I have no willpower: here's my i7 build.

[estebantrueba]

Gimme your feedback, especially on a cooling solution. I don't know what's out there on the 1366.

cpu: Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202

mb: ASUS P6T Deluxe
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131351

ram: G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231223

gpu: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4870 X2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102768

hdd: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152100

case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 590
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119152

psu: CORSAIR 750TX 750W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

This comes out to $1654. I'd love to get this down to around $1400 (I know I know, the 4870 X2).

 

[dirtmountain]

An interesting article over at Tweaktown about using 2x2GB of RAM in dual channel instead of 3x2GB in triple. You take a hit, but not huge and can always pop the other 2GB in after a month or 2. That alone would save about $100
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1665/intel_core_i7_memory_analysis_can_dual_channel_cut_it/index.html

www.frozenCPU.com has some 1366 coolers in stock
http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l3/g40/c14/s757/list/p1/Air_Cooling-CPU_HeatsinksCoolers-Socket_LGA_1366-Page1.html

you may need a bracket they have a *next to socket 1366

 

[mtyermom]

Solid build, but I would recommend the Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB over that Spinpoint.

As far as cooling, the lga1366 parts are coming, shouldn't be more than a week or so if I had to guess. Just use the stock cooling until a better option is available for purchase.

EDIT: frozencpu has the 1366 category populated, but the only ones in stock are crap. and look carefully, the TRUEs they list in stock in the 1366 category require the 1366 bolt through kit, which is not in stock.

 

[V3NOM]

....will the 4870X2 physicallly fit in the 590...

 

[estebantrueba]

dirtmountain: yeah, 4 gigs, might be a good idea.

mtyermom: could you direct me to a comparison of the two hard drives? I like WD, but i've also heard good things about the samsung drive.

V3NOM: good question. if worst comes to worse though, I do have a cut off wheel. Can somebody give me input on this? I'd rather spend 50 more bucks on a case than mangle some 5.25 bays with a circular saw.

Also, I'm probably going to buy this in january, so if anyone knows of any amazing hardware price drops, please share.

 

[Homeboy2]

samsung is a great drive, if the wd beats it, it would be noticable only in benchmarks.

 

[V3NOM]

CM 690 should fit it

(im an epic fanboy for that case)

 

[yipsl]

....will the 4870X2 physicallly fit in the 590...

Probably, but what kind of cooling does that case have? The Antec Nine Hundred is practically an open testbed as far as cooling goes (but, LOL, I have weaker components in mine).

What resolution are you gaming at? That's one thing that most people don't put in their new system specs. The 4870x2 is practically overpowering even high end Core 2 quad CPU's at most resolutions. You might want to look for reviews of the 4870x2 alongside i7 and see what resolution works best (probably a 30" LCD).

 

[jkool55]

since you are not doing sli what about the msi x58 platinum, about 80 bucks cheaper than the asus board and with the combo deal with the i7 920 you save 30 bucks instead of the 20 bucks with the other boards. i am in your same shoes, i am thinking about getting the same build as you. however i may get a different power supply and different case. i was looking at nzxt tempest and the antec quattro 1000w. however, this is about 100 more total than your current case and psu. i am concerned about heat issues with the 4870x2 though.

as another note there has been talk of a new release of srunken die video cards, (gtx 270 and 290). dont know exactly when they will be released but it may put some competition back into the market with a lowered 4870x2 price.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

I've recommended the Corsair 750TX before. It's a nice PSU, but the PC Power & Cooling 750W PSU is on sale right now for less.

PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI NVIDIA SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703009 $114.99 -$35.00 MIR

 

[Shadow703793]

^+1 for PP&C. Corsair and PP&C are top quality, but the PP&C's cheaper

 

[swifty_morgan]

The case sucks. I have one. The plastic that holds the drives in is cheap and doesn't do a good job. You still have to use screws. The front mesh is made of thin metal and if you look at it it bends. Easy to push in and/or dent with your fingers if not careful. What holds them in is a joke. The fans are not very quiet. Buy an Antek 900 and get it over with.

 

[estebantrueba]

Ok, screw it, I'm going to downgrade to the 4870 1GB since i'm only running at 1920x1200 (not crysis). that and swapping in the antec 900 and PP&C psu puts me down at $1440 (keep in mind this is without any combo deals which i'm guessin will knock off an additional $100)

As Im getting the single core gpu, i'm going to stick with the XF mobo.

btw, is it easy to disable the stupid led's on the antec case? this thing is going to be in my bedroom and I'm going to have to run it overnight occasionally . . . I don't want it giving me nightmares.

 

[jkool55]

i have never heard of disabling the led lights, but i mean you can always just cover them over with like paper or something. you could also look at the 4850x2 which is a little under 400 bucks on newegg with rebate. depending on what games you want to play and stuff. i dont know 1900x1200 is a pretty big resolution. but i am sure a single 4870 can run any game at 1900x1200, without AA or AF. even if you did end up playing crysis you could lower the settings from max. as of now, two 4870 1 gb run more expensive than a single 4870x2.

