Core i7 Build Help

N

notsane

Gawd
Joined
May 23, 2007
Messages
583
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
gaming, media encoding and general

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$2k, no

3) Where do you live?
Seattle

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
CPU,Mobo,RAM,Video Cards, HD, CD, PSU,Case and Monitor (I have keyboard, mouse and speakers)

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
WD 500GB SATA Drive for media (not boot) (I have keyboard, mouse and speakers) Merc Stealth, G7 and KRK Studio Monitors (powered)

6) Will you be overclocking?
Moderate overclock with air

7) What size monitor do you have or plan to have?
24"-26" 1920x1200 looking to pick up at best buy and save shipping

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Tomorrow AM (or tonight) from Newegg Friday am rush delivery

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
X58 SLI, Crossfire and good sound (tired of creative taking up a slot)

Plan to run vista 64

Asus P6T Deluxe or eVGA X58 SLI
Core i7 920
Zalman 9700 CPU Cooler
6GB Corsair DDR3 1600 (or possibly G-Skill)
300GB Velociraptor (or use existing 500GB WD SATA)
SATA DVD Burner
eVGA GTX280 (vanilla) [Plan to add second GTX280 later] Should I go crossfire?
Antec P-180
PC Power and Cooling Silencer Quad 750 or Corsair 850

Thanks all!
 
It seems similar to several other builds that were posted within the past few weeks.

As a whole, everything looks fine. I recommend the Asus board over the EVGA model; and look for the P182, which can often be found for less nowadays than the P180. No, you don't need CrossFire, nor do you really need a second GTX 280.

To save some money, however, I recommend....

... sticking with the 6GB G.Skill DDR3 1333 set. If you're not planning a major overclock, this should work just as well as the more expensive DDR3 1600 kit.

... swapping out the VelociRaptor for the Caviar Black (or Blue) 640GB HDD. Yes, the VelociRaptor is very fast... but the 640GB Western Digital drives aren't that much slower (comparatively... check out the benchmarks of the 300GB VelociRaptor versus the 640GB Blue model). Plus, you get at least double the storage capacity for at least half the price (and, any of those drives would outperform your 500GB storage drive).

... holding off on that second GTX 280. One is more than enough for most games on the market, even at the resolution you plan on using.

... getting a cheaper power supply. (This kind of goes hand-in-hand with my earlier recommendation, since I don't believe that you need two GTX 280 cards.) You can find plenty of power supplies with more than enough energy for your setup (with one GTX 280) for under $100. For example, the Cooler Master Real Power Pro RS-650 and the BFG Tech LS-680 are both available for under $80 shipped.

But again, your current setup is fine, for the most part.
 
Here is the updated build with prices.

I can't find any CPU coolers on newegg for LGA1366 thoughts?

Which 24" -26" monitor should I get?

Intel Core i7 920
$280.00
Antec P182 Gun Metal Black Computer Case
$109.99
G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel
Item #:N82E16820231230
$174.99
ASUS P6T Deluxe ATX Intel Motherboard
$299.99
EVGA GeForce GTX 280 01G-P3-1280-AR Video Card
$374.99
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Item #:N82E16822136319
$84.99
SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S223Q
$28.99
PC Power & Cooling Silencer PPCS750QBL 750W Power Supply
Item #:N82E16817703019
$129.99

Grand Total: $1,503.92
 
tiraides said:
It seems similar to several other builds that were posted within the past few weeks.

As a whole, everything looks fine. I recommend the Asus board over the EVGA model; and look for the P182, which can often be found for less nowadays than the P180. No, you don't need CrossFire, nor do you really need a second GTX 280.

To save some money, however, I recommend....

... sticking with the 6GB G.Skill DDR3 1333 set. If you're not planning a major overclock, this should work just as well as the more expensive DDR3 1600 kit.

... swapping out the VelociRaptor for the Caviar Black (or Blue) 640GB HDD. Yes, the VelociRaptor is very fast... but the 640GB Western Digital drives aren't that much slower (comparatively... check out the benchmarks of the 300GB VelociRaptor versus the 640GB Blue model). Plus, you get at least double the storage capacity for at least half the price (and, any of those drives would outperform your 500GB storage drive).

... holding off on that second GTX 280. One is more than enough for most games on the market, even at the resolution you plan on using.

... getting a cheaper power supply. (This kind of goes hand-in-hand with my earlier recommendation, since I don't believe that you need two GTX 280 cards.) You can find plenty of power supplies with more than enough energy for your setup (with one GTX 280) for under $100. For example, the Cooler Master Real Power Pro RS-650 and the BFG Tech LS-680 are both available for under $80 shipped.

