New PC build

hussainw

hussainw

hussainw

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Joined
14 Jul 2010
Posts
42
hi all,

i am looking to put a new build together, and have a rough concept based on what i want. I am looking for a good gaming pc which will last for a good number of years. Below is my spec:

Case - coolmaster comos s

motherboard - Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366) or
Intel Core i7 960 3.2GHz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366)

Memory - Corsair Dominator GT 12GB (6x2GB) DDR3 PC3-14400C9 (1866MHz) Tri-Channel Kit (CMT12GX3M6A1866C9) [CMT12GX3M6A1866C9] or Corsair Dominator GT 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 16000C8 (2000MHz) Tri-Channel Kit (CMT6GX3M3A2000C8) [CMT6GX3M3A2000C8]

Graphics - HIS ATI Radeon HD 5970 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
I am not sure which would be best suited to gaming, or if dual graphic cards are better if so please advise.

Internal storage - Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-II 64MB Cache OEM (WD10EARS) x2

optical drive - Pioneer BDR-205 12x BluRay RW / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (OEM)


cooling - Cooler Master V10 TEC Hybrid CPU Cooler (Socket 940/AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1366) please advise if this is worth the spend or if it can physically fit in the case if anyone has one. Or water cooling, this brings me one to needing a lot of help as i have got no cool in how to go about get cpu cooler and how it actually works? all i know is i want the liquid colour to be red.

Scythe Kaze Server 5.25inch Black Fan Controller [KS01-BK ]

OS - win 7 64-bit

I would appreciate any feedback on this as this is my first build, especially on dual graphics and water cooling.

I hope this brings in various viewpoints up for a good discussion.

Thanks.

Rgds,

Hussain
 
you havent put up your motherboard choice, only two different cpu's, of which the 930 cpu is the one to get, there is also the 920 OEM, but its worth the extra to get a longer warranty and heatsink(which you wont use, but nice to have anyway) with the 930.

12gb of ram is overkill, 6gb will be plenty.
 
Id get a Solid State Hard Drive for the OS, & Green HDDs are only for storage really.

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) [HD103SJ]
£48.49 inc VAT
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-082-SA&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1279

If not ssd.

edit... also...

Antec TruePower New Modular 750W Power Supply
£96.98 inc VAT
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-116-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

or

Antec TruePower New Blue Modular 750W Power Supply
£98.99 inc VAT
 
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re:

hi all,

thanks for the reply, the motherboard will be: Asus Rampage III Extreme Intel X58 .

Any recommendations on the graphics? dual/single or even a different graphics card? and cooling water or heatsink?

rgds,

hussain
 
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Just to eliminate any chance of a problem I'd use single gpu card. If you don't care for price power consumption and heat go with gtx 480 - top dog of single gpu card.

If you are sensible with money get 5850 or gtx 460 and overclock the hell out of them. 5850 oc'ed performs better than 5870 stock.

Great saving, great performance.
 
What monitor do you have and what resolution do you play games at?

CPU - 930
MOBO - Rampage III (as mentioned other boards are better priced and perform just as well, UD3R and P6X58D)
RAM - You don't need 12GB, 6GB is plenty and you can always upgrade that later.
HSF - The Coolermaster is a huge air cooler and is very expensive. I would say get the Corsair H50 if you are planning to overclock, it is an all-in-one water cooling solution for the CPU and will make getting started with water cooling very easy. (also reading the reviews on OcUK it says it won't fit in the Cosmos S without removing the side fan from the case.)
CASE - Cosmos S, fine mostly down to personal preference.
PSU - Something around 750W Corsair/Antec will be fine unless you're planning to run two high end cards at breakneck speed.
HDD - If your budget suits you could get an SSD but keep in mind the capacity and exactly how much you are going to install on it.
HDD - Don't bother with 'Green' drives, just get some Samsung F3s or WD Caviar Blacks.
GPU - Depending on your monitor I'd just get a 460 or 5870. While the 5970/480 are extremely powerful for now there is hardly ever a point where you want to drop that much on the fastest card on the market. In 12 months time you can use the money you would've spent to get a newer better card.
DVD - Blu-Ray is fine if you need it.
Fan Controller
OS - Win 7 (Home Premium is fine by the way, get a Retail Copy if you want)
 
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re:

wow, loads of replys thanks guys.

