Black widow spec advice please

[Shub]

Hi all

Need a look over and advice on my chosen Black widow spec please, anything i should have or wont need? Im a bit unsure.

This is what i have chosen:

Silverstone TJ07B Black Aluminium Full Tower Case *Custom Side Panels Not Required*

Intel i7 965 Extreme, 3.2GHz, 6.4GT/s QPI, @ 3.8Ghz with 20% OC

Thermalright TRUE Copper All Copper Design 120mm Heat Sink

3XS System Core-Logic Overclocking*10 - 20%*
What effect will this have on heat, noise and life span? Would i be better off with the 10%?

6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) CAS 8-8-8-24

1GB XFX GTX 285 Black, 690MHz GPU, 240 Cores, 2600MHz GDDR3 x2

1000W Corsair HX Series Modular.
Im going sly with x2 1GB XFX GTX 285 so i upped to the 1000W PSU, nessasery? will it increase the life of the PSU to go higher or will the 850W be a better choice?

System drives 1000 GB Samsung Spinpoint F1, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache

Storage Hard drives 1000 GB Samsung Spinpoint F1, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache

Solid State Drives 80GB Intel X25-M SSD (Read 250MB/s Write 70MB/s)

Scan Black Floppy Disk & Internal Combo All in 1 Card Reader

Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±R, 12x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black

LG GGW-H20L - Super Multi Blu-Ray Writer & Blu-Ray + HD-ROM Reader

Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional - PCI-E

120mm Coolermaster Internal Case Fan with BLUE LED x7

Sharkoon 4" Blue CCFL 2in1 Kit x2

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64Bit
Having only used XP ive never had any expirience with vista, i know people who have had problems and others who have had none, whats recomended? also whats the difference between 64bit and 32bit?

CyberLink PowerDVD 8 Standard Movie/Audio Player & Decoder

AVG Internet Security 8.0 1 User 1 Year

Im an avid gamer but not hugely computer minded which is why ive come here instead of attempting a home build, a friend built my last (me watching), so i thought i might have the know how to do another, but i have got cold feet about it and i think rightly so

Any thoughts/advice on this spec would be much appreciated!

Thanks, Shub

[leepen@scan]

3XS System Core-Logic Overclocking*10 - 20%*
What effect will this have on heat, noise and life span? Would i be better off with the 10%?

Very little if at all if I'm honest. We guarantee the system at the speed it ships out - any issues we'll sort it

1000W Corsair HX Series Modular.
Im going sly with x2 1GB XFX GTX 285 so i upped to the 1000W PSU, nessasery? will it increase the life of the PSU to go higher or will the 850W be a better choice?

Each 285 is going to use about 40amps at full load so a PSU capable of 50amps on 12v rails is 100% necessary. An 850 will do you for now but the HX1000 I'd say is a better all round deal based upon the 5yr warranty.

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64Bit
Having only used XP ive never had any expirience with vista, i know people who have had problems and others who have had none, whats recomended? also whats the difference between 64bit and 32bit?

If you go for Windows XP 32bit you'll be using

a) An 8yr old operating system
b) Direct X 9 only
c) Up to 3Gb of RAM only.

I really can't sing Vista's praises enough, since the release of SP1 that is. Initially when it went to market it struggled as it had very little support for the myriad of devices that people do have nowadays. Vista is your current only (officially released at least) way of gaming in Direct X 10.

I've used Vista 64 since the release of SP1 as service packs generally tend to resolve these issues. I swear by it nowadays and couldn't go back to XP if I tried on my home system.

Remember you can turn off the Aero interface and configure any variant of the Windows operating system to run in performance mode, akin to Win2000. I use performance mode as it's known on my system at work to improve performance.

Im an avid gamer but not hugely computer minded which is why ive come here instead of attempting a home build, a friend built my last (me watching), so i thought i might have the know how to do another, but i have got cold feet about it and i think rightly so

Any thoughts/advice on this spec would be much appreciated!

Your system is seriously going to run like the clappers and should handle anything you throw at it for a good few years at least @ resolutions of 1920x1200 or even higher! I'm slightly jealous...

Seriously though that's one hell of a spec and if you go through with the order I am going to drool over that machine whilst it's in build!

All the very best

[Haiku32]

What size of hole is that burning in your pocket shub ?

[Shub]

Great, thanks for the input, its put some questions/worries to bed.

What size of hole is that burning in your pocket shub ?

Currently *Gulp* £3,684.88 inc VAT

I might scale it down but i dont really want to, it was new car money but my brother recently sustained a head injury and is banned from driving for a while due to this so i have the use of his car, might as well spend my hard saved money on somthing i'll really enjoy

Im currently having some scan site account login issues, requested new passwords that never arrive and so on, have to ring up to get it sorted out, but once thats done i will be placing pretty much this order, might do some last minuite tinkering but its pretty much how i want it.

Just have to break down the mental wall telling me not to spend this much on a new PC but hell... i know it'l be worth it.

