That's what I figure. I have a small monitor now, like 19" I think, and I am not using HD. I do plan on a 24" or so and HD in the next few months. Definitely staying single monitor, though. It fills my needs okay.

PC as listed cost me $1K built, I added up all the parts and it looks like I paid about $200-250 for labor. Considering I am PC illiterate, money well spent IMO.

If anyone local needs help setting a PC up (Atlanta area), I would be happy to assist, lemme know. :)

Next time you need a new PC from the ground up you should try it yourself. It's really easy. You just need a basic $10 tool kit with anti-static wrist strap. Watch a couple videos on Youtube and voila... you can build a PC!

Here is mine, no photos yet.

I7 980x @ 4.4Ghz LS cooling. Tri SLI

Asus Rampage 3. i7 980x. Tri SLI GTX480 build - YouTube

Very nice. Great job with that cable management! :tup:

I'm just afraid I would get parts that don't play nice with each other and end up with a build that was imbalanced or internally incompatible either physically, or operationally.

That's why you post here and we will help you spec your rig. :tiphat:

It is fairly hard to mess up a custom build now a days honestly.
Just throw up what you want, what you think will work together and we will help you along the way.

:iagree:

Way too many resources here to fvck up a build...just gotta ask questions is all.

Just don't listen to us when we are drunk, you will end up with a PS3 or something. :stirthepot:

Or a Mac :bowrofl:

Also, a mini-review of sorts, on my new Corsair H80 cooler.

So I kept building systems that seemed to have issues in one way, shape, or form. Perfect example: when I spec-ed out my system a couple years ago (i7 920), I specifically got that processor because of how much bang-to-buck ratio there was after overclocking. Most of the other i7's of its generation were the same core, just a higher stock clock speed, so for its time, the 920 was equal to the i7 2600K of now. So I went out of my way to get a nicer case from Thermaltake w/ liquid cooling built in, and I figured all would be well.

Wrong.

The stock Thermaltake cooling system was TERRIBLE for some reason. To this day, I still dont know what was so bad about it. When I yanked it out, it honestly looked like the same cooling radiator as my H80. I can only assume that for some reason, my pump wasnt working properly, or the block wasnt sitting on the processor correctly. However, all my cores were around the same temperature, so I can only assume that wasnt quite the case...

Anyway, so I had to compromise and instead of having my proc running at 4.0+ like it should have been, I was crawling along w/ a slow 2.66 quad core. Sure, with 460 GTX's SLi-ed, its still more than enough for most any game, but it still felt like I was compromising like usual instead of fixing the problem. So I finally said "screw it", and bought the new H80.

Wow, talk about a great setup. Instead of idling at 50-55C at the STOCK clock of 2.66, I was idling at ~30-35C OVERCLOCKED at 4.0. Full load, Im peaking around mid-60's or so. No instability at all - the extra money I spent on good RAM years ago paid off, and the system is rock-solid, and I feel like I breathed a lot of new life into my system for a cool $90.

Nay-sayers will whine about how its a dedicated CPU-cooler and you cant expand the liquid cooling to any other components. I am not going for a system like GTLAW's. Nothing against him, great build and all, but as everyone knows the dollar/performance ratio is EXTREMELY low for a system like that. I prefer to stick to the higher-than-mainstream, but not bat-****-crazy-expensive setups. Something that air-cooling alone could really handle, but liquid cooling to the CPU gives that extra peace of mind.

So in closing, the Corsair setup is a really nice product. I dont think I'd recommend the H100, as the cooling block for that requires some serious case real estate. The H80 will use a standard 120MM fan slot (although I did have to bend a support bracket in my case due to the power supply being immediately above it), and was super-simple to put in. If you are ok w/ just your CPU being liquid cooled? Dont even hesitate.

Oh snap.

Nice! Glad you like it.

On my i7-2600k and Hyper 212+ air cooler I see 30-32*C idle and 60-62*C peak load at 4.429ghz. Pretty good! I would need to water cool it to go to 5+ ghz though.

Yeah, Im pumped about moving up to Ivy Bridge, but Im so pleased with how my system is now it'll be hard to tear me away from it so easily.

Kinda like how when I got my Droid X2 so cheap, I didnt immediately get a Nexus even though I've been due for an upgrade for months now...its really just fitting the bill right now.

I know I'll crack though, and get Ivy Bridge haha.

What are your CPU loads in BF3? I only see around 50% load which seems to be the norm for the 2600k.

I think I will upgrade to the 7xxx series ATI cards before I upgrade to Ivy Bridge.

Yeah I'd probably do a video card before I did a proc, for sure, in your situation.

Unknown on loads in BF3 - I'll try to check tonight.

