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[Solved] New i7 Build

Forum Systems : New Build [Solved] New i7 Build

Hello! Here is a potential i7 build I am considering and would have a slight OC to the 3.4Ghz range.

Primary use would be for use with music production, everyday use with some occasional gaming.

Looking for thoughts, comments, feedback and suggestions? Thanks in advance!

CPU Intel Core i7-930 2.8GHz LGA 1366 Quad-Core
Memory Corsair TR3X6G1600C7D Dominator 6 GB PC3-12800 1600 MHz
Motherboard ASUS P6T SE LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX
Primary Hard Drive Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB
Storage Drive HITACHI Deskstar 1 TB
Power Supply CORSAIR 750TX
Case CoolerMaster CM 690 II Advanced
Cooling CORSAIR Cooling Hydro H50
Optical SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner
Video Card XFX Radeon HD 5770 XTreme Edition
Sound Card Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
Speakers M-AUDIO Studiophile AV 30 2.0

Reply to jpwake

Everything looks good. You didn't leave a budget you were aiming for so no one is really able to comment anything about the price.

You say occasional gaming so do you really want to be using water cooling if you don't intend the overclock all that often? Water cooling while efficient and quiet, requires some maintenance and costs afterwards like changing the water, using proper distilled water etc. I feel it's a lot of effort if you don't intent to use it.

Message quoted 1 times

------------------------------ Intel Core i7 2.66GHz
MSI Eclipse SLI
6GB Team Xtreem Dark DDR3 1600MHz
MSI Radeon 5870 1GB GDDR5
Reply to mephiston1

Best answer

Assuming that it doesn't break your budget, an SSD is going to be lightning quick, even compared to a Velociraptor. It's the most noticeable increase in system response time that you can upgrade to right now. VRs have about a 4ish ms seek time. SSDs are under .1 ms.

SSD: Either this Kingston SSDNow 128 GB drive - low price, good value
or this Corsair Nova 128 GB drive - a little more expensive, but faster throughput

Storage drive: At 1 TB, I would go with any one of -
Seagate 7200.12 1 TB drive - free shipping, approximately equal performance to the Samsung
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB drive - out of stock right now, very slightly better results in editing benchmarks
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1 TB drive - $30 more than the others, but it's SATA3

If you consider going up to a 2 TB storage drive, there are more options, including the WD Caviar Green (a 5400 rpm cool & quiet drive), as well as the 2 TB models of the above drives.

This Mushkin Redline 1600 MHz CAS 6 6 GB kit is pretty much the fastest 1600 MHz RAM you can get (lower CAS latency than the Dominators), and it's almost $50 cheaper than the Dominators after a $30 MIR. You might consider 2 kits (for a total of 12 GB) if most of your work is music production. This is also the lowest I've seen them for a while, have been keeping an eye on this RAM for my upcoming (3ish months out) build. Tempted to buy right now, myself. This kit is $10 more, same specs, just a different shaped heat-spreader & color (?), comes with a 2 GB flash drive.

Another option is this Mushkin Blackline 1333 MHz CAS 7 6 GB kit for $175. Or this Patriot Viper 1333 MHz CAS 7 6 GB kit for $159 after $20 MIR and $3 shipping. At that price, you should be able to afford 12 GB without going over budget (assuming you were close already).

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by coldsleep on 03-19-2010 at 06:36:36 AM

Reply to coldsleep

Hard Drives - The Raptor's time has passed. Check out the performance charts and pick whatever 500 GB per platter drive(s) performs best under your usage patterns. The 2 TB WD Black and XT from Seagate are good choice but at smaller capacities, you are limited to the Seagate 7200.12 or the Spinpoint F3. The 7200.12 excels in gaming, multimedia and pictures whereas the F3 wins at music and movie maker. See the comparisons here (copy past link in manually, link won't work in forum):

(http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-3.5-desktop-hard-drive-charts/compare,1006.html?prod[2371]=on&prod[2770]=on)

RAM - Way too much to pay for CAS 7. Here's some CAS 6 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820226052

or CAS 7 for some savings - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820226030

MoBo - The Asus Rampage II Extreme comes with a SB XiFi daughter card which should be more than enough for those speakers .... R3E should be out very soon. If you need more sound card, would suggest upgrading speakers.

Think about BlueRay if you will be watching movies.

