Your thoughts on my potential system please....

[cje]

Hello there, I am in the middle of speccing myself a new pc to replace the one in the sig. I am going all out on this one. Total budget is: £2200. I have already specified the order below with the Novatech guys today on the phone (which is a tad over budget, but I can squeeze a little), who'll build it for me. :D

Your thoughts on the below would be appreciated, where I've gone too far, not too little etc. (All prices inc vat)

1. Antec P193 Mid Tower (I am more or less sold on this one, because I love it. unless someone here advises me against it, or better alternatives) = £141
2. 2x Intel X-25 80gb SSD's in RAID 0 as OS boot = £379.97
3. Gigabyte X58UD5 = £199.97
4. LiteON IHOS104-32 Blu Ray drive = £60.63
5. Samsung F3 1TB 7200rpm 32mb cache = £64.99
6. Saphire ATI Radeon 1gb 5870 = £346.61
7. Intel i7 950 = £456.02
8. Noctua NH-U12P Special Edition Dual Fan = £57.99
9. Corsair Dominator 3x 2gb 1600mhz = £176.99
10. X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro = £115.15
11. Samsung-S223LR DVD drive = £23.50
12. Novatech Internal Card Reader - Black = £9.99
13. Win 7 64 bit home premium OEM = £79.99

TOTAL = £2292.77

This is a tad over-budget, but I'm willing to squeeze it. Another option I thought was to reduce cpu to i7 920, memory to g skill, get a cheaper sound card, and then I could squeeze in a 5970 gfx card. But not sure if this is worth the sacrifice, long term.

I don't want to overclock this rig (hence why I'm choosing i7 750 over 720). This one is intended for stonking performance out-the-box, and stable. I've been for a year with a freezing and bsoding rig (well, when it turned on), so this one is going to be fast from the start. ;)

It will be used for gaming, music, movies, blu ray etc. I game on a 26" at 1920x1200 and I though a 5770 would be fine initially, but then I saw that the 5870 blows that out of the water. I would want to game at this res for a while at comfortable if not great fps, plus DX11 support. This is why I don't have a single nvidia thing near this new machine.:ghey:

I would appreciate your comments on this one lads. Plus, maybe the more sensible of you lot can help me spend the money wisely in areas where the rig is lacking.

EDIT - And could a mod move it to the "PC Spec me" sub-thread above, please? I swear that wasn't there the last time I looked!!!

[chrisjb]

I would personally get a 160gb intel ssd instead of two intel 80gb's as current intel/microsft drivers on a raid setup do not support trim neither does intels ssd optimizer tool so you would see performance degradation over time, Also I do not think you would see any real world difference not having two intel ssd's in raid as long as the acc time is low which it is on ssd's that is all you need in my opinon. Also saving £40.

[f12f12]

don't get a oem of windows just get the full retail

[snakedoc]

I suggest the Asus Xonar DX for sound card and agree on retail version as you may want to be actually properly licensed.

[cje]

Novatech will be building it, so I will legitemately be the end user.

How much better is the Asus Xonar than the Creative snake? I used to have the Creative I specced and was extremely pleased. I'll look at the D2X reviews, it'll still be cheaper.

[snakedoc]

I am saying from personal experience that the audio quality is top notch. It also plays nice with Windows 7.

[IainK]

at stock the i5 is meant to be better than the i7 for gaming isnt it?

[cje]

@chrisjb. Thanks, if that's the case, then I'll opt for the 160gb single drive then. No point wasting money if TRIM won't work. Also saves me £40, thanks for that.

@snake. Thanks mate. From what I've read the latest drivers seem to be alright with win7, though I will check this out tonight. The D2X is actually cheaper, so might opt for that. The only thing is game support. How i your card in terms of game compatability mate? I'm reading reviews on the D2X and quality wise it seems to blow the Creative out the water, plus as you mention, a lot complain about the bloated Creative drivers.

@Iaink. The reason for going i7 is for the 1366 socket. I'd thought it abe to last longer, or am I wrong? The pc will be used for gaming, but I want it to be kick a$$ in everything I do really. So i7 was the noobishly obvious choice.

[snakedoc]

Every game is supported! I get full 5.1 surround sound via optical s/pdif. It converts the audio to DTS. It also does some other cleaver audio tricks to help you manage your MP3s.

[cje]

Ah, that's a bit better then. I have an optical cable, and I'd connect it to my Logitech Z-5500s you see. Reading mixed reviews tbh. Some praise it to the clouds, some complain of crackling etc. But then I guess there's a lot more complaints about the creative.

