Serious build - gamer, $3-5K+ budget.

OK guys, this is one that I have been waiting for for some time, a friend has entrusted me with building a hell of a system. Its main purpose in life is going to be gaming, with some emulation tasks, lots of multitasking, also a fair bit of Photoshop and 3D modelling work on multiple displays.


His requirements:

Must be capable of simultaneous games - gamecube emulation, minecraft, etc
Must stay cool - most important of all.
Must be Intel - whatever chip you recommend.
Must be a beast for watching movies on - Ideally I'd like to pop a disc in this instead of my $4800 home theatre system lol.
Must connect to Turtle Beach XP500 headphones. Love those puppies.
Must have at least TWO HDMI ports.
Must be Windows 7.
Capable of max settings 5760x1080 gaming on 3 HDTVs.


Some other components to be included are a good high-end sound card, and a wireless/(bluetooth?) card. A custom water loop will also go in.



Here's where it gets fun - producing a parts list.

So far (and I'll update this as I go along), I have pencilled in the following:

Case: NZXT Phantom 820
CPU: i7 3770K
Motherboard: Gigabyte UP7
RAM: 2x8GB Corsair Vengeance, 1866MHz C9
Graphics: 2x EVGA GTX 680 FTW+ 4GB
PSU: Corsair AX860 Platinum
SSD: SanDisk Extreme 480GB
HDD: WD Green 3TB
Sound card: most likely won't use one.
Wireless card: ... of some description.
OS: Windows 7 64bit Ultimate


More info will follow and I expect ordering/building to commence in the next two months or so. Build log will come!

Please critique - any and all information/advice is appreciated!

Thanks,
Sam
Edited by savage1987 - 2/16/13 at 5:56pm

OK I have a couple of questions before I go and adjust the list.

AndyM95 you suggest the Rampage IV Extreme over the MSI. Why - is that board worth the extra $80? I use a CH IV F in my own PC so I know they make great boards but I just wonder what exactly it offers that the MSI doesn't. An advantage in my mind of the MSI is that it allows me to go with a black/gold colour scheme which I have wanted to do for a while, a little more interesting than the done-to-death black and red like my own system. Of course if the value is there I won't let colour get in the way of a better end product, just not convinced yet that it is there.

Actually something more frustrating about both of these motherboards is the lack of include bluetooth. This is something that I need to fix, and I'm not sure how to go about it because I never bother in my own setups. What's the best fix for this?

PSUs I have always stuck with Corsair's offerings and never had a problem with them; their after sales service seems very good as well so I will probably go something like their AX1200i, or maybe a slightly lower one if the need is not so great.

SSD - Samsung's 840 Pro series are not available from my supplier of choice. The nearest drive to that is this one, which is cheaper than the Intel but I'm not sure is a good swap. I'll read more into it if there are going to be real gains in changing out the Intel.

HDD - why the Blacks or the Seagate? Purely for RPM? It's a storage drive that will barely be used by the sounds of it. Only thing I am concerned with is lifespan, really. The Seagate is a 7200RPM drive for exactly the same $139, so is it really a better drive, or just faster?

Sound cards, here's the list I'd like to pick from if I can. This element will be decided almost entirely by you guys here because once again this is an area I am not strong on - I normally stick with the onboard arrangement.

Last but definitely not least: graphics. I have personally heard of (and had myself) a lot of headaches with crossfire/SLI setups. Has this been tidied up at all over the years? What I don't want to do is deliver a system that you need to be a software engineer to get certain games running correctly on. For this reason I have been wondering if I'm better off sticking to one monster graphics card. The more I think about it though, the more I remember the comment made to me that it should be "gamer porn".. so multi GPUs certainly win out there! Another consideration I guess is managing available slots - 3 gpu, sound card, wireless card, or 4 gpu and no sound card, etc. More thought required.

Please excuse all the questions - at the end of it all I am accountable for the choices made in this build and I want to deliver the best damn product I can put together.

Thanks, OP updated.

Hmm. That does sound interesting but the more I think about it the more I want to go for multiple GPUs. Will be more involved to water cool them but I'm sure I can manage

Any and all information still wanted!

Think I settled on a case too - the NZXT Phantom 820, gunmetal. It is a beautifully crafted case and I think should allow enough radiators internally to keep everything happy. I am by no means a guru with water though so please correct me if I am way off the mark.