I7 Build List

Hardware and technical stuff
1

I’ve got some FLV compression work coming up, and my current computers are really showing their age. I’ve put off my usual “build new every 3 years” about as long as I could, and so I’ve started doing some research and planning into a new i7-based build. I’ve managed to narrow down a number of the parts, but there are a few I haven’t been able to decide on yet.

My main goals for this system are processing power combined with keeping the overall noise down as much as possible, keeping in mind that I do need to be able to game (which is mostly just World of Warcraft and typically games that are 1 or more years old).

Prices shown are from Newegg, but don’t include rebates.

CPU
Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail - $290

The one part I’m sure on. i7 has been putting up impressive numbers in video compression. I’m not looking to overclock at this point, but I may end up doing so a little later on since people have had so much success getting it to really high levels. I’m think stock cooler for now, although I’d be interested in hearing recommendations for i7 coolers (might want to go ahead and pick it up and install it during the initial build).

Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - $200
ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - $250
MSI X58 Platinum SLI LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - $235
Intel BOXDX58SO LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - $259
EVGA 132-BL-E758-A1 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - $300

This is one of my biggest question mark pieces right now. There’s so few reviews out there, and because X58 and i7 are so new, it appears most of the motherboard manufacturers are targeting the enthusiasts with SLI/Crossfire capable boards. I don’t need SLI/Crossfire at all, but it seems like I have little choice but to buy a board with it.

A few of the boards have 4 memory slots, which seems a little odd given that i7 is meant for triple channel. I’m planning to go with 6GB from the start though, which should last me fine for the 2-3 years.

RAM
G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail - $145
CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail - $169

Not sure I see the need for DDR3 1600 at this point. I know the Corsair brand a bit better, but I think the timing is a little better on the G.Skill (lower numbers are better I think?).

Video
ASUS ENGTX260 TOP/HTDI/896M GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail - $299
EVGA 512-P3-N884-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ Superclocked Edition 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail - $165

I know what everyone says about the 9800 cards, that they’re basically just newer versions of the 8800 cards, but that’s fine with me. The 55nm die shrink seems to be making the 9800GTX+ cards draw less power, generate less heat, and therefore make less noise. The odd thing I’m reading about the 260 cards with the 216 pipeline and 55nm die shrink is that they’re actually generating more heat and using more power…at least that’s what I’ve read.

The Asus 260 card is supposed to be one of the quieter 260 cards. The EVGA card is one of the faster, and cheaper ones at Newegg, and it only needs one power connection (which should in turn mean it doesn’t draw as much juice). It’s still supposed to be pretty large, requiring either cutting on the case, or getting much larger cases.

I’m sure someone will recommend I look at the ATI cards that are in the same price range right now, and generally performing slightly better in benchmarks. I actually did, but the reviews I’ve read indicate they tend to generate more heat. I also think I’ve read that Adobe’s CS4 suite (which I should be getting at some point, currently using CS3) can offload certain tasks to nVidia cards. Not sure if it does the same with ATI cards.

If I go with the 9800, it basically means I’m punting for now, and I’ll pass it on to my wife when I feel there are better options out there in a higher powered card.

Hard Drive
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM - $95

I’ve read pretty decent reviews of the Spinpoints, so I figured I’d give them a try. The lower cost is also a nice bonus. I’ve also seen a lot of recommendations for the Seagate drives before all the firmware mess started happening, but I’ve read complaints about them having loud seeks and/or drive hum as well.

Case
LIAN LI Lan cool PC-K1B Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail - $80
Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail - $145
Antec Sonata III 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply - Retail - $130

I would never have guessed that I would need to look through so many options on cases, but this has easily been as hard to narrow down as some of the other parts on the list. The SPCR folks love the Antec P182, but there’s tons of stories about needing to mod the case because either the power supply or video card (like the 260s) didn’t fit. I’d be willing to pay a little more for a case that’s as quiet as it’s supposed to be, but I don’t want to have to start cutting on it if there are other options.

The PC-K1B is recommended over at Extremetech, and looks to be a pretty good case. I’m not wild about the audio jacks, usb ports, and power/reset buttons on the top, but it might actually work well since my system is under my desk with more than enough room to access those.

