My new i7 930 system.....

[rbarrett]

Hey guys, tell my your thoughts on my build. I'm a little worried about crossfiring in the future with the mobo....

CPU: Intel Core i7 930 2.8 w/fan & heatsink - $222 from microcenter and having a friend ship it from Atlanta,
Mobo: Asus P6x58 Premiusm - $239 shipped open box from newegg
PSU: Corsair HX850 Modular - $176 from new egg
Video Card: Sapphire Vapor-X HD 5850 - $241 open box new egg
Case - Cooler Master Storm Sniper BE w/free 5600 dpi gaming mouse - $99 w/free shipping
RAM - OCZ Gold 1600 MHZ 8 Cas Latency - $100 (hook up at tiger direct)
Cooling - Corsair H50 liquid cooler 120 mm radiator - $50 (hook up at tiger direct)
Hard Drive - 1 TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 - $74.99 Free Shipping New Egg
DVD Burner - Light-On Dual Layer DVD burner w/lightscribe non-OEM - $31 shipped new egg

Total Price: $1,233

What are your experiences with crossfiring on this mobo? Have any of you shorted out your cards with them being so close together? I'll be really irked if I have to return my asus and settle for a asrock extreme 3....

 

[banthracis]

What's the voltage on that OCZ ram? Some of the higher voltage ones have been having major issues with... well every MOBO out there.

Don't bother with cheap liquid cooling. A CM Hyper 212 Plus is half the price, cools a lot better, and is quieter.

Don't need a 850w PSU and don't need a modular PSU in a bottom mounted PSU case. 750 TX is enough and is only $110 atm.

MOBO wise this gigabyte is cheaper and just as good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128423&cm_re=gigabye_usb_3-_-13-128-423-_-Product

Both mobo's xfire fine. Well, unless you're doing gtx 480's...then there could be some heat issues.

 

[rbarrett]

Thanks for the advice banthracis. I've hear a lot of asus motherboards have been having ram issues lately, very surprising from a quality mobo manufacturer. My voltage is listed at 1.65 volts. I believe the bios clocks the speed down to 1333 by default, so I'll probably end up tweaking timing and voltage anyway.

As far as the cooling, I went with the corsair because I don't have room for a tall heat sink/fan due to the big 200 mm fan on the side window. I'll probably see if I can mod the case to get a radiator and the fans to fit in place of the top fan (don't think there is enough clearance from end of mobo to top of case)

I was really interested in the gigabyte board when I first decided to go with a 3.0 usb/6.0 sata board. The big issue I have with it is the way giga handles the bandwidth of the new usb and sata. It shares bandwidth with your PCI 16 lanes so when you crossfire (which I will do at some point) you cut your usb 3.0 bandwidth in roughly half.

The only board I've seen that actually advertises the fact that they can run crossfire and usb 3.0 at full bandwidth is asrock. I'm just hoping a high end board like asus, has that feature as well.

 

[MadAdmiral]

To tag on banthracis, the i7 is in a combo with the Gigabyte board to save you even more. The problem was on their P55 boards. Tom's just did a review of X58 boards, and gave this board their "Recommended Buy" award. I'd be confident that it's fine.

I tend to avoid OCZ RAM as well. I'd recommend spending the extra and getting the G.Skill Pi 3x2 GB 1600 mhz CAS Latency 7.

Here's a link to the Corsair PSU: Corsair 750W. Though honestly, if you don't mind using power adapters, dual 5850s can be run on 650W without any problems.

I'll go ahead and say I'm not a fan of the Storm series of cases. I think they're overpriced and don't give you a whole lot. I'd take a look at the HAF 922, Antec 300 Illusion and Coolermaster 690.

Something else to point out is that you can save $12 by getting a different optical. There isn't really a difference between models.

Something else I should point out is about the Open Box items. Generally, you don't really save anything by getting them. You lose the warranty, and it's mostly just the component itself. So with that Open Box board, you'd need to buy SATA cables and some other stuff. That alone will eat into your savings. You also have practically no time to build and test the parts. You have 30 days from when you place the order to get them the board back for a refund.

 

[rbarrett]

Some great points. I should mention first, I've actually already bought all this. Was just hoping for some feedback.

Second. I realize I definitely took a risk buying open box stuff, but in this case, assuming the 5850 and motherboard work correctly, I lucked out big time. The only thing the asus was missing was the cd and manual. The 5850 was literally an open box, all original packing and parts, just had been opened. I saved $100 bucks on the card and about $70 on the mobo. I think it was worth it. I also saw a sapphire 5970 for $480 the other day, I wish I'd jumped on it.

As far as the gigabyte/CPU combo, if I paid full retail for these items, it would be fine, I'd save $25. But I got my 930 for $200 at microcenter and have a friend ship it to me. When all was said and done I paid $222 for a $300 processor.

Lastly, as far as the case goes, I was actually looking into the HAF 932 at first, it's huge, but for the price of the storm sniper, i couldn't pass it up and it's only a couple inches shorter than the HAF. It was $99 with free shipping. Most cases that heavy are at least $25 just to ship. It also came with a $70 dollar gaming mouse.

I do actually agree with you on the ram, and for $180 it's overpriced. I'd much rather get some mushkin. But for $100 I'll take the OCZ it's all that they had in the store and that's what my hookup could give me a discount on, since he couldn't do anything with online stuff for me....

All things considered, I think I did pretty well for the money I spent. And I do agree the Corsair could be a bit overkill, but I wanted to make sure I was future proof and didn't want to go cheap on the PSU. I will eventually crossfire, get a ssd and a 2nd HDD. Corsair makes quality stuff...

 

[MadAdmiral]

I still think you made a mistake on the RAM. I don't care what the price is, if it doesn't work, it's not worth it...

Since you've already bought everything, it's a moot point.