Hello Everyone,
This is my first post on the forum - an Overclockers virgin - and I’m hoping to receive some useful feedback like in other posts I’ve read. For the past couple of weeks I have been trawling the forum, reading some interesting things about the latest hardware and trying to bring myself up to date. My current PC recently died on me and now it’s time to upgrade.
My heart is set on an Intel build and I have a budget of around £1500 - I could stretch it to £1650 but no more and I would like it to include Windows 7. I love games so that’s the main reason for a decent spec, but I also need it for encoding, photo editing and lots of downloading hence the hard drive space. The specification I have in mind is the overclocked Ultima Vanquish system; this includes the following but bear in mind I have changed it slightly:
• Case: Antec 902 Ultimate Gaming Case - Black
• Power Supply: Corsair TX 750W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply
• CPU: Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz Overclocked to 4.00GHz
• Motherboard: Gigabyte EX58A-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
• Cooler: Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B CPU Cooler with 2000RPM Sharkoon Silent Eagle 120mm
• RAM: Corsair Dominator Tri Channel 6GB (3x2GB) PC3 - 12800 1600MHz DDR3 C7
• Hard Drive: Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache x2 (Two separate drives)
• Graphics Card: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5
• Sound: 7.1 Channel Sound (On-Board)
• Optical Drive: LG DVD+/-RW SATA Drive
• Cooling: Akasa AK-FN058 Apache Black Super Silent 120mm Fan - 4 Pin PWM x 2 - for the side and middle of the case.
I have a couple of questions which I couldn’t really find the answers to:
People have said on various websites that overclocking the CPU can halve its lifespan, but is this due to people not really knowing what they are doing? I thought that by using a professional company like Overclockers , I would be buying a PC which would last me a good few years to come with the occasional upgrade when needed.
Also what are your thoughts when it comes to setting your hard drives up? Do you prefer to use Raid 0 for quicker read and write, even though you could potentially lose all your data if one of the hard drives fails? Alternatively is Raid 1 or 5 a better option?
I really need the PC to run ultra silently, so would water cooling be a better solution than air?
Also why do people prefer the Samsung DVD writer over the LG Drive?
One last question: do you recommend that I hang on and wait for this card instead - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5870 Toxic 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card?
I’m really looking forward to your comments and feedback (good or bad); if you have any other suggestions that could help me with this build I would be very grateful.
Thanks in advance!
This is my first post on the forum - an Overclockers virgin - and I’m hoping to receive some useful feedback like in other posts I’ve read. For the past couple of weeks I have been trawling the forum, reading some interesting things about the latest hardware and trying to bring myself up to date. My current PC recently died on me and now it’s time to upgrade.
My heart is set on an Intel build and I have a budget of around £1500 - I could stretch it to £1650 but no more and I would like it to include Windows 7. I love games so that’s the main reason for a decent spec, but I also need it for encoding, photo editing and lots of downloading hence the hard drive space. The specification I have in mind is the overclocked Ultima Vanquish system; this includes the following but bear in mind I have changed it slightly:
• Case: Antec 902 Ultimate Gaming Case - Black
• Power Supply: Corsair TX 750W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply
• CPU: Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz Overclocked to 4.00GHz
• Motherboard: Gigabyte EX58A-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
• Cooler: Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B CPU Cooler with 2000RPM Sharkoon Silent Eagle 120mm
• RAM: Corsair Dominator Tri Channel 6GB (3x2GB) PC3 - 12800 1600MHz DDR3 C7
• Hard Drive: Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache x2 (Two separate drives)
• Graphics Card: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5
• Sound: 7.1 Channel Sound (On-Board)
• Optical Drive: LG DVD+/-RW SATA Drive
• Cooling: Akasa AK-FN058 Apache Black Super Silent 120mm Fan - 4 Pin PWM x 2 - for the side and middle of the case.
I have a couple of questions which I couldn’t really find the answers to:
People have said on various websites that overclocking the CPU can halve its lifespan, but is this due to people not really knowing what they are doing? I thought that by using a professional company like Overclockers , I would be buying a PC which would last me a good few years to come with the occasional upgrade when needed.
Also what are your thoughts when it comes to setting your hard drives up? Do you prefer to use Raid 0 for quicker read and write, even though you could potentially lose all your data if one of the hard drives fails? Alternatively is Raid 1 or 5 a better option?
I really need the PC to run ultra silently, so would water cooling be a better solution than air?
Also why do people prefer the Samsung DVD writer over the LG Drive?
One last question: do you recommend that I hang on and wait for this card instead - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5870 Toxic 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card?
I’m really looking forward to your comments and feedback (good or bad); if you have any other suggestions that could help me with this build I would be very grateful.
Thanks in advance!
