Building a gaming computer, also questions.

[RiotNOR]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming as well as Photoshop/Lightroom
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
22 000 NOK / 3 500 USD
3) Where do you live?
Norway
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
No limit
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
None
6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
55"
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
In a week or so
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Crossfire, perhaps RAID, firewire
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
64bit


The build I have assembled at an e-retailer is:
Corsair Obsidian 800D
Corsair 1000HX
OCZ Platinum Triple Channel 6 GB ( 3 x 2 GB ) - DIMM 240-pin - DDR3 - 1600 MHz / PC3-12800 - CL7 - 1.65 V (x2 for 12Gb)
eVGA X58 Classified 4-Way SLI E-ATX
Intel X25-M 80GB SSD 250/70
Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler
XFX Radeon HD 5970 Black Edition
***Should I perhaps drop the 5970 and 6GB of ram for two GTX 480? What about tri-sli (would have to dremel out another slot for the Obsidian since it's x7, so link to another case would be nice)? May be looking for a 30" at some point later***
**Would like to be recommended a soundcard that's decent and with optical output/spdif**
*As well as a decent 7200RPM HDD 1 or 2tb for a total 4TB*

This is what I'm looking at. I will be playing a lot of Crysis, as well as editing photographs, video and partial 3D. Thing is, I have no idea how to even remotely build one, so I won't be the one doing it. I'll just order the parts and get my cousin to do it. Questions is, what more do I need (yes, I have no patience, hah)? Do all the cables and whatnot come with the various computer parts?

Is the Arctic silver 5 XL a good paste? Would I need more than one, and what more would I need besides that assembly up top?

Came here for advice due to lurking for quite some time (a year or so?) and this forum seems to be the most sufficient when it comes to anything computer-related. Also; rich bastards, haha.

 

[lt_shiro]

***Should I perhaps drop the 5970 and 6GB of ram for two GTX 480? What about tri-sli (would have to dremel out another slot for the Obsidian since it's x7, so link to another case would be nice)? May be looking for a 30" at some point later***

Can't suggest these do too poor value for performance

**Would like to be recommended a soundcard that's decent and with optical output/spdif**

onboard sound are lot better than before try it first before buying a sound card.

*As well as a decent 7200RPM HDD 1 or 2tb for a total 4TB*

WD 1TB Blacks or 2TB Green

 

[RiotNOR]

Well, SLI 480 beat the shit out of the 5970 when it comes to using high AA, even the 4GB 5970. If AA isn't the case, then the 5970 is nearly, or just as, good as SLI 480.

Onboard sound? I remember my old Asus mobo for my LGA775 had "HD 7.1 sound", yet it made horrible crackling sounds on my old Logitech Z4. Now I'll be hooking it up to a Onkyo TX-SR876 for Tru-HD sound. Will this work well or should I not opt for an Asus SC?

Thanks for your input!

 

[E4g1e]

Well, SLI 480 beat the shit out of the 5970 when it comes to using high AA, even the 4GB 5970. If AA isn't the case, then the 5970 is nearly, or just as, good as SLI 480.

You have to remember that not all games take full advantage of more than one GPU. In fact, the majority of games currently on the market use only one single GPU. Thus, neither the HD 5970 nor dual GTX 480s are any better than a single HD 5870 or a single GTX 480, respectively, for such games even with high AA and/or AF. What's more, most photo- and video-editing software, even the pricey prosumer ones, cannot use the second GPU at all. As such, both dual-GPU setups deliver piss-poor value (bang for the buck) -- they cost far more money than such performance justifies.

So, you are paying an astronomical amount of money on a dual-GPU setup in which one of the GPUs just sits idle most of the time.

Onboard sound? I remember my old Asus mobo for my LGA775 had "HD 7.1 sound", yet it made horrible crackling sounds on my old Logitech Z4. Now I'll be hooking it up to a Onkyo TX-SR876 for Tru-HD sound. Will this work well or should I not opt for an Asus SC?

This is because your old Logitech Z4 speakers were entirely analog, and as such had only analog audio inputs. And anything connected via analog may produce some crackling noise.

 

[Dangman]

In addition to what E4g1e and lt_shiro have said, that extra 6GB of RAM would help out significantly more with Photoshop and Lightroom usage. Going with the GTX 480 SLI pretty much neuters how effective your PC will be with Photoshop and Lightroom. So stick with the HD 5970 and 12GB of RAM at least. \

I recommend specifically this WD 1TB Black:
$110 - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Too bad your receiver doesn't have HDMI support as the HD 5xxx series cards do support bit-streamed audio via HDMI. As lt_shiro said, try the onboard audio FIRST. If it's not to your liking, then get a sound card. Not like it's very hard or time consuming to install a sound card.

A small bottle of MX2 or MX3 will be enough thermal paste.

 

[hossdaddy]

you should change to a crossfire board instead of the board "eVGA X58 Classified 4-Way SLI E-ATX" you listed since you are staying with ATI gpu.

 

[E4g1e]

you should change to a crossfire board instead of the board "eVGA X58 Classified 4-Way SLI E-ATX" you listed since you are staying with ATI gpu.

Actually, the X58 boards already support Crossfire (natively). It's just that with the eVGA Classified, you're paying extra for the NF200 bridge. And Intel is the only maker of motherboard chipsets for the i7.

 

[E4g1e]

In addition to what E4g1e and lt_shiro have said, that extra 6GB of RAM would help out significantly more with Photoshop and Lightroom usage. Going with the GTX 480 SLI pretty much neuters how effective your PC will be with Photoshop and Lightroom. So stick with the HD 5970 and 12GB of RAM at least.

Actually, even the HD 5970 would not be any better than the HD 5870 in the Adobe Creative Suite apps. This is because the HD 5970 is actually made up of two HD 5870 GPUs on a single card - and most photo/video editing apps, including Adobe, cannot use the second GPU at all. Thus, only half of the HD 5970 would have been used, and the other half would have just sit idle, under these conditions.

 

[Dangman]

Actually, even the HD 5970 would not be any better than the HD 5870 in the Adobe Creative Suite apps. This is because the HD 5970 is actually made up of two HD 5870 GPUs on a single card - and most photo/video editing apps, including Adobe, cannot use the second GPU at all. Thus, only half of the HD 5970 would have been used, and the other half would have just sit idle, under these conditions.

Well I meant the HD 5970 would be useful in games. There are games that do scale relatively well with Crossfire. In addition, the lower costs by going with the HD 5970 over the GTX 480 would allow for 12GB of RAM. That was the point I was making: The HD 5970 is still good enough for high-end gaming and the 12GB of RAM is very useful for Adobe apps.

 

[E4g1e]

Well I meant the HD 5970 would be useful in games. There are games that do scale relatively well with Crossfire. In addition, the lower costs by going with the HD 5970 over the GTX 480 would allow for 12GB of RAM. That was the point I was making: The HD 5970 is still good enough for high-end gaming and the 12GB of RAM is very useful for Adobe apps.

Fair enough.