Seeking advice for new i7 Core Gaming Rig

[SpeedMax]

Hi Guys,

I'm new to the forums and hope i'll find answers in your excellent forum.

Well i'm about to build my first Gaming Rig, i'm putting a budget of around $2600...ya call me insane

it's my 1st rig so it has to be daaaaamn good

Anyways, I live in the Kingdom of Bahrain, it's in the persian gulf, if u don't know where is that have a look here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahrain

My 1st concern is the case...Locally i've been able to find the Thermaltake Armor Plus the full tower silver aluminum one (VH6000SWA) and also I've found at another shop the great Antec 1200 !!!!!

I'm concerned a little bit about the noise in the Antec 1200, i've heard it's a bit noisy with stock fans..is it that bad?? I'm gonna keep my rig on 24/7 so I don't wanna come back from work and find a Boeing engine on like what's happening in my current Acer Aspire E700

As for the processor i'm gonna go for the Core i7 965 Extreme Quad Core Nehalem 3.2 GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8 MB L3 Cache Processor and either the Asus P6T Deluxe Mobo or the Asus Rampage II Extreme, although I might not overclock since I haven't tried it before, but who knows I might go for it and become and expert in overclocking

And btw, i'm not going for liquid cooling at the moment, let me try air cooled 1st then later on I could check that.

Sorry for making this soooooooooo long as this is my 1st serious custom built Rig and of course you know what that means.

Thanks in advance.

 

[foolycooly]

If you have that large of a budget and are going with that processor it would be a sin to not have a water-cooled system.

 

[forouza1]

I'd ditch the 965 and pickup a 920 with a good air cooling setup (look at the TRUE...Check here: http://icrontic.com/articles/true120_black)

I would then overclock the 920 with that P6T Rampage board to 3.99Ghz which will beat the stock 965 without a problem.

Then take the $700 or so you save and invest in a Triple SLI board.

Now that is the way to go!!!

 

[Proximon]

I know Bahrain well from an archaeology book about the ancient graveyards there, that I read as a kid.... Well, undoubtedly it's changed, I was a kid a very long time ago

You really should not go with the 965. It's just not worth the price. The only i7 you'll see in builds here is the 920. The difference in performance is small and the cost difference large. Cost is 350% of the 920 for performance that is perhaps 5% better.

You'll see a good general guide in my signature (also stickied here in this forum) and you'll also see a parts list linked in my sig. It's newegg of course for the US, but the parts are still the ones you want.

You can just replace the stock fans in the Antec case.

 

[forouza1]

Overclocking on the Asus X58 boards is so easy. Go into Bios, change the AiTweaker settings to Manual. Change the BLCK to 190 to give you an overall frequency of 3.99 (w/ Turbo). Leave everything else on Auto. That's all.

Make sure to get some good 1600 DDR3 ram. Doubt you'll need any better.

 

[xthekidx]

Go with 920 and get the TRUE (thermalright ultra extreme 120) or coolermaster v8 heatsinks, you should be able to oc very high, I have seen some in excess of 3.8ghz with both. you will need a well cooled case and since you don't want to liquid cool, you should consider the HAF 932, although antec 1200 and thermaltake armour are also decent cases.

 

[SpeedMax]

Wooooooooooooah !!! Thanks alot for the v.quick and fast replies, I expected that from such a great forum, unfortunately i'm at work now so I can't read all of ur replies, will be back in about 4 hours from now and will be reading ur replies carefully. So see ya in 4 hours time..thanks again peeps.

 

[SpeedMax]

Ok I'm back and i've just read all of your replies.

Now regarding the processor, I'm gonna go as you guys suggested with the Core i7 920 and the Asus Rampage II Extreme Mobo or the P6T Deluxe, a local store here has the P6T Deluxe OC Palm edition, is it worth it or just go for the Extreme??

As for water cooling I'm not sure about it yet..I wanna try air cooled first if all went well then no need for liquid cooling,maybe later on. If I need liquid cooling then i'll do it no doubt..

I'm gonna go and buy the case, mobo and processor today

so out of those three cases which one do u rate as number one,and which one has less noise?, of course if I need to change stock fans i'll do so..

Antec 1200
Coolermaster HAF 932
Thermaltake Armor+ VH6000SWA

Plz give me a recommendation ASAP

========================

For RAM, Do you recommend these Corsairs??

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145224

 

[SpeedMax]

I'd ditch the 965 and pickup a 920 with a good air cooling setup (look at the TRUE...Check here: http://icrontic.com/articles/true120_black)

!

This heatsink seems like a Socket 775 from what i've read...does it support socket 1366??

 

[SpeedMax]

Guys I came up with an Initial Configuration..tell me what u think

Case: Antec 1200
CPU: Intel Core i7 920
Mobo:Asus Rampage II Extreme
Memory: Corsair Dominator 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC312800)
Graphics Card: EVGA GTX 295 or 2xGTX 280 (SLI)
HDD: 2xWD Velociraptor 10,000 RPM 300GB
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme 1366 RTU
PSU: Corsair HX1000W

Does it sound good???

 

[forouza1]

Looks good!!!

