Doomchoppa's 2013 PC Upgrade Cycle Help

[Doomchoppa]

Hello everyone. this is my first post here and I am new too! A friend of KickAssCop from Rage3D. Also, for those who didn't know who I am, I am known there as MNB4800. Don't ask me why I changed my nick. I just did.

With that said, I have had my current setup based on Phenom II and 5870 1GB for almost 3-4 years. Served me well. Now I think is a good time to upgrade. I build my PCs myself and consider myself to be a true PC Gamer! Though I felt this time, I will get assistance from PC gaming community for recommendations.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
I will be gaming. I consider myself a serious PC Gamer or more like Casually hardcore! I do the odd MS Office work, browesing, watch movies,...etc. Basically anything that a normal PC Gamer does.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Something between $4000 to $6000. All depends on what I would think be best for me really which is again based on the recommendations I get. I might have something in mind but someone might recommend something that I find cool and therefore I might change my preference to that.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

Err... Sultanate of Oman! I know that 99% of you won't know where it is. So to make it easier, I live next to Dubai! Actually 4-5 hours drive to it.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Lets see: 24/27 inch IPS 3D/120hz Monitor, SSD in Raid 0 with good reliability, HDD in Raid 0 or 1 depending on size, CPU, RAM, Mobo, BD Drive, Gaming Headset, GPU or 2, Sound Card if there is performance benefit (this might be redundant if I am not mistaken, depending on the headset I guess.), Case with good room for SLI and long GPUs, PSU, Aftermarket air cooling for GPU and Closed loop liquid cooling for CPU and has to be silent as well as powerful enough to allow overclocking headroom, Silent Case fans, Wireless NIC that doesn't drop packets! (if such a thing exists) and gaming KB + Mouse + Mouse Mat. Basically it is almost everything but in a bit more detail.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Nothing.
6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes, but nothing above average. I expect good overclocking headroom via air cooling, though I do not plan to push very high. I live in a hot country and lots of dust (ambient in room is about 25-28C depending on time of year).
7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
I somehow prefer 8:5 (16:10) aspect ratio but since everything is going 16:9 I might opt for that. Just keep in mind I will be moving from a 24" IPS 1900x1200 resolution monitor. So I don't want to end up feeling that I have lost real estate. I also consider the 24" to be a good size unless I can be recommended to go higher.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Sometime within 2013. Basically I guess this question is aimed to so that I time it in such away to get the best upgrade. Though keep in mind, I feel that PC Gaming is in a transition area as we get closer and closer to new console cycle release, therefore ending up needing to upgrade a bit 1-2 years down the road. Also please consider new tech like glassless 3D monitors (I hear that Toshiba have one on TVs already).
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
I need: RAID, Crossfire/SLI (Am I cornered to only one of these?), USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s. Those are tech I know I would need. Less important but nice to have are: Firewire and eSATA. Please mention anything new that came out or around the corner since I might consider it.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Even though I prefer Windows 7, it seems due to direct X 11.1, I will be forced to move to Windows 8. Regardless, I want 64 bit. Add that to the price depending on your recommendation. So answer to the question is No.


I hope I covered enough ground to get good recommendations. If more info is needed, let me know and I will add it.

UPDATE:

I went back recently and did some homework:

Case: Corsair Obsidian Series Black 800D
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Extreme LGA 2011 Intel X79
CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K Hexa-Core Processor 3.2 Ghz 12 MB Cache LGA 2011
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 2133 MHz (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory
GPU: EVGA EVGA GeForce GTX TITAN SuperClocked Signature 6GB GDDR5
PSU: Corsair Professional Series HX 1050 Watt ATX/EPS Modular 80 PLUS Gold
Soundcard: Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D THX PCIE
OS Drive: 2x Raid 0 Samsung Electronics 840 Pro Series
Storage Drive: 2x Raid 0 Western Digital Caviar Black 2 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache
Optical: ASUS BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS 12X Blu-ray Internal Burner Drive
CPU Cooling: Corsair Hydro Series Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler H100i
GPU Cooling: ?
Case Fans: 2x Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition Twin Pack Fan
Mouse: ROCCAT Kone Pure Core Performance Gaming Mouse
Keyboard: Logitech G710+ Mechanical Gaming Keyboard with Tactile High-Speed Keys - Black
Controller: Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Controller for Windows
Mouse Mat: SteelSeries QcK Gaming Mouse Pad
Headset: Logitech Wireless Gaming Headset G930 with 7.1 Surround Sound
Monitor: 24" or 27" IPS 120hz. I have no idea what to get yet but I have placed a budget of ~$1000 for a single screen. Please make sure it doesn't suffer ghosting and response time.

