My Newest Build Review! Please Critique/Compare/Comment

[Brettfavor]

I just finished my newest build about two weeks ago and I have to say this is BY FAR my favorite build to date. That is saying a lot because my last build I liked a lot too minus the seagate barracuda 1TB hdd's.

Previous Build:
ABIT IP35 Pro
e8400
MSI 8800GT
4 x 2GB Mushkin Redline RAM
APEVIA 700w PSU
2 x 1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD
Zalman 9700 HSF
CoolerMaster Cosmos Case

New Build:
i7 920
ASUS P6T Deluxe v2
3 x 2GB DDR 1600 OCZ
XFX GTX 260 Black Edition x 2
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w PSU (I LOVE this PSU)
3 x 1TB WD Black
Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme w/ 2 scythe slipstreams
CoolerMaster CM690 Case
LG 6x Bluray Burner
(Future) 120GB SDD


i7 290:

Can't go wrong here. Don't have much to say it does what it is supposed to and you all have seen enough reviews on it. I must say I got a pretty good batch though because my voltages and temps are on the lower end compared to what I've seen overclocking wise and I am still tweaking it.

ASUS P6T Deluxe v2

I like this motherboard a lot actually. I wasn't expecting much because it was lower end and I really wanted to spring for the ASUS Rampage II Extreme or even better EVGA Classified. I really wanted to get an EVGA just because I have been a user for awhile and I love the way EVGA's OC and their programs, but the lower end EVGA for th LGA1366 frankly suck.
I like the look of the motherboard; the black looks nice. Performance/OC wise it is great. I do have to mention the ASUS overclocking system is VERY different than the ABIT/EVGA boards I have had in the past and it actually took me a bit to figure them out completely, but this isn't a con just me being dumb.

I do have a few gripes though. Firstly the SLI setup is kinda off. I was able to fix my 2 XFX GTX260 Black Editions in there, but I had to skip a spot and cover up another spot. This won't allow me to use my SATA contoller for xbox 360 flashing which kinda sucks, but I have an extra PC for that and I run x64 anyways (flashing programs won't work in x64 yet).
Also it only has 6 on board sata ports; enough for most people, but I have 2 writers and several hdd's so next I would like to upgrade to a few SDD's, but I won't be able to without fitting a sata controller in somehow.

Also two of the six sata ports are vertical to the motherboard instead of horizontal off the side. I have seen people complain about the horizontal off the side sata inputs, but I LOVE them personally just for the Cable Management. If you have 8 horizontal sata inputs and short 4"-6" sata cables you have a lot less cable to hide.

Overall I'd give it a 8/10. Good board, but could be better.


3 x 2GB OCZ DDR3 1600 RAM

Again not much to say. It overclocks decent and I was able to get my timings to stay at 8-8-8-24 so can't complain. I also got these for free so yeah.


XFX GTX 260 Black Edition x 2

Very good graphics card. Overclock decently. I am sick of hearing people say this card crashes because I haven't had a single problem with these and I have messed with them in 5 different builds now for friends/family.
Guess it might happen, but 5/5 ain't bad.

One gripe about this card is it gets HOT! Not crazy temps, but higher than other cards. I don't put in door fans ever, but I went ahead and added one just to keep temps down for these.

Again both these were free so I can't complain too much.

8.5/10

BFG is BY FAR the best graphics card company and if I was going to buy them myself I would go with BFG because I always buy them and have never had anything but complete success.


OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w PSU

Can I say, "I LOVE this PSU!". It's awesome. Mostly because ALL the cables are optional except the 20+4 pin, 8 pin, and 4 pin connectors. I have heard people gripe about the 8 pin connector being too short and it will be if you try to wrap it around the motherboard it will be. But I always run the 8 pin underneath the motherboard try anyways. You can also remove the 4 pin connector (because you most like won't need it) with a bit of ingenuity and work. Although I wouldn't recommend that for beginners.

The rest of the connectors you just plug in when you need them. I have always wanted a power supply with this feature because I am anal about cable management and cutting off the wire guard every new PSU you get and then re-doing it and hiding all the extra 100 cables in a 1000w PSU sucks ****.

This PSU performs PERFECTLY! Does every I ask and more and the Cable Management feature puts it over the top.

Again normally I buy Corsair Power Supplies because they are the best, but as far as I know Corsair doesn't make a PSU like this one.

12/10

Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme

I personally think this is the best HSF out there and I have tested them all, well almost. I liked the Zalman 9700, but it was ugly. I REALLY liked the Tuniq Tower. I liked the XIGMATEK Dark Knight as well.

I know you will say the TRUE 120 Copper is better than the Ultra 120, but in my experience it provides ZERO advantage in cooling and is ugly copper colored and heavy as hell.

This is all opinion though. You can't go wrong with any of those HSF's cooling wise. True 120 Copper and Ultra 120 are the best though.

10/10


Cooler Master CM690

This is a great case. I like it a lot better than the Cosmos because the Cosmos was too huge for my taste. I also like it because it isn't all moddy looking. I like the clean look and this has it.

