Building a new computer for surround 3D gaming. Help needed.

[nedbear]

Hellaaauu.

Building my second rig, and I'm a bit unsure what to go for. As stated in thead-title, this computer build is primarily for surround 3D gaming. I have
2xBenQ 24" LED XL2420T atm, and will buy another one along with the computer parts.

So this is what've come up with till now:

CPU
- i7 3820

CPU COOLER
- Noctua NH-D14 (2011 edition)

RAM
- 32GB of Corsair Vengeance LP-edition due to the cooler.

MOTHERBOARD
- Asus Sabertooth X79

GFX-CARD
- GTX 690

CASE
- Corsair Obsidian 550D

STORAGE
- Intel 520 120GB SSD
- Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB

Taking the PSU from my previous case which is a Corsair AX1200W, and degrading from 800D to 550D hense the size of the 800D is inpractical....and it was watercooled.....which was more weight to that beast.....uhm...yes.

Will this suffice for surround 3D gaming?

Would this motherboard efficiently run and be able to take use of two 690s?(If yes, I might buy another one in a not so distant future)

Should I pick up a different CPU with 3D surround gaming? I read somewhere that there's no games that would take use of more than 4 cores. Would 6 cores make any difference taking the fact that there would be a game running on two additional screens...in 3D?

Any other MIDI-tower cases you would suggest? I'm looking for a case with a good amount of dust filters. Planning on having more intake than outtake for positive pressure, as I'm not very fond of dust gathering in the case. Looked around but haven't found anything.

Any constructive criticism or advice would be greatly appriciated.

Kind regards

 

[Dangman]

Note that with the socket 2011 platform, you want RAM rated at 1.35V or you risk damage and instability with that PC. So if you're gonna stick with that platform, make sure that RAM you're getting is 1.35V. So with that RAM change, that system should be sufficient for 3D gaming.

However, I would not recommend the socket 2011 platform to you since the cheaper socket 1155 platform should meet your needs as well. The i7 3820 performs virtually the same as the i7 2600K or i7 3770K. Due to the sheer GPU power you want, the i7 3770K and a solid Z77 (maybe the Z77 Sabertooth) motherboard should do the job fine.

The only real game that actually take advantage of multiple cores is BF3. However, the increase in performance would not justify the extra cost for the i7 3930K IMO. And no, AMD isn't an option since even with those six cores, AMD CPUs are still slower than an Intel quad core in BF3.

I recommend any of these cases:
$120 - Lian Li PC-9F ATX Case
$120 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$130 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$130 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-002OR Black Finish w/Orange Trim Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - Antec P280 ATX Case
$140 - Antec Performance One Series P183 V3 ATX Case
$140 - Corsair Obsidian Series 550D ATX Case
$144 - Silverstone RV03B-WA ATX case
$150 - Silverstone TJ04B-EW ATX Case
$160 - Corsair Graphite Series 600TM ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
$164 - Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$178 - Silverstone RV02B-EW ATX case
$162 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case
$220 - Silverstone FT02S-W ATX Case
$230 - Silverstone FT02B ATX Case
$270 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Full Tower ATX Case

 

[nedbear]

4xCrucial DDR3 SO-DIMM 1333MHz 8GB CL9?

Didn't find a lot of 1.35v sticks.

Only those crucial ones, actually.

Why's 1.5v RAM so bad?

Would that still be an issue with the Sabertooth Z77? Considering that there's only 4 sticks of RAM.

 

[E4g1e]

4xCrucial DDR3 SO-DIMM 1333MHz 8GB CL9?

Wrong RAM. SO-DIMMs are not compatible with most desktop motherboards since they have only 204 contact points versus 240 contact points on the desktop DIMMs.

 

[E4g1e]

4xCrucial DDR3 SO-DIMM 1333MHz 8GB CL9?

Didn't find a lot of 1.35v sticks.

Only those crucial ones, actually.

As I stated in my previous reply (before you edited the post that I quoted), SO-DIMMs are both physically and electrically incompatible with standard DIMM slots on desktop motherboards: The SO-DIMMs are much shorter in length than standard DIMMs, and the electrical contacts do not line up with those of the standard DIMM slots.

 

[Dangman]

Why's 1.5v RAM so bad?

Because that's too much RAM voltage for the socket 2011 CPUs.

Would that still be an issue with the Sabertooth Z77? Considering that there's only 4 sticks of RAM.

Nope, not an issue with the socket 1155 CPUs.

 

[E4g1e]

Because that's too much RAM voltage for the socket 2011 CPUs.

Except for the very expensive i7-3960X, which is the only one of the three LGA 2011 i7 CPUs that can withstand such higher voltage DIMMs.

 

[nedbear]

Well, the RAM isnt really my main interest.

I've decided to get 2x680 4GB versions instead of the 1x690, and another 680 later on.

For Tri-SLI, should I go SB-E or IB?

With IB/SB 3xGFXcards would run in x8/x4/x4, and with SB-E they'd run x16/x16/x8, so in theory SB-E would be better for Tri-sli, or?

Please take everything into consideration. The CPUs I have to pick from for example... I don't know too much about these things.

 

[K1tty]

I believe there are z68/z77 motherboards that will do better than that.

For instance the Maximus IV has 4 pcie 2.0 at (x16 or dual x8 or x8, x16, x16)
Evga z68 boards have what you'd require as well. Z68 FTW has 6 pcie 2.0 at (1x16 or 5x8, x1).

Unfortunately the z77 sabertooth (2 (x16/0 or x8/x8) pcie 3.0 and 1 @x4 pcie 2.0) would only be good for dual Sli. Although you would get pcie 3.0.

 

[Dangman]

For Tri-SLI, should I go SB-E or IB?

IB IMO for the better price to performance.

With IB/SB 3xGFXcards would run in x8/x4/x4, and with SB-E they'd run x16/x16/x8, so in theory SB-E would be better for Tri-sli, or?

In that specific example, technically yes in synthetic benchmarks. However as K1tty noted, there are Z77 mobos that have better PCI-E lane layouts than the example you listed. For example:
MSI Z77A-GD65: x16, x8, x4
GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H: x16, x8, x4

Unlike some of those Z68 mobos, all those PCI-E lanes are PCI-E 3.0. So a PCI-E 3.0 x4 still performs the same as a PCI-E 2.0 x8. However, you would really only notice a difference between x16/x8/x4 and x16/x16/x8 in synthetic benchmarks. In real world testing, probably not much of a difference. At least not one that would justify the extra cash for a socket 2011 setup.