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Need help on my first build

post #1 of 39
Thread Starter 
What's up everyone on overclock? I am making this thread to ask for help on my first build which I will be doing in a month or two. Going to put lists below on things that I need help on and the planned system specs. Any links to articles/other threads or words of wisdom that you want to share are much appreciated.

Help:
How to hook up the power cables
How to download windows on the OS hardrive
How to overclock the CPU and video cards
How connect fans to a fan controller

Specs:
Case - Case Labs SMH10 (with side 480 radiator mount, front flex bay 480 radiator mount, XXL window, fan cutout back panel, and top and side vents) (outside painted glossy black and the inside covered with white carbon fiber vinyl)
Motherboard - Asus Rampage IV Extreme
CPU - Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 3960X 3.3GHz
Video Cards - SLI GTX 680 4gb Classified Hydro Copper
Video Capture Card - Avermedia Live Gamer HD PCIe H.264
Sound Card - Asus Xonar One
Hard Drives - 3 Corsair Neutron GTX 240gb, 1 1tb Velocilraptor
RAM - Corsair Platinum 32 Gb
PSU - Corsair 1200W Platinum
Lighting - white LEDs (to "showcase" the build)

Cooling
Radiator - 2 XSPC AX480
Pump - 2 EK D5 with white and black pump tops (black pump on bottom, white on top with white top pump facing toward the window)
Reservoir - Bitspower 400mm Clear (caps painted white)
CPU Block - Swiftech Apogee HD White
Thermal Paste – IC Diamond
Fittings - Koolance fittings with a few quick disconnects
Tubing - Tygon 2475 High Purity (might have to replace with Durelene, Tygon has a reputation of changing color when exposed to Mayhems coolant, however this is a different formula than usual Tygon as it has no plasticizer and is resistant to absorbing fluids).
Liquid - Mayhems Red Pastel (made a little bit darker with their dye)
Fans - 8 Silverstone FM121, 12 Gentle Typhoon High RPM (3000 rpm version)
Fan Controller - NZXT Sentry Mix (2 channels per radiator, 1 channel for the other fans, and the last channel can hopefully be used for the LEDs

If you have any extra tips or tutorials that I have not listed and you think that a first time builder would need to know, please post them as well, and thank you again for your help.

Also if you guys have any suggestions for names of this build I would really like to hear them.
Edited by walden emrys - 11/2/12 at 5:00pm
post #2 of 39
First off, the extreme cpu isn't going to give you any edge in gaming, you'd be better off with a 3930k, or a 3820 and save quite a bit of money. Same with your video cards, you could get 2 670 4gbs and oc them (they're reall only about 5-10% away from a 680) and save more money there as well. Go with 16 gigs ram, drop that psu down to about 750-800 watts.
As for plugging things in, it's actually kinda like putting together a puzzle, not very hard to figure it out, I'm sure you'll do just fine with that aspect.
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post #3 of 39
What will this rig be used for? tongue.gif
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post #4 of 39
Where did he asks to save money? biggrin.gif


I recommend 16GB of RAM for maximum CPU overclocking (I barely used 7 GB for my everyday use, I'm a gamer)

If you plan of overclocking your Graphic cards, I don't recommend the Nvidia GTX 6xx series. Especially if you plan to watercool them. The nvidia cards has locked voltage and has limited overclocking. (Talking about the GTX 6xx Series)

For maximum performance get ATI 7970s

I honestly believe you can easily build this computer yourself, with the part list you have in mind, you are already showing a minimum knowledge to build it yourself. When you receive your parts, read the Asus Rampage IV Extreme Manual for RAM and CPU installation. you can also follow guides using google to help you build your first PC. There are also many guides on watercooling. Try to make some google search from the past two years for most up-to-date guides.

This is a guide to help you overclock your board.

Read this carefully, best help on how to overclock the Rampage IV Extreme (by Raja)


How to hook your fans to a Fan controller: You need to daisy chain the fans together. If you buy a fan controller of 35watt per channel and you want to hook 10watt fans. Don't hook more than 3 fans on the same know to respect its maximum allowed wattage.

This is how you Daisy Chains fans (Lets say you want the same knob to control the fans on a 360 Radiator)

***** Pay attention to the Yellow Wire *****








Also, about your CPU block. (Good choice with the Apogee thumb.gif )

From STREN CPU roundup! (Click to show)









.
Edited by KaRLiToS - 11/2/12 at 6:18pm
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post #5 of 39
Quote:
Originally Posted by KaRLiToS View Post

Where did he ask to save money?