I never had gotten into case modding because I just buy a clean looking case and keep it tidy as hell looking with good cable management. But I think I am going to with this one. A few things I am thinking about are either painting the inside all black or coating it with black plasti-dip. Probably go with Plasti-Dip just to keep fan noise down too. I also am going to cut some bigger holes for cable management.

I am debating on whether or not I should put in a window in the side panel because I hate side panels with fan slots. They are just off-putting and I never use the damn slots anyways.

I might just bondo over the fan mesh's and smooth it out and re-paint it too. Because again i am not a big fan of the moddy look. I even removed the blue LED fan from the front and replaced all the internal fans with Scythe SlipStreams. They are the best fans out by the way if you combine cooling power with silence. If you add a little Thermaltake sound deadening strips in your case around the fans you can't hear **** out of this case and it is Mostly mesh for god's sake.



Really this is my favorite build to date. I haven't had one issue. It stays cool. It overclocks well. It is clean as hell looking. It's just great.


Things I would change:

I would get the EVGA Classified motherboard.

I would get BFG GTX 295 GPU's.


But since I got the ASUS P6T Deluxe v2 and XFX GTX 260 Black Edition's for free and they are doing their jobs I can't complain.


Future Plans:

In about a month I am going to start my first water cooling project. I was told most of the parts would be for free and if that is the case here is that build.

i7 975 Extreme Edition

EVGA Classified Hydro

BFG GTX 295 Hydro-Plated x 3

G.SKILL Perfect Storm 2GB x 6

Thermaltake ToughPower 1200w PSU

The do a similar watercooling setup that you see here with the CM690:

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/922/1002851kv1.jpg

But that is for another day.






Please comment, critique, thank, flame, praise, whatever you feel.

Thanks for reading my incredibly long post. Hope it helps some people about to buy and entertains others.

 

[SeasonalEclipse]

Do you really need the blue ray burner? If you dont id get a dvd burner for a fraction of the price then wait for blue ray to drop in price. It should drop fairly quickly over the next year.

 

[nzaneb]

Looks like a nice rig, got any pic's?
1 comment on your Future Plans

Future Plans:
....
BFG GTX 295 Hydro-Plated x 3

This would provide no benefit to anything other than a distributed computing rig, as you cannot Tri-SLI 295's.

 

[burebista]

That PSU is just a decent one, there are much better PSU's around (performance wise).
Some temps from RealTemp after 30 minues of prime95 Small FFTs? Or some CPU/GPU's temps after 30 minutes of PSU test from OCCT?

BFG is BY FAR the best graphics card company

Neah, all are the same, it differs only from stickers and bundle. Of course for reference models because I'm not a fan of OC'ed versions (I have RivaTuner for free).

 

[jason4207]

Do you really need the blue ray burner? If you dont id get a dvd burner for a fraction of the price then wait for blue ray to drop in price. It should drop fairly quickly over the next year.

There are BR-ROMS going for close to $50 now. Saw it on Slickdeals yesterday.

I don't see a need for a BR-burner w/ the blank optical media being so expensive, but I kinda want a ROM for playback.

 

[Boulard83]

You cant 3sli GTX295. But you can still use the 3rd one for a dual or another screen but ... you could be ok with a 9800GT

I would grab 3X GTX285. This is the MOST powerfull SLI GPU that you can have right now.

Can you just wait for GT300 and 3 sli those ?

P.S. nice rig !

 

[Badbonji]

You mean GTX295 Mars Quad sli?

 

[Boulard83]

I mean this :

3xGTX285 > 2xGTX295 > 2x GTX285 > GTX295 > GTX285

Dont put the MARS into it ... its a limited edition and i dont think its gona hit the real market.

 

[MongGrel]

Looks about identical to what I'm setting up in here soon as my 1336 TRUE holder arrives,
I forgot that one heh.

Got the same MOBO, CPU, Cooler,and RAM at any rate.

I'd been wanting to try out a Antec CP-850 and got one of those to stick in the 1200 though

Need to revamp a few case things in here too once I get that one going, my wire routing pretty bad atm, gonna clean some stuff up.

That and try to migrate my 4870x2 and RAID card into this and the other stuff, might take a bit of work.

 

[Brettfavor]

Neah, all are the same, it differs only from stickers and bundle.

I could NOT disagree more. Way of base here.



The Tri-SLI is a mistype. I meant BFG GTX 295 x 2.

I doubt you could fit 3 GTX 295's in a CM690 anyways and I am sticking with that case in my water cooling build.



I got the BluRay burner because I get free BluRay media. Pure and Simple.

Also you can get 15 25GB blank BluRay's for $70 now. That is only $4.66 a piece which isn't bad at all. They are memorex and I haven't had a coaster yet out of about 50 burns.


I haven't stabilized my CPU overclock yet so I can't comment on the temps just yet.

As for the GPU temps they get up to 85C but I have the fan on 85%.

