Hi all, Long time reader, first time poster. This isn't the first system I've built by a long shot, but it will be the first upgrade in a number of years (around 5 now ). Also, it'll be the first time I'm attempting watercooling. I'm UK based, and all prices are from Overclockers.co.uk (where I've shopped in the past) unless otherwise stated. I've got no problems buying from other retailers. OK; here's what I've got so far: Budget: £2000 - £2500 Uses: Plenty of gaming, CPU intensive applications, general purpose workstation. Upgradeability/future proofing: As much as possible. -- Motherboard: Asus P6X58D Premium (£244.99) Is 6Gb/s SATA worth it? I like Gigabyte boards but don't want to watercool the chipset, since it destroys your flow, right? CPU: i7 920 D0 (£220.99) Is there any benefit to getting the 950? It's priced higher but am I right in thinking that the 920 will easily OC to the same levels? RAM: Corsair Dominator GT 6GB 1866Mhz (£286.99) Am I being stupid avoiding 2000Mhz RAM? GPU: ??? (up to £587.48 depending on card) Some advice here would be much appreciated. Would the 5970 be complete overkill (A 2nd monitor is a few months off, but even then)? PSU: Corsair TX 750W (£92.99) Not sure if this is sufficient depending on GPU demands, etc. Case: 800D / TJ07? (around £210.00) I love the Corsair 800D for its cable management and looks, but I'd like to cool both CPU and GPU and have read mixed comments regarding whether or not one loop is sufficient. In that case, the Silverstone TJ07 looks like a better choice, since it's got more room for a second radiator? Storage: ??? (around £200 if I include an optical drive -- Bluray RW likely not needed) Are SSDs worth it yet? I think I can quite happily live with old-school HDDs for a while. Monitor: Again not sure -- a decent 24"? (£??) -- Cooling parts are priced according to WatercoolingUK Radiator(s?): ThermoChill PA120.3 (£66.40). As above, I'm not sure if I'd need a second loop to cool both CPU and GPU. Pump/res: I'm quite tempted by the pump/res combos, particularly those which fit in 5.25" drive bays -- are these a good idea? CPU block: HEATKILLER® CPU Rev3.0 1366. This seems to be well recommded most places, though I know the EKs are a good bet here too -- any thoughts? GPU block: EK-FCXXXX (£120 tops) depending on card. Acetal more likely than plexi, depending on whether there's any reason to worry (apart from cosmetic differences). Tubing and fittings: Really stumped here -- I've read a lot but it seems to be preference (1/2" - 3/4", 3/8" - 1/2", etc). Also, are compression fittings secure enough? -- I think that's it. For the meantime I can reuse keyboard/mouse/speakers from my current PC, so they can be left out. Thanks for all the help guys, I know I'm a complete noob when it comes to watercooling (despite a degree in engineering; oh dear ) and stuff so any advice is much appreciated. lunaris
change mobo to asus P6TD keep cpu as 920 ram go for the corsair 1600mhz 6gb you won't need 1866mhz gpu wait for fermi to be released psu change to seasonic x-sieries 750w case go for silverstone TJ07 much better choice than the corsair HDD go for a samsung 1tb f3 monitor go for the NEC EA231WMi radiator good choice for pump better to go for a ddc pump with a res top that cpu block is fine i am not the expert on tubing but i hered feser is good and i use 1/2 tubing size for fittings you will need 8 of them and you want compression fittings bitspower i recomend if they have it if you can't find anything what i have writen about just say and i will add links
Motherboard: Asus PT6 Deluxe Is 6Gb/s SATA worth it? I like Gigabyte boards but don't want to watercool the chipset, since it destroys your flow, right? - No, not now. Hardly anything uses it. It will take a fair few years before everything starts to move over. But what you'll be buying is fast enough to sasticify anyone. CPU: i7 920 D0 Is there any benefit to getting the 950? It's priced higher but am I right in thinking that the 920 will easily OC to the same levels? - I7 920 is fine. RAM: 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3 Corsair Dominator GT 6GB 1866Mhz (£286.99)Am I being stupid avoiding 2000Mhz RAM? No your not being silly for avoiding 2000mhz, but you are crazy for wanting to spend almost £300 on 6gb RAM . If you really want to go for dominator, then get the standard corsair Dominator 1600mhz for like half the price. However, the GT's are completely over priced, anything above 1600mhz your not going to see much of an improvement even for your overclocking. I would however say you should get 12gb if you have the money GPU: ??? (up to £587.48 depending on card) Nah the 5890 is a very kick ass card. However Fermi is released at the end of the next month if you want the best value for your money. But if not I'd grab one. PSU: Corsair TX 750W (£92.99)Not sure if this is sufficient depending on GPU demands, etc. Easily. It has enough to run a 5970 crossfire I think. The PSU is really nice Case: 800D / TJ07? (around £210.00)I love the Corsair 800D for its cable management and looks, but I'd like to cool both CPU and GPU and have read mixed comments regarding whether or not one loop is sufficient. Despite having a big