Building Another i7! Advice please?

R

RAD

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
489
Hi guys! Thanks for all the help with my rig, it is a monster! In fact, my brother was impressed enough that he wants me to build him one too.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc Gaming, mainly.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? $1200 to $1500 including S/H and tax
3) Where do you live? Northern California
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific. Everything except keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model. Will be re-using his keyboard, mouse, speakers and monitor.
6) Will you be overclocking? He is afraid of overclocking, so no.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have? He has an AL2016W 20" monitor.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Within the next 2 weeks.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc. Nothing special that a standard x58 mobo wouldn't be providing. Actually, 6 ram slots would be important for future upgrades.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? Yes, he does have a vista os key, and is planning on buying the windows 7 upgrade when it comes out.

Here is the build I have put together on the quick, working through newegg because I have never had a bad experience with them (full list link):
CPU: i7 920 Processor
HSF: Coolermaster V8 (I used it for mine, it works great, and it is only $15 more than the Xigmatek Dark Knight now)
RAM: 6 GB 1600 G.Skill Ram
MOBO: Gigabyte UD4P X58
CASE: CM 690
PSU: Corsair 750tx
Hard Drive: WD Black Caviar 1tb
GPU: EVGA gtx260
Extra Case Fans: 3x Scythe 120 mm "slipstream"
CD/DVD Drive/Burner: Samsung DVD R/W
CPU Thermal Paste: I have some AS5 left over from my build, I will use that for him.

Total after S/H and tax: ~$1350

Ok, so I based the vast majority of this build off of my almost identical build, because I have worked with these parts before and they worked great for me. I did downgrade the graphics card to a gtx 260 since he is only using a 20" monitor. The CD/DVD burner I bought for my computer is now a deactivated item, I could really use a good suggestion for a CD/DVD drive/burner for him.

I also downgraded the hard drive from a velociraptor 300 gb to a 1 tb black caviar drive. He was a bit more concerned with storage than with raw speed and a 7200 speed drive will be just fine for him.

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions?
 
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Any Samsung or LG optical drive would work. If you can't find it at NewEgg, get it from ZipZoomFly.

Everything looks fine at first glance. You could probably save some money by shopping around for cheaper prices, but I'm not in the mood to do that.

What's the resolution on the 20" monitor? The HD4870 can be found for a bit less than the GTX 260, but if the resolution is 1440x900 or lower, you could save yourself some money by going with the HD4850.

Likewise, unless your brother is planning on getting a 27" or larger monitor, you don't really need SLI or CF for this system. That means you don't need the Corsair TX750. Get the Antec Earthwatts EA650 while it's under $80 (ZZF has free shipping, but NewEgg doesn't).
 
Looks to be that his 20" monitor is 1680x1050 res. Stick with either a HD Radeon 4870 or GTX 260. There's the XFX 4870 1 GB on Newegg for $149.99 & the XFX GTX 260 for $159.99
 
I agree with the suggestions so far. The EA650 for under $80 is a good deal, so go for that over the TPNew.
 
I finished building this computer and I am a little jealous of my brother. His chip is a D0 stepping and is idling at 26 to 29 degrees. Mine idles at 36 to 44 degrees. Under prime 95 my chip goes to 65-70 degrees and his barely gets up to 55.
 
Sorry enginurd, I will post a pic or two tomorrow. I didn't think to take pictures during this one for some reason. I totally thought about doing that elleana but I decided to be nice at the last minute. Also, it probably would have been easier to swap the gpus, hard drives and case side panels (mine is windowed and his isn't) as those are the only components different. But again too nice.

I am actually wondering if I did a poor job seating the hsf on mine and if its worth the trouble to take everything apart and remount it to find out. It seems strange that his is running so so so much cooler with a virtually identical set up, maybe he just got a golden chip though. Sad part is he won't even be overclocking it.
 
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