Help me with a new project - because I'm bored, no reason

[HAL9000]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

No idea, I have no reason for building this, other than I enjoy building things, I'll find something to do with it when I'm done

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

£2,000+ or - 20%

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

United Kingdom

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.


I have an Intel preference, and I've always been a fan of ATI but with a good argument I'd happily go Nvidia

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

I've got hard drives, SSD's a spare 5870, monitors, keyboards, mice, peripherals as for other internals I'm going to be buying

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.

I've read similar threads on this forum and tomshardware, but I though I'd start a new one for more specific suggestions

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Definately overclocking, watercooling is important to me here, ideally a prebuilt system for the stability but I'd probably enjoy building one, although I never have before.

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.

I'm happy with 1080p, but If I feel the urge to increase that I'll get a 2560Xsomething monitor (not including this in the budget so I'll worry about it later)

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?

Between the end of this month and over Christmas

10. Don't ask for a build configuration critique or rating if you are thin skinned.

Ok so here's what I'm thinking something like an i7 x980, no idea why just like the sound of it, If I could I'd go for dual CPU's, no idea if there are motherboards for this, or the cost involved, can't imagine it's cheap.

I've every intention of overclocking to 4ghz to be honest I'm basically looking to build something that will do well in benchmarks then worry about what I'll do with it later, if this seems unfeasible with my budget then I'll move on, but basically I love to build stuff, I've got the money and the time, It's essentially just an intellectual exercise so please don't get hung up on "Why are you doing this?! Why don't you spend your money on something else...?!"

So guys I'm looking for motherboards, Power supplies, cases, RAM, watercooling posibilities, overclocking suggestions. Any ideas are welcome, I have bought nothing as of yet, at this moment this is in the design phase. Thanks in advance.

Also my budget is a rough guideline, I'm happy to double it (over a slightly longer period of time) if need be, but ideally this is what I've got now.

Would dual xeons be better?

 

[HAL9000]

Anyone?

 

[HigherGround]

donate to charity

 

[Bootleg Betty]

Why not build something beautiful instead of powerful? If you have no use for power, you could have a use for beauty.

Start with Fractal Design Array R2 and build on that.

 

[FishAk]

...but basically I love to build stuff, I've got the money and the time, It's essentially just an intellectual exercise so please don't get hung up on "Why are you doing this?!

Have you ever built anything before?

If you want to just build something with no goal in mind for the final outcome, just buy several sets of Legos, and start snapping them together.

Anyone who has succesfully built anything of value has started with a goal for what is to be built. If you come here for ideas about building a computer, you need to lay out a particular goal, or set of goals you wish to achieve. If you just want it to excell at benchmarks, than what particular benchmark do you want it to perform well in? CPU, GPU, memory, storage; these all have benchmarks, and a measly £2,000 isn't going to make a system that excells in all of them. You will need much more than £2,000 to excel in storage benches alone, let alone the rest of the system.

You will find many opinions, plus lot's of help, and ideas on this forum, but first, you need to divulge what it is you want to do.

 

[HAL9000]

Have you ever built anything before?

If you want to just build something with no goal in mind for the final outcome, just buy several sets of Legos, and start snapping them together.

Anyone who has succesfully built anything of value has started with a goal for what is to be built. If you come here for ideas about building a computer, you need to lay out a particular goal, or set of goals you wish to achieve. If you just want it to excell at benchmarks, than what particular benchmark do you want it to perform well in? CPU, GPU, memory, storage; these all have benchmarks, and a measly £2,000 isn't going to make a system that excells in all of them. You will need much more than £2,000 to excel in storage benches alone, let alone the rest of the system.

You will find many opinions, plus lot's of help, and ideas on this forum, but first, you need to divulge what it is you want to do.

Ok well as I said I'm prepared to increase my budget, I assumed that about $3,200 dollars was about right but if not I can change that. Also I've built loads of systems before, but mainly servers, I thought it'd be fun to have a go at a high end desktop, storage is not an issue for me as I've got hard drives and SSDs lying around that I'm not using, and £2,000 on storage?! What are you planning, I was thinking putting 4 SSD's together would do the trick.

As for the purpose of this machine, lets say it's for benchmarking, and after that I'll figure out what to do with it...