Motherboard must be capable of 2 way x-fire/SLI. It must have an onboard USB 3.0 header. It must also have a space for a wireless adapter card, or have WiFi built in, this slot must not be hindered by a graphics card (ex. the slot is directly under PCI-E x16 and a normal 2 slot GFX card would cover it up)
Must include an aftermarket CPU cooler, I plan on overclocking (if possible)
Power supply must be modular or semi modular and have enough watts for 2 way SLI/X-Fire
The case must HAVE ROOM FOR 1 disk drive, 1 fan controller, and 1 memory card reader. It must also have USB 3.0
Color scheme has to match/semi match (DAT OCD MANE)
BTW The small SSD is for the OS and Drivers, The big one is for EVERYTHING else (games, chrome, skype, etc. etc.) http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Mr.DHbigmac/saved/hzm2FT
Also on a separate note I need a keyboard that has cherry MX brown switches, and has either white, blue, or multi color back-lighting (that can go to either white or blue). I need one recommendation for the most compact full size keyboard, and one for the most compact keyboard that has every key except the numpad.
This SHOULD NOT go in the build, but be listed separately because I have a second parts list saved list for peripherals.
This is the best I could do with that budget. http://pcpartpicker.com/user/jruelas11/saved/9xh2FT
I had to change the storage setup to a 256gb boot SSD and 2tb HDD for storage to stay within budget and inculde an R9 290. If you must have two SSDs, then you can opt for a chaeper GPU
For a keyboard I would recommend the Cooler Master Quickfire TK since the one with brown switches is fully backlit with white LEDs and is very compact but includes a number pad. It might be hard to find though.
IMO you are kinda shooting yourself in the foot with 1/4 of the budget tied up in SSDs.
Or do you already own the drives?
if not ... then this would be a better balanced system with enough PSU overhead to add a second GPU in the future
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2hHbcf
or throw another $100 at it now and get either an R9 290X or a GTX 970
Edit ... personally I think the GTX 970 would be the way to go ... especially if you plan on adding a second later on. like this ...
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/pnfRCJ
but that puts you over budget by $50 the R9 290X would put you $30 bucks over budget and be more hassle to do Xfire with the added noise and power and heat
I don't think you could get much more out of $1200 than this... I prefer Air-cooling for the most part, but if you're OCD, don't like clutter, and want a clean looking PC... the H80i is a pretty nice AIO... the 500GB SSD is gonna kill a lot of other hardware, and it really isn't needed... if you include it, it'll bite into your CPU, mobo, GPU, and case choices... 128 GB is more than enough for your core programs and OS... games don't really benefit from an SSD.... at least not nearly enough to warrant sacrificing the CPU/mobo/GPU...
all of it matches except a tiny sticker on the ACX cooler for the GPU... paint it red with fingernail polish :P
Oh, I forgot the optical drive... pay shipping and I'll send you one I've got like 8 laying around... or go air cooling... that's fairly easy to sack $20 on and still get a nice cooler
I use that SSD... works perfectly fine for me and will for OP given what he said he did with his PC... never noticed something being terribly slow... I wouldn't recommend them for heavy video-editing, but other than that and installing huge programs, you'll never notice the difference... the read speeds are on par to better with anything on the market... and he said nothing of wanting on-board wifi... he said he wanted space on the board for SLI and a PCI slot free for a wi-fi card... which is like $20... instead of paying an extra $80 for on-board wifi and a board with a bunch of other features he'll never use... makes no sense
i said on board wifi OR a slot for a wifi adapter.
i also said only color has to match, i didn't say anything about it having to be "souper kleen wit dat watah coolin' bruh" but nobody listens to me anyway seeing as he didn't start from my link
$6 over budget... if we're getting mad about $6 wait a day and it'll change... probably for the worse... but that's roundabout what you're looking at...
I started from your link, and cut out the 500GB SSD cause you don't need it... but you WOULD use a 120GB SSD... after that you're knocking down your GPU... yes, I read your post, and yes, I am custom designing this PC for you... I forgot to include the optical drive and wireless card... my bad... somewhere along the line the link got cut :P
I don't, however, remember mentioning "souper kleen wit dat watah coolin' bruh"... thought I had a spare $10 and gave it water cooling for a cleaner look and more performance for overclocking... obviously, nevermind...
for what you're doing... you have zero need for a 500GB SSD... that is a splurge for later if you still feel you need it... trust me.... and the SSD I included is a very nice budget SSD... the writes aren't crazy fast but a boot drive is by definition not a write drive...
