I am needing to build a new system and am looking to base it round an i7-975. I dont plan to overclock much as i would like to keep the systems longevity. I would also like to keep it aircooled as i have a fear of water cooling. The two motherboards that have been suggested to me are the Asus P6T deluxe and the Asus rampage II extreme. I have no idea which would be better and any insight would be greatly appreciated. My PC will be used for the following: 3dS Max ProE and Wildfire 4.0 Ansys 12.0 Adobe CS4 Folding Gaming The system as it stands so far (thanks in a large part to CPC) is as follows: Intel i7-975 Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ CPu cooler Silverstone TJ07 2 x XFX GTX295 Enermax revolution 85+ PSU OCZ vertex 120GB SSD 300GB WD velociraptor 1TB Samsung spinpot F1 I am undecided about quantity of ram but will be looking at corsair dominator ddr3 from 1600 - 2000MHz I could realy do with some pointers as I am fed up paying others to build PCs for me and getting minimal performance per pound in return. If you think any of the spec can be improved upon please feel free to advise. Thanks in advance.
1. Scrap the 975 and grab a 920. Cheaper and you can make it just as fast if not better. 2. Scrap the V-Raptor and pick up an SSD, the V-Raptors are kind of the last high-performance, non-SCSI, mechanical Hard drives and they are being quickly replaced by the SSDs, Check out some of Bit-Tech's recent SSD reviews for some advice. 3. Grab 2 GTX285s, 295s are an interesting beast with the on-board SLI and I have heard some people having problems with multiple cards, also I believe that the 285 will perform better in some games because the game has to have support for SLI and if not causes stuttering problems. As for RAM grab at least 6gb of RAM in Triple Channel and I think for what it is worth you can stick to 1600 instead of 2000
Thanks for the info. Only reason for choosing the 975 was due to it being fast out the box, looks like the 920 could be a contender. How well does it cope with overclocking if using air cooling? Any thoughts on motherboards?
Air Cooling will get you up to 975 speeds no problem (just use an Aftermarket HSF) As for Motherboard I would go with an ASUS P6T series, or the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD* series. Just take a look at those a pick the one you like best.
I agree with the points above. There's no point wasting all that money on 975 when you can get a 920 for 1/4 of the price. If you're going to do a lot of CAD work it may be worth getting a professional level graphics card - as the drivers are usually crippled in that respect for gaming cards. Something like nVidia Quadro range should be good (but expensive).
+1 i7 920 is more than a match for anything. drop the SLI and 285. The 275 is better value for money and is only 10% slower than the 285. or consider the 4890. but on a side note directx11 cards are almost here so get a high end card now will leave you spitting in 2 months time when better cards are out and your card just got a massive price cut. IMO id opt for a 260 or 4870 1GB (£100-130ish) then upgrade to directx11 maybe early next year. as for mobo - the rampage is horrible value for money and offers nothing over much much cheaper boards. Gigabyte X58UD3R or UD5 or ASUS P6T deluxe V2. go for 6GB of RAM which will keep your RAM eating apps in check. dont waste money on expensive 2000mhz RAM as you dont need the extra bandwidth. 1600Mhz or even 1333Mhz is perfectly fine and wont hinder performance at all. grab a copy of win7 RC for now then pre-order win7 for £49.99 on the 16th july.
+1 on the 920 argument ... really difficult to justify the extra price on the 975. The Gigabyte UD5 is a sweet mobo and is easily capable of doing everything you might need ... really nice to build with too. A specific gpu may be a better option than a gaming focused card though. Air cooling has plenty of headroom on a 920 for o/c with the right case and fan combo. The Titan cooler you've suggested is well up to the job. Spend some of the cash you save on not getting the 975 by going for the SSD as suggested ... my next upgrade too for Win7.
I had looked at the quadro CX, and while cost isnt a limiting factor on this build, at £1500 + and the fact that while its great for Cad and Premier, it apparently sucks for gaming (a mate uses a quadro for gaming and there is a lot of stutter). I need a setup which will give me the best of both worlds. This will primarily be a system for home use and play which can cope well with the demanding CAD, rendering and animation software. I think The Asus P6T deluxe V2 is probably going to be my best bet as far as Motherboards go. Thanks for the replys so far. Please keep them coming. Spec so far: Intel i7-920 Asus P6T deluxe V2 Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ CPu cooler Silverstone TJ07 Graphics cards Undecided Enermax revolution 85+ PSU OCZ vertex 120GB SSD 1TB Samsung spinpot F1
Would it be possible to run two different graphics cards for different applications within the same system? i.e. quadro for 3d graphics and rendering and GTX 285/295 for everything else?
The i7 975 is only beneficial if you are a serious overclocker with serious cooling (And I mean something like liquid nitrogen). Otherwise your money is wasted. The Asus Deluxe makes it easy to overclock and with that heatsink, you will be fine. Since you seem to be looking for max performance, I would suggest the 2 pre-overclocked gtx 280's in Sli, as the 295 seems to have some issues (as mentioned before). At least 6GB of Ram, 1600 or 2000 doesn't matter. 6GB of Corsair Dominator PC3-12800 should suit your needs. SSD should be enough over raptor. And then spend the money you save on a great monitor like the HP LP2475w!
Ok, this is where we are at. Intel i7-975 Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ CPu cooler Silverstone TJ07 2 x XFX GTX285 Enermax revolution 85+ PSU OCZ vertex 120GB SSD 300GB WD velociraptor 1TB Samsung spinpot F1 12GB Corsair dominator 2000Mhz
The TJ07 is a brilliant case, absolutely love mine, has soo much space it's incredible. I too would drop the 975 to the 920 D0, i have mine under the stock cooler while i wait to get my w/c gear back, but it sits at stock speeds with various apps at 34c (idle) Word of advice though. The Asus P6T series, or the Gigabyte EX58-UD5 support DDR3 2000mhz ram, unless it is overclocked to those speeds, this means that the shiney Domintor 2000mhz ram you selected will be downclocked to the boards max non o/c speed (Some P6T are 1333mhz, the UD5 is 1600mhz) Hope that helps Sam
I'd drop the Silverstone, while phenomenal for water cooling, it is just bad at air cooling. How about the Cosmos (S) instead?
yes thanks, it does. Work are springing for most of the cost of the system so price isnt realy a huge deal, hence the i7-975. I may be swayed to add of water cooling at somepoint. seems that many people recommend it, so i may yet become a Water cooled convert to allow for greater future overclocking. In light of the ram selected and the fact it could be downclocked. will down clocking 2000Mhz to, for arguments sake, 1600Mhz be any worse than running 1600Mhz ram. I was led to beleive selecting this memory would allow for future overclocking headroom without poorer performance at slower speeds than Stock slower Ram. Is this Wrong?
