robertomad

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Hi, I'm planning to build my first system. At first, I thought my budget can handle a new rig but unfortunately, with the mortgage and stuff, I can't. Because of this I'm planning to buy each component month by month. Because I can only buy components during payday. Just to clear this up I'm no troll. I'm serious about this so please I need help. I'm planning to post my progress in YouTube. Because of this I will try to build my dream PC. I want the fastest (non Xeon) and non-OC PC. With the fast phase in Computing I want to know which one should I buy first and which one should I buy Last.

Can you please help me decide which component?

May - Monitor (my dell 15" monitor is f***ed so I need to prioritise this) HP LP2475W or Dell 2408WPF
June- Haf 932 Case and Corsair HX1000w (planning to do Quad SLI or Tri SLI in the Future)
July - Asus Rampage 2 Extreme (Cheapest among the best) or EVGA X58 Classified (Pricy) and Corsair Dominator 1600 MHz Memory (Any cheapest but fastest alternative?)
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Then now I'm confuse, I know i7-975 is coming in June but I think this one can wait. Thinking of getting i7-965 but it will be phased out when the new I7 comes out. About Graphics card, I heard that GTX 300 series is also coming so I'm stuck. I was thinking of GTX 295 but the new one might be out by then is it worth waiting it?

I know.. I know... why don't I get i7-920 instead. This will be a long project for me and I want it to be worth it when it's done. About the other components i.e. HDD and DVD-rom I will be getting it from my current PC. Probably try SSD if becomes cheaper.

Another thing is the cooler, I'm going to stick with the Stock fan, do you think having HAF 932 will add to the cooling? I'm thinking of changing it down the line probably 2-3 years when I feel I want to OC it. I had an eye on v8 but afraid it might damage the mobo. How risky is Water Cooling? Has anybody know anyone who's mobo was damage by heavy air cooling? I heard that 5 Ghz OC was done using Air on i7-975.

Many Thanks.
 
#1 Get your priorities straight. If you have a mortgage to pay and other necessities, and don't have the disposable income to blow on a highend system, DON'T. Save your money for a reasonable system. There is alot of value in overclocking, no one builds a highend PC withouth OCing, except Dell, and other OEM's.

#2 Components change in price all the time. The monitor would be fine, because you can use it now, but everything else, just save your money until you can buy it at once. You save money on shipping and could get possible combo deals. It just makes more sense.

#3 You are looking at a highend system with worries of bills and such. You need a modest system. $1200-$1600 will get you a sweet i7 system. You pointed out you are getting a 24" lcd. A highend single card will run that thing just fine. Quad and Tri SLI are overrated and unless you are using the highest end parts on a 30" LCD you have no reason to do that.

#4 Get an i7 920 and OC the thing. It will easily hit the 3.2 GHz of the extreme chip for 1/4 the cost.

#5 Get a modest motherboard instead of the top end ASUS. For $130 less you can get the Asus P6T which will OC just as well. I have this and am at 4GHz easy.

#6 There is no need for 1000w of power. a good 750W will get you SLI or Crossfire with 2 cards. But then again I'd start with a single highend card. A good 550-600W will run most single card system perfectly fine.

#7 The V8 is a kick @ss cooler. It will not damage the motherboard because it has a back plate that distributes all of the pressure, just like all of the other large coolers. No worries. I've never heard of a cooler damaging a motherboard, only people who were trying to stick a square into a circle hole. (joke)

#8 listen to us!!!! If this is your first system, you have no business going high end. What happens if you do screw up. That's a $1000 intel extreme, WOOPS!
 

Kill@dor

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Coz the Rowe said so!!!

Get a 920 chip man...the 965 is pure overkill and you won't even notice the difference much when you OC between them. Sure the 965 is fast, but save your money man. You could even get a Core 2 Duo thats blazing... I still run an E6600 (for 3years now going to 4years) and i have had it OC'd the entire time...changed it from 3.0...3.2...3.5...3.6...and now down to 3.0 again. And my chip is a B2 but i guarantee its much faster than other Quads out there. I still run Crysis, UT3, Gears of War, GTA 4, Assassins Creed with a 8800GT for 40-50 even 60FPS on high settings with a lowest 33FPS in all games (especially on Gears/UT3) @ 1920x1080...I can post pics if you want proof LOL ^_^

