New gaming rig

Hey guys,

Been looking into a new gaming PC to support 4 monitors (for photoshop and website layouts). I've cobbled together some parts to build it myself but as I work full time I don't have that much time to look at reviews/prices and other options.

If you could review and/or upgrade and swap bits in and out of my current configuration, it would be much appretiated. My current budget is about £1600 and this is what I have so far.

- Intel Core i7-975 EX 3.33GHz LGA1366

- Asus S1366 Intel X58 ATX A L

- Corsair Memory Corsair 3GB 1600MHz DDR3 CL8

- XFX GeForce GTX 260 680Mhz 896MB PCI-Express DVI Black Edition (x2)

- XFX 850W Black Edition Single Rail Modular Power Supply

- Antec Black Twelve Hundred Tower Case ATX no PSU

- Zalman Heatpipe CPU cooler with quiet 110mm blue LED fan

- Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200rpm SATA 3Gb/s 32MB

Which took me to £1606.80, will be taking other bits from old system such as network card, and another hard drvie etc. Just using this as a base.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, this is just the base and the budget for it, I have all 4 monitors already.

Thanks

Ben

Mouse1989:

- Corsair Memory Corsair 3GB 1600MHz DDR3 CL8

Make sure the memory that you are using for this board is on the QVL list as mentioned HERE (**Due to Intel spec definition, DIMMs of DDR3-1333 or above are out of spec. Please refer to www.asus.com or user manual for the Memory QVL(Qualified Vendors List)). Welcome to HotHardware, Ben!

Wrong Section bud.

If you don't plan on over clocking I would stick with the stock cooler and save a few bucks.

You could probably save a few bucks on the CPU too, and get a better PSU and maybe some more RAM.

I'd go with a 6GB kit. I like my muskin ram :-) I wouldn't consider XFX real reliable source for a PSU. Maybe go with a Corsair, Antec, PC Power and Cooler(those are a bit pricier tho) Thermaltake make a solid PSU. Ultra has some good stuff as well.

Those XFX cards are probably a decent bit more expensive than a non OC'd Core 216 card. I'd go with a MSI GTX260 Core 216 card. They are generally cheaper than most other brands, but still really good quality. I've used they're cards before and was pleased :-).

Firstly, sorry for wrong section.

I do plan to overclock, not massively but a fair bit. Reckon I should have mentioned that :/

I'll take a look at a few better PSUs, thanks for your sugessstions on makes.

EDIT: Took a look at a few others and some reviews but came across this;

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=165

Seems to be a lot of hype about it, they've taken their skills at producing motherboards and graphics cards and made a heafty ol' PSU. I reckon I'll stick with it for the time being.

Is there much difference between the XFX and the MSI GTX260 Core 216, in terms of clock/ cooling or stability.

Mouse1989:

Is there much difference between the XFX and the MSI GTX260 Core 216, in terms of clock/ cooling or stability.

Can't answer the clock/cooling or stability question, but XFX does have a great 'double-lifetime' warranty...at least for North America. 

I would go with the XFX over the MSI for the GPU.  As for ram, I would highly recommend atleast 6gigs or even a 12gb set.  If you use photoshop heavily, you will want more ram.  Although photoshop cs4 now gets aid from your graphics cards.  As for your Powersupply, I would highly recommend the Corsair line, however I don't see anything wrong with the XFX one, why not give it a shot.  One more thing, which cpu cooler is the zalman?  aka what model?

Also, on a side note.  You can use sli despite having 4 monitors.  you pick which monitor it has priority on.

Ah I see... well I would still definitely get a cheaper i7 Chip. Those Extreme Editions are almost 4 times as much as the 920 and all you get is a higher stock speed and an unlocked multiplier... Given you're only going to do mild over clocking... it's not worth it... the extreme editions are for Extreme over clocking! Save money on the CPU and spend it somewhere else... maybe even better vid cards.

The XFX cards are clocked higher... by like 30mhz I think. You honestly wont be able to tell the difference in such a small over clock. If you want to stick with the XFX brand, get one that isn't factory over clocked. You get charged a lot for just a small over clock that you could safely do yourself.

acarzt:

Those Extreme Editions are almost 4 times as much as the 920 and all you get is a higher stock speed and an unlocked multiplier... Given you're only going to do mild over clocking... it's not worth it... the extreme editions are for Extreme over clocking! Save money on the CPU and spend it somewhere else... maybe even better vid cards.