budget, I dont see myself buying such an expensive case, I bought my Coolermaster Stacker which can easily fit everything and looks fantastic so on. But if you like the case then go for it! Storage: ??? - Get a Samsung F3 1tb for your storage and pick up a nice sized SSD for your OS and all. You have a big enough budget - I'll let some crazy SSD fanatics go wild on which to recommend (they dont usually get a request build which can squeeze a SSD into the budget Monitor: Again not sure -- a decent 24"? (£??) - Im not picky for a monitor really, I have whats considered a budget Acer 24" monitor but it looks brilliant as good as my mates fancy dell... 24" and has DVI and im happy lol. £400 monitors all have there own USB's, cookie maker, fax, AI, Satnav or crap so if you fancy them then go for it. -- I don't know water cooling enough really to give you good advice
Think I'd go for dual/tri montior setup. Take advantage of your budget. Oh, and +1 on the 12gb ram, will serve you well in the future
Heres the build I would do: Motherboard: Asus P6TD Deluxe - £214.05 from Scan CPU: i7 930 (its exactly the same as the 920, but clocked slightly higher) - £232.85 from Scan RAM: 12GB Corsair Dominator 1600MHz - £332.10 from Scan GPU: For the love of god wait for Fermi, even if it sucks, ATi will drop prices, if its good, then buy. You haven't said what resolution you will be gaming at but at your budget you surely wont be looking at less than 1920x1200. Best to budget around £350. PSU: Corsair HX750 - £112 from Scan. Powerful enough for SLI/X-fire configurations, modular and efficient. Case: TJ-07 - £210 from Scan. The peerless watercooling case. Storage: Intel X-25M 80GB - £190 from Scan. You'll probably want some 1TB or 2TB drives for storage. You can pick up 2TB drives now for just over £100 so they are finally worth buying. 2TB Hitachi - £108 from Scan. Monitor: You've not mentioned anything like graphical work or anything where you require an IPS panel, so I'm going to go for quantity over quality. 2x Acer V243HBD from Scan - £152 x 2 = £304 That comes to £2052 including a £350 budgeted towards a graphics card. Enjoy your system which will destroy anything that you can throw at it. You've got £450 left over for watercooling.
Wow guys, thanks so much for the quick responses (though more are welcome ). I'm chuffed that I can afford 12Gb RAM thanks to the Mhz drop -- sweet as . Also, yes, I'm not really going to be doing any graphical work at all, so the monitors Ph4ZeD suggested seem like an awesome choice. Is Fermi really worth the wait however? I only ask because (a) I've always been a bit of an ATI user, (b) I'm not sure I can wait a month and (c) I've heard various tales of the perils Nvidia are facing with Fermi (not all to be believed I'm sure, but nonetheless...) Thanks again -- more feedback on the watercooling is always appreciated! lunaris
Well the reasoning behind waiting for Fermi is as follows: No one, absolutely no one, knows whether Fermi is going to be "good" or not, ie. more powerful than the ATi cards at the same price point. But its virtually guaranteed that even if Fermi is the biggest bomb in history, ATi will try to steal their thunder by lowering the prices of their own cards. If your happy with the possibility that you could buy a card and it go down in price a bit, which is obviously what happens with all tech anyways, then just buy a 5870 now and be done with it.
To reply to your question: Motherboard: Asus P6X58D Premium (£244.99) - stay with it good and forward thinking choice. CPU: i7 920 D0 (£220.99) - stay with it - easly reaches 4GHz. RAM: Corsair Dominator GT 6GB 1866Mhz (£286.99) - go for those ones instead (great overclockers): Corsair Dominator 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-14400C9 (1866MHz) - £230 GPU: ??? (up to £587.48 depending on card) - wait for Fermi. PSU: Corsair TX 750W (£92.99) - this is insufficient - if you want any high-end upgrades in the future, need more power and quality, get this one: Corsair HX 1000W ATX Modular - it's rock solid and extremely quiet. Case: 800D / TJ07? (around £210.00) - 800D is near-perfect case, great for any watercooling. Storage: ??? (around £200 if I include an optical drive -- Bluray RW likely not needed) - get this: Seagate Barracuda XT 2TB - mighty spacey and will use SATA 3 on you board - seriously fast stuff! Skip SSD for now - still poor value, specialy with the arrival of SATA 3. Monitor: Again not sure -- a decent 24"? (£??): Dell ST2410 24"
I'm running one of these at the moment. I can take some pictures for you or anything if you want me to Well mine comes under as the V243H but it's the same basically. One thing I did find with it though is the standard default setting you get looks for colours look alright. But if you set the settings for "Graphics" or "Movies" wow, the colours come to life. The monitor goes from decent, to beautiful. I'm personally thinking of getting a 2nd or third in the future. My only gripe with the monitor is that the stand is low down. However, it's nothing a bit of common sense cant fix with a bit of desk modding or in my case my PC tool kit under it depends where you want it. For the value you cannot go wrong.
