i7 build choices, please critique

[muddocktor]

Hey everyone, I'm thinking of upgrading my main system to an i7 build and have picked out some components. I would like you all to critique my choices, especially the motherboard and ram choices as I'm not up to speed on i7. This is what I've put together so far for my proposed system:

cpu - i7 920

mobo - BIOSTAR TpowerX58

ram - OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

vid card - EVGA 01G-P3-1281-AR GeForce GTX 285

OS - Vista Ultimate SP1 - Retail

The total for all this stuff comes out to around $1295 shipped.

And a question on the OS. I have the Vista Ultimate Retail chosen but the retail upgrade version of Ultimate is around $50 cheaper. Can you move the Upgrade retail to a new rebuild of your system like you can with the regular retail Ultimate?

The 2 main items I'm not sure on are the ram and the motherboard. I have no DDR3 experience and the OCZ kit I linked seems to have pretty good timings for the price. Is it a good kit though for the 920? And the Biostar board; how well are they doing as far as problems with the i7 platform? I have some Biostar board experience, but it all dates back to AMD socket 939 boards and nothing for the Intel platforms.

For cooling, I will just migrate my present loop to the new system. I have a Fuzion v.1 and the MCW60 on my 8800GTS. The Fuzion will be no problem to migrate since D-Tek has finally come out with an i7 adapter mount. But I'm not positive on whether I can migrate the MCW60 over to the 285. I guess I will have to research that some more and also have to buy some ram and vrm coolers for the new vid card too.

I'm looking to start ordering parts in the next few weeks.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[juane414]

I can't answer your questions about the motherboard or the ram, but I can answer your OS question I think. I previously moved a retail upgrade version of Vista Home Premium between computers. I had no issue doing this and the software didn't attempt to inhibit the installation at all. As I understand the EULA, any retail version is not permanently tied to any system and can be moved to a new one as long as it is first uninstalled from the original machine.

I can't really say anything about DDR3 from personal experience, but I can say that I've used a number of very solid Biostar boards. Based on what I've seen about that Biostar board I would say that it looks like a winner.

 

[Aynjell]

I'd reccomend the Asus P6T Deluxe (v1, NOT V2). All the boards perform equivelently. Also the P6T has the sas controller, most other boards don't (the eclipse does). For the same price, the P6T is a better board. BUT, if you intend to do 3 way sli it's a non option (the P6T deluxe).

DO NOT get the P6T deluxe V2, get the P6T Deluxe.

Read the following article. It basically finds that the P6T deluxe is the best board available and the marell sas controller does a lot of things right performance wise. It's the board I'd get (TM). Since I've got 2 VR300GB, it's paramount. I have to get that board for my raid 0 main drive. I'd read up on other boards, after some more reading I cna't find anything that says the marvell is better than the onboard stuff, but I know it's better than the other stuff out there. I'd double check and make sure... I'd either go eVGA or

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3471

Also, when you go to order, make sure you bundle the CPU with the OS, or the OS with the motherboard. It ends up shaving about 50$ off the price. Get teh OEM version, in the end it's cheaper. A lot cheaper. Check this! That saves you 100$ on your order right off the bat.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.162080

In my cart, this came to 1174. For a better board, and the same OS, that's a good deal. personally, I'd skip the 285 and either move to the 295, or get a GTX 260 core 216. The difference between a 216 and a 285 is just rediculously small and not worth the extra cost unless you're running a huge display.

I've been researching this issue a lot lately, but I'm upgrading in small pieces, just got my raid 0 array pieced together, next step is a newer PSU... after that I'll be buying this combo myself minus the video card and os. Seriously, consider the 216 over the 285. it's just not that big of a jump to warrant the cost. As for the memory, I can research the issue in full for both of us and come back to you, but seriouosly, the P6T deluxe is the board to get. Get the OC palm if you like that sort of thing, it's only another 39$ and it's kind of flashy.

Always shop the combos, by the way. On a build like this, if you followed my tips you're already saving a 120 dollars, by bundling the memory with the board and bundling the os with the CPU that's 120.

