New PC - your opinions

Mystic Twilight

Mystic Twilight

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Right so another thread about a new computer. I assembled on paper the following components and would like an opinion on whether something should be changed or otherwise. I am purchasing at dealer prices, so my budget should be able to accommodate everything listed here up to a summed value of R11-12k odd. I don't have absolute brand loyalty, what is listed first seemed to me as the better choice.

Motherboard: Asus Maximus Gene V. Alternative: Gigabyte G1 Sniper M3. Apparently the boards are neck to neck with the G1 only excelling with its audio chipset while the Gene V has more SATA and USB connectors. I am concerned with the G1's lesser power phase but reviews seem to indicate this isn't an issue for overclocking the cpu.

CPU: Core i5 3570K. I did consider holding off for Haswell, but the CPU side performance gain seem to be too small to hold off for 4 months+, coupled with untested new chipsets and most probably few boards to choose from. It ticks me off that IB/socket 1155 is EOL after June.

CPU cooling: Corsair Hydro series H80i. I did consider the Coolermaster Vxx (like the V6GT or the V4) air cooled series but wondered if air cooling is 1) enough for a mild/mildly extreme over clock (4Ghz or more is my target) and 2) be able to accommodate the tall fins of the RAM coolers.

GPU: Gigabyte nVidia GTX 660ti. Alternative: Gigabyte AMD HD7950 3GD. This decision is going to be difficult, apparently its a mixed bag as to which is better. Im only running a single monitor setup at 1920x1080 (still yet to decide 23 or 24 inches, but that point is moot). Apparently the AMD HD8XXX series are going to have some mixed rebranding of the HD7XXX series chips, so holding off for them is not worthwhile. The nVidia GTX 7XX series are apparently launching in March this year, so holding off for them may be a good choice, however there isn't any information as to wether the newer cards in the R3000-R4000 bracket (mid range card) will perform much better than the 660ti at the same or reasonably higher price point.

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB kit. I will have virtual machines. The higher speed DIMMS didn't seem to be an attractive option as the timings were looser.

PSU: Corsair GS600. If I get the HD7850 I might consider a 700W PSU, however I don't think I will hit the ceiling of the 600W PSU if I choose the 7850 and there should still be some headroom left over of about 60W odd. Capacitor ageing could be a factor for me get a 700W over a 600W, your thoughts?

SSD - OS: Corsair Force 3 90GB. 90GB should be sufficient for the OS (win7), all games and large installs will go to the HDD.

HDD: Seagate 500GB

This will all be fitted inside a CM Storm Enforcer which I already have. Thanks for taking a look and I appreciate any comments (though preferably constructive ones :D).
 
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I'm have a OC of 4.6gHz on air. Cooler Master V8.
Make it a 120GB SSD.
Both MB's are fine.

I went for the MSI 7950 3GB Twin Frozr @ 3.5k from Wootware. They have the Powercolour for 3.2k.
 
make it a 240 or 256gb ssd.
and a 1tb hdd.
corsair hydro 40 or 60 is good enough.
650w psu.

i5 3570k if you play mainly games. otherwise i7 3770k's the better option.

if you can wait till the 7xx series are availeble, rather wait.
 
A couple of points to consider:

1) Don't wait for Haswell. What I'm seeing now from sources indicates that it's not as good an overclocker as SN-B or IV-B and the bulk of improvements are in the GPU and in power consumption.
2) I'd like to put in a vote for the cheaper GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H. Overclocks very well, very stable and I've seen it do things boards costing half as much aren't capable of.
3) The HD8000 refresh you're talking about is restricted to OEM channels only. AMD won't be releasing "Sea Islands" cards until late this year to the consumer market and Nvidia will only be doing a minor Kepler refresh with increased clock speeds and perhaps a few power tweaks here and there - easily done using software with the current cards. Both companies are moving towards an 18-month life cycle, rather than new products every year.
4) A maxed out Radeon HD7950 should draw around 200W on its own, a complete system with a Core i5 at 4.5GHz should be around 350-400W. The GS600 will be fine for your needs although its a solidly average PSU. If it were my money, I'd be looking at the CX750.

I like everything else so far. I'd also recommend a better and slightly larger SSD, like the OCZ Vertex 4 128GB.
 
Thanks for the comments guys.

@Synergy: I am slightly concerned that the V8 might obstruct the ram modules due to their tall fins, I don't want to consider placing the ram in the B channel.

@Mika: The new interlink system from corsair has my interest, however I will consider a hydro H60 to save money.

@Wesley: For the price of the CX750, I am able to get a Corsair HX650. So, higher power output vs higher efficiency? Given that the system will be fine with 600W of power, conventional wisdom says get the higher efficiency PSU with [assumed] better quality components. Also with regards to the MoBo, reviews seem to indicate it as a very good OC board. What has me slightly concerned, even though it seems unfounded, is the lack of passive cooling for the power phase chips and other IC. Considering a water cooling option is going to be used, I don't know how effective a 200mm top mounted case fan and the 120mm exhaust fan will be on cooling those exposed components.

@SSD choice: I'll consider the 120GB, seeing as i'm now considering installing Visual Studio and other IDE's.

I forgot to mention I already have a 3TB drive as a storage device for everything else like media and ISO's, so a 500GB should be sufficient as an installation drive for software. I am still pained over the decision to either wait for new GPU's or get the current ones and between the GTX660ti/GTX770ti (though mid range cards could be a long wait depending on when the release for flagship cards are) or the HD7950/HD8950 (considering it is in the high range cards for AMD, the release could be sooner than the nVidia choice assuming both companies release new cards near simultaneously).
 
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Well you originally mentioned the GS600 so that's why I said go for the CX rather. But if you are in the same price range as an HX-series unit, ditch all the other ideas and go for that. Corsair's HX and TX families are worth every cent. As for the board it does use solid caps so at least if you have some air going into the chassis it should be fine. Although this is your money and the Rampage is a good choice.

Also, don't wait for new GPUs. What you're seeing now is exactly what you're going to see in four month's time. I don't expect anything new from Nvidia before or just after Computex as both companies are still tweaking new architecture. "Maxwell" and "Sea Islands" (Kepler and GCN successors) are just tweaks of existing hardware as both companies experiment to see how far their new designs can go.
 
I mentioned the GS600 because it was R300-R400 odd cheaper than the HX (I have access to dealer prices) and the HX at dealer price was approximately the same as the retail price for the CX you listed.

This is worse than buying a car, trying to squeeze the most optimum performance per rand here lol.
 
Go with the water cooler, trust me, I have had both the V8, V6GT & Hyper 212+. Those Coolers are ridiculously big & cumbersome. I went Antec for my H2O, but essentially is the same thing (same manufacturer) as the Corsair. It leaves such a neat look on the CPU & space galore for your RAM. The air coolers always got in the way of RAM Slot 1 of my boards.

660ti is nice, personally went for the OC'd 670 (runs almost completely on par with a stock 680)...
 
Or if you are a Nvidia fan, the MSI GTX660Ti 2GB outperforms the Gigabyte one by quite a margin. +/- R3500 from Wootware.
 
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