Jeez, thinking cap on. I'll be making the order final lunchtime tomorrow. :o Off to read more reviews.

I am swayed by the X-Fi though. I think it might be because I had amazing sound out of the old system. Sure, for the first 2 months I had the crackling issue with SLI, but it was sorted eventually. I'm trying to see if win7 64 bit has any issues now. But then again, the Asus D2X seems to get much better reviews for music. X-Fi for gaming and EAX, Asus for music. If I use the optical cable, then the Asus wins, as I'll then lose EAX from the X-Fi....

[snakedoc]

EAX is fully supported. I have perfectly crystal clear sound. I am using crossfire 2 4870s as well.

[Seanbond]

Get the i7 920 and overclock it.

[cje]

EAX is fully supported. I have perfectly crystal clear sound. I am using crossfire 2 4870s as well.

Cheers snake. What version of the card have you got? Is it the pcie or pci one?

@seanbond. I would, but since Nova are building it, and I've been without a working pc since October, I think I'd just like a working stable system. I don't really have the time to build it, and none to fiddle with it after it's arrived. Seriously, the extra £200 I am willin to pay for an immedeately fast and stable pc. ;)

[TheMadDutchDude]

Cheers snake. What version of the card have you got? Is it the pcie or pci one?

@seanbond. I would, but since Nova are building it, and I've been without a working pc since October, I think I'd just like a working stable system. I don't really have the time to build it, and none to fiddle with it after it's arrived. Seriously, the extra £200 I am willin to pay for an immedeately fast and stable pc. ;)

The £200 is a waste mate. The 920 will be fine. Honestly, save your money and put it towards another 1TB in RAID1 for example for data redundancy.

[pwn3rer]

uhhh lose the XFX card... its HORRIBLE!

Get the Asus Xonar DX instead, such a better card.

[cje]

Cheers lads. Am going to go for the Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 card. Having read around it does seem to be the better card. Paired with my Logitech Z-5500's and optical cable it should rock!

Thanks MDD. I am confused really on getting a 920. Out of the box I'd love the processor to run at 3ghz. If I got the 920 I'd just be twiddling my thumbs and wanting to OC it. Which I don't want to do, so I'll get the 950 and live with it I think.

What do you guys think of the power supply? Maybe a HX 850 would suit the system better? But If I got hold of a 2nd 5870 in a few months, then I'd prolly need the 1000watt for comfort right? Also, I'm hoping that I can afford i9 when it comes out, so maybe the 1000watt is a good investment?

[Helior]

The CPU, memory,ssd's, motherboard and perhaps graphics card are utterly wasteful imo.

i7 920 or i5 will perform equally well, i'd probably take the i5 if not overclocking coz of the turbo boost stuff.

Corsair Dominator is the very definition of overpriced.

Raid 0 on SSD's is pointless, just get a decent 128gb or perhaps the intel 160gb offering

The 5870 barely beats the 5850, and both are more than adequate for a 1900x1200 display.

The motherboard is just a waste if you not overclocking.

on the subject of power supplies, HX850 will run an i9 and 2 5870's no problems.

[bezza]

Cheers lads. Am going to go for the Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 card. Having read around it does seem to be the better card. Paired with my Logitech Z-5500's and optical cable it should rock!

Before stumping up the few extra quid on the D2X, you might want to read this which says that the DX is pretty much the same audio performance:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/14500

And Martini's views on the 5870 vs 5850 where he says don't be conned by the higher model numbers:

http://forum.novatech.co.uk/showthread.php?t=19130

The 850w will be plenty - the 5xxx series aren't much of a drain.

I'd possible get a second F3 too and RAID them. The bottleneck in your spec is likely to be the HDD read/write speeds.

[cje]

Thanks for your honest opinion Helior.

-I am sticking with LGA1366, due to i9 coming out later, and I don't want to buy the LGA1156 because of that.
-I will now get the 160gb Intel SSD (I admit, since the RAID 80gb's didn't support TRIM, it was pretty pointless).
-Corsair Dominators will stay though.

I will look to overclock say in a few months/year from now (if the same specs are with me). Hence why I am getting a good motherboard and psu etc. But what I want now is great performance from the box.

As for graphics, well I'm muddled. Going ATI is against the grain for me. Always been a nvidia fanboy till my last motherboard. Now I'm not going to touch anything with Nfail stamped on it for a while. I thought from reviews the 5870's provided 40% more performance than the 5850's? Again, I am not looking to OC the cards, so we'll have to remember stock speeds.

