The Kubrick

I’d like to introduce you all to The Kubrick.  It’s the new gaming system I’m building, named in honor of Kubrick’s 2001 : A Space Odyssey.  I don’t like the way a lot of gaming computers look, an aesthetic appealing to teenage boys without any design sensibilities, so I’m going to house all of this inside the massive 800D from Corsair.

 

You can see where the name comes from.

Actually, a lot of my components are coming from Corsair.  Having been out of the PC scene for quite a while, I’ve been doing a lot of research and the consensus tends to put Corsair at the top of every ‘Best of’ list, so I’m not worried.

An ASUS Rampage IV Extreme motherboard forms the foundation of the system.  This will allow me to do some fiddling with overclocking fairly easily.  I don’t want to do a full water setup, but I will be using a Corsair H100 to keep the Intel 3960x Sandy Bridge hexacore processor that will be mounted in there cool.

I’m going to start off with 32GB of Dominator GT RAM, in a 4 x 8GB configuration so that I can always add another 32GB without hassle.  I’m going to add the Airflow Pro memory coolers as well, just to make sure all that RAM is being used to it’s best capacity.

Graphics wise, I’m going to try and get my hands on 2 EVGA GTX590 Classifieds, setup in SLI.  Because the cards are dual GPU, it’s like having four cards in there.  I don’t want to play any game on anything less than ‘extreme’ settings for a while.  I’ll also be able to run the system in stereo, should I choose to.

For storage, I’m going to use a Force Series 3 120GB SSD as the system disk, running Windows 7 64bit.  I’ll also install some games to it, anything I plan on playing a lot, like Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Main storage will be on a 2TB Caviar Black from Western Digital.  I’m probably going to mount these in the hot swap bays, but I’m not sure.

Powering all this will be the AX1200 power supply, also from Corsair.  One really nice feature of this for me is the dynamic voltage handling, so I can build it where I am in England, and have it all work right away back in the States.

I might add or swap out some of the fans in the case to increase airflow, but they’ll be simple black fans, not any of the LED nonsense aftermarket fans feature.  I want a nice clean look to The Kubrick, I even chose my optical drive based on it’s clean appearance.  I’m also considering replacing the windowed panel of the 800D with the solid panel available from Corsair’s website, but I won’t be sure until I see how ridiculous the internals look.  Even then, I’m going to wait until I return Stateside permanently.

Comments

[KevinW]

Cool! Building a computer is fun! Been a while since I built mine, a while since I used it as well (shipping it all south was a bit much ;)

I like the design direction you are going in (and agree with your assessment of standard gaming cases haha). Why not a full water setup... not worth it?

I hope all the parts play together nicely for ya! Would very much like to see pictures when you get them.

[Graeme]

Very similar to my setup. I've got the exact same SSD in my rig, best buy for the system by a long shot and even more cost effective now..

[Kayle]

I must say, you make me cry. I am stuck on a college budget.

[Razor]

Nice and intelligent build. You didn't mention anything about audio though..? That on-board Realtek is going to be sub-par to most any dedicated sound card. I can't stand on-board audio chips, so my favorite recommendation for a dedicated sound card is the HT Omega over all else. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&N=-1&isNodeId=1&Description=ht+omegas&x=0&y=0 A beautifully sounding card when optically combined with Logitech Z-5500s, which is my set-up.

[Razor]

One more thing concerning audio... headphones. You should also consider a good pair of studio quality, medium impedance headphones like the Sennheiser HD25-1 II Closed-Back Headphones rated for 70 ohms http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD25-1-II-Closed-Back-Headphones/dp/B000TDZOXG/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1333809329&sr=1-1

Sennheiser HD25-1 II
Frequency Response: 16Hz-22,000 Hz
Impedance: 70 ohms
Sound pressure level: 120 dB

For iPods and smaller audio devices I would suggest going with the low impedence Sennheiser CX 485 earbuds rated for 16 ohms
http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-CX-485-Premium-Earbuds/dp/B005QXAAMY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333809293&sr=8-1

Sennheiser CX 485
Frequency Response: 19Hz–20,500 Hz
Impedance: 16 ohms
Sound pressure level: 120 dB