My i7 build... your opinion?

Ginger87

Ginger87

Ginger87

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4 Jul 2009
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2
Hi Guys

I'm getting the components for a new PC build sometime this week and after a fair few hours searching the internet I have come up with the build below. I just wanted to get your opinions on it, I've not built a system in 4 years so I'm pretty out of the loop.

The main pourpose of the computer for media (1080p, DTS etc) followed by gaming which isn't as much as a priority (I tend to only play games that are at least a year old anyway).

Just a bit of additional information. I will be running a dual monitor set up with ubuntu/windows 7 dual boot. I also already have a 1T hard disk and CD drive to salvage from the old computer.

The specs:
  • Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail + World In Conflict PC Game £208.99
  • Asus P6T Deluxe v2 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £205.99
  • Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB 10000RPM SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD3000HLFS) £159.99
  • XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition 896MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card (Includes Terminator Salvation PC Game) £149.99
  • OCZ Blade Series 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-16000 Triple Channel (OCZ3B2000C9LV6GK) £103.99
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium - Fatal1ty Professional Series 7.1 Sound Card (70SB088600000) £89.99
  • Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD10EADS) £61.99
  • Coolermaster CM-690 Dominator Case - Black (No PSU) £54.99
  • OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply £54.99

  • Total Cost ~£1,100 (absolute maximum)


From all that, it is the motherboard and graphics card I am most unsure about!

Any advice would be great.

Kurt
 
Gigabyte EX58 UD5
Asus GTX260 TOP

As alternatives to the parts you're unsure about.
I personally wouldn't bother with the sound card as I'd be using spdif out from the board.
 
Motherboard is good, Its the one I have and I'm happy with it. You could go for this one though, its a bit nicer in my eyes.

For the graphics card - you should go for this or this, not a 260 for that price.

As for the velociraptor - these days you should be going for an SSD if its pure speed you want.

For such an expensive build, I would invest in a better PSU, this one is brilliant.

Finally, that RAM is quick but i7 has already go so much memory bandwidth the 2000Mhz stuff hardly helps, and its unlikely you will be able to run it at spec speed. This stuff is brilliant and cheaper.
 
As above, don't bother with a sound card unless you have a really nice pair of headphones/speakers.

And, swap the Velociraptor for a SSD (for os) and a spinpoint (for files).
 
I think I will heed the advice about the graphics card, I've replaced it with this Asus GeForce GTX 275 896MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card namely because I know ATI and ubuntu don't always work well together.

The motherboard, I can't see that much diffrerence between the two? Is there any reason why you think the Gigabyte is better then the Asus?

The sound card is important because I do have a very good set of 7.1 speakers that are only about a year old!

There really wouldn't be that much in the way of preformance gain for using the 2000mhz RAM?


As for the Solid State, originally that's what I had planned to buy, but its so expensive! £180 for a 128Gb SSD. And the raptor is 300Gb for £160. Is it really worth the SSD?
 
Ginger87 said:
Hi Guys

I'm getting the components for a new PC build sometime this week and after a fair few hours searching the internet I have come up with the build below. I just wanted to get your opinions on it, I've not built a system in 4 years so I'm pretty out of the loop.

The main pourpose of the computer for media (1080p, DTS etc) followed by gaming which isn't as much as a priority (I tend to only play games that are at least a year old anyway).

Just a bit of additional information. I will be running a dual monitor set up with ubuntu/windows 7 dual boot. I also already have a 1T hard disk and CD drive to salvage from the old computer.

The specs:
  • Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail + World In Conflict PC Game £208.99
  • Asus P6T Deluxe v2 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £205.99
  • Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB 10000RPM SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD3000HLFS) £159.99
  • XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition 896MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card (Includes Terminator Salvation PC Game) £149.99
  • OCZ Blade Series 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-16000 Triple Channel (OCZ3B2000C9LV6GK) £103.99
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium - Fatal1ty Professional Series 7.1 Sound Card (70SB088600000) £89.99
  • Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD10EADS) £61.99
  • Coolermaster CM-690 Dominator Case - Black (No PSU) £54.99
  • OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply £54.99

  • Total Cost ~£1,100 (absolute maximum)


From all that, it is the motherboard and graphics card I am most unsure about!

Any advice would be great.

Kurt
Click to expand...


id personally not bother with the xfi unless you really want it, why pay that for the board, this giga ud3r , does 4ghz easily, put the money you save from both to a better gpu
 
point of getting the ssd is the lowe access times, for the random read/write a good ssd is an order of mannitude better than a raptor but make sure you don't get one with a jmicron controller

also you don't need everything on the ssd, just the OS and program files
 
totally over kill to play hd content. a £300 will do that. so depends how much you play games and what res you want it at.

You can get a gtx275 for the same price.

what are you connecting the xfi to? Unless you got some super expensive pc speakers, it's a waste of time over onboard sound.
 
you could get a XFX HD4890 XT for like £5 less than that GTX260 or a GTX275 for about £150
 
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