i7 Build and Questions/criticism

Here is my i7 build, I have questions listed under each part =]

DVD Drive: LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827136153
Question 1: Is samsung a better company? I found this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827151173

Case: Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129043
Question 2: Is the 1200 worth getting over the 900? Would another brand of case be more suitable. I want my components to run cool.

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6832116488
Question 3: Home premium should suffice, right? dont need ultimate...


Question 4: As for my video card, I was going to splurdge and get the ATI HD 4870 X2 but i'm starting to think I don't really need it right now. Do I really want to spend 500 bucks on something that will be not worth 500 bucks in 10 months? I don't need to best card on the market, I can go for the second best for now and sell it later. What card do you guys recommened, and nvidia or ati? Keep in mind I will be playing my games on a 37" Vizio 720p lcd tv. I do plan on eventually using crossfire or sli.


Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136319
Question 5: Is this a good choice for a hard drive? I wanted the 32 mb cache and a good size/speed hd for a cheap price, and this is what i found. Should I get a cheaper video card, and get the 300 gb velociraptor?

Mobo: ASUS P6T Deluxe LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131346
Question 6: Best i7 mobo to get? Asus, I've read, offers great overclocking options.


Memory: G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231223
Question 7: Should I spend the extra 20 bucks for the DDR3 1600? 1.5v is needed for the X58s right?


These have been finalized:
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115202


PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-1000HX 1000W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139007


I've already purchased the PSU for $175 off buy.com, it was too good of a deal to pass up.

Also, if you have any comments that don't have to do with my questions, please feel free to say them. Don't be scared to massacre my build =P

1. Well I purchased the 1000w with the intent of doing 4870 x2 crossfire in the future. It was only $175, so its a good investment for the future i suppose.

2. Will the image look bad on the tv, should I use my crt instead until i can afford a good lcd? Would the Radeon 4850 suffice or should I go for an nvidia 260 or 9800 gt (or other)?

3. What exactly is RAID and bottlenecking? Would the 300 gb velociraptor prevent that from happening?

4. I'm pretty sure they do, except the printer maybe. But I don't plan on printing from this pc anyway.

5. Yes, I do plan to OC in the future.

Yeah, you definitely don't need a 4870x2 with your monitor. It's a low resolution and you shouldn't need anything more than a 4850 or a 9800gt/gtx260 depending on your preference.

Shadow suggested you dump the 1k corsair psu but I feel that why not buy it when you know at some point in the next 3-5 years you will need the power, no reason to keep buying 750's every few years when you can go ahead and get what you'll need for a long time.

If you plan on overclocking I would go with the 1600 RAM, will give you more head room.

LG makes good drives, the one you picked out is actually the one I bought for my I7 build.

I personally went with EVGA x58, but I know a few people who prefer Asus over them, to each their own.

You suggested getting the 300g velociraptor and getting a less expensive GPU, i think this is very wise. A faster hard drive will give you great performance with the I7, I think a lot of people will see bottlenecking with slower HDD's now that the I7's are coming out.

I agree it saves money sometimes, but the 175 buy.com deal he got is amazing and that psu will last him ages.

Q1) I have Samsung. I like it primarily because it is quieter than my previous plextor.
Q2) Antec 1200 is a great case; better than the 900 which is also good. You do not have a need for lots of space, though. Another good smaller case that would cool equally well is the Antec 300. It's cheaper, but no "bling"
Q3) There is not much you might want from ultimate. Home premium is good. Go to the vista web site for a side by side listing of features. You can always choose to upgrade online after you are installed.
Q4) This is a high end rig, so go with a high end card. I think the 4870 or GTX260 are more reasonable now, and will run anything well. If in doubt, consider a EVGA GTX260 so you can "step-up" if you want something better within 90 days.
If you ever need a massive jump in vga power, you can add a second card.

Hard drive: Use a 300gb velociraptor first for OS and fast stuff. It is definitely faster, and you can feel it. Add a slower larger drive later for expansion . Don't fool with raid. It is messier and not usually worth it, except for certain situations.

P6T is very good, I had no problems. See my configuration for my other parts. My second choice was evga, or gigabyte.

For $20 get 6gb 1600 ram. I am not certain that the speed will make that much difference. I7 wants to run at 1.5v, 1.65v max.

It was trivially easy to overclock to 3.33, just by upping the BCLK from 133 to 160. The automatic ram adjustments kept it at 1.5v

Get a 1366 cpu cooler. Noctua and thermalright now sell them. Thermalright also sells a 1366 mounting kit for their other earlier coolers. I used one with a thermalright ultra 120 extreme.

---good luck---

If you later want to buy a 1080p screen that you should consider for now a single GTX260 or a 4870 1GB and then add another with the new screen. So its best to buy a PSU with that in mind (750W+) the one you already have should do it
That case rocks..very good airflow!

golden_inferno, I found the i7 920 for 294.50 free shipping, no tax, 4 games on zipzoomfly.com

Which ram should i get in the 1600 speed. They are all 1.6-1.65 volt. is that ok To pair with the Asus or EVGA mobo? I see a combo deal with Corsair ram and Asus mobo, would that be good? Also I found a deal with them Antec 1200 and EVGA 260GTX superclocked edition.

What should I do about CPU cooling...will the stock fan be adequate until I start OCing?

The 1600 1.65v ram will have a couple of jedc settings at 1.5v for 1066 and 1333. That is so you can boot to bios and change settings to 1.65v and 1600 speeds. I bought the Patriot 1600 ram, primarily because it was one of the few that were available to the early adopter. I looked for USA support as the decision maker. Newegg reviews have some negative patriot reviews, primarily from non-newegg purchasers. What I liked was that Patriot responded to each of them with offers of assistance. If it had been available, I would have bought from Corsair, another USA company with I have had good support experience in the past.

As to the value of speed, I am uncertain how much faster speed is worth. Mine defaulted to 1333 and 1.5v when overclocking the CPU. Performance meets all my expectations. I see no negative to 1600 ram, which is just slower ram with good binning that CAN be pushed higher than 1066 or 1333. To my mind, 6gb is worth much more than 4gb, regardless of speed.

I know patriot tests the ram with Asus and gigabyte boards. I expect that corsair does also.

In my opinion, absolutely not.
There is generally no real world(vs. synthetic transfer rate benchmarks) performance advantage to raid of any kind.
Go to www.storagereview.com at this link: http://faq.storagereview.com/tiki- [...] iveVsRaid0
There are some specific applications that will benefit, but
gaming is not one of them. Even if you have an application which reads one input file sequentially, and writes
it out, you will perform about as well by putting the input on one drive, and the output on the other.

Go to the performance database at that site. Look at the benchmarks for their officedrivemark tests. That is what most closely resembles what a single user does. You will see that the velociraptor is faster than anything tested except a Mtron SSD. That includes 15k SAS server drives.

Good to see you finally got it done, enjoy it.

What do you guys think about this for my build?

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/ [...] d=89DiKXq5

I want a sweet cooler for my i7, the Coolermaster v8 won't fit in my Antec 1200 without removing the side fan, which i want left on it.
Which 120mm fans should I purchase with it?

^ Correct.

Imo, seriously look in to water cooling for that rig.

Water cooling on the I7 is kind of a waste, you can hit 4.2-4.5 with a good air cooler.

Check the evga forums, it's almost too simple to hit 4.0 with the 920

What's the best CPU cooler for my i7?
I've heard TRUE is best.