Help with new rig.

[DCDS]

Hi guys firstly im new to HF so Hello everyone!

now the etiquette is over I need some help deciding a few things with a new rig im planning to put together end of January.

my current rig setup is :

haf 932 case all fan holes replaced with sharkon 2000SE including the drive bays and bottom intakes.

all case fans are intake except rear.

AMD Phenom II x6 1090T overclocked to 4.0GHz and six cores are manually unlocked

cpu watercooled with corsair h100i fans where replaced with push pull sharkon 2000SE

16gb corsair xms 3 I think not 100% cant remember dual channel ddr 1333mhz not Oc'd

corsair formula IV socket am3 890FX

2 x Asus direct cu II HD 6970's ulps deactivated and both overclocked safely at cpu clock : 960MHz HPM Clock at 1450 MHz and a slight increase in power sent to the card.

and finally a cooler master GX 850.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Pc gaming – Web Development – SQL Development – Adobe master Collection – Graphic Design – advanced Algorithm procedure.


2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Roughly end of day budget £2500 UK GBP


3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

Scotland UK


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.

colermaster cosmos 2 UT case I will be replacing all fans and filling all vents with Corsair SP120 with red the main reason im going for these fans is to keep a visual style inside black and red.

AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 9590 with a custom water cooler that im currently working in which is 240 mill thick grill with sp120 doing a push pull which will be top positioned on the case as intake. planning to overclock this to around 5.2ghz

SuperFlower Leadex Platinum 1200W psu

Asus Crosshair V Formula Z AMD 990FX am3 mobo

Corsair Dominator GT 16GB 4 sticks at 2133mhz I may mess around with req's but not important for this.

and 2x Asus Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II will be overclocking these but don't know what to yet.

ill also be adding a 200gig ssd just to hold the os so my current hard drive will just be software and media.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
My current Sata drive

And possibly my 2 x direct cu2 hd6970s


6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes cpu - ram – gpu and a few other bios & softside tweaks & hardware tweaks.


7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
2560 * 1600


8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
End of january


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.
RAID, crossfire and 6gbs sata


10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
64 bit win 7 moving to win 8 possibly don’t currently own win 8.



so my first question is the case is the cosmos really better than a haf x when all air vents are filled as I think the haf x may have more options but im undecided wether to go tihe the cosmos 2 or the haf x but I do need a lot of internal space as im planning to add a third card and modify the water colling system to incorporate the mobo , gpus and ram.

my second questions is about the graphics cards. id like to hold off spending £1000 on getting the two cards for now and perhaps keep my 6970's just until they come down in price a little. so does anyone have a similar system to the one im buying but with similar cards to the 6970's and how does it run will there be a significant increase in performance when gaming?

also im being forced to migrate to windows 8 for testing reasons with my work whats peoples experiences with win 8 when gamming is it worth it or should I double boot?

and that's it im open to any other input anyone might have regarding the new rig Thanks!

 

[Deleted member 88227]

Asking for Build Help?: ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FIRST

 

[DCDS]

I think I have answered all of the relevant questions?

 

[BullseyeBob]

You'll get more assistance and input posting in the format that Skillz linked you to.

 

[DCDS]

Ive added in the format recomended

 

[Krazy925]

I own the cooler master cosmos 2 and can honestly say while it's huge and impressive in size, I am overall not in love with it.
Tl;dr if the corsair 900d is close in price id buy that.

 

[DCDS]

I own the cooler master cosmos 2 and can honestly say while it's huge and impressive in size, I am overall not in love with it.
Tl;dr if the corsair 900d is close in price id buy that.

I think I prefer the cosmos having a window instead of a directly blow from fans over my gcards would just annoy me they barely get any air as it is and the first card runs around 15oC higher than the bottom card because its fans face the back of it directly so I think for that reason the cosmos would be a keeper.

but it is nice case, if there was an option where the side panel had no window and had roughly 14 fans on the side id go for it

 

[Dangman]

First question: Why AMD? From the look of things, you won't notice that much of a difference between your current 1090T and the FX 9590 unless you have a 100% surefire way of getting that FX 9590 to 5.2Ghz to justify the massive costs of upgrading. For your needs, you're better off going with the Intel X79 platform with the COre i7 3930K or 4930K (whichever is cheaper) or the COre i7 4770K and the Intel Z87 platform. Either of those platforms would be far faster than your planned AMD setup.

