Core i7 Build: Opinions and Suggestions Solicited

[El Comandante]

I've grown tired of my Dell XPS 400. With the advent of Windows 7, Intel's i7 and the recent purchase of a nice 24 inch Samsung SyncMaster... I have decided to build my own computer. I've never done this before, although I am a moderately proficient computer user. I have installed memory, video cards ect.... so ... how hard can this be right?

I know there are some very knowledgeable computer users here so I hope you guys will help me out as a stumble through this process. I have been reading up on equipment and overclocking .... some of it looks very difficult ...

A couple of things FYI:

1. I can spend about $1,200 on this rig. (I'm not trying to save money.. it's more of a hobby/learning thing for me)..

2. I'm thinking of an Intel Core i7 920 with D0 (if I can figure out this overclocking thing I will try it)

3. I use my computer for word processing, web surfing and email primarily. I work with a lot of scanned documents and PDF. Occasionally I will play a game like Fallout or Fear 2. I'm not a big gamer though.... I do like to be able to handle an cutting edge game every once in a while.... so an overcompensated rig is ok as far as I am concerned. (last week I tried Empire Total War and my computer could barely handle it... I was not pleased)..

Right now I want to pick a case and power supply so here goes:

1. Case: These are my mid tower candidates:

Cooler Master Storm Sniper : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119194

Cooler Master HAF 922: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197

Lian Li Lancool PCK-10B: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112155

(I'm leaning towards the CM Sniper although I'm really not digging the lights and funky style.The case is going to be tossed under a desk so looks mean little to me.)

2. Power Supply

Cooler Master UCP RS 700 : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171032

Corsair HX750 PSU : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010

Antec TP-750: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371022

( I figure a 700 - 750 PSU should be enough for my purposes. I like the Corsair but it is not modular)

Let me know what you guys think.

I haven't really thought out the rest of the components although I will probably go with a single good quality Nvidia card and some Corsair memory... maybe a heatsink .... 2 hard drives and 2 optical drives...
:Thinkingof_:

[RACKnRAIL]

I built my own puter a couple of years ago and never have regretted it. The hardest part for me was hooking up the tower to the motherboard. The pins are very tiny and unless you have the eyesight of an 18 year old, I would consider some good rock hound like eye glasses. The rest of building a computer is pretty much plug & play. I do recommend an anti-static wrist strap.

Also, unless you're a gamer, I wouldn't even consider overclocking.

[Signa]

I just built one for $900. I recycled a video card, so you can figure out what you want to do with the extra $300

Ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220367
DO NO OVERCLOCK THIS RAM!!! The i7 has a special controller that is on-board that gets fried if the ram is set to over 1.65v. The native voltage setting on this ram is 1.65v. It's also increased $40 since I bought it, so I can't say it's the best deal, but it's what I got, and I still recommend it. Regardless, I encourage you to find the best deal for you.

Hard Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220367
I got two of these and RAID 0 them together. They are $10 cheaper than what I got mine for

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
STRONGLY recommend this case. Unless you have something in mind, I can't brag about this one enough. I've always gone for the cheapest case, but I splurged a little on this one and do not regret it at all. It is designed for airflow by putting the PS unit on the bottom, and several fans and fan slots all around. The air is designed to flow through the front panel, over your HDDs, and then out the back and top of the case. There is also a removable air filter on the front with two slots for 120mm fans. I am SO happy with this case.

Mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131386
This one was kinda the el-cheapo Mobo for an i7, but it had some great reviews. The ONLY downside is that it does not support SLI for nvidia cards. It does support crossfire for ATI cards though. I wasn't interested in doing a dual or triple card configuration, so it was no problem for me. There is a *slightly* more expensive version (about $40 more) that does both SLI and Crossfire. Regardless, I'm still happy with it. The only real downside is that I can't connect the Case's headphone jack to the Mobo because the cable is too short. Not a big deal because I have another sound card I'm using.

PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182191
I'm a huge Rosewill fanboy. I've been running with the same Rosewill PSU on my last computer 24/7 for several years. I had to replace the fan once, which was a tiny headache, but the PSU itself is sturdy as all hell.

I would also like to add that the computing habits you described are a little low for needing an i7. The i7 is great at computing things for decompressing .rars and transcoding videos, but is flat-out overkill for word processing 'n' email checking. If you think you will grow into stuff like that, then sure, get one, but you probably could scrape by with half the cost by getting an AMD.

