Decisions decisions

[FunkyMonkey90]

Hey guys, in the new year i'm hoping to be able to build a new rig if i can afford it xD, so far heres what i'm thinking...

CPU - i7 970 (will be OC'ed)

Cooler - Noctua NH-D14

Mobo - MSI Bing Bang Xpower

RAM - 12GB Mushkin blackline 1600MHz

PSU - NZXT Hale90 850W

GPU - Nvidia GTX580 (maybe dual SLI)

SSD - Crucial RealSSD 128GB

HDD - 2x Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB

Case - NZXT Phantom

As you can probably tell i'm a bit indecisive lol..

I'm more edging towards the EVGA mobo ATM.. and I really don't know what GPU to get.. i've heard good things about both.. The rig will be for gaming and also some 3D work with Cinema 4D..

What are your guys thoughts?

Thanks

 

[alienware]

Cooler - Coolermaster V8/ CoolIt eco ALC

Oh dear.

EVGA x58 FTW3

Oh dear oh dear..

What are your guys thoughts?

Thanks

Throw the above in the idea trash can and the rest will do you good. There is only one cooler here, the NH-D14. As for boards? I've never seen an EVGA recommended on here before and I highly doubt it would happen any time soon. With that kind of rig I would go for something above the Sabertooth but definitely not an EVGA. MSI do some good X58 boards as do Gigabyte.

 

[hmmblah]

Change the cooler to either the Noctua NH-D14 or a custom water cooled kit.

Either board will be good, but I'd probably go with the ASUS.

As far as GPU goes, I'd go with the GTX580. I am a bit biased though as I fold. You will get PhysX and CUDA with the 580.

 

[FunkyMonkey90]

Throw the above in the idea trash can and the rest will do you good. There is only one cooler here, the NH-D14. As for boards? I've never seen an EVGA recommended on here before and I highly doubt it would happen any time soon. With that kind of rig I would go for something above the Sabertooth but definitely not an EVGA. MSI do some good X58 boards as do Gigabyte.

Sorry forgot bout the NH-D14.. I created this list before i joined the forums and never really heard of noctua

.. As for the motherboard as u can probably tell i'n not a mastermind at motherboards like you guys here at OC3D.. Do you think I shouldn't bother with a sabertooth either then?..

What about the GPU? Nvidia or ATI?

 

[alienware]

Don't get me wrong mate the Sabertooth is a great board. However, with the sort of components you are planning on (the 970 for starters) would lead me toward a higher end board.

Where abouts on the planet are you based? From your choice of coolers I am leaning toward an American here, but I could be wrong.

 

[FunkyMonkey90]

Change the cooler to either the Noctua NH-D14 or a custom water cooled kit.

Either board will be good, but I'd probably go with the ASUS.

As far as GPU goes, I'd go with the GTX580. I am a bit biased though as I fold. You will get PhysX and CUDA with the 580.

I was edging towards the GTX580 as I've heard excellent things about it and the performance, and will possibly be getting 2 for dual SLI/Crossfire

 

[FunkyMonkey90]

Don't get me wrong mate the Sabertooth is a great board. However, with the sort of components you are planning on (the 970 for starters) would lead me toward a higher end board.

Where abouts on the planet are you based? From your choice of coolers I am leaning toward an American here, but I could be wrong.

As I mentioned I'm not brilliant with motherboards (they all seem basically the same to me

) but I'll look around see what other offering i can find.

I'm from Somerset, England.. The choice of coolers is because for the V8 I thought it looked good ^^ and seems to do a good job.

 

[alienware]

V8 is a lot like the coolits and corsair H70s of this world. Looks good, costs loads, gets its ass kicked by better coolers costing less. The NH isn't cheap but it performs top class. Thus, in a way it is cheap due to what you get for your hard earned beans.

This board

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-...e-20-(x16)-ddr3-2000-2133-sata-3gb-s-raid-atx

Would be a good board for a 970 based system. Mostly because you get a top end sound card with it and all other sorts of goodies. If you wanted to know what one looks like in the flesh check out CLBs I7 monster thread, my friend in the US just picked one up

I'm being a little overkill I admit, but, your idea of a system sounds like pure overkill indulgence so it would be a nice thing to have a really top ass board to go with likes. In a way you're right about them all being sort of the same. I mean, after all they're all based on the Intel X58 chipset. It's the quality you pay for* in most cases and the feature set. And, with a system like the one you have in mind (drool) I wouldn't get a low to mid ranged board. Just my opinion mate, you don't have to listen to what I say

The better the board the better the capacitors, VRMS, power stages, layout, slots, features ETC.

