My first Self build any pointers?

[bigizzman]

Hi
it's my first post, be gentle.

I would very much like any feedback good or bad, also any advice on anything else I need to add or remove.

I am buying from ebuyer total cost £1750ish

Asus P8Z68-V PRO Z68 Socket 1155 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard

Intel Core i7 2600 3.4 GHz Socket 1155 L3 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor with FREE Operation Flashpoint Download Voucher

Intel Operation Flashpoint promotional download voucher

Corsair 16GB ((4x4GB) DDR3 2000MHz XMS3 Memory Kit CL9 1.65V

Corsair CWCH50-1 Cooling Hydro Series H50 High-performance CPU Cooler supports LGA1156 LGA 1155 LGA775 LGA1366 AM2 and AM3 processors

Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Thermal paste 3.5gram

OCZ 180GB Vertex 2 SSD 3.5" SATA-II Read = 285MB/s, Write = 275MB/s 50,000 IOPS

WD 600GB 3.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s VELOCIRAPTOR Hard Drive - 10,000RPM 32MB Cache

Xenta SATA 2.0 to right angle SATA 7-pin Cable (Red) 46cm / 18"

Coolermaster HAF X with Coolermaster GX 750W PSU Bundle

Gainward GTX 580 Phantom Edition 1536MB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card Ebuyer Exclusive

LG BH10LS30 10x BD-RE with DVD±RW & LightScribe SATA Blu-Ray Drive - OEM Black

Akasa 3.5" BayMaster AK-ICR-10 Card Reader and Front Load for 2.5" SATA and SSD Hard Drives

Thanks
Bigizzman

[Blackmage]

Get a p67 board save some money.

Get 8gb of ram, as 16 is really overkill unless your doing something that requires it

Forget the raptor drive, get a nice Samsung f3 or 2tb F4.

Get a 120gb vertex 3 or a crucial m4(m4 is better over all)

Get a 2600k as you can overclock a k series chip, but you can't to a non k

What res is your monitor?

[no_numb]

Not an expert by any means but do you need the velociraptor and the SSD?

Surely something like http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-w...4mb-cache-8-ms would suffice as I assume with a 180gb SSD you'd be putting all your apps and os on there. Not sure a raptor is needed just for storage stuff. Or even for the price you could raid some?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Does the OP really need HT?? If not they should get a Core i5 IMHO. BTW,Bulldozer is being launched next month so I would wait until then.

[Attila the Bun]

Hi there...welcome to HEXUS

Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Thermal paste 3.5gram

I saw a really good review somewhere that, although good, there are a number of compounds that are better than Arctic Silver 5 due to research developments. I will go and have a dig around and see if I can find the review. If I remember rightly there isn't much in it in thermal transfer rates but AS5 takes some days to cure properly so if your planning to overclock you should give it a good bedding in period.

Coolermaster HAF X with Coolermaster GX 750W PSU Bundle

As you are spending all that money I would aim at a proven top quality PSU, either a seasonic or enermax built...one of theirs or one they build for another brand (XFX or Antec True Power New for example) would worth looking at.

Check here to see who makes what:
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page541.htm

[watercooled]

I agree with the others, I'd go for a 3.5" 'green' drive or something as your storage drive, maybe a normal 7200rpm drive if you're going to be keeping games/applications on it but a modern green drive should be plenty fast for data storage. I also agree about saving some money by getting a P67 instead - Z68 basically just adds the option to use the onboard graphics and use SSD caching which just sounds to me like a way to wear out your SSD faster.

16GB sounds like massive overkill, 4Gb should be plenty unless you know why you need more.

Motherboards usually come with at least 4 SATA cables so you shouldn't have to buy any separately.

Also, optical drives are often largely ignored but I would recommend an Optiarc drive over an LG - in my experience the Optiarc drives are better burners and much quieter, the LG I have vibrates like heck even at low speeds.

Edit: Just some more based on the above posts - I prefer Arctic MX2 (MX3 is the newer one) over AS5. And as I usually say to most build threads but seem to have forgotten - you might want to wait a little while (month or so) for Bulldozer's release. Even if you don't decide it's for you, it should force the price of Intel's chips down.

[Spud1]

Spending too much money on a self build with that spec imo - and don't forget you need another £100 for your windows licence too.

If spending that much I would look at a pre-build PC or a bundle at the very least, spending that much nets you a discount at any of the reputable suppliers..