Intel has a massive line of new chips coming out end of 09 to beginning 10. I'm actually waiting for new X58 mobos and the new 32nm chips with interegrated graphics...6cores and 12threads...dayum! The Westmere and Sandy Bridges chips are going to be sick!! I could build a Core i7 now if i wanted, but i'm waiting for them to go down in price a little...then i'll run a second system with the 920 (if necessary...working on starting a business right now)
 

robertomad

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Thank you for the quick reponse. As I have stated on my other question my current PC is 6 years old and honestly can't cope with some highend apps. My friend's PC has the highest specs. I think the highest it can be. And what he is saying is that people from forums only tell you to get 920 because they can't afford 965. I know this is harsh but Is this really the case? This might be an overrated question but is there any difference between an OC 920@3.2 vs Stock 965. I know you can adjust QPI and speed but I read some forums/articles that 920 will not be able to utilize 1600Mhz memory and can only use less than this. Is this true. I'm new to all this and I'm not really sure if all this is true but I read a lot of forums saying that the only difference between 920 and 965 is the multiplier which is fixed for 920. Is there any other difference that I've missed. Intel's website is not that informative.
 

robertomad

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Do you mean that even if 920 is OC to 3.2 965 will still be faster?
 

Helloworld_98

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well 965's are C0(not great) so OC to around 4.4ghz on a good air cooler, but the i7 920's are D0(because Intel only updates the lower end cpu's stepping). and D0 i7's can OC to 4.6ghz, some don't get that far like jay's but then if that was a C0 it would only hit 3.6-3.8ghz.

also you only need high speed memory if your using a program which can make use of tri-channel, even 1333mhz will do a good job in games and won't make much difference in oc'ing since HT or QPI is the new standard which means technically you could use DDR400 with current CPU's or even DDR266 if their IMC's could use DDR memory.
 

Kill@dor

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No, they will probably be the same...The difference in speed really comes from your QPI...and the 965 has a 6.4GTs...and the 920 has 4.8GTs. But you can OC a 920 to have 12GTs or more if you have the knowledge...its really not hard at all. Go on yahoo and type in Nehalem calculator...the software can show you how to overclock. Also, if you use a 250BCLK, 16X Multiplier Ratio, x48 QPI Multiplier which will give you 12GTs and 4GHz speed without much CPU voltage on well at least the Gigabyte board i tested...Asus is probably better with less voltage ^_^
 

robertomad

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Hi, This is not being rude but still don't know the answer to my question, which is faster 920 OC @3.2 with adjusted QPI 6.4 GT/s or 965 @ Stock. I'm thinking of using my PC for HD video conversion and 3d rendering and probably some games.
 

robertomad

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Coolermaster HAF 932 Case - Black (No PSU)
Intel Core i7 920 "D0 Stepping" 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail
ASUS GeForce GTX 295 1792MB GDDR3 Dual DVI HDMI PCI Express - Retail with PhysX, CUDA & 3D Stereo
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 32Mb Cache Hard Disk Drive SATAII 300MB/s <8.9ms 7200rpm - OEM
Hiper-M 880W Power Supply
Coolermaster V8 CPU Cooler (Socket 940/AM2/LGA775/LGA1366)
LG Blu-ray Rewriter GGW-H20L DVD-/+RW HD DVD ROM Black SATA - Retail
G.Skill PI "Silver Edition" 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Triple Channel Kit
Asus P6T Deluxe V2 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard

Is this any good?
 

robertomad

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What would you change with my rig? Will this be enough for Video conversion, Games, 3D Rendering?
 

Kill@dor

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The 965 will still OC higher than a 920 because of the multiplier...and the QPI can go a little higher than the 920. Even then...i bet if you hit 4.5GHz with the 965 your system will become unstable...you would probably have to go down to 4.4GHz or less... Either way...you just wasted hundreds of dollars for a chip that can't hit 5GHz...which in my honest opinion is a waste. The 920 can hit 4.3 with some voltage increase...even on air and be stable...anything above might hurt it a little unless you have some good cooling...

@ 4GHz you can out perform a stock or even OC'd 965... Most people who have the 965 leave it at the highest 4GHz...the normal speed most people use is 3.8GHz. And with that the 920 can still match it and render just as good...but a few seconds in redering behind...

You do the math...
 

