New Build (Advice)

[St3v3n]

First off I'm new to the forum so hello

Anyway I'm in the process of speccing myself a new PC for Christmas, its going to be my first build so I thought I would come here first and see if it looks ok and if I'm getting the best for my money (hope I'm in the right section).

Case: Corsair 800d (I know this is expensive but I would like a future proof case, which would be good for water cooling.)

CPU: Intel Core i7 950 Bloomfield 3.06Ghz

CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro H70

Memory: Corsair Dominator DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600), CAS 8-8-8-24 (Not sure about CAS numbers but I hear these are ok).

Mobo: Asus P6X58D-E (This is probably the component I've been debating over the most, Its been between this one, the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R, the Asus Sabertooth TUF X58 and the EVGA X58 SLI3. I really hope someone can shed some light on which of these would be the better choice)

PSU: Corsair 750

Hard Drive: 120GB OCZ SSD (Have a 1TB for storage)

GPU: I have a Nvidia 480 waiting at home to go in the build.

Also have bought some some 140mm and 120mm Gelid UV Blues fans with some UV lights, hoping that will give it a nice look.


Anyway just want to check that these are all good components and if there are any better out there for the same money. Also just checking that i havnt missed anything for the build.

Thanks in advance and much appreciated.


Ste

Edit:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? The PC will be used for Gaming mostly.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? £1100 (Tax and Shipping included)
3) Where do you live? UK (England)
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. I need Case, CPU, RAM, 120g SSD, Mobo, CPU Cooler and Fans (2 140mm and 7 120mm)
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. 750Watt corsair PSU, Nvidia gtx480
6) Will you be overclocking? Not right at the beginning but will look into it so I shall say Yes
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have? I have a 24" monitor running at 1920x1200
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Was looking to start buy/building next week (starting 12th December) but I did hear about sandybride next year.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc. Mainly SLI as i would liek to SLI 2 480s
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit? Yes I do I have WIndows 7 64bit

 

[tiraides]

Welcome to the [H]! Please answer the questions listed in the "Asking for Build Help?" sticky so we can tailor our recommendations to better suit your needs.

Also, can you wait to build your new system after Christmas? Intel's Sandy Bridge is expected to arrive on January 5 and, depending on your needs, you could obtain better performance parts for less money then.

 

[St3v3n]

Sorry I didn't see the "Asing for Build Help" I shall update my Original post

Thanks for the reply

 

[tiraides]

Which (online) locations are you shopping from? We Yanks don't know all of the good UK- or Euro-based retailers available to you.

As for the parts, you don't need the i7-950 or Corsair Dominators for a good gaming rig. Because most games are still largely GPU-dependent, a "weaker" processor like the Core i5-760 or AMD Phenom II X4 955 would be more than enough for your needs. Consequentially, that would also require a different motherboard (Socket 1156/P55 chipset and Socket AM3/AMD 9xx chipset, respectively) and dual channel RAM.

The problem is that outside of Sandy Bridge, only the Socket 1366 boards have decent SLI support. (Truthfully, however, I don't know which of the Sandy Bridge-based boards, if any, support SLI.) The majority of the AMD SLI-supporting boards aren't very good, and the Intel (Core i5/i7) 1156 boards with SLI support cost nearly as much as the 1366 (Core i7) boards. In short, you have to decide whether SLI is really a "must have" feature for you. Since you already have one good card in the GTX 480, depending on the games that you play, I believe that it's not really necessary.

I haven't forgotten about the RAM: Corsair Dominators are overpriced compared to other capable RAM brands. CAS latency and "tight timings" aren't really important with DDR3 memory, especially while overclocking, as only synthetic benchmarks can "accurately" determine their true performance "level." Or, grab a cheaper Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600 kit and call it a day.

You never really answered my question the first time around: Are you willing to wait until January for Sandy Bridge to arrive?

 

[St3v3n]

All the items ive priced up are from Scan.

Thanks for the advice as for the SLI question i suppose its not a must have i was just thinking of it for the future.

As for waiting i suppose i can wait and it probably will be a good idea just to see what the sandybridge is like. Only thing is ive been doing the waiting game for a year now and i was just gonna go ahead and buy insted of waiting for 'the next best thing'.

never reallt read and looked at new CPU's when they come out, is there ever any problems when they first come out? Was thinking that the i7 has been out a while so should be good/stable.

 

[Dangman]

never reallt read and looked at new CPU's when they come out, is there ever any problems when they first come out? Was thinking that the i7 has been out a while so should be good/stable.

Generally, problems don't crop up until years into widespread use of the CPUs. I.e like in the last few months that socket LGA 1366 Core i7 CPUs as well as socket LGA 1366 motherboards are having issues actually reporting/allowing use of the installed set of RAM. That issues are not exactly solved either.

But in general, CPUs as well as their required motherboards are relatively stable at first release.