Help Karrde Build - Review and Reccomend? *UPDATE #2 9/21 PLEASE RECHECK*

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

Ok, next attempt here.  Came out way the hell too expensive.  Looking for recommendations for cheapening it and if I chose shitty parts.  Also thoughts on if I'm going to need extra cables or more fans would be nice.  Comp building n00b here.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Public...r=12301111

*UPDATE #2*

Changed HDDs and PSU around.

*UPDATED*

Ok, so I ditched the SLI 460s for a single OC'd Gigabyte 470.  I'm keeping the PSU since I plan to SLI with another 470 eventually (maybe in a year or so) so I think I'll prolly need the 1000 watt output.  Seems the wattage for the superclocked 470 is pretty high (550).  I'm guessing 1000 would still be enough to support 2 cards in addition to the other components.  I downgraded the case to a coolermaster HAF 922, still looks like a decent highflow case but I'll take any recs.  I'd still like to cheap this out a bit so I'm open to suggestions.

[Eightball]

The biggest thing jumping out at me is you're paying $200+ for a 1000W PSU. With your setup, you definitely don't need that much juice. My computer is essentially identical to yours in terms of power consumption (2x 460s, i7 proc, 3x2GB DDR3RAM, only one HDD but three very large fans and 2 disc drives) and my 750W PSU pumps out enough power to run smoothly. Want room to upgrade? I'd say 850W is the max you'll need. I do notice that your case and mobo are a bit on the pricey side, but I've found that those are areas you really can't afford to skimp on since you can't upgrade them later without wanting to kill yourself. However, any way you look at it, $140 is a lot to spend on a mid tower case without a million bells and whistles on it.

Also, I'd be on the lookout for combo deals in general, those are a godsend when buying from Newegg.

EDIT: Also, this is really minor and will only save you $20-40, but there are 460s that go for cheaper than that Palit one. I highly recommend the Gigabyte one, or at least one that doesn't come pre-overclocked. You can do that yourself pretty easily nowadays thanks to a plethora of guides and user-friendly software. Plus, you might find that two 460s with stock speeds are satisfactory.
EDIT2: Queer eye for the also queer guy; A motherboard with bright blue fixtures inside of a bright red case? Bleaugh!

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

Yeah I haven't looked for any combos at all.  I find it easier with problems like this to start high and then modify down.

[Eightball]

Karrde link=topic=4981.msg173212#msg173212 date=1284143812]
Yeah I haven't looked for any combos at all.  I find it easier with problems like this to start high and then modify down.

I'll do some scouring in a few minutes and see what I can find. It's like a scavenger hunt!

[Eightball]

Check out what I found: A combo deal for your exact CPU and mobo ($25 off)!

Going through your list more carefully, here are my comments:
Case: Not so sure about this one, bright red color aside. $140 seems a little bit much for a mid tower like that. Apparently the normal black HAF 922 is $50 cheaper. I'll leave this entirely up to you since case design is 90% preference. I guess I'm just not a fan of the color.
CPU: Good choice. The price drop for the 950 was long-needed. Jump alllll over that.
PSU: Again, too much juice. I know it's tempting, but you won't need more than 750W unless you plan to make serious upgrades later. Even then, 850W is probably enough.
Mobo: Never owned an ASUS mobo, but apparently they have a damn good track record with service. It's pricey, but my EVGA mobo was the same price (or maybe more). Besides, you get USB 3.0. I'm just really stubborn about mixing primary colors with computer components.
RAM: Good choice, I've got the Dominator version of these. They work great. Never had a bad Corsair chip. This is also a better choice over the Dominators since you would end up paying for useless heatsinks.
HDD: Not sure what you plan to do here. RAID 1? If you're doing RAID 0, I might recommend smaller capacity drives. Two of these will probably keep you going for a long time. 1.5TB of storage isn't bad, and you'd be saving $60 ($90 when you take shipping costs into account!)
GPU: The 460s are indeed nice. I've had a few problems with mine but hopefully with driver updates in the future, everything will be butter. Still, $250 is going to buy you the more expensive 460s. I picked up mine for $240 each, and there are some that will retail for $230 or less. The only big differences are in clock speeds (or, depending on manufacturer, casing and cooling designs). Check the manufacturer's websites too; I got two free copies of Just Cause 2 and Cryostasis from Newegg and EVGA.com.
Optical Drives: Lightscribe? Seriously? Save yourself a couple dollars and get one without that gimmicky feature. (Unless you're one of the .01% of people that use Lightscribe, in which case go for gold).
Monitor: SWEET savings there. That's worth waiting extra to get.

