New build some advice please.

Wepohn · 1 Dec 2010 at 04:28

Hi, my LGA775 system is really starting to show it's age and pretty soon I'm going to be looking to upgrade.

So far i've decided to go with

EVGA GeForce GTX 580 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £449.99
(£382.97) £449.99
(£382.97)
Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail £244.99
(£208.50) £244.99
(£208.50)
Corsair Obsidian 700D Full Tower Case - Black Corsair Obsidian 700D Full Tower Case - Black £155.99
(£132.76) £155.99
(£132.76)
Corsair Dominator 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Triple Channel Kit (CMP6GX3M3A1600C7) Corsair Dominator 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Triple Channel Kit (CMP6GX3M3A1600C7) £149.99
(£127.65) £149.99
(£127.65)
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD1002FAEX) Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD1002FAEX) £71.99
(£61.27) £71.99
(£61.27)
Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM

As you can see I haven't selected either a motherboard or a power supply becase I can't make up my mind.

Power supply i'm stuck between the BeQuiet Dark Power Pro P8 1000W Modular Power Supply and the Corsair Professional Series™ Gold AX850 High Performance 850W Power Supply (CMPSU-850AXUK) Corsair Professional Series™ Gold AX850 High Performance 850W Power Supply (CMPSU-850AXUK)

I may get the 1200 corsair psu but I feel thats more than i'll need but at the same time I do want one that will be fine for other potential upgrades later on. Another downside to the corsair PSU is after reading some of the reviews that people have left it seems that some of the cables aren't very long.

For the motherboard I was thinking of getting the EVGA Sli3 (I like the blackness) but it doesn't have an Optical port that I can see and i'm also not sure if an Asus alternative will be much better.

Quite a lengthy post but any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Admiral Huddy · 1 Dec 2010 at 08:23

Nothing wrong with that system providing you intend to overclock it. What 775 do you have at the moment?

Since this a high end system your proposing, why not add an SSD for the OS.. You'd be amazed at the performance the SSD gives. Would be a shame not to.

Personally, I think the SLi would be a major overkill for any system unless you are trying to beat records. Most of todays games are playable on a single reference card.

R088ieS86 · 1 Dec 2010 at 09:38

If you want a nice Motherboard for that setup then I would recommend (and own) the Asus X58 Sabertooth TUF Intel X58
It has an Optical S/PDIF Out, looks cool and will also run SLi if you decide to beast it up.

Not sure if you see any gains from having that HDD over a Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB.
Use the money saved to get an SSD like Admiral suggested.

Wepohn · 1 Dec 2010 at 11:19

Admiral Huddy said:
Nothing wrong with that system providing you intend to overclock it. What 775 do you have at the moment?

Since this a high end system your proposing, why not add an SSD for the OS.. You'd be amazed at the performance the SSD gives. Would be a shame not to.

Personally, I think the SLi would be a major overkill for any system unless you are trying to beat records. Most of todays games are playable on a single reference card.

At the moment I'm using the Asus P5N72 T Premium with an E8500, 2GB Patriot PC29600 DDR2 And a 285GTX

I honestly don't know much about Solid State Drives but i'll do some research on them. As for Overclocking I do plan on it but nothing extreme, i'd rather have something of good quality and stable.

Admiral Huddy · 1 Dec 2010 at 14:11

Wepohn said:
At the moment I'm using the Asus P5N72 T Premium with an E8500, 2GB Patriot PC29600 DDR2 And a 285GTX

I honestly don't know much about Solid State Drives but i'll do some research on them. As for Overclocking I do plan on it but nothing extreme, i'd rather have something of good quality and stable.

I would seriously consider an i5 over the i7 in your case which should see prices fall as stock clears for the forthcoming SandyBridge cores.. or wait to what SandyBridge has to offer in the new year. Which ever you choose i'd put the money saved towards the SSD I suggested.. What puts people off SSDs is the price per GB over their mechanical siblings which are significantly cheaper but the performance gains is far more noticable to warrant the extra cash spent .