First Custom Build Review PLEASE!

[maxlol]

This is all in my newegg cart now. Want to purchase everything within the next week.

$473.98-Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz LGA 1366+GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s
$473.98-XFX HD-587X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5870 1GB+G.SKILL PI Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
$169.99-SeaSonic X750 Gold 750W
$269.99-Corsair Obsidian Series 800D
$79.99-CORSAIR Cooling Hydro Series CWCH50
$194.95Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M080G
$99.99-Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s
$184.99-Pioneer Black Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Writer

I will be using a 37" HD TV as my monitor. The only thing I could see myself upgrading in the future would be to add another 5870. I see on newegg there is a XFX HD-587X-ZNFV Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) Not sure what the difference is. I plan on overclocking to about 3.8GHz. Suggestions and thoughts encouraged!

 

[JackNaylorPE]

MoBo / CPU - Board Upgrade w/ i7-930
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.378938

Case / PSU - Antec 1200 w/ CP-850 Better Case for cooling / Better PSU $260 (Lights have off switches if you'r elike me and don't go for the bling)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.387490

Alternate Cases HAF 932, Antec P183
Alternate PSU's Antec AG-850, XFX Black Edition, Corsair HX850

Hard Drives - Check out the performance charts and pick whatever 500 GB per platter drive 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)

Look at the tests that reflect your usage and choose accordingly.

Heat Sink - The H50 simply is not a good performer compared to comparably priced air coolers and on top of that it reduces case cooling air flow. The Megahalems (24.9C over ambient) beats the H50 (29.3) by almost 5C in this test.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=371&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=11

The mega is the choice in this price range
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content

 

[maxlol]

Dont get the 800D, it is an excellent case for water-cooling, but has below-average airflow.Youll be better off with a HAF 932/933.

Also the XFX cant do volt-modding, but its pretty hard to find a refrence 5870 nowadays.

Finally, even a single 5870 for 1080P is overkill, you can max out games for the next 2-3 years, Crossfiring would be redundant.

The rest of the parts are fine, though you can wait a bit till BD Burner prices drop to a reasonable amount though then buy if youre not in a hurry.

I really would like to stick with the 800D. Aesthetically it is very pleasing to me and I can replace the fans because that is the one bad thing I have heard about the case. I really like the cable management it provides and I am sort of a minimalist. I may just get a DVD drive and wait for BluRay to drop thank you.

MoBo / CPU - Board Upgrade w/ i7-930
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.378938

Case / PSU - Antec 1200 w/ CP-850 Better Case for cooling / Better PSU $260 (Lights have off switches if you'r elike me and don't go for the bling)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.387490

Alternate Cases HAF 932, Antec P183
Alternate PSU's Antec AG-850, XFX Black Edition, Corsair HX850

Hard Drives - Check out the performance charts and pick whatever 500 GB per platter drive 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)

Look at the tests that reflect your usage and choose accordingly.

Heat Sink - The H50 simply is not a good performer compared to comparably priced air coolers and on top of that it reduces case cooling air flow. The Megahalems (24.9C over ambient) beats the H50 (29.3) by almost 5C in this test.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=371&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=11

The mega is the choice in this price range
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content

For the mobo combo you suggested can I clarify that the one I currently have wouldn't support a 6-core proc.? I am still very new to hardware and am trying to familiarize myself with everything. I am coming from pre-built Mac comps so I am out of my element with all of the choice etc so to be honest the comparisons for the HDD blew my mind and didn't make sense to me. The cooler you suggested I had seen/read very good things about and I will strongly consider adding that as it does perform much better.

I have been back and forth with the PSU I currently have and it is driving me nuts. I don't know if I need more power or not. The PSU caclulators are no help to me either.

anyone commenting please understand that my part/hardware knowledge is very limited. I have come up with these parts from lots and lots of reading. Thanks again.

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

Hey, cool, a mac convert.

The cable management for the HAF 922 and 932 is very good. I just got a 922 myself and moved all of my existing stuff to it. You should look into them as they are much cheaper.

I'll tell you that intel will be releasing another socket next year so you won't be able to do a drop-in upgrade of just the CPU. But you prolly won't upgrade again till 2011 or after so it prolly won't matter.

750 watts is prolly fine, but I doubt there'd be much room left after crossfiring. Though as has been said doing that is probably not needed with that resolution. How old is the TV? Does the manual talk about it being cool to connect a computer via HDMI? Cause that's how you want to connect it if you can. It helps avoid plagues of getting the resolution/screen right that can sometimes happen with some TV's if you use a VGA cable.