Now go buy the parts, build it, and post the pics for us to drool over.

 

[forouza1]

This heatsink seems like a Socket 775 from what i've read...does it support socket 1366??

You can buy the original TRUE and I believe there is a mounting kit available that is compatible with the 1366.

 

[xthekidx]

Unless you plan on going sli, you don't need that 1000w psu. I would just stick with one gtx 295 and get 750tx psu from corsair. One gtx 295 will probably be a better buy than 2 gtx 280's; you will save money, it will be quieter, and you won't have a 2-for-one deal computer/space heater

 

[xthekidx]

a local store here has the P6T Deluxe OC Palm edition, is it worth it or just go for the Extreme??

For RAM, Do you recommend these Corsairs??

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145224

Don't just buy what is offered at a local store, items are going to be marked up. If you find a good deal there then fine, but look around first, you will save a ton of money.

For ram I suggest these, very good timings for 1600mhz and not the most expensive kit around:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231238

 

[SpeedMax]

Yo Yo Yo...i'm back

Guess what..I bought the lovely Antec 1200...it's awesome. I also got the i7 920 CPU, as for the mobo i'm still confused whether i should get the EVGA X58 x3 SLI, Asus P6T Deluxe, or Rampage II Extreme

=================

forouza1

Regarding the CPU Cooler..i have decided to get the Zalman 9700 LED with the 1366 Bracket from Zalman made specially for it, i've heard it's one hell of an awesome cpu cooler.

xthekidx

I was actually gonna go for SLI with GTX 280's but since the GTX 295 is out now, i'll delay SLI for the moment but anyways I might SLI with 295's later on then..lol so I probably might need the 1000W for those hungry monsters.

I didn't get what you mean by items are going to be marked up?? do you mean prices will be high?

Regarding the G.Skill Sticks you suggested i'm gonna search for them and let you know.

===========================

Once again thanks alot for your comments and suggestions, very much appreciated

 

[xthekidx]

I mean if you buy from a store you have to pay for the cost of transportation for those items to get to the store. buying from an online retailer cuts out the middle-man and you will save money, so yes prices will be higher if you buy from a local store rather than online...usually. However, if you are interested in supporting your local computer hardware store, then by all means buy away.

Also, since the gtx 295 uses 2 gt200 processors, you will not get the same amount of performance benefit from 2 of them as you would getting 2 gpu's with only 1 graphics processor (such as gtx 280) due to scaling; something to think about.

 

[xthekidx]

I just read an article from overclockers club and they found that 1 gtx 295 was roughly equal to 2 gtx 260-216's in sli, the gtx 295 got maybe 1-2% more fps (like 119 vs 118 @ 1920x1200 in COD world at war @ max settings)

So 2 gtx 280's in sli will probably give you more performance, but again consider cost and power consumption and HEAT in your room with these beasts. I personally would just go with 1 card.

In any case if you are considering sli with any of these cards then def go with 1000w psu. The gtx 295 has a max power draw of 289watts.

 

[xthekidx]

this is the best ddr3-1600 memory I have seen out there at 7-8-7-20 timings, however a bit pricey
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226030

 

[xthekidx]

So what resolutions are you going to be playing at? Do you have a monitor yet? I ask because a gtx 280 (or a gtx 260 216 for that matter) will probably max out any game to come out in the next year if you are playing at 1440x900, and anything more is just tossing your money away. if you have a monitor or plan to get one that runs at 1920x1200 or more though, then you will want a more powerful graphics configuration.

 

[sharken]

Go with the Asus P6t deluxe, the OC palm is useless dont bother with it, your setup is same as what i got, 920@3.8 easy, Asus p6t Deluxe, Thermalright ultra 120 extreme, Corsair Dominator 1600mhz, its Bada$$.
all the i7 chips are the same, just clocked differently, the 965 has unlocked multi but doesnt mean Jack Squat, same specs all dhips, identical, thats why you get the 920. If had your budget would get the 295 also, big psu. am using the antec 900 here, does have alot of fans and noise is up there but doesnt bother me, hope this Helps, Shark

 

[kelfen]

this is the best ddr3-1600 memory I have seen out there at 7-8-7-20 timings, however a bit pricey
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226030

+1 mushkin

 

[cal8949]

for the price of 2 velociraptors you could just get 2 ssd 128gb drives run them in raid the get a 1 terabyte hd for 100 more. that will get you almost twice the performance
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231221

 

[forouza1]

Hey SpeedMax, where in Bahrain do you buy computer components? Do you have a Fry's? (just kidding). Post a pic of the computer store if you can. I'd love to see how they do it down in the heat.

 

[forouza1]

Nice. Your system will look very similar to mine.

You can check out my blog on the build.

http://radiologygeek.wordpress.com

 

[Akebono 98]

+1 to xthekidx on the Mushkin RAM.

Something occurred to me while reading this post--I'm sure that you will have your aircon cranked up to the max over in Bahrain, but when you go to overclock don't forget that ambient temperature plays a big role in your ultimate speed.

If you've got a high OC set up under 20 degree Celsius A/C, then don't ever run that in your room without aircon, as you may be liable to blow the whole thing up.