Advice needed for $2500 i7 build

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz (URL)
Mobo: ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX (URL)
RAM: G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666), 7-7-7-18 (URL)
HDD: OCZ Vertex Series 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC SSD (URL)
Video: Diamond Radeon HD 5970 (Hemlock) 2GB (URL)
PSU: Corsair CMPSU-850HX 850W (URL)
Optical 1: LG Blu-ray Burner Model BH08LS20 (URL)
Optical 2: Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD Rewritable (URL)
Case: Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower (URL)
Display: Samsung XL2370 23" LED 1080p (URL)

This PC will be used for gaming and office work, as well as bluray and HDTV viewing.
Just looking for some advice or critique before I pull the trigger.

Down the road I can see adding a second 5970 just as I paired my 8800GT some time ago. The motherboard allows for the two PCI-E slots to each operate at X16 when in use - that's a big item on my list of requisites. I'm not sold on the case and have only been buying mid-tower for the last 5+ years, I am just wary of the 12" long HD 5970. Mr. Rodney Reynolds seems to think mid-towers won't cut it for the card, but I've seen some people manage the tight fit. Anyway, I'd like to have comfortable space - so probably sticking with full.

Any advice or revisions? Budget is $2500 excluding the cost of the display.

Reply to ArbY

Well all I can say is great build. However there are some places you can tweak.
-First, on your budget I think you can some extra $ and get a 160GB Intel X-25M MLC SSD: URL
For your case, the Antec should fit the card a big ATX full tower will probably do the job.
Everything else looks good.

Reply to blackhawk1928

To tell the truth I'm not sure you put a lot of thought into this or study. Seems like you just have a pocket of money and said to yourself. What is the most impressive 'bragging rights' comp I can put together. You came up with buying the top of the line processor as the answer.

I'd be much more impressed and I'd think you would have a better comp if you bought the I7 870 and stuck a pair of intel 80gig SSD drives in it in a raid set up and went ahead and got a pair of lower priced vid cards in SLI or xfire depending which cards you like. I'd probably go with a pair of nvida 260's.

But it is your money and your comp. Have fun.

"What happens when you overclock a GTX 260 Core 216 by 20%? As Gigabyte has discovered, you get a GTX 275 for less."

Message quoted 2 times

Reply to Thar

Check this motherboard out

ASUS P6X58D Premium LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] %20Premium

Reply to logixs

Thar wrote :

To tell the truth I'm not sure you put a lot of thought into this or study. Seems like you just have a pocket of money and said to yourself. What is the most impressive 'bragging rights' comp I can put together. You came up with buying the top of the line processor as the answer.

I'd be much more impressed and I'd think you would have a better comp if you bought the I7 870 and stuck a pair of intel 80gig SSD drives in it in a raid set up and went ahead and got a pair of lower priced vid cards in SLI or xfire depending which cards you like. I'd probably go with a pair of nvida 260's.

But it is your money and your comp. Have fun.

"What happens when you overclock a GTX 260 Core 216 by 20%? As Gigabyte has discovered, you get a GTX 275 for less."

LOL. HORRIBLE ADVICE. Simply Ignore. A nice case, easy to work with, & spacious, will work out really well w/ 2 CF'd 5970's

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product

I'd check your power supply requirements again on the video cards, because I think you'd be a little safer with a bigger supply for the future.

Reply to pluke the 2

If you've got the money that intel drives are supposed to be much better. You should also consider another harddrive like a WD Green 1TB drive or a WD Black if you want slightly faster performance. You might also consider an aftermarket cooler for the processor if you plan to overclock. That graphics card is a little overkill for a monitor of that size.

Reply to jsrudd

Reply to pluke the 2

Thats the case, but please NOTE: I Spray Painted the Motherboard Tray and inside bottom of the case black. AND NO, the wires are not hanging out like that anymore they are simply all hidden, but I havent finished taking the end photos

Reply to pluke the 2

What's the point of a 5970 with one 1080p monitor? You might as well buy a 5850 - you won't see a difference.

Reply to optional22

Thar wrote :

To tell the truth I'm not sure you put a lot of thought into this or study. Seems like you just have a pocket of money and said to yourself. What is the most impressive 'bragging rights' comp I can put together. You came up with buying the top of the line processor as the answer.

I'd be much more impressed and I'd think you would have a better comp if you bought the I7 870 and stuck a pair of intel 80gig SSD drives in it in a raid set up and went ahead and got a pair of lower priced vid cards in SLI or xfire depending which cards you like. I'd probably go with a pair of nvida 260's.

But it is your money and your comp. Have fun.

"What happens when you overclock a GTX 260 Core 216 by 20%? As Gigabyte has discovered, you get a GTX 275 for less."

What the heck are you talking about? Top of the line processor...the core i7 920 is not a top of the line processor its high end, the i7 extreme cpu's are top of the line, i7 920 is a very reasonable one...and the i7 870 costs about 2x as much as a 920 for less than a 300mhz difference in clock rate. If you meant the i7 860 hopefully then i7 920 is the better choice if you are crossfiring and the actual processor is cheaper. And just because he buys a good videocard doesn't mean he is bragging, maybe he needs it for gaming or something?...plus why would you buy nvidia 260's since they support DX10 while the ATI 5xxx series support DX11? I think it is you who needs to do some research and than open your mouth on other people about not doing thiers lol sorry buddy but you make no sense. Moreover, buying 2x Intel SSD's sounds more like braggin rights to me since storage doesn't affect Gaming performance or anything like that while a video card does.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to blackhawk1928

Well put Blackhawk.