Also, I noticed you don't have an aftermarket CPU cooler. The i7s are known to run hot, so maybe it would be worth looking into some of them. Surf had a thread about i7 coolers recently, check that out.

[BS1]

I'm not sure when you plan on buying all these parts, or if you're stuck on Nvidia, but it's rumored that the ATi 6000 series will release later this year and early 2011. This should drop prices on the 5000 series.

[Didzo]

[quote author=[fr31ns]Karrde link=topic=4981.msg173212#msg173212 date=1284143812]
Yeah I haven't looked for any combos at all.  I find it easier with problems like this to start high and then modify down.

I'll do some scouring in a few minutes and see what I can find. It's like a scavenger hunt!
[/quote]

Most of the parts you chose don't come in combos with each other....

This might prove a little challenging.

Going AMD could shave off around $200 on the processor and mobo. Here is a nice 850W and GTX 460 combo I found. For the hard drive, I would just go with a bare drive to save some money. They wrap it up in bubble wrap which probably protects it better than the retail packaging anyway.

As for the case you got, realize that you're paying $50 extra for just the red paint over the regular HAF 922. It's even more expensive than the bigger HAF 932.

And that's all I have for now.

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

I was hoping to get this sooner rather than later.  The laptop really can't keep up.  Also, AMD/ATI is terrible.  They might not have problems now, but they're rather more likely to screw up in the future given their sordid pasts.  As for the Burner, meh, the price difference between that and something else isn't much and I don't have extra sata cables.  And who knows, I might use lightscribe at some point.  Also every SU calculator I've used has thrown out numbers of 850-900 or greater.

[Geoff]

YOURE TERRIBLE

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

Hey, their history is against them

[Vandamguy]

hey karrde, looks like you were a fan of my dads comp , im typing from it right now and its v fun :o

i got all dat crap for about ~1500 canadian, so lets take a look at how you can cut some corners

notable difference is that you want to add a second vid card and monitor .. so that should put us around ~1950 (1500+200+250)

firstly: you have 2 cases in your wishlist.

second thing that red flags for me was your choice of graphics card. same thing but different. I looked for info on the warranty that Palit is offering on your Dual room heating solution and didnt see anything on newegg , or on their website, searching for 'warranty' turned up 0 results.. i think that's bad. remeber when caff cooked his video card and used the warranty to get a sweet ass upgrade? you want that.
the version i linked in my post has a lifetime warranty (if you register). So that's like paying 10 bucks more to save 250 down the road.

if you really want to trim down i agree with 8balls , you can get away with an OEM burner. the MB comes with 4 Sata2 cables and 2 Sata3 cables.

reccomended: upgrade the HDD to 1.5TB naked, the cost per gig is better.

other than that there's no fat on this build.

if you want a treat get a 64-100 GB SSD for boot drive. its like omahguh

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

I think it should have a 2 yr warranty on it - and I tossed the second case on because I didin't want to look it up again and I'm at work

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

First post updated, please check.

[Didzo]

You picked a good case. Still on the pricier side, but it's a largish steel midsize case with plenty of fans and perforated areas for good airflow.

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

Need high airflow with the gtx 4 series since they run rather warm.

[Didzo]

Karrde link=topic=4981.msg174189#msg174189 date=1284779351]
Need high airflow with the gtx 4 series since they run rather warm.

I really don't think a case could have much better cooling than what the CoolerMaster HAF series offers.

Here are some alternatives to the model you picked:
HAF 922 The only difference here is that you have a red LEDs instead of blue ones, and metal mesh with holes for an additional fan instead of a window. Also, it's $10 cheaper.
HAF 932 Bigger, a little more expensive, and you get 3 200mm fans (one of which blows directly onto the graphics card) and a 140mm one. It's what I have.
HAF X They took the 932, made the price tag $200, and improved what little needed to be improved over the standard 932. And it looks meaner than any other case available.

[Versus]

HAF X looks pretty amazing, i saw one in operation last night at fry's

[Surf314]

I got the HAF 932 and it is a beast, the HAF X didn't really seem worth the price difference. I'd get it if I was making fat moneys.

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

Yeah I looked at the HAFX and couldn't justify the price.

More importantly, do I seem to be missing anything critical?

[Didzo]

Karrde link=topic=4981.msg174264#msg174264 date=1284830664]
Yeah I looked at the HAFX and couldn't justify the price.

More importantly, do I seem to be missing anything critical?

Pffft. The case is the most important part of any computer. Good choice with that one.  :p

Everything seems fine, assuming you already have an OS, keyboard, and mouse.

I still recommend buying a bare drive instead of the retail version. You're paying extra for only the packaging.