My idea for a rig

[Leviathan]

1st off all hi all im new here

2nd my build is ideally a gaming rig.

Ok this is a basic look at a build im thinking of making so asking for abit of advice to see if its ok and such and to ask a few questions.

so here goes this is my idea for a build i may want but i maybe wont buy to about october as i really want to wait for windows 7 as xp may not be able to run future upgrades and im not to keen on getting vista after all the bad press. Also other fans maybe a option to add to the case im abit unsure on water cooling at the moment thou the door is open.

Also before i ask questions my monitor is a 24" acer G24 incase this makes a difference to the build.

My questions are
1, is this compatable an stable ??

2, I kind of wantto go with SSD only and have no other drives apart from my external my book 500gb. Is SSD really that much faster than traditional Hard Drives that this is a good idea ? (also to add i feel in the future when SSDs are a lot cheaper an bigger i can add 1 more then).

3. Is the power supply powerfull enough ?

4, My other option is im thinking of almost same build but the Intel Core i7 975 3.33Ghz or 965 3.20ghz then OCZ or dominators DDR3 PC3-16000 range. But unsure of how well over clocking can be done with all these or if its worth it ?.

5. If i did want the i7 965 or 975 and the DDR3 PC3-16000 range ram would overclockers be able to build this rig and overclock it or is it abit earlie as its so new ?.

Also im looking to possibly spend about £2000 up to maybe £3000 at extreme thou it would have to be worth it .

so far thats all my questions i may have more thou i cant think of any more at the moment. Ive always built most of my own pcs so have always had abit of knowledge on things thou i think its better i ask and research more. An overclocking myself at the moment is something i think i shouldnt try to ive learned abit more.

 

[mattyfez]

My 2p:

Lose the tool kit, all you need is a screwdriver (unless you dont have any tools - wwhich case a tool kit wwill be handy for other things )

PSU is fine.

I dont think SSD's are cheap enough yet to justify the performance, that said, If I was doing a new build I would be VERY tempted to get one - but they are small capacity, you will probably benefit from the addition of a second 'traditional' HDD for bulk media storage, and use the SSD for O/S and games.
Once you have your OS, apps and games installed you might start feeling the pinch space wise.

 

[PermaBanned]

Looks good, why not use a Blu Ray drive?

You should use the SSD for a boot device, then something like a WD Green drive for storage. Which means that you only need a 30GB SSD, or at most a 64GB one.

You could probably save a bit if you bought the components separately.

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail £201.99
(£175.64) £201.99
(£175.64)
Foxconn Flaming Blade Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £164.99
(£143.47) £164.99
(£143.47)
Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600MHz) Low Latency Tri-Channel (PVT36G1600LLK) + 3D Mark Vantage Benchmarking Software £87.99
(£76.51) £87.99
(£76.51)
Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366) £57.99
(£50.43) £57.99
(£50.43)
Sub Total : £446.05
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £68.33
Total : £523.88

Or something like that. Don't know why i keep recommending that motherboard, but it's personal choice.

Probably, but i don't think that's the best use of your money. Barely any games support more than two GPUs, so you wouldn't really see an improvement. Why not just get one, then add another one later if it's not enough? That or look at the 4870x2.

The i7 range is all the same chip but with different stock frequencies, go for the 920 and overclock it.

For £3000 you could have a small cluster. My suggestion is this: Spend £1000. Then you save tons of money which you can use for software, peripherals, monitor, upgrades or food. It will still be one hell of a computer to boot too.

 

[mdjmcnally]

My advice is if thinking about not buying till October then wait till at least end of September before starting to compile a list.

Prices may change, components may even disappear and be replaced by new ones.

Bundles may have also changed as well.

 

[cmndr_andi]

Welcome to the forums.

That will all work, but considering that you will be buying in october it is very ill advised, for several reasons. I'll use letters as I will respond to your numbered quiestions later.

a) By Windows 7 launch, we should be looking at a new Intel lineup, with processors that are cheaper and just as fast (if not faster) in games. Also, new graphics cards by ATI will be releases (or about to be released) which will be as fast (if not faster) as the GTX 295 and much cheaper.

b) also, as it's mainly for gaming an AMD chip (like the X4 955 will) will be just as fast as the i7 920, and cost a lot less. The i7 chips only prove their worth in number crunching applications.


