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)
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
)