Also, if you think you can hold off for a bit, do so. Nvidia has not released their DX11 cards, and Windows 7 is shipping with it. ATI/AMD just announced theirs, and they look pretty good. I'm waiting to see how nvidia trumps them, because I've been quite under satisfied by ATI since AMD took them over.

[w31n3r]

since you're dumping your tower case under the desk, you're better off with signa's suggested cabinet, but personally i cannot fanboi the storm sniper enough. i got one a while back, and the only reason i don't take it to bed with me every night is that the wife might start to get bitchy (women are like that). cooling is the best i've seen with massive fans front, top, back and bottom of the case. you can adjust fan speed on the the fly if it gets too loud, err, i'm gonna stop here before i sound too crazy :) but if you are looking to try your hand at over clocking, this case is it.

[El Comandante]

The rest of building a computer is pretty much plug & play. I do recommend an anti-static wrist strap.

Also, unless you're a gamer, I wouldn't even consider overclocking.

Yeah, I've heard of the static risks. I'll definitely take preventive measures with a wrist wrap. Perhaps I'll build the thing butt naked on the wood floor in my living room. I'll film it and post the video on utube titled: Building in the buff: Extreme anti-static measures. :laugh:

As far as overclocking is concerned, I have been reading up on it and the i7. This chip (and the x58 motherboards) are made for overclocking. It seems like it would be a crime not to squeeze that potential out of the chip. I'm planning something modest though (nothing like a 4.2 overclock) .... perhaps 3.2 - 3.6...

Some of the new bios have the ability to save various "profiles" so that you can easily switch from stock settings to overclock settings on the fly... I think I'll give it a try (and keep a fire extinguisher handy)..



.
Mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131386
This one was kinda the el-cheapo Mobo for an i7, but it had some great reviews. The ONLY downside is that it does not support SLI for nvidia cards. It does support crossfire for ATI cards though. I wasn't interested in doing a dual or triple card configuration, so it was no problem for me. There is a *slightly* more expensive version (about $40 more) that does both SLI and Crossfire. Regardless, I'm still happy with it. The only real downside is that I can't connect the Case's headphone jack to the Mobo because the cable is too short. Not a big deal because I have another sound card I'm using.

Also, if you think you can hold off for a bit, do so. Nvidia has not released their DX11 cards, and Windows 7 is shipping with it. ATI/AMD just announced theirs, and they look pretty good. I'm waiting to see how nvidia trumps them, because I've been quite under satisfied by ATI since AMD took them over.

Yes. Excellent. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Sig. I'm going to go with the P6T Deluxe V2 by Asus. Asus seems like it has the most stable boards and best bios support out there. It has great reviews. It's a little expensive though .... I hope the price drops in the next couple of months.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131365

As far as video cards are concerned I am completely in the dark. It will probably be that last thing I choose. I'll take your advice and wait for DX 11 Win 7 support.


since you're dumping your tower case under the desk, you're better off with signa's suggested cabinet, but personally i cannot fanboi the storm sniper enough. i got one a while back, and the only reason i don't take it to bed with me every night is that the wife might start to get bitchy (women are like that). cooling is the best i've seen with massive fans front, top, back and bottom of the case. you can adjust fan speed on the the fly if it gets too loud, err, i'm gonna stop here before i sound too crazy :) but if you are looking to try your hand at over clocking, this case is it.

The CM Storm Sniper it is. . . I see that it has incredible air cooling properties and it is spacious. I also like the fan controller on the case. Reviews are excellent. It's a little funky for my tastes but hey.... The Antec 902 came in a close second.

[Signa]

This here is a great place to start
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2404.html
They have these tiered charts that give you a close measure one how cards perform with another. I'm still running a 8800GT, so I'm really close to the top. If you can do that well, you probably won't be disappointed. I just wish my card had more ram, because after I got that card and upgraded my TV, I've been running games at 1920x1080, and that sucks the 512MB ram right out the window.

[Sephiroth]

Yeah, I've heard of the static risks. I'll definitely take preventive measures with a wrist wrap. Perhaps I'll build the thing butt naked on the wood floor in my living room. I'll film it and post the video on utube titled: Building in the buff: Extreme anti-static measures. :laugh:

As far as overclocking is concerned, I have been reading up on it and the i7. This chip (and the x58 motherboards) are made for overclocking. It seems like it would be a crime not to squeeze that potential out of the chip. I'm planning something modest though (nothing like a 4.2 overclock) .... perhaps 3.2 - 3.6...

