Advice on new system build?

M

m3sSh3aD

New member
Hi all,

Didnt know where post this so thought here might be appropriate, Sorry if not its in wrong place. I'm just here for advice as I'm building a new Desktop for an upgrade from a old AMD Opteron with 7800GTX at the beginning of may. Since then though i not only play games but do a lot of Audio/Visual work as i produce and VJ which i noticed the new Core i7 pretty much dominates hands down and is worth the extra £££. Also doing a music technology course degree so what else better to spend your well earned *cough cough* money on! Planning on spending around £1500 for a rig that will last around 4-5 years with upgrades possible. So here is a short list i've made, taking note it will be about 5 to 6 weeks when i buy so hopefully prices will drop a little...

Lian-Li PC-V1110B Aluminium Super Mid-Tower Case - Black (No PSU) £195.49

Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - OEM £229.99

Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366) £57.49

Gigabyte EX58-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £240.34

OCZ 6GB DDR3 PC3-15000 (3x2GB) Reaper Low-Voltage Triple Channel (OCZ3RPR1866C9LV6GK) £149.98

Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (AX4870X2 2GBD5-H) £344.99

LG GGW-H20L Blu-Ray Rewriter & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive - Retail £160.99

Tagan PipeRock TG800-BZ 800w Modular BZ Series Power Supply £142.59

Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD10EADS £167.88

TOTAL- £1713.58

(Prices from overclockers 19/03/09 as i live down the road from them and can pick up)

Any advice appreciated but some things i would like to know is:

1. Will i be able clock between 3.5Ghz to 4Ghz with this setup?

2. Are there better Motherboards/Ram than the ones i have chosen, and reasons why if so please :) Also, is the 'premium' version worth the extra £££?

3. Powercolor??? Yes or No?

4. PSU - I may want to put another HD4870 X2 in the rig at a future date, Is this sufficient? And also, Is there a just as good PSU for less £££?

5. These 'Green' WD HDD's? They any good or choose another? Different make even although i've owned a lot if WD including Raptors which i've always loved.

6. XP 64 or Vista 64? I hate vista but have got to take the plunge now to take advantage of my setup but is XP64 still a option? At least until Windows 7. Will be Duel booting with Xubuntu.

Thanks in advance

Ian
 
As for different cards - they have been out a while see if there are a brand that has a better heatsink, msi springs to mind after a google or two.

As for that its extras such as games applications etc.
 
Yes, I've seen the MSI Eclipse mobo which is around the same price but after a little look myself came to the conclusion of the gigabyte as there seems to be more reviews, but cant really decide between the 2. I think the gigabyte comes with 2 e-sata ports on a card which i need as i have an double e-sata exteral HDD. Thats all i could really split them on.

I know what im doing with computers but just like to find out as much as i can before spending ££££'s and feeling gutted over a bad purchase after, as anyone would really. Safe than sorry :)
 
In short:

name='m3ssh3ad' said:
1. Will i be able clock between 3.5ghz to 4ghz with this setup?
Click to expand...
Yes. Just yes. I clocked to 3.5 without too much issues within safe voltages etc. With the same cooler.

name='m3ssh3ad' said:
2. Are there better motherboards/ram than the ones i have chosen, and reasons why if so please :) also, is the 'premium' version worth the extra £££?
Click to expand...
Personally I do not think RAM makes a lot of difference. 1600MHz looks like the sweet spot at the moment, might want to take a look at oc3d reviews about overclockability.

The board is good, although I have not been very lucky with it, other have. The premium only offers better cooling while the UD5 is already good enough, so I'd save those pounds.

name='m3ssh3ad' said:
3. Powercolor??? Yes or no?
Click to expand...
Haven't heard of any trouble with them.

name='m3ssh3ad' said:
4. Psu - i may want to put another hd4870 x2 in the rig at a future date, is this sufficient? And also, is there a just as good psu for less £££?
Click to expand...
800W should be sufficient, yes. The psu you chose is however quite expensive, you might want to take a look at for example Cooler Master's real power m850.

name='m3ssh3ad' said:
5. These 'green' wd hdd's? They any good or choose another? Different make even although i've owned a lot if wd including raptors which i've always loved.
Click to expand...
The 'green's are optimised for low power usage and sound, which usually costs performance. Personally I think you would be better off with 1TB 'black's (5 year warranty ftw) or for example two velociraptors in raid0 for os&apps and a 1TB for data storage.

name='m3ssh3ad' said:
6. XP 64 or Vista 64? I hate vista but have got to take the plunge now to take advantage of my setup but is XP64 still a option? At least until Windows 7. Will be Duel booting with Xubuntu.
Click to expand...
Vista64. Personally I haven't used xp64, but I heard driver support is really bad, which would decrease performance again.
 
