Finally grabbing a computer, wondering what else I need

[Choofers]

One of my classmates showed me a local ad on craigslist, a guy is selling his old build, minus the psu and a hdd. Some parts have cooling, but I think he kept his old cooling for his new build.

I'm definitely gonna go for a SSD, probably gonna stick with something small because most of my data (ie music) is all on a 500GB external.

This is what he has up for grabs.

Mobo: XFX nForce 780i with a north bridge fan.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813141005

CPU: Xeon x3363 quad-core @ 2.83 Ghz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...9SIA1PR0U06364

RAM: 8GB Kingston HyperX
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16820104108

GPU: 3 BFG GTX 280s in 3-way SLI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143141

Mobo and RAM have fans, CPU has a heatsink. He has this posted for $320, wondering what else I need to get to make this run optimally. Probably not gonna overclock until I understand more about it.

[Fission]

Re: Finally grabbing a computer, wondering what else I need

you will need a pretty significant PSU to run that. i would go for 800 watts at the very minimum for something like that. you should probably get a 1k watt psu though, just to be safe.

i could be wrong about the psu wattage, but i remember those video cards requiring a good amount of power to run them, especially 3 of them.

get the samsung 840 SSD (pro if you can) in a size of your choosing. i just got one for myself and it's worth every penny.

[Choofers]

Re: Finally grabbing a computer, wondering what else I need

I did some googling on my own and found that a 1200w would be the best bet but a 1000w would work fine. I also looked at SSD but I kinda stuck with what I knew: Seagate and WD. I also know that seagate sucks.

Think I could get away with a mid sized tower?

[Kibblre]

Re: Finally grabbing a computer, wondering what else I need

Decided to check out that 3-way SLI setup and ran into this:

"Before we get into it though, we have to laugh at our power supply situation. When we started testing our Tri SLI setup with a 1000 Watt Zalman PSU, we ran into some problems."

Also, there only seemed to be a ~3-5fps difference between running 2 and 3 of those cards from the benchmarks I've seen. It seems like you should just take one out and use 2 of the 280s with a 1000 watt PSU.

Finally, overclocking a processor is pretty easy but overclocking a GPU can take a lot of time and messing with (about 2-3 hours if you're doing it the "right" way), but it probably wouldn't be worth overclocking a 280.

EDIT: You should be fine with a mid size tower. I have a similar sized mobo and I have a good amount of room in my case. I can get a picture if you'd like.

[Choofers]

Re: Finally grabbing a computer, wondering what else I need

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817438010
Decent PSU then?

Also looked at a 128GB Samsung Pro, fucking great reviews, definitely gonna grab one.

[Kibblre]

Re: Finally grabbing a computer, wondering what else I need

Seems good. I was going to recommend a gold rated one if you didn't pick it.

[sticklydude]

Re: Finally grabbing a computer, wondering what else I need

I didn't know you could use a server cpu on a desktop motherboard :? :? :?

[Choofers]

Re: Finally grabbing a computer, wondering what else I need

you probably can't do it if it's flipped (desktop cpu on server mobo)

actually it looks like it's fine to use if it's the same pin count on the mobo and it uses the right chipset

just won't be able to OC rofl