As for RAM, going for 4 stick of RAM that total up to 16GB is a pretty bad idea since that limits you to 16GB of RAM max. I would aim for two stick of 8GB for optimal RAM upgrades. Especially if you go with the X79 platform which will allow you to upgrade to 64GB of RAM later on without having to replace any RAM.

Also, don't bother Dominator RAM. 99% of the time, they're never worth it unless e-peen is a huge thing for you. The Corsair Vengeance RAM are better choices for the money and will get you similar performance. If do you go with Intel, you only need DDR3 1600 RAM. Current Intel setups don't show that much of a noticeable performance with RAM speeds higher than DDR3 1600 in real world apps and games.

Holding off on the motherboard until I see whether you're going the Intel route or the AMD route.

As for your questions:
1) I'm not a huge fan of the HAF X in general (the quality doesn't match the pricing) but it's a far better choice than then Cosmos 2. THe Cosmost 2 does cool better but only by 3-4 degress C on average. So not really worth all that extra costs unless the other features of the Cosmos 2 really appeal to you.

Personally, if I'm about to spend $300 USD on a case, I'd go with a higher quality/better looking case like the Corsair 900D, the Silverstone FT02, Corsair 800D, etc.

As for the cooling issue you brought up, according to this Bit-tech.net article, in a case where there's a lot of fan, it appears that you might be better off without those side fans:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/02/10/the-big-cooling-investigation/1

2) There will be a massive increase in gaming performance. Just from one HD 6970 to one R9 290X, you're looking at a 55% to 60% perfomrance alone. Then factor in the fact that the R9 290X will have far far better Crossfire performance due to newer technology and more up-to-date drivers and you're looking at a pretty sweet performance increase over your current setup.

3) For BF4, Windows 8 is pretty the OS to use for it. But from what I've heard, Windows 8 is generally solid all around for gaming.

 

[DCDS]

First question: Why AMD? From the look of things, you won't notice that much of a difference between your current 1090T and the FX 9590 unless you have a 100% surefire way of getting that FX 9590 to 5.2Ghz to justify the massive costs of upgrading. For your needs, you're better off going with the Intel X79 platform with the COre i7 3930K or 4930K (whichever is cheaper) or the COre i7 4770K and the Intel Z87 platform. Either of those platforms would be far faster than your planned AMD setup.

my mobo is damaged and giving me headaches hence the reason for the upgrade. im sure there will be a difference the extra 2 cores and the extra 1GHz un overclocked would be a decent increase and im more than confident that I can safely overclock to 5.2GHz id overclock more but anything above 5.6 doesn't do anything. anyway the cpu and mobo are just basicly modern versions of what I currently have.

anyway main reason I don't use intel is I genrealy work with around 40 to 60 windows open at a time on my desktop a lot of high intensity programs and I have had intel before and it just doesn't compare to an amd when your multitasking with open applications like that so I have to go with my work over my gaming when it comes to CPU choices hence the amd build.

As for RAM, going for 4 stick of RAM that total up to 16GB is a pretty bad idea since that limits you to 16GB of RAM max. I would aim for two stick of 8GB for optimal RAM upgrades. Especially if you go with the X79 platform which will allow you to upgrade to 64GB of RAM later on without having to replace any RAM.

again the ram I don't need as much as 64 GB not in the foreseeable anyways and the fast ram is again more work related I can have a lot of code running at any time many languages to void going in to much detail about my work its the main reason im going for such this kind of spec in most cases its not worth it true but in my case I will see a benefit from them.

1) I'm not a huge fan of the HAF X in general (the quality doesn't match the pricing) but it's a far better choice than then Cosmos 2. THe Cosmost 2 does cool better but only by 3-4 degress C on average. So not really worth all that extra costs unless the other features of the Cosmos 2 really appeal to you.

Personally, if I'm about to spend $300 USD on a case, I'd go with a higher quality/better looking case like the Corsair 900D, the Silverstone FT02, Corsair 800D, etc.

As for the cooling issue you brought up, according to this Bit-tech.net article, in a case where there's a lot of fan, it appears that you might be better off without those side fans:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/02/10/the-big-cooling-investigation/1

if I was going full WC straight off the bat id go for the900D im going to have to look into the case dimensions though more im really undecided about the case there just doesn't seem to be an array of decent large tower cases out there any more.

any more input on other cases would be great!

