Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. New Years was a bit busier than I expected, so I haven't had time earlier to sit down and write a proper response to them all, and half assing one just wouldn't do.
Nope, live streaming isn't something that I plan on doing, but I'd think the extra core would be valuable for reducing render times for videos.
I will admit that I have not done any overclocking in the past, but it's not something I'd rule out. While this wouldn't be a problem in the winter, I don't have air conditioning (not common in my area) and some summer days can reach 80F (not uncommon) to 90F (maybe 5-10 days a year). Would you still consider overclocking under those circumstances?
If the 3770k could handle the load while running cooler, that may be a better idea. (I didn't forget about heat when thinking about GPUs, btw. Forget to list it in the OP? Yeah, guilty.)
Thanks for that link. That is surprising, I would've expected a bigger difference between the two, especially at the higher resolutions (5760x1200) there was never more than a 6 fps difference. Hrmm...
While 16GB of RAM may be plenty, having extra has served me well in the past and it isn't an extravegant cost.
Given the parts / builds people are suggesting, I'm considering the 3-4 monitor setup more. I was under the impression the jump from 1 to 3 would've required a bigger bump in hardware making it harder to justify. How feasible would FRAPsing a 3 monitor 1920x1080 setup be (aside from the obvious filesize increase). In the past when I used FRAPs (it's been a little while) I never had a separate hdd to record to.
Yes, I believe it is CUDA compatible. I can't test it for myself since my current card is.. well, not CUDA.
That's a mighty fine build, shroudster. Just a couple questions/comments:
1) Would that RAM fit with the Noctua heatsink? I've seen it suggested before, and I saw some people suggesting the use of low-profile RAM to avoid size conflicts.
2) Using the Caviar Green (2TB 5400 RPM) for FRAPs since seek time isn't as important, right? Clever! Would that have enough throughput with extreme resolutions? (
2012 HDD Write Throughput)
3) I haven't touched Win 8, but I'm not liking the direction nor what I've heard from friends about it so far. I'd be going with Win 7.
Thanks again, everyone.