JAB - Just Another Build Looking for Your Approval

Hello All,

I am about pull the trigger on a new gaming rig, and wanted to get everyone's thoughts first. I have already purchased my Core i7 860, so need to have the 920 vs. 860 discussion.

My biggest concerns are:

• Is my power supply suficient for all of my components?
• Is my memory fast enough to do some mild overclocking (I will be mostly relying on Turbo Boost)?
• Will my CPU cooler keep my Core I7 860 cool even when I use Turbo Boost?

Here are my components:

Intel Core i7 860 (already purchased for $250)
Blu Ray DVD Drive (already own)
Western Digital 640GB hard drive (already own)

KINGWIN Mach 1 ABT-700MA1S 700W ATX Power Supply
Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache
MSI N275GTX TwinFrozr OC GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit GDDR3
Plextor DVD burner
Antec 900 Two Case
EVGA P55 SLI 132-LF-E655-KR LGA1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard
G.SKILL Trident 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000)
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler

And all of this will cost me $1070.

I look forward to your feedback.

Thanks,
GamingDaemon

I personally dont liek PSUs like that. They seem cheaply made and i never heard of that brand.

$5 more you can get a 750 tx
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006&Tpk=750tx

^ +1 on the PSU upgrade (quality-wise, for sure).
Anybody not buying an ATi 5850 in that price bracket is just being foolish.
Switching to an ATi card also lends itself to switching mobos (no SLi required). Something like THIS or THIS are both solid boards.
That ram kit should leave you plenty of headroom for some serious OCing.

chevro1et said:

^ +1 on the PSU upgrade (quality-wise, for sure).
Anybody not buying an ATi 5850 in that price bracket is just being foolish.
Switching to an ATi card also lends itself to switching mobos (no SLi required). Something like THIS or THIS are both solid boards.
That ram kit should leave you plenty of headroom for some serious OCing.

Click to expand...

I'm with you on the 5850, but why switch mobos? I don't plan to do SLI or XFire.

In othe words, I know that I am never going to use two video cards, so I am not interested in either SLI or XFire.

With that in mind, would you still recommend purchasing one of the Gigabyte mobos, or is the EGA mobo still a better mobo?

GamingDaemon said:

In othe words, I know that I am never going to use two video cards, so I am not interested in either SLI or XFire.

With that in mind, would you still recommend purchasing one of the Gigabyte mobos, or is the EGA mobo still a better mobo?

Click to expand...

Any thoughts on the mobo question?

chevro1et said:

Anybody not buying an ATi 5850 in that price bracket is just being foolish.

Click to expand...

This is true.

As true as "The sky is blue"


Nvidia 2XX series has been utterly buried by Ati 5xxx series.

These things happen.

Ati 5xxx series is the absolute best bang for buck. If you buy a GPU today, you have no choice. It's the only logical decision.

MOBO:

Are you overclocking? If you aren't overclocking, bleh.

It doesn't matter very much. As long as you have polymer caps, reasonably high number of powerphases using quality components and good contstruction, any mainstream board will do you fine.

Remember the P55 chipset ONLY SUPPORTS 16 PCIE lanes standard. Any additional lanes require an independant controller.

The CPU cooler is fine for standard clocks. If you wanna OC, it's a little pithy. Xigmatek's Thor's hammer=sweet ***. Add 2 120mm fans to it. I say this assuming, but not knowing, if infact, an LGA1156 bracket EXISTS for it. So... take that with a grain of salt.

Personally, I suggest you get the highest quality single slot solution you can find with the best beefiest cooling on the chipset and mosfets. Get a high airflow case going and OC.

Also, LOOK at DFI, Biostar, MSI, and Foxconn's high end P55 offerings. I'm not saying buy them- look at them. DFI, Biostar, and MSI have always made excellent stuff and never get the mass market respect they deserve. Foxconn's stuff is starting to really really impress me at a reasonable and often excellent price.

GamingDaemon said:

Any thoughts on the mobo question?

Click to expand...

Well ,the mobo you had initially selected was an SLi board, and the vid card was an nVidia, so I just assumed that you were thinking SLi down the road. If you only need one PCIE slot, look at boards that offer just one slot... saves a few bucks. EVGA, Gigabyte are really popular these days (very solid build quality and OCing options) but dont discount MSI, DFI, Foxxconn, ASRock (yep, I said it) as they all have quality products, but just not in the forefront of popularity lately.

Thanks Theocnoob and Chevro1et!

Here's what I decided to do:

I got an OCZ Summit 60GB SSD for $240.

And I switched up to the MSI P55 GD80 for $210.

I kept the Xigmatek 1283. We'll see how it works on the 860.

Here's my final purchase:

Antec 900 Two
MSI P55 GD80
Corsair 750W PSU
G.Skill Trident 4GB PC3 16000
Core i7 860
Xigmatek 1283
OCZ Vertex Series 60GB
Plextor DVD Burner
HIS Radeon 5850 video card (had to go to ZipZoomFly to get it)

What do you guys think?

^looks pretty darn solid to me, should be a beast once you start OCing it

chevro1et said:

^looks pretty darn solid to me, should be a beast once you start OCing it

Click to expand...

Well, try as I may, I simply could not find a Radeon 5850 online or in a store.



So, I had to settle for a Diamond Radeon 5870 from Frys. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.