Haswell + GTX 700 Series Build - first timer

[TheDigitalRealm]

This is going to be my first home-build and the rig will be used for video editing/rendering and gaming at 1080p and possibly 2k (2560 x 1440). Now, my question is:

For the money it's costing me, are there any better components I could choose instead? - Not interested in a custom WC loop.

Parts List:

Spoiler

Components
i7 4770K £265 (Approx)
Asus Maximus VI Extreme Z87 board £315 (Approx)
2 way SLI GTX 670/770 £300 + Another at Christmas.
G.Skill TridentX Memory 2 x 8 (Room to expand) 2400MHz RAM 16GB £120
Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB SSD £82*
XFX XXX Edition Semi-modular 80 plus 750W £88
WD Caviar Blue 1TB HDD [strike]£50*[/strike] (for Birthday)
NZXT Switch 810 Gunmetal grey £148*
COMPONENT TOTAL: £1318

H100i Water Cooling (for Birthday)
Corsair H100i CPU Cooler [strike]£93[/strike] (Birthday)
Aerocool Shark RED Led / Black 120mm fan x 2 [strike]£15.18[/strike] (Birthday)
Aerocool Shark Black 120mm fan x 2 [strike]£14[/strike] (Birthday)
Aerocool Shark Black 140mm fan [strike]£8[/strike] (Birthday)
H100i TOTAL: [strike]£130.18[/strike] (totally from Birthday)

Keyboard and mouse [strike]£39[/strike] - (Birthday)

Acer 23" H236HL IPS LED Monitor £148

Total = PC - £1318 + Monitor - £148 = £1466
Check out the Asus Maximus VI Extreme Z87:

 

[TheBigTroll]

of course their is better parts for your money. and it never involves asus as they almost always cost more for less

as for your parts

-the odds are that a gigabyte ud5h is going to be the best bang for the buck at the higher end segment
-fast ram is useless. anything more than 1600mhz is useless
-tall ram sticks are useless. they dont cool crap
-you should be looking at a 256gb ssd. the 840 pro is pretty good
-a smaller case like the fractal r4 is a better buy. way less plastic that can break off
-forget cheap liquid coolers. get a heatsink, or do your own loop
-no need for aftermarket fans

 

[TheDigitalRealm]

Okay...I'm going to have to disagree on the Asus thing. Yes, they're more expensive, but from using their Motherboards before,
namely a Maximus V formula of my friend for a year, I just love everything about them. I just trust them.

About the ram, I was recommended by a fellow editor that for editing feature length videos, highly clocked ram is better?
Will lower clocked ram hinder cpu overclocking? I'm planning to overclock my cpu, and on many forums, people have said how having lower clocked ram crippled overclocks. "Good high speed memory like this is also very beneficial for SB-E and more specifically the 3820, standard 'cheap' 1600mhz memory crippled my overclocks to the point that if I wanted to take the chip higher I would have had to down clock the memory to ~1400mhz, voiding the point of the CPU OC."

Tall ram sticks airen't going to get in the way in my case, it's just what comes on most highly clocked ram now. So I wont need it for things like cinema 4d, sony vegas pro 11 and adobe after effects at the same time I think i'll need.
I was thinking of an SSD for a boot drive, is 120gig not enough? I guess with 240/256 I could put a bunch of games on. It's out of my budget though.
I picked the parts based on performance and looks. I got the case because it has all the room for expansion I could need, has great air flow for my graphics cards and looks awesome. What would I be doing to break parts off my case?
I chose the H100 because it performs better than a heatsink and doesn't cost upwards of £200 for a custom loop. Linus tech tips tested a bunch of Heat-sinks and a h100, the h100 came out on top by a good 10 degrees centigrade, even against the Noctua.
The H100 fans are incredibly loud at full rpm, and also very ugly. Aerocool's Shark fans look great, cool well and most importantly are quiet.

