LGA 2011 Build and Upgrade

[exaisle]

Hey guys, I'm new to the forums and I just wanted to drop in here and first off say hi to everyone. My dad and I were wanting to build ourselves semi-identical rigs and here's what we came up with.

Motherboard:

ASUS Rampage IV Extreme LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard

Processor:

Intel Core i7 3930k Sandy Bridge-E LGA 2011 Socket 3.2ghz Six Cores (running stock)

Cooled by a Thermaltake Contac 30 Heatsink + an Extra 120mm fan on the opposite side(temporarily?)

RAM:

Crucial Ballistix Tracer 1600mhz DDR3 Ram (2x8 GB) 16 GB total.

Graphics:

XFX Radeon HD 6970 2GB

XFX Radeon HD 6970 2GB

Power Supply:

Rosewill LIGHTNING 1300W 80 Plug Gold Certified Modular PS. SLI + Crossfire Ready

Sound:

Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium Fatality Professional

Case:

Thermaltake Armor+ (air cooled version carried over from X58 build)

Storage:

2TB 6gb/s WD Caviar Black

1TB 3gb/s Hitachi

120gb OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS Edition

Mouse:

Logitech g500

Pad:

Steelseries QcK+ Dota 2 + Valve Edition

Monitor:

Viewsonic 3D Ready 120hz (model # VX2268WM) 5m/s Response Time.

Max Res = 1680 x 1050

Keyboard:

Logitech G510

Headphones:

Logitech G15

Extras:

Ground Cold Cathode Light (under Case)

Two blue liquid cold cathode lights

Thermaltake fan hidden by drive bays.

Two green cold cathode LEDs (behind armor fins on case)

All lights are controlled by remote (pretty nifty if I do say so myself)

So I wanted to throw in a little something extra for my 21st birthday next month and came up with a few ideas. First, I threw around the idea of upgrading the RAM (which was carried over from the X58 system). We originally had 12 gb of the ballistix but added 4 more gigs due to the new quad channel memory interface on these motherboards. Having an enthusiast system I figured it would make sense to go with memory that runs at 1866 mhz or higher. It also kind of makes sense because the Rampage IV Extreme motherboards prevent the LED indicators on the RAM from working (Asus support apparently did these because people are too stupid to put in RAM correctly) on top of the fact that the RAM looks really weird without working LEDs and no fins on top. The only way to fix this problem without running into issues is for us to disassmble the rig and DHL the motherboards to Thailand to have Asus solder transistors on the motherboard. Second, I was looking at upgrading my VGA cooling on my 6970s in CrossfireX. When I looked into this a bit further I came to find that XFX won't let you upgrade your cooling without voiding your warranty which is something I'm not really willing to do. It's kind of annoying because in demanding games like BF3 and Skyrim with max settings I find myself more comfortable jacking up the fan speeds on the cards to cool them down (they get hotter than 85C sometimes which bugs me). The problem for me occurs when I turn the fan speed up which makes them run obnoxiously loud. The third idea I've been tossing around is to upgrade the CPU cooling from air (Thermaltake Contac 30)to an aftermarket liquid cooling system. Problem? I'm completly new to liquid cooling myself and don't see much in the way of aftermarket cooling guides for LGA 2011 boards. I could purchase a complete system from Corsair or Intel from Newegg which seems fairly basic but looks a lot more plain compared to the Contac (the solid black tubes aren't very appealing to the eye). I've looked into liquid cooling systems that I could customize to match the motherboard (red coolant and a blacklight sounds pretty awesome to me for this rig) but they don't look very noob-proof. Any ideas? What do you guys think?

BTW:

 

[Rastalovich]

Annoys me that people are funnelled down this game-rig building path and end up with 16g of memory.

The 32bit games can't see more than 4g.

Nothing short of.. I'm not really sure what.. will used 16g - even 12g. Most people I'd recommend getting 4x2g because I haven't seen any high speed 1g sticks - which would be great.

 

[exaisle]

Annoys me that people are funnelled down this game-rig building path and end up with 16g of memory.

The 32bit games can't see more than 4g.

