Help me perfect my build! (And this post)

[Nollan]

Hello fellow Overclock3d members, and welcome to my first post on this forum!

For about a month or so now I've been thinking about building my own PC and I've now come to a point where my limited experience has put me to a halt, so what better place to seek help from than the absolute best of the best? I'm a complete "newbie" when it comes to building PC-experience (I've basically seen my friend build my current PC and that's about it) but I've done my research and I feel confident on building my own PC. Call me a fool, but I don't really see a reason to be frightened of doing it. And this is not just any build, I will tell you. The total price of the PC alone will most likely exceed £3000. That's why I'm now taking my time to be as prepared for the build as possible, so that I can bring the build to "perfection". I will no longer bother you with this rather pointless information and instead get going with my actual problems instead, I just wanted you to sort of see what you can expect from me and see where I am coming from with this build.

Specs;
Case: Corsair Obsidian 650D Black

Motherboard: ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77

CPU: Intel Core i7 3770k

Watercooling: Will make a new thread about this, I will link to it here when it's up if that's allowed.

GPU: EVGA GTX 680 Signature Hydro Copper

PSU: Corsair AX 1200i 80+ platinum

RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum 4x4096MB

Harddrive: Seagate Barracuta 7200rpm 2TB

SSD: Samsung SSD Basic 840-series 250GB

Drive: Buffalo Portable (Basically, just something cheap and random)

Now, performance isn't my only plan for this build, but looks is too. I will quickly go through some of the things I want with the build, aesthetics wise.

I want the case to be clean and almost stealthy. I don't want it to show any bright colours or excessive stickers etc. As for the color scheme I was thinking black with hints of white and maybe red or that grayish, brownish color that you see on the motherboard. The outside of the case is going to be stock, and I will not touch it in any way. As for lighting I was thinking about maybe getting one or two LED-strips, but I don't want it to be too powerful, so I might just get some fans with lighting on them and use that instead.


Plans;

Keep the outside untouched.

Individually sleeve the cables in mostly black and red/That Grayish brownish color.

Get some custom stickers to cover up the "AX1200i" on the PSU.

Possibly add some subtle white LED-light to the case, or get some fans with white light.

Overclock the CPU, obviously.

Add the mini-fans too the Motherboard.

Make the watercooling look amazing!

Future Plans;

Buy some new fans to exchange the 200mm one in the front.

Buy another SSD and set up a Raid0.

Customize a disk drive to make it look intergrated with the case.

Get the Asus Xonar Essence STX soundcard.

Get a second GTX 680 Signature Hydro Copper.

Add some sort of controller for the watercooling.

Might try out the Corsair Link kit.


What do I want from you guys?

Basically, what I want is to bring up a discussion about different parts of my build. I want to start brain storming and see what you guys have to say. Maybe you see something with my specs that seems particularly bad or maybe good? Maybe you have experience with some of these parts and have so cool ideas for how I could make it even cooler? Tips, tricks, experience, thoughts, whatever it is I want to hear about it! Especially when it comes to aesthetics! And if you don't feel like posting it here or want to tell/ask me something personal, just PM me!

If you require any more information from me, just tell me and I will get it sorted!

Now, to end this post I will once again excuse myself if the post is weird or hard to read in any way. This is probably my third or something post EVER and I am not very experienced with posting on forums. I'd love if someone with some experience in making posts could help me make it a bit cleaner, more attractive and easy to read. I will keep this post updated as best as I can and do not hesitate to call me out on spelling mistakes, weird sentences etc etc.


Thank you for your time!


Nollan

 

[Genesius]

Hi,

Although ive built quite a few pc's im pretty new to the OC scene too.

Posts- keep them as short as possible but give more detail.

For example, you didnt mention what the PC is for. Is it a gaminbg rig? If so what do you play? Is is for CAD, video editing 3D design?

Choosing the correct parts is all about choosing the best parts for the job.

