i7 spec check

Souness · 10 Dec 2009 at 17:57

I'll probably be waiting a few weeks to buy, but couldn't resist planning ahead :cool:

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I already have the gfx card (5850) and I'm planning to xfire another when the price comes down.

Does it all seem alright?

A couple things I wasn't sure about. Is the PSU overkill (should I go for the TX version to save money, or is the HX worth it?), and is the ram good or is another brand better, and also is the i7 really worth it if I'm only using it for games or should I go for an i5?

Thanks a lot

setter · 10 Dec 2009 at 18:03

The ram looks to be a bit of overkill, 1600mhz ram on i7 would be more than adequate, psu is a good choice and will cope with crossfired 5850's, also has the advantage of being modular which will help keep things tidier.

cmndr_andi · 10 Dec 2009 at 18:07

Couple of suggestions if you're interested:

Change the PSU to the 750W version. Even if you add a second 5850 and OC the CPU to 4GHz you won't be pulling any where near the maximum power.

Go for this RAM, its fast and a good price. Compared to that OCZ Gold 2GHz stuff the real world performance difference is tiny.

Spend the extra £6 and get this HDD. It holds 250GB more and is even faster than the WD Black.

As for the question of should you go for i7 for gaming. If you plan on crossfiring - I say go X58/i7. Also, the X58 is even easier than the P55 to overclock.

Biz.Kid09 · 10 Dec 2009 at 18:10

I agree with all above plus, I would recommend getting the Coolermaster ATCS 840 if your spending that much on a case.

Souness · 10 Dec 2009 at 20:12

thanks guys, great stuff !

shadow_boxer · 11 Dec 2009 at 01:58

Very nice build there mate.

+1 for the samsung F3 1TB, its a very good HDD and the sammys are the quickest around at the moment

(I've got Win7 on the 500GB F3 with i7 920 @3.6ghz @stock voltages and boots into OS in around 30seconds)

The only issus I can see is the motherboard choice. I've read that the pci slots are very close together so for xfire / sli on it temps get pretty high...I cant confirm it myself but just might be hearsay? but guess depends on the case / airflow.

Also +1 for the Corsair HX 750W PSU...thats what i've got and it'll be plenty for Xfire system!

On the case front....I guess its all down to person preference but do you really need a full tower case or will mid tower be suffice? and put some money towards that second 5850. Although, Lian Li cases are supposed to be pretty good quality tho.