But again, your current setup is fine, for the most part.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for all of your time! I have change the build quite a bit based on your advice.
 
You'll have to search for a decent CPU cooler elsewhere... check out Jab-Tech and/or the Heatsink Factory, for starters. (If all else fails, Google is your friend.)

Save yourself about $20 and get the Corsair TX750. Or, you could save yourself even more money and choose one of the two $80 power supplies that I referenced earlier.
 
tiraides said:
You'll have to search for a decent CPU cooler elsewhere... check out Jab-Tech and/or the Heatsink Factory, for starters. (If all else fails, Google is your friend.)

Save yourself about $20 and get the Corsair TX750. Or, you could save yourself even more money and choose one of the two $80 power supplies that I referenced earlier.
Click to expand...


Just worried about the cords being long enough. My last p182 build the silencer quad was barley long enough. Have you had problems?
!
Thanks again!
 
Thanks for all of you help! Here are some pics!
IMG_0042.jpg

IMG_0048.jpg

IMG_0063.jpg

IMG_0064.jpg

IMG_0067.jpg
 
Great build. I would've gone with the TX750 or HX1000 if you want to SLI later on...650W won't be enough. Also would've gone with the 640GB AAKS as the primary drive. Just my .02.
 
PC_User said:
Great build. I would've gone with the TX750 or HX1000 if you want to SLI later on...650W won't be enough. Also would've gone with the 640GB AAKS as the primary drive. Just my .02.
Click to expand...


I agree that a bigger PS would have been better, I had to draw the line somewhere though and the extra $200 on an GTX280 SLI certified PS would have put me over the top.. May kick myself in 6 months! The TX750 wouldn't have been enough for SLI GTX280 right?

What is the difference between the green and the AAKS?
 
notsane said:
I agree that a bigger PS would have been better, I had to draw the line somewhere though and the extra $200 on an GTX280 SLI certified PS would have put me over the top.. May kick myself in 6 months! The TX750 wouldn't have been enough for SLI GTX280 right?

What is the difference between the green and the AAKS?
Click to expand...

I built my system about six months ago with three 640GB AAKS in a raid0. Runs awesome.
There is a new 640GB WD drive out with 32MB cache, think that is what he's talking about.
Other then that, drive has no problems.

Also, how is that Cool Master cooler you are using?
Not sure if I should go with the Cool Master or thermalright 120 extreme for my i7 920 build.
 
notsane said:
I agree that a bigger PS would have been better, I had to draw the line somewhere though and the extra $200 on an GTX280 SLI certified PS would have put me over the top.. May kick myself in 6 months! The TX750 wouldn't have been enough for SLI GTX280 right?

What is the difference between the green and the AAKS?
Click to expand...

Uh, have you tried out the GTX 280 first? I've heard that one of them does well on all games not named Crysis.

Western Digital's (Caviar) Blue line consists of SATA 3GB/s, 7200RPM hard drives with 16MB cache and its Black line doubles the cache amount to 32MB. Its Green line consists of hard drives that ramp down from 7200RPM to 5400RPM while idle.

Performance-wise, they go: Green < Blue < Black
 
notsane said:
I agree that a bigger PS would have been better, I had to draw the line somewhere though and the extra $200 on an GTX280 SLI certified PS would have put me over the top.. May kick myself in 6 months! The TX750 wouldn't have been enough for SLI GTX280 right?

What is the difference between the green and the AAKS?
Click to expand...

TX750 would have been fine for GTX280 SLI, I used to push 2 HD2900XTs with one. Still the $69.99 PCP&C Silencer 750 would probably have been the best bang for the buck.

As others have said, the Green version is the low power version, doesn't have the speed that the blue or black have.
 
You should be pretty good with your GTX 280 man. Register your video card for the lifetime warranty and step-up progam. Maybe when the GTX 295 card comes out, you can setup to that. Great build and great pics also!
 
Damn, I gotta admit the third picture everything blends in nicely, The mobo, heatsink and graphics card.
 
tiraides said:
Uh, have you tried out the GTX 280 first? I've heard that one of them does well on all games not named Crysis.

Western Digital's (Caviar) Blue line consists of SATA 3GB/s, 7200RPM hard drives with 16MB cache and its Black line doubles the cache amount to 32MB. Its Green line consists of hard drives that ramp down from 7200RPM to 5400RPM while idle.

Performance-wise, they go: Green < Blue < Black
Click to expand...

Yes, I am not planning on going SLI, I already went $500 over budget to get the right parts.

Too bad about the green HD. I got blue and green mixed up there (green was on sale at fry's).

I may add an faster boot drive later. Right now just installed xp until I can pick up vista.
 
