i7 Build

[floppybootstomp]

Not for me, sad to say, but for a friend of mine.

He's just sold a few things, including his boat (nope, it's not a yacht, just a small Thames-going motor boat) so as we were choosing parts on Wednesday afternoon and I was steering him towards a P45 chipset/socket775 solution, he kept going for all the expensive parts.

And who am I to argue? He has all the peripherals so the build was just the tower unit. It all came to about £1030.00 and all parts came from Overclockers.co.uk.

With my advice, this is what he chose, he also already has a 200Gb SATA HDD.

Antec 900 Gamers Case £86.99

Noctua 120mm 1200rpm fan for side of case £13.79

Asus P6T Deluxe V2 Motherboard £239.99

Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz quad core CPU £246.09

EVGA GeForce GTX 260 896Mb Video card £177.09

Corsair XMS3 6Gb (3 x 2Gb) DDR3 PC3-1066C9 1333Mhz Triple Channel Memory £80.99

Corsair 650W non-modular PSU £85.99

Samsung 750Gb SATA II HDD £65.54

Pioneer DVR-216DBK DVDRW £19.99

Samsung TS-H353HB DVD-ROM Drive £ 11.99

I collected the parts from him this afternoon and made a start. Have put the optical drives, PSU and hard drives into the case and that's about it so far, I was feeling tired.

I'm working tomorrow but may carry on when I return home, we shall see.

As mentioned elsewhere here said friend wants XP installed in it as I told him Vista is not worth buying and if he were to install Win 7 now I told him it's basically a beta and won't be available commercially until early next year.

So, although that seems like a backward step, it's not, it's a financial consideration, mostly.

PLus if he used Win 7 he'd have to uninstall/install come 2010, although he's going to have to do that anyway with XP/Win 7. It does mean he can play TOCA Race Driver 3 until January though

I may suggest a dual install of Win 7 /XP, that should keep him happy, but again - not until Win 7 is officially released.

Here's some pix so far, all the parts and the video card, I will post further pix as the build progresses.

Unbeknownst to me, he knew I wanted a steering wheel (the cheap Logi one I bought from Staples I took back - it was crap) so he ordered a steering wheel for me, it is the Thrustmaster F430 Force Feedback two pedal model This one here

I have yet to try it but I'll let you know how it performs. Kinda looking forward to trying it with GRID

Co-incidentally, this is the steering wheel Ian recommended to Chris Postill. It also has good reviews everywhere I look, often comparing it favourably to the top of the range Logi wheel at £160.00.

Although I would have put this machine together for nothing for a friend I figured if he was going to give me something maybe I would have preferred cash, lol. Having said that, toys is good

I will update this thread as the build progresses.

 

[captain zed]

Quite the photographer FBS.....Bet that shop thought it was xmas in the midst of a recession.On the side of that geforce 260 thingy is that a picture of a piston and ram or is it a window and thats whats inside
Zzzzz

 

[Nobody in particular]

Nice pics, good quality specs there Mr Flopps.

I have the Antec 900 nice case (stock fans are a bit loud though)

 

[Ian]

That's going to be a tasty gaming PC, I especially like the case! Looking forward to seeing some pics once you've got it build

I'm surpsied at how expensive it is to build a high-end PC, as you could probably get something for 60% that price which does a very good job for most people. It's the price of the X58 chipset mobos that seems to bump it up Although if that's what he wants, who are we to argue

 

[Abarbarian]

Quite the photographer FBS.....Bet that shop thought it was xmas in the midst of a recession.On the side of that geforce 260 thingy is that a picture of a piston and ram or is it a window and thats whats inside
Zzzzz

That is the actual gubbins inside the card. You do know that Nvidia cards are running with the latest Physix Engine that gives you incredible graphics. It is a new technology with one other great feature, the engine also helps to expel air out of the pc case. The hot air from the cooling fan is sucked along by the exhaust gasses from the engine by a clever arrangemnt of pipes that utilise vacume suction. This means that a smaller fan can be used for cooling and the hot air is expelled more efficently.

 

[captain zed]

Hi AB,
I will take your word on that stuff about exhaust gasses cos i dont really know enough about them....they do look the part in them pics though. How big would that be in reallife would ya say. I never guessed a pc could generate so much heat. I also spotted a picture on PCR a while back and it had pipes and water an i was gobsmacked. I've a lot to learn.
Zzzzz

 

[guest_9323wk]

Hi,

Looks like a nice build and I will probably be building one next year What are your views on the Antec nine hundred has it got lots of space inside the case?

Thanks

 

[V_R]

Nice build Flops, good to see the i7 coming down in price, it was £250 last time i looked.

I love my Antec 900, had it for two years now i think it is, and its great, quiet, great cooling and looks good too, the new ones have better cable management in them, as you can put cables round the back i think.

Pics of mine in the gallery if you wanna see what it looks lilke. Here

Im planning an i7 build for a moth or so, depending on money, time etc....

....and i ordered a GTX 285 from OcUK today, bargain at £250.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Aye, I do believe V_R was the first Antec 900 case owner on this forum.

I've had one myself for at least 18 months now. IMO a fantastic case. The cooling is particularly good, quiet too. And I run all my case fans on full plus a Noctua 1200rpm 120mm fan in the side of the case (see sig).

CPU 35C, MB: 32C at this moment (idle).

Today, with this new system, I have finished the mechanical build, all is well.

Had a scary moment when it didn't boot, turned out one stick of RAM wasn't seated properly.

I have used the stock Intel i7 cooler and it's really rather good. Easy to fit as well. The cooler surface is round, the CPU is square - odd.

The thermal pads on the stock cooler looked good so I used them rather than Arctic Silver thermal compound. Current CPU and motherboard temps: 32C both.

