New Rig for January

[oliveash]

It's been three years since I built my current rig, minus a few minor upgrades. The urge for a new build has become unbearable. There are two factors which make this an ideal time for an upgrade.

The first is my wife's laptop isn't up to par for her to play the games she wants to play (mostly Sims 3, some Portal 1/2, and other comparable titles). As my existing rig is the only performance oriented desktop in the house, much of its components will go to her.

The second is I receive a sizeable bonus in January from work that, through considerable negotiation, is mine and mine alone to play with (provided a gaming desktop for my wife comes out of it). The exact budget I will have to work with will unfortunately be unknown until it arrives.

My current setup is as follows, with notes as to whether it's coming with me or staying as part of my wife's computer.

Going to Wife:

Motherboard: ASUS P6T
CPU: Intel Core i7 920
RAM: 12GB 1600
Hard Drives: 2x WD 640GB (SATA2)
GPU: 1 EVGA GTX 460 1GB
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling 750W
Case: Coolermaster ATCS 840
Heatsink: Corsair H60
Monitor: Sceptre 24" 1920x1200
DVD-ROM: ASUS DVD Burner

Staying with Me:

KB/Mouse: Corsair K60/M60
Hard Drives: 2x OCZ Agility2 120GB in RAID0 (SATA2)
Power Supply: Corsair 1200W
GPU: XLX GTX 285 1GB (PhysX)

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Primarily gaming, with a healthy serving of web browsing, coding, office, etc. Photo/video editing is likely, though in rare enough frequency to hardly mention.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

Largely undetermined. My best guess is in the range of $2,700 to $3,400. Tax and shipping will need to be included.

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

United States: Culloden, West Virginia. Online retrailers will be my primary source, though I'm close enough to a Microcenter in Columbus/Cincinnati to make it a viable option provided good deals/sales at the time of purchase. Impossible to know until the time of purchase, of course.

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.

Need may be a strong word, but what I desire follows:

Motherboard
CPU
RAM
Case
Hard Drive
Video Card(s)
Monitor(s)
Sound Card (optional)
Windows

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

The majority of my existing rig will be recycled into my wife's gaming rig. I have two functional power supplies currently, one of which will be used in my new system.

Corsair 1200W (new rig)
PC Power and Cooling 750W (wife's rig)

6) Will you be overclocking?

Yes, mostly on the CPU. GPU overclocking is possible but not likely. In either case won't be very aggressive. For reference, my current CPU is clocked at 3.33GHz from 2.66GHz; there's more headroom but I don't use it.

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

I intend to make the move to Eyefinity/Surround using 3x 1920x1200 monitors.

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

Mid January 2013.

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.

Crossfire/SLI, RAID. Can't say the rest are needs, but wouldn't hurt.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

I have a legit copy of Windows 7 Ultimate x64. I will need a new key for the computer I'm building.


My current wishlist follows, with current Newegg pricing:

Case
Corsair Vengeance C70 Arctic White - $119.99 (This choice, while seemingly adequate for my needs, is based largely on aesthetics.)

Heatsink
Corsair Hydro Series H100 - $104.90 (I love the H60 I've had, and like the idea of an increased capacity. Plan on using additional fans below in a push/pull config.)

Fan(s)
Silverstone FM121 120mm Case Fans - $17.00 each (How many I get is undetermined, price varies by quantity. Seems to be one of the better options out there, though I'm no expert.)

Motherboard
ASUS Sabertooth Z77 - $239.99 (Again, largely an aesthetic choice here.)

CPU
Intel Core i7 3770K - $319.99

Memory
Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 4x4GB DDR3 1866 - $179.99 (Largely aesthetic choice.)

GPU
EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Classified 4GB x2 - $559.99 each (As I have no experience in overclocking GPU's, it seemed prudent to go big out of the box. Also, not an nVidia fanboi though I've consistently been a customer. Choice based less on cost than reported functionality in SLI/surround versus AMD. Mind is open.)

Hard Drive
OCZ Vertex Plus R2 120GB - $89.99 (<- Intending to add it to my existing RAID0 system array rather than spend additional dollars for a whole new series of drives. Not sure if it's compatible?)

Monitors
Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24" 1920x1200 x3 - $309.99 each (Seems to be the best of most worlds here. Decent viewing angles for a eyefinity/surround setup.)

Optical Drive
ASUS 12X BD-ROM - $59.99 (Blu-Ray is not necessarily required, though having the option is nice and the price is reasonable.)


I realize a number of factors are highly variable given the month between this post and my anticipated purchase. Between sales and general price reductions or increases, not to mention the unknowns surrounding my budget, it's hard to nail down at this point what the costs will be. My main curiosity here is in how best to spend the money I'll have for the best performance. A number of choices above have as much to do with aesthetics as they do performance. I'm wide open to hear arguments for or against any part choice.

Once built the PC will need to last for at least two years, short relatively minor upgrades in graphics or storage. The bonus I'll be using to fund this is an annual occurrence, though it won't be every year I talk the wife into letting me go nuts with it.

 

[Alai]

Holy jebus those Corsairs are expensive for what you're getting! If you want to put aesthetics aside (or possibly find RAM heatsinks that look good and fit), these Samsung will perform better, requires less voltage, takes up less space, and much cheaper to boot: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electronics-Extreme-MV-3V4G3D-US/dp/B00592002W

Same thing with the ASUS Sabertooth. I believe they are largely considered overpriced for what you're getting.

Additionally, given your lack of use of software that utilize hyperthreading, it's pointless to get the 3770K over the 3570K. Dropping to the 3570K saves you money at little to no performance hit.

As for graphics cards, I thought ATI cards were better for multi-monitor setups (high resolution) because of their wider 384-bit bus width? You should probably shoot for the 7970's instead (and they OC more easily and they are cheaper too). Just remember that they run hotter and require more power.

SSD prices go on sale so often, even at higher capacities, that I would just sell away your old SSDs and purchase newer, faster SSDs to RAID. Use the savings you just got from changing out those parts.

 

[Dangman]

I realize a number of factors are highly variable given the month between this post and my anticipated purchase. Between sales and general price reductions or increases, not to mention the unknowns surrounding my budget, it's hard to nail down at this point what the costs will be. My main curiosity here is in how best to spend the money I'll have for the best performance. A number of choices above have as much to do with aesthetics as they do performance. I'm wide open to hear arguments for or against any part choice.

If you truly want to know how to best spend your money, ask for advice when you're 1-3 weeks away from buying, not practically a month away. Not to mention, we need to know what your exact budget is since that determines what parts we recommend.

With that said, I do agree with some of Alai' assessment: Unless you must have show-off RAM, that Corsair is stupidly overpriced. The mobo isn't a good bang for the buck choice either. As for your planned SSD RAID 0 addition, the OCZ Vertex Plus SSD you chose is actually based on a different SSD controller than your current OCZ SSDs. Though as Alai said, I'd recommending just replacing those OCZ SSDs with something newer and fsater like the Samsung 840 Pro or Plextor M5P. Yes your current CPU choice is not necessary at all.

However, considering that you're still on a very solid i7 920, I wouldn't bother upgrading to an Ivy Bridge setup. If you can, I'd recommend just waiting until March when news of Intel's new Haswell CPUs should be more solid.