Increasing the Budget... New Built to Push 3 x 27" ROG Swift Maxed Out

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kill8r

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 27, 2014
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After giving things much thought I am considering increasing my budget, waiting till April and buying 3 x ASUS ROG 27":

Display: 27-inch (16:9) wide screen
Resolution: 2560 × 1440 WQHD with 1ms response rate.
Brightness: 350cd/m²
Connectivity: DisplayPort, USB 3.0 ports (upstream x 1, downstream × 3), 3.5mm earphone jack
Ergonomic Tilt (+20° ~ -5°), swivel (+60° ~ -60°), pivot (90° clockwise), height adjustment (0 ~ 120mm)
VESA wall mountable (100 × 100mm)

These are the build specs I am considering:
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor

Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Extreme ATX LGA1150 Motherboard

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory

Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 512GB 2.5" Solid State Disk

Video Cards: 2 x EVGA GeForce GTX Titan Black Hydro Copper 6GB Video Card

Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case

Power Supply: Corsair 1200W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply


A few questions please:
1) Is 27" too big for an Nvidea surround setup?

2) Would 2 x Hydro Copper Titan Blacks handle everything on Ultra for the foreseeable future given the three screens at 2560 × 1440 and 120hz?

3)Would a water cooled 4770k be up to the task or should I up the CPU and if so which one?

4)Is there stand for the three 27" monitors you would recommend?

5) Is there a water cooling kit you recommend that can handle up to 4 GPUs (future proofing) and the CPU?

6) Which case would you find ideal for up to 4 way SLI (future proofing)?

Thanks for all the amazing advice!
 
Platinum PSUs are pointless and you have at least 25% more wattage than you need.
 
Everything I've read about 3x 27" monitor surround is that you can't see all of it in your peripherals. There is a fair amount of discussion on the display board about that. Any reason why surround? Why not a 4k monitor?
 
Krazy925 said:
Everything I've read about 3x 27" monitor surround is that you can't see all of it in your peripherals. There is a fair amount of discussion on the display board about that. Any reason why surround? Why not a 4k monitor?
Click to expand...

That was my concern. is there a 24" monitor with small bezels that his similar specs tot he ROG Swfit?

I have not yet seen a 4k monitor that really delivers on all fronts within a reasonable budget. Any recommendations?

Thanks
 
Skripka said:
Platinum PSUs are pointless and you have at least 25% more wattage than you need.
Click to expand...

I wanted to leave enough room for quad SLI down the line. If the Corsair 1000 gold will do the job then great.
 
Okay well I would look at lightboost 24" monitors. I would stick with 1200w psu if you want to quad sli titans.
Also why a 750d? Look you want to spend upwards of 2k on video cards why not throw them in a caselabs box?
 
4k monitor that had my attention at the moment Lenovo 2840m it's a 28" so it won't take up the whole desk!
 
Krazy925 said:
Okay well I would look at lightboost 24" monitors. I would stick with 1200w psu if you want to quad sli titans.
Also why a 750d? Look you want to spend upwards of 2k on video cards why not throw them in a caselabs box?
Click to expand...

I am learning so much form this forum. Is there a specific lightboost 24" monitor you recommend?

I had never heard of caselabs... They look great. What is the smallest form factor that can accommodate quad SLI and liquid cooling?

Thanks
 
From what I am seeing there are just a few motherboards that have support for 4 video cards.
You said you wanted to go z87 so with that you have a few that offer you pci 3.0 x8 4 ways.

This is the first one I found that looked good as most people have had good luck from what I've read with the x79 WS boards. This is the z87 equivalent I believe.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131998

If you go quad SLI I would recommend the x79 boards for the increased amount of native PCIe lanes.

This is an ATX sized board. I would go with one of the bigger caselabs cases. I can give you a better idea when I get back to my house. Also I am a fan of the 900D too.
 
Krazy925 said:
From what I am seeing there are just a few motherboards that have support for 4 video cards.
You said you wanted to go z87 so with that you have a few that offer you pci 3.0 x8 4 ways.

