New build, need advice

[Toothless Spoon]

Hey, thanks in advance for any opinions thrown my way about my new propsed gaming rig.

Umart prices -
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Pro 64bit OEM – $135
Headset: Razer Megalodon 7.1 Gaming Headset – $179.00
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium PCIe – $99.00
PSU: CoolerMaster 1200W Silent Pro Gold Modular – $290.00
Keyboard: Razer Blackwidow Ultimate Elite Mechanical Gaming Keyboard – $149.00
Optical: Pioneer BDR-206BK 12X Blu-Ray Writer Drive SATA Black OEM – $122.00
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K Processor LGA1155 3.4GHz CPU – $325.00
Case: Thermaltake VN1001W2N Level 10 GT Full Tower Case – $298.00
HDD 1: OCZ 120G Vertex III Series SSD – $268.00
HDD 1: Seagate XT 3TB 7200rpm 6GB/s 64M SATA3 – $244.00
Memory: G SKill 8G(2x4G)DDR3 2133Mhz PC3-17000(F3-17000CL9D-8GBXLD) -$177.00
M/Board: Asus MAXIMUS IV EXTREME1155 Z68 – $462.00
CPU Cooller: Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H80 – $148.00
Monitor: Samsung S27A950 27inch 3D LED 2ms – $540.00

PCCASEGEAR prices –
video card: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 580 3GB AMP2! Edition (x 2) – $1218.00
Mouse: Saitek Cyborg RAT 9 – $179.00

Total $4833.00

Pretty full on I know, but I'm probably gonna look at getting another 2 of the same monitors for surround/3D surround etc down the track. Any thoughts of cost cutting? Possible upgrades and any advice as to whether anyone has had any dealings with any of the products listed good or bad. Thanks again.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc -- Gaming (mostly) + photoshop
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? -- 4K - 5K.
3) Where do you live? -- Brisbane, Australia
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. -- This is a complete build, so Case, CPU, CPU cooling, Video card(s), Ram, M/B, HDD/SSD, PSU, Monitor(s), Keyboard, mouse, sound card, head set
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model. -- New build.
6) Will you be overclocking? -- I will look at overclocking the CPU
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have? -- 27"
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? -- ASAP
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.-- SLI/crossfire, usb 3.0, Sata 6g/s
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit? -- I have to purchase a new OS win 7 Pro 64bit.

Cheers

 

[xBanzai89]

Copy and paste these questions and answer them directly under each one into your original post. You will get alot more responses that way. I already see changes that can be made, but need these questions answered first.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
3) Where do you live?
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.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
6) Will you be overclocking?
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

 

[Dangman]

I would not go with an OCZ SSD on account of their past SSD history as well as their poor customer support. I would go with Intel's 510 series SSD or Crucial's M4 series SSDs if you want reliability and good customer support.

You can definitely downgrade the RAM: You won't notice an iota of real world difference between DDR3 2133 and DDR3 1333 RAM. So go with the cheapest 2 x 4GB set of DDR3 1333 RAM rated at 1.5V and you'll be fine.

Power supply wise, I'd spend the extra cash for a slightly higher quality PSU on account of the three GPUs you're using:
$280 - Corsair 1200AX 1200W Modular PSU

HDD wise, that 3TB drive is really a waste. For some one who is using photoshop unless all your programs are really taking up 3TB of space, split the hard drive setup. Go for this drive:
$130 - Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 HDS723020BLA642 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive

OS wise, unless there are a lot of features of Windows 7 Pro that you're planning on using, drop down to Windows 7 Home Premium.

GPU wise, I really don't see a reason to go with ZOTAC unless your budget is super low judging from what I've heard about ZOTAC's quality and customer support. Go with eVGA instead unless your retailer is all sold out.

 

[Toothless Spoon]

I would not go with an OCZ SSD on account of their past SSD history as well as their poor customer support. I would go with Intel's 510 series SSD or Crucial's M4 series SSDs if you want reliability and good customer support.

You can definitely downgrade the RAM: You won't notice an iota of real world difference between DDR3 2133 and DDR3 1333 RAM. So go with the cheapest 2 x 4GB set of DDR3 1333 RAM rated at 1.5V and you'll be fine.

Power supply wise, I'd spend the extra cash for a slightly higher quality PSU on account of the three GPUs you're using:
$280 - Corsair 1200AX 1200W Modular PSU

HDD wise, that 3TB drive is really a waste. For some one who is using photoshop unless all your programs are really taking up 3TB of space, split the hard drive setup. Go for this drive:
$130 - Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 HDS723020BLA642 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive

OS wise, unless there are a lot of features of Windows 7 Pro that you're planning on using, drop down to Windows 7 Home Premium.

GPU wise, I really don't see a reason to go with ZOTAC unless your budget is super low judging from what I've heard about ZOTAC's quality and customer support. Go with eVGA instead unless your retailer is all sold out.

Thanks for the reply. I made all the adjustments to the memory, SSD/HDD, and PSU.

Also I've changed my mind about the ZOTAC cards, I was looking at them because they already come overclocked, and they have a pretty good cooler. What do you reckon about the Gainward gtx 580 3gb phantoms?? The Evga are out of stock everywhere and with no ETA, it's hard to know how long I would have to wait. Thanks again.

 

[Dangman]

Thanks for the reply. I made all the adjustments to the memory, SSD/HDD, and PSU.

Also I've changed my mind about the ZOTAC cards, I was looking at them because they already come overclocked, and they have a pretty good cooler. What do you reckon about the Gainward gtx 580 3gb phantoms?? The Evga are out of stock everywhere and with no ETA, it's hard to know how long I would have to wait. Thanks again.

Really can't say anything about Gainward since it's not available here in the U.S. So I don't know about their customer support or quality.