 

[knotknut]

At 20 inches deep and an open interior with movable HDD cage the 590 case will accept any card currently on the market.

http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?category_id=19&product_id=2709

 

[jevon]

I'd personally get the Coolermaster 690 over the Antec 900; basically the same case but for less $. Though I've only seen the 900 at a friends place, but have built many systems with the 690 (always recommend it).

If you aren't buying until January, keep your eyes open for Antec Quattro PSU sales as they happen every month or two and the price drops are significant. Especially for the 850W and 1000W units, I got the 850W one this fall for $110 CDN for example and plan to add a second 4870 to my system during a boxing week sale.

I haven't read much on the X58 boards but IMO I'd just go with the cheaper option between MSI and Gigabyte; They're all basically performance boards so you aren't going to notice hardly any differences, unless maybe you're into extreme overclocking or want to do some crazy RAID setups down the road. All will Crossfire 4xxx cards just fine.

Good luck!

 

[estebantrueba]

im not so sure about the 4850 x2. It seems kind of silly to have 4 dvi ports but no external ventilation on a card that runs so hot. I think I'll be fine with a single 4870, it wont have all the bells and whistles, but hell, it's a definite step up from my 8400 GS.

knotknut, you sound like you're getting paid by coolermaster It might fit everything, but swifty brings up a good point, I've heard a lot of horror stories about the 'tool free' installation. If I wanted to swap out my crap that often, i'd just get a rack.

 

[estebantrueba]

I dunno, i kinda wanted to stay away from MSI, i've had bad experiences with their hardware in the past (taiwanese capacitors, ewwwww). The entry level GB and asus boards are the same price, so I think I'll just stick with the asus

 

[estebantrueba]

oh dang
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103066
might just have to switch back to the 4870 X2

 

[jkool55]

sorry for the 4850x2 post. its a dumb idea actually. and i agree, 4 dvi ports but no vent, all the hot air will just pool inside the case. yeah dude, did you see my thread about the 4870x2 for like 470 after MIR? yeah dude yeah, its going to crush.

my opinion on the case is stupid because i think looks have a small part in the purchase. if you want an aesthetically pleasing case you typically spend about 50 more bucks than you need to. i have only heard good things about the cool master case because its a solid buy. however, you wont hear anything bad about a case thats 50 bucks more and has better airflow. in my opinion you might want to look at a case with better airflow if you will have the 4870 or 4870x2. i mean both with crush, but the x2 will crush harder.

 

[estebantrueba]

well, I'm actually thinking that the antec 900 is going to be a better deal. You'd have to put an extra $20 worth of fans in the CM to get the same airflow, plus I saw somewhere on this forum that newegg was dropping the antec to around $70.

But oddly enough, I like the looks of the CM more, its nice and simple.

. . . tough choices

Do you have any info on the diamond card? I'm sure it's probably not a lot different in performance than the other manufacturer's cards. But something tells me its almost $100 less for a reason.

 

[jkool55]

ok here is my deal with the 4870x2 cards. for about an entire 2 months i have tried to convince myself that i dont need the 4870x2 card. and really, i dont need it, i just want it. but every time i convince myself to get a dif. card, i always end up going back to the 4870x2. i have read a ton about the card. actually this site did a good review (very long) about 4 of the 4870x2 cards.

here is what i have gathered from researching the card. all 4870x2 cards are the same spec wise. any differences that you see on newegg are like the companies listing the core clocks for like a single core, versus double or them like quadrupling the clock speed due to the way the card is. an exception is if the card is factory overclocked (i only think diamond offers an overclocked card outta the box). anyways, that being said, all the cards are the same. and i truly believe that the diamond is going to be just as good as all the other cards.

now what is different is company support and what comes in the box. i read that sapphire offers the best packaged deal because you get the most software and cables and stuff. however, i mean assuming diamond isn't shady with the rebate, i think this card will perform just as good as the sapphire.

now i guess it would be good to look at the article yourself, however diamond is not one of the cards compared too. dont get me wrong though, there are differences in performance by all the cards. but it seems like the variability is relatively small, and very hard to reproduce consistent benches with the different cards.

i dunno, anyone else have an opinion? i think the 4870x2 diamond is a good deal.

 

[jkool55]

eh dude i dunno, i have been reading up on the heat issues. there are definitely heat issues with the cards. and it seems different cards have different issues with the fan profiles. sapphire got a good rating for having cooler temps. this might be something we look into before choosing a company. ill try to research more about diamond. however, there is always the option of using rivatunner to manually adjust fan speeds.

 

[estebantrueba]

yeah, I saw that article. when they were all oc'ed equivalently, the performance differences were pretty much undetectable.

They did however mention that the software and peripheral stuff was pretty awful on some of the cards. But if you look at the reviews on the diamond card on new egg, this doesn't seem to be a big problem. Mostly people just complain about the catalyst driver (which is a problem across the board) and about how they have a psu with the wrong connectors . . . whatever. For the majority of people, they just plot it in and get going.

I'm going to go with you that the Diamonds probably fine. But for something that's $500 out of pocket, you gotta be a little skeptical

 

[estebantrueba]

thats a good point, but imo, manually adjusting the fan is a small price to pay for a $90 price difference. And from what I can tell, with the exception of the oc'ed models these are all pretty much the exact same card with a different sticker slapped on the side. So there'll at least be a large knowledge base on how to get this things to work.