Not a fan of the selected heat sink:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/c [...] r-review/6

Suggest hi end air cooler to take you to 4.4 Ghz...pick one from top 3 or 4 here:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/Recommended_Heatsinks
http://www.frostytech.com/top5heat [...] ELHEATSINK
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index. [...] itstart=23

pick a TIM from the top few here:
http://www.hwreviewlabs.com/index. [...] mitstart=3
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/c [...] html#sect1
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index. [...] mitstart=3

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

mephiston1 wrote :

Thanks for the feeback. If I can get by without a water cooler and still OC with a good air system I am game. As for budget, I am not really restricted. Just looking to build a good system that will last some time to come.

Reply to jpwake

I would say if you aren't budge restricted but it sounds like you aren't into going all out and wasting money either than a few things I would recommend would be...

CPU: Core i7 930
MOBO ASUS P6X58D Premium to have SATA 6gb/s and USB3 for future upgradability
Cooler: Either Thermalright venomous X or Prolimatech Megahalem should allow you plenty of overclocking headroom with the i7 930
RAM: The Mushkin kits that have been suggested.
HD: I would definitely recommend an SSD over the VR. The Intel X-25M 80GB is a good deal now on Newegg. While not huge, would still give you plenty of space for Win 7 64bit and critical programs. Although you may want to go larger depending on the apps you use frequently
Storage HD: For this I recommend estimating how much you storage you need and get one of the drives recommended above at 1gb. Or at 2gb if you don't care about slightly more noise and less efficiency the WD Caviar Black 2GB is a very fast drive too.
GPU: Really depends on what resolution monitor you have. The ATI 58xx series though is tops
Sound Card: I would strongly recommend the ASUS Xonar DX over anything Creative. The Creative cards were made more for gaming and charge a premium for the Creative name. Xonar DX is should be superior for music editing.
Speakers: AV30s are nice but the AV40s should be even better if you music/audio is your thing.

As far as Case I think a lot of it is personal in regards to what you want in terms of looks, weight, noise etc.....

Reply to letsrahk

Thanks!

Message edited by jpwake on 03-27-2010 at 02:14:36 PM

Reply to jpwake

coldsleep wrote :

I would consider replacing the hard drives with 1 SSD and a 1 TB drive that uses 500 GB platters. Corsair memory is usually overpriced, especially the Dominator line. The liquid cooling kit is probably unnecessary, especially if you're not planning to overclock.

Assuming that it doesn't break your budget, an SSD is going to be lightning quick, even compared to a Velociraptor. It's the most noticeable increase in system response time that you can upgrade to right now. VRs have about a 4ish ms seek time. SSDs are under .1 ms.

SSD: Either this Kingston SSDNow 128 GB drive - low price, good value
or this Corsair Nova 128 GB drive - a little more expensive, but faster throughput

Storage drive: At 1 TB, I would go with any one of -
Seagate 7200.12 1 TB drive - free shipping, approximately equal performance to the Samsung
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB drive - out of stock right now, very slightly better results in editing benchmarks
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1 TB drive - $30 more than the others, but it's SATA3

If you consider going up to a 2 TB storage drive, there are more options, including the WD Caviar Green (a 5400 rpm cool & quiet drive), as well as the 2 TB models of the above drives.

This Mushkin Redline 1600 MHz CAS 6 6 GB kit is pretty much the fastest 1600 MHz RAM you can get (lower CAS latency than the Dominators), and it's almost $50 cheaper than the Dominators after a $30 MIR. You might consider 2 kits (for a total of 12 GB) if most of your work is music production. This is also the lowest I've seen them for a while, have been keeping an eye on this RAM for my upcoming (3ish months out) build. Tempted to buy right now, myself. This kit is $10 more, same specs, just a different shaped heat-spreader & color (?), comes with a 2 GB flash drive.

Another option is this Mushkin Blackline 1333 MHz CAS 7 6 GB kit for $175. Or this Patriot Viper 1333 MHz CAS 7 6 GB kit for $159 after $20 MIR and $3 shipping. At that price, you should be able to afford 12 GB without going over budget (assuming you were close already).

This is great feedback! I will certainly make some adjustments based on what you have suggested and certainly like the 6-8-6-24 on the Mushkin Redline.

Reply to jpwake

This is good feeback and I will certainly look to go with air cooler.

Reply to jpwake

Best answer selected by jpwake.

Reply to jpwake

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