'budget' i7 build thoughts please

[ranarama]

It's time I moved on from my ageing A64 3500 based system and was looking at moving to i7 but without spending thousands.

I don't need monitor, keyboard or mouse and still have some arctic silver left from my first build. I have an Antec p160 case so I presume I can still use that. I also have a Antec Truepower 450w PSU. I'm concerned that won't be powerful enough for this system but haven't included it in case I can get away with it.

I will almost exclusively be using this system for Photoshop work (I do quite a lot of batch processing on wedding photos), but I do a small amount of gaming but mostly just flight sim (want to get FSX too as I only have FS9 at the moment).

Anyway, do you have any thoughts about this system, like should I go for the new AMD triple cores instead or go for a Q9550 build. TIA.

Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz - OEM
£229.99

Gigabyte EX58-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £163.99

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 "Toxic" 512MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (11133-06-40)
£155.99

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) £91.99

Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ)
£83.94

Crucial 6GB DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz (3x2GB) Triple Channel Kit (CT3KIT25664BA1339)
£79.34

Zalman CNPS7500-ALCU CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £27.59

Sub Total : £724.19
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DHL @ Home Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.25
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £110.02

Total : £843.46

 

[ranarama]

Thought you might say that

 

[ranarama]

Well you can look for a better deal if you like....you'll probably be wasting your time though

FACT!

I'll look into it.

SPEC

Thanks. I know I'm probably just penny pinching here but is it really worth spending nearly £60 of a CPU cooler?

 

[ranarama]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-050-OE

Start with that

Does that come with the cooler? The photo suggests it does but it's not listed in the product description.

EDIT - and one other question. Will that 450W PSU power this system or do I need to upgrade that too?

 

[ranarama]

If you are trying to save pennies then this cooler does an excellent job..

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-052-AK&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=

I am running at 3.9ghz with temps around 68 degrees C. Hyperthreading is off, because I dont need it.



The savings will allow you to purchase a beefier power supply.

That's the one in the bundle isn't it? The more I look at it the more attractive it looks. Think I may order tonight.

ranarama
Nice photos by the way.

Thanks

 

[ranarama]

@AndyOcUK - Actually, just checked and it's the Antec 430W True Power. Presume that's definitely too low.