New high-end build, please comment

[ctrlbrk]

Hey guys, building a new system and looking for some input. I'm looking for the best I can afford right now, and won't build again for 2-3 years.

This is what I am currently thinking:

• i7-2600k. Unfortunate there isn't anything substantially faster, as my old system already has an i7 920
• Corsair 400R case. I don't need anything big, but want to be sure this case is big enough (please comment)
• Corsair HX850 PSU. No plans for any gaming.
• ASRock Z68 Pro Gen3
• G.Skill Ripjaws 4x4GB DDR 1600
• Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD
• Corsair H100 cooling. I'd like to know if this will fit "no problem" in the 400R case, or if I need a bigger case. Please see my extra comments below.
• Radeon HD5870 Eyefinity 6 edition (6xdisplayport - needed for me, six HP ZR24w monitors)

OK so first, the i7-2600k -- I sure wish there was something substantially faster, I kind of feel like this isn't much faster than my current i7 920 from 2 years ago.

The case - Corsair 400R. First, noise is not a concern. I actually have a small 2 inch hole in my wall and run my USB cable (from my hub to pc) and my 6xdisplayport cables through the hole, and the physical case is in the closet in the next room over. I just didn't select some huge-mega case because this has one component (1 video card) and only 1 hard drive, it seems like a waste for a big case. But, I do want the H100 cooler, so am concerned if it will fit.

The H100 cooler - why not mount the radiator externally? It seems like this would offer better cooling? Any problems with the H100 in a "push/pull" with this case?

The memory - I really wanted 4x8GB modules for 32GB total, but I can't find them anywhere. Memory is so cheap! Since I plan to overclock, should I be getting the DDR 2133's instead of the DDR 1600's? I noticed some big variations on voltages, what is the preferred voltage for this mainboard?

Mainboard - I'm usually an eVGA fan for high-end builds, or a Gigabyte fan for regular builds. This will be my first ASRock board. I've read negative reviews on the eVGA Z68 solution. Is this the best board to get? I do plan to overclock.

The Kingston SSD, I've read some good reviews right here on HardOCP so I feel this is the drive to beat. I'm coming from a 3Ware 9690 with 4x750GB RAID 10. I want to keep things simpler for this build, so no raid. I do daily backups already.

Last, the HD5870 Radeon card. This is mainly because I wanted an upgrade over my current NVS 295 Quadro cards. These are just used for trading - no games, but I like the idea of a faster card (Some windows apps draw/refresh the screen very slowly on the 295's) and also like the idea of a single card for six monitors. I couldn't find a "current model" that offers this capability, so this will have to be purchased used off ebay. Fine with me, seems to be going for around $300-350.

I would like to overclock the box as high as it will go while maintaining 100% rock solid stability. I often do backtests (trading) which will peg the CPU at 100% for hours, so it is crucial it be stable, but faster is always better. I'd appreciate feedback on what kind of clock rate I an expect with the config.

If anyone has comments, please share.

 

[digitalgunfire]

I'm just about to buy a 400R case - looks perfect to me for the price. It will definitely fit the 5870 6 port card, I have one at work running in a CM690 and it fits fine.

 

[Xonim]

i7-2600k. Unfortunate there isn't anything substantially faster, as my old system already has an i7 920

That's because it's not groundbreaking. Sure, it's an increase, but it's not going to knock your socks off or anything. Is there any reason you won't/can't just stick with your 920 and current motherboard until Ivy Bridge? Some sites are claiming a 20% cpu performance boost over current Sandy Bridge offerings.

The Kingston SSD, I've read some good reviews right here on HardOCP so I feel this is the drive to beat. I'm coming from a 3Ware 9690 with 4x750GB RAID 10. I want to keep things simpler for this build, so no raid. I do daily backups already.

Most people (myself included) in this section of the forum recommend the Crucial M4 drives...even moreso now after they very recently had a firmware update that increased some speeds by up to 20%ish. And the 64/128GB versions go on sale once a week *somewhere*.

Corsair HX850 PSU. No plans for any gaming.

For a single GPU setup, you aren't going to need 850W. You could probably save a little bit of money by dropping to the 750 or maybe even the 650.

 

[ctrlbrk]

I agree on dropping the PSU down, was thinking the same thing.

I'll take a look at the Crucial M4, but I remember reading quite a bit of negative stuff about them (support wise). Maybe the Kingston will have this too, and is just too new? Why would you recommend the M4 over the HyperX at this point?

With regards to Ivy Bridge, does anyone know when it will actually be available? And it's still just an "i7" right, so the gains would be the same as taking a 2600k and overclocking it, likely, right?

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[xBanzai89]

I never heard anything negative about Crucial support wise, everyone here seems to think they have good CS. Kingston is based on the SF, so there isn't any word of a magic increase as of right now like what happeneded with Crucial's. I would recommend the M4 over any SF SSD due to higher reliability, good speed, price points, and good CS.

IB is planned around March/April of 2012. Not sure what you mean by just "i7" either. No one knows at this point what IPC or overclocking improvements will come with it either.

 

[E4g1e]

Why would you recommend the M4 over the HyperX at this point?

We don't recommend the HyperX right now as it's based on a newer revision of the Sandforce controller that's as of now extremely unstable in Windows (repeated BSODs). For that matter, stay away from OCZ or any other Sandforce-based SSD (at least for now).

 

[tonytnnt]

I agree on dropping the PSU down, was thinking the same thing.