Reply to pluke the 2

blackhawk1928 wrote :

What the heck are you talking about? Top of the line processor...the core i7 920 is no .

oops - lol i saw $2500 cash and one vid card and a 23" monitor and figured a grand had to be the processor . Didn't really read which processor.

So what costs $2500 in that build ?

edit - I'd go with the 860 over the 920 anyway ....

still curious what costs $2500 in that build.

Message edited by Thar on 12-06-2009 at 07:11:38 AM

Reply to Thar

^The OP said he will crossfire down the road, so going with the 920 would be his better choice since his platform/chipset supports 16x/16x while the 860's platform/chipset supports 16x/8x or 4x in PCI-E Slot bandwidth.
And that build easily adds up to 2500 bucks, he is buying the most powerful gaming card available, a 920, a 1080p 23'' monitor, an SSD, so 2500 will be added up to very quickly, plus open up the URL's he gave, add the prices and do the math. His build currently adds up to 2550 bucks approximatly.

Reply to blackhawk1928

The Antec CP-850 is a better / quieter PSU for that case (it only fits 3 cases) ...and it's $55 cheaper.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Recommended_PSUs
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article971-page7.html

"The Antec CP-850 is a superlative power supply by almost any standard. Its electrical performance is up at the level of its more expensive brethren, the Signature 650 and 850, and Seasonic's flagship, the M12D-850: Voltage regulation is extremely tight for all the lines at all loads, and the ripple noise is amazingly low. (An Aside: The CP-850's performance makes me ponder again whether the best PSUs, going back even a couple of years, aren't already much better than they need to be. Is there really any benefit to having 1% tolerance for the 12V line? Or 20mv ripple instead of 120mv?) Efficiency is not quite up to the best, but it's nothing to be embarassed about.

The noise performance is excellent, with the <400W performance matching or bettering virtually every PSU tested thus far. Above 500W load in our heat box, the noise level goes over 40 dBA@1m, or about the norm for PSUs rated this high. It has the virtue keeping itself extremely cool, however, cooler than any other PSU we've tested at such high loads.

For the quiet-seeking computer gaming enthusiast, the CP-850 (along with any of the three compatible cases) is something of a godsend. Fantastically stable power, super low noise at any power load, long expected reliability due to excellent cooling, modular cabling, and all at a price that's no higher than many high end 6~700W models."

In that price range, i'd prolly be looking at the P6X w/ SAS and USB 3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131614

or the P6T7
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131390

For the monitor, I'd look at the Dell U2410 IPS panel unless you competitive FPS kinda guy or one of the Asus 1920 x 1200 TN panels on newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 00&x=0&y=0

The 1200 case is great...just watch ya friend Rodney's review

For an optical, I'd want the new Plextor BR writer 840SA ... on sale in Europe but hasn't dropped this side of the pond yet .

Message edited by JackNaylorPE on 12-06-2009 at 07:38:05 AM

------------------------------ If a man speaks in the forest and no woman hears him, is he still wrong ?
Reply to JackNaylorPE

Thanks for the comments guys. I did make a few changes, but I placed the order tonight.

Motherboard: EVGA E758-A1 3-Way SLI (x16/x16/x8) LGA 1366 Intel X58
- Native support for DDR3-1600
- More reputable Customer Service
- x16 in both PCI-E slots - realistically only good for a combination of heavy duty cards (like mine) and high resolutions (possible future upgrade)
RAM: Corsair Dominator 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600
- More headway in achieving a 3.6 or 3.8 GHz OC.

Won't be overclocking initially. Being that the computer is being built from the ground up, all the "accessories" be they mouse, keyboard, Klipsch speakers, Arctic Silver 5, HD TV tuner card, and a 1500VA UPS ... the price has fast approached $3500. Can't allot extra funds for the Thermalright T.R.U.E. and a Thunderblade 120mm fan at the moment.

Not ruling out ATI Eyefinity in the future with three displays and CF'd 5970s. The U2410 was just simply out of my price range for the time being. This project will improve with time. But thanks for the comments here and now.

Reply to ArbY

I suggest you switch to the cooler master storm sniper case and -as other ppl said- intel SSDs.
Where can you find a radeon 5790 in stock??

------------------------------ Antec902\RampageII extreme\i7 930 @3.8Ghz\Magahalems+2x Zalman F3BL\G.skill 6GB 1600 @1734Mhz 8,8,8,24\Force3D 5870\GB 8800GT PhysX\OCZ Vertex2 60GB\2x WDC Green 1TB RAID0\FSP Epsilon 800w\Sony 24x\3x BenQ T2200HD EF\Razer DeathAdder\MS Reclusa\Win7 x64
Reply to avatar_raq

The Dominator memory is way overpriced now....has been for 3-4 weeks.

------------------------------ If a man speaks in the forest and no woman hears him, is he still wrong ?
Reply to JackNaylorPE

Forum Systems : New Build Advice needed for $2500 i7 build

Homebuilt

New Build

Prebuilt

CyberPower

Please mind