Project Blackops

[stevej696]

Last month i started to plan my first build ever, after a month of building up the confidence i finally plunged into building my first system. It has been a month to the day since that build and even though my first rig was respectable spec with affordable and decent parts something was not quite satisfying my desire.

I sat down and it finally hit me what my desire was, to build my ultimate dream pc system regardless of cost over as long as it would take. Obviously it had to be within a respectable budget as im not a millionaire!

So here i am right back where i was a month ago sourcing out parts for the new monster and what a monster it will be. The new rig had to be ultra fast, upgraded easily when needed and had to have overclocking in its wires. Ive finally come up with a parts list, its still work in progress but its promising and should be good enough to satisfy even the most advanced overclocking hungry people.

Please leave any comments on whether or not its a good build and any other parts that you think may make it even better, you're the experts and you're knowledge is very appreciated.

This will be the most advanced and high spec computer i have ever built so all comments good and bad will be invaluable. Thanks in advance guys.:wavey:

The spec of the build​

Motherboard: Foxconn Blackops x48 chipset

CPU: Intel core 2 quad Q6600 overclocked to 4.0GHz

RAM: OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666 / 1333 MHz / Reaper HPC Edition / 4GB / Dual Channel

Cooling: Swiftech custom water cooling kit

GPU: 2X ATI Radeon HD4870 in Crossfire

PSU: Corsair HX1000W Modular

HDD's: 2x Western Digital Caviar Blue 640GB in Raid 0

Sound card: Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer

Case: Antec 1200 Gamers Case

So people heres what ive came up with so far so please leave a comment on what you think good or bad and any improvements you may like to share will be appreciated.

The estimated cost of the build will be approx £2000 over 12months or so.

Happy overclocking people!

 

[SwaleSmith]

ditch crossfire appatently this is useless and scales very poorly insteda why not get a single 4870x2 I would imagine this would be a more stable/reliale setup.

bare in mind if this build is going over one year a, these components will go out of date by time you finish for example the q6600 is and exceelent chip but nehalem architecture is out next month, I know it will be lots and lots of cash but I would imagine more modest price versions will be available shortly, especialy in the current economic climate I cant see £1200 CPU setups being overly in demand in addition to this nvidia will be no doubt giving a good answer next year to the 4870x2 so that should be a nice card.

My best advice is if your thinkng of building as you go, don't, instead build your finances first, and see what is out then as I feel your £2k next year will buy better equipment as it's not like you can use it until its complete if you get my drift!!!!

p.s not so sure in the swiftech kits being your best option, go custom I and many other will gladly help you with this and is seldom more expensive and is hardly any more effort to make a smaller CPU loop, just ask for help when you need to on this.

 

[Bubba]

Well.. depends on what you want out of the rig..

There's no reason to go balls out on expensive parts if you ain't shelling it all out now, like swale said. Nor is there any reason for going 2x4870 unless that's cheaper than 1x4870X2.

Both card setups run Crossfire (the X2 only have 2x4870 on 1 pcb instead of 2, and you usually have 512mb on the single 4870 cards where as X2 allways have 1gb per gpu (meaning 2gb memory in total on the 4870X2 card)) so there's no nay or hay from going with either as they both run crossfire..

So.. I'ld first do what swale said: get your finances figured. Then I'ld get the goal set, what's your purpose with this rig? Stellar gaming performance, or adequate gaming performance. What monitor do you have? And what resolution is it?

my thoughts:

Downgrade your Foxconn board to something cheaper, Gigabyte have cheaper X48 cards (if you really want x48, x38 ain't that much worse, performance wise.. but..).

if you so desire crossfire 2x 4850 amd/ati cards perform VERY well for their price.. either that or get 260gtx cards.. (then you need to get nvidia chipset motherboard but..).

2x640gb disks, for a few bucks more you can get 750gb or 1tb disks, I'ld not run any of those in Raid0, too much data with no redundancy.. if you want performance, get 1 300gb raptor and 1x750+ disk, then you can allways buy another raptor later and hopefully create a Raid1 array (only stick your OS and "important" software that require speed on the raptor(s)). There are also cheaper versions of the x-fi card, and asus sonar cards are good alternatives if you really need quality... PSU and Case are good choices, and should last you quite a while. The memory is just a matter of personal preference, but I've fried too many ocz modules to my liking, and are kinda partial to Corsair.. But, as I said, let price and reviews decide..

But, this is all for naught if you're building it over 1 years time.... because what you plan on getting now, is 1 year in time not necessarily the beast you desire it to be.. i7 is around the corner, you can bet nvidia is cooking up something.. Also, X58 can do both SLI and Crossfire (in whatever flavour you desire, if you get the right motherboard) so that might be an upgrade path you might seriously consider...