This is the first one I found that looked good as most people have had good luck from what I've read with the x79 WS boards. This is the z87 equivalent I believe.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131998

If you go quad SLI I would recommend the x79 boards for the increased amount of native PCIe lanes.

This is an ATX sized board. I would go with one of the bigger caselabs cases. I can give you a better idea when I get back to my house. Also I am a fan of the 900D too.
Click to expand...

Ok cool, thanks
 
What are you looking for in a case?

Are you showing it off to friends?
Are you putting it under a desk?
Will people see it?
Are you like me where you want your girlfriend to see the competition?

If area of size isn't a big deal whether height of depth changes a lot of things.

All that said I really like the Mercury S8

http://www.caselabs-store.com/mercury-s8/

To adequately watercool these cases you have to get the pedestal which really brings the price up. So in that case I think a 900D is a good value.
I bought the Cosmos 2, while I like it, its not very water cooling friendly, so I'm in a half upgrade mode because of it. I only mention this so you don't make the same mistake I did.
 
Krazy925 said:
What are you looking for in a case?

Are you showing it off to friends?
Are you putting it under a desk?
Will people see it?
Are you like me where you want your girlfriend to see the competition?

If area of size isn't a big deal whether height of depth changes a lot of things.

All that said I really like the Mercury S8

http://www.caselabs-store.com/mercury-s8/

To adequately watercool these cases you have to get the pedestal which really brings the price up. So in that case I think a 900D is a good value.
I bought the Cosmos 2, while I like it, its not very water cooling friendly, so I'm in a half upgrade mode because of it. I only mention this so you don't make the same mistake I did.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help! Depth isn't an issue but height is a bit. Unless there is a nice deep case that isn't too tall, I think I am going to go with the 900D (it is taller than I would like but seems like good value).

I have decided once and for all to take a 2 stage approach to my dream all water cooled Quad SLI build and could use some help finalising it. All going well I hope to order the parts in the next couple days.

Stage 1: purchasing all long term components and temporary graphics card/s pushing a single 27" ROG Swift

Stage 2: add next gen water cooled maxwell cards to push a big 4k screen or 3 x ROG Swifts in Nvidea Surround

Here is my revised stage 1 build so far:

CPU - 4960x Extreme
RAM - Corsair Vengeance Pro 2400 2x8gb
GPUs - R9 290x (possibly 2) - I want to play BF4, Titan Fall and Elder scrolls maxed out on a single ROG Swift
HD - Samsung Pro series ssd 512gb
PSU - EVGA Super Nova 1300w gold
Case - Corsair 900D
Cooling - unknown
Fans - unknown

May I ask what is considered the best motherboard available with good OC functionality? I was going to go with the Rampage Black Edition but I know there are other great ones out there like the MSI Big Bang and ASRock Extreme (quite a bit more expensive here in the UK).

May I also ask some advice on what is the best and quiet water cooling system that can also handle water cooling quad SLI down the line?

What are some really good and silent (or close to it) 120 fans? How many will I need?

Any other tweaks you suggest?

Thanks for all the amazing help!
 
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For water cooling a system like that you will need to go custom. Based on the type of system you are wanting to build I would wait for Haswell-E if you can. It will support DDR4 RAM, 8 core CPU, and will be much more suitable for quad SLI. You may want to look at Extended ATX boards. You can look at the post here
 
I think you have the right idea. As far as motherboards go at that end, any one you pick up cheap that is quadsli/crossfirex capable should be perfect. No need to discriminate especially with the case choice you chose.

Fans I really like my Gentle Typhoon AP-15s that I have. I would recommend getting them for normal intake/outtake fans until you get water cooling then you can just slap them onto radiators and save yourself some money! They're expensive but extremely well built.
 
silk186 said:
For water cooling a system like that you will need to go custom. Based on the type of system you are wanting to build I would wait for Haswell-E if you can. It will support DDR4 RAM, 8 core CPU, and will be much more suitable for quad SLI. You may want to look at Extended ATX boards. You can look at the post here
Click to expand...

