Powerful, silent when idle, expandable.

[llebri]

I haven't travelled much for work in a long time so I have decided to migrate from gaming laptops to a beast desktop. I just don't have the time or inclination properly research all the components myself and self assemble. So some help and guidance will really be appreciated. (I did Google some things but I don't understand allot of the tech mentioned in differences)

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R4 BLACK PEARL QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4670K (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® Z87-PRO: USB3.0, SATA 6GB/S, XFIRE, SLi, WiFi
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 770 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready

Plan here is to OC the i5 to 4Ghz - I figure even an amateur like me should be able to pull that off.
To keep costs semi reasonable I want to get one GTX 770 now while I still have only 1 monitor, but next year add another one (or three total is possible now? with a PCIe3 that only has two slots??)

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Plan to add another 8GB next year
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
Plan to add another 120GB when budget permits
3rd Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
4th Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
These will be Raid Mirror and partitioned so the SSD is backed up as well

Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W PRO SERIES™ HX850-80 PLUS® GOLD MODULAR (£139)
Overkill now, but need grunt for when I add SLI (will 850W handle 3x 770? it looked ok to me)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H80i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£69)
H100i doesn't fit aparrently, I don't know which silent case will fit it
Fan Controller
NZXT Sentry 2 Fan Controller with upto 5 Fitted Case Fans
This looks like a must have, but I'm not sure
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Figure if the sound bothers me I can expand easily

3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)


Games I play are mostly Total War series, RPG and GTA. Currently I don't have a monitor (planning to buy that seperate - probably 1x1440p and expand to 2x1440p later when I add SLI)

Thoughts?
I was aiming for a beast that is as quiet as possible, with the hardest components to place (cpu cooling mobo) to be good quality so I can expand SSD,RAM,SLI myself next year.

Some configuration sites charge extra for clean cable management in the case on assembly - I don't see an extra option for that here so I assume PC Specialist do it by default?

 

[llebri]

Pre-empting questions:
1) Why OC? Total War and GTA were historically very CPU intensive - I dream of running TW:R2 at max possible and large armies.
2) Why did you choose that mobo? God knows - differences between the mobos (powerphases wtf?) are beyond me at the moment
3) Why that case? Minimalist and it says its silent - very open to suggestions.

I have Samsung 840 pro's at the moment and really happy with them, I don't know if it's worth figuring out the cable management hassle to drop the intel sdd and get 840 pros separate if pc specialist doesn't sell them.

 

[vanthus]

The motherboard you have selected doesn't support 3 graphics cards,you would need to select something like the the Asus maximus VI hero.Also the configurator recommends a 1050W power supply for 3 GTX 770's,with the spec you posted.

 

[Boozad]

What is your budget?

 

[Grimezy]

Any rig can be silent, download a fan software (I use Asus Suite II), it gives you 3 adjustable settings; silent, standard and turbo. Turbo's fine for gaming, silent is fine for browsing/film watching, etc. All a silent case is likely to do is reduce your airflow resulting in higher temps while under load. Your choice really. If you're planning on adding another graphics card in future I'd be wanting the best airflow possible though. Just noticed you're planning on overclocking as well, another reason to go for a better cooled case.

 

[Boozad]

The Cooler Master Silencio 650 runs very quiet when under load with components at stock speeds.

 

[keynes]

Plan here is to OC the i5 to 4Ghz - I figure even an amateur like me should be able to pull that off.
To keep costs semi reasonable I want to get one GTX 770 now while I still have only 1 monitor, but next year add another one (or three total is possible now? with a PCIe3 that only has two slots??)

I wouldn't suggest attempting to tri-sli, the third card is going to provide not a significant improvement since diminishing returns will kick in and it's going to get hot. For gaming I wouldn't worry too much on overclocking but if you still want to do it you could get a ore-overclock system from PCS to avoid any instability issues.

 

[llebri]

First off thank you everyone for the replies

What is your budget?

I am trying to stay under £2000 (including the monitor(s) that I haven't decided on yet) I can go over if the argument for it is good enough to convince myself and my wife that I haven't completely gone of the deep end. (At the moment the pitch is how this upfront cost won't be as bad as the renew on xps/alienware laptops I was buying before)

The motherboard you have selected doesn't support 3 graphics cards,you would need to select something like the the Asus maximus VI hero.Also the configurator recommends a 1050W power supply for 3 GTX 770's,with the spec you posted.

Thanks, I should have just configured with three cards to confirm power requirements and then reduce the cards I plan to update later.

The Cooler Master Silencio 650 runs very quiet when under load with components at stock speeds.

I will look at it again, I initialy thought the Fractal4 looks nicer - but most important is that the machine is quiet (when I am not gaming)

I wouldn't suggest attempting to tri-sli, the third card is going to provide not a significant improvement since diminishing returns will kick in and it's going to get hot. For gaming I wouldn't worry too much on overclocking but if you still want to do it you could get a ore-overclock system from PCS to avoid any instability issues.

Before I decided to go back to desktops I didn't even know we can tri-sli now, haven't read up much on it but thanks for letting me know about diminishing returns. I think I will have to give more thought to the final monitor configuration I will go for and plan my power around it.

The boy in me is looking at (as little bezel as possible) 3 monitors mounted. But realistically I don't know what I would do with 3 screens to look at. Apart from F1 and sim games.

Again thanks for the inputs, I have lots to ponder.

 

[keynes]

But realistically I don't know what I would do with 3 screens to look at. Apart from F1 and sim games.

Surround gaming or multitasking. I find the 3 screens pretty useful and I can't stand my single monitor back at work. If you go for 2 or 3 monitors I'd suggest 2 x GTX 770s.

 

[Wozza63]

Multiple screens are amazing, I have two at home and two at college, and would find it very difficult to go back to one, when I'm just browsing at home I usually just have chrome on one side and static information on the other, such as temperatures as well as my steam games list and friends list, but I often have a game open on one screen and have a movie or episode of a TV show playing on the other. In college I would usually have open a webpage on one and then the program im using, such as Unity, VB, Word etc.

 

[Boozad]

I will look at it again, I initialy thought the Fractal4 looks nicer - but most important is that the machine is quiet (when I am not gaming)

I've written a review of my rig here, and while I don't have two GPUs it does have a bit of grunt to it. I've reviewed each component individually and highlighted the main points I was looking for in the rig, low noise levels being one of the most prominent. There are photos from post #63 if you're interested in seeing a build in the case, and the review starts at post #91 if you want to read my thoughts on the 650 and other components.

 

[vanthus]

Plus one to what Wozza said,I use two monitors and couldn't really go back to just one.Two monitors gives so much more scope and flexibility.

 

[llebri]

At the moment the most frustrating thing is finding the right monitors. Every time you think you find the right monitor its either discontinued, no mounting support, ghosting reports, or...£500+

So in the meantime -
I am scrapping the 3 sli idea (at least for next 2 years), and 1440p gaming
Researching monitors to have a 3x 23/4" 1080p rig (VESA is a must, my desk is too small in depth)
Now that my heart is setting on 3 monitors, might have to go straight to two gtx770 ...oh the first world problems..
The more posts you read on the net the more confused you get

I use two screens at work, and im always more focused on one with my body turned to one side. The other screen just causing ADD as a twitch left to check documentation/email.lync
So for home I definitely want a centre screen, it was always whether getting on big one or 3 small

 

[bigben]

With a spec like that I would consider getting a monitor with a faster refresh rate. The Benq is my signature (can't remember the model) is pretty nice and has 144hz refresh rate for gaming. Bit pricey though

EDIT: THIS ONE