New PC build, foreseeable problems?

Spartacus35

Spartacus35

Spartacus35

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Joined
3 Apr 2010
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87
Location
London
:D Hey folks! :D

I'm new to the forums, but not to OC's, I have bought from here before & been massively happy with the service & customer support.
Ok, so let me sort of cut to the chase. My neighbourhood had a dodgy power failure. First it fried the surge protector, then within a couple of seconds killed my beloved PC, (every component fried beyond repair). So, with the insurance money and some extra I'm about to order the list below, IF there's no problems with my selections any of you can see. There's several key things though that I'm PASSIONATE about and want to incorporate into the build, as follows, in no particular order,...

  • Reliability
  • Longevity
  • Noise, (hopefully lack thereof)
  • Driver support
  • Cable management
  • Cooling, (I won't be overclocking anything except the CPU to hopefully appx 4GHz)
  • Price
  • Gaming capability (BF2, BFBC, UT3, CoD4, CoDWM2, NFS:Shift & maybe Crysis),
  • Ability to cope well with 3D rendering like 'Vue 8' (hi poly-count, textures etc), & HD video recording/editing etc
  • Inter-compatability (Each part working together in harmony, connectability etc)
  • Ability to control ALL the fans, (from outside the case with PC in situ), independently & safely to control noise & temperature levels. I MIGHT modify the case if it doesn't require a Dremel to allow the controllers to be accessed easily from the outside rather than having them internally.

I'd like to ask you all who've chosen to read this to be extra lovely n kind by going over the products in your own time and telling me if you spot any issues or problems I'm likely to encounter that I may have over-looked with the main features as listed above, in mind. Please leave your comments, views & opinions/criticisms below, thank you! :) :cool:



Asus ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £224.99

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66GHz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail £199.99

Asus P6T Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard £159.99

Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel (PVT36G1600ELK) £129.98 x2 = £259.96

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit - OEM (FQC-00765) £116.99

Antec TruePower New Blue Modular 750W Power Supply £99.99

Fractal Design Define R2 Midi Tower Case - Black Pearl £79.99

Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1156/1366/AM2/AM3) £66.99

Asus Xonar D1 7.1 PCI Sound Card (90-YAA0B0-0UAN00Z) £54.99

LG GH22NS50 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99

Belkin 6-Socket SurgeMaster with Network Protection - 2 Metre (F9S623UK2M) £16.44

Fractal Design 140mm Silent Cooling Fan £12.26 x2 = £24.52

Fractal Design 120mm Silent Cooling Fan £9.99 x2 = £19.98

Corsair Flash Voyager Mini 4GB USB2.0 Flash Drive (CMFUSBMINI-4GB) £9.99

Arctic Cooling MX-3 Thermal Compound £6.99

NZXT 8-Pin (EPS12V) Black Sleeved 25cm Extension Cable (CB-8P)£6.99

Akasa SATA-2 60cm Blue UV Data Cable x3 = £14.07

NZXT 3 Pin Fan Black Sleeved 30cm Extension Cable (CB-3F) £4.00

Akasa HD Audio 40cm Internal Extension Cable £3.98

Zalman Fan Mate 2 Fan Controller x2 = £7.02

Akasa AK-TK-02 Cable Tidy Kit x2 = £6.12

Akasa AK-FY320 3 Pin Fan cable splitter £2.34



Total : £1,417.97


I could be buying this as soon as 6th of April, but if you think I should wait, then of course I'll be eager to know your thoughts before making the decision to buy. :) At some stage I want to get a good TV Tuner card, (maybe a BlackGold device), but the budget will have to wait for that for now, I have a TV as it is and only really want to watch F1.

Oh, and yes, I know currently, (06:05hrs, 5th April), that the Asus Graphics Card isn't in stock and OC's are awaiting delivery. I have no idea how long it'll be before they're available, I did ask but they can't give me a definitive answer, but hopefully not too long! :D

Lastly, there's no HDD listed because I have a replacement Samsung F3 1Tb on its way to me as I type this, and a hopefully my Hitachi 500Gb sitting on my desk to be tested again; I hope it's ok! :) So, yeah,.. there ya go. :) Thanks again for your input folks, much appreciated. :cool: Peace out! :cool:




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few things i could see that might need confirming would be the extensions, are the antec psu cables long enough without needing extensions? asking in the case forum there are a lot of people with that very nice case.
You could save a few quid by getting the Win 7 Home premium (64bit) unless there is a specific feature thats only available to the pro version. most users on here find the home premium more than adequate.
other than those two looks like a fairly solid build
 
Hi Tobywon,

Thanks, yeah it's a pretty solid build if I say so myself, but am not 100% sure which of the cables on the Antec PSU may be too short. The motherboard PS cable might be, as might the floppy power cable for the Asus D1 sound-card, though I've no way of being sure. Also, I've never heard of an extension cable for a floppy power PSU cable. Bummer. As for Windows Professional, well I wanted the XP compatibility mode, better home networking & the option to back-up my data too.