Okay, did some memory research and OCZ appears to be an okay choice.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/triple-channel-ddr3-i7,2128.html <-- Read this if you need some ideas of where to start looking, the OCZ intel i7 branded memory did okay.
According to that review, this stuff is as good as it gets ,but it doesn't overclock that much farther. It hit the highest speeds, and seems to be the best value of all the memory, better value than the crucial ballistix, even.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104084

Also, for the 216, get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130448

Comes with a nice game. Mirror's edge is one of the better new releases.

 

[muddocktor]

I can't answer your questions about the motherboard or the ram, but I can answer your OS question I think. I previously moved a retail upgrade version of Vista Home Premium between computers. I had no issue doing this and the software didn't attempt to inhibit the installation at all. As I understand the EULA, any retail version is not permanently tied to any system and can be moved to a new one as long as it is first uninstalled from the original machine.

I can't really say anything about DDR3 from personal experience, but I can say that I've used a number of very solid Biostar boards. Based on what I've seen about that Biostar board I would say that it looks like a winner.

Thanks for the advice about the retail Upgrade version. I think I'll get it instead of the full retail version then and save myself some $.

I'd reccomend the Asus P6T Deluxe (v1, NOT V2). All the boards perform equivelently. Also the P6T has the sas controller, most other boards don't (the eclipse does). For the same price, the P6T is a better board. BUT, if you intend to do 3 way sli it's a non option (the P6T deluxe).

DO NOT get the P6T deluxe V2, get the P6T Deluxe.

Read the following article. It basically finds that the P6T deluxe is the best board available and the marell sas controller does a lot of things right performance wise. It's the board I'd get (TM). Since I've got 2 VR300GB, it's paramount. I have to get that board for my raid 0 main drive. I'd read up on other boards, after some more reading I cna't find anything that says the marvell is better than the onboard stuff, but I know it's better than the other stuff out there. I'd double check and make sure... I'd either go eVGA or

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3471

Also, when you go to order, make sure you bundle the CPU with the OS, or the OS with the motherboard. It ends up shaving about 50$ off the price. Get teh OEM version, in the end it's cheaper. A lot cheaper. Check this! That saves you 100$ on your order right off the bat.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.162080

In my cart, this came to 1174. For a better board, and the same OS, that's a good deal. personally, I'd skip the 285 and either move to the 295, or get a GTX 260 core 216. The difference between a 216 and a 285 is just rediculously small and not worth the extra cost unless you're running a huge display.

I've been researching this issue a lot lately, but I'm upgrading in small pieces, just got my raid 0 array pieced together, next step is a newer PSU... after that I'll be buying this combo myself minus the video card and os. Seriously, consider the 216 over the 285. it's just not that big of a jump to warrant the cost. As for the memory, I can research the issue in full for both of us and come back to you, but seriouosly, the P6T deluxe is the board to get. Get the OC palm if you like that sort of thing, it's only another 39$ and it's kind of flashy.

Always shop the combos, by the way. On a build like this, if you followed my tips you're already saving a 120 dollars, by bundling the memory with the board and bundling the os with the CPU that's 120.

Okay, did some memory research and OCZ appears to be an okay choice.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/triple-channel-ddr3-i7,2128.html <-- Read this if you need some ideas of where to start looking, the OCZ intel i7 branded memory did okay.
According to that review, this stuff is as good as it gets ,but it doesn't overclock that much farther. It hit the highest speeds, and seems to be the best value of all the memory, better value than the crucial ballistix, even.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104084

Also, for the 216, get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130448

Comes with a nice game. Mirror's edge is one of the better new releases.

I had read that article some time ago at Anandtech, but it's been a few months since that article was written and they didn't even review the Biostar board. As for the SAS with the P6T Dlx, I'm really not interested in that (not a priority for me). But I'm glad you said something because it just made me look at the Biostar board again and I noticed that it doesn't have ps2 connectors for both keyboard and mouse, just for the keyboard. And since I use a kvm, that's a big no-no for me. So out with the Biostar. And looking at the P6T Dlx, it's the same thing and just has 1 ps2 port. So I guess it's ruled out too. And I did bundle the board and processor; I just linked them like I did to show my choices. And yes, the bundle does save some cash. As the OS, I will stick with the retail versions this time. I figure it will be less hassle down the road if M$ starts getting crappy about activations down the road when I upgrade components. My machines rarely stay the same for more than a year. The present setup has been the same for about a year now and I feel the need to upgrade and get more Seti crunching power. And i7 definitely is a seti crunching beast.