Nothing short of.. I'm not really sure what.. will used 16g - even 12g. Most people I'd recommend getting 4x2g because I haven't seen any high speed 1g sticks - which would be great.

Who said that this PC was used JUST for gaming? I didn't. The point of building a rig on this level is that it is supposed to be completely overkill. Still haven't gotten a solid answer here.

 

[SparkleDJackson]

Sounds good on the ram you can get a 32gb ripjawsz 1866 kit from ocuk for reasonable money. I personally are getting 32gb of dominator gt as like you i have the mindset if you gonna do it you may aswell go nutz out. Id swap the xfi for a asus d2x or essence stx and instead of 2 6970s y not 1 7970

 

[alicarve]

Who said that this PC was used JUST for gaming? I didn't. The point of building a rig on this level is that it is supposed to be completely overkill. Still haven't gotten a solid answer here.

seeming a bit rude? at least he posted, we are friendly forum after all

can't fully work out whether you are running dual channel or quad channel ram as it says 2x8gb in your list but you say differently otherwise you are best of using quad channel for x79

if you are not going to overclock i don't really see any point it watercooling and i don't think you would find it that easy in the TT armor case. If you current cpu cooler is keeping at good temps why change it? but if you were to change it maybe go for a noctua nh-d14 or the corsair h100 but not totally sure if you could again fit that in your case. closed loop watercooling is just like fitting an air cooler except you have radiator where you must attach elsewhere.

gpu wise maybe get another case which is better for airflow or try and attach another fan so it blows directly over the gpus

 

[exaisle]

Sounds good on the ram you can get a 32gb ripjawsz 1866 kit from ocuk for reasonable money. I personally are getting 32gb of dominator gt as like you i have the mindset if you gonna do it you may aswell go nutz out. Id swap the xfi for a asus d2x or essence stx and instead of 2 6970s y not 1 7970

Thanks for the reply. I have trusted creative sound cards since the Soundblaster Live! 5.1 card I had in my case many years ago and I must say they have not let me down (at least in the sound card department). I've heard that asus xonar/the like are better for music but from a gaming standpoint I'm not entirely convinced there would be any improvements at all as they are both high fidelity cards. As far as the single 7970 configuration, it wouldn't be the smart route for me. I bought the first 6970 in December 2010 and just added the second this Christmas. I decided to do this because 1.) The 6970s *which I knew this before hand* will outperform a 7970 by quite a bit. This may not be true once drivers have a while to mature and the cards gain a significant increase from PCI-E 3.0 (which several testers I really respect noticed almost no difference from). Second reason I did it was because although money wasn't really an issue, I couldn't justify getting rid of a card that was a year old with something that wasn't too much better. (however: I'm HIGHLY impressed with the temps these 7970s run at)

seeming a bit rude? at least he posted, we are friendly forum after all

can't fully work out whether you are running dual channel or quad channel ram as it says 2x8gb in your list but you say differently otherwise you are best of using quad channel for x79

if you are not going to overclock i don't really see any point it watercooling and i don't think you would find it that easy in the TT armor case. If you current cpu cooler is keeping at good temps why change it? but if you were to change it maybe go for a noctua nh-d14 or the corsair h100 but not totally sure if you could again fit that in your case. closed loop watercooling is just like fitting an air cooler except you have radiator where you must attach elsewhere.

gpu wise maybe get another case which is better for airflow or try and attach another fan so it blows directly over the gpus

Thanks for your reply and sorry for way my post sounded haha. I kind of typed it in a bit of a hurry and didn't mean to come off like that. What I meant by the post is that the system of obviously extremely high-end and the point of the build was to go above and beyond normal consumer junk (let's face it most people buy junk). Considering the fact that I spent roughly a grand on the motherboard and cpu alone it's not too much of a stretch of the imagination that I'd go for as much RAM as I could cram in there is it?

