Jdoki

Hi all,

After many years the old AMD 3800X2 / ATI X1950XT I built is moving on to a new home... leaving me with out a gaming PC.

While researching components for my new build I found Driver Heaven; liked the format of your reviews and the forum seems friendly, so decided to join!

I was hoping you guys could give me a quick sanity check based on the components I've picked, please. The measurements sound fine, but I'm a bit concerned about the heatsink / mobo / case clearances (that Noctura looks tall and wide!), and whether I need a bit more juice from the PSU... I don't want to buy all these bits and find I've overlooked something! My budget is as close to £1000 as I can get (current component total is about £1150), but can stretch to £1200-1400 if a good argument is made to consider an alternative to any component.

Case:
Coolermaster 690 (thanks to your build guide!)

CPU:
Intel i7 920

Cooler:
Noctura NH-U12P (thanks to your socket 1366 roundup!)

Mobo:
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5

GPU
ATI 4890 - not sure what make.

RAM:
6GB - no idea what make/timings yet.

PSU:
CoolerMaster 850W RealPower (must be modular as my cabling skills suck, and supply enough juice/connectors for Crossfire in the future)

Other bits:
Single hard drive approx 1TB
Blu-Ray ROM / DVD-CD RW drive
Additional 1 or 2 140mm fans
Internal WiFI card
Bluetooth adaptor (either internal or external)

kris23

Welcome to DH Jdoki!

as for your system, it looks good! you didnt leave out anything important but i have a few suggestions...

for RAM id go with Corsair, Crucial or OCZ sticks for quality and support

for GPU id go with the GTX 275 as it is a good deal faster than the 4890 from the DH review

for mobo though, id get the EVGA X58 board as it probably is cheaper and has full x16 speeds on all slots instead of x16, x16, x8

for hard drive, id go with the new 7200.12 1TB drive

lastly, for OS id go with Vista x64 home premium

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SeraphicSorcerer

Looks good, I went with a AMD Phenom II 955 sytem myself, going to use the money I saved to get a domino cooler =)

Good luck with your system, When I build an i7 I am going to want the 940..

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Mac Daddy

Looks good here and welcome to DH

I agree with Kris on the memory makes all solid. On the 4890 and the GTX 275 from the DH review both cards are stronger in certain aspects.

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"My mom said the only reason men are alive is for lawn care and vehicle maintenance." - Tim Allen

SeraphicSorcerer

I think he has a pretty strong system, I was looking at the XMP memory when I was looking at memory

Newegg.com - OCZ XMP Ready Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

Other then that I'd go with either the 4890, or GTX 275
I really like the blu-ray acceleration and the HDMI Dongle (I output to my Samsung HDTV)

But if its just for games get the GTX275 Like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125279

Free game! LOL

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OldBuzzard

Using CORSAIR's page, and PSU 'calculator', it looks like the Corsair 620HX would do OK as a PSU for his system. I used 2x4970s to allow for going to crossfire in the future. Depending on where you buy it, you could save a few $$ over that Cooler Master, and still have a VERY high quality PSU.

It's a shame that the 850HX hasn't been released yet. We know it's 'coming' but not when. That one is going to sell BIG time!

Actually, with the CM 690 case, it's a lot easier to hide the extra cables even if you go with a non-modular PSU.

As for the CPU cooler, I can't give you any help there. I do have the CM 690, but I water cool, so worrying about the height of a CPU cooler is something I don't have to do.

Now, if it would fit into your budget, you might want to take a look at the Cooler Master STORM SNIPER:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119194

That puppy would DEFINATELY handle a TALL CPU cooler.

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When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

Jdoki

Hi

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated!

Kri23, I have been looking at the EVGA board, but all the specs on the EVGA site show the slots as 16 / 16(8) / 8 - (on both the 132-BL-E758-TR and also the -A1)

Now I'm a bit confused!

If I go triple CrossFire in the (distant) future what sort of performance hit would there be running x16 x16 x8 (or even x16, x8, x8)?

Regarding the GPU - I'm heading in the ATI direction as I've not yet forgiven Nvidia for selling me a laptop with a dodgy 8 series GPU (along with millions of others!). I suppose I should be more sensible and have a look at the GTX275!

SeraphicSorcerer

Well I agree I went ATI on my laptop for the same reason, I'd honestly prefer a 4870x2, or a 4890 in cross fire, XFX has a 399$ 4870x2 I for some reason think the ATI this generation renders sharper images. But I wouldn't mind a gtx275 (*hopes he wins the competition*) haha, maybe you'll win then you won't have to pick =)

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OldBuzzard

Well, in the never ending war between the fanATIcs, and nVIDIOTS, I've always been a fanATIc, and you couldn't PAY me to put an nVidia card in any of my systems

That said however, with the current crop of video cards, there's very little that seperates them. You really don't have to worry about which one performs better, has better IQ, or better drivers. Both camps are pretty much equal. It's gotten to the point that if you just go with the GPU manufacturer that you 'feel more comfortable' with, you can't lose.

In a time when getting 2-3 FPS more in a game has reviewers saying that Card X, OWNZ Card Y , we are all winners, no matter what brand we get.

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When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

Mac Daddy

Great post and I agree completely. In the DH review your pretty much gonna have to set up categories for test results between the HD4890 and GTX 275 they are that close.

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"My mom said the only reason men are alive is for lawn care and vehicle maintenance." - Tim Allen

kris23

lol the EVGA board, my bad, i confused the specs on that one with the Classified...

anyways, it shouldnt matter too much between the x8 and x16 until you get to the GTX 295 type cards.... and since its 2.0 spec, the bandwidth is double so it matters even less! we havent saturated a 1.0 spec PCI-E yet so 2.0 should be fine at x8

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adamosmaki

Looks good and future proof. You might save $30-40 if you go with a good 700-750w psu ( unless you plan to go crossfire even then 750W will be enough). Also you can instead using 4890 use a 4870orr gtx260. They are more than enough for 1920x1080 gaming and they are not that much behind the 4890 and you can save about $50-60. The reason i'm saying that is because the new series from nvidia and ATi are coming this summer and from early looks seems the jump from this to the next gen of vgas's will be significant ( as significant from the 7series geforce to 8 series and unified shaders if not more)

kris23

to be honest with you, i think you should buy 3 4770s and do something incredible with them. theyre a very powerful GPU under OC

lol but thats up to you

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Jdoki

Lol! Now that's tempting! Not sure I could put up with the heat and noise though

Unfortunately I'm going to have to hold off building a PC of any sort for a month or two, as money saved for the PC needs to go towards some car maintenance!

On the bright side, your advice about ditching the Gigabyte mobo was great - after doing a bit more research a couple of other reviews claim the PCIe slots are a bit close together to use double width GPU's in SLI/Crossfire without additional heat build up.

Judas

3 of those 4770's in crossfire would produce about as much heat as a HD4870

there wattage output is very efficient ... (and they run super cool...)

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nicnik

jus make sure you purchase a d0 stepping i7 920, price is about the same

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