For other motherboard choices, I am looking at the GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 and the DFI LP UT X58-T3eH8. Both of those boards have 2 ps2 ports on them for my kvm useage and both seem to be pretty nice boards.

As for the vid card, I'm not a big gamer, but they have gotten some CUDA drivers for the BOINC Seti apps now and I crunch with my present 8800GTS. So I am interested in the improved CUDA performance the 200 series will bring to the table. But you are right in that the 260 will save me a bunch of money over a 285 and I might just go that route. I'm not sure, but I bet that CUDA doesn't fall off badly between a 285 and a 260/216 and that will save quite a bit of money.

 

[wingman99]

When you use the windows upgrade version do you have to have the previous windows on the hard drive.

 

[muddocktor]

I've never had to have it installed before Vista. Just had to have a qualifying OS disk handy. And I've heard that there is a way around that with Vista too (but I can't talk about it here as it's against our piracy/cracks policies).

Google is your friend.

 

[Drew1Down]

dump the biostar (thou they do make good boards, there x58 has yet to be tested or reviewed as its new) asus, gigabite or evga would be my top 3 for mobo. ocz plat is highly rated in i7 builds next to the cors dominator. love the video card, fastest single on the market.

i don't think you can move your WC to your new video card, the 55nm is layed out differently then your 8800, google a water block that people have fit on the 285 (good luck)

 

[muddocktor]

Drew1Down, the MCW60 isn't a full coverage waterblock. It's a gpu block. All I have to do is get the Swfitech GTX200 memory/vrm sink for it and I'm good to go. But I think I might just buy another MCW60 block anyways and keep the old 8800GTS watercooled to do CUDA work in another machine.. And the Biostar, Asus and EVGA boards are already out of the running as they only have 1 ps2 input for keyboard only. Since I run off a 4 port kvm switch that uses ps2 ports to hook up the keyboard and mouse to 4 different computers, I have to have 2 ps2 ports on the board. So that leaves me just the Gigabyte and DFI boards to choose from, of all the X58 boards I've looked at the last few days. You would think that when the mobo manufacturers are charging $250+ for the boards they wouldn't try to cheap out by leaving a 50 cent ps2 port off the mobo.

 

[ou_phidelt]

Have you tried PS2->USB adaptors. I have seen various levels of success. Just an option you may want to try to open your choices up a bit.

 

[muddocktor]

Have you tried PS2->USB adaptors. I have seen various levels of success. Just an option you may want to try to open your choices up a bit.

You aren't talking about the green things they ship with keyboards and mice, huh? But rather a true adapter? Because I haven't ever seen one of those. Can you link me up with what you are talking about?

EDIT: Never mind on the linkage, I found them on Newegg. I guess that is an option then and they are not expensive either.

 

[Enablingwolf]

On the ps2. Don't feel bad about that. I got a board that has no PCI slots and most of the legacy I/O connections are not there.

One way to find a good pick for a board is to look how much RAM max it can handle. One thing I found out running 12 gigs. Is that you just cannot run out of room and you are very much open to the option of running RAMDISKS. It is cheaper to run that instead of SSD. Plus it does not have that pesky slow down issue. Plus you can run many more VM's and /or folding clients with a buttload of RAM.
The i7 offers much more opportunity to utilize the large amounts of RAM. All that extra bandwidth is very nice. Even if the initial build may not warrant it. Later on on you might want that option for 16gigs(+). As crazy as it sounds. Not long ago most were chiming in, 2gigs was more than enough, even overkill. Now 4-6gigs is standard around these parts.
It will give it a little headroom having the berth of more RAM headroom. As the prices of DDR3 drop.

 

[muddocktor]

I decided to order my vid card just now and ordered one of those PS2->USB adaptors while I was at it. Since I have another Asus board that only has 1 ps2 port for the keyboard and it's on another kvm, I figured I'd give it a try and see how well it works on that system. That way I can lose the second mouse on that desk if it works well.

I ended up ordering an EVGA GTX260/216, the 55nm version. I also have my watercooling components for it too coming in. I will hold off on ordering the mobo and processor for at least a few weeks, until I am sure what mobo I will end up wanting.