I'll be in contact as soon as my account problems are fixed

Thanks, Shub

[Lee H]

I'll be in contact as soon as my account problems are fixed

If you've not already fixed this issue, if you log the issues you are having Here The CS team will sort this out for you.

If you provide them with your name, email address and postal code that should be enough to fix this issue.

Best Regards,

[Shub]

Hi,

So my account problems are solved and im about ready to order. (Thanks CS team)

Just wondering if it would be worth the extra £200 or so to go with sly 1792MB XFX GTX 295's instead of 1GB XFX GTX 285's, It seems like not too much more for better cards, but how much better? I personally dont know so would like some oppinions on this, will they be that much better? as reliable/Stable? Better and more reliable/Stable?

If some one can clear up this last query i'll be ready to go for it

Thanks

[Philipp]

Shub

What size monitor are you gaming on, and are there any plans to upgrade it...

[Philipp]

Shub,

Just noticed you have selected the 965 CPU, We over clock the 920 to the same level (3.8Ghz) might be worth dropping the 965 for the 920 and saving yourself a coooooool £500ish...

That would cover the upgrade to the 295s?? edit.. or water cooling

Drop me an email (philipp@scan.co.uk) if you want me to call to discuss any part of the system/process.

Cheers

[Shub]

So the 965 extreme is a pre-overclocked 920 CPU. And you can overclock the 920 (the stock speed) to the same speed as the 965 extreme (3.8GHz) This is the 20% overclock for £80.00?

If I go for SLI GTX 295's will air cooling be enough for both the overclocked 920 and the SLI GPU's or would water be a better option?

How much would water cooling cost? (Its not on the original choices list), How easy is it to maintain? Is it better than air cooled or is the advantage less noise? How much better than air cooling is it?

Thanks

[leepen@scan]

965's have unlocked multipliers, meaning it's easier to push to higher frequencies but I can vouch for the i7's personally as they clock the socks off any other previous Core2 cpu with or without locked multipliers.

Watercooling is always a better option in terms of temperatures and performance, I'll work with Phil tomorrow on pricing your spec up with water should you wish. We've done a few systems now with 2x295's and a watercooled CPU and they were some of the most gorgeous systems I've ever seen with my own two eyes.

Watercooling loops need a flush once a year or so, drain the fluid, ensure there are no bubbles etc etc. Not a mammoth task and we'd always help wherever possible with this.

Shub what size monitor do you intend to run? Are you aware that 2x295's could potentially power a 30" Dell @ 2560x1600? If that's not future proof in terms of resolution I don't know what is!!!

[Shub]

Ok cool, thanks for the info.

If you could price me up a water spec that would be great as the change in CPU leaves me a bit to play with (Thanks Phil) I'll definatly give it serious concideration.

So the water only cools the CPU? The GPU's cool themslves via their fans and will still need the same amount of case fans to keep the overall system cool?

Ive had no expirience with it myself nor known anyone who has but I have heard ppl sing praise for water cooled and an anual flush doesnt sound like too much bother for lower temp's and less noise. How much noise (if any) does it make? Has a pump and some form of cooling fan i asume.

The decision will ofcourse be ultimately down to cost.

Shub what size monitor do you intend to run? Are you aware that 2x295's could potentially power a 30" Dell @ 2560x1600? If that's not future proof in terms of resolution I don't know what is!!!

Something like these:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/24-De...cd-m2-6ms-VESA
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/27-De...ht-Tilt-Swivel
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/30-De...-ms-HDMI-4Mpix

Most likely the 27" ultra sharp, a steal at under £500.

I read a few 295 reviews today and see that they can run at some pretty sick resolutions, Good to know as I will be updating soon, it'l be on the back burner for a while as I re-stock my soon to be pillaged bank account.

We'l see what kind of price it ends up at with the water cooled system, I can make a yay or nay decison on that and we can get things moving

I seriously cant wait

[Philipp]

Hi Shub,

Dropped you an email

We will make sure you get the perfect system

[burrellhead]

looks good but i would go with the rc version of windows 7 then get windows 7 when it comes out.but thats me

but that looks like a solid build

[Shub]

Great, thanks Philipp

[Philipp]

looks good but i would go with the rc version of windows 7 then get windows 7 when it comes out.but thats me

but that looks like a solid build

Uhum

I have windows 7 on my laptop, unfortunately we cannot offer it on systems yet, we do however have the option to not have a OS installed.

Cheerios

[echopark24]

Thats some system ur wantin i have to drop ya a line to see how much thats gonna cost so i can maybe think something along those lines. I really want watercooling, I got a Alienware P1 ALX chassis, with the system built my self, but am gettin to the point its causing me more problems than i would like.

I've gone thru 3 mobos, not all are broken just i dont know lol but now it just randomally switches off. I thought it was heat but i been checkin it all thru the month and its running pretty cold lol its like a fridge in here lol. Must be a loose wiring ... especially how i have my light wires and crap lol.

Anyways watercooling is amazing man. I love overclockin with some decent cooling. XD