Your list looks fine to me. If money is no object then thats great but for the gear you have going in, you could save some buy getting a lower powered PSU. That ones a beast. Keep it though if you plan on SLI or crazy dual waterpump cooling rigs.

The ram is great. If your new to overclocking, dont worry about the RAM. it will be plenty fast enough and from what i have learnt during my build is that for me (a OC Noob) messing with the RAM is a bit too much.

Again that 690 wont need overclocking but you may find that a 670 or 680 overclocked will perform just as well if you want to save some cash. Again im far from an expert of GPU's so i stand to be corrected.

The 3770K is a great chip, but if your not going to be video editing or rendering ive read that having the hyper threading hinders performance.
so again to save money you could get a 3570k.
With cpu's its a lottery if you get a good overclocker or not. you may end up with a 3770k that cant be oc'd that much and a 3570k which will clock higher.

I have my 24/7 oc at 4.7 @ 1.25v and can get 5.

the H100 is a good cooler, i have one myself. for a 'perfect' build though, you really should look at watercooling.

Check out TTL's guide to water cooling here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6qpkigby5w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzBBjkIw7wU

go for a double rad though or pick up a kit

watch these too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cseLyQzK_7I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvdgAC1GFnU

that should give you a rough insight.

If you want anymore help just post back and i will be as much help as i can.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFvJ5lagoCY

Let us know what you intend to use the rig for and others will be able to advise you better

 

[Nollan]

For example, you didnt mention what the PC is for. Is it a gaminbg rig? If so what do you play? Is is for CAD, video editing 3D design?

Your list looks fine to me. If money is no object then thats great but for the gear you have going in, you could save some buy getting a lower powered PSU. That ones a beast. Keep it though if you plan on SLI or crazy dual waterpump cooling rigs.

The 3770K is a great chip, but if your not going to be video editing or rendering ive read that having the hyper threading hinders performance.
so again to save money you could get a 3570k.
With cpu's its a lottery if you get a good overclocker or not. you may end up with a 3770k that cant be oc'd that much and a 3570k which will clock higher.

the H100 is a good cooler, i have one myself. for a 'perfect' build though, you really should look at watercooling.

If you want anymore help just post back and i will be as much help as i can.

Let us know what you intend to use the rig for and others will be able to advise you better

The rig is mainly going to be used for gaming+recording and Photoshop. I will also do some video editing (but nothing serious as of now). Too me it's more about building a really good all-purpose build with great looks.

You actually convinced me to go for watercooling and I'm looking into it right now (I will edit the post as soon as I have time). I will make a new thread later on the watercooling forums adressing this. This also means I will go for 2x680 hydro coppers instead of a single GTX 690 and this I will probably need the current PSU But a great point indeed as I probably wouldn't used more than half of it with only a single card.

As for the sleeving of the cables I can't really decide whether to go for the pre-sleeved cables from Corsair or do it on my own. I would like to sleeve them on my own using parachord and I do have the time and patience for it, I'm just worried I'll mess something up with the cables as I have no clue what all the different cables that go to the pins do. But I'm guessing it won't be that difficult if you take your time and prepare (drawing diagrams, maybe doing them one cable at a time etc.).

I actually went for the 3570k at first but then changed my mind and went for the 3770k as I thought it would help keep the rig a "multi-purpose" one. How would it hinder the perfomance though, and would it be signifact? Would you say it's better to go for the 3570k instead?

Also, I don't really know how to properly use quoting, but this seems to do the trick for now until I get better at it

 

[WillSK]

If you are wanting a multi purpose machine and with your impressive budget in mind I would stick with the 3770K as the extra threads should help.

Definitely go with 2 680s or maybe even 670s to save money and prob gain performance because remember the 690 4gb shares the 4gb to 2gb per core anyway. with evga hydrocopper SLI you would have 4GB per GPU rather thatn 2

The Ram is fine (I do love that dominator platinum it's quite the looker!)