As to your questions:

1) It will all slot together, but two GTX 295 cards will need a beefier PSU. I think something like this should be a minimum. Anyway, 2 of these cards is not required, and in many games the improvement over a single card is marginal at best.

2) If I were you, don't get the SSD as your only drive. You only want the programs that want speed on the SSD. A good internal hard disk like this would be perfect for keeping your other files on. Also, this SSD looks very good and is better value.

3) See above response.

4) Any i7 other than the 920 D0 is a waste of money. They cost so much more and don't seem to overclock much better. if you are getting your system garanteed to run at 4.0GHz with that budle- why spend the extra money for no extra performance?

5) I;m sure they would do it for you, but refer to the above response.


Couple of questions from me:

- If have built PCs before, why the toolkit? All you need with these modern systems is a decent screwdriver.

- Why wait for windows 7 to be released? You can run the release candidate free and legally from here.


Bottom line: Wait till you want to spend the money before picking out components, go for AMD if you just want to game, get windows 7 now and maybe look to spending less (£1500, will get you an absolutely killer gaming rig, £1000 will get you one that is still brilliant).

 

[mattyfez]

Oops!

I didnt notice there was 2x GTX295!!, might want a fatter PSU as above.

Just get the one, and keep the extra cash for a graphics upgrade in future.

 

[Leviathan]

Looks good, why not use a Blu Ray drive?

sorry to mention i already have a bluray drive on my current pc its a LG forgort what 1 but it is a blu ray reader writer and will be transferd to this 1.

and thanks guys for all the info i myself thaught the biger i7s prices really jump dramatic and that the 920 looked the best

an i probably will wait a lot to the prices are differnt as said waiting to september when a lot more things will change.

i also forgot to add that i dont actully use a lot of HD space as my current pc has 2 160gb drives and ive never ran out of space. i sorto f wanted 2 SSDs yes expensive but ther really fast. then in a year or more i SSDs are abound to start getting cheaper an much bigger. the way i see it is buy basics now an add later

i forgot to say i usally keep with geforce as ive never had ATI not that i hate em just i gues you keep with what you know more

 

[tuppers360]

Yes a bigger PSU would be needed and I do agree that a bigger standard HD for storage! A friend of mine has said he has noticed a difference but not that much. the only draw back for SSD is they are small!

 

[Leviathan]

im kind of torn abit betwene pcs My last build i didnt have a lot of money so kind of built what i guess is a mid range pc at the time as i kept it under £1000 and my dream machine at the time would have cost £2500. I to think that ther is no point in 2 GF cards but kind of wanted to ask now as incase i did get 1 then 1 later i wouldnt need to change the PSU so kind of making my pc future proof.

The main reasson I wanted just SSD drive was i kind of want least moving parts as possible even tho I have never had a HD fail which is good nore have i had a blue screen sinse sinse maybe even before windows 98. but i just wanted the SSD or 2 and maybe raid 0 it then in the future get a big SSD for storage who knows in a year or 2 SSD maybe 500gig or higher and a lot cheaper.

but anyway for now i think i will wait but considering i maybe able to run windows 7 now and such i may get it as my current pc is kind of getting slow and even thou i can update it and think it still has a lot of updatable choices i think i need to look for a new 1.

ps other things i do do with my pc is a little bit of video editing and editing photos and abit of photoshopping and watching movies. and as i said before i only need the main system as i have a monitor, keyboard and vey good mouse.

 

[Leviathan]

After taking a lot of yout guys suggestions into thaught i came up with the 2nd idea for a pc build saving heaps of money. No power supply yet as that was my 2nd question as to how well would this work and such. choising betwen GF an ATI is also a option and adding a 2nd SSD or a traditional HD to but i kind of want 1 super fast and quiet and not sure about raptors as someone said thy can b a lil noisey but im not fully sure if thats true.

so new questions are how powerfull psu and which card GF or ATI ?

