New System Build

[Big Bruce]

Hello Everyone,

I am new to this forum and need some advice.

I took a look at the $2500 system that Tom's Hardware built using the EVGA MB and an i7 920 CPU. I would like to build a very similar system using the ASUS P6T Deluxe MB with 6 or 12 Gigs of ram. I'm not sure if I should go with a single nVidia 285 GPU or 2x nVidia 260 cards.

Has anyone used the ASUS P6T MB with the Cooler Master 830 Evolution Case? If so, how well did everything fit?

I would also like to know what OC settings you used. Would it be better to go all out for liquid cooling or will air cooling be sufficient?

If you have a full system build using the Asus P6T Deluxe MB with i7 920 CPU, please post so I can take a look at the setup.

Any help is greatly appreciated.


Thanks

Big Bruce

 

[ixion]

Hello Everyone,

I am new to this forum and need some advice.

I took a look at the $2500 system that Tom's Hardware built using the EVGA MB and an i7 920 CPU. I would like to build a very similar system using the ASUS P6T Deluxe MB with 6 or 12 Gigs of ram. I'm not sure if I should go with a single nVidia 285 GPU or 2x nVidia 260 cards.

Has anyone used the ASUS P6T MB with the Cooler Master 830 Evolution Case? If so, how well did everything fit?

I would also like to know what OC settings you used. Would it be better to go all out for liquid cooling or will air cooling be sufficient?

If you have a full system build using the Asus P6T Deluxe MB with i7 920 CPU, please post so I can take a look at the setup.

Any help is greatly appreciated.


Thanks

Big Bruce

My build was as follows (uk based):

Asus P6T Deluxe
2 x 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 Drives
6 Gb Corsair 133 RAM (never all gets used, certainly wouldn't spend money on any more!)
2 x GTX280 Graphics Cards Sli'd
i7 p20, OC to 3GHz with Turbo mode still enabled (up to 3.3GHz when turbo is on), stock voltage just upped bclk
Coolermaster Cosmos case with Coolermaster M850 PSU, great case, PSU is good quality but there are better around for the money now.
Air cooling will be fine, you can get much more of an overclock out of an i7 than I have, only reason I haven't pushed it further is I haven't found anything that needs it! That and being too lazy to take the motherboard back out to change to an aftermarket cooler.
Vista x64 SP1, very stable OS and much faster than XP on a high end machine.

Based on some odd glitches I've seen and sensitivity to driver version I wouldn't recommend SLi, if you're happy with 4X AA on everything a single GTX285 will do you. Being able to step up the AA without any noticable drop in framerate is nice with SLi but the glitches balance it out.

 

[xthekidx]

Where are you located? $2500 USD is a lot of money, you can build a GTX 285 SLI system on that budget easily. What all needs to be included in the budget? Do you have anything already? Do you need peripherals (keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers ect)?

 

[r_manic]

Where are you located? $2500 USD is a lot of money, you can build a GTX 285 SLI system on that budget easily. What all needs to be included in the budget? Do you have anything already? Do you need peripherals (keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers ect)?

Or even a 295? *drool*

 

[Big Bruce]

I'm starting completely from scratch. I will keep my current system for secondary use or pass it to my son.

I priced some of the items at the Tiger Direct Store and just the MB, CPU, Liquid cooling system, memory, case, PSU, GTS 260 OC+ and 2x 1.5T Samsung drives came to $2100.

So, I guess I will be shopping around. If you guys have any suggestions on where to buy, that would also be appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[xthekidx]

www.newegg.com

 

[xthekidx]

CPU/MB: i7 920 and P6T Deluxe V2
Case/PSU: Haf 932 and CoolerMaster Real power Pro 1000w PSU
Ram: G. Skill PI Silver 6gb DDR3-1600
HDD: WD1001FALS WD Caviar Black 1TB
DVD Drive: LG DVD SATA Combo Drive
Cooler: S1283V DK
OS: Vista Home Premium 64bit
GPU: 2x BFG GTX 295

That setup costs you about $2380 with shipping. You really don't need WC unless you go for 4+ghz overclock, that cooler I included will do just fine probably up to about 3.8-4ghz or so. Maybe pick up some good thermal compound as well, but that is all you really need. If you want you can double up on the HDD, but don't get those seagate 1.5tb drives they are terrible.

 

[xthekidx]

So in reality, you really don't need that good of a setup because you would need to lay out about $1000 to get a monitor to do those GPU's real justice, but I just wanted to show you what your money could do. I would replace the PSU with a Corsair 850TX and then replace the GPU's with 2 GTX 285's or 2 GTX 275's. Then you could get a 24" monitor and mouse and keyboard and speakers in your budget. Or another option would be to just drop 1 of the GTX 295's and keep one, then you can fit the peripherals in your budget and then add another GTX 295 later if you go the urge to get a 30" monitor

 

[Helloworld_98]

or he could get a 4890 x2 when they come out, it would beat the gtx 295 aswell and may even be the same price.

 

[xthekidx]

or he could get a 4890 x2 when they come out, it would beat the gtx 295 aswell and may even be the same price.

If the 4890x2 comes out at the same price of the GTX 295 prices on the GTX 295 will surely drop, as will the prices of the 4870x2. But the 4890x2 isn't exactly about to be released, its still a ways off.

 

[Big Bruce]

CPU/MB: i7 920 and P6T Deluxe V2
Case/PSU: Haf 932 and CoolerMaster Real power Pro 1000w PSU
Ram: G. Skill PI Silver 6gb DDR3-1600
HDD: WD1001FALS WD Caviar Black 1TB
DVD Drive: LG DVD SATA Combo Drive
Cooler: S1283V DK
OS: Vista Home Premium 64bit
GPU: 2x BFG GTX 295

That setup costs you about $2380 with shipping. You really don't need WC unless you go for 4+ghz overclock, that cooler I included will do just fine probably up to about 3.8-4ghz or so. Maybe pick up some good thermal compound as well, but that is all you really need. If you want you can double up on the HDD, but don't get those seagate 1.5tb drives they are terrible.

Did you mean not to buy Seagate 1.5 TB drives or do not buy the 1.5 TB Samsung drives I was looking at?

 

[xthekidx]

Ah samsung drives are alright (still not as good as the WD drives, but not as bad as the seagates). I misread what you said. Samsung drives are fast and fairly reliable, but WD would be my first pick.