Eyefinity just requires so much graphics power its insane. I am going to try with one screen tonight. I know I will be at 120+ fps on one screen with everything ultra. :icon17:

I probably need two 7970s to run Eyefinity at high-ultra at 75+ fps.

Excuse for my wiring, I haven't cleaned it up as well. At 4.0ghz, I'm idling at 30c. I'm kind of regretting not getting the Noctua DH-14 but they didn't come with PWM fans. The CoolerMaster V6GT is freaking loud at full speed but same performance as Noctua DH-14 but the Noctua from what I've read is super quiet even with fans at full speed. :(

Oh well at least the cooler matches the case, lol. Yea I know, I'm missing another video card and I only have 8GB RAM but more will come soon.

http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/6...0105203358.jpg

Also, it looks like you likely have a stick of RAM in the wrong slot....they should be in the same color slots.

Son of a b...didn't notice that, LOL I was so concentrated on fitting the darn cooler which barely clears the first slot.

This is correct, you want to run ram
1-3
2-4

Not always :). Motherboards vary - I had one that the same channels were 1-2, 3-4.

Nice catch, thanks guys. My old was this so I assumed...:shakes head:

http://206.108.48.60/upload/Motherboard/b20100413.jpg

I have always had 1-3,2-4 boards, so all other ones are wrong. :stirthepot:

Office Computer:

Before:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7021/6...1e9f94c2_z.jpg

After:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7174/6...6132b50b_z.jpg


Home Setup

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7017/6...08b62dcb_z.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7170/6...3f122a9c_z.jpg

Changed to an Asus board and upgraded ram after original MB fried on the Alienware...it's a great case but it's freekin' huge

So, not surprisingly, if I disable my Eyefinity display group and play BF3 on one monitor (1920x1080) I get anywhere from 75-100 or so FPS with everything on Ultra. Both GPUs running at 100%, CPU still pushing along at around 50%.

I think I'm going to play this way for now and only use Eyefinity for regular computing and iRacing. BF3 just looks so much better this way.

Kingzee, that's quite the office setup:tup:

Came across this site in my favs (had forgotten about it), pretty cool. The test is quick, and you don't have to sign up or anything lame like that:
Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test

Eyefinity gets old in shooters anyway. :/ It's too distracting.

I like it... the more peripheral vision the better.

So my GF's mother asked me to put together a PC for her jewelry business and since I had a box full of parts coming from NewEgg, I went ahead and had them throw a few extras in:

Another 8GB kit from Patriot
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7192/6...7fa2fcb9_b.jpg

When in doubt, fill every DIMM slot and let God sort it out! Eventually I'll have software that could actually use 16GB of RAM
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7036/6...cb5d77fd_b.jpg

Cyborg RAT7 mouse, actually pretty nice and comfortable in the hand despite its looks. The red sniper button is pretty cool for more precise control.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7061/6...e41d86c8_b.jpg

Had a big empty spot in the case so...
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7179/6...428b623d_b.jpg

picked up another Radeon 6790 and setup Crossfire.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7203/6...c261ef33_b.jpg

Did some cable tidying while I had the case open. Annoyingly, that power line to the top of the motherboard is about 2 inches too short to route up behind the motherboard.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7176/6...ee099d1e_b.jpg

All buttoned up and ready to rock! Probably won't tweak around too much with the clocking since that really wasn't in the plan, I went with the i5 2400 instead of the more overclockable 2500K to save some money. Went from ~3100 to ~5600 in 3DMark11 so a nice jump without breaking the bank and runs Star Trek Online and Portal with high-ish settings to my satisfaction.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7050/6...e70b35ca_b.jpg

I didn't want multi monitor setup so I just upgraded my monitor. I got the Hanns-G 28." It's pretty decent and super easy to read two page documents or having windows side by side.

Nice rig, Titan! :tup:

Nikkolai, that's a nice monitor. I have one in my setup at work. I really would like to get another. I'm running a 28 and a 20 off to the side right now.

Finally getting settled into my place:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1...s512/photo.JPG

Bump :D

:hello: I'm joining this party.

I'm currently building a new PC and need some input from you guys. As far as mid range Z77 mobo's go, have you heard/ read which one is a great one that will allow me to be flexible in the future and has relatively low failure rate. I have checked out so far Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H and Asus Sabertooth Z77 (though i'm not sure if Sabertooth is worth it). Any recommendations are appreciated :tiphat:

I went with ASRock's Extreme4. Normally, I'm an ASUS-or-nothing kinda guy, and I'm very pleased with my purchase so far.

All of the Extreme line from ASRock got Tom's Hardware nods.

What games are you playing? I have been bored of PC games and have stopped working on my pc ever since. I got it attached to a nice 52" LG TV, but now all I use my computer is for 350z and 370z forums lol.

I am more into MMORPG types.