New Build - Thoughts

[Gareth]

Okay guys, this is my current thinking for my new build. Some of the component prices may well be found cheaper elsewhere the purpose of my excercise at the moment is more about deciding on components than finding the cheapest price ( I'm not going to be ordering until the end of this month at the earliest ).

Before anyone says i5, I 100% want i7, the CPU is about the only thing on the list that is 100% decided, the rest is subject to change but its my current line of thought.

I'm quite intrigued by the Corsair CPU cooler but its seems a good way to go and has good reviews?

With regards to HDDs, I only need a fast SSD for the OS, I have other larger drives in my current system that I will make use of.

Any positive input appreciated.

 

[rogueneo]

Okay guys, this is my current thinking for my new build. Some of the component prices may well be found cheaper elsewhere the purpose of my excercise at the moment is more about deciding on components than finding the cheapest price ( I'm not going to be ordering until the end of this month at the earliest ).

Before anyone says i5, I 100% want i7, the CPU is about the only thing on the list that is 100% decided, the rest is subject to change but its my current line of thought.

I'm quite intrigued by the Corsair CPU cooler but its seems a good way to go and has good reviews?

With regards to HDDs, I only need a fast SSD for the OS, I have other larger drives in my current system that I will make use of.

Any positive input appreciated.

i would get two 5770's they work out cheaper and bring out virtually the same results, and the memory would stick to 6gb but go gaming (hyperx or even geil black dragons.)

 

[Silent_Scone]

I would SLi two 460s over either going by reviews. Seem to pair up really well and 24% faster than the 480GTX. (Might want to go with a 1kW PSU if you went with them though)

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/geforce-gtx-460-sli-geforce-gtx-480,review-31957.html

 

[Darren S]

Swap the mobo, imo.....

http://uk.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=jy0uafxYBCrJwksC

The OC options on this baby are literally quite scary. I don't think I'll even touch about 70% of them on mine.

D.

 

[Gareth]

but that's the problem right there Darren, its twice the price and for things I probably won't even touch/use? ( I have been looking at it and the Rampage II )

But I can use the same CPUs, Memory, HDD speeds etc on a board that is half the cost.

 

[Wilkeh]

I'd get a 2nd hard drive aswell. Will 120GB do? AFAIK is 120GB the maximum possible for the SSD?

 

[Gareth]

I've got larger drives in my current PC that I'll be using. You can get larger than 120GB SSD but the price increases sharply! I only want SSD for the OS drive. Rumours are that Windows 8 will be developed to boot as quickly as possible ( to fend off the iPad market etc )

 

[Darren S]

but that's the problem right there Darren, its twice the price and for things I probably won't even touch/use? ( I have been looking at it and the Rampage II )

But I can use the same CPUs, Memory, HDD speeds etc on a board that is half the cost.

Fair point! It is however the first board that hasn't made me nervous about OC'ing stuff. It's not 100% fool-proof by any means, but its very good at alerting you when things are running too hot - my OC experiments with the stock Intel HSF proved that for me.

Speaking of which - consider a Noctua cooler for the new build. They have been an eye-opener for me and I'll definitely be using them again on future builds. Mine was £41 inc.VAT from SCAN and Griff recommended one at £47. They do do higher spec ones, but mines happily keeping the i7 running at 43C whilst slightly OC'd at 3.2Ghz.

The Rampage Extreme II is an excellent board too. It's the one I bought and fitted into my nephew's PC last December. That has twin gigabit NIC ports on it (bizarrely the Extreme III only has the one) but of worthwhile note is the fact that the Extreme II has no inbuilt audio connectors. It comes complete with a Supreme X-Fi daughter card, which takes up one of the PCI-Ex slots. Definitely worth mentioning if you're stocking your chassis with add-on cards.

D.

 

[Gareth]

Yeah I noticed the soundcard and your quite right you have to be careful these days with the lack of PCI slots. I've already got a Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro sound card which I'll also be taking out of my current system to use.

I've seen your threads about the Noctua, but I was thinking of watercooling this one for a change but don't like the idea of possible leak issues etc, so the Corsair cooler seems a good option as its the best of both worlds, water cooling but its fully sealed.

 

[Darren S]

Yeah I noticed the soundcard and your quite right you have to be careful these days with the lack of PCI slots. I've already got a Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro sound card which I'll also be taking out of my current system to use.

I've seen your threads about the Noctua, but I was thinking of watercooling this one for a change but don't like the idea of possible leak issues etc, so the Corsair cooler seems a good option as its the best of both worlds, water cooling but its fully sealed.

You've got exactly the same sound-card as I have. Tbh, I've just stuck to the Realtek onboard audio this time around and apart from missing the 5.25" connector bay at the front, I've no real desire to go back. Not that I could anyway as the Extreme III has no PCI slots - lol. I'm glad in a way as my system now only has two 4890 cards installed - and that's it. I've got plenty of space inside to help with cooling and the SPDIF socket at the rear just plugs straight into my ancient Cambridge Soundworks DTT3500 decoder. Works a treat.