Kill@dor

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Oh yea, for gaming...depending on the game too...most of them are GPU dependent. So getting the 4890's or GTX275's in SLI or Crossfire might be good for you. Even the HD4770's are good.
 

robertomad

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Is there any other NVIDIA you'll suggest whether SLI? Is GTX 285 any good? I never used ATI before. I need to be able to hookup my TV to my PC (multiview). I heard that ATI has a lot of issues in terms of drivers. I do a lot of Multi-tasking which I guess will be handled by CPU. I use 3DSMax, AutoCAD, Maya. And my firm is also planning to give us CS4 which I heard is resource extensive. In terms of hardware, I would be having 4-5 HDDs in the future. Currently I have 1 SATA and 2 IDE and planning to buy another SATA.
 

robertomad

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2 GTX 275 is more expensive than GTX 295. Is GTX 295 still the best choice if I will be doing Quad SLI in the future?
 

Helloworld_98

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^except there's two CF connectors on each card so trifire is possible.

and why nvidia? ATi GPU's are cheaper and the 4890 matches and sometimes beats the GTX 285, although it does lose in high fps races although those are 85fps vs 102fps where it doesn't matter unless you have a true 120hz display.
 


NOW THOSE specs look a little more down to earth. The GTX 295 is a GREAT card, but a GTX 285 will run pretty much anything you want to. The only think that stands out is the Hiper 880w power supply. I am not familar with Hiper so I can't really say anything. 880w is alot for a single card, and to tell you the truth I don't see you going quad SLI anyways on a 24" lcd. The only reason you would need it is if you were actually gaming on more than 1 monitor, or on a 30". And to be honest the only multi display setups that I'd look at are 3 LCD's running Tri SLI, one for each monitor. But there is ALOT of money involved in that type of setup. 24" with a single powerful card is the way to go. What I've done in the past is just sell off my current card after a year+ and use that money for the latest and greatest.

And just to comment, your buddy is an @ss. "My friend's PC has the highest specs. I think the highest it can be. And what he is saying is that people from forums only tell you to get 920 because they can't afford 965." I'd like to know what HIS specs are. I promise you they aren't the highest they can be, there is always someone out there with more. Plus his comment about "people from forums", only shows he doesn't below to a forum and only believes what goes on in his own little mind. Therefore, he is ALWAYS right, to himself. I would take anything he says with a grain of salt, because when it comes to technology, no one has all the answers, they is why there are tons of forums to share knowledge. I have a feeling he is wrong... ALOT. At least here you have dozens of people contributing and sharing in a friendly manor. You will get several answers to everything, but we usually agree on alot in the end once we discuss. And about his comment on we can't afford a 965... Yes, I can afford it and if I wanted it I would have bought it. But why would I waste my money on it? I can OC my 920 to 4GHz for 1/4 the cost. He sounds like a stuck up snot. Sorry for choppin away at your friend, but he sounds very stubborn and close minded.

Also, could you let us know what you intend to use your PC for. If you have a 6 year old PC, you aren't playing modern games, so are you intending to start? I don't want to sound like a punk, but are you just trying to 1 up your friend or impress him? If so... Don't. Unless you are getting good use out of your system, there is no scenes in going over the top. I really like the build you put together above, but maybe cut back on your video a little. the GTX295 is highend, under it would be the GTX285, then the GTX275 = HD4890. I'd stick with something in there because they are ALL highend cards. But if you are budget limited the 4870 is probably your best Value and still highend, the GTX260 is to. Both of which will play any modern game on high on a 24".


~Rowe
 

Kill@dor

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I bet he feels like a duche for buying a Core i7 965 (if he has one)...he can't even get it to post hight than 4.3GHz so he's trying to get you to buy it so he won't feel so bad. Dude!! Get a Core i7 920...and show him that you can hit 12GT's QPI with little effort ^_^ Even 9.6GT's will put a smile on your face with very low voltages...a frown on his i'm sure and he will talk smack to you for having a better rig ^_^

I agree about the GTX285 too...I honestly think one card is more than enough...i won't do SLI or Crossfire in any machine i build... I only suggested it to you incase it fits your budget or you want to SLI/Cross cards.

Speaking of a budget..whats the least and the most you want to spend? I must have missed it somewhere...
 

PC_Plum

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Good thing you mention that. I read a forum saying that 120Hz Monitor is not wrth it. I was planning to buy 2233RZ with then NVidia 3d Vision but was convinced that its not worth it. So does it really worth it?
 

Kill@dor

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That's why we throw a lot of suggestions so he can get a better idea of what he wants...its not that we are trying to make him pick one brand or item...
 

PC_Plum

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As I have stated we don't have newegg here and unfortunately newegg is not even delivering to UK. so If you we're me will you buy GTX 295 which is cheaper than GTX 275 sli?