i7 Spec :)

alexx

alexx

alexx

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Joined
18 May 2006
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785
Ok, so after my last spec thread I've decided to go i7 after reading quite a few reviews ect...

this is what I came up with... unsure on pretty much everything apart from the chip! so opinions please :)

One of the main things im unsure of is wether to air or water cool the chip, but I dont have any experience with this so dont know if I could spec a watercooled loop for around £100 that'd be good for it so at the mo I threw on the air cooling.

Also how come ocuk only have one 280gtx?

i7.jpg
 
They only have the one GTX 280 because the 280 has been superceded by the GTX285, ergo, it's not the latest version. Will you be thinking of upgrading to an SLI setup in future? If so, that 520 PSU might come a little short, it might come up short even with that proposed setup, as the GTX280 is recommended to run on 550Watt supplies. At 100 pounds, watercooling would be worse than a decent air cooling setup from what I've heard. I would've also thought you could save yourself some money on the motherboard by going for one of the lesser gigabytes, perhaps a DS4 or so, as the UD5 is an SLI board, I think? Other than that, seems like a perfectly good setup to me, should handle anything you throw at it for a good long time to come!

If you want my two cents worth, upgrade the PSU to perhaps 800 Watts or so, keep the motherboard, then, when the 280's pop up all over Ebay for a hundred pounds or so, pick another one up for an SLI setup.
 
probobly some sound advice about the gcards, for sli do the cards need to be identical or can they be any 280gtx?

cheers :) (any other board options instead of this gigabyte for a similar price like the asus?)
 
750 Watt should be fine, so are you planning on going SLI? Any model of 280GTX will be fine, however you can't use a 285GTX.
 
1000 Corsair watts is far to much for a single GPU solution, even for "futureproofing", you need to have a good think whether you will ever go SLI, as it will affect the choice of motherboard and power supply.
 
Zalman ZM750-HP Heatpipe Cooled 750W Modular PSU

as close to £100 modular PSU you will find, + Zalman are quite good

otherwise a non modular corsair TX series

I would recommend a evga 260GTX (10 year warranty) instead of OCUK 280. The 280 isnt miles better, and OCUK branded only have 2y warranty + you should be able to find many second hand 260 gtx in future if you wish to SLI since they are popular card

everything else looks fine, the UD5 board is great for overclocking and very similar to the extreme version (main dif is the passive cooling heatpipes)
 
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ok so the zalman psu sounds good

which evga card should i get the best one for £230?

EVGA GeForce GTX 260 "Core 216 55nm" SSC 896MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (896-P3-1258-AR)

thanks.
 
jambus said:
1000 Corsair watts is far to much for a single GPU solution, even for "futureproofing", you need to have a good think whether you will ever go SLI, as it will affect the choice of motherboard and power supply.
Click to expand...

aint worth buying an i7 if you aint gonna go sli in the future...games are getting more and more demanding...sli is a must...i had to send 1 of my cards for rma and i noticed the difference in farcry 2....people dont say you need sli?After having games running in sli you wont want to play any other way...3 way sli is overkill...but 2 way sli is a must!
 
alexx said:
which evga card should i get the best one for £230?

EVGA GeForce GTX 260 "Core 216 55nm" SSC 896MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (896-P3-1258-AR)

thanks.
Click to expand...

EVGA GeForce GTX 260 "Core 216 55nm" 896MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (896-P3-1255-AR)

and you can overclock it if you need to using applications like riva tuner. up to you if you want to save £20. also it will be easier to find regular 260gtx in second hand market since cheaper, may want to think of that if you plan sli in future
 
the ocuk value 280s are a mixed bag - you could get a bfg one, an evga one etc

either way - its still a 280

you should go for a corsair 750w

that way sli would be covered

you dont NEED a modular psu

just think long and hard about your cable management and it will probably turn out better


also that noctua fan is a treat - easy to fit and good at its job

should get a nice overclock out of the chip!


board wise - i would look at the biostar x58
we had one at ocuk doing 220+ BCLK

which is pretty great
 
You should go for a slightly more powerfull PSU. Even though the one you selected is fine. Just in a years time it might not be if you decide to add something to your machine. Or go for even a more powerfull video card in the future.
 
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