The motherboard you may be better off going for the MSI Mpower as it's slightly cheaper, arguably better and a forum favourite here

Case I would maybe consider looking into something a bit newer that you can perhaps water cool later on? i.e a Switch 810 as you can water cool this nicely without having to modify it.

PSU is massively over kill. If you want something big get the 860i I highly highly doubt you'll need more than that as remember PC components are getting designed to be LESS power hungry not more. You can def water cool and run SLI with that much power just look at TTL's Orca as the perfect example

I hope this helps?

 

[Nollan]

A quick update on what's going on... As I was looking around to get to know watercooling a bit better I started looking into the best place to get the video cards from and noticed that the card has been taken out of production... So chances are limited that I will ever get a hold of one of these cards, let alone two of them. So I don't really know where to go from here. I've heard rumors about a 780 being released sometime this year but I doubt I'll have the patience to wait for it, and something tells me there will not me a waterblock version of it. If anyone has any ideas I'm open for it Maybe I've just missed something and there's something else coming up instead?

 

[WillSK]

If you can wait then wait. You have a nice budget so despite what may be a long wait at the end of the day your PC will end up being even better than what you could build today. Computers are pretty much out of date the day you buy them so the longer you wait the more current it'll be (if that makes sense).

If you'd prefer to buy now then i'm pretty sure you could get some nice water cooling kit for that price. Ooooor get 2 good 670's , 680's or 7970's and just have them on air. The MSI lightning's are always a good bet and I know EK make water blocks for at least the 7970 version if you decide to get into water cooling

 

[Nollan]

If you are wanting a multi purpose machine and with your impressive budget in mind I would stick with the 3770K as the extra threads should help.

Definitely go with 2 680s or maybe even 670s to save money and prob gain performance because remember the 690 4gb shares the 4gb to 2gb per core anyway. with evga hydrocopper SLI you would have 4GB per GPU rather thatn 2

The Ram is fine (I do love that dominator platinum it's quite the looker!)

The motherboard you may be better off going for the MSI Mpower as it's slightly cheaper, arguably better and a forum favourite here

Case I would maybe consider looking into something a bit newer that you can perhaps water cool later on? i.e a Switch 810 as you can water cool this nicely without having to modify it.

PSU is massively over kill. If you want something big get the 860i I highly highly doubt you'll need more than that as remember PC components are getting designed to be LESS power hungry not more. You can def water cool and run SLI with that much power just look at TTL's Orca as the perfect example

I hope this helps?

I chose the motherboard pretty much on the looks of it. It is (as far as I know) a great motherboard if you want a clean looking inside of the case which is basically what I'm aiming for. I do this knowing there are better motherboards on the market for less money, but this is a calculated decision

As for the case, the 800D is the most beatiful case I've ever seen, but it is too big for me. I do not like big cases, I want them to be as small and neat as possible. Second best was the 650D (which is still beatiful), the only thing I dislike is the clips on the sidepanels. This again is a calculated decision. I realize it's a bit outdated but it's the case I've always wanted, so the extra work is worth it. Great point though!

Now, I realize that the PSU might be a bit overkill. So I will take you advise (thank you!) and look for a less expensive, less powerful PSU. My plan was to keep the PSU "future-proof" meaning it would last for newer generations of hardware, but as you mentioned they're being developed to draw less power for more performance.

 

[WillSK]

I chose the motherboard pretty much on the looks of it. It is (as far as I know) a great motherboard if you want a clean looking inside of the case which is basically what I'm aiming for. I do this knowing there are better motherboards on the market for less money, but this is a calculated decision

As for the case, the 800D is the most beatiful case I've ever seen, but it is too big for me. I do not like big cases, I want them to be as small and neat as possible. Second best was the 650D (which is still beatiful), the only thing I dislike is the clips on the sidepanels. This again is a calculated decision. I realize it's a bit outdated but it's the case I've always wanted, so the extra work is worth it. Great point though!

