New Entry level Gaming build ,need help pls.

[rvbilly]

Hi all ,I have just left the dark side of Amd and going back to Intel . So far I have I5-3570K , Msi Z77A-G45 mobo , 16Gb Kingston HyperX 1600 ram ,Zalmon Z11 plus case, 2 Cooler Master 120 mm blue led fans that are going in exhaust mode plus the 5 allready in the case , Cooler Master 212+ cpu cooler ,a Cool Power Gamer 1080 Watt Psu ,( I know its not the best ) one 3.5" Fan controller for 4 fans, Pioneer BDC- 207BDK disk player and burner , 4 blue CCT lights , 3 Benq G2255 21.5" monitors , 1 Msi OC Hd 7770 , 1 Asus Hd 7770 , 1 Sandisk Extreme 120Gb ssd , 1 Kingston V200 64Gb ssd , 1 OCZ Agility 3 60 Gb ssd , 1 Seagate Baracuda ( St1000DM003 ) 1Tb Sata3 6Gbs , 1 ThrustMaster RGT Force Feedback Pro racing Wheel , Win 7 Home Premium , games I have ordered are Dirt3 ,F1 2010 , NFS The Run, Wheelman 2009 , NFS Shift 2 Unleashed , I like my driving games , Have all my cables to run EyeFinity in DVI mode ,have a Active Display mini display to Dvi dongal , have Nero Video Extreme for BluRay movie playback .
I am going to OC the Hd 7770`s to around 1050 Mhz , run them in Crossfire @ 2X16 3.0 , Going to OC the 3570K to 4.0 mhz , all the SSD`s will have Firmware updated before install , now I only have 2 Sata 3 ports and 4 Sata 2 ports , and am confused as to the best way to connect all these hard drives ?

1 - use the 120Gb Sandisk for Win 7
2 - connect 1 64 Gb up to the other Sata 3 port for game installs
3 -connect the 2 small SSD`s to Sata 2 in a raid 0 configuration ?
4 - connect the Seagate up to the Sata 2 port
5 - use the first 2 options and conect the Seagate and the OCZ in a SRT mode

If I used the last option would the Seagate perform a little bit better ? I have 21 Gb of Mp music that I will be transferring over to the Seagate as that will be my storage drive .. I`ve done lots of reading and am just trying to figure out my best options before I put this all together , any and all help would be appreciated very much ,thanks Bill

 

[Nw333]

You already ordered everything? If so, a single more powerful card will be more futureproof and better in graphics. CFing from the get go is almost always a bad decision, considering how Radeon cards dont scale very well in 2-ways.

 

[rvbilly]

Hi yes everything is orders ,some from Ebay and the rest on Canada Computers , i`m not going to return any of it as this is what I want , I`ve had EyeFinity before and things have changed alot since that time ,presently I`m using CCC 12.8 with my current Amd 3870K setup and its working great ,previously when I had EyeFinity I was using the 11.4 CCC and it worked okay for my NFS Shift 2 Unleashed , I read up on the Hd 7770`s crossfire and they perform quite well for what I need ,any advice on how I should hook up those hard drives ? thanks Bill

 

[Nw333]

You can always buy more SATA cables. You just have to make sure your PSU has enough ports for it.

 

[rishiswaz]

In my opinion 60GB for a boot drive is not enough, the sweet spot is 90 for budget 128 for normal use.

 

[rvbilly]

Hi Mw333 , I have enough Sata 3 & 2 cables for connecting to the mobo as well as I have enough power connectors from the PSU , I`m just trying to figure out which isthe best way to configure the hard drives for performance ? I`m going to use the 120 Gb Sandisk for my Windows and apps , I`de like to use the other 2 SSD`s for installing my games on but will most likely need to raid 0 them to get enough volume or Intel Srt one of them with the Seagate to have enough volume ? The Psu has 36 amps going to each rail on the Gpu`s and the 7770`s use @ best use 13.33 Amps @ full load .

 

[Nw333]

Eh. Ive not much experience when it comes to this, honestly. All I can recommend is to post this over on the Storage forum.

 

[rishiswaz]

With so many SSDs you will need to be sure you have the SATA 6gb/s for it (which I am assuming you checked already), and you need to have a plan on where to put them because not all SSDs come with the 2.5 to 3.5 adapter