Why not and another 24in monitor and whack out some eyfinity! Not sure about your desk space issues but it would be an awsome experience. Not sure what that would do to your graphics budget though.
No such thing as futureproofing mate... there's stalling but no proofing in 18-36 months your 2.5 grand will be as useful in the tip
Personally I find the SSD way more tempting than upping the memory from 6 to 12 GB. Dunno if you even have to make the choice at this price gap, but so far I just can't justify more than 6 GBs of memory without any special requirements (gaming just isn't that demanding). SSD on the other hand will shorten the loading times and actually make a difference.
Yea there's just been a dozen others posting their ideas, so I figured I'd throw my 2 cents in as well. Just look at the latest build by Synay and you'll see how differently some people think. There's neither 12 GB nor SSD, and to top things off he swapped the PSU, HDD and case
Check our buyers guide: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2010/02/03/what-hardware-should-i-buy-february-2010/4 but substitute the 920 for a 930 and remove the case/cooler for your own Get a Vertex LE the FIRST CHANCE YOU GET. There's only 5000 out there and it's looks like a very, very good SSD for the money.
Thanks Jipa. As for the 12GB of RAM - stating just pure fact - unless you are CAD designer and rendering complex 3D structures, you don't need more than 6GB. In fact, if you don't do Full HD video editing or Photoshop works on high resolution files you don't even need more than 3GB. But we need to be resonable, unneccessary savings will hit you right in your face soon enough, so 6GB of really fast and stable DDR3 is more than enough. Everything else sits unused. After all even most demanding games use GPU's onboard RAM, right? Secondly - SSDs - I don't deminish the performance of most of those drives and in all cases but few, they are always much faster. But, SATA 3 HDD will be extremely fast while retaining huge capacities. Sure, 6GB/s will in practice be unachievable but will be fast enough to speed up loading time x3 or even x4. Drive I quoted is a costly beast, but at the same price you will only get basic 128GB model. To my calculations this SATA 3 HDD will have 16x the capacity of it's nearest SSD rival. So unless you are a harcore benchmarker, or can't wait for 5 seconds more for your game to load, then choice is quite clear. After all, SSD are not design for storage yet (unless you are extremely rich - then adopt me ). In my opinion the only way to stall your hardware aging is to go for new gen solutions but be reasonable with it. Hence a good PSU will be more worthy than 12GB of RAM or SSD drive.
The sequential read/write of large files just so happens to be the least important thing in real-life HDD performance. Thus paying for extra speed there just isn't going to show in day-to-day desktop use. That's why I much rater take a small SSD for OS and most used software and a separate normal drive for all the pr0n.
Still, the only thing you WAIT for a hard drive to do is write or read lots of data. Games, application, updates etc. It's just as rare you REALLY hammer the read-write too and most modern, good drives will handle the nominal IO of day to day efficiently enough. A Vertex wipes the floor with the Barra XT, there's just no contest: I've used both. Baz loves to tell us how he can get into a BF:BC, MW2, DoW online game a whole 10-30 seconds ahead of other people, mostly thanks to his Indilinx SSD. Mass storage performance is the biggest limiting factor in any system. It's literally night and day, because even a 50% improvement is noticeable when we're comparing MB/s still to many GB/s throughput of memory and CPU bus'. Given he's got 2k to spend, he can have a decent PSU AND SSD for that money. You don't need 12GB of ram - buy 6 and see how you get on. I bet you'd have trouble filling it unless you're photo editing dozens of pics + extremely heavy multitasking.
Wow; this is heating up Thanks for the continued influx of help guys. Alas, my girlfriend has just dropped a financial bomb on me and so I may have to wait another few weeks before purchasing (though by then there'll be another paycheck and I can maybe push to £3000 ). On the plus side I guess I'll get to see what Fermi does to prices/performance GPU wise. Still no word on watercooling, which to be honest is the bit I'm going to struggle with most -- any thoughts on single/dual loops? Though of course, there's a lot more time now Cheers again! lunaris
