RATE MY NEW GAMING RIG!

[mccarlson]

I built this system about a month ago and want to hear what you have to say! I've been very slowly increasing my overclocking on it and haven't had to change any of the default voltages yet. It's 100% 48 hours stable in Prime 95, OCCT CPU and GPU, and Intel Burn Test running at 3.8GHz CPU, and 800MHz GPU clock & 1000MHz GPU Memory clock (defaults were 700MHz and 912MHz) I've run it at 4.1GHz for 24 hours in Prime 95 with a CPU voltage of 1.25v with no problems, but the CPU gets to 84c and that's a bit warmer that I like. The whole setup cost me $3,850.00 all parts from NewEgg.com including shipping. My favorite part is playing Crysis at 1920x1080 all settings maxed to enthusiast settings with 8xQ AA at 40-50 frames per second.


Chassis: Cooler Master HAF-X Full Tower Case (Sweetest case ever!)
CPU: Intel Core i7-930 2.88GHz (Currently Overclocking at 3.8HGz 100% stable at all 1.15v)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 (keeps CPU at 44c idle and 68c full load using Prime 95)
CPU Thermal Compound: MASSCOOL G751 Shin-Etsu Thermal Interface Material
Motherboard: Asus Rampage III Extreme
Power Supply: CORSAIR HX1000W Modular
Memory: Mushkin Enhanced Redline 6GB DDR3 1600 (6-8-6-22 & 1T) overclocked tRAS from 24 to 22 so far.
GPU: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 480 AMP! Edition (Best Fermi card available!)
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack - OEM
Hard Drive 1: Crucial RealSSD C300 6Gbps SATA SSD 256GB (Boot, OS & Main Application Drive)
Hard Drive 2&3: Seagate Momentus XT 500GB Solid State Hybrid SATA Drive 7200 RPM (1TB in RAID 0) (Game and Programs Drive)
Hard Drive 4: Samsung EcoGreen 1TB 5400 RPM 32MB Cache SATA (Media & Storage Drive) ($55 shipped!)
DVD Burner: LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R SATA DVD Writer LightScribe Support - OEM
Keyboard: Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
Headset: Creative Labs GH0100 Sound Blaster World of Warcraft Wireless Headset
Display: Samsung Syncmaster P2770H 27" Widescreen 2ms Mini-HDMI to HDMI connection
Mouse: Logitech G5 Gaming Laser Mouse
Software: Microsoft Office 2010 Professional
Battery Backup UPS: Cyber Power Smart App Sinewave PP1500SWT2 1500VA / 1000Watts Pure Sinewave (system pulls 750 watts with GPU and CPU at 100% load including the Samsung monitor)


So it runs everything I have on maximum quality settings at native resolutions and full AA to complete satisfaction. The only problem I have with it is the Seagate Momentus XT drives have terrible Firmware and the build in APM features really mess up your games with stuttering and pauses unless you manually turn it off using HDDScan or Crystal Disk Info, but Seagate is telling me they are working on that.

Rate it 1-10 and explain your rating please!

 

[cmcghee358]

8/10

Without a 980X or SLI it can't be 10/10.

Nice cable management, clean looking build. Good choice on all the components. Nicely done.

 

[mccarlson]

8/10

Without a 980X or SLI it can't be 10/10.

Nice cable management, clean looking build. Good choice on all the components. Nicely done.

I agree with you about the 10/10, I just couldn't justify the extra $720 for the CPU that would give me exactly a zero to five percent increase in anything I have. I came very close to grabbing another Zotac GTX 480 Amp card (as this mother board and case can totally support them, being THREE SLOT solutions EACH with that gigantic fan zotac is using... but again, I couldn't justify the extra $500 for an improvement I'll really never notice... I mean, I run at everything with V-Sync on and my monitor's refresh rate is 60... so everything I have runs at 60 FPS all settings maxed out except for Crysis which runs 40-50 FPS at my native resolution of 1920x1080. That doesn't mean I can't add another card for some SLI action in the future though when they are less expensive and more demanding games arrive!

Honestly though, that SSD drive and the hybrid SSD raid setup I have puts butterflies in my stomach. I can comfortably say that every app I have is launched within .01 to 2 seconds, and the longest load time of any game or app I have is about 6 seconds (world of warcraft loading with a truck load of addons). I timed my bootup at 24 seconds, all programs loaded, and shutdown is just a couple seconds. It's really a weird feeling to have my computer waiting on me vs me always waiting on it.