I'll take a look at the Crucial M4, but I remember reading quite a bit of negative stuff about them (support wise). Maybe the Kingston will have this too, and is just too new? Why would you recommend the M4 over the HyperX at this point?

With regards to Ivy Bridge, does anyone know when it will actually be available? And it's still just an "i7" right, so the gains would be the same as taking a 2600k and overclocking it, likely, right?

Thanks for the feedback.

It's mostly just a die shrink. I don't think there are any significant architectural changes to the CPU (the GPU gets a boost IIRC.)

What you should really be waiting for is Sandy Bridge - E on LGA 2011 which should be coming in Q4 2011 if they stay on schedule. Remember that the 2600k is classified as a mid-range part.

 

[rive22]

It sounds like you should wait for LGA2011.

 

[ctrlbrk]

I'm not sure I can wait, I've got an itch to scratch... I don't know anything about the LGA 2011's, but if they are only one quarter of Ivy Bridge....

It seems the 2600k is twice as fast as the 920? According to:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Does that seem accurate? And with regards to the 2600k being mid-range, do you really feel the 980 is worth the premium?

Thanks for advice on the SSD.

Does anyone have anything to say about the H100 radiator being mounted externally? And/or fitting in the Corsair 400R case?

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend.

 

[Xonim]

The Anandtech benches have them a bit closer. I'm not trying to argue that the 2600K isn't faster than the 920, because it is, but you're basically looking at $400 minimum to make that jump, and to me, the extra performance wasn't worth $400. For your purposes, it may be.

Can't get the direct Anandtech link to work, but go here and you can compare the two to see if it's worth the money.

Is your 920 OC'd? If you have a D0 stepping, you should be able to get from the stock 2.67GHz to ~ 3.4GHz on the stock cooler. With a decent aftermarket air cooler, you could be pushing 4.0 GHz. C0's don't OC as well, but you should be able to get to 3.6 or so on aftermarket air.

If you don't want to wait to Ivy Bridge, maybe consider holding off until the LGA 2011 chips mentioned by tonytnnt and see how those stack up against the 2600K. Those should be out Q4 this year and will be a step up from what's available now. I know Wikipedia isn't exactly official, but here's some info about a couple of the chips.

EDIT: Can't help you with the radiator question, I have no need to overclock anything in my build and noise isn't a problem, so I haven't even looked into water cooling.

 

[rive22]

I hear ya man but the 2600k is more of a sidestep from your system, it's better yes, but not at this time worth building a new rig that you want to last a few years when a much better platform is around the corner. Trust us, wait if you can you'll be happy you did.

Also here are some real world reviews on the 2600k
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1574232

 

[Dangman]

I'll take a look at the Crucial M4, but I remember reading quite a bit of negative stuff about them (support wise). Maybe the Kingston will have this too, and is just too new? Why would you recommend the M4 over the HyperX at this point?

As E4g1e and xBanzai89 pointed out, it's a Sandforce based SSD. We generally don't recommend currentor even past Sandforce based SSDs due to the numerous issues that they have (significantly lower performance in the previous gen Sandforce SSDs and the BSOD issues with the current Sandforce SSDs). Hence our recommendation for the Crucial M4 and Intel 510 series SSDs: They're still fast SSDs but significantly more reliable and backed by solid companies.

With regards to Ivy Bridge, does anyone know when it will actually be available? And it's still just an "i7" right, so the gains would be the same as taking a 2600k and overclocking it, likely, right?

Supposedly, the IB CPUs will be 20% to 30% faster clock for clock than current SB CPUs. You could OC a SB CPU to match performance with a IB CPU. Then again, you could also OC that IB CPU as well. So all in all, if rumors are true, those IB CPUs will be faster than a SB CPU regardless of being OC'd or not.

[*]ASRock Z68 Pro Gen3

......

Mainboard - I'm usually an eVGA fan for high-end builds, or a Gigabyte fan for regular builds. This will be my first ASRock board. I've read negative reviews on the eVGA Z68 solution. Is this the best board to get? I do plan to overclock.

Unless you live in Asia or Europe, I don't recommend AsRock mobos above $70 on account of their one year warranty. That's a huge deal-killer IMO considering that similar priced mobos have three year warranties. Now if you want a mobo recommendation, please answer this question:
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.

[*]G.Skill Ripjaws 4x4GB DDR 1600

....

The memory - I really wanted 4x8GB modules for 32GB total, but I can't find them anywhere. Memory is so cheap! Since I plan to overclock, should I be getting the DDR 2133's instead of the DDR 1600's? I noticed some big variations on voltages, what is the preferred voltage for this mainboard?

You want RAM rated at 1.5V to avoid any potential issues. Not 1.6V, not 1.65V but 1.5V. With the SB and IB CPUs, RAM is no longer a factor when it comes to overclocking the CPU. Basically you can OC the CPU without even touching the RAM. As such, you can reach a 5Ghz OC with DDR3 1333 RAM if you wanted to. In addition, with the SB and more than likely IB CPUs, memory frequency isn't a huge factor when it comes to performance. In other words, you won't notice a real world performance difference between DDR3 2133 RAM and DDR3 1333 RAM. So even DDR3 1600 RAM is a slight waste of money unless you're getting a 16GB or 8GB set for $90 and $45 respectively.

AS for the 8GB RAM modules, those do exist on Newegg. Look under the server memory category. However do note this:
- Those are Server memory so there's a possibility that they won't work with regular consumer grade motherboards
- Those 8GB sticks are priced really high at the moment. Sometimes twice the cost of a regular 2x4GB set. Then again if you really need 32GB of RAM, that price premium might be worth it.