Thank's monkey7,

Looked at that PSU and got to agree with you there. Seems like a solid PSU with more for less. Thanks, appreciated.

Trying not get my build too expensive but i know how good the raptors were and i don't doubt any less from the new ones. 2x300GB is £450 mark and 2x150GB is hitting £310! Feel like I'm loosing out buying the 2x150's on GB's per £££ but i don't need 600GB main drive, although would help running HD videos in real time from the main drive instead of 7,200 storage. You added an extra dilemma there ha ha. Might be able save the extra £££ for when i get the stuff beginning of may though... if i be good ha ha. Fat chance.

Big thanks for pointing out that PSU though :worship:
 
ha ha :) I go with whats good bang for buck so to speak. And cant knock anything I've read about ATI recently whereas nVidia... Cant see them being around for too long and i have always thought ATI's cards have been better engineered. Drivers normally take a while to mature though. Remember paying nearly £400 for my 7800 GTX 'Golden sample' ha ha. Obsolete within about 6 or so months with the 7900 GTX.

I'm getting a blu-ray writer as i'm just future proofing a little more and i do watch alot of HD movies. I own a mitsubishi HC-4900 Projector so it would be wrong not too :)

Looked at some reviews on that HS&F and think i'm converted. Saving a bit of ££ on that front too. Thanks for that. But i cant find any info on if it fits the LGA1366 socket?
 
name='sprento' said:
What kind/size screen you giong to get ?
Click to expand...

You know i never even thought about that!!! So used to using my laptop these days. To be honest i'll probably just use my projector to start with. It's 1080p HDMI so very capable until i can get a bit of money together for a decent screen. I do have an old 1600x1200 CRT but wont be using that. Any reccomendations? Size & Resolution? Thinking at least 24" 1920x1200. They come in pretty cheap i see. Samsung T260 26" Widescreen LCD Monitor (LS26TWHSUV) - £310 which aint too bad.

Sleekit - Looks fidderly ha ha, But the reviews are good on that HS&F, And price is still good even with the extra cost. Thanks for that.
 
Hyundai looks like a winner. But i think a screen will be after the rig cause i don't want sacrifice anything internal. Won't hurt me use a 120" screen for a bit ha ha, Bit OTT
 
name='m3sSh3aD' said:
Sleekit - Looks fidderly ha ha, But the reviews are good on that HS&F, And price is still good even with the extra cost. Thanks for that.
Click to expand...

Not really, it was dead easy to install (I got one :) )
 
Erm, You can add an additional 120mm fan though. I'm 99% certain that Lian-Li case will be more than enough and out perform alot of the so proclaimed 'gaming cases' with ease. I wont have 2 HD4870 X2's to start with either, may not ever use 2 if its better to get the latest V/C when the time comes round also so may never have to. I simply dont like any other cases anywhere close to how much i like Lian-Li's V-series either so im going bite the bullet and stick with my origional choice.

So my list so far *updted* is:

Lian-Li PC-V1110B Aluminum Super Mid-Tower Case - Black (No PSU

Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366)

Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler

MSI Eclipse SLI Intel X58

Corsair Dominator 6GB DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz

Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI

LG GGW-H20L Blu-Ray Rewriter & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive

Corsair TX 850W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply

G.Skill Titan 128GB SSD

*Iiyama ProLite E2407HDS 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - LATER DATE IF REQUIRED*

I gone for a SSD as i have 2x500GB WD RE2's in an external e-sata caddy so i can utilise them. In the real world though is 1 SSD better than 2 WD Velociraptors in RAID0?

Thanks again for people advice and input

Ian
 
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