* in my case I got a foxconn board for £100 and it had pretty much all of the features of a board costing £150+. Mind you, I had to flash the bios before it would even come to life but it has a very good spec and layout for the money

 

[FunkyMonkey90]

V8 is a lot like the coolits and corsair H70s of this world. Looks good, costs loads, gets its ass kicked by better coolers costing less. The NH isn't cheap but it performs top class. Thus, in a way it is cheap due to what you get for your hard earned beans.

This board

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-...e-20-(x16)-ddr3-2000-2133-sata-3gb-s-raid-atx

Would be a good board for a 970 based system. Mostly because you get a top end sound card with it and all other sorts of goodies. If you wanted to know what one looks like in the flesh check out CLBs I7 monster thread, my friend in the US just picked one up

I'm being a little overkill I admit, but, your idea of a system sounds like pure overkill indulgence so it would be a nice thing to have a really top ass board to go with likes. In a way you're right about them all being sort of the same. I mean, after all they're all based on the Intel X58 chipset. It's the quality you pay for* in most cases and the feature set. And, with a system like the one you have in mind (drool) I wouldn't get a low to mid ranged board. Just my opinion mate, you don't have to listen to what I say

The better the board the better the capacitors, VRMS, power stages, layout, slots, features ETC.

Again with the coolers I don't know that much but i found a NH-D14 for only £10 more then the CoolIt ECO ALC so ill go with that

..

I understand about paying for the quality and I've never really known any problems with ASUS boards (my uncle build servers and personal rigs for his clients and i help him out, in every build hes ever done it was an ASUS hence my choice lol) but I thought the sabertooth would be reliable due to the "military grade tests" they performed on it, but the MSI board seems good plenty of PCI-E slots

lol..

Also another silly question can you plug PCI cards into PCI-E slots?

And I drooled just at the thought of me actually owning this rig lol.. I'm sure it's a worthy upgrade from what i currently have lol.

 

[alienware]

No, PCI cards will not fit into a PCIE slot. You can however use PCIE 1x devices (with the small edge connector) in a 16x slot (the long blue ones).

I'm not sure what PCI devices you would use now but tbh that board has a good sound offering so that would rule out a sound card and wireless dongles are a lot better than they used to be (I'm using a USB one by Dlink and it's aces).

Ed. Going back to boards I might be being a bit 'snobby' and I'm sure the Saber would do the job

 

[Aurus_OC]

I understand about paying for the quality and I've never really known any problems with ASUS boards (my uncle build servers and personal rigs for his clients and i help him out, in every build hes ever done it was an ASUS hence my choice lol) but I thought the sabertooth would be reliable due to the "military grade tests" they performed on it, but the MSI board seems good plenty of PCI-E slots

lol..

Also another silly question can you plug PCI cards into PCI-E slots?

No you won't be able to plug in any PCI cards into PCI-E slots. I believe PCI is a parallel connection type and PCI-E is serial. So since you are asking, what PCI card do you have? If you absolutely have to use it then you may want to look for a different board.

I can highly recommend the MSI XPower if you don't want to use PCI anymore, since a friend of mine has one and it worked out great for him. He says it really comes with a lot of accesories.

The Sabertooth really is a great board and I believe anyone on this forum would recommend it with an i7-950, because it really matches the "price point". However if you are willing to spend about three times the amount of cash on a 970, you may want to consider your options of getting an extreme-high-end motherboard

 

[killablade]

Would also take a look at the Asus Rampage III Extreme mate, awesome board

 

[FunkyMonkey90]

Well the PCI cards I would be using is a wireless card and a TV Tuner card...Hopefully a new mobo will mean i can convince my step-dad into allowing my put a CAT-5 lead everywhere

.. and the TV Tuner well thats self-explanatory.

