My i7 PC System Build - help critique it

[supertle55]

Updated build list 4/26/2009:

Asus P6T X58 Retail $215 ($15 coupon applied) Ewiz
Intel I7 i920 CPU Retail Kit $248.465 Microcenter
Corsair 650TX Power Supply $80.74 - $20 NewEgg
Ocz Platinum 6gb DDR3 $99.99 -$20 NewEgg
ATI 4890 Video Card $214.99 -$20 Ewiz
Hitachi 1TB Sata 7200 RPM $79.99 - $10 - $15 (customer courtesy credit for an error) NewEgg

Re-cycling old components:
400GB IDE Western HD
40 GB IDE HD
Santa Cruz PCI Soundcard

Added the following items
Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 120mm SSO CPU Cooler $74
LG Blu-Ray Burner / HD-DVD / DVD-RW $159
Cosmos 1000 $149 AR

Now I can OC this baby to 3.33ghz to 3.6ghz. Chances are I will not OC to 4ghz even if its stable as Tom's Hardware article indicate not a big practical increase pass the 3.6ghz limit.

New running total, ~$1250

All prices shown are "out the door" (meaning includes taxes, shipping etc).
Probably going to try to sell Antec TruBlue 430W power supply, Geforce Video card from a century ago, 1.5 gb RAM to help pay for my new rig.

Please critique and let me know if I am missing anything or what you would do differently. Everything is ordered just recently so maybe still a small chance to change some items.

I will be overclocking this. Plan use is mostly for games and a lot of multi-tasking of microsoft applications. Do use a bit of photoshop for light editing. I plan to purchase an AVHCD camcorder and was told this requires heavy duty processing power for video editing. Don't think I will be doing much video editing, but do plan to dump the videos onto the PC and converting it to MPEG2/DVD format for burning b/c I'm not ready yet to migrate to Blu-ray.

EDIT UPDATE:
Everything have come and I have assembled my rig. It was working very nice as I was able to OC to 3 ghz changing only BLCK. Idle temp was around 40 C. Load was at 50 C.

Ran into 1 problem, when I added the 2nd fan onto the noctua heatsink, it raised my temperature up by 10 C on both the CPU and motherboard. I hope I didn't knocked something out and hopefully maybe I have it mounted on reverse with the airflow going the wrong way.

 

[In2Photos]

If overclocking I think you should get an aftermarket CPU cooler. Also, why not use a SATA DVD drive? They are only like $25.

Also, what OS are you running? Do you already have it?

Looks good so far!

 

[supertle55]

Originally posted by: In2Photos
If overclocking I think you should get an aftermarket CPU cooler. Also, why not use a SATA DVD drive? They are only like $25.

Also, what OS are you running? Do you already have it?

Looks good so far!

I'm still debating of Vista 64 bit vs Vista 32 bit b/c I'm not sure of how games and the ATI 4890 will work in a 64 bit environment. I'm transferring license from an another workstation. I don't see much benefits in having a fast DVD drive. I hardly use the DVD drive.

Do I really need an aftermarket cooler to overclock say to 3.6ghz ? I have no intention to max out the overclocking. I read that stock fan/heatsink from intel retail kit was quite adequate. Plan to bump the cpu / ram / and video card up within a reasonable amount that will not require additional aftermarket cooling or extra fans all over the case. I might even leave my case door open instead of closing it. I get lazy a lot in never putting the case door back on when I take it off.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

D0's are coming out and you can get one at Tank Guys. As for the MB, I'd suggest something other than Asus. It's been 10 yrs and the website still feels like a hack job to say the least.

 

[supertle55]

Asus P6T X58 Retail $215 ($15 coupon applied) Ewiz
Intel I7 i920 CPU Retail Kit $248.465 Microcenter
Corsair 650TX Power Supply $80.74 - $20 NewEgg
Ocz Platinum 6gb DDR3 $99.99 -$20 NewEgg
ATI 4890 Video Card $214.99 -$20 Ewiz
Hitachi 1TB Sata 7200 RPM $79.99 - $10 - $15 (customer courtesy credit for an error) NewEgg

Re-cycling old components:
Antec Midtower ATX case
IDE CDRom Drive
400GB IDE Western HD (probably have to put in an external usb enclosure), will probably share this HD on same IDE cable as CDROM drive
Santa Cruz PCI Soundcard

Added the following items
Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 120mm SSO CPU Cooler $74
LG Blu-Ray Burner / HD-DVD / DVD-RW $159

Now I can OC this baby to 3.33ghz to 3.6ghz. Chances are I will not OC to 4ghz even if its stable as Tom's Hardware article indicate not a big practical increase pass the 3.6ghz limit.

New running total, $1103

Selling my old motherboard, cpu, ram, hd, etc will give me about $300 effectively making my new PC still in the $800-$900 price range

Can't wait, friday is when I will have all components

I just have to say it sucks waiting for stuff to be shipped from ewiz b/c they're all the way in CA and i'm in NY. It takes a FULL week for anything to get here. As opposed to Newegg with shipping facilities in NJ, it takes LITERALLY a day or two to get the stuff here.

 

[polarbear6]

Well you forgot the OS!! And hold onto your pants Friday ain't far away.

 

[elconejito]

Originally posted by: supertle55
I'm still debating of Vista 64 bit vs Vista 32 bit b/c I'm not sure of how games and the ATI 4890 will work in a 64 bit environment. I'm transferring license from an another workstation.

Since you've ordered 6Gb of RAM, you should get the 64-bit version. If you use 32-bit you aren't going to see all 6Gb (which then means you've wasted some money because you could have gotten less RAM).

Unless you know of a specific issue with a program you're going to be running 64-bit is the way to go. You can google the program name and "64-bit" or "x64" and see if there are any hits. I ran into some minor compatibility issues at the very beginning (specifically Quicktime and Palm OS sync), but haven't had any other issues since running Vista 64-bit.

 

[supertle55]

I am going to get 64 bit. I read some articles having 6 gig won't help much anyway unless u have an application specifically needing much more RAM.

Bump into a little obstacle today. Turns out my old midsize atx tower won't fit the Noctua. Time to find myself a new shiny case! I'm quite intriqued by the Antec Skeleton but it doesn't seem hardly practical. Any suggestions for a unique designed case that won't cost a fortune? I thought this antec case i bought back in 2001 would last me for at least a decade (assuming size standards didn't change) which it hasn't. Just heatsinks got quite taller!!

 

[polarbear6]

I'M not that good with the dimensions, I don't know the difference between these mid size , atx size........ blah blah..Cause I'm 17 years old and parents like any other parents wont let me buy computer parts..
So all i can think of at this moment is Antec 900 ,cooler master Cm 690,Cm cosmos cooler master. These are some of the case i drool for... So i dont know whether they can fit your Noctua or not . Check there specs for there dimensions and compare that with the dimensions of Noctua.

 

[supertle55]

I'm loving the Cosmo 1000/1010. I think I will splurge and get a nice case instead of going cheap and re-using my old case and leaving the panel off.