help building new computer high spec

[pug106quiksilve]

help building a high spec pc

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right im looking at building a high spec pc looking at the region of

intel quad core 2 3ghz or above
8 + gb of ram
1000gb hard drive
around about £300 on a graphics card
liquid cooled system


or im looking at the intel i7 cpu
with 2 gig ram
1000gb hard drive
and around 300/400 on a graphics card

but is it really worth spending 800 on the cpu?




can anyone recommend any bits
also can any one recommend a motherboard that will support all this thank you for your time and help

[SiM]

but is it really worth spending 800 on the cpu?

Lol. If you are asking that question, then no.

I would wait for i7, then get the cheapest one and clock it

[arthurleung]

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/Category.asp?S...rCategoryID=20

SCAN 3XS Pre-overclocked for you

Things you're asking is very odd though. You're only asking for 3Ghz yet you want liquid cooling, which doesn't really benefit until you get to 4.2Ghz+

[moogle]

Things you're asking is very odd though. You're only asking for 3Ghz yet you want liquid cooling, which doesn't really benefit until you get to 4.2Ghz+

He might just want silence + good overclocks
Anyway the £800 CPU's are never worth it, not when their lower counterparts can clock to their speeds easily.

[Webby]

Water cooling provided benefits even if you do no overclocks at all you certainly can not say you do not need it until you hit a particular speed.

My CPU is no where near 4.5GHz (only 3.5GHz) but is water cooled and stays cool and quiet at all times I'm sure I could have it running at these speeds air cooled but it would not be as cool.

Equally important is the fact that you can water cool all the hot places in the computer so my GPU and NB are cooled by water as well, I could (if I wanted to) cool my southbridge, Mosfets, memory, hard drives, PSU anything that gets hot basically can be water cooled to keep it cool and reduce the noise of lots of different size/type of fans.

To the opening poster, if you give us a budget to work to and an idea of what you want to use it for I'm sure we can come up with something.

[pug106quiksilve]

ive found this i7 cpu
Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Quad Core 3.20GHz 4 ... £850.90

or can any one recommend any ?
finding it quite hard what to go for

[SiM]

ive found this i7 cpu
Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Quad Core 3.20GHz 4 ... £850.90

or can any one recommend any ?
finding it quite hard what to go for

I would buy 6 of those, keep the best clocking one and use the others as paper weights

[arthurleung]

Water cooling provided benefits even if you do no overclocks at all you certainly can not say you do not need it until you hit a particular speed.

My CPU is no where near 4.5GHz (only 3.5GHz) but is water cooled and stays cool and quiet at all times I'm sure I could have it running at these speeds air cooled but it would not be as cool.

Equally important is the fact that you can water cool all the hot places in the computer so my GPU and NB are cooled by water as well, I could (if I wanted to) cool my southbridge, Mosfets, memory, hard drives, PSU anything that gets hot basically can be water cooled to keep it cool and reduce the noise of lots of different size/type of fans.

To the opening poster, if you give us a budget to work to and an idea of what you want to use it for I'm sure we can come up with something.

Given a good enough (large) heatsink you will not get a lot of noise.
Even if you watercool almost everything, there are still the radiator fan(s), psu fan as well as the harddrive spinning, contributing to noise.

Perhaps some high-frequency sound from the power regulators.

I would say water cooling is the perfect way if you use a tiny case or have super high density (e.g. server rack). But consider most water-cooling ready cases are HUGE, there is not a significant benefit in terms of noise.

Regarding to temperature. MOSFET / Capacitor temperature seems to be the main concern for component longitivity. A number of my (current and ex-)systems' CPU constantly running at 75'C+ for 7x24 for 2 years+ and have close to ZERO effect on the life of the component. They overclocked as well as they were 2 years ago (which means circuit not degraded). Although this is only true if you're sensible with the voltage setting.

Particularly with the new Penryn CPU, they DIE of over-voltage than heat. At the voltage operating limit they are still within reach of quiet air cooling (with the exception of a few jewel chips that can go insanely high).

I'm not saying watercooling is bad, just it is not really needed, and the expertise required to setup a proper water-cooling system is not low either.

[Webby]

Sim you are going to need 7 gotta have an even number of paperweights!

Back on topic

The is no reason to be getting the 965, the 920 will be more than adequate as long as your prepared to overclock it and will cost you in the region of £250 rather than £850 also they have not been officially released yet so prices for pre-order may be artificially high.

[MSIC]

but is it really worth spending 800 on the cpu?

The concept of something being 'worth it' is hard to measure exactly, but ultimately comes down to
a) what else of similar value is available on the market
b) how much money do you have 'spare'
c) how important is the purpose.

Basically, looking simply at the announced Core i7 processors, there are 3 available all at slight speed differences, which we'll call 90%, 95% and 100% of the top speed.
The 90% speed processor will only cost you about 30% of the price.
The 95% speed processor will cost around 50% of the price.

So is it really worth the extra money? Highly unlikely.

[pug106quiksilve]

money isnt really an option i have in the region of 2000/3000 to spend
im looking at a high end spec for gaming so im rather stuck for choice i dont know what to go with
at the moment i7 and ddr3 are my likely options
but i havnt yet come across a motherboard that will support my needs
what would be your choice of cpu + motherboard?

[SiM]

I would get a prebuilt, preoverclocked machine from Scan for that budget. Send a PM to ChrisP and see what he can do for you. I would go for i7 so you might have to wait a little while. Its pointless getting a £2000 C2D system that will get beaten by a £1000 i7 system. Personally I would go for the 920 too as the other don't show significant difference to be worth the extra money...

Something like:
Intel Core i7 920
6GB DDR3 RAM
4870X2 Graphics
Antec 1200 Case
Corsair TX 750W PSU
Vista x64 Ultimate

[jackvdbuk]

or how about spend about 1000 and leave the rest for upgrades in 6 months?

[shbris]

or im looking at the intel i7 cpu
with 2 gig ram
1000gb hard drive
and around 300/400 on a graphics card

i7 uses triple channel doesn't it? so 3GB ram or 6GB ram to get best out of it

[MSIC]

Of course the problem with overclocking, if not done well, is a) shorter system life and b) possible instabilities when under strain (eg doing 48hr rendering sessions).
I'd agree however that getting a system from Scan with a mild overclock, in the region of 10 to 20%, would seem to be good value and wise.

As for upgrading in a few months, for a home desktop i'd agree but in a work environment the time you lose upgrading (getting into a systems room, taking the system down etc) might not be all that worth it, plus you go from a known working system to something new - not always appealing.

Get Scan to build it for you, you'll get a good warranty.

[pug106quiksilve]

ill look into the scan website do you have to contact them personally to get the system overclocked?