Many thanks to stulid for pointing this motherboard out.

Nerusy - many thanks for your opinion. I am not sure which samsung monitor i have but it is 1080p hd res.

What monitor do you have and what resolution do you play games at?

CPU - 930 - will stick with this
MOBO - Rampage III (as mentioned other boards are better priced and perform just as well, UD3R and P6X58D) - might go with ud3r
RAM - You don't need 12GB, 6GB is plenty and you can always upgrade that later. - will go for 6gb ram
HSF - The Coolermaster is a huge air cooler and is very expensive. I would say get the Corsair H50 if you are planning to overclock, it is an all-in-one water cooling solution for the CPU and will make getting started with water cooling very easy. (also reading the reviews on OcUK it says it won't fit in the Cosmos S without removing the side fan from the case.) - is there a link for the water cooler kit
CASE - Cosmos S, fine mostly down to personal preference. - already bought :p
PSU - Something around 750W Corsair/Antec will be fine unless you're planning to run two high end cards at breakneck speed. - is there one with red light, i am looking to have like a red theme
HDD - If your budget suits you could get an SSD but keep in mind the capacity and exactly how much you are going to install on it. - maybe 100gb for just apps, not sure yet
HDD - Don't bother with 'Green' drives, just get some Samsung F3s or WD Caviar Blacks. - will go for samsung for the d partition
GPU - Depending on your monitor I'd just get a 460 or 5870. While the 5970/480 are extremely powerful for now there is hardly ever a point where you want to drop that much on the fastest card on the market. In 12 months time you can use the money you would've spent to get a newer better card. - still to decide
DVD - Blu-Ray is fine if you need it. - might leave this out
Fan Controller
OS - Win 7 (Home Premium is fine by the way, get a Retail Copy if you want) - will do

thanks everyone for replying so far, i appreciate the input, once i decide on the final build i will post it maybe next week. One final thing is if i can get more input on water cooling and how to actually fit this in, any guides? and also which one would you recommend.


Once again thanks. will update soon.

rgds,

hussain
 
As the guys above have said. If you plan to overclock also, dropping to 6GB of RAM will make your life much easier.

I'd then spend the money saved on an SSD for the OS :) as I have one, I'd recommend an Intel X25-M, though I'm sure there are other SSD's which would be a good choice.

One final point is that Caviar Blacks are good, but pretty squealy! Unless thats just mine :D
 
admoo said:
As the guys above have said. If you plan to overclock also, dropping to 6GB of RAM will make your life much easier.

I'd then spend the money saved on an SSD for the OS :) as I have one, I'd recommend an Intel X25-M, though I'm sure there are other SSD's which would be a good choice.

One final point is that Caviar Blacks are good, but pretty squealy! Unless thats just mine :D
Click to expand...

+1 for this maby a 64 Gb/128gb C300?
 
is there a link for the water cooler kit
Click to expand...

Go to the homepage. You see that great massive search bar. Type in 'Corsair H50' or to save straining your fingers, you can just type in 'Corsair' and it will come up under the search results near the top. If you really want to avoid the use of keyboard and brainpower you can simply navigate to it through the appropriate sections of the site. For a guess it's under cooling, you might even be lucky enough to snag it under 'Cpu Cooling'.

:rolleyes: :D
 
If you want a red theme.. that gigabyte wont do :p

Could get the i5 (or i7 socket 1156) quadcore with an Asus Maximus III Formula Intel P55 mobo, also it uses Dual Channel DDR3 ram.
 
Considering your case doesn't have a window, I wouldn't worry about the colour of components so much.... You could get a nice glow with some cold cathodes though. The H50 is pretty good, but doesn't have the performance of a high-end air cooler.

This is a review of the V10:
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/cm_v10/4.htm

So no, it does not look worth it. Some more reviews would be good, if anyone else wants to do the legwork.
 
re:

thanks big wayne for the advice.

