My i7 Build

[kabbott877]

Hi all, I'm about to build an i7. I've just finished the component selection and would appreciate any comments from the experts. The details of the build are located here: http://www.kevinabbott.com

Any advice/criticism is welcome.

One last thing, any schematics of a trypical water cooling system would be a big help. I have not water cooled before and am still trying to figure out the loop. I know the obvious config but am still pondering the details like how it would support easy draining. I'm also wondering if one loop can support video, cpu, and motherboard blocks and still be effective. Like I said be for, feel free to tell me where i'm going wrong.

 

[ares1214]

have you already bought, and if not, may i show you parts on newegg? it is a very good build, and the things i would recommend are mainly money saving/slight performance gaining tips, as well as personal preference...with a build like that i also assume ur budget is way up there.

 

[kabbott877]

I've bought most of the parts but please point out where I could have done better. If anything else I will learn somethinga nd others reading the thread will get the benifite as well. Yes, budget is very flexible, I have not built a system in 4 years and it will be another 4 before I do it again so I thought "what the heck" and just went for performace instead of sticking to a specific budget. One way I have saved money though is buying alot of these parts from eBay and getting really good deals. I just took my time and bought parts here and there when I saw an amazing deal. I picked up both the motherboard and the SSD's for aboutr 2/3 OEM price.

One thing about the MB, as I continued to research I decided that I would probably prefer an EVGA Classified, but I had allready bought the ASUS. Im not to twisted up about it because I know the ASUS is a very nice MB, just one of the nigly things that I would do differently if I could have.

 

[ares1214]

the evga is very good, but sometimes evga doesnt play nice with ati, so here is the board i would have recommended:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131614

it is probs one of the best in the world, also has usb 3 and sata 6... next, that ram is good, and for a surprising cost, but this is better, and cheaper:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231335

also goes nicely with the blue in the mobo :lol: and i also would have only gotten 6 gigs, 12 is such a waste, and slows the set down, 6 is the perfect sweet spot, 4 is pushing it, 8 is too much, 6 is just perfect. you cant go wrong with a 5970, and the cooling system looks great, so next is case...the case is so dependent on personal preference, but for this, i would say these cases are better:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133080&cm_re=xaser-_-11-133-080-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139001&cm_re=obsidian-_-11-139-001-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119213

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163135

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112159

all of those are better for some reason or another, and my personal fav is the xaser, but like i said, its all about preference. next is psu, that is an amazing psu, but these 2 are better, and overall amazing:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341028

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194046&Tpk=galaxy%20evo

those 2 are both amazing, one is super power, one is super efficient, but the corsair is good too. next is the ssd, i have argued about this for a long time, and i personally think these are better, but the intels are great too (have slow writes):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227442

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227472

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233087

those will all be faster, although its hard to argue 2 intels in raid 0, those choices are probs mostly my opinion, but there ya have it, thats about everything i would have done different...it may look like a lot, but its just small things, ur build was great.

 

[kabbott877]

Thanks for the info.

Quick question on the RAM. My intent on the 12GB was to disable the swap file in Windows 7. Do you know if you can do this successfully with 6GB? I suppose I could always eBay the second 6GB if all its going to do is slow me down.

Also any suggestions on running the video, MB, and CPU on one cooling loop? I've read that the Apogee XT is only good if it has a dedicated loop. I'm not sure where i would put a second radiator. I'm thinking the only way I'm going to know for sure is to build it with just the CPU watercooled, do some overclocking and see how the cooling system performs, then tear it down and add the video and MB to the loop and then compare temps... just wondering if someone who has more experiance doing this sort of thing can tell me what to expect.

 

[ares1214]

with 6 mb no, with 6 gb, i really dont know, but i would assume so. i am not terribly up to date with water cooling, so i cant quite help there. all i know is that imo swiftech makes the best wc gear.