I'm almost ready to order the parts for my very first build. I had a thread on Custom PC which helped me reconsider a few components. My budget is as close to £1000 as possible, and anything lower is a bonus providing I don't sacrifice longevity. I want this system to last at least three years, which I hope isn't too ambitious considering I only game at 1440 x 900 and I don't play first person shooters. I'll want to be able to play future releases at maximum settings whilst cranking up as much custom eye candy as possible (like in Oblivion). I may also upgrade my display in the future. I'll want to overclock the i7 to 3.2 Ghz, which is a conservative overclock and hopefully something I can achieve with relative ease considering I've never overclocked before. Processor: Intel Core i7 920, D0 Stepping - £249.75 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R - £154.30 Cooling: Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366RT inc 1600RPM fan - £52.31 Memory: OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz CAS 8-8-8-24 - £80.49 Graphics Card: Gainward GTX 260 Golden Sample - £151.88 Hard Drive 1: Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD322HJ 320GB SATAII 16MB Cache - £39.67 Hard Drive: Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB SATAII 32MB Cache - £69..99 Optical Drive: Samsung H653F 22x DVD+/-RW 8x Dual Layer DVD-RAM SATA Black - £16.57 Case: CoolerMaster HAF 932 - £99.99 Power Supply: Corsair 750W TX PSU - £100.60 OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM - £82.23 Total: £975.88 (£983.92 including shipping) My main concerns lies with the motherboard, whether it supports 1600MHz memory and how it fairs in overclocking. I'm happy to downgrade to 1333MHz memory depending on the performance difference. I'm also wondering whether I would need to lap the heatsink/processor.
That looks like a decent system your planning, but... 1) If your only planning to overclock to 3.2GHz there is no point getting the D0 stepping i7, you will not notice any difference between it and the cheaper C0 stepping. 2)The two hard drive aren't a great idea imo. The 1TB is faster than the 320Gb, which i assume you were planning to use as the system drive... I'd either install vista on a partition on the 1TB drive or get a faster primary drive (the WDC 640Gb is quite fast iirc) 3)You wont actually notice any performance difference between 1600Mhz ram and 1333Mhz ram, so its up to you, but you could save a bit and go for 1333Mhz. The motherboard will be fine with that setup, and no, you will not need to lapp the heatsink/processor. Lastly, the thrmalright ultra is good but there are cheaper heatsinks out there that give better cooling... have a look for the Titan Fenrir (good cooling slightly noisy) or the Scythe Mugen 2 (good cooling, very quiet). Both are cheaper than the ultra, and give better cooling according to the last labs test i saw.
Looks good on the whole. A couple of things though. You will have an odd-number of memory modules, which means (unless I'm mistaken) that at least one won't run as a matched pair in dual channel mode so you won't get optimal performance from them. Maybe someone can confirm that for me. Also, the graphics card. If you're a CustomPC reader you'll see what Ben Hardwidge had to say about it in the May issue. That card is basically a re-badged 9800 GTX+. The core is the same, just with a bit more memory (which is questionable in its usefullness). Maybe you could save a few quid and get the aforementioned GTX+...
Uhh, the OP listed a GTX 260. It's the GTS 250 which is a re-badged 9800GTX+, and is actually a better choice as it runs cooler, overclocks better and is cheaper than the 9800GTX+. Other than that it looks fine, but as Gryphon said there isn't any point in getting two hard drives unless you really need the extra storage. I personally wouldn't bother with RAM any faster than 1333MHz unless it's the same price.
sorry martin, wrong on both counts im afraid. the memory with an i7 runs in triple channel, so you use three modules, and the graphics card that is a re-badged 9800GTX is the GTX250. beat me to it smc... this seems suspiciously like the cpc forums
I'd prefer to have any potential performance increase (including power and thermal), and not just the potential to overclock further. I know both steppings would be able to hit 3.2GHz easily, but I assume the D0 would have superior operation at that frequency. Really? They have the same seek time and RPM, and I would have thought a single platter would be faster than three. Considering their pricing, I think I'll stick to 1600MHz. I just read the most recent review I could find on bit-tech (19th Feb '09) which found TRUE to be the best cooler.
