Looking for help building i7 920 system

[imported_Jid]

Hi all,

I need a pc mainly for working in AutoCad and 3dsMax, I'll also play games on it but its not the main concern. This will be my first time building a rig which is why after all the reading I've done I still need some help as well as suggestions and comments before I go ahead. Any help is greatly appreciated.

1. PC purpose: I specifically need this for 3dsMax & Autocad.. games are secondary

2. Budget: $2k US or lower (w/o monitor)

3. Buying from: Canada, US

4. Brand preferance: none

5. Reusing parts: none

6. Searched/read similar threads?: Yes, a lot, it's helped some but still confused about things like PSU especially connectors and stuff.. also my wife hates me now

7. Overclocking or default speeds: if I do ok on the build I'll want to try mild to moderate overclocking

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?: in 2-3 weeks time



The cpu I'll be building this around:
i7 920

Mobo:
ASUS P6T Deluxe or
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5

originally I was sure I'd get the ASUS, people I've asked and trust swear by it. The GIGABYTE supports 2x the ram though and it seems to have a lot of positive opinion around it too, should I be looking at that one instead?

RAM:
G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

GPU:
SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5

HDD:
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s

Optical Drive:
Sony NEC Optiarc Black 5X Blu-Ray DVD ROM & 12X DVD Burner SATA Model BC-5100S

CPU heatsink:
Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT - my first choice or
Thermaltake V1 AX or
Noctua NH-U12P SE1366

PSU: I don't know if these are good choices, opinions/suggestions very welcome
FSP Group Everest 800 800W ATX12V V2.2/EPS V2.91 or
SILVERSTONE ST85F 850W ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V

CASE:
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower

OS:
dual boot
xp64 for 3dsMax and Acad
vista64 for games

What do you think?

 

[DSF]

If you have no plans to use dual graphics cards you don't need an 800W PSU for that setup. 650W would be plenty.

Do your professional apps need workstation class graphics cards?

 

[Slugbait]

Since CAD is the primary focus, I wouldn't go with a consumer video card. Games won't perform nearly as well with a CAD card, but we're looking at priorities here.

I've owned primarily Asus boards over the last 12 years (and one Intel Bad Axe II). Asus is usually a solid choice...by the time you need twice as much RAM, you'll probably need a new machine.

The Black is a nice drive, the Spinpoint F1 is just slightly faster.

Unless you have a Blu-Ray collection, and prefer to watch movies without your wife, I'd say go with a standard DVD drive...save a wad of bucks, and wait for optical drives that burn Blu-Ray discs to hit the $100 price point.

 

[imported_Jid]

Originally posted by: DSF
If you have no plans to use dual graphics cards you don't need an 800W PSU for that setup. 650W would be plenty.

Do your professional apps need workstation class graphics cards?

I went with the bigger PSU because I'm thinking if for some reason I do need to go dual graphics I won't have to buy another PSU, or is it a dumb idea?

Acad and Max don't need pro cards right now and hopefully for a long time to come. From the information I've read it looks like pro cards are just a smart/devious way for Nvidia and ATI to earn more money, but I'm hardly qualified to talk about the subject.

Originally posted by: Slugbait
I've owned primarily Asus boards over the last 12 years (and one Intel Bad Axe II). Asus is usually a solid choice...by the time you need twice as much RAM, you'll probably need a new machine.

The Black is a nice drive, the Spinpoint F1 is just slightly faster.

Unless you have a Blu-Ray collection, and prefer to watch movies without your wife, I'd say go with a standard DVD drive...save a wad of bucks, and wait for optical drives that burn Blu-Ray discs to hit the $100 price point.

That all seems quite reasonable, the Blue Ray drive seems stupid now that I think about it

 

[DSF]

How big is your monitor? For anything under 24" you don't need to consider dual graphics.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: DSF
How big is your monitor? For anything under 24" you don't need to consider dual graphics.

Are you saying that running twin 4870 X2's in CrossFire won't help gaming on my 17" Sony CRT? :shocked:
Surely 3-Way SLI with GTX 280's would help, wouldn't it?

 

[imported_Jid]

Originally posted by: DSF
How big is your monitor? For anything under 24" you don't need to consider dual graphics.

I haven't decided on anything yet but the 22"-23" monitors I saw in-store seemed perfect for me, I guess I'll go looking for a different/smaller power supply.

BTW, I haven't considered it up till now because I haven't noticed anyone mention it in the threads I've been reading but is there a significance in the number of 12V rails a power supply has? I'm a knob when it comes to electricity, I saw some PSUs had 4 12V rails, some 2 and one had only 1 rail with more volts than the 4 and 2 rail ones.

 

[DSF]

There's a sticky on that topic in the PSU forum that would probably help you out.

 

[imported_Jid]

oh ok, thanks. Time to do some more reading

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: Jid

Originally posted by: DSF
How big is your monitor? For anything under 24" you don't need to consider dual graphics.

I haven't decided on anything yet but the 22"-23" monitors I saw in-store seemed perfect for me, I guess I'll go looking for a different/smaller power supply.

BTW, I haven't considered it up till now because I haven't noticed anyone mention it in the threads I've been reading but is there a significance in the number of 12V rails a power supply has? I'm a knob when it comes to electricity, I saw some PSUs had 4 12V rails, some 2 and one had only 1 rail with more volts than the 4 and 2 rail ones.

You're doing autocad and 3dsmax with dual graphics cards, and you're getting a 22-23 incher? i'd expect at least a 24 if not 26". heck if i had your cash to spend, i'd get the 30".

The extra space and resolution you get would really help with having a much more pleasurable and efficient workspace.

24" comes under $300 easily now, and you should probably get a non TN panel given the work you do.
There's some MVA 24" that comes under $300. I'd look into those if you didn't want to spend as much on the screen.