I7 system check

[riverdan44]

hi,

I am going to be building an i7 sometime soon and I would like somebody to check my build and reccomend some products.My budget spend is $2300 AUSTRALIAN dollars for hardware(no peripherals) and software with a maximum of $3000. My current build is as follows;

HARDWARE
Motherboard:gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R
CPU:Intel i7 920
RAM:6GB DDR3 SDRAM Kingston KVR1333D3N9K3/6G
GPU:ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 (maybe 4870 X2)
HDD:Seagate 500MB 7200rpm
Case:coolermaster HAF 932
CPU cooling:Zalman ZNPS9900 LED
PSU😛lease recommend(modular please)
Disk drive😛lease recommend(all I need is something to read game disks)

SOFTWARE
OS:windows vista 64bit OEM (what else)
Programs??:home and student OEM
Security:Norton 360 2009(this is my favourite)

+can you recommend some cheap speakers, keyboard, mouse. Want a decent screen though, at least 20".

Thanks,
Riverdan4 or Riverdan44 AKA ranga

 

[xthekidx]

It looks pretty good so far. A few suggestions:
Get a WD6401AALS WD 640GB Caviar Black. They are among the fastest drives out right now, and much more reliable than seagate.

The CPU cooler you picked is decent, but its way overpriced. Look at a Noctua NH-U12P, Xigmatek S1283V Dark Knight, Scythe Mugen 2 for CPU coolers.

Spend a little more on the MB and get the Asus P6T, and if you can fit it into the budget at the end, upgrade to the P6T Deluxe V2.

Try to get a CPU with the D0 Stepping.

On the GPU, Try to get a Single GPU to avoid scaling and driver issues. A GTX 275, or maybe 285 would be my picks right now, but it depends on the games you play. For the size of monitor you are looking at (like 20-22" or so?) you will probably be running at 1680x1050 resolution, and those GPU's would be plenty. If you go to 19x12 res, you might want something a little more powerful, but then again it depends on the games you play. Check out benchmarks to see how the GPU's perform in your games.

PSU: Corsair 650tx is great and would cover you for any single GPU you might pick, If you think you would eventually double up on the GPU's down the road then think about getting a 750tx or even 850tx.

For the Optical Drive, look at samsung, LG or pioneer, they tend to be the best ones. Look for a SATA DVD burner, probably run you about $30-35AUS.

 

[AKM880]

For the software isn't Norton very big on system resources?

 

[xthekidx]

Yeah I'm not crazy about Norton...its definitely a resource hog, but with the i7 and 6gb of DDR3 memory it wouldn't matter much, just don't run it while you are playing a game. I think Nod32 is the best anti-virus software. Its fast, light on resources and detects more new viruses than any other program, at least it did last time I looked at reviews.

 

[riverdan44]

hi
accidently deleted my orifinal message but here it is in short

Noctua NH-U12P - $94
Xigmatek S1283V Dark Knight - $89
Scythe Mugen 2 - could not find
zalman cnps9900 led - $89

so zalman or xigmatek?

i think i'll get a corsair 850tx as my psu

an ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 is a single card, just double wide

I think that a Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB is worth it

i still prefer the gigabyte mobo because it has alot more usb slots - i use these alot - + I have seen a video of the installation of this board so I feel alot more comfortable with it.
its only another 10 or so dollars to the asus P6T so if you can justify it i'd buy it.

Sony AD7200S0 20x DVD Burner SATA for a burner? its $35

and Asustek CDRW 16x DVD Combo(dvd reader cd writer)$45 or Sony 52x32x52x 16x DVD Combo Drive(dvd reader cd writer)$42?

 

[xthekidx]

Xigmatek would cool better, but the Zalman might be quieter. If you are going to push the CPU as high as you can then get the Xigmatek. The Noctua, if indeed only $5 more is definitely worth it, but make sure its the SE-1366 version, the one that works on the LGA 1366 socket...they make two versions.

The 4850x2 is a double GPU card...it has two 4850's in one card. Its basically the same thing as running two 4850's in xfire, but they just stuck it all into one physical card. My comments above regarding dual GPU setups still apply to it and the 4870x2.

For $10 more dollars its worth it for the P6T. It has 6 dimm slots, which means you can expand up to 12gb of ram and run triple channel, the Gigabyte board only has 4 slots, which means if you maxed out it would be running at 8gb in dual channel. It also overclocks better and at the same settings is a very slightly bit faster than the Gigabyte UD3R

Sony DVD burner looks fine, just not my first choice as far as brands go.

 

[jive]

For your display , samsung t-220 t-240,
For the heatsink I got the noctua I can't hear a thing from it so from a noise point of view i think 5-10$ worth it.

For the keyoard and mouse, go to the store and try it there is a diffetrence between each keyboard and mouse, I have a g-15 and I bought and other one (elcheapo one) juste for work. for the mouse I have a plain microsoft laser and it do the job.
OS I think you will be better serve with viste home preminu, 64 bit. I can't explain why but most of the people on the forum recommend it. May be someone else could explain the right reason for that choice to you.