D.

 

[Gareth]

no PCI slots? You sure? The website says 1 x PCI 2.2, I think the card is PCI-E though which it also has. IIRC anyway

 

[Silent_Scone]

 

[Gareth]

it was all so easy in the days of ISA/PCI. These days its hard keeping track, so many different versions of PCI now.

 

[UncleGrumpy]

I'd be tempted to go for a different monitor, bought one of these a few months back, for the price is a cracking monitor.

http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=42775&tid=gsearch

 

[SharkyUK]

I would SLi two 460s...

Yep - if you have the budget and want instant power/performance gratification then the SLI'd 460's are *currently* where it's at (unless you are talking silly money and uber-HPC rigs). However, the 480GTX or HD5970 offer a little more in terms of future-proofing and future performance scaling.

Whichever way you look at it, it's shaping up to be a nice system. Enjoy.

 

[Gareth]

I'd be tempted to go for a different monitor, bought one of these a few months back, for the price is a cracking monitor.

http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=42775&tid=gsearch

Yeah the reviews of the Viewsonic seem poor actually, complain about lack of colour. However, I've now decided to stick with my 2 x 20" Samsungs (I may go for a single larger one later but not as part of this new build)

I've actually got a more up-to-date version of the build which I've been working on at home I'll try to remember to post it later.

 

[Gareth]

They've got the the i7 950 (3.06Ghz) for £235 on OCUK at the moment, tempted tbh.

 

[chriscummins7]

Do it. Whats the build for? Sorry if you have already said that part.

I remember about 3 years ago maybe more building my gaming rig. So exciting building it all and getting the games installed to find out i had hundreds of FPS!!

Enjoy it mate, i know i would a system like that!

 

[Gareth]

Gaming mainly, but also used for working from home etc

 

[Munson]

Rampage III Extreme or you're gay.

 

[ChrisR]

I was going to say wait for the 950 price drop as of yesterday, would be rude not to esp if you were paying 220 for a 930 anyway

 

[Gareth]

Rampage III Extreme or you're gay.

lol, I know, the board I've specified so far is too cheap with not enough features. At the moment I'm waiting for the new 6000 series GPUs to come out then I'll spec a better M/Board and buy all the kit.

 

[wozzaa]

Go for 2 60gb SSD's instead of 1 larger drive and run them in raid 0. I run two 60gb Corsair Force drives and in raid the performance is very close to be doubled. It is very quick, makes me wonder how I used to manage on a spinning drive now.

 

[Munson]

lol, I know, the board I've specified so far is too cheap with not enough features. At the moment I'm waiting for the new 6000 series GPUs to come out then I'll spec a better M/Board and buy all the kit.

Roffle. Fair enough. Only pulling your chain. I often consider cheaper gear when building a rig, but I just can't do things in halves, and so I almost always end up buying stuff I don't really need

I'm also SRS considering my next machine, but I've decided to wait for Crysis 2, in the hope that prices will be cheaper by then and/or there'll be new gear out. I'm STILL rolling with a QX9650 and a GTX295. Crysis 2 will hopefully be the game that finally brings it to its knees.

EDIT: Oh and personally I'd go for a 10k rpm Raptor over SSD. I just can't see solid state offering any real benefit to a game besides quicker loading times. All my money goes on frames :hardcore:

 

[Gareth]

The SSD is purely for the OS, I've got 2 x 150GB 10k Raptors in my current build which I haven't made my mind up about what i'm going to do with yet. I may split them and use 1 in the new build for a dedicated games drive.

I'm waiting for Crysis 2 also, currently March I think, but I'm going to see what happens with the launch of the 6000 series cards. When the new Fallout comes out it should run perfectly fine on my current build for the time being. Mafia 2 runs fine but can be a bit shaky on the higher settings.

If I'm spending £2000+ on a system i'm going to spend more than £150 on the M/Board though.

 

[Gareth]

 

[Gareth]

I've finally started the ball rolling and have ordered the first components to arrive tomorrow

 

[Adam]

Mate, www.chilledpc.co.uk might be a better place for your watercooling bits.

Also, for the CPU block, it has to be a Watercool Heatkiller CPU LGA1366 Rev. 3, proven to be the best!

Either the copper version

http://www.chilledpc.co.uk/shop/product_info.php?cPath=113_38&products_id=1167

or the LT

http://www.chilledpc.co.uk/shop/product_info.php?cPath=113_38&products_id=1076

 

[Gareth]

cheers Adam, will look into it. Have you watercooled yourself before then? as I have some questions I need answered if your up for it.

 

[Adam]

Yeah I watercooled my latest system last year.

