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Cobblers

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Intel® Core™i7-2600S Quad Core (2.8GHz, 8MB Cache)

processor? Is this decent enough as a consideration?

Short answer: YES, but you will need to look at dofferent motherboards for that processor.

Unless you really want to do SLI or Crossfire in some extreme configuration, you will do very well with a newish Sandybridge Intel process such as the I7-2500 or 2600. If you have any interest in over-clocking/fiddling, then you should go with the "K" versions, since they have unlocked multipliers to enable maximum performance. At this point, the only real reason to go with the now older I7's (that fit in a 1366 socket) is a desire/need to run three video cards. This article provides some fair comparisons between some very high end X58 and P67 based motherboards running in these "enthusiast" configurations that may be interesting.

There are lots of good P67 based motherboards out there to pick from (see this list for example) unless you are planning something super aggressive, any of the $130-$180 mother boards should work well for you.

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Motherboard aside then, what if I were to go for the non K Intel Sandybridge processor. The other two are labelled as the 2600 at 3.4Ghz and 2600s at 2.8Ghz.

The 2600s is slightly more expensive from what I am noticing, but to me the numbers are lower, so doesn't this mean a slower processor?

So questions is, surely the 2600 @ 3.4Ghz is the best choice, isn't it?! :wall:

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the 2600 is probably best for you yeah, i'm sure gigabyte can serve your motherboard needs there. this is why i go for AMD because the phenom series is all on one socket unlike intel where everything is all over the place

BUT if you dont mind, you can overclock the 2600S to 3.8Ghz quite easily

where the 2600 can overclock to the same speed (maximum) so it goes to show really

Edited by Zeealex
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OK, so this is what I've got so far:

G-Card:

XFX HD 6950 ATI AMD Radeon Graphics Card - 2GB

£203.99

RAM:

2 x 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600)

£86.78

M-Board:

Asus P8P67 Pro Rev3, Intel P67, S1155

£150.80

OS:

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

£73.28

Case:

Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus, Black

£57.32

Monitor:

24" Iiyama PLE2409HDS Black Widescreen LCD Monitor

£143.09

PSU:

OCZ ModXStream Pro power supply

£63.96

DVD Drive:

LiteOn 24x Int. DVDRW Black SATA + S/W

£12.99

HD:

Western Digital 1Tb RE3 Hard Drive - HDD

£75.94

Processor:

Intel Core i7 2600K Unlocked

£233

Price Total: £1,101.15 Edit: HD added.

PS - I've also looked to have a machine built for me. And I can not get this spec without spending another £300-£500, so much more cost effective doing it this way for sure - just in case anyone is thinking of "starting again" like me and wants to considering doing it this way.

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PSU:

CiT 750W Power Supply Unit with PSU and Dual 12V Rails - Black Edition

£32.31

Cheap and nasty.

THIS went into a freinds new quad core PC. All good. Will run 2 graphics cards.

Have 1 of THESE still in the box here on the shelf, that would be better than your choice.

Have a 850W Black Widow in my new PC, cost around £85.

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Where did you get yours Tinker?

Scrap that, I went for your friends instead!

Lastly, the Asus mother board I posted up above, am I right in thinking that it has 4 x RAM slots, rather than the 3 that the Gigabyte had? Never mind it does have four.

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My suggestion would be to check out this article. For clarification, the S parts are low-power versions, the K are unlocked for overclocking, and the no suffix parts are the "normal" ones. I have no personal experience using any of these, but one of my less technically savvy squad-mates recently purchased a 2600K based system and had it running at 4+ GHz in ~1day. Based on that experience and the general vibe from the reviewers I really think a 2500K will give you the best bang for your buck.

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Yeah, starting to think the same from seeing some of the reviews/tests of the 2600K. Besides, it's only like £10 more expensive, if that, so worth the extra money.

Besides must be plenty of guides on how to get the best out of it!

Edit:

Can the resident experts have a look over the above when they get a moment please?

Pretty sure that this is everything covered now and if so then I'll start ordering the stuff as of tomorrow....

Oh and not sure on the RAM - is this OK. And the gigabyte cooling fan, is this needing to be changed now I am going for an Asus motherboard?

Thanks again to all for the help with this system.

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Hi Cobblers,

Wow, sounds like you have a great rig shaping up here.

I haven't built a new gaming rig in over 2 years so I'm not too familiar with the new 2nd-generation i7 "Sandy-Bridge" CPUs but apparently they are way to go for top-of-the-line performance and being pretty much as future-proof as you can be at this moment in time. (All the new MacBook Pros are using these new i7s)

Anyways, that being said no computer is guaranteed to be future-proof for very long, so just really depends on the games you play. Currently I am just happy if Starcraft 2 looks good and plays smoothly, so that is my benchmark.