As for the mobo and CPU, I can get the CPU on Ebay for £550ish I understand some are used though would this possibly effect the performance?.. and the board I'll be looking into a higher end board like the MSI Big Bang as alienALX suggested =]

I was thinking of the Rampage extreme but as AlienALX said the MSI also comes with a good sound card with it which would be a bonus as hopefuly ill be upgrading my sound system soon as well =]

 

[Aurus_OC]

Imho I myself would never buy a CPU from Ebay but thats just me. If you want to buy it off Ebay, go ahead. But be careful, which means have a look at the sellers reputation etc. to find out if they are not "cheating".

 

[alienware]

Mate I use a Pinnacle 70t or something. Was £13 and it rocks. Tiny USB stick

Win media center picks it straight up, love the thing

As I said, I wouldn't even use PCI now if you paid me. My bloodrage has a single PCI and it was right below where my GPU went so I pulled my wireless card out and used my dongle.

Terratec do a f***ing amazing USB TV dongle with twin tuners and all sorts. Synnergy? can't remember.. *looks*

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Terratec-Ci...ef=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1292615759&sr=8-4-spell

T'ain't cheap but kicks serious ammounts of ass.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-li...TF8&qid=1292615816&sr=8-1-spell&condition=new

One there for £26

 

[FunkyMonkey90]

Imho I myself would never buy a CPU from Ebay but thats just me. If you want to buy it off Ebay, go ahead. But be careful, which means have a look at the sellers reputation etc. to find out if they are not "cheating".

Most of them seem legit.. i mean a 970 just went for £450 inc. shipping from the US lol.. but I dunno yet..

Mate I use a Pinnacle 70t or something. Was £13 and it rocks. Tiny USB stick

Win media center picks it straight up, love the thing As I said, I wouldn't even use PCI now if you paid me. My bloodrage has a single PCI and it was right below where my GPU went so I pulled my wireless card out and used my dongle.Terratec do a f***ing amazing USB TV dongle with twin tuners and all sorts. Synnergy? can't remember.. *looks*http://www.amazon.co.uk/Terratec-Cinergy-USB-XXS-Portable/dp/B000Z7RH5O/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1292615759&sr=8-4-spellT'ain't cheap but kicks serious ammounts of ass.http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-li...&qid=1292615816&sr=8-1-spell&condition=newOne there for £26

I want a dual tuner so i can watch and record.. Your seriously telling me that dongle has dual tuners in it? lol.. as for the wireless I've only had bad experiences with them =/.. Maybe they have been upgraded now though.. But as I said hopefully i can talk my step-dad into allowing CAT-5 cables going through the house

 

[TMaksimov]

As it was previously said an NH-D14 is definitely the choice when it comes to cooling a high performance CPU properly without spending £200+ on a custom loop. The Phantom is a good case but I wish the fan controller was a bit more accurate. The GPU should be a 580 as the 69xx compared to Nvidia's offering are crap (Hard for me to say it coming from a long line of ATI cards). I'd think an 850 watt PSU is more than able for all your needs even if you clock it should leave you with plenty of headroom. Isn't 12 gig of ram a little excessive?

Other than that I say go for it

Good luck!

 

[FunkyMonkey90]

Well I'm getting the NH-D14 now.. I wanted the Phantom because I love the look of it and it seems to have plenty of space inside of it... As I mentioned before I am leaning towards the GTX580 and hopefully will get 2 eventually

.. I was thinking the 1000W PSU because the more power the better right?

.. And as for the RAM 12GB isn't excessive for 3D modelling

 

[TMaksimov]

Well I'm getting the NH-D14 now.. I wanted the Phantom because I love the look of it and it seems to have plenty of space inside of it... As I mentioned before I am leaning towards the GTX580 and hopefully will get 2 eventually

.. I was thinking the 1000W PSU because the more power the better right?

.. And as for the RAM 12GB isn't excessive for 3D modelling

The more power isn't necessary the better as a PSU is more efficient towards its maximum power rating. I don't know how much those 580s pull, though

To be fair, for its price tag the Phantom could've been put together better. I'm not saying it's bad or anything - I just expected more.

 

[FunkyMonkey90]

Ahh I see.. I may be going with the 850W then

.. As I mentioned before I love the looks of the Phantom and it also seems to have good airflow and with the built in fan controller it ticks all the boxes for me