Decision help required

[Vargen]

Asus boards are rock solid. I'm currently running an Asus Maximus Extreme board. Kreg's list here is pretty much what I'd buy, and the revordrives are awesome. The 3 series and up even come with a heat sink on them, which mine didn't have

I will most likely be buying something portable next though, just so I can bring something to the dMw LANs.

[kregoron]

Asus boards are rock solid. I'm currently running an Asus Maximus Extreme board. Kreg's list here is pretty much what I'd buy, and the revordrives are awesome. The 3 series and up even come with a heat sink on them, which mine didn't have

I will most likely be buying something portable next though, just so I can bring something to the dMw LANs.

You can buy my laptop

[TeaLeaf]

I'd agree with Kreg, and tvh 32GB is total overkill unless you are doing something specific that can actually use that much RAM.   I'd stick to 16GB and push for th ebest GPU you can afford to go with the system as suggested above.   Corsair RAM is excellent, I'd suspect it might have been the old nvidia chipset on your previous mobo.   I had an Asus mobo that ate *any* RAM, it took me 8 sticks of Corair and 4 sticks of OCZ bei9ng destroyed before we figured out it was the mobo doing the damage.   SSD rocks btw!

@ASUS lovers - *some* ASUS boards are rock solid.   The Asus mobo I had ate those RAM sticks (and yes it was confirmed).   There's a big thread on the forums somewhere about it, I posted at the time, it was down to bios mis-timings and the then current nvidia X59 chipset iirc.
Thread: http://www.deadmen.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?23364-System-Changes&highlight=vadim
In general though I like ASUS stuff - I bought an ASUS laptop recently and the current mobo is ASUS too.

[Gorion]

The issues start when you slot in corsair dimms on an asus mobo, I'm telling you, it's a nightmare.

I'm actually hearing a lot of good stuff on kingston and rock solid stability.

The asus z77 sabretooth looks quite good.  Been looking at kingston ram, currently they only offer value certified ram in 32gig sizes, however if i choose to get those value then upgrade to proper hyperx once theyre out it can be done.  Also been looking at these: http://www.kingston.com/datasheets/KHX2133C11D3T1K2_16GX.pdf (x2 sets = 32gigs).

I'm buying from here: http://www.esmalta.com/  however you won't find anything on that site(outdated), his business is more focused on servers/network supplies for companies.  However, he'll import anything required; so I use OcUk as a reference point.

I'm getting one of those revos, and 32gig ram, extra ram never hurts.  Might try doing something with virtual machines later on and changing my mothers pc to a thin client (less hassle).  Also have a lot of vming coming up next year.

As for budget, no idea; we'll see how it goes.  However an evga gtx690 is a must, add up ram/cpu/mobo/revo so we're probably looking at ~2-2.5k ish already.  Not really sure about a soundcard (currently x-fi elite pro, and the damned drivers are horrible), want to get an external hdmi/toslink amp/decoder + woofer later on (have 7 speakers from my old s750 setup - woofer died).  That rog phoebus looks nice.

Will also need something to convert pata ribbon cable to sata cable for the optical drives, would really like to keep my plextor (if that's even possible).  If not, i'll probably setting for a bluray, ain't so expensive anymore, too bad all the current ones have that drm audio protection crap.

[kregoron]

The issues start when you slot in corsair dimms on an asus mobo, I'm telling you, it's a nightmare.

I'm actually hearing a lot of good stuff on kingston and rock solid stability.

The asus z77 sabretooth looks quite good.  Been looking at kingston ram, currently they only offer value certified ram in 32gig sizes, however if i choose to get those value then upgrade to proper hyperx once theyre out it can be done.  Also been looking at these: http://www.kingston.com/datasheets/KHX2133C11D3T1K2_16GX.pdf (x2 sets = 32gigs).

I'm buying from here: http://www.esmalta.com/  however you won't find anything on that site(outdated), his business is more focused on servers/network supplies for companies.  However, he'll import anything required; so I use OcUk as a reference point.

I'm getting one of those revos, and 32gig ram, extra ram never hurts.  Might try doing something with virtual machines later on and changing my mothers pc to a thin client (less hassle).  Also have a lot of vming coming up next year.

As for budget, no idea; we'll see how it goes.  However an evga gtx690 is a must, add up ram/cpu/mobo/revo so we're probably looking at ~2-2.5k ish already.  Not really sure about a soundcard (currently x-fi elite pro, and the damned drivers are horrible), want to get an external hdmi/toslink amp/decoder + woofer later on (have 7 speakers from my old s750 setup - woofer died).  That rog phoebus looks nice.

Will also need something to convert pata ribbon cable to sata cable for the optical drives, would really like to keep my plextor (if that's even possible).  If not, i'll probably setting for a bluray, ain't so expensive anymore, too bad all the current ones have that drm audio protection crap.