Definitely go with the Asus Z97 Pro (Wifi AC). Wifi can be used as an access point for mobile devices and streaming over DLNA. It also has it's own dedicated Pcie lane, so it doesn't impact bandwidth on the expansion slots.
The wifi module is fine for gaming, I game on my wifi that came with my Asus z77-v pro which is Wireless N. I had to increase through put by upping the Receive Buffers to 512 from 256.
The board is definitely worth the price since it also has a 600ohm headphone amp and is also Sata Express and M.2 SSD compatible.
lol ... I tried have a look at the system above ... you can go a little less expensive on the mobo if you don't need the wifi on board ... may even stay on budget and keep the GTX 970 Strix or use the difference to upgrade the CPU cooler to a Dark Night Pro 3 or Noctua D14 or D15
Man, if you're gaming from console on wifi you don't need a $200 motherboard.... you need to run some cables... AC isn't going to fix your problems... especially if it's beyond ~20ft from the access point with no interference (tv, phones, cable box, recievers --->all the traditional shit in the same place your console would be situated)... I bought an AC router and an AC adapter for my PS3... finally got it to work, but it would drop signal randomly to where I couldn't play Madden online, at all... so I ran cables... no problems... it had nothing to do with buffer rates... it has to do with AC is on a higher frequency means more information and more energy needed to get a complete signal... of course this was a couple years ago before there was AC standardized, but still... but it's still on a 5 GHz frequency that can't pass through a wall better yet upstairs or anything metal... the 2GHz signal is MUCH more reliable for range... which makes sense if you understand how radio waves work... think of a guy with a system in his car... you don't hear the treble, which is higher frequency and directional, but the bass is heard around the neighborhood, seemingly unimpeded by walls and anything else in it's path... AC was meant to be short range and higher data rate... B/G/N are standards that have much higher stability but can't carry as much data...
Anyways... OP didn't mention anything about having $500 headphones either... and at that point I'd want an external amp for sound clarity...
I'm not even talking about buffer rates that you refer too. Clearly have a lack of technical knowledge in driver properties for wi-fi devices. Increasing buffer "SIZE" not rates is merely widening the data path to memory for better I/O through put to make games like BF3 run fluidly in multiplayer.
You don't even know what I'm talking about yet, go so far out of your way to prove yourself right on a completely separate topic "Buffer Rates"? I'm talking about data through put not listening to music.
And the headphone amp. Well that's just nice to have. Now he can buy some decent cans and listen to music on it. And won't have to buy an external DAC.
Oh yeah by the way, Asus Wi-fi to reiterate can operate as an "Access Point". It's multi-Functional.
Oh and FYI. Don't ever try to educate a musician on sounds waves.
I wasn't talking about music... I was using bass vs treble as a parallel for 2ghz vs 5ghz radio frequency (bgn vs ac) as referring to range and data... 2ghz travels further and much more unimpeded... And buffer rate/size in wifi is synonymous... Relax man... A PCI wifi card can function as an access point as well... I won't argue the ohms aren't nice to have but a decent DAC would end up with much better quality sound if you were into that... But for the OP its not something he specified and not likely something he'd need... No need to get all offended...
I'm also curious about your router settings when you had problems with you PS3, since it was a wide spread issue manual config of router settings were required, also with them being internal aerial didn't help.
And yes I am aware of add in cards being able to function as Access points. More to the point not every card does.
And honestly, External DAC versus on board DAC. Double blind test you probably wouldn't be able to distinguish the difference.
Thing is this argument over the motherboard can be applied to anything. If he's coming from PS3 does he need a GTX 970, Does he need an SSD?
Really it's just about smart options. The thing I like about onboard Wi-fi is well, it just works. It is 1.3gbps capable.
I get he whole colour matching thing too, I wen't for the bling thing on like my 3rd upgrade about 4 years ago.
And I have to say now functionality over aesthetics.
The thing I learn't years back was to make sure my system foundations were going to be good enough for me to not worry about functionality. Which meant a motherboard that gave more than what I need without going too far.
I used Wired Ethernet always until a few months ago, when I had no choice but to use wireless, which I'm on now but never anticipated using full time. It was just a nice feature that became very practical.
I wish I could get some of them Mayflower Cans the V1's that Logan is fond of for metal. But my soundcard only gives me 80ohms.
But you'd really have to look at the Z97 Pro Wifi as a whole. Where it sits in the market Price, Performance and the list of features. It's kinda perfect.