Few details here

http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?417847-Watercooled-System-Updated&highlight=
http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?415048-My-System-Watercooled&highlight=

Fire away mate

 

[Gareth]

Ok, I've NEVER touched anything to do with watercooling before.

Which is better, barbs or compression?
What is your experience of watercooling? As a competant PC builder, I am going to get leaks having never touched watercooling before? Is it relatively maintainence free (once setup correctly) or not?
Would I be right in assuming there is nothing stopping me from setting the water loop up in a system that only has a PSU to test with? (i.e Pump, Rad, Reservoir, CPU Block)
What is the correct order for doing the watercooling installation? What testing should I do?
How tight do the fittings need to be? Finger tight? or tightened with tools?
How much liquid am I likely to need?

Cheers.

 

[Adam]

Answers below mate

Ok, I've NEVER touched anything to do with watercooling before.

Which is better, barbs or compression? - IMO with a single block loop barbs will be good enough. I used barbs and didnt have one issue
What is your experience of watercooling? As a competant PC builder, I am going to get leaks having never touched watercooling before? Is it relatively maintainence free (once setup correctly) or not? - Last year was the first time I had ever attepted a watercooled system. Once I read up on what I needed it was very easy. Didnt get one leak as I took my time and made sure all joints and seals were secure. Also, pretty much maintainence free, mine could really do with emptying the loop and re-filling as its been running for nearly 18 months. Though temps are still low and the pump and coolant look fine.
Would I be right in assuming there is nothing stopping me from setting the water loop up in a system that only has a PSU to test with? (i.e Pump, Rad, Reservoir, CPU Block) - yeah thats fine mate, I just used an old PSU and put a paper clip on the 2 crimps on the 24 pin adaptor so the PSU could be "jump started". Google will tell you which 2 pins you need to papercli together.
What is the correct order for doing the watercooling installation? What testing should I do? - As I had a built in res/pump (as you can see in my thread) my order is pump/res > rad > cpu block. IMO its best to get one built in unless you plan on installing a rad with a drain point. Its upto you really.
How tight do the fittings need to be? Finger tight? or tightened with tools? - the barbs onto the actual units i.e onto the CPU block were tightened with a tool just so it properly compresses the o-ring.
How much liquid am I likely to need? - Liquid wise, I used an all in one Non Conductive Coolant i.e

http://www.chilledpc.co.uk/shop/product_info.php?products_id=1857

Cheers.

Also mate, get on the chiiled Pc forums, great place and Tom the owner/operator is a great guy.

 

[Gareth]

cheers Adam.

How is the temp monitored? Do I need to buy some other device for monitoring the water temp?
I don't particularly want to get an all-in-one pump/reservoir, would rather go seperate. Whats this about a drain point?
What is the tool for tightening the barbs? Or are we just talking a spanner here?

 

[Adam]

Well as you can see in my thread (the updated one) I uses a temp probe that screws into the top of the res which connects to two pins on my mobo, this can then be read via any temp software in windows or on the LCD screen you get with the Asus extreme.

Drain point - some people build their loops specifically around their cases and run a drain point that comes of the res (gravity fed so res higher than the drain point). I have to remove one of the tubes from the outside rad if I want to drain my loop which doesn't bother me really.

Barbs - Yeah just a normal spanner/socket mate.

When you come to filling up and testing, as I say use an old PSU so you don't actually need to have your PC switch on and just have some towels ready near the joints just in case you have a leak, though the non conductive coolants are really good and shouldn't do anything if they get on any of your components.

 

[Gareth]

Ok thanks Adam, really helpful.

I've gone for the Corsair 800D case as I don't want to run anything outside of the case. I didn't think about a drain point, but I guess that's a must. I'm planning something along the lines of the following (any problems with this?):

Similar to this:

I'm guessing this one has a single reservoir/pump unit (how woud that be drained?)

The plan eventually is to later addon GPU and MB cooling in addition.

I notice your using barbs with clamps, I'm guessing your not totally trusting of the barbs alone?

 

[Gareth]

Looking around, perhaps its better to go with compression fittings and Tygon tubing?

 

[Adam]

Yeah that looks fine mate (your drawing), though I cant really see whats going on in that pic with regards to the res, I presume there is a drain point somewhere.

Yes, I've got clamps and barbs on all my fittings and I haven't had one single issue in over 18months of the system being used.

Just go with what ever feels right, obviously compression fittings and Tygon tubing is going to cost abit more.

 

[Gareth]

yeah I think I'll go with Tygon and compression.

 

[Adam]

Sound mate. You will have to put a thread up when your doing it. Give us a shout if you need any help.

 

[Gareth]

with regards to the drain, I'm assuming all I need is a seperate piece of tubing coming off the reservoir to act as a draining point (that's what I've tried to illustrate)

A bit like this (although this isn't done with tubing):