 

[mjones1]

The extra 1gb ram on the 4890 doesn't really doesn't help in games, have you though about getting a gtx 275 then they can be had for about £150 which are slightly better than the ati 4890.
if you don't have a storage hard drive i would recommend Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
I know the case is kind of personal but i think this would be better Lian-Li PC-A70B Aluminium Tower Case
This Power supply will last you for a good while, nice and quiet and a 7 year warranty. Corsair HX 750W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply

 

[cmndr_andi]

After taking a lot of yout guys suggestions into thaught i came up with the 2nd idea for a pc build saving heaps of money. No power supply yet as that was my 2nd question as to how well would this work and such. choising betwen GF an ATI is also a option and adding a 2nd SSD or a traditional HD to but i kind of want 1 super fast and quiet and not sure about raptors as someone said thy can b a lil noisey but im not fully sure if thats true.

so new questions are how powerfull psu and which card GF or ATI ?

Looks good.

The PSU you originally picked will be ideal for this build (even after adding a second 4890). The reason it was not powerful enough before is because a GTX 295 has got two full graphics cores on one card - so it is much more power hungry than standard cards (and much faster ).

The 4890 is a good GPU, but the extra RAM is pretty surplus to requirements, If I were you, get this card and install this cooler.

Bear in mind that if you add a second SSD later you will need to format them again and reinstall windows if you want them to run in RAID.

 

[Leviathan]

thanks for all the help guys its given me a lot to think about and such im still not sure about the Nvidia vs ATI as ive always used Nvidia i may go back to using the 295 idea.

Btw if i did get 2 SSDs ran them with raid 0 then later is it possible just to add a 3rd HD for storage or does raid 0 mean that all 3 have to b raid 0 ?. In the past i usally run 1 hd for windows and a lot then 2nd drive to store things. so unsure to even use raid 0 as a few say it isnt worth it but thers somany options to choose :S.

PS which is the best card ??? as a lot of 275 seem to have higher clocks and other stats higher than the 295s ? or am i reading it wrong ? .

 

[mattyfez]

You could keep the 2 SSD's in RAID and just add another drive for storage, personally from an economics point of view I would keep it simple, have 1 SSD for OS/apps/games, and a second big HDD for storage.

Your not reading the clock speeds wrong, the 295 has 2 processors, opposed to the 1 processor in the 175, kinda like a built in SLI, so having 2x 295's would be quad SLI, very expensive and not really worth the money.

The 275 is a really good card for the money, the 295 is better but arguably not as good value for the extra cash, 2 x 295's would be nice, but nuts price-wise.

 

[Ryan111]

Heres what I'd do if i had that kind of money...

two 275's in crossfire will be awesome, play anything...

 

[Leviathan]

ye does look good ryan and works out cheaper having 2 275s than 1 295. so possibly i will get this idea then in the future get a different card.

and how do you set it up as crossfire compared to sli ?

 

[Ryan111]

I have never set up crossfire/sli so I don't know...

The dual 275's will handle anything on 19200x1080 I would say.... You wont need to upgrade the graphics for a while!

 

[Leviathan]

I have never set up crossfire/sli so I don't know...

The dual 275's will handle anything on 19200x1080 I would say.... You wont need to upgrade the graphics for a while!

i just thaught that Nvidia did sli and ATI did cross fire so didnt know if this can really do cross fire ???. Anyway im thinking really is a good idea o get 2 975s as then in the future in a long way im sure better cards will come out that ar way better so will wait to then .

 

[cmndr_andi]

i just thaught that Nvidia did sli and ATI did cross fire so didnt know if this can really do cross fire ???. Anyway im thinking really is a good idea o get 2 975s as then in the future in a long way im sure better cards will come out that ar way better so will wait to then .

I think Ryan got it mixed up, Nvidia does indeed do SLI - so two GTX 275s would be put in SLI. However, as that board does both SLI and Crossfire, these symantics aren't that important - just as long as you know it will work (which it will).

Two 275s is a cheaper and faster alternative to a 295 - however not if you get those OCX BFG ones (it costs £387 compared to £350 for a GTX 295). If I were you, get two of these cards. Same awesome BFG warranty but slightly slower clocks and a much lower price. Alternatively, just get one and wait for the new DX11 ATI cards that get released in september.

 

[Ryan111]

I added two of the 275 with the fastest clocks