Look at Scan's 3XS series - this one:

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1199

Comparable to yours but with a windows licence included and 8GB instead of 16GB ram, pre overclocked CPU to 4.6ghz, and an onsite warranty..but £250 cheaper. That's just an example, but basically i'm saying I think you can get a better deal than that

[Blackmage]

Does the OP really need HT?? If not they should get a Core i5 IMHO. BTW,Bulldozer is being launched next month so I would wait until then.

Well, he has the money for the best so why not? Plus the higher stock clocks, more cache and the ability to overclock all bonuses in my view.

I think theres no point in getting a 2500k unless you have a smaller budget, which he clearly hasn't. If he can't wait for next month to see what bulldozer can offer, I do think the 2600k is the way forward with his budget.

[eyezpy]

I would recommend Corsair H60 over the H50, build quality should be better as Corsair is giving it 5 years warranty instead of 3 now. Heck maybe even the H70 The coolers come with good heat paste pre applied already, but I guess its good to have some spare.

Also consider two GTX 560 Ti for Sli (about £360) instead of a 580 (£400). It will give you better performance at a lower price.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Well, he has the money for the best so why not? Plus the higher stock clocks, more cache and the ability to overclock all bonuses in my view.

I think theres no point in getting a 2500k unless you have a smaller budget, which he clearly hasn't. If he can't wait for next month to see what bulldozer can offer, I do think the 2600k is the way forward with his budget.

Bulldozer will probably be better than the Core i7 2600K in multi-threaded applications at the very least.

[bigizzman]

Thanks for all the positive info,

I have opted for the Z68 purely to future proof my build, OC possibilites & SRT, also I have had realiable use of a P5N32 for nearly five years.

I already have a 1TB external & 1TB 7200rpm internal drive to add to the build, as I take a lot of photo's in RAW.

As well as gaming (is there any other use for a computer...?) I use graphics packages so here goes
"I thought the more cores the more ram was required=quicker computer"

Will 16Gb of RAM be to much? I don,t want to buy it for it to gather dust.

Thanks for the good advice on ssd's, cooling paste ect.

As for buying a made up system IMO, the cost saving, challange & ability to get new & up to date bit's & bobs far out weighs this.

This is why I am already glad I posted what is Bulldozer? will be getting up to speed soonest.
GR8T Help, Thanks

[Tattysnuc]

Dump the 1.65v and get 1.5v Vengence. On S1155 boards the memory makes NEGLIGIBLE difference. The processor speed makes all the difference on the Intel boards.

Otherwise, I completely agree with all the other comments above. The 2500k is a cheaper version of the 2600K and unless you are using photoshop, folding, or planning on doing MAJOR video editing, I'd recommend going for the cheaper model. The 2600K only gives you +25% extra performance because the cores are virtual by virtue of being HT cores not REAL ones.

Also, I'd also go for the P67 one, and get the Revodrive rather than an SATA3 SSD. MUCH faster.

Don't forget your keyboard, mouse and display...

... and OS.... No need to pay for Win 7 Ultimate, unless you want to use it to back up other machines and also to encrypt your drives. Pro is quite sufficient. Always buy the Retail version also, so that you can use it on another machine when you upgrade or change machines....

SSD - why not go for Revodrive in

[Attila the Bun]

This is why I am already glad I posted what is Bulldozer? will be getting up to speed soonest.
GR8T Help, Thanks

AMDs new offerings...Check out this thread for more info
http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...-chitchat.html

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is why I am already glad I posted what is Bulldozer? will be getting up to speed soonest.

Bulldozer is the new AMD CPU being launched next month. It is the first fully new architecture since the Athlon 64. It looks like it will have decent multi-threaded performance but performance in applications which use less threads is not reliably known ATM.

I can suggest the following build from Scan.



It will be possible to make the build cheaper without sacrificing quality too much.

Scan also does special offers on parts:

http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/

http://www.scan.co.uk/shopoffers/index.aspx

Once you get to 20 posts you can get free postage from Scan:

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...-delivery.html

Out of interest what packages are you using??

A more complex disk setup maybe prove useful and of course some of the packages may benefit from things like CUDA for example.

Another thing is what resolution do you intend to game at?? A single HD6950 or GTX560TI may do the job.

Edit!!

You need to add an optical drive to the build.

[krazy_olie]

Bulldozer is/will be the next gen cpus from AMD. No one realyl knows if they will be good but expetations are high. Particualrly they will likely be better value at least, and you at least get more cores for your cash (so good for anything that will use them!). The motherboards will certainly be cheaper.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The following build uses parts from Ebuyer.