Getting back to the length of the cables and if they're going to be long enough to tuck away tidily with cable management; I really have no idea how to be sure they're all going to be long enough to tuck away AND connect up inside the Fractal Define R2 case, ok so it's not as vast as the Antec 1200 or the 183 cases. Any ideas? I also don't want any cables at all passing through the airflow areas of my case, even the HD audio cables & fan cables. My last build was a right mess, (it still managed to stay cool though!), whereas THIS build is going to look TIDY inside. :)

Thanks! :D
 
Looks like a good build to me, but 1x5850 is very good but if you play games as demanding as crysis and metro in high rez (like 1920x1200) like i do, you do get some lag with it maxed out so you would want another to crossfire like i'm doing on Wednesday when it comes or maybe think about a 5870? but all the other games you have listed i will work perfectly for.
 
Looks like a good spec.

Do you reckon you need more than 6GB RAM? as it will limit your CPU and RAM overclocking headroom.

If you want to control all your fans, you may want to go for something like this.

If the Fractal Design is about as big as the Antec 183, then the 24pin should be fine without extension but the 8pin really does. The floppy power shouldn't be a problem as the D1 shouldn't need one, its PCI-E brother the DX needs floppy power.

Finally, you mention that your last PC was nuked by a surge and went though the surge protector. I have been reading this thread on surge protectors and would be interested to hear your experiences/opinions on then. Also, would you be able to let us know what surge protector you used and whether the insurance money you recieved was from the surge protector company or your home insurance.
 
you'll probably want to try and get a vapor-x 5850. i've heard they're cooler and noticably quieter.

for longevity, i'd lean away from heavily overclocking the 920, and run a 930 at stock (or smaller oc) instead.

im not sure how good the cable management is on the R2, might want to check out some videos on that.
 
billysielu said:
for longevity, i'd lean away from heavily overclocking the 920, and run a 930 at stock (or smaller oc) instead.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure, £40 is a lot to pay for a 5% higher multiplier, especially if its just going to 4GHz. At that level I would be more worried about longevity problems with heat - but that will be identical with a 920 or 930.
 
Games

atmax1 said:
Looks like a good build to me, but 1x5850 is very good but if you play games as demanding as crysis and metro in high rez (like 1920x1200) like i do, you do get some lag with it maxed out so you would want another to crossfire like i'm doing on Wednesday when it comes or maybe think about a 5870? but all the other games you have listed i will work perfectly for.
Click to expand...

Hi atmax,

Ah yeah well, I've not bought Crysis, BFBC, Metro 2033 OR NFS:Shift, but the others I have and love 'em. I will be getting BFBC if the SecuROM **** on it isn't a problem like it was in the 1.3 patch for RD:G on my last rig.

Any knowledge on the length of the Antec PSU cables for the Fractal Design R2 case? Wish it was an exact science, but sadly of course it's not. :( Oh well. Will just have to hope for the best maybe.

No other issues you see in there, no? Is the HD 5850 good for hi-poly-count OpenGL modelling & rendering etc? I'm asking because I want to create imagery using Vue 8, with ease. :) My XFX 8800GTS 320Mb XXX couldn't even cope with land-mass, let alone trees and water/clouds etc. I think the 12Gb should help on that front a lot though. I only had 4Gb of RAM in the last build with memory hog Vista.

:)
 
Reply to cmndr_andi

cmndr_andi said:
Looks like a good spec.

Do you reckon you need more than 6GB RAM? as it will limit your CPU and RAM overclocking headroom.
Click to expand...

Actually, I want the 12Gb for a few reasons, again in no particular order:

  • To allow me to use Vue 8 with greater ease & stability, (Science Fiction currently, with a view to upgrading to the full product Vue 8 Complete when I have learnt more about it).
  • To allow me to record, edit & encode videos of my gameplay at full 720p & maybe 1080p quality. *or is it 720i & 1080i? Hm, yeah, you get the picture. :D
  • Fluently smooth gameplay too.

If you want to control all your fans, you may want to go for something like this.

If the Fractal Design is about as big as the Antec 183, then the 24pin should be fine without extension but the 8pin really does. The floppy power shouldn't be a problem as the D1 shouldn't need one, its PCI-E brother the DX needs floppy power.
Click to expand...

Hold on, I'm confused; the 8-pin is the 12v ATX connection for the motherboard or CPU? (motherboard has 24-pin, right?), damn I'm confused, sorry. Either way, there's 1 white-plastic 4-pin connection near the CPU & back-panel connections that I can see at the top of the Asus P6T motherboard or am I mistaken? The fan-controller issue was indeed looked at, I DID for a while consider getting a device like that, but figured that the Aerocool Touch 1000:
would be a good purchase, (the door on R2 can't close when there's knobs on a fan-controller unless you mount the device deep enough so the knobs don't protrude into the space otherwise occupied by the shut door) - when I had extra funds, for now I figured, the small Zalman devices would suffice. I can run them outside the case easily enough, assuming the cables for all are long enough. Might need to get a few more cable extenders me thinks. :) Oh, wouldn't they get too hot if I connected 2 to each of the Zalman controller units? Any ideas?