Some of the new bios have the ability to save various "profiles" so that you can easily switch from stock settings to overclock settings on the fly... I think I'll give it a try (and keep a fire extinguisher handy)..

Yes. Excellent. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Sig. I'm going to go with the P6T Deluxe V2 by Asus. Asus seems like it has the most stable boards and best bios support out there. It has great reviews. It's a little expensive though .... I hope the price drops in the next couple of months.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131365

As far as video cards are concerned I am completely in the dark. It will probably be that last thing I choose. I'll take your advice and wait for DX 11 Win 7 support.


The CM Storm Sniper it is. . . I see that it has incredible air cooling properties and it is spacious. I also like the fan controller on the case. Reviews are excellent. It's a little funky for my tastes but hey.... The Antec 902 came in a close second.

There is not really that much of a static hazard when building a PC unless your wearing socks on carpet or something (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hle4OdJ1u9E). You don't need a anti-static band to discharge any static electricity. You can simply touch any metal part on the case then the part.

Even with a Core i7 920 you do not need to do any overclocking. It is plenty powerful already. The processor already automatically overclocks too, it is called turbo mode. So by messing with overclocking you turn that off and will actually make the CPU run slower and less efficient.

I have had a bad experience with Asus with my last build. I have since gone with evga which has been way better.

Alot of PC manufactures are running some actually good deals on PCs now, especially before Windows 7 drops.

I was able to take the basic Studio XPS 9000 (http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/desktops/desktop-studio-xps-9000/pd.aspx?refid=desktop-studio-xps-9000&s=dhs&cs=19&ref=dthp) from Dell, and add 6 gigs of ram, and a Geforce GTX 220 for 1050. That is pretty good for that price, and when DX11 video cards come out next year you can just upgrade the video card to one of those later on.

[Signa]

Damn seph, that's a really competitive price. I have a loathing distrust of Dell though. No particular reason really, but after buying a pre-built, and seeing my dad buy pre-builts (some of which are Dells) and contrasting those PCs to my personal custom machines, I couldn't bear to own a Dell seriously as my main PC. My friend got one, and while I won't dis its power, it's got a lot of little issues, such as never being able to connect to that Freelancer server that I'm running.

[w31n3r]

...and while I won't dis its power, it's got a lot of little issues, such as never being able to connect to that Freelancer server that I'm running.

that might be more due to software/firewall configuration than anything else. i have to say, dell hardware is excellent, though you'll always get more bang for your buck building your own system...as long as you know what you're doing.

[Signa]

that might be more due to software/firewall configuration than anything else. i have to say, dell hardware is excellent, though you'll always get more bang for your buck building your own system...as long as you know what you're doing.
I'm certain that is the issue, but he's never been able to figure out how to fix it. It's obviously not a default configuration, because Dell did something.

[Atheist Icon]

The Core i7 is a great CPU, no doubt, I just cant see spending 500+ on a MB/CPU (LGA1366). I have been an Intel fan up to the Pent 4, AMD since.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103692
Phenom II x4 965BE, 3.4GHz

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128378
I have this board, just in the AM2+ variant. Easy overclocking on this board. I have my 9850BE overclocked to 3.2 with a slight bump on the Vcore.

DDR3 ram is a toss up on price, a lot of the time you can pick up the lower speeds and overclock it.

I am a huge fan of the Antec cases and PS.

PS - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371009
This thing just delivers the power that I need.

Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021
The case is great because I have been able to fit an almost 11" video card (4850x2) without a problem. You can also fit up to 9 HDD's, 9 DVD/CD's, or any combo of either(up to 9). Lots of air flow.

If you are going to overclock I would recommend a heatsink, since the stock are barely adequate at keeping a stock clocked CPU cool. Zalman CNPS9700, great cooler:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118019

Don't forget the best heatsink grease out there as well: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007
Artic Silver 5.

With that heatsink and grease, sitting about 28C 2D, about 37C full load.

[mountain_rage]

The Core i7 is a great CPU, no doubt, I just cant see spending 500+ on a MB/CPU (LGA1366). I have been an Intel fan up to the Pent 4, AMD since.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103692
Phenom II x4 965BE, 3.4GHz

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128378
I have this board, just in the AM2+ variant. Easy overclocking on this board. I have my 9850BE overclocked to 3.2 with a slight bump on the Vcore.