2) There will be a massive increase in gaming performance. Just from one HD 6970 to one R9 290X, you're looking at a 55% to 60% perfomrance alone. Then factor in the fact that the R9 290X will have far far better Crossfire performance due to newer technology and more up-to-date drivers and you're looking at a pretty sweet performance increase over your current setup.

Sorry what I ment was if I didn't buy the 2 290x's straight away and kept my 6970's but upgraded everything else do you think the cpu power would help with games but ive recently came to the conclusion this was a silly question lol I think im proboly just going to grab the 290x's instead of waiting

Yeah I hope it is good I've been putting it off for a while because it means I have to reinstall all software even if I upgraded but I think the time has come to move to windows 8. ill write something to try and keep metro as a second to the desktop as opposed to the dektop being second to metro

 

[Dangman]

my mobo is damaged and giving me headaches hence the reason for the upgrade. im sure there will be a difference the extra 2 cores and the extra 1GHz un overclocked would be a decent increase and im more than confident that I can safely overclock to 5.2GHz id overclock more but anything above 5.6 doesn't do anything. anyway the cpu and mobo are just basicly modern versions of what I currently have.

Yeah but it's just so....overpriced for what you're getting. It's AMD. They're suppose to have good value, not be overpriced. And I say this as current owner of an AMD setup.

Also if you're serious about that tri-Crossfire plan, I don't think that AMD motherboard will have enough PCI-E lanes for you to get the most performance out of three 290X cards since that mobo only has PCI-E 2.0, not PCI-E 3.0 like many Intel setups have.

anyway main reason I don't use intel is I genrealy work with around 40 to 60 windows open at a time on my desktop a lot of high intensity programs and I have had intel before and it just doesn't compare to an amd when your multitasking with open applications like that so I have to go with my work over my gaming when it comes to CPU choices hence the amd build.

When was the last time you used an Intel setup? What were the specs? I ask because I do not believe you would be saying that if you had tried a more modern Intel seutp within the last three years.

again the ram I don't need as much as 64 GB not in the foreseeable anyways and the fast ram is again more work related I can have a lot of code running at any time many languages to void going in to much detail about my work its the main reason im going for such this kind of spec in most cases its not worth it true but in my case I will see a benefit from them.

Okey dokey. Still sounds like a placebo effect and a waste of money to me but whatever.

if I was going full WC straight off the bat id go for the900D im going to have to look into the case dimensions though more im really undecided about the case there just doesn't seem to be an array of decent large tower cases out there any more.

any more input on other cases would be great!

Corsair Carbide Air 540, NZXT Phantom, NZXT Phantom 630, NZXT Phantom 830, and NZXT Switch 810 cases are other cases to check out. Oh, the Corsair 600T is a solid option as well since you can swap out the window for a bank of four fans.

Sorry what I ment was if I didn't buy the 2 290x's straight away and kept my 6970's but upgraded everything else do you think the cpu power would help with games but ive recently came to the conclusion this was a silly question lol I think im proboly just going to grab the 290x's instead of waiting

I would recommend waiting since the pricing of the 290X cards are just out of whack. As for the CPU power in games, the only 100% confirmed case where you would see a performance increase would be BF4 and only if you used Windows 8.

Yeah I hope it is good I've been putting it off for a while because it means I have to reinstall all software even if I upgraded but I think the time has come to move to windows 8. ill write something to try and keep metro as a second to the desktop as opposed to the dektop being second to metro

WIndows 8.1 allows you to boot straight into the desktop. Not to mention there are quite a few programs widely available that changes Metro into to a normal desktop interface.

 

[DCDS]

When was the last time you used an Intel setup? What were the specs? I ask because I do not believe you would be saying that if you had tried a more modern Intel seutp within the last three years.

I have a dell XPS with i7 in the other living room. don't get me wrong an Intel will outperform AMD in every other instance but when it comes to multitasking AMD wins, Intel would hammer it in single processes though trust me im not making it up lol.

Also if you're serious about that tri-Crossfire plan, I don't think that AMD motherboard will have enough PCI-E lanes for you to get the most performance out of three 290X cards since that mobo only has PCI-E 2.0, not PCI-E 3.0 like many Intel setups have.

3.0 has next to know performance increases when it comes to gaming specialy on high settings in most cases is like a 3% increase and rarely more than 10% not worth concerning about.