When I say the card is hot I just mean it stays around 55-60C just idling. I could turn the fan up more, but I am all about keeping things silent.


Thanks for all the comments/responses. As for the Tri-SLI GTX 295 that was mistype, but I have heard Tri and Quad SLI will be supported VERY soon for that card.

 

[jason4207]

I could NOT disagree more. Way of base here.



The Tri-SLI is a mistype. I meant BFG GTX 295 x 2.

I doubt you could fit 3 GTX 295's in a CM690 anyways and I am sticking with that case in my water cooling build.



I got the BluRay burner because I get free BluRay media. Pure and Simple.

Also you can get 15 25GB blank BluRay's for $70 now. That is only $4.66 a piece which isn't bad at all. They are memorex and I haven't had a coaster yet out of about 50 burns.


I haven't stabilized my CPU overclock yet so I can't comment on the temps just yet.

As for the GPU temps they get up to 85C but I have the fan on 85%.

When I say the card is hot I just mean it stays around 55-60C just idling. I could turn the fan up more, but I am all about keeping things silent.


Thanks for all the comments/responses. As for the Tri-SLI GTX 295 that was mistype, but I have heard Tri and Quad SLI will be supported VERY soon for that card.

The GTX295 will never support Tri-SLI. There's no way to add 2's to get 3. It already supports Quad-SLI. Putting 2 GTX295's together is Quad-SLI as each card has 2 GPUs.

If you're talking about Six-SLI using 3 GTX295's...well that won't work either as there is only 1 SLI connector on each card, and you need to have 2 connectors to connect 3 cards. Each card has to have a direct SLI connection to every other card.

I can't see them redesigning the card w/ 2 SLI connectors as that market is minuscule.



Why is BFG better than the rest?


HDDs are cheaper per GB, faster, more convenient, and re-writable. BR discs may be OK for archiving, but I wouldn't trust them completely over time as I've had other optical media degrade.

 

[burebista]

I could NOT disagree more. Way of base here.

Man sorry to shake your world but all nVidia cards are manufactured by Flextronics or Foxconn. For reference cards they are all the same regardless what brand you see on the sticker. The only difference is bundle and warranty.
Indeed special editions with non-reference PCB/cooling/frequencies are made specifically for a brand but like I said I'm not a fan of those because I love my free RivaTuner.

 

[Brettfavor]

I have heard several people mention the possibility of Tri-SLI. I won't argue it's merit or anything though.


As for the HDD being cheaper per GB; that's true, but like I said I get BD-R media for free so that doesn't apply to me. Also I currently don't have another sata port to add another HDD until I upgrade and an extra sata card won't fit on this board with SLI going.

I get it I was a BIG proponent of just get more HDD's, but the portability of media is the main reason people do it. I have ethernet in my walls so I stream every where, but streaming HD really isn't very realistic for most people.

My PC isn't in the same room as ANY television so if I couldn't stream as easy as I can(which most people can't) I would willing to pay a little extra to be able to watch my HD stuff ANYWHERE I wanted instead of just on my PC.

I get what you are saying, but it just doesn't apply to me.


BFG's are better because they are reliable, overclockable, and have GREAT customers support. The best.

If you read around I would say that most long term modders/OCers go with BFG GPU's time and time again for those reasons.

To the they all are the same argument that couldn't be further from the truth. Customer support alone separates the top companies from the rest. You might not think that is a big deal, but wait til you've been in the game awhile. When you get 3 dead cards and they are going to be out of stock for a month and instead of making you wait the company sends you 3 of their higher priced cards for free and gives you 50% off your next purchase. When another company would just say well you will have to wait.

This is just my opinion, but I think if you look around most long term guys would agree with BFG. I'm not saying there aren't other good companies. I like EVGA and MSI alot personally too. Even ASUS is good, but BFG just stands above the rest for me.

 

[Brettfavor]

Man sorry to shake your world but all nVidia cards are manufactured by Flextronics or Foxconn. For reference cards they are all the same regardless what brand you see on the sticker. The only difference is bundle and warranty.
Indeed special editions with non-reference PCB/cooling/frequencies are made specifically for a brand but like I said I'm not a fan of those because I love my free RivaTuner.

Like I said....CUSTOMER SUPPORT!

That is like saying a toyota and lexus are the same. Yeah they are made by the same company and have the same parts for the most part, but those little upgrades make a Lexus and Lexus.

 

[jason4207]

Not everybody can stream everywhere (like you and I), but not everyone has access to free BR discs either.

I like having all my data in 1 place and I can run cables anywhere (used to do it for a living).

All my PCs are set up w/ the My Docs folder pointed to the file server. It's so convenient for anyone in the family to get on any PC to add pics/vids/movies and you can also see all those pics/vids/movies from any PC/TV in the house.

Overall it is the best solution IMO, but if you don't have the skills or money to pay for it I admit it can be too cumbersome to implement.

I've only dealt w/ eVGA's customer support so far, and it was excellent. From my reading I think BFG and eVGA are the best. I don't know if 1 is better than the other.