Last Minute Build Advice! Ordering Tonight!

L1ght · 30 May 2009 at 16:36

Ok guys I'm about to make my first upgrade in just over 4 years and got my new spec sorted out:

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - £250.99Retail
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 £164.99 inc VAT
OCZ Intel i7 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666 Triple Channel (OCZ3X1333LV6GK) - £75.99
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply
LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive - Retail - £76.98
Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB 10000RPM SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD1500HLFS) - £110

Shipping : £10.50
VAT : £124.70
Total :£956.01

I already have:

Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case
Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24"
Western Digital 200gb IDE
Western Digital 80gb IDE

I'm looking to be able to play up to date games at 1920x1200 and use graphics programs such as maya and Zbrush.

If anyone can give me any last minute advice on whether this is a good build or not or if i should replace anything then it would be a massive help.
Cheers lads :cool:

shadowake · 30 May 2009 at 16:39

I'd get an SSD instead of the VelociRaptor much faster, also the Asus 4870 is around the same price but is slightly faster and easier to overclock. Other than that looks a top sepc

L1ght · 30 May 2009 at 16:51

Cheers mate, would you rather go for the Asus ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 £164.99 inc VAT or Asus ATI Radeon HD 4870 Dark Knight 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) ?

game4it · 30 May 2009 at 16:53

I would pick different ram (1600mhz) if your going to be OC'ing.
I have the same kit and i think its not great at all.That ram is actually 1066mhz but its rated to run at 1333mhz.It doesn't OC to well imo.

I've read good things about this kit. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-008-PA&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1389

L1ght · 30 May 2009 at 17:10

Ok cheers game4it, I'll make the switch - handy that ram is on offer at the moment.

L1ght · 30 May 2009 at 17:17

shadowake - I think later down the line I'll go ssd, at the moment I need to keep my costs as close to £900 as possible.

Im looking to use the Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB 10000RPM SATA-II 16MB Cache to run Vista off.

mp260767 · 30 May 2009 at 17:45

how about an after market cooler for the processor ?

i'd swap the raptor for western digital 500gb and 1tb drives, would enable you to get rid of the ide drives as well, 500Gb for system and 1tb for storage.

lynchy6789 · 30 May 2009 at 18:29

Instead of rapter you would be best of getting 2 x WD Black in Raid 0 for OS and applications then maybe 1 TB for storage

shadowake · 30 May 2009 at 18:45

lynchy6789 said:
Instead of rapter you would be best of getting 2 x WD Black in Raid 0 for OS and applications then maybe 1 TB for storage

+1

L1ght · 30 May 2009 at 18:46

Cool, wouldn't the raptor perform better than the 2 x WD Black other than its lack of storage capacity? And do you think I would need more space for the OS/ Applications?

It would be nice to dump the IDE's but I can't really stretch my budget to much further.

mp260767 what cooler would you reccommed?

shadowake · 30 May 2009 at 18:52

L1ght said:
Cool, wouldn't the raptor perform better than the 2 x WD Black other than its lack of storage capacity? And do you think I would need more space for the OS/ Applications?

It would be nice to dump the IDE's but I can't really stretch my budget to much further.

mp260767 what cooler would you reccommed?

Get this cooler:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-008-TI

I have 2 raptors in RAID0 and to be honest they arn't especially fast (Not that noticable over decent SATAII 7200 anyway). Get some SATA's now for storage and an SSD in the future.

L1ght · 30 May 2009 at 18:56

OK cool, thanks guys. I'll dump the raptor and go for the 2 x WD's running in raid then get hold of an SSD in the future.

shadowake · 30 May 2009 at 19:04

L1ght said:
OK cool, thanks guys. I'll dump the raptor and go for the 2 x WD's running in raid then get hold of an SSD in the future.

Good call, I'm going to SSD in my next rig definately worth saving the cash on the raptor IMO.

L1ght · 30 May 2009 at 19:13

Yep totally agree. Ok so revised build is looking like this:

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - £250.99Retail
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 £164.99 inc VAT
Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600MHz) Low Latency Tri-Channel (PVT36G1600LLK)
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply
LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive - Retail - £76.98
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD5001AALS)
Titan TTC-NK85TZ Fenrir CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775/LGA1366)

Shipping : £10.50
VAT : £119.78
Total : £918.34

shadowake · 30 May 2009 at 19:14

L1ght said:
Yep totally agree. Ok so revised build is looking like this:

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - £250.99Retail
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 £164.99 inc VAT
Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600MHz) Low Latency Tri-Channel (PVT36G1600LLK)
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply
LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive - Retail - £76.98
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD5001AALS)
Titan TTC-NK85TZ Fenrir CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775/LGA1366)

Shipping : £10.50
VAT : £119.78
Total : £918.34

Looks good, I'd be happy with that

L1ght · 30 May 2009 at 21:02

1 more question. Instead of getting 2 x WD Black in Raid 0 for OS and applications, would it be worth getting 1tb for the OS and Applications?

Cheers for all the help so far!

shadowake · 30 May 2009 at 22:07

L1ght said:
1 more question. Instead of getting 2 x WD Black in Raid 0 for OS and applications, would it be worth getting 1tb for the OS and Applications?

Cheers for all the help so far!

The 2 in RAID0 would be slightly quicker. I'd say it depends on the price difference.

lynchy6789 · 30 May 2009 at 23:03

500GB may be enough for everything the only problem is your running in raid 0 which means if you have a lot of music and documents then you have a higher change of the HDD breaking as the information is in basic terms split on two HDD. But if you get an external HDD and just back up your pc every now and again then Raid 0 is fairly safe.

I would look at spending a little extra and getting a Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 650W or Corsair HX 750W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply"]Corsair 750w

L1ght · 30 May 2009 at 23:22

Well ordering is complete and this is what I ordered:

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - £250.99Retail
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 £164.99 inc VAT
Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600MHz) Low Latency Tri-Channel (PVT36G1600LLK)
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply
LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive - Retail - £76.98
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD5001AALS)
Titan TTC-NK85TZ Fenrir CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775/LGA1366)

Thanks for the input lynchy6789 but you got in a bit too late, was in the process of ordering. Thanks for everyones help with the spec. Now I play the waiting game and maybe order my first blu ray and get a new game in.

cheers guys

JonJ678 · 30 May 2009 at 23:27

Did you settle on raid or not in the end? It's not something I've bothered with for os, but I do run a raid 5 as backup [nb raid is not a backup]

Spec is solid, you'll have fun with that. PSU is good too. Pictures when it arrives please