What if I downgrade a little to an i7 920 then. Would that perform well at stock, compared to the 750? How much performance increase in games etc will I see with 950 as opposed to 920 (both stock). Logically, I know £250 more is more than double the price of 750. But I am prepared to pay that for a 3ghz i7 stable out the box :p

Please don't think I am disagreeing with you guys. I am just thinking out loud, and hoping that I'll make the right choice.

[pwn3rer]

na looks good mate, out of curiosity, what are you doing with your old system?

[cje]

It's at Novatech, with the motherboard totalled by a very heavy Zalman power supply. :( I tried to RMA the mobo 4 times, getting faulty ones back each time. I sent the whole thing to Novatech to inspect, it came back with the psu ripped from it's mounts. It must have had a really really strong knock to rip a power supply from it's steel mounts. And the Antec 1200 isn't exactly made of flimsy material.

@bezza. Thanks for that. The only issue seems to be loss of DTS, but I think my Z550's can use Dolby live, so really I don't lose anything.

[Mr. Orange]

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1535/specw.png

comes to £2061.70 (exc. delivery)

1 SSD is for OS, the 2 1TB Drives can be in RAID 0 for your stuff, or RAID 5 if you want to back it up.

[cje]

Thanks for the input mclarenvj, but I would rather the Corsair 1600. They'd be plenty to OC a i7 920 to 4ghz. Plus, I am protesting against ASUS. :)

I will definately get the i7 920 D0 now. It's really stupid not to isn't it. Sticking with D2X, as I think I'll be using DTS. Well "I think". Not sure on this one. Has scope to be lowered.

Now revised list:

-Antec P193 = £141
-Intel X-25 160gb = £338.98
-Gigabyte EX58 UD5 = £199.97
-LiteON Bluray drive = £60.67
-Samsung S223L = £20.36
-Samsung F3 1tb = £61.99
-Sapphire ATI Radeon 5870 = £346.61
-Noctua UH-12P Dual Fan 1366 = £57.99
-Corsair Dominator 1600 = £194.17
-NT card reader = £9.99
-Corsair HX 850 power supply (Or antec 850 one specially designed for the case?) = 131.99
What do you think of this one? http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/PowerSupplies/Antec/CP850.html
-Intel Core i7 920 = £233.84
-Windows 7 64 bit OEM HP = £79.99
-Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 = £86.98

Grand Total: 1964.49

That's over £200 off, cheers lads. Now potential areas of squeeze is sound card to DX, power supply to Antec CP850, and RAM.

Any suggestions on those lads?

[bezza]

Wouldn't change the PSU - the Corsair ones are great.
Would still change the 5870 for a 5850 and O/C or even go for a 5970 since it's still in budget?
DX vs D2X is a personal preference and not a great deal in it.
And I'd potentially go for the retail version of W7 - there's no issues in legality etc but could be a pain if you reinstall the O/S (several times)

[Ajhayter]

I saw Lee building that on the system to get you a quote yesterday, just thinking "ooh shiny".

Looks all good from here. The SSD will be awesome.
The Noctua coolers are also awesome. I have the C12P (downdraft rather than tower) and E8400 never hits 50C
Depending on how big your games catalouge is you might want to have a look at mklink ing some files/folders.
http://forum.novatech.co.uk/showthread.php?t=19114

[cje]

Thanks bezza, I have gone for windows 7 ultimate retail. I just hope it won't bloat too much of the SSD. If it does I have money spare for another 160gb for games. :D

Hey Aj. Thanks for the link. I do have a few steam games so that'll come in very handy! I had a Noctua on my last system and I loved that. Ace performance and quiet. Kept my q6600 at 27 idle!

Can't wait for it to come now!!!!

[IainK]

hey, still got your Q6600 system or did you get it refunded? just looking for someone to buy a Q6600 off :)

[cje]

It was refunded mate. Currently sitting in Novatech. Though I really really wouldn't re-use any of it. It had a great big jolt., and looks to have had a few of them to total the mobo.

[IainK]

could someone at nova tell me if they're willing to sell me the CPU as a second hand, month warranty thingy, like you do on your ebay site

[KyleG]

2 x 5770's ;)

[Ajhayter]

could someone at nova tell me if they're willing to sell me the CPU as a second hand, month warranty thingy, like you do on your ebay site

I'll point someone in returns/repairs to this thread and see if something can be done. No promises though.