Now, I realize that the PSU might be a bit overkill. So I will take you advise (thank you!) and look for a less expensive, less powerful PSU. My plan was to keep the PSU "future-proof" meaning it would last for newer generations of hardware, but as you mentioned they're being developed to draw less power for more performance.

Yeah mate the Corsair 860i will be plenty future proof and is a superb PSU. Either that or one of Seasonic's offerings who actually i believe are the OEM for Corsair's units anyway. The 650D i agree with you I do think it's a v nice case and if you like it all the power to ya. As for the clips, I have the 600T which has the same internal design and also has the clips and personally i love em! makes side panel removal v easy when you wanna show off

The Mpower is also a almost completely black motherboard, would save you money and is arguably better plus the yellow accents can be modded as seen in one of the build logs on here. I can't remember whos but if someone does please point it out. However if you have your heart set on the sabertooth then fair enough. I personally don't like the thermal armour but some people I know really like it so guess that's a personal choice. It is still a good MoBo!

 

[SeekaX]

Hi,

Although ive built quite a few pc's im pretty new to the OC scene too.

Posts- keep them as short as possible but give more detail.

For example, you didnt mention what the PC is for. Is it a gaminbg rig? If so what do you play? Is is for CAD, video editing 3D design?

Choosing the correct parts is all about choosing the best parts for the job.

Your list looks fine to me. If money is no object then thats great but for the gear you have going in, you could save some buy getting a lower powered PSU. That ones a beast. Keep it though if you plan on SLI or crazy dual waterpump cooling rigs.

The ram is great. If your new to overclocking, dont worry about the RAM. it will be plenty fast enough and from what i have learnt during my build is that for me (a OC Noob) messing with the RAM is a bit too much.

Again that 690 wont need overclocking but you may find that a 670 or 680 overclocked will perform just as well if you want to save some cash. Again im far from an expert of GPU's so i stand to be corrected.

The 3770K is a great chip, but if your not going to be video editing or rendering ive read that having the hyper threading hinders performance.
so again to save money you could get a 3570k.
With cpu's its a lottery if you get a good overclocker or not. you may end up with a 3770k that cant be oc'd that much and a 3570k which will clock higher.

I have my 24/7 oc at 4.7 @ 1.25v and can get 5.

the H100 is a good cooler, i have one myself. for a 'perfect' build though, you really should look at watercooling.

Check out TTL's guide to water cooling here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6qpkigby5w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzBBjkIw7wU

go for a double rad though or pick up a kit

watch these too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cseLyQzK_7I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvdgAC1GFnU

that should give you a rough insight.

If you want anymore help just post back and i will be as much help as i can.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFvJ5lagoCY

Let us know what you intend to use the rig for and others will be able to advise you better

i am so jealous. they don't sell the custom sleeved cables in germany. and importing them would double the costs.

 

[Genesius]

ive just read that the HT in the 3770k can hinder gaming performance. However reading that you will be doing video editing then video software will take full advantage of the HT, so that is the better choice over the 3570k.

If your going to go for a PSU, yes get a slightly lower wattage one but keep is a high end Corsair or Seasonic.

I agree that water cooling the SLI setup may not be needed right away as you shouldnt need to OC the cards further at this moment. However dont go for a closed loop cooling system as this will mean there will be no chance to add the cards to it at a later date.

Also if your using Photoshop you might want to consider a RAID 0 setup to increase read & write speads and use that Raid array as Photoshops cache drive to increase performance. If your going to use RAID 0 just make sure you have a nice big back up system, because under raid 0 if you lose 1 drive you lose all.
E.g 2x 1TB drives in RAID 0 = 1 x 2TB drive so you will NEED a 2TB backup drive to copy the data to.
The other option on HArd drives is to get 2 fast drives in a Mirror raid array so that one backs up to the other.

Just a point i thought i would add.

