Please Review my i7 Build

[Deadalus]

Hey all,

I've finally cracked and decided it's time for a new PC. Although I built my last rig, I've decided to buy it pre-built this time, for various reasons. I have up to £2K to spend and I am thinking of buying from Cyberpower - if you want to check out the options available have a look at their configurator.

The build I have come-up with is detailed below. Please let me know what you think and feel-free to suggest modifications. I have made some of my own comments in-line.

CASE: Coolermaster Dominator CM-690 420W Black Mid-Tower Case

CPU: (Quad-Core)Intel® Core? i7 940 @ 2.93GHz 8 MB cache LGA1366

FAN: Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System (Extreme Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)
- This or the CoolerMaster V8? I don't think I need to go with full watercooling, as I will only be doing some mild overclocking at most.

HDD: Extreme Performance with Data Security (RAID-0+1) with 4 Identical Hard Drives (2TB (1TBx4) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
- Would I be better off getting a 300GB VelociRaptor as a boot/applications drive and then RAID some other drives for storage?

MOTHERBOARD: Asus P6T Deluxe Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Mainboard SAS Triple-Channel DDR3/1600 SATA RAID w/ eSATA,Dual GbLAN,USB2.0,IEEE1394a,&7.1Audio

MEMORY: (Req.DDR3 MainBoard)(3x2GB) PC10666 DDR3/1333mhz Triple Channel Memory [+103] (G.SKILL NQ Series w/Heat Spreader)

POWERSUPPLY: 750 Watts Power Supplies (Corsair PSU 750W TX750W Power Supply SLI Ready)
- I really wasn't sure about my choice for this. Is it overkill or too weak? I'd quite like it to be 'futureproof'.

SOUND: Creative Labs SB X-FI Titanium Fatal1ty Pro Series PCI-Express Sound Card

VIDEO: ATI Radeon HD 4870 PCI-E x16 1GB DDR5 Video Card
- I've been out-the-loop a bit on graphics cards. Is this still the best choice, or should I go for an nVidia GTX260/280?


Your help is greatly appreciated!!

Thanks.
D.

 

[DSF]

What are you using the computer for?

 

[Deadalus]

Gaming, Photoshop, some video work, a Media Center and general office type stuff.

Thanks.

 

[wwswimming]

Originally posted by: Deadalus
Gaming, Photoshop, some video work, a Media Center and general office type stuff.

Thanks.

i think the system with air cooling will be quite adequate, for those aps.

are you anticipating a future urge to go from mild OC to ultimate OC ?
the WC would support that.

 

[DSF]

The thing about cheap watercooling is that it's not any better than pretty good air cooling, which is generally less expensive.

 

[Deadalus]

Thanks for the replies so far.

are you anticipating a future urge to go from mild OC to ultimate OC ?

I don't think so... having a quiet system is more important to me than ultimate overclockability. I don't mind it being a bit noisier when I am gaming, but I prefer it to be as quiet as possible when I am working or using it as a Media Center.

 

[Sureshot324]

No need to go with water cooling. The best heatpipe air coolers will beat all but the most high end water cooling setups, and even then only lose by a few degrees. The Coolermaster V8 is very heavy and doesn't cool as well as the much lighter, cheaper, and quieter Xigmatek coolers Link, but unfortunately Xigmatek doesn't have a 1366 bracket out yet.

I would rather get something like the Asus Xonar then the Creative card as well, but that's just me.

 

[Deadalus]

Thanks again... I think I have settled on the following setup:

Case: Silverstone Fortress FT01B-W Tower Case Black Aluminum with Window
CPU: Intel i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4.8GT s QPI 8MB Cache Retail
CPU Coolers: Thermalright True Black 120 Heat Pipe Black Nickel Plated Heat Sink
Memory: 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) CAS 9-9-9-24
Graphics: 896MB XFX GTX260 2000MHz GDDR3 576MHz GPU 216 Cores (Far Cry2 Included while stocks last)
Power Supply Unit: 620W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU (Single Graphics Card)
System Drives: 300 GB Western Digital VelociRaptor 10000 rpm 16MB Cache
Storage Hard drives: 1000 GB Western Digital Caviar Black 7200 rpm 32MB Cache, 2 selected
DVD Writer: Samsung SH-S223Q RSMN 22xDVD±R 8x DVD±DL DVD+RW x8 -RWx6 x14 RAM