Just trying to help someone save where they can, he may not know much about hardware and think he needs the priciest parts out there, I have seen countless people waste perfectly saveable money and then get upset after they find out a system for much much less gets the same result. Judging by what he picked out, coupled with asking for help on how to put it together he knows next to nothing about pc parts. Which is what we typically try to help people to understand more on this site. Why buy a $1000+ cpu when a $300 will do the same job?
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SKYnet
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RAMHard DriveHard DriveOptical Drive
G. Skill Ripjaws X 4x4gb 1.5tb WD Caviar Green SATA A blah IDE for whatever storage HP USB DVD 
CoolingOSMonitorKeyboard
Antec Kuhler 620 Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit Samsung 24" 1920X1200 Razor Lycosa 
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post #6 of 39
Thread Starter 
You guys all brought up some really good points, thanks to the guy who is trying to save me money, but the reason I chose these parts are because I want to futureproof my pc as much as possible. I know its not possible to future proof much. The reason I chose that CPU is because I'm not going to upgrade until the Haswell Extreme chips comes out, might not even be until the Broadwell Extreme are released. I've decided I'm going to stay with the stock overclock that EVGA does to their hydrocoppers and I'm not switching to AMD because of Nvidia PhysX and other Nvidia based technologies that are exclusive to them in addition to the fact that I'm not going with multiple monitors (if I was going with multiple monitors I might choose AMD). Also, I've decided to save costs that I'm going to go with either regular Dominator Ram or Vengeance Ram. The NZXT Sentry Mix fan controller is 50 watts per channel so I should be good with the controller. Another change I might make is to get an external drive istead of the velocilraptor to back up my system. Also, just incase you were wondering, the budget is 10,000 (that is the MAX limit). To answer Rognin's question I'm going to be using this for video games, recording video game footage, editing the footage, as well as some amateur music production.
post #7 of 39
If you do more, much much more encoding and editing it will be worth it, but for gaming it's not going to do too much better than even a 2700k, here is a link for benchmark comparison between the two : http://www.notebookcheck.net/Core-i7-3960X-and-i7-2700K-Desktop-CPUs-in-Review.67771.0.html. But it is your money.
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SKYnet
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RAMHard DriveHard DriveOptical Drive
G. Skill Ripjaws X 4x4gb 1.5tb WD Caviar Green SATA A blah IDE for whatever storage HP USB DVD 
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post #8 of 39
Well, if you're willing to fold or boinc then that machine will do great. Although the latest and best is not the 3960X anymore.

Behold the 3970X

If you're willing to fold, that rig would be beastly and would make a difference.

If only for what you described it, then a 2600k, 2700k or 3770k are all processors that will serve you well for a fraction of the cost. Money that could be better spent towards watercooling/sleeving/paint/fans etc.

Edit: Remember, The more powerful the machine and the more you stress your machine the more heat is created and wattage consumed (think power bill). Folding costs money, as does gaming on powerful machines.
Edited by Rognin - 11/2/12 at 7:20pm
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CPUMotherboardGraphicsGraphics
Intel Core i7 2700K Z68X-UD7-B3 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 
GraphicsRAMRAMRAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 Corsair  Corsair  Corsair  
RAMHard DriveCoolingPower
Corsair  2x Mushkin 240Gb SSD Raid 0  A lot. ST1500 
CaseAudio
FT02 Xonar ST 
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
i5-2500K P8P67 WS Revolution Sparkle Calibre GTX 560 G.Skill 
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Corsair Force SSD WD Caviar Black BD combo Liquid 
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Win 7 Ultimate AX650 500R 
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Synthetic Anatomy
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CPUMotherboardGraphicsGraphics
Intel Core i7 2700K Z68X-UD7-B3 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 
GraphicsRAMRAMRAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 Corsair  Corsair  Corsair  
RAMHard DriveCoolingPower
Corsair  2x Mushkin 240Gb SSD Raid 0  A lot. ST1500 
CaseAudio
FT02 Xonar ST 
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
i5-2500K P8P67 WS Revolution Sparkle Calibre GTX 560 G.Skill 
Hard DriveHard DriveOptical DriveCooling
Corsair Force SSD WD Caviar Black BD combo Liquid 
OSPowerCase
Win 7 Ultimate AX650 500R 
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post #9 of 39
Thread Starter 
I've heard that the Ivy Bridge processors get hotter than Sandy bridge because they have really crappy TIM between the plate and the die. Does that apply for the 3970x?

Edit: I've heard of folding before, what is that all about? Also I've been thinking about down grading the cpu, but at the same time I really want it to last a while.
Edited by walden emrys - 11/2/12 at 9:24pm
post #10 of 39
A lesser CPU as long as it is halfway decent will last you awhile, my current cpu has lasted me since it released in early 2010, the video card is more likely to be replaced much more often. Even spending $3000 will get you a beastly rig that will last a good while, biggest price does not always equal best choice. Folding is protein folding which is a simulation done to help find cures for various ailments and diseases, it is a very intensive program that uses all of your pcs power.
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AMD Phenom II X6 1090T @3.8! MSI 970A-G46 AM3+ AMD 970  EVGA 670 FTW 2gig EVGA 670 FTW 2gig 
RAMHard DriveHard DriveOptical Drive
G. Skill Ripjaws X 4x4gb 1.5tb WD Caviar Green SATA A blah IDE for whatever storage HP USB DVD 
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Antec Kuhler 620 Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit Samsung 24" 1920X1200 Razor Lycosa 
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Silencer 910 Antec 902 It clicks.............. IKEA $1 pad 
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SKYnet
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CPUMotherboardGraphicsGraphics
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T @3.8! MSI 970A-G46 AM3+ AMD 970  EVGA 670 FTW 2gig EVGA 670 FTW 2gig 
RAMHard DriveHard DriveOptical Drive
G. Skill Ripjaws X 4x4gb 1.5tb WD Caviar Green SATA A blah IDE for whatever storage HP USB DVD 
CoolingOSMonitorKeyboard
Antec Kuhler 620 Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit Samsung 24" 1920X1200 Razor Lycosa 
PowerCaseMouseMouse Pad
Silencer 910 Antec 902 It clicks.............. IKEA $1 pad 
Audio
M-Audio studiophile AV-40 
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