The following is the computer build, with a plan for future expansion:

Motherboard
------------
Asus Rampage III Extreme Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard [90-MIBC10-G0EAY00Z]

Processor
---------
Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail [BX80601930]

Memory
------
Corsair Dominator GT 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 16000C8 (2000MHz) Tri-Channel Kit (CMT6GX3M3A2000C8) [CMT6GX3M3A2000C8]

Graphics
--------
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [HD-587A-ZNF9]

Hard Drive
----------
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD1002FAEX)

Optical Drive
-------------
Samsung SH-B083L/RSBP 8x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (Retail)

Cooling
-------
OcUK Complete CPU Watercooling Bundle
Scythe Kaze Server 5.25inch Black Fan Controller [KS01-BK ]

Sound
-----
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 7.1 Sound Card (70SB073A02007)

PSU
---
Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 1000W Power Supply [RSA00-AMBAJ3-UK]
Antec TruePower New Blue Modular 750W Power Supply


A few points occurred:

1. I am unaware of the total power consumption with the prosed, is there a way to tell
2. not sure which power supply to chose, due to the above point. Are all the PSU the same size?
3. I decided on the above water cooler due to the custom color, how can i determine if it will be OK for the comos s case, also is there any guide to fitting this type of cooler in a comos? wondering if it is complex or simple.
4. Any advice on overclocking? i would love to get my moneys worth.
5. Does anyone know a uk company where i can buy comos s fans? i.e. sickle fan
Considering the build, will the prosed system be stable i.e. compatible together? i would appreciate some professional advice prior to buying from the members contributing so far it has really helped and could not thank enough.

kind regards,

H
 
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1. The only way to tell until you hook it all up is to follow some approximations of each component, your spec will probably run in at around 400W so a decent 650-750 will probably be ok and suit any future upgrades.

2. If you want to stick to the red theme then OCZ ModStreme is available. You don't need a 1000W PSU and in general they are larger than the lower capacities.

3. The best way would be to ask here or call up the OcUK sales team and check with them. It isn't a bad little bundle, you have to pick the right rad for your socket, and on the page they recommend a 240 rad which means you'll have to mount it on the top/front/bottom of the case where they may not normally be space for it. I'm not sure how well the Cosmos S is designed around water cooling so it may not be as easy as screwing it in like it would with a 120 rad.
4. There are plenty of threads in the Overclocking section of the forum about getting the most out of your CPU.
5. I don't know.

Yes it is all compatible, your RAM, CPU and Motherboard all match, you'll get enough cables included to attach your HDD and Blu-Ray Drive. 5870 is fine as are the rest.

I didn't buy a sound card for my last two PCs as I just used on board audio but that's up to you.

I wouldn't get the 1000W PSU and have a close look at how you're going to fit the rad, pump etc for the water cooling kit as the case is quite large if you're trailing tubing everywhere.
 
1) 750W should be plenty, if you want more peace of mind check out a PSU calculator like this:
http://www.antec.outervision.com/

2) PSU may be longer, but as long as it says it is an ATX psu, it will fit in most cases (same width and height).

3) I suggest you check out Case Central and OCing and Cooling, I expect someone has fitted watercooling in a cosmos before... Search is your friend! So is Google!

4) Read some guides, they are literally thousands. Just take it steady, and don't rush anything. Make sure you understand the side-effects of OCing as well.

5) Any reason you need those particular fans? I'm sure OcUK have something just as good/better.

Also, I hear that the Asus Xonars are better than Creatives. Unless you are running into a hi-fi setup or £100+ heaphones, you will likely not notice much difference from onboard though.
 
re:

Thanks for the replies,

i will def. research more, i was wondering if anyone knowns how the AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1090T Black Edition 3.20GHz is?

and is there much difference between retail and oem?

rgds,

h
 
hussainw said:
Thanks for the replies,

i will def. research more, i was wondering if anyone knowns how the AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1090T Black Edition 3.20GHz is?

and is there much difference between retail and oem?

rgds,

h
Click to expand...

retail and oem difference is the packaging and you get a heatsink+fan with the retail.

But I still have issue with your choice of motherboard, its £320! and I bet you couldn't even tell me why its better than the half price gigabyte UD3.

Its almost as tho you saw the price and thought "wow must be good", its the sort of motherboard for extreme overclockers, the sort who use liquid nitrogen to cool, their cpu, as they are trying to break world records.

The gigabyte will do everything you need it to do, crossfire and Sli, it has sata and usb3.0, will take all the intel cpus that are available, will still overclock to any level you could realistically need.

infact, look at this review http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2010/05/13/asus-rampage-iii-extreme-review/6 actually looks slower than the gigabyte.
 
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