 

[cmcghee358]

Oh I agree completely. I also wouldn't get a 980X build unless I won the lottery. Just saying because a 980X/SLI build is possible, your score is adjusted to 8/10. Once again, I do agree with your choices though.

 

[westham101]

lol, 9.5/10 because im jealous.....

 

[Scanlia]

Wow, clean case, and how come your noctua's are so hot? I'm at 3.8GHz at 1.35V Stable and my idle temps are 22C, and I only have a V8...

 

[RickyT23]

Nice Rig

Not the best value for money, but very nice none the less. I think it would be pretty noisey with that card too. Im being over-critical really, but it seems a little much to rate it extremely highly because there are no real mods of any kind, the overclock could be better, for the same sort of money you could have compromised on the SSD capacity and got a funky modern water-cooling rig in there, there is no mention of fan speed controller, which AFAIK you would need with that case (unless the HAFX came with speed controllers?).

But the foundations are there, the air cooler you do have is a very nice one, the case is nice and the PSU is awesome. The mobo is overkill really, I dont think you would benefit that much over a cheaper one, especially with your OC. And the GTX480 is very nice. When you get to SLIing them, get some fan speed controller or other, get liquid cooling and get a better OC (you could liquid-cool your GTX480's too, and overclock them)(or you could put a custom air-cooler on them) then I would give it a 10/10. But now its only an 8

 

[Scanlia]

Nice Rig

Not the best value for money, but very nice none the less. I think it would be pretty noisey with that card too. Im being over-critical really, but it seems a little much to rate it extremely highly because there are no real mods of any kind, the overclock could be better, for the same sort of money you could have compromised on the SSD capacity and got a funky modern water-cooling rig in there, there is no mention of fan speed controller, which AFAIK you would need with that case (unless the HAFX came with speed controllers?).

But the foundations are there, the air cooler you do have is a very nice one, the case is nice and the PSU is awesome. The mobo is overkill really, I dont think you would benefit that much over a cheaper one, especially with your OC. And the GTX480 is very nice. When you get to SLIing them, get some fan speed controller or other, get liquid cooling and get a better OC (you could liquid-cool your GTX480's too, and overclock them)(or you could put a custom air-cooler on them) then I would give it a 10/10. But now its only an 8

I didn't see any water cooling... I thought that was a noctua high-end air cooler...

 

[mccarlson]

Wow, clean case, and how come your noctua's are so hot? I'm at 3.8GHz at 1.35V Stable and my idle temps are 22C, and I only have a V8...

Hard to believe. I would guess your readings are wrong. 22C is 71F. I mean, that's a cool room temperature! In my room right now (75F) that would be impossible according to the laws of physics as we know them using a simple air cooler. If you have any voltage at all going through your CPU it will be warmer than ambient. I would look into this if I were you. What are you hitting at full LOAD? 1.35V is getting up there... 1.375 is the maximum range isn't it?

I guess I should ask what chip you are using...

 

[mccarlson]

Nice Rig

Not the best value for money, but very nice none the less. I think it would be pretty noisey with that card too. Im being over-critical really, but it seems a little much to rate it extremely highly because there are no real mods of any kind, the overclock could be better, for the same sort of money you could have compromised on the SSD capacity and got a funky modern water-cooling rig in there, there is no mention of fan speed controller, which AFAIK you would need with that case (unless the HAFX came with speed controllers?).

But the foundations are there, the air cooler you do have is a very nice one, the case is nice and the PSU is awesome. The mobo is overkill really, I dont think you would benefit that much over a cheaper one, especially with your OC. And the GTX480 is very nice. When you get to SLIing them, get some fan speed controller or other, get liquid cooling and get a better OC (you could liquid-cool your GTX480's too, and overclock them)(or you could put a custom air-cooler on them) then I would give it a 10/10. But now its only an 8

Honestly, I can't hear any of the fans in my PC at all. The case fans are always running at 100% and dead silent so I see absolutely no reason to get a fan controller at all. I considered it but changed my mind once I turned them on. The Graphics card is also dead silent until about 60% fan speed. It only hits that high when the temps get up there running it at full load, but then it's still quiet enough that I can't hear the fan noise over the games I'm playing anyway. You may be thinking of the GTX 480 reference fan. The Zotac AMP edition uses a 3rd party Zaleman GPU cooler solution that is a zillion times better.