 

[Mysterae]

It's nice to be at the first stage of a build isn't it? It's equivalent to women shopping I reckon! A lot more useful than a pair of designer shoes though..

You haven't mentioned a monitor in your description. Do you already have one that you are happy with or is a new one coming out of your budget? A poor monitor choice could hinder your entire build, so choose wisely.

 

[Nollan]

Yeah mate the Corsair 860i will be plenty future proof and is a superb PSU. Either that or one of Seasonic's offerings who actually i believe are the OEM for Corsair's units anyway. The 650D i agree with you I do think it's a v nice case and if you like it all the power to ya. As for the clips, I have the 600T which has the same internal design and also has the clips and personally i love em! makes side panel removal v easy when you wanna show off

The Mpower is also a almost completely black motherboard, would save you money and is arguably better plus the yellow accents can be modded as seen in one of the build logs on here. I can't remember whos but if someone does please point it out. However if you have your heart set on the sabertooth then fair enough. I personally don't like the thermal armour but some people I know really like it so guess that's a personal choice. It is still a good MoBo!

I do love the Sabertooth so I will probably stick to it I'm one of those who thinks the thermal armour looks amazing. And for the clips on the case, I will probably be showing my computer A LOT so you're right, it will make everything a lot easier! I'm now starting to like them instead

 

[Nollan]

ive just read that the HT in the 3770k can hinder gaming performance. However reading that you will be doing video editing then video software will take full advantage of the HT, so that is the better choice over the 3570k.

If your going to go for a PSU, yes get a slightly lower wattage one but keep is a high end Corsair or Seasonic.

I agree that water cooling the SLI setup may not be needed right away as you shouldnt need to OC the cards further at this moment. However dont go for a closed loop cooling system as this will mean there will be no chance to add the cards to it at a later date.

Also if your using Photoshop you might want to consider a RAID 0 setup to increase read & write speads and use that Raid array as Photoshops cache drive to increase performance. If your going to use RAID 0 just make sure you have a nice big back up system, because under raid 0 if you lose 1 drive you lose all.
E.g 2x 1TB drives in RAID 0 = 1 x 2TB drive so you will NEED a 2TB backup drive to copy the data to.
The other option on HArd drives is to get 2 fast drives in a Mirror raid array so that one backs up to the other.

Just a point i thought i would add.

This seems like valid information (just what I was looking for!). Could you please elaborate further about the water cooling? As I mentioned, I'm a bit of a noob so "a closed loop cooling system" doesn't tell me very much

Yes, I was thinking of setting up two SSDs in RAID 0, but I never actually planed on a mirror raid, or a backup drive for that matter. I will consider this now though. Is it possible to use, say a 2 TB 3,5" drive as backup for the SSDs? My first guess is that it will not work as the 3,5" won't be nearly as fast at writing data as the SSDs in RAID 0, but this is something I know barely anything about so maybe you could help me out?

 

[Nollan]

It's nice to be at the first stage of a build isn't it? It's equivalent to women shopping I reckon! A lot more useful than a pair of designer shoes though..

You haven't mentioned a monitor in your description. Do you already have one that you are happy with or is a new one coming out of your budget? A poor monitor choice could hinder your entire build, so choose wisely.

Yes, this is absolutely amazing! I get to tailor the build exactly as I want it, and since I've gone for quite a large budget, I don't need to worry too much about costs. I'm a child in the worlds largest candy shop right now!

I have two monitors right now. One really cheap budget BenQ GL-something from a couple of years back. For the price this monitor is unbelievably good, but it's far from high end. Then there's my BenQ XL2420T which I would say is a high end monitor. I goes perfectly with my color scheme too! When I get the money I will run three of these together. A very good point though, I should say!

 

[s3ns3]

not bad.if you want nvidia get 4GB 670/680 if you will use 1440p monitor.2x2gb card will not make 4.if not take a look at amd but you mentioned video editing so stick with nvidia.psu-total overkill.that can handle 4 way sli + all the OC in the world.