965 / I7 build- What do you guys reckon?

Associate
Joined
15 Apr 2010
Posts
102
Location
Over There
Hey folks,

First post on the forum, thought I'd jump straight in ;)

I'm looking to build a system primarily for gaming, photo editing and browsing (read: porn). Was originally going to go for the 965 as I'd read great things and wanted to keep the cost down, but quickly gathered that the i7 isn't that much more overall than a decent 965 setup and probably worth stretching to in terms of performance and longevity.

Already got a decent case (thermaltake soprano), psu (corsair hx520w mod) and graphics card (xfx hd4890).

-----

1)

Phenom II x4 965 3.4 BE
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H AMD 890GX
Western digital caviar black 640gb 64mb 6Gb/s
4gb Gskill ripjaws ddr3 1600mhz
---

= £385

2)

Phenom II x4 965 3.4 BE
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H AMD 890GX
Western digital caviar black 640gb 64mb 6Gb/s
8gb Gskill ripjaws ddr3 1600mhz

= £476

3)

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66GHz (Nehalem)
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58
Western digital caviar black 640gb 64mb 6Gb/s
6gb OCZ Gold DDR3 C8 1600Mhz Triple Channel Kit

= £523.45

------------------

i7 v 965
---

-Both would be perfectly suitable for what I want, however the i7's the better performer, has more overclocking room and hyper threading.
-Either route would lead to upgrading to 6cores in the future.
-Was thinking of 8gb ram with the 965 to help with photo editing, but 6 with the i7 should be enough.
-I7 more expensive, but I can stretch to that.

Pretty much looking at the £385-965 or £523.4-i7 build. I can stretch to the i7 and seems to offer a better system for not too much more. In that case:

i7
---
What's the stock heatsink/fan like on the i7 guys? How high can I safely overclock to on it? Not really looking to buy a seperate cooler in all honesty, not if intels is alright.

psu
---
Been looking this up and I'm 99% certain that my corsair hx520w mod. should be able to power everything nicely.

mobo
---
Seems best option in terms of performance/value. 6Gb/s + 3Gb/s for both new and old HD's, usb 3.0

HD
---
In terms of capacity 640gb is more than enough for me and can always add another in future if necessary.
However, would it be wiser to get two now in terms of backing up data? Not sure if its safe enough to be using my two 75gb 6 year old hd's for backing up.

Ram
---
OCZ obsidian is £7 cheaper but c9, so presumably the gold c8 is the one to go for.
(In a review someone mentioned the obsidian comes with 2xmp profiles (1600, 1866). Is that the case with the gold as well? Or in any case is it straight forward enough to overlock the gold to 1866?


---
In the future:

By my reckoning going the I7 route would mean that I'd be looking to:

-add another HD within next 4 years
-upgrade cpu within 5 years
-add another 6gb ram if and when I feel photo editing demands it.


Just basically wondering what you guys think, whether there are any obvious problems with this setup, anything you'd recommend replacing etc.

Help and advice in any form is greatly appreciated, as its been a while in terms of system building.

Thanks folks,

bm

(hehe sorry for the long-winded post guys, just wanted to get all my thoughts down ;))
 
Personally, I'd go for the i7. Especially when you can pick up a retail i7 920 D0 for a mere £180.

The RAM and motherboard are more expensive for the i7, however you do get extra stuff for the money. ie 6GB triple channel vs 4GB dual channel, x16x16 PCIE, SLI.

You can overclock both Phenom IIs and i7s relatively simply, however the i7 has far greater headroom. However, you will need to invest in a nice cooler like a Titan Fenrir or Megahalems to heavily overclock one of these CPUs.
 
What about:

Phenom II x4 965 3.4 BE
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H AMD 890GX
Western digital caviar black 640gb 64mb 6Gb/s
4gb Gskill ripjaws ddr3 1600mhz
xfx hd4890 (for crossfire)

=£525
 
Cheers for info. Yeah I wasn't looking to heavily oc tbh, just put it up a little on stock cooler. Could always invest in a cooler in the future should I ever want to push it further.

Given that I've seen a lot of oc (not to mention the OCuk bundles) at 4 on an air cooler, would 3.5 be a reasonable enough target on stock cooler?
 
I really wouldn't worry about upgrading the stock coolers - they really are crap. If you're spending £500 already why not get a decent cooler to go with it? You can still OC to say, 3.6GHz, but it will be a lot quieter! Even if it's not for the cooling performance and OC headroom, do it for the noise benefit.
 
+1 for the 920.

Go for an aftermarket cooler NOT the stock, mine is the arctic silver pro rev 2 and it feels warm to the touch on metro 2033 and is very easy to install.

GL mate
 
And, for what it's worth, here's my proposed build for AMD and Intel:
BasketAMD.png


For this, I chose the 955 rather than the 965 - you save £20, and if you aren't going to be pushing it to the limit, you won't notice the difference (just overclock the 955 to 965 speeds, or higher if wanted...). Also, the motherboards you had chosen, while they are the new chipset, do not allow for x16 x16 crossfire, and have graphics on board - which is something you're basically paying for but don't need. This means that a 790FX board can be had - for x16 x16, plus rock-solid overclocks. This 790FX board also has USB3.0 and SATA3 - so is the same as the 890.

I've also chosen a very quiet aftermarket cooler, that will still cool the CPU effectively, even overclocked.

And, the Intel build:

BasketIntel.png


Basically, I couldn't fault your picks, except adding the same Zalman cooler as the AMD build.

I would only pick the Intel IF the image processing is going to be quite heavy. Otherwise, I'd just get the AMD build, and a second 4890, or sell your current 4890 and get a nice new card - like a 5850 or 5870.
 
And, for what it's worth, here's my proposed build
BasketIntel.png

you could use this cheaper ram with the i7 build and i would rather go with the titan instead of the zalman cooler but its up to you.

OCZ Obsidian 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600Mhz Triple Channel Kit (OCZ3OB1600LV6GK)
£119.98
 
^ I'd rather get the gold CL8, itz only £7 more, but I agree with the Titan Fenrir suggestion
 
Last edited:
I don't know - for £7 honestly I'd have the memory that's guaranteed capable of CAS8 timings rather than 9.

Also - the Zalman cooler is meant to be uber quiet - which is why I picked it.
 
Cheers for replies guys, a real help ;)

Pretty sure I'm going for the I7 setup tbh.

As for coolers, Titan fenrir and Zalman cnps 10x. Anyone use either of these? Read good things about both, any major difference?

Also going to pick up a gaming keyboard, like the look of the G11 price/features wise. Anyone recommend any others?

cheers

bm
 
I have used the Zalman in a build and it was very quiet and effective but also worryingly heavy.

The PC was for a friend, I don't have the money to experience high end air coolers so it may be the normal weight.
 
The Phenom II X6 is being released at the end of the month. I would wait until then as the increased competition in the £150 to £250 price range should hopefully mean better pricing for both Intel and AMD processors. The new 890FX chipset is also being released too.
 
tbh thats why I figured the 920 was down to 180 on here, to get ahead of the competition when that time comes. It'll be a couple of weeks before I can get everything anyway, so if the price of the I7 is only gonna go down from 180 and not up, then I'm definitely gonna plum for that setup.

But yeah, will definitely be interesting to see how the x6's fair in the bench's
 
Using the Zalman cooler currently, its very good and I cant hear it even if i turn its fan up to full whack :)
 
Back
Top Bottom