I am not clear if you building your own system? Or getting a store to put it together for you? In any case, if you pick the parts you have better control of what goes in there. Pre-made systems do take some shortcuts sometimes (lower wattage PSU, lower quality RAM etc) so if you spec out your own system there is the satisfaction that you are getting the best parts for your buck.

Intel Core i7 2600K Unlocked

You can't go wrong with the Core i7 2600. CPUs are so fast these days I don't bother overclocking, but it is nice to have the option

XFX HD 6950 ATI AMD Radeon Graphics Card - 2GB

Once again, this is 2nd from the top-of-the-line 6970 so you can't go too far wrong. Interestingly though, if you look at some benchmarks the previous gen top-of-the-line Radeon 5870 1GB is faster than the 6950 in some real-game (i.e. not synthetic) benchmarks. E.g.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2011-gaming-graphics-charts/Aliens-vs.-Predator-Gamer,2667.html

2 x 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600)

Can't go wrong with 8GB of RAM. **Just make sure to check the documentation for the ASUS board you are getting to make sure it supports the timing and voltage for this RAM, as I have had some Intel boards get kinda finicky with certain RAM.

Asus P8P67 Pro Rev3, Intel P67, S1155

Can't go wrong with ASUS boards. They are a Tier-1 manufacturer and are top quality.

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

Good enough for gaming. Just note some of your old 32-bit apps are not guaranteed to work on 64-bit Win7. The answer to this is dual-boot WinXP 32/Win7

22" Iiyama PLE2208HDD-B

This is where I would recommend something else. I would get minimum 24". In fact, I am currently using a 27" Dell Ultrasharp and there's no going back in terms of how nice gaming looks on a bigger screen. Also, the bigger image helps if your eyes are getting older and tired like mine hehe

Ilyama are top quality monitors that are good for professional photographers because of better color calibration. However, it may be a little overkill if you are just using it for gaming. Spend the mony on a larger monitor. I have had good experience with the higher end Dells and ViewSonics, but best thing is to go to the store and see the monitor for yourself. Don't just rely on specs on a webpage.

OCZ ModXStream Pro power supply

How many watts is this? I'd suggest at least 800W

GIGABYTE COOLER X POWER PWM 9025 FAN 2800R

I would just try the stock Intel fan first. You may fine it is adequate. Your gaming system will be a bit noisy anyway with the fans spinning on the graphics card.

LiteOn 24x Int. DVDRW Black SATA + S/W

I love Lite-On drives as they don't have any brandname on the front (like Sony or LG) Also very reliable. If you want higher end I would suggest Plextor

I don't see a hard drive here. Really the decision these days is between a larger capacity drive or a faster Solid State Drive for speed.

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Thanks very much CR6.

The M-Board states regards the memory:

DDR3 - 1066

DDR3 - 1333

DDR3 - 1600

DDR3 - 1866(OC)

DDR3 - 2133(OC)

DDR3 - 2200(OC)

Memory Capacity: 32GB

Memory Type: DDR3

Memory Channel: Dual

Memory Type (ECC): Non-ECC

Memory Type (R/U): Unbuffered

The memory states:

4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.65V

So does that all sound good? Oh and added the HD!!

And yes, the PSU is 700W.

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PSU:

CiT 750W Power Supply Unit with PSU and Dual 12V Rails - Black Edition

£32.31

Cheap and nasty.

not really, i've had CiT before and it has never been an issue to me.

ugh i hate this, whatever.

just another girl with the wrong dreams, i get it.

Edited by Zeealex
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I'd not take it personally.

Picking through this rig I've found most of it is down to personal opinions and preference.... or "I use xxx because I always have"

But really appreciate the help and support from all who pitched in for me.

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thats fine by me not your fault, you are new and you are getting suggestions but it's other things too.

i do whatever i want, you dont like being told how to play a game and i dont like being told how to take things, i've had a bad day, leave it at that

anyway too much of this:

threadjacked.gif

hope it works well for you. can't go wrong with gigabyte either, but hey i'm a girl what do i know? nothing apparently.

and it was nice to know i was appreciated for 5 minutes which is better than the 30 seconds i usually get in the home or school before some idiot butts in and says i'm not good enough, i'm a girl i dont know what i'm talking about. so turn the tables dont take this personally either.

Edited by Zeealex
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@Cobblers, looks good. I did not check the QVL (qualified vendor list??) for your motherboard -- which will list memory that Asus promises will work with your MB -- but I believe you have made a fine choice that should work just fine. PSU sizing (and brand preferences) are always trickier. I (like CR6) tend to go bigger to be safe, for your setup as long (as you do not hang a zillion things off the system) you should be good with anything that actually provides better than ~500W -- which I think your OCZ will do just fine. Good luck with the build :thumbsup:

@Zeealex, sorry to hear you had a bad day. Never take anything you see in any forum personally, it's just not worth it. Much as you never know if you are talking to a dog, you also never know when you are talking to someone who also had a bad day and decided to take it out on you :rocky:

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PSU:

CiT 750W Power Supply Unit with PSU and Dual 12V Rails - Black Edition

£32.31

Cheap and nasty.

not really, i've had CiT before and it has never been an issue to me.

ugh i hate this, whatever.

just another girl with the wrong dreams, i get it.