The Sonata is in there because I’ve built several systems that used Sonatas (I and II), and they’ve always been easy enough cases for me to work in and fairly quiet, if a bit a cramped at times. The included power supply is a nice bonus, although I ended up replacing the one in the Sonata II system I built because it went flaky on me.

Power Supply
CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail - $110

This is actually the power supply that I replaced the Antec one with and I’ve been pretty happy with it. It’s pretty quiet and the modular design is nice. I’ve ready they’re basically rebadged PC Power and Cooling power supplies, but I don’t know how accurate that is. I’m thinking 520W should be enough since I won’t be doing SLI.

DVD Drive and Card Reader

I haven’t spec’d these yet, but it’s not hard to find reviews for the drives, and card readers should just be a matter of identifying one that’s got good Newegg reviews. I’d be happy to hear suggestions on both though.

Sound Card

I’m happy with my X-Fi Live! that I’ve used for several years. I may end up replacing it later on, but this is one piece I’ll carry over for now.

Operating System

I’ll likely put together an XP/Vista64 dual boot. Most of my projects need to be tested in XP, and it keeps the headache of making sure everything I use works in Vista64 away.

2

The stock cooler is barely sufficient for normal operation. If you want to overclock, I recommend the noctua nh-u12p se1366. I’ve got one, and it’s fantastic. Very easy to install and cools extremely well.

I have the P6T deluxe, and it’s worked flawlessly. Check out the standard reviews at the usual places for the other boards.

Buy the cheaper RAM.

GTX 260s don’t cost $300 anymore. Newegg has a XFX model with 216 shaders for $245. Get that one, or if you want a factory overclocked model they have a XFX 216 at 666/2300 for $249 with a $25 rebate. Alternatively, get an ATI HD4870 for $230 if you don’t mind going red. If you just want to “punt” to the wife, get a cheapo 4850, not a 9800.

Finally, I have and love an antec p182. The 260 will fit if you remove the center hard drive cage, which I don’t use anyway. You can still fit 4 drives in the bottom cage (which is ventilated) without it. The PSU will fit fine. Thoughtfully designed case, very quiet, and very easy to route wires around cleanly.

3

Ditto on the P6T Deluxe.

ATI cards use less power under load; the 260s use less at idle. The Diamond 4870 / 1GB model I have is very quiet (it has a good cooler design).

I went with the Antec 900. The P182 was my second option but I liked the looks on the 900. I’m very happy with it so far.

4

Interesting that when I was looking over the Deluxe’s spec I was thinking how I didn’t need the SAS controller, and it seems like they’ve got a v2 board coming out sometime soon cheaper without SAS.

GTX 260s don’t cost $300 anymore.

Yeah, I’m starting to see that the particular model I’ve linked is higher priced for some reason. I was looking at that one specifically because of an SPCR review on a similar model from Asus which doesn’t seem to be available anymore.

Finally, I have and love an antec p182. The 260 will fit if you remove the center hard drive cage, which I don’t use anyway. You can still fit 4 drives in the bottom cage (which is ventilated) without it. The PSU will fit fine. Thoughtfully designed case, very quiet, and very easy to route wires around cleanly.

Does having the card almost up against the drive cage hurt cooling and airflow at all? And I’m assuming the Noctua fit ok? I’ve seen some reviews that say it’s tall enough to hit, or almost hit, the side panels.

ATI cards use less power under load; the 260s use less at idle. The Diamond 4870 / 1GB model I have is very quiet (it has a good cooler design).

Thanks for this bit of info. Considering my video card will be idle for most of the day, might be better to go with the 260 then assuming I don’t go the cheaper route.

5

I don’t use the SAS controller either. Corei7 motherboards are just really expensive right now, since they’re all 8 layers. When you remove the center cage, the card won’t touch anything at all. The noctua fits great and was very easy to install properly. Probably the best HSF install I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been rolling my own computers since the mid 90s.

6

Tom’s HW has a GPU power consumption comparison, though there are some curious omissions like the 9800GT.