This configuration will add up to about ~$5200 (Amazon price, excluding shipping).

I do know that this is far from optimal and I hope that this is where you guys can come in. With the recent PS4 announcement and the new Xbox announcement soon. I hope to end up with a system that can run any port from these at staggering ease and that the build will carry me for another 3-4 years with minimal upgrades. Similar to how I did it in the previous generation.

 

[K1tty]

Your build will largely depend on whether you go with a 3D surround setup or not. What were you leaning towards? Three 24" 1900x1200 monitors?

Also, where do you usually get parts there in Oman? Looking briefly online I found this place: http://www.asbis-saudi.com/ but the prices seem pretty darn high.

 

[Doomchoppa]

Your build will largely depend on whether you go with a 3D surround setup or not. What were you leaning towards? Three 24" 1900x1200 monitors?

Also, where do you usually get parts there in Oman? Looking briefly online I found this place: http://www.asbis-saudi.com/ but the prices seem pretty darn high.

Frankly, it depends on price regarding the monitors. If getting three screens means I have to spend a lot of money on them, then I will settle with a single screen. Frankly, IPS 120hz 3D monitors are not that many. Since I put the budget to be between $2000 and $6000 then recommendations will have some room there.

As for where I can get prices, I might have them from Dubai, Amazon, friend who is in USA,...etc. Basically, I will worry about that. Just quote prices that are available on Amazon/newegg/whatever is a common place people get their hardware from.

 

[K1tty]

With a $6000 budget you can go all out. So it's a matter of deciding what price/performance ratio you want to achieve.

This is a basic rundown-

i7 3770K - $330
ASUS P8Z77-V PRO - $199 (has built in wifi)
2 x MSI N680GTX Twin Frozr 4G - $1060
CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX850 - $170
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) - $78
LG Black 14X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X - $70
2 x SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 2.5" 256GB - $500
2 x Western Digital WD VelociRaptor WD1000DHTZ 1TB 10000 RPM - $440

Total about $2847

This leaves you plenty for your preferred case, keyboard, mouse, headset, CPU cooler, speakers, and monitors etc. Of course you won't need this much horsepower if you use just one monitor, you can go with a single 670 or 680 GTX instead.

Quiet Cases: The Corsair Obsidian Series 550D is a good, quiet case. Fractal Design also makes some good quieter cases. You will want to swap out stock fans for lower rpm fans or something like Scythe Gentle Typhoons if you really want silent.

CPU Cooler - Typically recommend the CM 212. The Corsair AIO water coolers work very well and you can swap out the stock fans for silent fans.

Headset - I've never found one I liked. I use Audio Technica ATH-900 headphones with a Zalman mic that clips onto the headphone cord.

Sound Card - Unless you are aiming for audiophile quality or need the extra functionality of I/O, you can skip it.

 

[Doomchoppa]

Nice start for recommendations. I noticed you skipped on GPU cooler, indicating that the one coming with the MSI GPU is good and quite.

Also, whatever monitor you recommend is very important since it can tip the balance of the everything mentioned above. So would like to hear what you got in mind in that department.

Please keep the recommendations coming.

 

[Dangman]

I can't make recommendations until I know that you're planning on buying the parts within a month. As it stands now, your answer to question 8 is just too open-ended. Especially considering that Intel is planning on releasing their new CPUs between March and June. So in other words, the CPU and mobo recommendation that K1tty may not be good choice for the money after March to June 2013.

 

[Doomchoppa]

I can't make recommendations until I know that you're planning on buying the parts within a month. As it stands now, your answer to question 8 is just too open-ended. Especially considering that Intel is planning on releasing their new CPUs between March and June. So in other words, the CPU and mobo recommendation that K1tty may not be good choice for the money after March to June 2013.

I see where you are coming from. In that case, just make the recommendation on what is currently known technology and prices. Atleast the items that aren't expected to be replaced soon can be mentioned like the monitors for an example or even the humble PSU.

 

[Doomchoppa]

Been a while since I updated. Please refer to OP for my draft build.

 

[Dangman]

As I said last time: I can't make recommendations until I know that you're planning on buying the parts within a month. As it stands now, your answer to question 8 is just too open-ended. Especially considering that Intel is planning on releasing their new CPUs sometime in June/July. Then there's the issue of availability of some of those parts when you actually buy.

In other words, why should i make recommendations for parts (that would be good for the next 30 days) that I don't know for sure will be good buys at the time you're planning on buying the PC which could be several months from now? Please come back when you're 2-3 weeks away from your confirmed purchase period for up-to-date build advice.

EDIT:I will say this: That's a pretty beastly system.