Finally, you mention that your last PC was nuked by a surge and went though the surge protector. I have been reading this thread on surge protectors and would be interested to hear your experiences/opinions on then. Also, would you be able to let us know what surge protector you used and whether the insurance money you recieved was from the surge protector company or your home insurance.
Click to expand...

Ok, it wasn't a surge as such; it was a fluctuation power-failure. It lasted about 5-10 secs, in which time it fried the surge protector, (Belkin Surge Cube, it was cheap, but at the time didn't know any better, in fact I should have known better, but didn't). It then went on to fry all the components in my tower except I think the 500Gb Hitachi Deskstar, top marks to Hitachi! :D I'll only really know if it's damaged when I plug it in to the new build though. *shrug*. The insurance firm paid out for it all. Luckily. :)
 
The power connections to the motherboard are the the 24pin and 8 pin connectors (4 pins are covered in some pictures, but this plastic cap can be removed to reveal all 8 pins).

When the motherboard is installed in a case like the fractal design, the PSU is below the mobo. This means the 8 pin connector is at the top of the case and a long way from the PSU, hence an extension will be required if you don't want to drape the cable over the front of your board (very messy).

As for the 12GB of RAM, as you actually will be using it for something then it makes sense. So many people here just want a gaming rig and reckon 12GB is better, even though in games it provides no performance benefit at all.

On the topic of fan controllers, that zalman one did fit fine in my friend's P183 and the door closed fine - but i'm not sure how similar the doors are on the two cases. I had a look at the zalman fan mate 2 controller you linked to, it says it is only for powering 1 fan each.
 
Reply #2 to cmndr_andi

Hi again.

You're quite right about the 8-pin'd cable, it might be too short to take through the cable-management holes out & in again then over to the top of the motherboard; makes sense. At least my list contains the NZXT 8-pin 25cm extension cable. Better to order one in case it IS too short; no harm in having one just in case. :) Thanks. :)

Regarding the Zalman fan controller single units, I know I want to control the fans I'll be using for the Corsair H50 radiator, (push-pull), Hm, just spent 20mins or so looking at reviews for other 120mm Noctua fans, and decided to remove the 2 Fractal Design 120mm fans, and to add 3 of the Noctua NF-S12B fans instead. That ought to do it! :)
 
If you are wanting fans for the H50 radiator, you will want som with high static pressure. Ones like the Noctua P12 or Akasa Apache are great for this.

The noctua S12B fans are great case fans, but not ideal for pushing air through a restrictive radiator.
 
Additional

All I THINK I need now is a date when the Asus HD 5850's will be back in stock. I'd be mortified to discover I have to wait several weeks! I just hope they come into stock asap! I'm already borrowing this prehistoric laptop well past its time I initially asked to borrow it for! Borrowed it on the 8th Feb appx, for 2-3 weeks I said, and it's 2mths overdue! :eek: Insurance firms! :rolleyes:
Crazy!

Anyone got an old laptop I can borrow? :D :p
 
Reply #3 to cmndr_andi

cmndr_andi said:
If you are wanting fans for the H50 radiator, you will want som with high static pressure. Ones like the Noctua P12 or Akasa Apache are great for this.

The noctua S12B fans are great case fans, but not ideal for pushing air through a restrictive radiator.
Click to expand...

I just checked, the P12's are out of stock, will have 3 x 120mm & 4 x 140mm fans to make sure my tower is cool. The tower comes with a 1-knob fan-controller to be mounted in one of the back-plates. It controls up to 3 x 3-pin fans. I'll use a Zalman single unit fan controller unit to control a 140mm each, so 4 of those should suffice; anything to control noise & temperature to find a nice balance between the two.

The Akasa AK-FN058 Apache's are too expensive; they're also 4-pin, (PVM), so I can't easily connect-up these to the Fractal 1-knob 3 x 3-pin controller, unless the adaptor I mention below can physically be connected up to it to allow the fans to be controlled by the Fractal 1-knob 3 x 3-pin controller.

Would these Akasa AK-FN053's be good for pulling decent amounts of air through the radiator on the H50 in a push-pull config' instead?

OC's UK have the Akasa AK-CB002 PVM adaptor, but I can't tell if it will allow me to connect up the 2 push-pull fans to the Fractal 1-knob fan controller. I don't understand these connections so well. :mad: :( It's all so very confusing, :confused: (male, female, 3-pin, 4-pin, male 4-pin molex, female 4-pin molex etc, what can do what etc etc)
I just need to be 100% sure I can control by a controller at least the 2 x push-pull 120mm fans from outside the case with no ugly-ass cables floating about in the airflow region of the innards, and hopefully the same with the 4 x 140mm fans too with the Zalman single unit controllers.

Thanks for the continued input. :)
 
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