Not really caring if you are a girl / boy / cat / dog, that PSU was not a good choice for this setup. Nothing more than an observation.

For you we have :flowers: hope all good.

I (like CR6) tend to go bigger to be safe

See now this gets over rated. I can understand if you are to install 3 hard drives and 2 - 3 DVD drives etc. But a basic setup? 500 - 600 of good quality, is more than enough here already.

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PSU:

CiT 750W Power Supply Unit with PSU and Dual 12V Rails - Black Edition

£32.31

Cheap and nasty.

not really, i've had CiT before and it has never been an issue to me.

ugh i hate this, whatever.

just another girl with the wrong dreams, i get it.

Not really caring if you are a girl / boy / cat / dog, that PSU was not a good choice for this setup. Nothing more than an observation.

For you we have :flowers: hope all good.

they are only cheap because they arent modular or or fancy, or 80 plus (the only downside, but they are incredibly efficient) or have a big name printed on the side, it's just black in colour,silent and does its job (the wiring was a nuisance with my MA770 board, getting in the way of the RAM still worked though). i had to resort to using one when my AMD PC was giving me ######, windows was telling me that my RAM was dead, when it blaitntly wasn't made a couple of observations and i had a 300W powerpack supplying 299W at 100% load so i had to go with a cheap alternative; CiT 550W black ed, sort of glad i bought it, it made me realise it definately was the PSU that was the problem, the PC was REALLY loud before it, now you just hear a beep and the CPU fan. so i though Cobblers might benefit from a cheap and cheerful alternative to spending over £100 quid on the fancy pantsy modular ones.

@Zeealex, sorry to hear you had a bad day. Never take anything you see in any forum personally, it's just not worth it. Much as you never know if you are talking to a dog, you also never know when you are talking to someone who also had a bad day and decided to take it out on you :rocky:

understood :thumbsup: feeling a little better today, still thinking girls and the computing side of life don't go, but hey there's nothing wrong with trying. but i'll stick with Marine Biology :P

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Right well the OCZ Modxstream-pro power supply has arrived.

And OMG, it's the heaviest thing I've felt in years!! :D But impressed with PC World, ordered everything on the same day and they are the first to deliver anything.

Hoping I'm lucky and get a bank holiday courier delivery for the rest of the equipment, otherwise I'll have to wait until Tuesday to get the rest of the stuff.

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Right well the OCZ Modxstream-pro power supply has arrived.

And OMG, it's the heaviest thing I've felt in years!! :D But impressed with PC World, ordered everything on the same day and they are the first to deliver anything.

Hoping I'm lucky and get a bank holiday courier delivery for the rest of the equipment, otherwise I'll have to wait until Tuesday to get the rest of the stuff.

Looks like a cool build. i'm sure you will enjoy it! The hardest thing is seeing each part come in and not being able to assemble it all at once. You will be a postal tracking whore for the next few days lol!

As for the gigabyte - a couple of years ago when i worked for an oem we dropped them. We found out why they had 2 bios. one would always fail within a year.

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so was the Gigabyte Odin, it's how you know it is well made :D the heavy PSU that is.

break within a year? weird, my dual BIOS builds have been running fine since they brought em out, suppose i just got lucky :P

You have to remember we were shipping 100's of them in pre-configured pc's. 40% return didn't go well with the boss. back then they didn't make power supplies (or i had never seen one). We used antec that came with the case mainly.

It does however mean 60% didn't come back - probably the few you got fell in this percentile.

Asus actually had the lowest percent returns on mainboards.

We had also dropped amd in the k6 models for an 80% return on popped chips.

and ATI for the rage 128's that they wouldn't take back with defective memory.

Don't get me started on maxtors..... :( and desktars.

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ouch! it still doesn't change my view on gigabyte, i do like ASUS but their BIOS is hard to get around, i guess that's because i am used to the traditional framework.

as for MSI and ASrock, bunch of balls, ASrock are just cocky ###### who think their motherboard is going to work no matter what and they don't give you much to look at in the troubleshooting section, i think Kyle_k_Ski is the one who gave me that view on them.

MSI, i have had 2 motherboards from them in an attempt to draw myself away from Gigabyte, at the time they were cheap so i though why not, but no they didn't boot up or anything, i checked my wiring was right and the Case was connected properly, tested the PSU, worked fine, tested the CPU all good, RAM, perfect. all of that was tested in a gigabyte motherboard i think it was my Trusty MA770-UD3 so i returned it hoping maybe i just had a buggy board, and still the same issue with the new one, again checked everything was plugged up and working, but same outcome. i can say the only one i would choose over a gigabyte board is ASUS, all the ones i had off them were fantastic.

Edited by Zeealex
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