The Haswell-e CPU looks impressive, but I note it uses a 2011-3 socket instead of 2011.I think I have answered my own question, but will the Haswell-e CPUs fit and be fully functional in a current Extended ATX boards like the Rampage Black Edition or MSI?

How big of an impact will the Haswell CPU have on quad SLI gaming compared to the the 4960x?


Thanks for all the help!
 
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kill8r said:
The Haswell-e CPU looks impressive, but I note it uses a 2011-3 socket instead of 2011.I think I have answered my own question, but will the Haswell-e CPUs fit and be fully functional in a current Extended ATX boards like the Rampage Black Edition or MSI?

How big of an impact will the Haswell CPU have on quad SLI gaming compared to the the 4960x?


Thanks for all the help!
Click to expand...

Biggest difference between haswell and sandy/ivy-e is the cores (6 vs 4) and PCI lanes. I'm not sure if the PCI lanes matters much now but it could with 4k gaming and all that. The motherboards last I read will have a different pin layout and will not be backwards compatible.
 
I have ordered most of my stage 1 parts except the GPU/s
I have ordered for Stage 1:
CPU - 4930k
RAM - Corsair Vengeance 2400 4x4gb
Motherboard - Asus Rampage Black Edition
GPUs -I want to play BF4, Titan Fall and Elder scrolls maxed out on a single ROG Swift
HD - Samsung Pro series ssd 512gb
PSU - EVGA Super Nova 1300w gold
Case - Corsair 900D

As my monitor will have Gsync (ROC Swift), I would like some advice on what value setup will allow me to max out setting on ultra at 1440p and hopefully close to 120fps. As a short term solution, I am happy to purchase either a single high end card (780ti or 290x) or two of the less expensive cards (290 or 770s). Also please note noise in an important factor for me, hence why I have the MSI cards listed below.

Here are the UK prices:

3GB:
MSI 780ti
£542

MSI 780
£390

4GB:
MSI r9 290x
£436

MSI r9 290
£357

Gigabyte 4GB OC 770
£310

As you can see 2 x 4GB 770s cost just a bit more than 780ti. Would they out perform a 780ti for this purpose? The bus is only 256 on the 770s though.

If the answer above is yes, would you choose the 2 770s over 2x r9 290s, when considering gsync and price?

Thanks for the helping me on this journey!
 
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I really like my gtx 780. However isn't gsync a proprietary nvidia technology? That should take that list down to half...
Personally I wouldn't start chomping on 780Tis because of the cost. Also waterblocks are ~$100-120 so maybe go with a MSI 780 and see where that leaves you. Are you water cooling now or phase? Do you have a monitor to use until you purchase the 27"er?
 
Krazy925 said:
I really like my gtx 780. However isn't gsync a proprietary nvidia technology? That should take that list down to half...
Personally I wouldn't start chomping on 780Tis because of the cost. Also waterblocks are ~$100-120 so maybe go with a MSI 780 and see where that leaves you. Are you water cooling now or phase? Do you have a monitor to use until you purchase the 27"er?
Click to expand...

Yes, AMD is out.

I am installing the water cooling now, but am flexible on going for just air cooled GPU/s for now.

I have found 2 x 780 EVGA Hydro coppers for £900, but that seems like a big cost for a temporary solution. If 3 Hydro coppers could push 3 ROG Swifts this would be an easy decision, but I doubt it can due to Vram limitations.

I think you might be right. Perhaps I go with a single MSI 780 and see how I get on.
 
Without the monitors being out its impossible to know. Remember that gtx 780s cannot be quad sli'd anyways! I'm not sure about TIs. I also like your realism about water cooling. Unless you can get the water block as a combo water cooling the video card for ~6-9 months doesn't make much economic sense. Do we have a quarter release time frame for maxwell yet?
 
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