• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Building a Corei7 Rig (Need Recommendations)

F

foogs

n00b
Joined
Apr 20, 2009
Messages
14
4/20/09 Edit: Changed RAM / Video Card per PC_User's advice. And updated totals / Wish List.
4/22/09 Edit: Changed Mobo (myself) / Added Noctua HSF / Added Lian Li Case per Dev1ant's advice. Added link to my Case thread. Updated Wish List.

I'll update this first post everytime I change something on the list, and update totals/prices etc and give credit at the top ^.

1) A lot of Gaming / A lot of Photoshop (Web Design) / Some 3D Modeling / Web Browsing / Ripping CDs to v0/FLAC. I won't be going to a lot of LAN parties but it would be nice if I could move it around maybe once every 6 months.
2) Budget $1500 (If we could get it under 1400 that would be cool too :cool:
3) Billings, Montana USA
4) I need CPU, Motherboard, RAM, Case, Video Card, 1 HDD, 1 LCD Monitor, PSU
5) Not reusing any parts. All brand spanking new stuff except for my current mouse/keyboard/headphones. (g5/g15/sennheiser HD-280 pro)
6) Will be trying to Overclock a corei7 920 to 3.2ghz (or higher if i can keep the cpu temperature very cool)
7) Buying a brand new monitor. Looking at a 22" monitors. I'm looking for low input lag and something that immitates crt response times. I tried out an older LCD that my friend has for QuakeWorld one of the fastest (if not the fastest) FPS out there and it was terrible. Ghosting and some screen tearing and this is after tweaking settings and turning vsync on etc. If it's not possible to have an LCD that can run this game without tearing, it's okay and I will just switch to the CRT I have now when i want to play QW.
8) Hoping to buy within the month or end of next month
9) Motherboard features: Don't need onboard video, on board audio is okay but hoping to upgrade to a nice PCIe sound card later on down the road. SLI doesnt interest me at all but I think most mobos come with it stanardly. Need plenty of usb ports, if possible at least 1 Firewire port and eSATA port for an external HDD capable of eSATA. RAID would be a nice option but Im only planning to have a max of 2-3 HDDs in the rig.
10) Already have legit transferable OS key (windows vista 64bit) from an upgrade.

My list of items I've picked out: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=10196651

I'm looking to be using air cooling because I don't think at this juncture I can afford water cooling. I really want to use a Lian Li case but I'm not quite sure which one is the right one for me. I'm not into flashing blue lights and side window panel cases but I can deviate away from my style if you think it would be a better case to keep the rig cool. I don't know what case will hold that power supply, the video card, and the Noctua HSF I'm looking at. If it helps I posted above that I'm looking to overclock this to 3.2ghz and do photoshop/gaming/3d modeling with it. If you guys have better suggestions for components that I have written down so far by all means recommend them to me. The last time I have built a computer was 5 years ago so I'm really behind on all of the new technologies.

My thread on choosing a specific case: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1412981

I only want 1 HDD to start off with and I may add a couple more in the future.
The HSF i'm going to go with comes with thermal paste. Thanks for the recommendations in advance and let me know if I didn't provide enough detail on something. I already have 2 DVD-RW drives that I'm planning to throw into this so no need for any optical drives.

Basically the thread is to look over my build and also to recommend me a good Lian Li case that will keep my rig cool. I'm flexible on the Case though (it doesn't HAVE to be Lian Li it just would be nice if it did because I love their style.)
 
Last edited:
go with steel coolermaster cases if you want understated styling along with sturdy design and sub $100 prices. aluminum lian li's will likely cost at least $130 before shipping. intelligent cable management and quality case fans will do more for cooling than an aluminum case. lastly, a thermalright unit for cpu cooling, of course
 
lt_shiro said:
Since you are not interested in SLi, you can save $60 by changing to this asus board.

ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131359 $240

For photoshop, you should be using a 24" and have as much ram as possible.
Click to expand...

I know you're not supposed to rely on reviews by newegg customers but the reviews on this board look terrible in comparison to mine. The P6T includes SLI just like the one I picked out. I'm willing to fork out more dough on a motherboard if it's going to perform better. I'll do some more research on it and keep it mind. As far as the 24" monitor for photoshop I think the monitors out there at the moment that mimic the performance of the monitor I chose (in games) are too pricey. If you can recommend me one please advise.

rennyf77 said:
go with steel coolermaster cases if you want understated styling along with sturdy design and sub $100 prices. aluminum lian li's will likely cost at least $130 before shipping. intelligent cable management and quality case fans will do more for cooling than an aluminum case. lastly, a thermalright unit for cpu cooling, of course
Click to expand...

Did you have any specific Coolermaster cases in mind that would fit all of my builds components? I'll do some more research on this as well and post back.

PC_User said:
1. Save yourself $10 by going with this 6GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 kit which runs at a much lower voltage (1.5-1.6v).

2. Save some money by going with this EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 video card.
Click to expand...

Good catch on the superclocked card. I can just overclock the one you reccomended to me myself and get the same performance probably. The RAM looks awesome. Nice find. I updated my post to include your recommendations instead of the stuff I chose.
 
foogs said:
I know you're not supposed to rely on reviews by newegg customers but the reviews on this board look terrible in comparison to mine. The P6T includes SLI just like the one I picked out. I'm willing to fork out more dough on a motherboard if it's going to perform better.
Click to expand...

It's not all about reviews. The P6T is a fine board and I doubt you'll see many (if any) differences in performance.

foogs said:
Good catch on the superclocked card. I can just overclock the one you reccomended to me myself and get the same performance probably. The RAM looks awesome. Nice find. I updated my post to include your recommendations instead of the stuff I chose.
Click to expand...

