New i7 Build

Robertr

Ok, decided to build an i7 system but want the best bang for buck components. Here is what I have come up with so far:

Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz - 252.00 (Hardwareversand)
Cooling: Zalman CNPS9700-NT nVidia - 52.00 (Novatech)
Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe - 245.00 (Hardwareversand)
Memory: Corsair 6GB DDR3 XMS3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz - 152.00 (Hardwareversand)
Case: Antec Nine Hundred - 81.00 (Techheads)
Hard Drive 1: OCZ Solid Series 30GB - 75.00 (Novatech)
Hard Drive 2: Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB - 62.00 (Hardwareversand)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 850W Modular - 114.00 (Techheads)
Graphics: BFG GeForce GTX 260 OC MAXCORE 896MB GDDR3 - 253.33 (Novatech)
Optical Drive: Samsung Lightscribe S223Q - 20.00 (Techheads)


Total price so far is €1,308.00 (not including delivery charges)

Comments welcome.

leninbenjamin

Robertr wrote: »

Ok, decided to build an i7 system but want the best bang for buck components. Here is what I have come up with so far:

Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz - 252.00 (Hardwareversand)
Cooling: Zalman CNPS9700-NT nVidia - 52.00 (Novatech)
Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe - 245.00 (Hardwareversand)
Memory: Corsair 6GB DDR3 XMS3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz - 152.00 (Hardwareversand)
Case: Antec Nine Hundred - 81.00 (Techheads)
Hard Drive 1: OCZ Solid Series 30GB - 75.00 (Novatech)
Hard Drive 2: Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB - 62.00 (Hardwareversand)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 850W Modular - 114.00 (Techheads)
Graphics: BFG GeForce GTX 260 OC MAXCORE 896MB GDDR3 - 253.33 (Novatech)
Optical Drive: Samsung Lightscribe S223Q - 20.00 (Techheads)


Total price so far is €1,308.00 (not including delivery charges)

Comments welcome.

heh, not too far off what i've been pricing myself.

the one thing that stands out to me is the OCZ SSD, I've been half heartedly looking at putting an SSD in the laptop and i've not heard great things about them (vaguely recall them having difficulties with small frequent file transfers or something along those lines, it might even be from here i heard it). couldn't really find anything on this line in particular, i don't think it has been out too long.

elexes

from all the reviews of the ssd's ive read unless your going to spend a lot you wont get much in the line of proformance.

the ocz ones are not ment to be very good at all. if i was you id get x2 Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB raid them and away you go.

overall the raptor drives are ment to be better then the ssd drive your looking at.

requiem1

elexes wrote: »

from all the reviews of the ssd's ive read unless your going to spend a lot you wont get much in the line of proformance.

the ocz ones are not ment to be very good at all. if i was you id get x2 Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB raid them and away you go.

overall the raptor drives are ment to be better then the ssd drive your looking at.

I have two raptor x 150's in RAID and its great but the performance boost from having a second one in raid is negligible. People rave about the samsung 1TB F1 drives in raid and they're quite cheap. maybe have a look at them.

Blazer

I'd also stay away from the OCZ SSD drives. There's a huge problem with random writes on these drives due to the jmicron controller with samsung flash they use.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3403&p=7

I have the Samsung 128GB but they are very expensive but well worth the speed boosts

Robertr

Cool,

I've decided to drop the SSD and replace with a 150GB Raptor, also changed the RAM, here is the new spec

Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) - 252.00 Hardwareversand
Cooler: Zalman CNPS9700-NT nVidia - 47.00 Hardwareversand
Graphics: MSI N260GTX-T2D896-OC, 896MB,- 229 Hardwareversand
Memory: 6GB-Triple-KIT OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 - 166.00 Hardwareversand
Case: Antec Nine Hundred - 81.11 TekHeads
Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe Intel X58 - 245.00 Hardwareversand
Optical Drive: Samsung Lightscribe S223Q - 20.56 Hardwareversand
Hard Drive: WD VelociRaptor 150GB 3,5" SATA II - 148.50 Hardwareversand
Hard Drive: Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB - 62.00 Hardwareversand
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 850W Modular - 114.44 TekHeads

Total now stands at 1,365.61

Might go for this monitor also:

Samsung SM2433BW 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 244.44 Novatech

Thanks for advice

requiem1

Robertr wrote: »

