I7 build shopping list w/ pics

[Glacyus]

I have not built a system since my first, which is a P4 2.66. I am shooting for an audio/video with medium intensity gaming rig.

I do plan to purchase a BD-ROM at some point, but will continue to use an older optical drive until then. Similarly, I will continue using a 1 yr. old 19" LCD.
Missing in the pictures is a 1T Hitachi 7K1000.B hard drive, which retails for about $80.
Accounting for the hard drive, and after rebates, I am pleased to see the price tag amount to $1,040.

Any suggestions, recommendations, and input are invited and welcomed.

 

[n3f0ur]

You def. need an optical drive right away cuz your windows can't be installed any other way. I did make a usb install stick for xp successfully, but not sure about Vista. If you hold off on the optical drive, your parts depreciate in prices.

Another thing is you're watching HD videos on monitor and that 19" is gonna have 2 black bars at top & bottom. Making the actual picture even smaller.

Your list looks like you're builing a gaming/video rig. I'd downgrade i7 to P45 + E8400/Q6600 & LCD 1080 23"+. The end result will be a more enjoyable experience.

 

[Glacyus]

Thanks for the reply. As far as the optical drives, I have a CDRW and a DVD drive I can cannibalize.

Are you saying my monitor is going to have black bars because of its 16:10 aspect ratio? I've found quite a few games so far that supported 1440X900. I do suppose HD movies are going to suffer a little bit. Would the resizing of 720p and 1080p movies to my resolution induce problems? I've so far watched movies on a cheap 720p TV from best buy.
I was never a nut about huge displays, I feel a 19" is a bit more intimate.

I debated between i7, E, and Q processors. Initially, I was sold on the dual core solution, as it saved me a good amount of money and used up less wattage. The reason I chose the i7 was future upgradability. Is that a fair assessment, or is the price/performance difference not warranting it?

Thank you again.

 

[n3f0ur]

Only videos will have black bars at top & bottom any non-16:9 resolution. No exception. Some programs may stretch the picture to fit the screen, but they're few & far between.

For games, they run at any resolution.

i7 is the premium platform. For the majority of us, it's i5 which is pushed back to Oct. Both i7 & i5 will be a bit more future-proof than lga775.

There's a huge debate about who had more sockets/chipsets. In a nutshell, Intel switches chipsets too often whereas AMD does sockets too often. I know LGA775 has been around for age, BUUUUT you need newer chipsets to support newer cpus. i.e. 45nm Yorkfield can't run on old chipsets in the same 775 socket. AMD has like 754, 939, 940, AM2, AM2+ & AM3 sockets.

So who is to say Intel won't release a new chipset for future i7 cpus? Effectively forcing you to upgrade the mobo again. How many chipsets has Intel made for LGA775? I lost count.

Again, you're not upgrading IMO cuz you're using the same small 19 incher. You won't notice much of an improvement in games unless you have an ancient pc. What's your current pc?

 

[Glacyus]

Heh, ancient PC it is. I've had it 5-6 years I believe, and it still runs some newer games like King's Bounty fairly well.
P4 2.66, 1gig PC2700, 6600GT.

I have read more and I now think it's indeed better to go with an E8400 or E8500 for my needs.

I do have a question though. If I were to upgrade an E8xxx to ~4.0ghz what memory would have a better chance to run at higher clock speeds with decent timings? A proven set of slower, tighter timed memory like G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500), or something faster but with a latency of 9-9-9-28 like OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000)?

Price is not so much an issue, as the PC3 16000 comes out to about $50 also with a combo like
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.184160]

 

[n3f0ur]

Then you'll see a HUGE improvement in i7 over the old pc. From multitasking, decompressing files to gaming. That game isn't very gfx intensive. I gave it up cuz the enemies always overpowered me twice, 3-times to 10 times.

It looks like you're one of those buy-a-pc-then-upgrade-the-whole-thing. If that's the case, you can still get by with E8400. It's still the king of gaming chips since most games are single-core. If you play other games like strategy like Supreme Commander, etc., you may benefit from a quad core cpu like Q6600-Q9550. The Q9550 is dropping in price fast due to higher demand and after a price cut.

Think about the future. If you keep the new pc for a few years, a quad core is necessary.

One of the reviews shows there's very little gain from going to PC3-16000. The best bang is DDR3-1333MHZ & DDR2-800MHZ. You don't need super fast ram unless you overclock the cpu. You won't be able to make use of the extra speed unless you change ram settings in bios.