Second Attempt at a homebuild

[Sardic]

I'm on my second build in as many decades, my first build lasted 10 years so I'm defiantly doing it again! I used the Northwood processor 3.06Ghz when it first came out paired with the ASUS P4g8x deluxe MOBO which does support a second processor but I've decided to step into the 21st century hopefully with a little help from you experts out there. I've got most of the system components picked out but the main problem I'm having is deciding how to handle the video aspect of the build, PCI/SLI/Crossfire. When I built my last computer things were a whole lot esier it was either EDI or AGP and I opted for AGP which worked out well.

here is my tentative list of components what I'm asking for is someone to tell me this is an easy build or a hard build since the first time I did it it took over 2 months to get everything up and running correctly (a bad memory stick can cause LOTS of diagnostic problems I found that out the hard HARD way).

I did copy a lot of this from a build I saw in some magazine but made some modifications based on what I thought would be easier/better...

Motherboard

New Gigabyte Motherboard GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 Intel Z68 LGA1155 PCI Express USB 3.0 DDR3 SATA ATX


CPU

Intel Core i7-2600K Processor 3.4GHz 8 MB Cache Socket LGA1155


RAM

Corsair Vengeance Blu 16 GB PC3-12800 1600mHz DDR3 240-Pin SDRAM Dual Channel Memory Kit for Intel and AMD Platforms CMZ16GX3M4A1600?C9B


VIDEO CARDS

EVGA GeForce GTX 580 DoubleShot Superclocked Video Card 015-P3-1587-AR x 2


CASE

Cooler Master Cosmos S ATX Full Tower Case Black- (RC-1100-KKN1-G?P)


Primary HD (OS & GAMES only)

OCZ Technology 240 GB Vertex 3 SATA III 6.0 Gb/s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive VTX3-25SAT3-240?G


2ND HD'S (MUSIC, VIDEOS, PICS)

Hitachi Ultrastar 3.5-Inch 450 GB 15000RPM SAS 64 MB Cache Enterprise Hard Drive with Mission Critical Performance 0B23662 x 2 RAID1

3RD HD'S (BACKUPS)

Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST2000DL003 X2 RAID 0


OPTICAL DRIVE

Plextor 12X Bd Writer


POWER SUPPLY

SILVERSTONE ST1500 1500W ATX12V/EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Silver Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply


COOLING

CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler



Any thoughts/opinions/additions/subtractions or comments would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!


Toby

 

[Sardic]

Forgot to include pricing
MOBO $434.69
CPU $339.63
RAM $149.99
Video Cards $1008.62
Case $188.74
SSD HDD $759.90
2 15k HDD $625.98
2 7200 2TB HDD $160
Optical Drive $175.47
Power Supply $365.48
Cooling $119.99

Total Config Price $4327.49 (This is about what I spent on my last build and it lasted me 10 years and I still have the monitor lol)

 

[genghiskron]

please fill out the form linked in my signature, so we have all the necessary information, especially concerning your usage of the computer.

 

[0ozee]

what will you be using the pc for? gaming? video editing? just for email/web?

 

[Sardic]

Sorry! Yes of course that would be helpful!


Approximate Purchase Date: No rush, going to get the components nailed down then will purchase as prices drop


Budget Range: Under 5K but no set budget since I'll be buying in pieces over a few months is my guess


System Usage from Most to Least Important: Everything from Online gaming to video editing (hence the dual video cards) so heavy video use


Parts Not Required: Have listed already my best thoughts


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: all pricing listed was from amazon except the cooling I found cheaper at newegg I have no preference just NOT tiger direct! ever!


Country of Origin: USA


Parts Preferences: Open to AMD but Intel seems easier to pair with good MOBO's at least it seems that way plus i'll be gaming so Windows is a must


Overclocking: Maybe depends on how difficult it is and what risks are involved


SLI or Crossfire: My question is what is the difference? I figure plop in 2 PCI cards just as easy as monkeying around with switches (if they still do that these days)


Monitor Resolution: I have a 24" 2ms 1920x1200 monitor already that can handle about anything I throw at it.


Additional Comments: Just advice and thoughts on video sli/crossfire/pci etc

 

[clarkjd]

SLI is an Nvidia only tech and Crossfire is for AMD/ATI cards. So, if you want the GTX580's you will use SLI.

 

[bucknutty]

I would only recommend SLI to the most avid enthusiast. You have to keep the drivers up to date or new games won’t work, you double the chance of video errors, and driver crashes, and some video game titles will get no increase at all. I have an older Q9650 with 2 GTX470s, it works ok but I often think 1 single GTX480 would have been better for games.
I also fold@home and in that the SLI setup is much better in work unit completed than a single more expensive card. SLI really depends on what you are into.

 

[Sardic]

So should I scrap the MOBO and go with just standard PCI video cards? From what I'm hearing I can only do 2 video cards on that MOBO if I do SLI

 

[Sardic]

Might swap out the SSD for this one:

http://www.buy.com/prod/crucial-realssd-c300-256-gb-internal-solid-state-drive-2-5-sata-600/q/loc/101/214529178.html

larger and cheaper does anyone have experience with vertex vs crucial SSD's I know crucial makes good memory but the cross over to SSD is like HP making great printers but crappy computers (not so much since the merger with compaq (who also used to make crappy computers) now they seem to make decent ones lol I guess 2 wrongs do sometimes make it right.

Also is there a benefit to running RAID1 on 2 SSD drives? I know stripping has an advantage on RPM drives but does it really matter with Solid State drives?