 

[TheBigTroll]

well you havent used a gigabyte board then. they offer more hardware features for the money and their highest end board the z77x-up7 is much more superior than the maximus v extreme. basically their entire up series are better than what asus offers in their ROG series. the part that gigabyte lacks in is the software, but then they are changing that up with haswell.

sure the faster ram will help, but less than 1%. not to mention 1.65v ram voids your warranty on the spot

tall ramsticks will get in the way of a heatsink

you will be suprised how fast your SSD fills up

usability and quality over looks any day.

if you are to get a closed loop, get the h220 instead. at least you can expand on it and it is built properly for once. the stock corsair fans will perform much better than whatever is out there other than the noctuas and a few others such as be-quiet or silverstone

 

[TheDigitalRealm]

See, the software is what I love about Asus. They've been one of the only companies to truly nail it. I LOVE they're bios too.
Overclocking will void my warranty, I'm still doing that. Just checked the price of 1600MHz ram and it's only £5 cheaper in the UK, so may as well get higher clocked ram.
I'm not getting a heatsink so that doesn't matter.
none of those parts are low quality by any stretch of the imagination. Plus when spending £1000+ on a pc, you can start to look more at looks, as most of the high end parts look the bees knees.
The features of the 810 are great, with a lot of customizing options.
I've seen cpu temps greatly improved with different fans, it's mostly to look better in my case anyway. It would be cheaper for me to just run a water cooling loop for the GPUs separately if I ever decided that.

 

[TheBigTroll]

1600mhz ram is 40 quid cheaper
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0085IWXB8/?tag=pcp0f-21

the both bioses are pretty easy to use. in the end they look the same if you use advanced mode

im telling you if you are not gettign a heatsink, go get the h220 from swiftech. to add GPUs to the equation, add a 240 or 360mm rad and some tubing and you are good to go

the features are the same if you dont watercool. thats about as much as there is to know. only when you add say a 360mm rad to the system and then it comes apparant that the switch 810 wins out

the noctua nf-f12s are pretty much the best performing ones out there. they look ugly for most but they do perform better. if you light the system red, they blend right in

 

[TheDigitalRealm]

I've looked at a Crucial M4 256GB?

 

[TheDigitalRealm]

The Fractal has a lot of flaws, and is a Midi tower case. I'd rather not have to buy a larger case in the future.
If I got the Swiftech 220 and then added cooling for GPU's it would cost more than it would to get a H100 + add a water cooling system later.
To use the Swiftech 220 pump for a whole water cooling system is madness? Or would I have to buy a pump too?

 

[TheDigitalRealm]

Damn! I wish that h220 was cheaper! It's awesome! Sorry i doubted you.

 

[TheBigTroll]

the h220 has a pump 5x stronger than the ones you find on the other crappy closed loop units. its powerful enough to drive 2 GPUs along with the CPU. just add tubing and a extra rad. yeah it costs more to begin with, but i assure you its worth it if you want to truely watercool

there is nothing wrong with the fractal arc midi or the define r4. the only thing id say that isnt good is that the R4 doesnt have the best 240mm mounting holes 9which the midi model does). there is also nothing wrong with a mid tower. if it will fit 2 240mm rads, the only thing that is different from a switch 810 is that the switch will hold a 360mm rad instead of a 240 which isnt much of a deal given that 2 240mm rads are more than enough to cool 2 GPUs

 

[TheDigitalRealm]

Yes, it beats other closed loops hands down. How well will that pump handle a custom loop with 2 or more GPU's in it? I was going to get a Swiftech MCP655 pump for that. If it can handle a full loop it'd be saving me around $220 / £150 on water cooling stuff I wouldn't need.

 

[TheBigTroll]

it can handle 2 video cards and up to 2 extra rads before id consider building a loop from scratch at that rate. using more than 2 video cards is pretty useless considering how the z87 platform is still designed for 2 video cards and nothing more and that anything more than 2way CF or SLI scales pretty badly

the 655 is more for like a system with a ton of rads, blocks and tubing. you shouldnt need it

 

[TheDigitalRealm]

Thanks bud. I only plan to go 2 way sli gtx 770 or 780. One more question. Should I go for the Maximus VI Extreme + gtx 770's or a lower priced motherboard and gtx 780's?

 

[TheBigTroll]

no. get a lower end board. the MVIE will be for 3-4way which is useless for you since 2 way runs fine on a regular board. a board like the gigabyte ud5h series is a smart buy. if you want a asus equivalent, the z87-v pro is going to be fine for what you are doing

the GPU talk can come on later. details are super vague compared to the CPU department of things

 

[TheDigitalRealm]

Okay, we'll see what happens on may 27th when the 780 comes out.