Corsair Carbide Air 540, NZXT Phantom, NZXT Phantom 630, NZXT Phantom 830, and NZXT Switch 810 cases are other cases to check out. Oh, the Corsair 600T is a solid option as well since you can swap out the window for a bank of four fans.

don't like NZXT bad experience with previous NZXT case lol carbide and 600t are to small. I had to hack saw the back of my haf 932 to support my current setup lol

Okey dokey. Still sounds like a placebo effect and a waste of money to me but whatever.

and 64gb isn't lol

I would recommend waiting since the pricing of the 290X cards are just out of whack. As for the CPU power in games, the only 100% confirmed case where you would see a performance increase would be BF4 and only if you used Windows 8.

yeah I know mental prices I bought my DCU2 6970's on release only to get slapped in the face like two months later with the price drop lol ill see what the prices are like on the day if they haven't budged ill just hold off a little

 

[Dangman]

I have a dell XPS with i7 in the other living room. don't get me wrong an Intel will outperform AMD in every other instance but when it comes to multitasking AMD wins, Intel would hammer it in single processes though trust me im not making it up lol.

Still sounds fishy as hell to me but whatever.

3.0 has next to know performance increases when it comes to gaming specialy on high settings in most cases is like a 3% increase and rarely more than 10% not worth concerning about.

Considering that you're planning on using relatively high-end video cards, I do believe that's a concern you should have. What about later on? What if drivers improve the 290X's performance? Not to mention that many of the reviews done with PCI-E 3.0 and PCI-E 2.0 were done with older/slower cards, not with the rather fast 290X.

don't like NZXT bad experience with previous NZXT case lol carbide and 600t are to small. I had to hack saw the back of my haf 932 to support my current setup lol

Too small for what? From this picture, the 600T can fit three cards just fine:
http://cwsmgmt.corsair.com/media/catalog/product/6/0/600t_openside_a50_1.png

and 64gb isn't lol

No, not for heavy duty photoshop use, SQL development, and other heavy design related applications. Though 32GB of RAM would be the nice even point between our two stances.

 

[DCDS]

Too small for what? From this picture, the 600T can fit three cards just fine:
http://cwsmgmt.corsair.com/media/catalog/product/6/0/600t_openside_a50_1.png

to close to psu and my two 6970's would never fit in there way to close to the psu and there is also not enough safe space for a 240 grill with push pull fans.......

Still sounds fishy as hell to me but whatever.

call it what you want its just a simple fact check it out instead of sticking to your guns

No, not for heavy duty photoshop use, SQL development, and other heavy design related applications. Though 32GB of RAM would be the nice even point between our two stances.

I work with photoshop, illustrator, dreamweaver, workbench, live cycle2, zune , office applications, time tracking,ophera, IE, Chrome Firefox + many plugins, safarai, thuinderbird, steam at the very least with probably about 10 instances of each except steam and zune for 12 hours pluss a day and even more programs most of which are running 64bit versions 8gb would be enough for that 16gb is plenty 64gb would be pointless, perhaps if I was doing large animations or high end film work but im not its pointless and a brain dead idea there would be a shed load of cells never getting used.

Considering that you're planning on using relatively high-end video cards, I do believe that's a concern you should have. What about later on? What if drivers improve the 290X's performance? Not to mention that many of the reviews done with PCI-E 3.0 and PCI-E 2.0 were done with older/slower cards, not with the rather fast 290X.

if I really want pcie 3.0 ill crack open the bios and release the constraint's on the pcie slots and don't go saying that the pcie slots wont be able to do it because they can pcie 3.0 is a hardcoded equation and altering the pcie 2.0 equation to the pcie3.0 one will allow the the board to run with 3.0, this will work because the mobos im looking at use the latest HT versions. this ability is open to 990fx asus and asrock boards because the use the latest version AMD are just not realsing a bios update for it for boards at this time or any time probably because most of the boards they have on market use an older HT version and make pcie 3.0 buit still there is next to know advantage of using pcie3.0 the advantages are so minimul you wont get any additional graphics settings on there also the GPU's drivers will never effect the hardcoding of the 3.0 equation so there will never be any performance improvements from using 3.0 when you update your drivers for your gpu.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

Wow. So glad I went with my gut feeling and avoided this thread. I just forgot to unsubscribe from it.