I build 7-10 Rigs a week, and havent seen more issues matching Corsair with Asus boards, not more then any other combo. But if you are more comfortable getting kingston its ofc up to you, ill try and add some choices in.
Soundcard, id either stick with the current X-fi card or go grab a Asus Xonar card, those are really impressive sound quality wise

[TeaLeaf]

go grab a Asus Xonar card, those are really impressive sound quality wise

Check out Dolby Headphone!

[Gorion]

Check out Dolby Headphone!

Don't use any headphones, speakers only I'm afraid.

[kregoron]

cpu Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail 459,95
motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard 334,99
Ram: G.Skill RipJawsZ 32GB (8x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C9 2133MHz Quad Channel Kit
239,99
GPU: OcUK GeForce GTX 690 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
859,99
SSD: OCZ RevoDrive3 MAX IOPS 120GB PCI-E SSD
385,99
Bluray: LG CH10LS28 BD-ROM 10x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black
59,99
Sound: Asus Xonar D2 7.1 PCI Sound Card
89,99
Cooler: Noctua NH-D14-2011 Dual Radiator CPU Cooler with PWM Fans (Socket LGA2011)
72,98

total: 2503,87£

Its quite steep, and this rig is based on G.skill memory, Because they just rock on! tho i could shave a fair bit off without performance dropping noticeable.
Myself would probably choose a corsair H80 or similar.
I didnt go for the biggest Intel i7 3960X as its like 500£ more and you get 100mhz and 3 mb cache extra.. which isnt worth the buck by a long shot

Ill throw up some more rigs after lunch

[kregoron]

Check out Dolby Headphone!

Sound is sooo crispy on those!

Ill also be on TS in about 4 hours if you want to ask a few questions there

[Tutonic]

The issues start when you slot in corsair dimms on an asus mobo, I'm telling you, it's a nightmare.

Again, I feel I ought to point out that I've been using Corsair DIMMs in my Asus board for years without any hiccups.

[BrotherTobious]

Again, I feel I ought to point out that I've been using Corsair DIMMs in my Asus board for years without any hiccups.

Snap no issues here apart from when I decided to give my pc a pint of water

[TeaLeaf]

My current system has Corsair Dom ram in it and the mobo is Asus.  It runs perfectly fine, you just need to be aware of which mobo/chipset you get as sometimes (like the one I linked) it goes horribly wrong and they blow up *any* brand of ram not just Corsair.   Both Asus & Corsair are top quality brands, neither sell cheap pos.

[Gorion]

Been watching quite a few vids/benchmarks, I think I'm going with the 3770k cpu (~5-6 frames less from 3930k)  and z77 sabertooth from asus.

So currently it's sitting at:

cpu: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz

motherboard: Asus Z77 Sabertooth

Ram: ?

GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 690 Signature

SSD: OCZ RevoDrive3 MAX IOPS 120GB PCI-E SSD (needs an x4 slot, should work properly in a x16 though - confirmation?)

cooler: Corsair Hydro H100  (not gonna bother with a custom build this time, if the coolant dries up, ill just attach a T and a fillport; problem should be solved)

case: Cooler Master Cosmos II

Bluray: LG CH10LS28 BD-ROM 10x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black

Sound: (dunno yet, might not even need one with an external hdmi decoder)

psu: current or corsair 1200 or evga 1200 (can someone check these voltages on my current enermax galaxy1k as see if they're fine?)

[kregoron]

Been watching quite a few vids/benchmarks, I think I'm going with the 3770k cpu (~5-6 frames less from 3930k)  and z77 sabertooth from asus.

So currently it's sitting at:

cpu: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz

motherboard: Asus Z77 Sabertooth

Ram: ?

GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 690 Signature

SSD: OCZ RevoDrive3 MAX IOPS 120GB PCI-E SSD (needs an x4 slot, should work properly in a x16 though - confirmation?)

cooler: Corsair Hydro H100  (not gonna bother with a custom build this time, if the coolant dries up, ill just attach a T and a fillport; problem should be solved)

case: Cooler Master Cosmos II

Bluray: LG CH10LS28 BD-ROM 10x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black

Sound: (dunno yet, might not even need one with an external hdmi decoder)

psu: current or corsair 1200 or evga 1200 (can someone check these voltages on my current enermax galaxy1k as see if they're fine?)

I wonder why you decided to drop teh X79 board and the sandy baby. cost?
The Z77 can do dual channel, where the X79 does Quad channel memory.
im not overly impressed with Ivy bridge, they might perform 5-10% better, but they run incredibly hot, and they lead in performance is gained quite easy with a small oc (you dont wanna do that on Ivy)
I need the brand and model of your current PSU, so i can lookup the specs

[Gorion]

Essentially the video hereunder.  I usually don't OC, and even if there's a need for it the whole auto tune thing seems straightforward and hassle free, and honestly quite a decent increase.  The H100 should be able to handle the temperature increase easily.  So comparing that with nearly double the cost for the sandy cpu for the total 7 fps increase; doesn't really seem worthwhile bothering.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mkGQhE1o2w&feature=player_embedded

Current psu: Enermax Galaxy 1000W EGX1000EWL ATX2.2 Modular PSU