New Mid-High Range gaming / general purpose rig (Core i7 920)

seneca

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Mar 25, 2009
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Hey All,
I'm about to build a machine and I wanted to get some opinions on it. This is probably the most "cutting edge" PC I've ever built and I'm constantly perplexed by all of the articles/comments/Newegg reviews I've read. I never know what's right and whats wrong. Especially when you read a couple bad reviews on NewEgg, a product can seem like the worst thing in the world. And I know there's a lot of smart people on here that could give me some feedback. So here it is:

PROCESSOR
Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920

MOTHERBOARD
ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

GRAPHICS CARD
GIGABYTE GV-N295-18I-B GeForce GTX 295 1792MB 896 (448 x 2)-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

POWER SUPPLY
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

MEMORY
CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1333C9 - Retail

HARD DRIVE
Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10000 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s Hard Drive

OS
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit

CASE
Antec Three Hundred

I want to use this as a pretty serious gaming machine but I will also be doing development on it so I will be doing other processor intensive tasks other than gaming. I would like to attempt to overclock with the heat sink that comes with the processor. Do I need a special mounting kit or anything? Will heat and ventilation be a concern here with a 750W power supply and a GTX 295 if I want to attempt to overclock a Core i7 to 3.5 - 3.7Ghz ?

I've heard a good bit about the Antec Three Hundred being a good/low price standard case. I wish it had those auto mounting encasings for bay drives though. Can this case support that, are they sold separately? I've never ventured there before.

I'm already overspending. With the OS I'm at about $1550 w/o shipping.

I will be playing games at 1920x1200 and am wondering if this setup would be able to handle Crysis with highest possible settings.

If anyone has any recommendations on things that might make this setup more stable, or any red flags. Please let me know.

Thanks
 

battlemarz

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Oct 13, 2008
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Two things I noticed right off the bat.

Hard Drive: If you are going to get a 10k rpm drive, then get a VelociRaptor a WD Caviar black will be faster then the old raptors.

Case: The GTX295 isn't the smallest card ever, you may want to consider a larger case then the Three Hundred, or you may have to lose some of the hard drive bays.

Also, if you want to overclock to 3.7, you should really get an aftermarket cooler. You could probably do 3.0 with stock intel, but clocks that high really require something aftermarket. Take a look at this article for a roundup of most of the good i7 coolers.
 
You can expect to get something similar to this:
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http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTYwOCw0LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

Unless you already have a 74GB WD Raptor and are looking to run RAID0 with 2 battlemarz's suggestion about getting the 640GB WD Caviar Black is the better way to go.
 
Here's a way to save some money and still have a decent gaming rig not to mention we can improve on that ram.

This build is set up for SLI. You get one card now, and when you get more money add another card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.176939 <---- great combo deal on case and psu. That case has plenty of room for SLI not to mention it has great cooling/airflow.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128386 <---- this board runs SLI and Crossfire. It's fairly new to the market and it's on the cheap right now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231247 <---better memory than what you have in your build, and it's only $100 + free shipping.

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=I7-920 <---same cpu yet it's cheaper (oem).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029 <--- with the money you saved on the cpu, it puts this heatsink at $5 when you do the math. This Xigmatek scores high for cooling, and it comes with the bracket for the X58 mobo.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186020 <--- don't do a build without thermal compound. This MX-2 is non conductive and it has no set up time.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319 <--- this HD is plenty fast. Your not going to lose out much if any at all with this HD. If you feel the need, you can always pick up a second one later down the road and run them at Raid 0.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125255 <--- This card rocks. Two of these in SLI will blow away that 295 and then some. Google the reviews/benchmarks/test on it. Get one now, and add a second card when you can afford it.


Ok, now add it up and see what you saved. Better ram, a heatsink for almost free, and the option to add another vid card later on.
 

fullmetall

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Jan 7, 2009
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Well, theres no OS or DVD-r burner in your rig there why_me... your rig is about $1260 + 100(64bit OS) + $25 dvd-r burner

So its about $150 cheaper than what he built.

If your a serious gamer, you can always get the GTX 260, which will still play all games now and then save up for SLI later as you see, it is better than the 2 high-end cards by a small bit.

Hopefully that 640gb black wd comes back on the shelfs soon.

I would try to stick with the board why_me chose or the Asus P6T V2 + a GTX 260 and sli later.

 

seneca

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Mar 25, 2009
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Thanks everyone for your replies.

Why_Me: I like a lot of your recommendations. I think I might get that PSU & Case combo.

I feel like having a dual card setup might be a little much for me. And does that motherboard really allow enough room for two gigantic cards. That might add a little more noise I want. However a 850w PSU should be able to handle two of these right?

And do you have any experience overclocking with the heatsink you recommended?

WR2: I'm pretty surprised to see that the GTX295 and the 4870x2 have such close performance. In this case I may just have to go for the ATI as I feel like the drivers are probably a little better. However I like the idea of PhysX integration Nvidia has but apparently that doesn't help as much as you would think. I'll be visiting the website where you get those numbers.

I'll have to check out those heatsink reviews too. Looks like there's a lot of good information on there.

 


http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm <---- It's ranked #7 on that list. (Xigmatek)

A decent 750w will run two of those gtx 285's in SLI.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2009/01/16/nvidia-zotac-geforce-gtx-285-1gb/1 <--- gtx 295, gtx 285, 4870 x2, etc... are on there. The 4870 x2 gets waxed by the 295 probably 8 out of 10 times. Check out the power consumption and heat produced on those cards on that link also.