EDIT: as for cases, I’m reasonably happy with my NZXT Tempest: beaucoup room (though jumbo video cards still butt up against the HDD bays), six cooling fans, decent number of connectors on the top-front of the case, only ~$100 if you shop around. One downside is the fans don’t have variable speed control; but I hooked them up to my MB and use it to control their speeds. Seems reasonably quiet to me, but then again it’s my gaming box: usually plenty of things going BOOM! when I’m using it.

7

The Tempest looks suspiciously just like the Antec Nine Hundred.

Or is it the other way around?

8

Thanks for the link. I’m not 100% sure I followed it all, but some quick math with a 260 (using it since it’s the more demanding card) puts me around 400W at full load I think, which is under the 80% number by a small margin. Not sure if it’s enough of a margin or if I need to step up to the Corsair 650W. I could get the TX version for roughly the same price, it’s just not modular.

9

You’re right, it’s basically a slightly bigger version of the Nine Hundred: ~10cm longer so there’s a bit more room for big video cards; and two extra HDD bays.

10

The one I have is also quiet. Unfortunately it exhibits artifacting due to heat at quiet fan levels, so I have resorted to running RivaTuner to crank the fan up (at which point it works just fine). I’m not OCing the card at all, but it was a very early card and the fan speed on these things is amazingly conservative.

I suppose I should look into aftermarket cooling for it before I give the card to my wife so it’s not as loud in her computer. I’ll see what the Dell i7 box I bought ends up sounding like by itself and then decide if it’s worth it or not to do so.

To the OP:

I just picked up a Dell i7 box with 6GB, a 23" monitor, Vista 64 Home Premium, 500GB of HD space and the standard other bits for $1100. I was pricing parts on a built system and that’s price competitive with parting out a system on NewEgg. You do, of course, have less control over the components. I’m a bit worried that my 4870 won’t fit in the box as it comes, but since a 4850 is a (grossly overpriced!) stock option at Dell, I’m hoping that it and the 4870 have the same size PCB.

11

I was actually looking at those systems last week when I saw the deal posted. The prices are really very good compared to parting it all out myself, but the reviews of the systems mentioned that they were pretty loud systems. There was also some concern about the ability to expand as well.

12

Bummer :( I’d either return it, or check the heatsink compound application before returning it. Mine shows the same conservative fan behavior and was an early card, but even without mucking with the fan (which I sometimes do using ATI’s own tools to lower temps), furmark still can’t bring it down when OC’d to the max (core only; memory has little headroom).

13

I strongly prefer Anand’s to-the-wall, whole-system power consumption measurements:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3501&p=9

14

Looks like most everything is telling me the 520W should be ok. I even ran it through this calculator, picking some higher-end parts than I’m getting (i7 965, GTX295) and it came out to 519W at 100% load on all parts. The Anandtech numbers look even better, with a 260 based system only pulling 269W at load.

15

Goddamn i7 is a stiff cost to upgrade to. At home I’m still running my Athlon X2 4800+, and plan on moving to core2 quad in the next couple months. I probably won’t bother with i7 for a while.

16

It’s not the processor itself, though-- it’s the motherboard. i7 motherboards are pretty expensive.

17

Yeah. I’m glad I didn’t wait for the i7. I bought my last system last April or May or so and was strongly considering waiting around for the i7 but ended up buying when the Yorkfield Quads became available.

While having an i7 now would be nice, I can easily wait 6-8 months before upgrading again and by the time I do upgrade, my current system plus all the i7 upgrades (mobo, cpu, memory) combined will probably cost less than an i7 would cost now (mostly because of the memory and decent mobo costs, not so much the actual CPUs).

18

Yeah, the processor isn’t bad, I was just speaking more towards the whole package. New RAM, new processor, new motherboard. And since they’re bleeding edge, they’re much more expensive than a core 2 solution. But that’s how it always is, really. I’d rather wait a bit and save a few bucks down the line.

19

What kind of motherboard do you have now? Mine is a nearly three year old AM2 job from Asus that, despite not having official BIOS support, reportedly works fine when you drop a Phenom II in it. Given that Phenom IIs and Core 2 Quads are so close in performance I wouldn’t commit to a new processor AND mobo if you might be able to manage a drop in CPU upgrade.

20

They both show total system power consumption and have roughly similar numbers. But I find that Tom’s HW report more useful because it compares a lot more cards at once.