1st - Home-Build, Design & Gaming - Please Review

[ANlMAL]

Hi all, I am strongly considering building my own for the first time.

My Budget:
$4k - $5k (I would prefer $4.5>). . .

My Uses:
1. Design work - AutoCAD, adding a 3D design program to my repertoire this year, Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign, Sketchup, etc. . .
2. Gaming - of course. . .

My Current Configuration:

Case - Silverstone TJ-10 Case - Silver - $299.
Link

Motherboard - Rampage iv extreme - $450.
Link

Power Supply - COOLER MASTER Silent Pro RSA00-AMBAJ3-US 1000W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.92 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - $180.
Link

CPU - Intel Xeon X5680 Westmere 3.3GHz 12mb L3 Cache LGA 1366 Six-Core - $1640.
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Video Card - EVGA GeForce GTX 580 3BG - $550.
Link

Memory - 16GB kit (8GBx2) DDR3 PC3-14900 • 9-9-9-27 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1866 • 1.5V • 1024Meg x 64 • Part #: BLE2KIT8G3D1869DE1TX0 - $280.
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Drive 1 - Crucial Technology 128GB 2.5" SSD w/ 3.5" adpt $194.
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Drive 2- Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - $210.
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Current: $3803.

I am wondering what I am overlooking, other than the optical drive, networking card(s), sound card, inputs, and monitor (I would also love advice for these items as well)? For example, do I need to buy heat-sink/fans? Do I have enough power? Etc?

Any remarks on my choices and suggestions for changes?

Thanks very much in advance for any help!

 

[g-unit1111]

I am wondering what I am overlooking, other than the optical drive, networking card(s), sound card, inputs, and monitor (I would also love advice for these items as well)? For example, do I need to buy heat-sink/fans? Do I have enough power? Etc?

1K+ watt is enough to power anything and everything, but I haven't heard good things about the Cooler Master Silent Pro series. If you really need that much power you're far better off going with something like the Corsair AX1200 or lower would be the PC Power & Cooling Silencer MKII. You can calculate the minimum wattage you'll need here: http://support.asus.com/PowerSupplyCalculator/PSCalculator.aspx

I say minimum because it never hurts to have more power (ask Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor... :lol: ), but it will actually hurt your system to have less power.

Any remarks on my choices and suggestions for changes?

Well first off the Xeon is not, in any way, shape, or form a gaming CPU. It's been tried but the Xeon is mainly meant for server and workstation environments. If you're expecting to play games on this you'll be SOL. You're better off going with the i7-3930K and sticking with an X79 motherboard and quad channel RAM.

And if you're going to buy the 3930K you will need a heat sink as Intel doesn't bundle one with it. It's a performance enthusiast CPU and they're banking on the fact that the people who pay the price for this CPU will already have their own heat sink / fan to use.

And I don't think you necessarily need a case that elaborate. You could drop that to a Corsair Carbide or a Fractal Design R3 and save yourself quite a bit of money.

When going X79 you will need dedicated quad channel RAM and you don't want to get a dual channel kit with four sticks as that could mess up your board (voltage and timing settings are extremely important here). Try this instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231501

Never mind about the GPU. Didn't see that. :lol:

 

[ANlMAL]

Thanks very much for your reply and advice / information.

I am checking out the: i7-3930K, X79 motherboards, Fractal Design Cases and the rest. . .

 

[g-unit1111]

Thanks very much for your reply and advice / information.

I am checking out the: i7-3930K, X79 motherboards, Fractal Design Cases and the rest. . .

The Rampage IV Extreme that you have listed actually is an X79 motherboard - it's the relatively high end of the Asus line. You could probably get by with a lesser motherboard and save some money there.

 

[ANlMAL]

The Rampage IV Extreme that you have listed actually is an X79 motherboard - it's the relatively high end of the Asus line. You could probably get by with a lesser motherboard and save some money there.

Switching to the Core i7-3930K already saves in a big way. By the way this in place of the Core i7-3960K is worth the savings - I mean there is not going to be a noticeable difference in performance or longevity of the comp?

 

[g-unit1111]

Switching to the Core i7-3930K already saves in a big way. By the way this in place of the Core i7-3960K is worth the savings - I mean there is not going to be a noticeable difference in performance or longevity of the comp?

Not necessarily. The 3960K is a tweaked version of the 3930K (and by tweaked, I mean "Intel can charge you twice as much for an extra .2GHz and two more cores"). It's not necessarily going to mean any difference in performance having +-.2GHz is going to make much of a difference in the longevity or performance of your PC. What will is the rest of the hardware you choose. You want to get the best motherboard, SSD, video card, and RAM you can for the money you are willing to pay, and with a budget like yours you can get the best of the best.