As far as the hard drives go, go with either Seagate 7200.12 or the Spinpoint F3 the differences in speed are small enough to ignore if you start comparing them to other drives. I prefer the samsung personally.

 

[maxlol]

Hey, cool, a mac convert.

The cable management for the HAF 922 and 932 is very good. I just got a 922 myself and moved all of my existing stuff to it. You should look into them as they are much cheaper.

I am so ready to get rid of my current machine.
I really like the way the 800D looks I don't mind paying the extra.

I'll tell you that intel will be releasing another socket next year so you won't be able to do a drop-in upgrade of just the CPU. But you prolly won't upgrade again till 2011 or after so it prolly won't matter.

I knew that intel would be coming out with a budget 6-core in Q3(?) this year but I don't think I'll realistically utilize the quadcore as of now. When you say that I won't be able to do a drop-in what do you mean? Forgive my ignorance. Regardless I think the time-frame for me to upgrade would be a while from now.

750 watts is prolly fine, but I doubt there'd be much room left after crossfiring. Though as has been said doing that is probably not needed with that resolution. How old is the TV? Does the manual talk about it being cool to connect a computer via HDMI? Cause that's how you want to connect it if you can. It helps avoid plagues of getting the resolution/screen right that can sometimes happen with some TV's if you use a VGA cable.

I won't upgrade anything else besides a vidcard until I build a new system I just don't see me needing anything so thank you for the vote of confidence on the PSU I really liked it.

I will be getting this TV (tomorrow actually) I read a lot on AVS forum and it had fantastic reviews for gaming in regard to input lag. The fact that its 60 Hz I may need to get an actualy monitor so I'll evaluate that once I get everything hooked up.

As far as the hard drives go, go with either Seagate 7200.12 or the Spinpoint F3 the differences in speed are small enough to ignore if you start comparing them to other drives. I prefer the samsung personally.

I still don't understand this. The drive I had initally picked out what does the SATA 6.0Gb/s vs the SATA 3.0Gb/s mean? Thank you for helping

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

2. A drop in upgrade is when you can just put the new CPU into your existing motherboard. Intel will be releasing new sockets, and therefore motherboard platforms, next year. After that most likely any new CPU's will be for the new sockets and in order to use them you'd have to get the new kind of motherboard. AMD will be sticking with their current sockets for the foreseeable future. But if you won't be likely to upgrade again for like 3 years or so then probably AMD will have a new one and it won't matter.

3. Why would 60 hz be a bad thing?

4. Those two sata speeds are just the maximum theoretical link speed. It has absolutely nothing to do with how fast the device using it really is. And no mechanical hard drive is anywhere near using all of SATA 3.0Gb/s yet.

 

[maxlol]

False thank you.

I had just read that 60Hz made some things seem choppy I'll find out shortly.

I will look more into the HDD. I am not concerned with synthetic benches as I am real world application.

I have decided that the megas are definitely the way to go for cooling and found them in 'shadow' (http://www.linkecomputer.com/products/1008865/Mega%20Shadow/Prolimatech/)

I am now having a hard time finding fans. I found an epric review that just confused me more here http://www.overclock.net/air-cooling/724577-well-dressed-megahalems-65-fans-112-a.html

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

Most monitors run at 60 Hz and therefore 60 frames a second. I have no idea what they would be referring to. Only thing I can think of is v-sync issues, but you just sorta turn that on and it's no longer an issue so...

I won't be able to help you much with fans. As far as that goes I can now look at stuff and balance performance, price, and noise. But I haven't done it often, and I haven't needed to change the fans at all on my HAF 922.

Seems to me that Scythe stuff is pretty good.

The benchmarks that were linked probably have real stuff in there too, they just typically lead in with synthetic stuff. But really any of the drives that he mentioned should be fine. Especially when you compare to not 500gig platter drives, or just older drives.

People building computers tend to end up pretty brand loyal. Alot more tend to brand hate. What I mean by that is, if they get something and it's Dead on Arrival or fails they will no longer get anything by that company. Or if they get more than one thing from a company and it always works flawlessly they will start just buying from there. Hard drives in particular are pretty big in this since everyone has to have one and they're compatible with any system that uses the standard (all on the market). I used to buy only western digital, until the samsung spinpoints came out. Now I get either. That kind of thing is generally how one thing gets chosen over another when they're close.