What would you change from this i7 rig?

[Cliff Burton]

Hi fellas.

I'm planning to buy a new i7 rig next month. That's why there are some pieces of hardware or revisions that are not still available as of today (4890x2, 275GTX single PCB, D0 rev...). My budget limit is around 5500€-6000€. I'm not either planning on doing Quad-CF/SLI due to poor performance and scability, neither doing crazy SSDs raids 0 on areca controllers because I simply don't need that bandwith -maybe in some months, I will buy another X25-E to do raid 0 on the ICH10R-. I know there are some parts that are overkill (case-psu-monitor, especially), but I'm after a future-proof rig for high-end gaming and CAD/3dsmax and those parts are going to be reused in future rigs.

Lian-Li Tyr-X2000 (399 €)
Enermax Revolution 85+ 1250W (299 €)

EVGA X58 Classified w/o NF200 (399 €)
Intel Core i7-920 SLBCH D0 (269 €)
3 x 2GB DDR3-2000 7-8-7-16 Elpida MNH-E Hyper (499 €)
4890x2 / 275GTX single PCB (459 €)
Intel X25-E 64GB (599 €)
2 x Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black RAID 1 (499 €)

Prolimatech Megahalems (59 €)
Scythe Ultra KAZE 2000rpm (9 €)
Arctic Cooling MX-2 4g (6 €)
Zalman ZM-MFC1 Plus (29 €)

NEC MultiSync LCD3090WQXi (1999 €)

Total (5550€)

Many thanks.

[burthouse]

I'd look into just going with 8 gigs of ram, no point to not to, esp if you want something future proof. But this also depends on what operating system you plan on running to an extent. I'd also look into a different video card again if you want future proof you're going to want to buy more top of the line unless you plan on over clocking. But I'd spend the extra money for a better card now and be able to overclock it to what youll need in the future.

[eligray]

Jesus does Burthouse even know what a PC is?

That looks like a sick setup man, just check that your RAM will operate at or around 1.65v, the reccomended limit on i7 CPU's. Also, If you're dropping that much on a PC, you might want to look into some higher binned i7 D0 CPUs

Cheers
Eli

[perkam]

Hi fellas.

I'm planning to buy a new i7 rig next month. That's why there are some pieces of hardware or revisions that are not still available as of today (4890x2, 275GTX single PCB, D0 rev...). My budget limit is around 5500€-6000€. I'm not either planning on doing Quad-CF/SLI due to poor performance and scability, neither doing crazy SSDs raids 0 on areca controllers because I simply don't need that bandwith -maybe in some months, I will buy another X25-E to do raid 0 on the ICH10R-. I know there are some parts that are overkill (case-psu-monitor, especially), but I'm after a future-proof rig for high-end gaming and CAD/3dsmax and those parts are going to be reused in future rigs.

Lian-Li Tyr-X2000 (399 €)
Enermax Revolution 85+ 1250W (299 €)

EVGA X58 Classified w/o NF200 (399 €)
Intel Core i7-920 SLBCH D0 (269 €)
3 x 2GB DDR3-2000 7-8-7-16 Elpida MNH-E Hyper (499 €)
4890x2 / 275GTX single PCB (459 €)
Intel X25-E 64GB (599 €)
2 x Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black RAID 1 (499 €)

Prolimatech Megahalems (59 €)
Scythe Ultra KAZE 2000rpm (9 €)
Arctic Cooling MX-2 4g (6 €)
Zalman ZM-MFC1 Plus (29 €)

NEC MultiSync LCD3090WQXi (1999 €)

Total (5550€)

Many thanks.There are 2500€ Rigs that will offer the same performance as yours I'm afraid.

Going for all the most expensive components isn't impressive as anyone with money can throw money at a computer. It is selecting parts that will provide the maximum performance with the optimal cost that are best.

Remember that our industry has an 18-month generational cycle, which means that the more you spend at one given time, the more you have to lose versus spending in smaller amounts over a period of time.

Also, it would be foolishness to spend that much on everything else when you'd rather buy a good system for around 1800€ and wait for the Core i7 975 to add on another 1000€ for a kick ass rig under 3000€ system.

Perkam

[MaadDaawg]

Can't argue the 975 point, but if you're going to build now that the Classified is actually available, change that CPU to a 965!

[NameTaken45]

Can't argue the 975 point, but if you're going to build now that the Classified is actually available, change that CPU to a 965!

agreed.. MD:)

[B.E.E.F.]

Your power supply is massive and unecessary and inflates the price especially since you're not doing SLi/Xfire. The megahelem is nice but its neck and neck to a HR-01 which is cheaper and you can select your own fan.

Megahelem review: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article916-page5.html

Why is the memory so expensive? Are you going to be pushing this rig to its full OC potential?