It's not about bragging rights to me either so much as it is about future-proofing the machine. When I build I like to go above and beyond to avoid being bogged down a year or less later on by new applications, etc. Anyone here should know that in terms of gaming alone, any quad core processor is overkill. 2/4 cores, if that, will get used and anyone with an intel cpu won't see the hyperthreading their machine is capable of used. The day when it's used will come, however, and I'll be ready =]. As far as advice on cooling goes, I agree with you 100%. I'll look into liquid cooling perhaps in the future. I do want to point out that although the Contac 30 is running at good temps, I'm extremely disappointed in how cheesy this thing looks. Not only does it looks intrusive and ugly, it physically feels like it's made from low-quality materials and I would highly suggest that none of you buy one. Not much is being offered from companies like Zalman (which has never let me down) though

.

I think for my birthday I might just as well purchase a handgun (something like a .40 Smith and Wesson M&P .40) and have some fun at the range with my family. Doesn't sound like too bad of an idea to me.

 

[Roguerage]

Hi Exaisle,

You might want to check out my system at overclockers.com. It is very similar to your setup. I went the SLI route. I would definitely recommend a high air flow case as Alicarve has suggested. Full tower if space is not an issue since you want to have room to grow, as well as to add liquid cooling if you decide to in the future.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=691556

There are pics of my system as well as a detailed Excel sheet (on page 2 of the posts) that shows an itemized listing of actual costs for all the latest and greatest. It also list the vendors for each component so you know where it can be bought. Also included and often overlooked smaller items that adds to your cost. This is an 8k water cooled system at the time of purchase. Water cooled because it is easier to OC without the worry of overheating your components. Plus it looks great!

Nothing wrong with going 16GB RAM or more. G.skill /Corsair for RAM is the way to go in my opinion. If you can afford it, go for 1866 or 2133 MHz QUAD channel kits at least. You already got a great PSU and soundcard. I am not familiar with the viewsonic monitor but if it is an IPS Panel you are heading in the right direction in my opinion. It sounds like it is based on the response time. The new PCI3 ready cards will be out soon but then again there will always be something better coming out.

If you decide not to go with a full water cooling system. Try water cooling the CPU with something like the H70/H100 water cooling kits or a good CPU fan like Alicarve suggested. Most stock CPU fans will not cut it in my opinion.

To give you an idea of temps. In my system the fans on the rads are used for silent running so rpm of fans are low. The rads fins per inch count is less than most and it helps for silent running. After running memtest86+ and Prime95 for 24hours my temp highs was in the 60-65 degree range according to Real Temp. CPU was at 100% and RAM at 99.8% when running Prime95. I would suggest using these tools to stress test your system and to ensure you do not have bad memory, CPU or Mobo.... you never know ;p

memtest86+, prime95 and real temp are all free online and very easy to use. In my case, Windows 64bit downloadable versions.

Run memtest86+ first for a few passes. With 16GB this might take you 4-6hours for 2 passes. It is recommended to have at least 10 passes. Especially if you will be running OC speeds 24/7. After you pass memtest86, then run prime95. It is recommended for at least 24hours.

Normal temps range for my system is 25-26. With Max gaming settings.. temps range 28-31.

But your system will be off-the-hook once completed.

==========================================

Intel core i7 3960x @4.7GHz

Rampage IV Extreme x79

EVGA GeForce GTX 580 Classified Hydro Copper (x3)

OCZ 120 GB Vertex 3 SATA III 6.0 Gb-s

WD VelociRaptor 600 GB SATA III 10,000 RPM (x2) in Raid1

Enermax MaxRevo EVO EMR1350EWT

Asus Xonar Xense Premium Gaming Audio Set

G.Skill Ripjaws @ 2133Mhz 32GB RAM

Lamptron FC-5 V2 Black Fan Speed Controller

 

[Roguerage]

Annoys me that people are funnelled down this game-rig building path and end up with 16g of memory.

LOL, I thought this came off rude. Eliminate this sentence and I think your heart would be in the right spot. Tone down the ego trip.

 

[Roguerage]

seeming a bit rude? at least he posted, we are friendly forum after all

I do not believe exaisle was wrong in his response. He is a newbie and honestly wanted an honest unbiased opinion and information in his build. Instead the first response he got was not a welcome but the first thing you read is "Annoys me that people are funnelled down this game-rig building path and end up with 16g of memory". Not a great response in my opinion. I agree with everything in your post except for the above comment.