OC - Set Expectations - Away with the Gaiming Console and in with the HTPC NewBuild!

mancymagic1982 · 2 Jan 2010 at 17:22

Hi Overclockers - Great Site - Full of excellent info and knowledgeable users!

I've just become increasing intrigued by HTPCs and OC HW abilities that I've just decided to do away with my PS3 for Gaming and Media Streaming and it's just about to be launched onto eBay tomorrow for someone else to enjoy/dabble with.

OK, so after reading review after review with no experience to HTPCs or PC Gaming at that fact - well apart from Lynx Golf on a then top of the range 386DX PC

I've bitten the bullet and recently bought [2 days ago] the following kit below of which I hope will last me at least 5 years....

What I need to know, is have I bought the correct kit, and what sort of Processor OC expectations should I be setting myself?

(I'm now having second thought of the PSU for instanace - should I return and get a higher Voltage?)

Core i7 920 D0 Stepping, Asus P6T Deluxe V2 - X58,
12GB (2x 3x2GB Kit) Corsair [TR3X6G1600C8] XMS3 DDR3, PC3-12800 (1600)
1GB Asus GTX 285 OC Matrix
OS - 160 GB Western Digital WD1600AAJS x 2 RAID 1. Content - 1TB Western Digital WD10EADS Caviar x 2 RAID 1
950W Corsair CMPSU-950TXUK PSU, Akasa AK-967 775 NERO CPU COOLER
LiteON IHOS104-37 BLU-RAY ROM
Silverstone LC16B-MR Black Desktop

Accompanying
+ Samsung 40inch 1080p + Sony DAV-IS10 Wireless Rear HT Surround Sound System

At the moment this kit main workload is for XBMC and creating Virtual Labs for Educational Purposes. But hope to start doing a little bit of Video editing in the near future..

Pete

Pneumonic · 2 Jan 2010 at 17:32

Pete,

Your PSU is fine you should have decent headroom on that to add additional components should you wish to at a later date.

Most i7 920 should clock to 4ghz+ with adequate CPU cooling, I don't think your current cooler will get you to such an overclock, you will probably get to somewhere around 3.6ghz. Now 3.6ghz will be fine for day-to-day use / gaming but if you plan to do a lot of video editing the extra mhz are always nice.

setter · 2 Jan 2010 at 17:40

4ghz is fairly easy to achieve on the i7 920 DO's, though 12gb of ram will make things a bit more difficult.

mancymagic1982 · 2 Jan 2010 at 17:48

Cheers Pneumonic,

Can you recommand another cooler, as the kit is yet to arrive and I can always return it to the suppliers....

The reasons why I opted for that one was though reviews on the web and for all round value/performance @£24 this stood out head and shoulders above the rest - or thats what I thought anyhow.

Also - Would you recommand a waterblock for the motherboard, if so which one - again mixed reviews out there and I'm not sure if it's going to benefit me.

Pete

setter · 2 Jan 2010 at 17:52

For a cpu cooler i can highly reccomend this.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-068-TR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

Fits perfectly on the p6t deluxe and wont block any ram slots, (very imporant as you have 12gb).

Thermalright ultra on p6t deluxe v2

Pneumonic · 2 Jan 2010 at 17:54

As Setter suggests the TRUE is an excellent cooler..

you might also consider the corsair H20 which is a self contained water cooling solution.. if you want to 'real' water than you are probably looking at spending £200+ for a solution that would give you better and quieter results then a high-end air solution

mancymagic1982 · 2 Jan 2010 at 18:38

Thanks Guys,

I'll give this Asaka a go first and if it's not meeting the needs, or I need more mhz for vanity reasons I'll certianly be looking at the water cooler then.

Cheers for the advice and recommendations. All the best.

Pete

JonJ678 · 2 Jan 2010 at 18:52

Slightly eccentric component choices but nothing unreasonable. I think those are 160gb drives you're putting the operating system on, you may wish to consider raid 0 with backups instead.

The ram is faster than you want really, 1333mhz would run just as fast as those when overclocked and *should* cost much less. Alternatively you may wish to determine if you'll ever go over 6gb of ram, if not you're best off with 6gb of 1600mhz, not 12gb of it.

I'd also go for the TRUE.

mancymagic1982 · 2 Jan 2010 at 19:14

JonJ678, thanks I'd rather not stripe my OS disk as I'd not want to rebuild it often plus personally I dont know any BMR products out there that will rebuild this without the help of a DP Product, as such resiliency is RAID 1 on the OS. and RAID 1 on the Content Volumes which will be turning to RAID 5 once I get another 1 TB Volume, the OS will be performing VSS Snaps using the the Content Volumes so my Docs etc etc will be fine, however if corruption occurs yes I am buggered but then MS MDOP should cure this if the system partition knackers.

12GB is quite large you are right but it's purpose is building Test Environments to perform dry runs of upgrades / POCs / VM Ram Assignment at the moment, and I understand that folks are OCing with 12GB just fine @ 4ghz+ so fingers cross it wont hinder me to much.

Thanks - I'll probs be needing you guys when I comes to OC - as I've never done this kinda of stuff before! Cheers the help so far chaps.