My First Build - i7

Oh and I forgot to add some of the important facts:

1. Buying somewhere within the next 2 months.

2. I dont need a keyboard, mouse, monitor (want a new one though), speakers.

3. I prefer to buy from newegg and microcenter.com or trusted websites.

4. I prefer Intel and NVIDIA.

5. I would love to overclock a good amount but not too much.


I just thought these would be important facts (from the how to ask for new build advice thread...)

For a HDD I would like to spend roughly $100 maybe a little more. So your saying the Velocirator for the os(s) and then a large one for files and stuff? Thats sounds good but 2 HDD could make it a little pricey.

Ok good HDD find!

Im not sure, the Tempest is a clone of the Antec 900 and the Tempest is a little bigger.

Could you explain why?

OK the 650 is fine but I may want to add more HDDs and mabey another graphics card in the futre, is the 650 still sufficient?

Ok so 750 Watt it is I guess.

Yeah I know, its free on Noctua's website.


Also, is the GTX260 Core 216 a good enough graphics card to run games like CoD:Waw on a small monitor with good fps?

If not, can anyone suggest any better options? (superclocked edition?)

Ok cool. I would be playing more then WaW but that would probebly be the most played game.

Also, would the 750 PSUs mentioned be compatible with the GTX260 Core 216? Also, is the Superclocked edition of the 260 worth it? Or can I just overclock myself?

Ok so I think your saying get the GTX 260 Core 216 then overclock myself?

By small monitor I mean like a 19" 4:3 flatscreen monitor. However, I do have a 26" 16:9 HDTV right near me, and I noticed that the GTX 260 has an S-video out and some even have the s-vid to component adaptor. Could I use my TV as a monitor?

I was about to make this exact same post. I am buildinga PC for the 1st time. My current machine is 10 years old and such a dinosaur. I tried to rebuild it with XP pro {currently XP home} and failed miserably. The I just could not get all the componets installed and working properly with current drivers. So I have decided to build the ultimate machine.
I am h-bent on the Asus P6T, but reading reviews I have become a little weary. Now there are three or four versions of the p6t and little or no explaination about the differences. {P6t, p6t deluxe, p6t deluxe with oc palm, p6t WS Pro, and p6t Deluxe v2} So now I am getting nervous because of my failure to rebuild my dinosaur system.
I want to start off with the right mobo, basically decided I have no need for an OC palm. If anybody has some info on difference on the other configs that would be appreciated.
I am also getting a WD Raptor for the O/S {currently thinking Vista Ult 64, but have my reservations on that as well. Thinking of building Xp pro and waiting for windows 7} i also have a WD 500GB EIDE drive from the failed dinosaur rebuild. Was going to use that for file storage.
If anyone has experience using an IDE drive on the P6t, am I going to have problems. Money isn't so tight that i won't buy a SATA for data storage, but hate to waste a 500GB harddrive.
Any thoughts on the mobo selection along with builder wanrings would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

If you want a fast drive for the os then get an ocz solid state, 30 or 60GB, your choice. They're both cheaper than the velociraptor and quicker.

Having more 12v rails allows you to balance things out manually yea, more around for oc'ing for gaming as of what i've heard, which seems better for gaming, as proximons guide says.

Single railing would send power out any where at any limit. 3-4 railing would limit each main unit, but, its not bad to have single railing.

the 620w modular you chose has 3 12v rails at 18a.(amperage).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817371010
heres an antec, modular, slightly higher amperage at 650w and cheaper.

Ok so more rails would be good?

My main concern is which modular psu should I get for my rig that would power all my stuff with the right amperage and leave room for more HDD's and another GPU.

Can anyone post links to some PSUs that fit these requirements and that are reliable and good?

I'd suggest this one if you want to be able to use 2 GPU's in the future, If not then you can get the 520hx for modular PSU's. I personally don't think modular PSU's are worth the price over a regular PSU, I would just get the regular one and zip tie up your extra cables.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817151031
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] &Tpk=520hx

Yeah, I guess it would be better to save some money and just zip-tie the extras (and how many could there be except the floppy drives).

So would you guys say that the 650/750tx psus would be good enough? Which one?