DDR3 ram is a toss up on price, a lot of the time you can pick up the lower speeds and overclock it.

I am a huge fan of the Antec cases and PS.

PS - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371009
This thing just delivers the power that I need.

Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021
The case is great because I have been able to fit an almost 11" video card (4850x2) without a problem. You can also fit up to 9 HDD's, 9 DVD/CD's, or any combo of either(up to 9). Lots of air flow.

If you are going to overclock I would recommend a heatsink, since the stock are barely adequate at keeping a stock clocked CPU cool. Zalman CNPS9700, great cooler:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118019

Don't forget the best heatsink grease out there as well: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007
Artic Silver 5.

With that heatsink and grease, sitting about 28C 2D, about 37C full load.

The only reason I wouldn't go AMD at this point is that they have no real competitor to the Core i7, which is also why the price has yet to drop on Intel's chip. In fact the Core I7 is significantly better than the top AMD brand. Although for midrange budget processors AMD is still good, and comparable to the core 2 quads.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/common_cpus.html

Depending on your build, your components may rate better than the benchmark on the site. My video card and cpu rate higher than what is marked on their site by a significant margin.

[Atheist Icon]

The only reason I wouldn't go AMD at this point is that they have no real competitor to the Core i7, which is also why the price has yet to drop on Intel's chip. In fact the Core I7 is significantly better than the top AMD brand. Although for midrange budget processors AMD is still good, and comparable to the core 2 quads.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/common_cpus.html

Depending on your build, your components may rate better than the benchmark on the site. My video card and cpu rate higher than what is marked on their site by a significant margin.

You are absolutely right. Intel is better then AMD. I am not disputing it. But there is very few reasons to get an Core-i7 over an Phenom X II. If price isn't a factor, then get an i7, you will be able to outperform AMD on all the synthetic benchies and be able to encode H.264 10-20 sec faster. There are very few programs, and even fewer games, that can actually utilize 8 threads on an i7, let alone the 4 threads on a Phenom X II.

Not tying to get into a pissing contest between the two, its just that AMD is probably the best bang for the buck for budget minded individuals.

Video Card wise, I would honestly wait until nVidia comes out with theirs. PRICE WARS! Right now ATi is dominating with their 5870 against all single card and most x2 variants. nVidia is having a problem with their yields on the GT300...supposedly only 2% of their wafers are coming out working.

[Signa]

For El_C, you might be right Atheist Icon, but Intel on almost all comparable processors will beat out AMD on the processing front. AMD is great for games 'n' stuff, but once you start trying to do data crunching, the AMD is going to fall flat on its face.

[mountain_rage]

You are absolutely right. Intel is better then AMD. I am not disputing it. But there is very few reasons to get an Core-i7 over an Phenom X II. If price isn't a factor, then get an i7, you will be able to outperform AMD on all the synthetic benchies and be able to encode H.264 10-20 sec faster. There are very few programs, and even fewer games, that can actually utilize 8 threads on an i7, let alone the 4 threads on a Phenom X II.

Not tying to get into a pissing contest between the two, its just that AMD is probably the best bang for the buck for budget minded individuals.

Don't get me wrong, all my systems for the last 8 years have been AMD, but in terms of performance, Intel has created a hell of a chip in the Core i7, I can't even promote AMD over it. Will probably upgrade in 2 years, so by then I hope AMD has an alternative, but if not I think I'll be buying Intel.

[Atheist Icon]

Don't get me wrong, all my systems for the last 8 years have been AMD, but in terms of performance, Intel has created a hell of a chip in the Core i7, I can't even promote AMD over it. Will probably upgrade in 2 years, so by then I hope AMD has an alternative, but if not I think I'll be buying Intel.

I hope so as well. I only advocate AMD because without them, Intel would be charging outrageous prices for bullshit processors...Pentium 4. Not only that, but all of the software manufacturers bitch about having to make their programs multi-threaded. Their analogy, paraphrasing of course:

"Normal birth is 1 woman, 9 months. Imagine now getting 9 women to give birth to 9 different pieces of a baby in a month, then reassembling it at the end."

So, in all reality, it doesn't matter if you have 139 threads on a CPU, most programs are only going to utilize 1 or 2, the others are wasted and a majority of the chip in dormant.

