PC building: compatibility?

[Loyal]

Hello guys,

First of, my apologies for the possibly dumb question, but I'm totally new to the whole building your own pc, yet I wanted to make myself a pretty nice pc.
Since I have no idea how to really see if everything is compatible, and would probably screw up, I wanted to ask you people for a little help on my future pc.

These are the things that I wanted to buy:

• Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS, 2TB X3
• Dell Ultrasharp U2711 X3
• Windows 7 (64-bit)
• Cooler Master CM 690 II (If you guys know a nice case, I'd be glad to see that too though.)
• Intel Core i7 990X Extreme Edition Boxed
• Sony Optiarc BD-5300S Blu-ray Disc Writer
• Cooler Master Silent Pro M1000 (1000W)
• Intel 510 250GB (250GB SSD, SATA-600) X2
• Corsair Dominator CMP24GX3M6A1333C9
• Apacer AE700 Cardreader
• MSI X58A-GD65 (1366, X58, ATX, 6x DDR3, 2x PCI, 5x PCI-e)
• Point of View GeForce GTX 590 (GeForce GTX 590, 607MHz with 3GB GDDR5) X2

I'm building this pc to run games like Crysis 2, The Witcher 2, and future games at max settings, but I'm not sure if this pc will do, and if it is compatible.
If there is any site where I can easily check this, I'll do it myself, but I'm a complete noob at this.

Thanks for your time,
- Loyal

 

[Mizzou]

Hi Loyal and welcome to Techspot. Think we can safely assume that you have a liberal budget for this build based on the components you've selected. I'm sure there are plenty of folks that will offer suggestions on your proposed build.

I can tell you for sure that you will like the Dell U2711 but if you plan on using three you might want to consider an AMD graphics solutions. Also, would help to know if you intend to overclock this system.

 

[Loyal]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Not sure if I want to overclock, but I did think about it, yet I'd first do quite a bit of research on how to do it with my components. And what would be the reason to go to AMD if I may ask? Since if I am correct Nvidea is also able to use multiple monitors. Or is the Nvidea less good?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mizzou]

Here's a link to a review on Hardware Canucks that will give you a quick overview to Eyefinity. You'll find that there are advocates for each camp, I have both AMD and EVGA cards and find AMD multiple monitor support to be less glitchy ... opinions will vary. Just a starting point to investigate AMD's offerings for multi-monitor support.

 

[Loyal]

I've been looking around a bit, saw a benchmark from a GTX 590 (The one I have in my list now) vs a Radeon HD 6990. The Radeon seemed to perform better in most games, yet I don't really understand what this 'Memory Speed' and 'Memory Bandwith' is. Since the GTX seems to have a lot better specs in those 2.

GTX 590 - Radeon HD 6990
Memory Speed 3.414 Ghz - 1.25 Ghz
Memory Bandwith 384 bit 256 bit

So I don't quite understand how the HD 6990 is better, my apologies for these dumb questions. Also can I use 2 of the Radeon HD 6990, since I can use 2 GTX 590, and like to know if this is also possible with the HD 6990.

 

[Mizzou]

There are quite a few other considerations in addition to the graphics, more on that later. Just want to make sure that you do realize that the Core i7 990X EE is close to the end of it's life cycle along with Socket LGA 1366. Not that it isn't a great processor, but there are other options such as the Sandy Bridge K series that will more than handle any type of gaming you want to throw at it. It would save you a bundle of money and is an alternative that you might want to investigate.

 

[klepto12]

imo
i7 2600k
16Gb ddr3 1600
AMD 6990 only one because lets face it quadfire is not that great unless you are trying to play at insane resolutions that only 30 inch monitors support and cost upwards of $1200 per monitor.
Good gold series psu in the range of 850 to 1000 watts
case- COOLER MASTER HAF X

 

[klepto12]

x58 is a dead socket either save your money and wait on ivy bridge or go sandy bridge now and get better gaming performance than the i7 990X.

 

[Loyal]

This 'Sandy Bridge' and 'Ivy Bridge', are CPU's if I understood correct? Also is there any link you can send me for these components, can't quite seem to find good info on them for some reason. Also, what do you exactly mean by that they are 'dead sockets'. Or that they are 'at the end of it's life cycle'. I'll go by a computer store this week too, to ask some questions.

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

I'll go by a computer store this week too, to ask some questions.

I would recommend against that, personally.

So I don't quite understand how the HD 6990 is better, my apologies for these dumb questions.

These processors are not simple machines. It's not so straightforward.

This is what I would personally opt for.
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
KINGWIN Lazer Gold Series LZG-850 850W ATX 12V v2.2 / EPS 12V v2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM
Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K
I don't know if I'm being stupid, but I don't see any 6990's on newegg.
I'd just go with a nice air cooler too.

 

[red1776]

I would recommend against that, personally.

...so would I

At the resolution the 3x 27" Dell's will be (7680 x 1440) gaming becomes almost entirely GPU dependent. If you run your games at the highest settings, it will use all of 2 x 590's or 2x 6990's....well up to the point of driver development for 4 GPU's anyway. If you stick with 7860 x 1440 or 5760 x 1200 resolutions, you will want to have two of either card.

 

[Arris]

This 'Sandy Bridge' and 'Ivy Bridge', are CPU's if I understood correct? Also is there any link you can send me for these components, can't quite seem to find good info on them for some reason. Also, what do you exactly mean by that they are 'dead sockets'. Or that they are 'at the end of it's life cycle'. I'll go by a computer store this week too, to ask some questions.

Sandy bridge refers to H67, P67 and Z68 socket 1155 chipsets from Intel and the series of processors (second generation of i series processors, i3, i5, i7) that are used with them. Currently the best option is the i7 2600K (k is the unlocked version that can be overclocked, basically you can adjust the CPU multiplier). Even though the older 1366 socket offer triple channel memory vs the dual channel of the newer 1155 socket chipsets the 1155 and i7 2600K offer mostly the same or better performance than the expensive 990X EE processor in all but a few applications that benefit from the 6 cpu cores of the 990X vs the 4 cpu cores of the 2600K (physical cores, 990X with hyperthreading has 12 and 2600K has 8).
It may not be graded as an extreme edition processors but going for the newer 2600K setup will leave you with better future upgrade options.

Ivy Bridge refers to 6 core future i series chipsets and processors which should be even higher performance and should be out Q4 of this year with any luck. Also for a gaming machine it may be worth looking at the Bulldozer FX processor range just being launched by AMD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge

 

[Mizzou]

I don't know if I'm being stupid, but I don't see any 6990's on newegg.

They're not there, the 6990 is not even listed as out of stock. The GTX 590's are all out of stock as well and EVGA only has one of the Hydro Copper in stock for nearly $900. Looks like either of these cards might be hard to come by now.

 

[Loyal]

Thank you all for the replies.

That Bulldozer FX sure does look nice too, and is a LOT cheaper than the 990 Extreme. Thing I'm mostly thinking of now is Video cards, probably going to ask some more people too, so I can compare their ideas on them.

 

[klepto12]

Gtx 580s are nice in sli as well but not like the 590 or 6990.

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

I doubt it would be too difficult to obtain a 6990. I would personally just do that.