Holy smokes, I totally overlooked the CPU! If THIS is the one you are going to buy, Ben, you must really have the $$$ (£££) to spend! I agree with acarzt!

acarzt:

The XFX cards are clocked higher... by like 30mhz I think. You honestly wont be able to tell the difference in such a small over clock. If you want to stick with the XFX brand, get one that isn't factory over clocked. You get charged a lot for just a small over clock that you could safely do yourself.

Also,  in addition to what he said, those overclocked cards are iffy, many of them arrive with artifacts because the overclocks weren't done correctly.

Hey guys,

Thanks for all of your replies and help.

After reading through it all and taking note, I have decided on a shift around using your help :)

2x XFX GeForce GTX 260 576Mhz Standard 896MB

XFX 850W PSU

Antec 1200 case

(due to your comments, have now decided on 6GB Corsair RAM)

Either the Intel Core i7-950 3.06GHz, or the Intel Nehalem i7 940 2.93GHz, (your comments appreciated/much difference for the same(ish) price?, also thanks for saving me like £300)

Asus S1366 Intel X58 ATX A L (considering upgrading to a deluxe with money saved from CPU?)

And finally, cooling, it seemed I overlooked the size of the Zalman  and it would not fit the socket.

And lastly, if you have any extra time. I've done a few checks and overlooks but anyone fancy checking whether everything would fit the motherboard, taking into account the XFX cards are pretty massive.

Many thanks again.

Ben

As for the cpu's that you mentioned, the 940 is being replaced by the 950.  That is why they are similar in price.  That being said, I would go with the 950.  I can get back to you on the rest that you have asked.

I'm not sure which Asus board you are referring to. But Asus does make quality products.

I personally went with an EVGA board since it has a Lifetime warranty and a lot of great features. EVGA E758-A1 if you're interested.

The only clearence issues you would have with your vid cards would be with the SATA connectors or the Case... But since most MB's these days have SATA connectors facing sideways, it's not an issue. And since the Antec 1200 is a full tower case... you should have no problems there either.

Check out my profile to see a few pics of my system. I think I did a rather good job with the cable management... notice there are NO cables run over the MB ;-)

Of course those pics are before I stuck in my HDDs and my CPU cooler, but I can assure you it still looks very clean... actually cleaner. lol

The cooler I am using is the Domino A.L.C(or ACL, not sure) It is a self contained water cooling solution. It keeps everything cool and you can change the fan speed. I keep it on the lowest setting. My system is very quiet and quite powerful :-)

I was edging towards the 950, but thanks.

The motherboards I was comparing were the Asus P6T and the P6T Deluxe V2....... about £60 between them, much visable differnece apart from the numbers listed on both specs pages.

And the face the stock has, 12 USB and 8 sata, whereas the deluxe has 14 USB and 6 sata.

EDIT:

Got round to finalising the specs,

2x XFX GeForce GTX 260 576Mhz Standard 896MB            

XFX 850W PSU                                      

Antec 1200 case                               

Intel Core i7-950 3.06GHz                                 

Asus S1366 Intel X58 ATX DDR3 A L / P6TD DELUXE      

CoolIT Domino A.L.C CPU Water Cooling System With LCD        

Corsair Memory 6GB DDR3 1600MHz 7-7-7-20 DHX+       
   
Pioneer 22x DVD-RW/RAM labelflash Blk SATA kit            

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB 7200RPM S300 16MB   

Cheers for all the help I recieved.

Looks good. What has the price tallied up to be?

If you've got enough extra cash you might wanna pony up to a pair for GTX 275s

Hey, i have the GTX 260 Black Ed, wouldn't recommend it, i have to set it back to stock to get it to run stable and even then it's iffy, and the temps are only hitting 60-65.

i'd stay clear of XFX to be honest, go EVGA

if you have the extra cash you could check out the ATI Dx11 cards 

Thanks for the message but it has been discussed to not get the Black version and go with Standard :)

Maybe you misread or something :P

and at the mo the price is about £1,559, all at the same place, but I need to check prices etc

lol... you really didn't drop the price much there lol

I would have thought you would of saved more after losing the Extreme Edition Intel

I did :P

I spent what I saved, by upgrading to a 1kW Corsair PSU, 7-7-7-20 RAM instead of the 8-8-8-24.

And upgraded the motherboard to Asus P6T Deluxe instead of P6T standard, for more USBs