Battlefield 3 Headset

Being an moderate headphone enthusiast, I often sh*t on headsets made by gaming peripheral manufacturers as they are overpriced toys with flashy exteriors and cheap drivers.  This may very well be similar to the rest of them.  But the sleek cups and retro design make it a standout pair amongst all the trash.  Ditch the Battlefield logo and it would look to be a very nice set of cans.  Who knows how they sound though...

Keycaps for my CM Storm Quickfire Rapid

WOOH!  Just need a WYSE moogle spacebar and unstepped capslock! Depending on whether the dolch moogle windows and menu key match the frame colour more I may pop them in as well.

Build revisions and airflow management

So after doing some further extensive research, the GTX 690 (even though its an amazing looking card and possibly the best engineered piece of pc hardware in terms of the consumer market) is just way too overpriced and scarce to remain in this build as a viable option.  In the end, my current set up of a single 2560 x 1440 display will be very comfortably run with a dual GTX 670 set up with a possible expansion to a third should things get hairy.  3 of those would actually come to about the price of 1 GTX 690 so not all is a compromise.  Sure there will be some drawbacks in regards to PCIe lanes but at the resolution I need there won't likely be an issue with losing 1 or 2 fps.  Onto the custom makes and clocks then!  I've found the perfect card in the ASUS Geforce GTX 670 DirectCU II TOP.  It's extremely quiet.  Almost 10 dB quieter than my current set up of 1 GTX 480.  Add to that the fact that it pushes at clock speeds higher than a standard GTX 680 and its an absolute winner!  Theres also a slick rear backplate that, along with the heatpipes, compliments my black and white colour scheme perfectly.  The red accents won't be visible with the cards pointed downwards so that isn't an issue at all.

One thing that I do have to take close note of is that the cooler design, whilst amazing and very efficient in its purpose of keeping the GPU quiet and cool, is also releasing hot air back into the chassis rather than all out its rear.  Because of that I will need to keep the cooler well ventilated.  So I did a little research into positive and negative airflow and how to keep my case at good temperatures purely on air.  I came across this incredible thread on overclock.net (How to decide on a case for air cooling) that outlines how positive airflow allows a case to be kept cool at lower fan RPMs, and consequently, lower noise levels.  The diagram below is from the thread's original poster ehume. The rest of the thread is filled with users reporting amazing results using this theory as a basis.

Basically rather than a case with negative pressure (more exhaust fans than intake fans) or positive pressure (more intake fans than exhaust fans) a positive 'flow' is the approach taken.  There are no exhaust fans and the rear expansion slots and fan grill are removed to allow an open flow of hot air out the back of the chassis.  The rest of the case is then fitted with fans taking in air which forces all hot air in one direction whilst allowing a constant flow of cool air over the main components.  Since there is no fan that hot air is being filtered through, the exhaust simply flows out as fast as it can rather than waiting in line for the gate like exhaust fan to push it through.  This actually requires the physical destruction of the rear fan grill if the chassis has one.  So I may go for an exhaust fan at higher RPM to first see how that goes for me.  Another interesting fact that is mentioned is that because the case will always be filled with air in almost every nook dust hardly ever settles, so the case remains virtually dust free.  That definitely is something to look forward to!

One final thing I must mention is that due to the nature of my builds colour scheme, and the choice of the GA-X79-UD3 motherboard, I have limited my SATA III ports.  A quick bit of research brings to my attention the IBM M1015 pcie expansion card that brings with it the flexibility of 8 SATA 6Gb/s for some awesome RAID setups.  May just be the thing I need if I ever require more than 2 SSDs.

New PC build.

Currently contemplating my first full overhaul of my old power hungry cow of a computer whom I've aptly named Vesy.

I've been thinking plenty about it for the last few months but I'm still waiting for the perfect components for my needs.  Being as anal as I am about how things should work, those parts will likely never be available in my lifetime.  But here's what I'm settling on so far:

CHASSIS

CM 690 II Advanced Black and White Windowed

Figured it'd be nice to get away from the drab of an all black case whilst still being able to use a black drive without it looking out of place.  Also that vertical PCI expansion slot gives some ideas about PCIe risers and taking advantage of a blocked PCIe 1x slot under a GPU. 

MAINBOARD

GIGABYTE GA-X79-UD3

Black design with grey accents will keep to my colour scheme.  No nonsense extras mean the price stays down.  Only thing I'd crave are an extra 4 DIMM slots but then again, half the slots usually means being able to fiddle further with RAM timings and clock speeds.  Also 4 way SLI compatible if that route ever becomes worthwhile.

PSU

Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 1300W

Fully modular, nice exterior texture, fan controller included, and a colour scheme that matches my chassis selection.  Also cheaper than a lot of 1000W units.  Only gripe is that ugly 24-pin connector.  Custom single sleeved alternative must be looked into.

GPU

Current options: GTX690 or GK110

Currently all GTX690s look the same regardless of the manufacturer.  They look mighty fine so that's no problem.  Here's hoping nVidia keeps it up with the GK110 if it ever gets a consumer release.

CPU

Intel Core i7 3930K

6 cores and unlocked multiplier.  Not game enough to go with the 3960X since I'm not watercooling.

COOLER

NZXT HAVIK 140

Silent operation and close to AIO water cooled temps.  Black and white fans are an awesome touch!

Currently trying to find out what's needed to get it compatible with an LGA2011 socket.  If it won't work then Noctua's NH-D14 is the next contender without sacrificing any performance at all.

RAM

Corsair Vengeance Low Profile

The only white heatspreaders around these days. Depending on how expensive a kit will be in comparison to the non limited black version I may go with that although voltage drops in efficiency to 1.5v.

SSD

SanDisk Extreme Solid State Drive 240GB
 
The fastest SF-2281 drive available and for just over $1 p/GB this is handsdown the best value to performance component in this system. 







Current total based on staticice Australia's cheapest prices:  $3,170 before shipping.