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

4GB versions jack the price a bit. Of those two you suggested, the only one available to me is the EVGA FTW card + backplate bundle. At $719 ea this is a big hit to the budget and doesn't leave a lot of room for water within the $5k, even without further upgrading the motherboard.

I'm not sure if the LeadTek 680s are any good (or if there are waterblocks available for their board) but if they are an option, at $519 ea they could save me $600 across the 3 cards. Even the Gigabyte and ASUS offerings are much much cheaper than the EVGA FTW edition. I'm not sure what PCB each uses though and whether there exist full cover water blocks to suit.

I'm definitely hearing your advice re: Platinums; to be honest all I did was go into the quad channel RAM kit listings and choose a decent spec'd 32GB kit. I'm not sure if this was the smartest way to do it, and I will revisit this area.

The RIVE really limits colouring to black and red which is a minor issue for me in this build. It is a board with some documented problems, so is the MSI apparently. I'm really not sure what to do here. The Rampage costs a bit more than the MSI so that's a consideration as well.

Yeah, no.
Thanks for the info, I'm still not convinced I should be limiting myself to nVidia for this but I need more info from people more experienced in eyefinity/surround gaming than I am!
Good advice thanks.
Caselabs make awesome cases. There's no denying that. Still, out of the question for this build.

I'll drop it to two cards for now at least, and probably permanently. I don't know how to tell which cards use the reference PCB, so I don't know whether full cover waterblocks are available for theGigabyte ones. Also wonder if it'd be worthwhile chasing a water block arrangement for the Rampage if I do go that way... ?

Currently the machine which is failing to impress is a laptop. He understands a great gamer can be had for $1-2K, but as mentioned previously since he gets all his other electronics at absurdly low prices, he's happy to drop a bit more than usual on a tower.

I wholeheartedly agree about looking like a $5k machine, and to that end I'll spend as much time on it as I need to. I'm doing this because it's a passion of mine, not because I want to make money off it so time spent is really just me enjoying myself. Each piece does indeed add clutter, another reason I'm still in two minds about adding a sound card. I've been updating the OP as we go along - have a quick check and most of the use/aim/requirements are outlined there.

You sure did, and I have been speaking to him via PM about if. My issue with dropping to 2GB is while I'd love to do it to allow an extra card comfortably inside budget, I can imagine the lower VRAM may start becoming a limitation when 3d gaming comes into play. If two 4GB 680s are going to do the job and do it well on 3x1080p, I'll stick with that - for the moment at least.

I hadn't considered unlocked voltages. I guess I just assumed people had worked out how to unlock them on pretty well any 680 by now through BIOS adjustments etc, but I'll adjust the parts list again


All these adjustments are exactly why I like to start planning things a fair way out - not the week before ordering parts!

Once again, thanks for the help guys.


More food for thought - CallsignVega has put the idea in my head of using Ivy. 3770K and a UP7 are a cheaper option than the 3930K, dropping a couple of cores probably won't be a huge issue with gaming being the main focus. I have no hands-on experience with 3d modelling software, video encoding, or any real high intensity CPU work though so it's difficult for me to get my head around this.