New i7 build suggestions please?

Tee Hee Johnson · 26 Sep 2011 at 10:16

Hellooo!

Well basically I have decided to get out of the PC thing... bought a laptop a few months ago and haven't looked back!

The problem is now my father wants to build a new system to replace his and I am out of the loop really!

I know about 2nd gen sandy bridge (as i picked that for my laptop), apart from that i'm stumped!

Only things he will be keeping is his case, monitor, mouse and keyboard.

He is set on the i7 2600k... seems like that is not up for debate!

What would be a good motherboard to pair this up with?

Would like nvidia graphics, i'm sold on the gtx560, but he wants more (future proof and all that). I don't think double the price is worth it for less than double the performance! Or is it?

What is a good fan based cooler? Thinking of performance and low noise? Or will the intel one do?

Power supply... what will be needed? I know to stick with the 'good' names, but how much power should he look at?

I pitched the idea of a small ssd for the os? Worth it?

What's a good sata drive these days?

Any ideas would be great... thanks!

Oh there really is no budget, but i would prefer him to still to as little as possible lol ( he claims he saved so much on his new suite, that he has the money spare :/ )

Craig

mp260767 · 26 Sep 2011 at 11:02

hi,

produced the following spec to give you an idea, is there a particular reason he's set for the 2600K, unless he's set to use the hyper threading on it not really that much difference with the 2500K.

if he might crossfire the graphics card then go for the ocz 850w gold psu.

cooler wise , cheaper option would the the Gelid Tranquillo, still a decent cooler for roughly half the price of the silver arrow

Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £241.99 (£201.66)

HIS ATI Radeon HD 6950 IceQ X Turbo 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Dirt3 & Deus Ex PC Games £209.99 (£174.99)

Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98 (£133.32)

Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £74.99
(£62.49)

BeQuiet Efficient Power 600W '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £64.99 (£54.16)

Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI) £56.99 (£47.49)

Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £56.99 (£47.49)

Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £54.98 (£45.82)

LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99 (£14.99)

Sub Total : £782.41
Shipping : £10.00
VAT : £158.48
Total : £950.89

Tee Hee Johnson · 26 Sep 2011 at 11:26

Thanks... looks awesome!

The cpu he is set on I think. I'm more of a budget buyer so tried to get him to look at the i5's, but i don't think he can see past the i7 unfortunately!

I see you picked a sata2 hdd (i think), would a 6gb/s one be any better?

Thanks again!

Orcvader · 26 Sep 2011 at 11:35

mp260767's spec looks good. If your dad won't be doing anything that uses hyperthreading such as video encoding, 3D work or running virtual machines, then go for the 2500K. For gaming there's no difference between the two.

If he wants to stick with Nvidia a 570 will do nicely. They perform roughly on par with the 6970, although some 2gb models of the 6950 can be flashed to a 6970. This can save even more money, but it's hard to find models these days which can be flashed.

Due to the spinning speed of HDD limtiations, they don't saturate SATA 2. So any HDDs with SATA 6Gb/s is pretty much a marketting gimmick.

mp260767 · 26 Sep 2011 at 11:43

craig_kennedy83 said:
I see you picked a sata2 hdd (i think), would a 6gb/s one be any better?

as per Orcvader, i understand it only ssd's are making use of that at the moment.

Tee Hee Johnson · 26 Sep 2011 at 11:43

Orcvader said:
mp260767's spec looks good. If your dad won't be doing anything that uses hyperthreading such as video encoding, 3D work or running virtual machines, then go for the 2500K. For gaming there's no difference between the two.

If he wants to stick with Nvidia a 570 will do nicely. They perform roughly on par with the 6970, although some 2gb models of the 6950 can be flashed to a 6970. This can save even more money, but it's hard to find models these days which can be flashed.

Due to the spinning speed of HDD limtiations, they don't saturate SATA 2. So any HDDs with SATA 6Gb/s is pretty much a marketting gimmick.

Thanks for your input too!

Well we all chipped in to get him a dslr camera last year, he does lots with that now (or so im told), so would that qualify as hyperthreading usage?

Will probably stick with the 570, cheers.

Ahh thanks for the 6gb/s info! Im pretty sure hes on a sata1 drive, so a sata 2 one is a needed upgrade!

Orcvader · 26 Sep 2011 at 11:47

If he's doing a lot of photo work now then I guess the i7 will be handy. The 8gb will definitely be handy as well. I'm guessing the 570's CUDA might help with this too depending on the software he's using.