Seraphic said:
Also, how is that Cool Master cooler you are using?
Not sure if I should go with the Cool Master or thermalright 120 extreme for my i7 920 build.
Click to expand...


I like the coolermaster V8! I like the external dial that you can control fan speed with, it really lets you fine tune. The 920 seems to run a bit hot in general, but my numbers are within normal range.
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU4MSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
42 idle and 68 pegged with prime 95 (all cores 100%). Fan is not even up half way. We will see how it does with OC.

Got home last night to do the build and releaized I was out of arctic silver so I had to use the stock coolermaster grease. Still seems like good performance.
 
notsane said:
I agree that a bigger PS would have been better, I had to draw the line somewhere though and the extra $200 on an GTX280 SLI certified PS would have put me over the top.. May kick myself in 6 months! The TX750 wouldn't have been enough for SLI GTX280 right?

What is the difference between the green and the AAKS?
Click to expand...

750W should've been enough for SLI (although a bit too close for my taste).

I was referring to this 640GB AAKS drive which has 2 x 320GB patters and is quite fast. I wouldn't use a 5400rpm green drive as the main OS drive.
 
PC_User said:
I was referring to this 640GB AAKS drive which has 2 x 320GB patters and is quite fast. I wouldn't use a 5400rpm green drive as the main OS drive.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I should probably pick up a better boot drive.

Had I know the green slowed down to 5400rpm I would have never bought one for OS. It doesn't say 5400rpm anywhere on the box BTW (although I am sure you are right).

Thanks again!
 
I am considering getting an almost identical build and I was wondering if you have any issues closing up the case with the coolermaster v8 on there. It is a pretty large HSF and I want to be sure i'm going to be able to put the side back onto the case.

It also looks like you didn't mount the optional manual fan control in a spare pci slot. Is that correct?
 
notsane said:
Agreed, I should probably pick up a better boot drive.

Had I know the green slowed down to 5400rpm I would have never bought one for OS. It doesn't say 5400rpm anywhere on the box BTW (although I am sure you are right).

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

I may be wrong... I should have said GreenPower instead of Green.

As long as the retail package doesn't look like this, you should be good. It was only recently that Western Digital decided to use colors to specify which model HDDs were which.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
shaggy-- said:
I am considering getting an almost identical build and I was wondering if you have any issues closing up the case with the coolermaster v8 on there. It is a pretty large HSF and I want to be sure i'm going to be able to put the side back onto the case.

It also looks like you didn't mount the optional manual fan control in a spare pci slot. Is that correct?
Click to expand...

I had no issue closing the case with the p182. It is close though lol!

I did mount the fan control in the top PCI spot above the video card with no issues. I think this is a really nice touch since I don't want to add an additional fan controller (the case has 3 speed fans). I have always had Zalman coolers (think I have used 4 or 5 over the years) and I always hated opening the case to adjust the controller that comes with theirs. There is never any place to put it and I ended up not using it last build with my evga 680i. Install for the V8 is a little strange in that the screws you mount the cooler to the backplate with must be first screwed into the cooler and they thread the opposite way of normal. I thought I was really crazy for a second. They do this becuase you use nuts on the back instead of a threaded backplate.

All in all I give the V8 an "A" and would not go back to the Zalman 9700.
 
tiraides said:
I may be wrong... I should have said GreenPower instead of Green.

As long as the retail package doesn't look like this, you should be good. It was only recently that Western Digital decided to use colors to specify which model HDDs were which.
Click to expand...
Ya, the new colors messed me up for sure. I always buy the RE series enterprise drives (I have probably 50 drives). The way I ended up with this was going to fry's to buy this whole machine not wanting to wait for newegg. It cost only about $100 (suprisingly) more to do it this way, but I had to do this while I had time off to enjoy it.

I plan to move this over to a media drive and get something else to install Vista 64 on.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
First OC results:

3.2Ghz (Temps 46/71 with V8 fan at 50% [1700 rpm])
BCLK 162
DRAM 1298Mhz
Voltages un-changed

18816 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 7563
SM 3.0 Score 8087
CPU Score 6188
 
UPDATE

I went ahead and upgraded my PS to the Zalman ZM1000-HP. I decided that I would want to SLI soon and since I bought MY PS at Fry's I was able to return it for full $$ since it was purchased less than 30 days ago. Here are the new improved build pics (I actually used a digital camera this time instead of my iphone...

PICT0028.jpg

PICT0030.jpg

PICT0032.jpg

PICT0035.jpg

PICT0037.jpg

PICT0038.jpg

PICT0039.jpg

PICT0040.jpg

PICT0041.jpg

PICT0043.jpg

PICT0045.jpg

PICT0049.jpg

PICT0050.jpg

PICT0051.jpg

PICT0053.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top