[Signa]

Don't they try to implement some technology on the chip itself that uses all the threads if they aren't being used? I'm certain it's not the same as parallel processing if that's the case, but it can't be all completely wasted then.

[El Comandante]

Thanks for all your suggestions. I'm moving a little slow on the purchases so that the dust settles on the full scale release of Windows 7.

In addition, the P6T Deluxe V2 Asus Mobo seems to have some kinks that are being worked out in Bios releases. I'm hoping the price drops in the next two months. You guys would not believe the crazy quality control issues that Mobo manufacturers are having. I think they just rushed the Intel X58 mobos into the marketplace.... it sucks.... 1 in 15 are DOA or defective.

Right now I bought the Corsair Professional CMPSU-750HX 750W PSU for $145.99 and free shipping at ZipZoomFly. It was a good deal.

I also got the CoGage True Spirit 4-Heatpipe CPU Cooler at Frozencpu for about $60 bucks with bolt on brackets for the i7 and Shin-Etsu thermal paste (generally considered to be better that Artic 5 for air cooling.... don't ask me why...)

I'm waiting for the price on the Cooler Master Storm Sniper to come down or for some free shipping at Newegg .... right now it's about 160 bucks with shipping....

[Mucci Man]

Be careful with the new Asus x58 boards. Their quality control is not what it used to be. I would seriously look at EVGA as an alternative. They have very good customer service and Asus does not. I recently got 4 workstation boards from Asus for the office and 1 was DOA and another was damaged. If you get a good Asus board though you will be happy.

Also, if you are not a gamer i would not bother overclocking. The i7 nine series is very fast.

[w31n3r]

...The i7 nine series is very fast.

isn't that what they said about pentium MMX 133MHz processors? :laugh2:

we're all fools...

[CRLocky]

I love you guys....

[mountain_rage]

I love you guys....

Whoa, its been a long time since you posted here. Nice to see ya.

[Atheist Icon]

Holy Crap!! I actually sounded intelligent then...

Still got the same setup...although my MB threw a memory slot (RMA time) and the video card is giving me some problems, drivers. I hate AMD for their lack of 3rd party support. My video card hasn't worked right since Sapphire dropped their driver support for their dual GPU configurations(4850x2).

[sygreenblum]

My current system is an i7. I feel a little dirty about that. I've always had AMD systems starting with the k6 and its 3d Now instructions. However, I'm not nostalgic if AMD develops a superior product again I will buy it. Right now however for what I do Intel is a hell of lot faster. A i7 3.0 GHz with a SandForce solid state drive is amazingly fast.

[Signa]

Still running my i7 920 and only needed to replace my video card because my last one died. Honestly, there isn't another processor or GPU out there that I wish I had more. My PC is going to be 2 in June, so I think it's awesome how long this one is lasting me.

[mountain_rage]

Thinking of upgrading my rig in the fall. This machine is starting to struggle with some games and rendering tasks. Still a good machine, amazing for how old it is, 4 or 5 years, but its time. Looking at comparisons online, I think some of the new machines rate at 10 times the speed of my machine in pure processing. Real world I'm sure its not as significant, but still, its time.

[Atheist Icon]

MR - I still have an AGP card laying around X1650...if you want it. Just pay for shipping. hehe

This April I am looking to upgrade. I will get 3 paychecks instead of 2. Probably going to be video, memory, mobo, and cpu. I won't even consider Intel just because of the price, can't justify it.

Oh, forgot to mention the most recent upgrade to my current system, Blu-ray player for $25. Not that I use it to play Blu-ray..just couldnt pass it up.

[mountain_rage]

MR - I still have an AGP card laying around X1650...if you want it. Just pay for shipping. hehe

This April I am looking to upgrade. I will get 3 paychecks instead of 2. Probably going to be video, memory, mobo, and cpu. I won't even consider Intel just because of the price, can't justify it.

Oh, forgot to mention the most recent upgrade to my current system, Blu-ray player for $25. Not that I use it to play Blu-ray..just couldnt pass it up.

Its actually running PCI Express. Made sure of it when I bought my system way back when, because I knew AGP was on its way out.

The newest Intel core I7 only costs about $300, although there was a recall so you might have to wait for that to get fixed before jumping on top of it. But from the comparisons I've seen its about the 3rd fastest processor on the market, for only $300. Its about 30% faster than AMD's faster chip.

[RACKnRAIL]

I love you guys....

Great to see ya back!