I wouldn't definitely not compromise anything for my Crucial C300 SSD drive. The overall performance increase that drive has give me makes it worth every penny. I'll never go non-SSD again. It makes me giggle how I'm so often the one being waited on by my PC rather than me waiting on it. Until you go SSD you will never know true computing joy.

I decided to stay on all air cooling just because I didn't want the hassle of water cooling and the air cooling solutions I have are top notch and put me close enough to water cooling I just gave in. If you like water cooling other than the performance gains they offer, more power to you but I'm kinda lazy.

 

[Scanlia]

Yeah...

 

[Scanlia]

Hard to believe. I would guess your readings are wrong. 22C is 71F. I mean, that's a cool room temperature! In my room right now (75F) that would be impossible according to the laws of physics as we know them using a simple air cooler. If you have any voltage at all going through your CPU it will be warmer than ambient. I would look into this if I were you. What are you hitting at full LOAD? 1.35V is getting up there... 1.375 is the maximum range isn't it?

I guess I should ask what chip you are using...

Well, I'm using the i7 860, which is cooler than the 920, and its the middle of winter here, so its about 14C room temperature, Sorry if I confused anybody, and I had it a 1.3V not 1.35V, Sorry mccarlson, I'm pretty new to this forum thing.

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=PqnCbTS

and CoreTemp doesn't show the readings properly... But in the bios and CPU-z it shows 3.8GHz

 

[mccarlson]

Well, I'm using the i7 860, which is cooler than the 920, and its the middle of winter here, so its about 14C room temperature, Sorry if I confused anybody, and I had it a 1.3V not 1.35V, Sorry mccarlson, I'm pretty new to this forum thing.

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=PqnCbTS

and CoreTemp doesn't show the readings properly... But in the bios and CPU-z it shows 3.8GHz

Even still, that is amazingly low. If you search the web for temps on that chip, you'll find tons of people that say theirs idles at 40c. What cooler are you using and what temps to you hit at 100% load?

 

[gordon_81]

nice, but y didnt you go for a 5970? or are you an intel fanboy

 

[cmcghee358]

I'm confused, how does being an Intel fanboi make him pick nVidia?

Besides 480 is cheaper than the 5970 and performs slightly worse. More importantly, 2 480s perform much better than a 5970.

 

[mccarlson]

nice, but y didnt you go for a 5970? or are you an intel fanboy

Because the Zotac GTX 480 AMP edition is the superior card to the ATI 5970 in price-performance? And I have future SLI expandability for another if I really want some overkill.

 

[Scanlia]

Well, If you look at my profile pic, It's a CoolerMaster V8, I'm around 60C with a peak of 65C. Thats during winter by the way, so ill prob have a peak of 70 during summer. Thanks. Like that case you got there, I'm Jealous of your HAFX, prob the best case ever. I think you went a bit overkill with your motherboard there.

 

[cmcghee358]

Excluding Mountain Mod cases, I think the Corsair 800D is the best mainstream case imo.

 

[mccarlson]

Excluding Mountain Mod cases, I think the Corsair 800D is the best mainstream case imo.

I have both cases, the Corsair 800D is my wife's computer that she inherited when I made this one. Though I think the 800D is a fine case, it just doesn't compare to the HAF-X in airflow (not even close) or looks (my opinion). It's also more expensive than the HAF-X.

 

[mccarlson]

Well, If you look at my profile pic, It's a CoolerMaster V8, I'm around 60C with a peak of 65C. Thats during winter by the way, so ill prob have a peak of 70 during summer. Thanks. Like that case you got there, I'm Jealous of your HAFX, prob the best case ever. I think you went a bit overkill with your motherboard there.

That makes some sense. Found out that the i7-930 CPUs just like to run hot in comparison to other CPUs. It's OK though, they don't mind until you hit 100c and then they will start throttling down.

I just wanted to make sure I had 6GB/s SATA and USB 3.0, and at the time of purchase, there wasn't many choices for motherboards, and I like ASUS and it got such good reviews, I splurged. It's doing me right though, running my i7-930 UNDERVOLTED from 1.250v to 1.125v at 3.8GHz (from 2.8GHz default) 100% stable for 24/7 operation. That's also 40c at idle and 69c at maximum load under Prime 95 at 71f ambient. I can get stable at 4GHz at 1.250v (defaults!) and 4.2GHz but only at 1.350v and lots of other tweeks in the bios such as QPI, ICH, IOH, CPU PLL voltages. Still not even close to finding the minimums for running it stable there. Hell of a board for bios and overclocking options though.