If you though want to go the loooooooong way and build it over 12months time, do you have parts you can use whilst you "wait" for the finances to buy the next part? If not you'll be wasting money for 11months and then at the culmination of the 12th month you'll have a 1year old good gaming rig.. which usually means a good gaming rig still, but not compared to what you can get then..

So, put the money in the bank, wait untill you have the 2000£ budget covered, then check if either AMD/ATI or nvidia have something cooking, if so, wait a few months untill they're done cooking and release whatever cookies they've been baking, and get either that or the second best thing (which is then lower in price)..

That's just what I would have done..

If you want to WC everything, you can take 33% of your budget and save that for the cooling as WC is rather expensive..

Swiftech is good..

Hope this was of help..

-Bubba

 

[Rastalovich]

U need a good reason to spend high level cash on some components.

If the reason is that u have it, and can, or saved especially for them, then so be it

In the main tho, some of them aren`t worth it.

 

[usman.zx10]

i love my gigabyte x48 board. and it oc's like a champion!

get what ya want man, its your system. There are just some better choices out there IMHO

 

[stevej696]

Cheers people all comments are very helpful. I understand where you are all coming from and respect the comments you all have made. The main goal for this project is to build a machine that can stably handle 555MHz FSB with awesome gaming graphics and performance. The time scale has been narrowed down from 12months to 3months thanks to a bit of good fortune. I understand that there are many other good overclocking boards out there for less but the main reason for choosing Blackops is it has thousands of good reviews and has a few awards for the performance and adaptability.

I definitely want to use the foxconn blackops motherboard but am willing to change the hard drives and RAM etc to suit the budget and time scale. I have never dealt with water cooling before so this is a new and very exciting experience for me aswell as a BIG leap from my comfort zone.

I thought i would use the graphics cards due to me wanting a 22" monitor but it was mainly for the braggig rights aswell as the picture quality. I would like to find other cheaper cards out there with similar quality so if anyone knows any good graphics cards that can out perform the mighty radeon 4850 for around the same price or cheaper please let me know.

I do appreciate all comments, suggestions and the knowledge of all you grate people. :worship:

Does anyone know if i can build a good spec including the HX1000W Corsair PSU and Foxconn Blackops motherboard for less than £1000? Is it doable?

 

[Bubba]

Well.. 22" widescreen I guess, so that's 1680x1050 resolution.. which means 4850 crossfire is the absolute best bang for bucks.. 4870x2 is a serious overkill since you won't need the horsepower that card's got, and it's fairly expensive... for 1000£ you should be able to buidl a fairly decent pc, that is with 1 harddrive (maybe 2, but I'ld go for 1x750gb ish disk), 4gb of ram, an ok case, Q6600 cpu, standard dvd burner... But, you won't fit a monitor into that budget..

-Bubba

 

[stevej696]

hey bubba, i have the 22" screen on its way as i bought that part first. The case im going to use is a Antec1200 which im getting 15th Nov. By christmas the system will be built.

The hard drive im going to use is a Seagate barracuda 1TB with 32mb cache and 7200rpm spin speed. The RAM im going to use is OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 Intel® Extreme Edition 4GB kit.

I am going to be running Q9450 processor @ 4.0GHz if i can on air if not then will get a single water loop for the processor.

Would 1 ATI Radeon 4850 be enough for good graphics and performance on this system?

:corn:

 

[Rastalovich]

/interuption

Just dashing in and out of Scan`s menus, clicking on items without checking for alternatives and picking stuff that I wouldn`t buy myself - but would do the job I`m sure.

For just under £1300. If there was more time spent on massaging the requirements, I can bet u could get it £1000 or under. Saying that, Ham definately could.

Either way, gaming setup, including practically everything u`ll need for top gaming (cept some speakers I just noticed >.<). AND personally I could cut the costs by loads just going for series 3 intel mobo, 65nm, and possibly not Bluray , and that keyboard/mouse/etc, and it`d be a pc that`ll play ALL ur games in the realword just as well as the £1300 one, but perhaps doesn`t do 3dMark06 as well ^.~.

/eof interuption

hehe

 

[Bubba]

Well.. Good and good.. depends.. the 4850 is very cheap, and performs well for it's price.. and since you've got a x48 motherboard and not a nvidia one, SLI is not an option.. if you start out with 1x4850 you can allways add another if you're not satisfied with performance. They're rather cheap so they don't kill your budget.

Good luck.

-Bubba