Intel Six Core Doombox Suggestions!

[AshleyAshes]

So, uhh, in a couple of weeks I will be getting an i7 4930K. That's an Ivy Bridge with six cores at 3.4ghz and I intend to also overclock it to about 4.4 - 4.6ghz. It's being built as a workstation for doing film editing, compositing and the most demanding task: computer animation. As I type this infact, I have my i7 3770K (4.4ghz) along with an i7 3770, i7 2630QM, and A8 3870K all working together on a Cinema 4D Team Render. But I want more power. I will be using a few parts from my existing 3770K workstation, namely the graphics card, RAM and the drives. The rest will be 'demoted' into a dedicated headless render box while the new workstation will replace it.

The CPU is decided but I'm looking for some suggestions on other hardware. That said, I'm planning on buying the remaining parts on Black Friday so what goes on sale on Black Friday will be a deciding factor.

PSU? How many watts will I need for an overclocked CPU that's already rated 130w TDP stock, plus a Radeon HD 7950?

Motherboard There's a few socket 2011 mobos out there. There are older ones that can run Ivy Bridge-E chips but only with a firmware update, a firmware update that can't be installed without a Sandy Bridge-E inside it to start with. So those are out. Other mobos are, well crazy expensive. I'm not looking for something that can do 4x SLI or anything stupid, this is a tool, not something to get 300fps in Crysis 3. Right now I'm leaning towards the Asus P9X79 LE. ( http://ncix.com/products/?sku=73615&vpn=P9X79 LE&manufacture=ASUS&promoid=1360 ) It is a Sandy Bridge-E mobo but can update the firmware off USB without CPU or RAM even installed, so it becomes a contender where other Sandy Bridge-E models would not be.

Case? I hate shopping for cases. My standard is 'ATX, black, doesn't look like I'm trying to compensate for anything'. I'm not into the stylish boxes, I just want it to hold the stuff and have fan holes.

Cooling. Now, this is one where prices will have less effect. I wanna overclock this thing and render some bits with it, so I want to max it out and not set it on fire in the process. So I'm willing to splurge a bit on a practical but effective cooling system. It should be noted that the Sandy Bridge-E and Ivy Bridge-E CPUs don't even ship with a cooler in the box so a separate purchase of one is a necessity.

 

[GatodeCafe]

RE: PSU- Check PCPartPicker. They generally have pretty decent ballparks for what wattage you'd want to look at.

RE: Cooling, look into the self-contained liquid cooling units they have now. Super reliable, super long-lasting, super chill.

 

[Lobar]

Tried eXtreme's PSU calculator, but they don't have the 4930K on their processors list. I ran it anyways with a i7-990X (also a 130W TDP processor) overclocked to 4.6Ghz at a 1.5 Vcore and it spat out a rating of 207W for the processor, for what that's worth.

Adding your video card and overbuilding it with all sorts of other shit you might ever want, I still had a hard time pushing a recommended PSU rating over 700 watts. People really overestimate their power needs.

I'm fond of Cooler Master cases, especially if you're worried about overheating. Maybe a HAF XM?

 

[AshleyAshes]

As an update, Black Friday came and a few key parts were nabbed:
The Antec One was had for $47.
As was the Corsair TX750, a refurbished unit but with full warrenty, was also had for $49. Decent haul.

Cooling plans have moved away from the Corsair H100 as the thing is so massive that it can't fit in most cases without obstructing the motherboard or DRAM slots. Thinking of an H80i but I can't find any on sale currently.

Also zero LGA 2011 mobos have gone on sale, so that might go for full price. But considering I'll be getting the i7 4930K for $179... That's not so bad.

 

[AshleyAshes]

As an update, Black Friday came and a few key parts were nabbed:
The Antec One was had for $47.
As was the Corsair TX750, a refurbished unit but with full warrenty, was also had for $49. Decent haul.

Cooling plans have moved away from the Corsair H100 as the thing is so massive that it can't fit in most cases without obstructing the motherboard or DRAM slots. Thinking of an H80i but I can't find any on sale currently.

Also zero LGA 2011 mobos have gone on sale, so that might go for full price. But considering I'll be getting the i7 4930K for $179... That's not so bad.

Now adding to the list, the Asus P9X79 LE which came in at $239 due to LGA 2011 mobos not going on sale and not being cheap. This is a Sandy Bridge-E board and will require a firmware update to run Ivy Bridge-E, thankfully Asus has a feature on this series which allows the firmware to be updated off USB, while no CPU or memory is installed, so getting it up to date and bootable shouldn't be an issue.

Finally the Corsair H80i cooler for $79.99 from Amazon. The h100i while on sale for LESS after rebate, is just too large to fit in most cases so it wasn't viable.

The last part, the i7 4940K will be ordered on Friday. I'm curious to see how this benchmarks. I imagine that for gaming there will be no more than a 5% boost just do to the GPU being the most important aspect. Though my work in Cinema 4D should be much nicer.