Ah yes, sorry guys, that's me not reading it properly. I didn't know that about i7 running tripple channel, but then I'm still using an old AMD X2 chip so I'm behind the times!
Lol, yep Although I didn't read the bit about the RAM. Just thought I'd add, you should be good to overclock the 920 to around 4GHz (even if you get the C0 stepping) on that motherboard with the TRUE if you want to push it a bit further in the future. You should even be able to get it to around 3.6GHz without any overvolting I'd have thought.
The D0 will not be superior in any way other than it will overclock a bit further with slightly lower voltages, the preformance will be the same as the C0 at any frequency. Its the aerial density of the platters that determine drive speed, the higher the density, the faster the drive. The 1TB has a higher density. ok, reviews differ with HSFs, the one i was refering to was in the latest issue of the Custom PC magazine. Still, if you want to save about £20, have a look at the coolers i suggested, i guess the cooling performance wont be that different.
The TRUE is pretty much the universal champion in the labs between both publications tbh. I had a look at the Titan and personally I'm not fussed, but then I'd get a Noctua, Scythe Kama Angle or even Akasa Nero instead even - you're buying a DS3R after all. bit-tech hasn't got on so well with the Mugen in the past. I've used the MSI X58 Pro with a 940 to get 3.7GHz with the stock cooler - that'll soon be my work machine, they certainly aren't difficult to overclock and don't require as much hardcore cooling as a Phenom II.
Can the D0 hit 3.2GHz at a lower voltage than C0? I'd prefer to keep Turbo Mode on as well, if that makes a difference. OK, I'll forget about the 320GB drive then and have Windows on a partition. Comparably across multiple reviews it would appear the Titan Fenrir is on par with TRUE, although it's not listed at Scan, Ebuyer, Novatech or Dabs.
Drop Vista and install Windows 7 release candidate, it lasts until March 2010. Otherwise you will have to spend an extra £80+ when Windows 7 is released probably sometime this year, unless you want to stick with Vista long-term.
Ideally I would love to skip straight to Windows 7 as I currently use XP. How reliable would the RC be as my primary system? Would I have any issues upgrading to the final editions? I'm looking at Ultimate to take advantage of Virtual XP.
The RC should be perfectly stable, even most of the earlier betas were. If you're going to be doing a lot of important work on it, however, I probably wouldn't recommend it, but then you should be backing that up regularly anyway. You will have to do a full reinstall though when you buy the full version when it is released, it won't let you 'upgrade' it.
Ive been using the win7 beta as my primary o/s since it came out. its as reliable as my vista system was. i would recommend skipping straight to 7, as long as you keep up to date backups just incase
W7 RC is the ultimate version, and IIRC you can select any of the versions to install. I'm using it, even for gaming, driver support is good, of course I wouldn't use it for any mission critical business apps, it is still a beta, after all. As far as upgrading to the full release, that I can't anwser you fully, maybe somebody else on here has the answer.
What was it about the Titan, that didn't float your boat?, I was looking to purchase one to replace my Kama, which it outperfomed in the CPC test.
@ Jewels This article talks about W7 upgrading http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/08/windows_7_beta_downgrade_vista/ There is also no direct upgrade from XP at the moment, you would need to do a clean (ish) install!
Well the prospect of having to perform a full reinstall isn't very promising, especially if I've already installed, customised and tweaked a host of programs and games over several months. Then again I'd be knocking the price to under £1000 after excluding both the 320GB drive and Vista. I originally wanted to buy 2x 1TB SpinPoint drives for a RAID1 setup, but decided against it after reading this article from puget. I'm perfectly happy with doing a fresh install on the new system, but I'd dislike having to do it again once the retail editions are released.