It's better than the card you originally selected because it's the Core 216 version which runs faster.

-----------

Also, why not spend $50 more and get the Dell 2209WA e-IPS 22" monitor?
 
Last edited:
PC_User said:
It's not all about reviews. The P6T is a fine board and I doubt you'll see many (if any) differences in performance.



It's better than the card you originally selected because it's the Core 216 version which runs faster.

-----------

Also, why not spend $50 more and get the Dell 2209WA e-IPS 22" monitor?
Click to expand...

I'll do more research on the P6T. Thanks for the help on the video card. I'm not sure if the Dell2209WA's response time is going to be quick enough for me compared to the one I chose. It had on average 20.6 ms input lag compared to the 4-5ms input lag on the one I chose. I'm not sure if my theory is right: Say I ping 50ms on a dallas server, add on that 20.6ms on top of the dallas 50ms and you have 70.6 compared to my choice of monitors 56ms on average lag to that server. Maybe I'm missing something here?

But the 8bit color is enticing.
 
Personally, I would choose Asus and Gigabyte over EVGA when considering mobos. Then again, I was never really one to be stuck on SLI or Xfire.
 
Gonna pull the trigger on this one today. Anyone have any last bits of advice?
 
foogs said:
Gonna pull the trigger on this one today. Anyone have any last bits of advice?
Click to expand...

Do you plan to upgrade the system down the line? Possibly add a second (or more powerful) video card? If so, I'd recommend a more powerful power supply.
 
This is going to piss people off probably but I completely switched to a AMD x3 720 because it was cheaper and it still has the 3rd core for video encoding. I'm pretty sure it will meet all my needs. I did switch to a different PSU with modular cables and upgraded the gtx260 to a gtx 275 with all the money I saved. I'm also going to tone it down and go with 4GB ddr2 800 gskill ram.

Here's the x3 720 list. I'm going to leave my original post the way it is with the wish list for people that might want to reference it in the future to see where I was going with the i7 build.
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=10206931
 
No I had a 650w corsair psu before. The 520W PSU has modular cabling and the 650 does not. I'll research that paste a bit more but it appears that newegg doesn't have any in stock.
 
foogs said:
This is going to piss people off probably but I completely switched to a AMD x3 720 because it was cheaper and it still has the 3rd core for video encoding. I'm pretty sure it will meet all my needs. I did switch to a different PSU with modular cables and upgraded the gtx260 to a gtx 275 with all the money I saved. I'm also going to tone it down and go with 4GB ddr2 800 gskill ram.

Here's the x3 720 list. I'm going to leave my original post the way it is with the wish list for people that might want to reference it in the future to see where I was going with the i7 build.
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=10206931
Click to expand...

I've always thought that quad-cores are better than tri-cores for video encoding... particularly when the quad-core overclocks better... but I guess it IS cheaper
 
If you haven't ordered everything yet, swap out the Arctic Silver 5 for the Arctic Cooling MX-2. The MX-2 has no curing time, which makes it a more appealing option that the AS5, which requires up to 200 hours before it starts to "work."

Additionally, consider getting the Corsair power supply elsewhere. ZipZoomFly, Provantage, and Buy.com often have the Corsair PSUs for less (even after factoring shipping) than NewEgg. Occasionally, Amazon also has a better-than-NewEgg deal as well.

If you're willing to forgo the modular requirement, ZZF has a good deal on the PC P&C 750.
 
You could save a little cash purchasing this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029 HSF instead of the Noctua. From what I've read it's on par w/ it or slightly better and cheaper.

In addition to the Dark Knight the MX 2 paste was recommended to me from some posters in this thread and I couldn't be happier w/ it. Was able to OC to 3.5 on probs, temps don't go above 60 degrees during stress tests. I could probably go higher, but I'm working my way slowly. Easy to install too, especially if you have it when building.
 
Edit fixed link.

Here's eventually what I went with if anyone is interested. I just ordered the mx-2 paste from the site PC_User gave me. So I'll have some arctic cooling paste I wont use, no biggy.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=10206931

I did go with something similar to the Dark Knight in the end. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835233003

I don't think I will need the mounting bracket for it either with my motherboard the way it is made.

I couldn't sleep very well last night thinking I should have just splurged for a corei7 but hopefully for what I'm doing right now the x3 720 will be adequate. If I need to upgrade later hopefully my HDD isn't too terribly out of date and the gtx275 I went with as well. Probably will cost me 300-400 down the road to upgrade if most of my components aren't outdated. I'll cross my fingers.

Thanks for all the help guys and I'll definitely keep posting here!
 
Last edited:
If you can buy right ASAP, I highly recommend swapping out the Phenom X3 CPU and Gigabyte mobo for this combo:
$222 - AMD Phenom II X4 920 + Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 AMD 770 ATX Motherboard Combo

It's $7 more BUT you get a faster quad-core CPU. Totally worth it for $7. And I concur with Tiraides about the PSU: get it somewhere else. But to be clear: Do you really need modular cables? I ask because for the exact same price as that 520HX, you can get a larger PSU just without modular cables:
$120 - Corsair 750TX 750W PSU

So figure out whether or not the modular cables is worth the lesser headroom for future upgrades.
 
Already bought it thanks for the advice. Next time I'll shop around for the modular power supply. The x3 720 that I bought as an unlocked multiplier that should make it nearly as fast as the x4 when I overclock it. Just won't be as good for multithreaded apps. Oh well, don't do near enough video encoding to go through the RMA process and the restocking fees.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top