Cool,

I've decided to drop the SSD and replace with a 150GB Raptor, also changed the RAM, here is the new spec

Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) - 252.00 Hardwareversand
Cooler: Zalman CNPS9700-NT nVidia - 47.00 Hardwareversand
Graphics: MSI N260GTX-T2D896-OC, 896MB,- 229 Hardwareversand
Memory: 6GB-Triple-KIT OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 - 166.00 Hardwareversand
Case: Antec Nine Hundred - 81.11 TekHeads
Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe Intel X58 - 245.00 Hardwareversand
Optical Drive: Samsung Lightscribe S223Q - 20.56 Hardwareversand
Hard Drive: WD VelociRaptor 150GB 3,5" SATA II - 148.50 Hardwareversand
Hard Drive: Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB - 62.00 Hardwareversand
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 850W Modular - 114.44 TekHeads

Total now stands at 1,365.61

Might go for this monitor also:

Samsung SM2433BW 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 244.44 Novatech

Thanks for advice

I've got the samsung T240 24" and its great; I'd strongly advise

kaimera

Robertr wrote: »

Cool,

I've decided to drop the SSD and replace with a 150GB Raptor, also changed the RAM, here is the new spec

Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) - 252.00 Hardwareversand
Cooler: Zalman CNPS9700-NT nVidia - 47.00 Hardwareversand
Graphics: MSI N260GTX-T2D896-OC, 896MB,- 229 Hardwareversand
Memory: 6GB-Triple-KIT OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 - 166.00 Hardwareversand
Case: Antec Nine Hundred - 81.11 TekHeads
Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe Intel X58 - 245.00 Hardwareversand
Optical Drive: Samsung Lightscribe S223Q - 20.56 Hardwareversand
Hard Drive: WD VelociRaptor 150GB 3,5" SATA II - 148.50 Hardwareversand
Hard Drive: Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB - 62.00 Hardwareversand
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 850W Modular - 114.44 TekHeads

Total now stands at 1,365.61

Might go for this monitor also:

Samsung SM2433BW 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 244.44 Novatech

Thanks for advice

I don't think there's much advantage to tri-channel DDR3...better off with 4gigs tbh

Mac daddy

kaimera wrote: »

I don't think there's much advantage to tri-channel DDR3...better off with 4gigs tbh

Don't agree with the statement above you clearly haven't done much reading up on i7's and the On-die memory controller or the QPI.

The memory is directly connected to the processor, each channel can support one or two DDR3 DIMMs. Motherboards for Core i7 have four (3+1) or six DIMM slots instead of two or four, and DIMMs should be installed in sets of three, not two.

kaimera

Mac daddy wrote: »

Don't agree with the statement above you clearly haven't done much reading up on i7's and the On-die memory controller or the QPI.

The memory is directly connected to the processor, each channel can support one or two DDR3 DIMMs. Motherboards for Core i7 have four (3+1) or six DIMM slots instead of two or four, and DIMMs should be installed in sets of three, not two.

I'm aware of how it works but afaia there is not much benefit to tri-channel over dual but thanks for the condescending post

Although three channels of DDR3 memory might seem excessive, the Core i7 really does seem to make good use of faster memory, at least in synthetic tests. But that was to be expected. The real question is whether those gains translate to real-world applications, and it's here that the results are more mixed. Certainly, in scientific computing tests like Euler3d and MyriMatch, which we already know to be sensitive to memory subsystem performance, faster memory can provide tangible performance perks. However, common desktop applications like those highlighted by WorldBench don't benefit much from higher memory clocks or tighter timings. Neither do most games, which at best show minor frame rate improvements that aren't significant enough for most folks to even notice, let alone appreciate.

link

Donald-Duck

If thats the arguement you're using, the the i7 core itself doesn't translate into real world improvements over a standard quad core

Gerb68

Robertr wrote: »

Cooling: Zalman CNPS9700-NT nVidia - 52.00 (Novatech)

Aren't you gonna need a Heatsink and Fan that will work with LGA1366. Isn't the CNPS9700-NT just for LGA 775.
At the moment I'm probably going with the Asus P6T Deluxe V2 Motherboard but I cant help considering the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 for all the extra SATA ports, Memory capacity etc. But I suppose ASUS is a safer bet. The thing is on my ASUS P5W DH Deluxe configering a setup with Non-RAID SATA ports was a nightmare.
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=392557

Robertr

You can get a adaptor:

http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=609938