New i7 980X Build - Any Suggestions?

I am thinking of building a new system.

Any suggestions on what I have chosen? I would also like to play with Overclocking a bit.


Thermaltake - Level 10
Gigabyte - GA-X58A-UD7
Ultra X4 1200 W PSU
Dual - ATI - HD 4870 X2 - Have them already
6 - 2GB - OCZ DDR3 PC3-15000 Reaper CL9 Edition Low-Voltage Triple Channel
Intel i7 980
Pair of Western Digital VelociRaptor WD6000HLHX 600GB 10000 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb - in RAID 1 for OS
2 Pairs of Western Digital RE4-GP WD2002FYPS 2TB SATA 3.0Gb in RAID 1 for DATA
DVD Drive - Have
Blue Ray Drive - Have
Creative SB X-Fi - Have

Getting all 12GB of that memory to run stable will be a task, I would go with 6GB Gskill DDR3 at least 2000, which should be better for overclocking, but thats just me. I would rethink using an Ultra PSU, so many problems reported with them in the past. The 980X is one hell of a CPU for overclocking. That board looks pretty good also, top of the line for Gigabyte.

Any other suggestions on the PSU? Wanted something Modular, so I don't have any unused cables hanging around in the case.

Pick your watts and price,

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Computer Cases,Power Supplies,Yes

I would rethink using an Ultra PSU, so many problems reported with them in the past.

AKA Tiger Defect's house brand. Oh and a review of one of the 3 of those 1200W Ultra's,

Ultra X4 1200W Review

I like my modular PSU's also, very neat with the wires. I like ThermalTake PSU's myself, never had a problem with my 1000watt moduler unit. Ultra put out some bad PSU's awhile back so I would be hesitant to use one of those although I believe the problems were fixed, why take the chance.

OCZ memory in general can be difficult to set up plus I have just had better luck using Gskill. Ok OCZ guys, I don't care if it works for you. Spare me the comments ok? Been there done that too many times. :)

Either way getting 12 GB to run stable can be a chore, especially when overclocking. The Gskill 6GB ripjaw or Trident, DDR3 16000 looks pretty good for an overclocked rig to me but it's really more of a personal choice kind of deal with memory.

For good memory speeds you may need up to 1.60v for QPI. Also make sure that memory voltage is no more than .5v over CPU vtt voltage. Gskill also has excellent customer service from my experience. Reading the reviews at Newegg can help in that respect.

As for the 980X CPU, some guys are getting 4.9GHz on air with those through Vantage so that 6 core CPU is a beast no doubt. You need some good memory so as to compliment that CPU.