I have taken some pix will post later.

Tommorow will start loading software. Seems a damn shame he wants just XP I tried to talk him into dual boot XP/Win 7 but he wasn't interested. Oh well.

 

[Abarbarian]

That is the actual gubbins inside the card. You do know that Nvidia cards are running with the latest Physix Engine that gives you incredible graphics. It is a new technology with one other great feature, the engine also helps to expel air out of the pc case. The hot air from the cooling fan is sucked along by the exhaust gasses from the engine by a clever arrangemnt of pipes that utilise vacume suction. This means that a smaller fan can be used for cooling and the hot air is expelled more efficently.

Ermm Capt'n Z I was just funning

 

[captain zed]

Ermm Capt'n Z I was just funning

LOL i guessed as much AB but i'm allowed to have some fun too.
Although i am fairly green when it comes to computing but i can spot a
herring from miles out,especially when it pertains to exhaust gases etc.
Used to be a mechanic in another life you know.
Also i have noticed you have not been posting any freebies as of late and i
was wondering did y aneed me to take over for ya.
It would mean i would be slightly more helpful to the Forum etc.
Zzzzz

 

[Abarbarian]

LOL i guessed as much AB but i'm allowed to have some fun too.
Although i am fairly green when it comes to computing but i can spot a
herring from miles out,especially when it pertains to exhaust gases etc.
Used to be a mechanic in another life you know.
Also i have noticed you have not been posting any freebies as of late and i
was wondering did y aneed me to take over for ya.
It would mean i would be slightly more helpful to the Forum etc.
Zzzzz

Post as many freebies as you like matey as long as they go in the right section I only posted stuff that I thought might have been of interest and looked to have a good write up. No point in just posting any old rubbish.

I been a bit busy at Dunkirk..

 

[captain zed]

LOL ya need to pace yourself man...all work and no play keeps the doctor away etc. Didnt think much of the Giveaway today...any old tosh just wont do. Anyway i was just thinkin that everybody knows that site by now...ya need to check out www.ibood.com
Zzzzz

 

[Abarbarian]

Aye , pace meeself, but you know when, Duty Calls.

 

[captain zed]

Took a while man but hey, thats what horses eat. Funny onion

Zzzzz

 

[floppybootstomp]

Alright then, have you two stopped rabbiting?

Good

Get thee both on thy Skype FFS

Right then, install of software complete, this machine is flying, despite being crippled with XP.

Oddly enough it's taking longer to boot than my Vista system, possibly because of the Asus Express gate thingie.

I have that facility on the newest motherboard I have in my media machine, it's something I don't need but it's actually on a ROM in the motherboard so I don't think it can be disabled.

New software/technology is great but I do wish manufacturers would give us a choice and not just force this thing upon us.

And that's about it really, nothing new or exciting to report, I would have loved to have installed Win 7 or a Linux distro on this machine and see how they performed but it is not to be.

And of course I haven't loaded any games onto it yet, that will be the real proof of the pudding but me mate will be installing the games, so I won't know for a while yet how good they perform.

I have a few more pix to post but it's late-ish now, so probably tomorrow.

 

[Abarbarian]

Alright then, have you two stopped rabbiting?

Good

Get thee both on thy Skype FFS

Right then, install of software complete, this machine is flying, despite being crippled with XP.

Oddly enough it's taking longer to boot than my Vista system, possibly because of the Asus Express gate thingie.

I have that facility on the newest motherboard I have in my media machine, it's something I don't need but it's actually on a ROM in the motherboard so I don't think it can be disabled.

New software/technology is great but I do wish manufacturers would give us a choice and not just force this thing upon us.

And that's about it really, nothing new or exciting to report, I would have loved to have installed Win 7 or a Linux distro on this machine and see how they performed but it is not to be.

And of course I haven't loaded any games onto it yet, that will be the real proof of the pudding but me mate will be installing the games, so I won't know for a while yet how good they perform.

I have a few more pix to post but it's late-ish now, so probably tomorrow.

Is he going to let you play on it then ?

I'll send you a copy oif the latest Mandy 64 if you want to persuade him to try a Penguin. I Dual booted in the last few days and did an Acronis of both fresh installs in case of goofs. Took less than an hour to do the penguin and backup. Compiz or the Spinning Globe would be fab with that set up, thats if the Nividia drivers are ok..

 

[floppybootstomp]

Linux with my mate Roy?

That ain't never gonna happen, he still gets confused with Win XP

And he had this annoying habit of getting a nice fresh fast install from me then proceeds to mess it up with all kinds of crap, I only talked him out of Nortons AV 15 months ago.

But he really felt he had to pay for something for it to be any good so he went for Kaspersky.

I have persuaded him, for now, to go with just Antivir and SuperAntiSpyware but his big beef is that when Antivir updates it puts up a window.

Must admit that can be annoying, especially if I'm in the middle of online gaming and suddenly my game shrinks to the task bar and up pops the Antvir update window

There must be a way to disable Antivir auto-update, I shall have to search.

Some people, when it comes to computers, honestly haven't a clue, but me friend is getting better. Slowly

 

[Abarbarian]

Charge him loads of loot for the Penguin then

See there are ways to make money from Linux.

 

[V_R]

I have persuaded him, for now, to go with just Antivir and SuperAntiSpyware but his big beef is that when Antivir updates it puts up a window.

Must admit that can be annoying, especially if I'm in the middle of online gaming and suddenly my game shrinks to the task bar and up pops the Antvir update window

There must be a way to disable Antivir auto-update, I shall have to search.

http://www.tipsfor.us/2009/03/18/avira-antivir-updates-to-version-9-make-it-more-usable/