Planning an i7 build

RobertP

RobertP

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It's not for me but it is mainly for photo editing and general use. Request for the spec was for something that is pretty damn fast and will not become obsolete too quick :)

Gaming is unlikely but not out of the question.

Dabs are cheaper than Ebuyer on some things and dearer on others so likely to buy some things from each unless someone knows a supplier that will beat them both. I haven't added everything to the basket on other sites I know of to check prices myself.

This is the basket on Dabs at the moment -

Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz LGA1155 8MB In stock £249.99

Asus P8Z68-V PRO LGA1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 ATX (USB 3.0) In stock £139.99

Asus GeForce GTX 550 Ti 910MHz 1GB PCI-Express HDMI In stock £94.99

Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL9 XMP Available £69.99

Corsair Memory 120GB Force Series 3 SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive (Read 550MB/s, Write 510MB/s) In stock £122.98

Samsung SH-S222AB/RSMS 22x DVD Writer S-ATA In stock £14.98

Samsung 2TB SpinPoint EcoGreen F4EG SATA3 32MB Hard Drive £129.99

Fractal Design Define R3 Black Pearl Mid-Tower USB 3.0 Case Available £74.98

Antec TruePower New 650W Modular PSU Available £79.99

HP ZR24w 24" Widescreen 1920 x 1200 7ms DVI-D VGA LCD Monitor In stock £344.16

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 CPU Cooler In stock £14.98

Microsoft Wired Keyboard 600 Black In stock £9.40

Microsoft Comfort Mouse 6000 - Mouse - optical - 5 button(s) - wired - USB

Total (inc VAT) £1,367.09

I used the Corsair site to find suitable memory and the vengeance was listed so should be OK.

The cooler is a cheapy but is one that I have used on my own system and it just works. If it does cause limitations then changing it is always an option.

So what have I forgotten or picked the wrong one of?

I have built my own PC's since the days of the 386 processor so the building does not worry me but getting the right parts does. What you understand 2 years ago has to be re-learnt again because things change so fast!

Screen is likely to become 2 screens but I thought try one first. Order likely to be placed in the next day or so.

I've got a feeling I'll be buying a processor, mobo and memory for myself once I see this running!
 
One other thing while I think of it....

Is there an internal UDMA card reader/ media bay thing available anywhere? My Lexar (usb2 version) reader is so much faster than my ordinary sandisk that I wouldn't want to get a media bay thing with a slow reader in it, so I have not listed one at all.
 
That looks a fine system to me.

I personally would have a second DVD doodah, handy for copying on the fly.

I would suggest a USB3 Lexar dual card reader, Santa brought me one and it's faster by far than the rest of my readers.
 
But it is also something laying around on the desk on a USB lead. It would be nice if there was something as fast that could be fitted into a drive bay.
 
I have just built a pretty similar build:

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=375160

And its rocket fast! I stuck with the Lexar external card reader... made it part of my desk with a bit of bluetack! In my experience those inbuilt ones are slower, and the pins seem to break quicker! not sure why (maybe cause the ones i have had a cheap)

Can highly recommend the lexar reader!!
 
RobertP said:
But it is also something laying around on the desk on a USB lead. It would be nice if there was something as fast that could be fitted into a drive bay.
Click to expand...

I had a wee google when I was building mines but, although some had USB3 sockets, the readers were USB2.
 
stokes said:
I have just built a pretty similar build:

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=375160

And its rocket fast! I stuck with the Lexar external card reader... made it part of my desk with a bit of bluetack! In my experience those inbuilt ones are slower, and the pins seem to break quicker! not sure why (maybe cause the ones i have had a cheap)

Can highly recommend the lexar reader!!
Click to expand...

I found this too, in fact within a day i bent a pin and damaged a card so I removed it and threw mine in the bin and got a usb3 one
 
It sounds a great spec and should keep running for some years to come obviously with the obligatory system format and restore every so often.

I would personally however put two 1tb drives in and raid them. You will obviously halve your storage but will be solid as far as drive fails go. Especially as your primary boot drive is an ssd.

Food for thought.

Dan.
 
Me and raid will never meet again :)

Having lost the contents of 2 drives because the controller failed I will not touch raid again. drives were healthy but unreadable without an identical controller.

Original plan was for 2 x 2Tb drives but went for one for now due to the huge price rises lately. second one can wait until they get back to normal.

As to format and re install in my experience that problem went away with windows 7. No slow downs here since using windows 7.
 
looks good to me, the good thing about the 2600k is it will easily go to 4.4ghz with a simple bios tweek (no over-volting necessary so 100% safe).

also budget for some arctic silver thermal past rather than the standard stuff.

you can save a few quid by getting the OEM processor too (minus intel "heatsink" and fan). doesnt look like dabs do the OEM though for some reason.

oh and theres no mention of OS, W7-64 home premium OEM is about £75
 
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64 bit win 7 Ultimate is already sourced for the OS

And I have some arctic silver. even after reseating the heatsink on a graphics card after cooking it that time there is still plenty left.

I didn't look for an OEM processor as I thought the warranty was less/different or something, but I could be wrong.
 
neil_g said:
looks good to me, the good thing about the 2600k is it will easily go to 4.4ghz with a simple bios tweek (no over-volting necessary so 100% safe).

also budget for some arctic silver thermal past rather than the standard stuff.

you can save a few quid by getting the OEM processor too (minus intel "heatsink" and fan). doesnt look like dabs do the OEM though for some reason.

oh and theres no mention of OS, W7-64 home premium OEM is about £75
Click to expand...

I went for the oem processor but in hind site I would pay the extra as the oem processor only gets a years warranty but the retail version gets 3years!
 
RobertP said:
64 bit win 7 Ultimate is already sourced for the OS

And I have some arctic silver. even after reseating the heatsink on a graphics card after cooking it that time there is still plenty left.

I didn't look for an OEM processor as I thought the warranty was less/different or something, but I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

OS - excellent :)

Paste - yeah they always give you tonnes of the stuff, i think ive done about 4-5 CPU seatings so far with my current lot.

OEM - yes, looking on the intel site the warrenty is different. i cant see you having too much bother RMA'ing a defective unit back to the retailer under the SOG act though.

more info - http://www.intel.com/support/processors/sb/cs-020033.htm
 
Haven't checked your spec, but there is a nice deal going with dell now( ends tomorrow)
I7 rig, 12gb ram, 1tb raid 0, bluray drive, ati 6950 2gb. All for just under £1100.
Tried to build similar build from components to build it myself, and I failed :)

Will post a direct link to it once I get home.
 
bastic said:
Haven't checked your spec, but there is a nice deal going with dell now( ends tomorrow)
I7 rig, 12gb ram, 1tb raid 0, bluray drive, ati 6950 2gb. All for just under £1100.
Tried to build similar build from components to build it myself, and I failed :)

Will post a direct link to it once I get home.
Click to expand...
There is: XPS8300 depending on what you want (£1029 without non-IPS monitor, £1099 with). You should be able to save ~£100 on that price too judging by the Dell voucher code pages here: http://www.dell.com/Offers
 
Just had a quick look on the dell site and couldn't get anywhere near the list above for the same price. I know they do have offers at times and nothing has been ordered elsewhere yet so I'm willing to look :)

Mind you I'd have to factor in the effort involved in removing all their 'free included software' as well...
 
RobertP said:
Mind you I'd have to factor in the effort involved in removing all their 'free included software' as well...
Click to expand...
Just order the £5 OS media disk and re-install from scratch.
 
I found the deal via the dmxdimension site and it doesn't really compare so the build is still on :)
 
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