform similarly to high end air coolers at only a small price premium and the radiator can be mounted in the roof, so your choice of memory is not hindered by the mechanical size of the heatsink. You don't need Watercooling, but it will keep temperatures lower which is good for overclocking. The H100's fans are quite loud, so replacing them with Noctua or Scythe Gentle Typhoons (I recommend the latter) may be worth your while.

Whilst you may want a mid-ATX, I must warn you that smaller cases will get very hot compared to larger ones. Silverstone make some very nice cases, but the best way to look for a case is to look through the reviews on this site. NZXT 810 might be a good place to start.
 
isnt raid 10 raid 0 + 1? which means youll split all the data up over 2 drivers and then aswell make copy it to 2 other drivers as backup? = faster speeds and backup
 
Thanks for the comments. Memory is a typo...should be DDR3. Thanks for the power supply answers of 850W and 1000W....I assumed with 2x 680s that they would require 550W each! So basically, for high end gaming I would only need 16GB of memory....I was just not sure because I wanted to use graphics mods, etc..I am thinking Skyrim graphic mods and some other games. I will not be using it for video processing.
 
Oh thank god, Ok so for a gaming system 3930k is way overkill, a 3570k will do fine, also I highly doubt you will need 8tb so I would recommend you get a 2tb WD Green drive and a 128gb Crucial M4 ssd. 1 670 is more than enough for single monitor gaming. And as for the psu, Even SLI 680's would run fine off of a 650w psu and as you might want to go 670 SLI You should IMO get a 650w Corsair AX
 
Moltke said:
Thanks for the comments. Memory is a typo...should be DDR3. Thanks for the power supply answers of 850W and 1000W....I assumed with 2x 680s that they would require 550W each! So basically, for high end gaming I would only need 16GB of memory....I was just not sure because I wanted to use graphics mods, etc..I am thinking Skyrim graphic mods and some other games. I will not be using it for video processing.
Click to expand...
No. You only need 8GBs of RAM for gaming. And you also won't need a 3930k. Buy an i5 3570k on LGA 1155 socket. Dude! This PC would be epic... For video-editing. Waaaaay to overkill for gaming. You're not going to benefit with 16gb RAM and a 3930k with gaming AT ALL. :)
 
AverageNinja said:
No. You only need 8GBs of RAM for gaming. And you also won't need a 3930k. Buy an i5 3570k on LGA 1155 socket. Dude! This PC would be epic... For video-editing. Waaaaay to overkill for gaming. You're not going to benefit with 16gb RAM and a 3930k with gaming AT ALL. :)
Click to expand...

Ok, I obviously need to take a step back on this. My question now is that my current system is a stock HP d5000t ATX.

ASUS IPIBL-TX Motherboard, CPU is Intel G33 Express, 2.66Ghz / 1333 MHz, 12 MB l2 Cache, with 8 GB DDR2 PC2-6400 memory, GeForce 9800 GT (1MB) Graphic Card

I was going to upgrade because I wanted a better graphic card and ASSUMED that I would need to change everything because my current system only has 1x PCI Express x16 slot and 450 Watts.

Can I add a better GeForce card that will give my top settings on all graphics with this system? Or do I need more power, better PCI slots or CPU speed?

Thanks again!!!
 
Time for an upgrade.

CPU: 3570k
Motherboard: MSI Z77a-G45
Graphics Card: GTX 670
Cooler: NH-D14
RAM: 8gb of 1600mhz branded RAM (Mushkin or Corsair)
PSU: Corsair AX650
SSD: 128gb Crucial M4
HDD: 1TB WD Caviar green or Blue
Case of your choice really

That will max out any game, with FPS around 60 one 1 screen at 1080p. Dont need anything more for 1 screen
 
jamesriley94 said:
Time for an upgrade.

CPU: 3570k
Motherboard: MSI Z77a-G45
Graphics Card: GTX 670
Cooler: NH-D14
RAM: 8gb of 1600mhz branded RAM (Mushkin or Corsair)
PSU: Corsair AX650
SSD: 128gb Crucial M4
HDD: 1TB WD Caviar green or Blue
Case of your choice really

That will max out any game, with FPS around 60 one 1 screen at 1080p. Dont need anything more for 1 screen
Click to expand...

This is a good spec tbh. You could go for a H100 instead of the nh-d14 if you do not like the look of it or whatever both will perform very well for your needs.
 
jamesriley94 said:
Time for an upgrade.

CPU: 3570k
Motherboard: MSI Z77a-G45
Graphics Card: GTX 670
Cooler: NH-D14
RAM: 8gb of 1600mhz branded RAM (Mushkin or Corsair)
PSU: Corsair AX650
SSD: 128gb Crucial M4
HDD: 1TB WD Caviar green or Blue
Case of your choice really

That will max out any game, with FPS around 60 one 1 screen at 1080p. Dont need anything more for 1 screen
Click to expand...

+1 for the setup!
 
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