[Arkangyl]

Memory price seems way to high, 6gb of good RAM is fine though, I've got 6gb DDR3-1600 and it's certainly not held me back in any regard yet. Also DDR3-1600 or 1833 should cover you, I really don't think RAM is where the holdup will be in any i7 system right now so why spend the extra hundreds there when you could spend it elsewhere?

IMO the X25-M 80/160gb Intel SSDs are more than good enough, no need to pay the extra for the X25-E line

Upping from the i920 to the 965 would be a worthwhile cost in a rig of that stature

Pending price over there, the Corsair HX1000, hell even the 850 would cover that machine, in general 700w or so for SLI/xFire, 1000w for quad SLI/ quadFire

oh, and sound card??? might want to get one!


in brief:
i7 965
EVGA Classified (Asus R2E might be just as good though, considering the Classified is un-tested to a large extent)
6gb DDR3-1600/1833/2000 (don't know prices over there, but $200 USD would be TOPS for me here on any build)
Intel 80gb X25-M
(2) 2tb
latest X2 / 295 variant
Asus Xonar D2

[Cliff Burton]

Thank you guys.

I forgot to mention I was aiming to get CPU=20x200=4000MHz at Vcore=1.3v-1.35v. On air I would not take advantage from the 965. 700€+ to get 200MHz stable at most is not worthy for me.

I know most of the parts are overkill nowadays (the PSU especially). That rig will hardly hit 500W -real- at full load, and with a TX-650 I would have more than enough. But I consider Lian-Li as a life style, and I like the spirit of XS, if another piece of hardware can do your job 0.1sec quicker, it's worth it (always in the budget limits), I'm speaking about the new ram sticks.

The monitor is justified as I work as an architect and I will really make profit from its H-IPS panel and 24-bit hardware calibration.

If I had +10.000€ to spend on a PC I would choose an Asus Z8NA-D6, 2 Xeon X7460, 24GB registered DDR3 1333, and a ARC-1231ML with 8 X25-E 64GB in RAID 6, but that's not the case.

[B.E.E.F.]

Why not get a dual Nehalem board while you're at it? I'm sure you can fit it into the budget you set. Just don't buy overpriced parts and you can get a faster system. How does 16 theads and 8 cores sound?

[XS Janus]

I would get a far cheaper mobo. No use of that one actually
definitely drop the crazy stupid, expensive ram and go for 1600 and 12GB
And that PSU is also an over kill- get something excellent i 700-800W range

[perkam]

If I had +10.000€ to spend on a PC I would choose an Asus Z8NA-D6, 2 Xeon X7460, 24GB registered DDR3 1333, and a ARC-1231ML with 8 X25-E 64GB in RAID 6, but that's not the case.Congratulations. You've proven that you know as much about building good server rigs as you know about building good desktop builds i.e. absolutely nothing I'm afraid.

And btw, the 650TX is a sub par PSU. A nice ST75EF from Silverstone is one of the best choices for a nice cheap PSU with high efficiency.

Perkam

[PC_User]

As far as the motherboard is concerned, I wouldn't spend so much on the Classified. Look into the ASUS Rampage II Extreme or Gigabyte EX58-Extreme.

For the ram, 500 Euros is quite a sum. I don't really see the point. With DDR3, the ram's frequency (bus speed) is more important than the timings. That being said, I'd go with something like this 6GB DDR3 2000 G.Skill kit (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231248) for almost half the price.

[Cliff Burton]

Congratulations. You've proven that you know as much about building good server rigs as you know about building good desktop builds i.e. absolutely nothing I'm afraid.

And btw, the 650TX is a sub par PSU. A nice ST75EF from Silverstone is one of the best choices for a nice cheap PSU with high efficiency.

Perkam

k, i'll go with a 920, P6T, R770 and D9JNM then.

[perkam]

k, i'll go with a 920, P6T, R770 and D9JNM then.You sound like you can access that hardware quite easily. We had a few members here telling us hardware is hard to find in Spain 0_o :shrug:

Anyhoo, I'd at least go P6T Deluxe + the rest of hw you mentioned in the above post.

Perkam

[B.E.E.F.]

For CAD & 3D you will benefit from alot of GPU memory. Go for a 2GB card if you can.

[BlazinTiger]

um...a large part of the cost is in the monitor, so his build is more of a €3500 affair in terms of actual computing components (just pointing that out)

[r1rhyder]

I like with your original specs, very nice choices.

[antiacid]

If you plan on doing mostly CAD work, why go with gaming cards instead of workstation cards? That might be worth a change. As for the HDD's, I kind of would suggest going for a network NAS for backups instead of keeping everything on your current system. That would actually be money well spent.

As for the rest, it is your money and I'm sure it'll be super fun to play with it. I personally would watercool it but there's no real reason to do that if you don't want the "bling" factor ;)