Also, I was wondering what Processor Coolers would fit in my case? I saw a video on youtube of a guy putting the Noctua I picked out into an Antec 300 which is 8.1" Wide and my Tempest is 8.3" Wide. The Noctua is 158mm High (6inches?). Would It fit? Also, if the noctua fits, wouls the thermalright ultra 120 that everyone says is the best for i7 fit at 160mm?

if the noctua fits, would the V8?

Wicked cooler, hah, thats niceee. Only looked at the V8, I thought it was pretty neat but, that one is wicked.

I don't know where the side panel fan is located, but its not that big of an issue because ideally you side panel fan will be an intake fan, fans at the back and top of your PC will be exhaust fans, so you should aim the fan of your heatsink at your exhaust fans so that the hot air coming off the heatsink is directed straight out of the case.

The TRUE is still the best out there I think, however they all perform admirably and different reviews will place one over the other. My feel of it though is that the TRUE is still king.

UPDATE: OK well these quotes from reviews of the case on NewEgg unofficially confirms what you guys said:

"This case has a lot of room. My Thermalright Ultra 120 extreme and GTX 280 fit with no problem. I can still access the hard drive cage opposite the video card (if you do this make sure you install the HD's first). I thought that it would be noisier with five fans but it's not."

AND

"Was able to fit the Cooler Master V8 on my EVGA x58 MB and still able to close side panel without removing side fan (barely). Fits GTX 280 video card with room to spare."

Tells me that since a TRUE or V8 will fit almost anything (V10 looking at you) will. Also big video cards are nice.

So now that I know lots of stuff can fit, Il have no prob getting a TRUE if it really is worth it getting for someone who wont overclock MASSIVELY. Like a little but nothing extreme. Ill get it if I really need it/should get it.

Well what would you consider a high enough overclock for the Noctua or TRUE sufficient? 4.0? From the reviews on newegg, people say that while the dark knight is a good cooler its not too good on the i7.

I would love to overclock higher, but I dont want an unstable system and I dont want to limit the life of my processor by very much. If you could point me to a good guide on overclocking the 920 on an EVGA x58 or ASUS P6T (Btw: does either of those boards have a big advantage other the other, i like evgas c/s) I may be inclined to overclock higher.

Thanks for that article. The only thing is it dosent really explain how to do it. Ive never OC'ed before and need to learn the basics. However, with the utility's that come with the EVGA and ASUS boards, it seems to make overclocking easy.

Which board would you suggest for me, someone who would have max 2 GPUS and has a few PCI cards? I like the EVGA but Im not sure yet. I would also like to overclock the cpu to around 3.5 if I learn to do it well or its easy enough. Could I just run a utility like the EVGA precision one and it would really just overclock to a certain speed?



PS: Someone mentioned that the ram timing were too slow, would these be better: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231230

Wait, I can tighten the timings by overclocking? Awesome!

So should I get the red ones or the blue ones (ram-g.skill)

Ok so what motherboard would you suggest?

I posted some things I plan to do above (pci cards ect).

Overclocking the i7 is pretty easy. Here is how you do it on ASUS boards:

Go to BIOS menu and go to the AI Tweaker tab. There will be an option for auto, manual, and a high performance ram setting. Set it to manual. At this point you can adjust all your voltages and clock frequencies. The P6T Deluxe V2 has drop down menus I believe, mine is the P6T and I had to enter my values manually. To get the frequency you want for your CPU; you must find out what BCLK you need. BCLKxCPU multiplier (20) =CPU frequency. So my settings are at 175x20. I got my i7 stable at 3.5ghz by changing voltage to 1.272 on the cpu, 1.64v on the ram, 1.3v uncore, and 1.9v QPI (I think, but that one could be wrong...its been a while since I did this.) and left the rest of my settings on auto. Disable speed step and virtualization tech. Ram frequency I chose 8x multiplier because my ram wouldn't run stable at 10x (1758mhz) under the 1.65v spec from intel. Then go set DRAM Timing Control or DRAM Clocks or something like that and changed timings.

Solid as a rock.

The Deluxe V2 may not need voltages as high as I used since it has a better power management design and is made to overclock better, so play around with it until you find the lowest voltages you need to run stable.

I REALLY like this ram's specs/price, but I haven't read any reviews: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231247

Correct.

I dont see anything to watch.

Oh ok thats the link. Yeah that video was very helpful! Thanks!


Ok so I guess were back to which cooler? I think Im gonna want eaither the TRUE or the Ncotua so I have room for overclocks.