New rig - need adive

[Groove]

Okay, i need advise on some components.

 

It will be a Intel i7-920, Asrock X58 Mainboard, Radeon 5870 vidcard. What i need from you is which PSU and which RAM i should buy. Im striving for 6 or 8 GB of RAM.

 

Thanks in advance :)

[GhostDog]

Okay, i need advise on some components.

 

It will be a Intel i7-920, Asrock X58 Mainboard, Radeon 5870 vidcard. What i need from you is which PSU and which RAM i should buy. Im striving for 6 or 8 GB of RAM.

 

Thanks in advance :)

 

If you're using a full-size ATX case, I'd suggest a Zalman 1000W PSU. Cool, quiet, rock solid reliability, and plenty of modular cables for all your components. Plus, it's future proof. You won't need to worry about the power requirements for your next upgrade with a 1KW PSU.

[EtherealN]

Agreed with GhostDog on the PSU.

 

On the note of RAM, I'd recommend Corsair Dominator sticks - 1600MHz ones. If money is an issue, look at the 1300MHz ones and check if they are overclockable. Also check your motherboard's memory layout to ensure that running four sticks doesn't get you any penalties (you should be fine with an X58, but sometimes even the flashiest mainboard has weird bottlenecks built into the design).

 

I've personally had very good experience with RAM sticks from Crucial - the BallistiX line has served me well - but I have read a lot of comments about flaky reliability so I might have just been lucky. Good option for lower prices with retained overclockability though.

[Groove]

Geez, is 1000W PSU really needed? :D

[EtherealN]

Not really, but it does help futureproofing and also protects you a bit from wear and tear. PSU's tend to lose capacity with use, so a PSU that covers you well year one might end up burning year two.

 

You can add up the power use of CPU, GPU, HDD's and mainboard/RAM and then add 50% to be reasonably safe. Coolermaster has a tool for this on their site, link coming in a moment.

[EtherealN]

I managed to find the one I used when building my system: http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/Power

 

I made some assumptions about your system and got the recommendation of 471W - with the 920 overclocked to 4GHz of course. :P So you'll probably be allright with a 750W.

[Conuk]

Enermax galaxy 850 is what I bought quite a while back ... has served me well.... with 4 hard drives... 1 ssd .... 1 dvdrw..... 5870 Oced and the i7 at 4ghz

 

and went with Corsair ram 6gb.

[Groove]

Well, i think i will go for the 850 Watt PSU then. Do i need a custom CPU fan for a 4 GHZ OC?

[Conuk]

I went for

 

Megahalems with a scythe fan in there .. have another to put on but just the 1 keeps it frosty :)

[EtherealN]

I'd say you probably need an aftermarket CPU fan, yeah, though I don't have personal experience of overclocking the i7. The C2's would overclock quite well even on stock fan if you got it assembled just right (but with the plastic clips it was easy to slip up and ruin the paste), but even then I would probably recommend a good aftermarket - and the i7's have a higher listed TDP. Gives you wider margins and even if it isn't strictly necessary the lower temperatures you can get help reduce wear on the processor.

 

If you get a big nice fan, I would recommend ones with copper material and ones that use a backplate for support - the Intel sockets are by spec only meant to hold 0.3kg or so, and most aftermarket kit weighs a lot more than that (my Zalman is around 0.7kg), so having a good backplate and solid screws helps ensure nothing breaks if you end up having to move the computer sometime.

 

EDIT: Oh, and make sure to double-check the sockets for the fans. When I was shopping for my fan I almost bought a socket AM2 by mistake, and that's a recipe for sad faces. :P

Edited February 21, 2010 by EtherealN

[Groove]

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=3589&p=1

 

I think it will be some DDR3 1333 MHz 6GB of RAM.

[SeaFoam]

OK two things I have to say about your build:

 

You will need an aftermarket HSF to overclock the i7 well - I have the Megahalem black and two Scythe Kama Flex fans - http://www.crazypc.com/products/sa1225fdb12h-58478H.html - they make two different models, a 'silent' and a 'high speed' model. I got the high speed model, 75 cfm and 34.8 db. They work great and aren't too loud.

 

You also need GOOD thermal paste. It can make a big difference on temps and can make or break the O/C.

 

My suggestion for memory is this:

Stay away from Corsair, VERY far. I had 12 gig of Dominator (2x 6 gig sets), one set would not run anywhere near 1600, the other set barely over 1600. Corsair blamed my system for the problems, very unhelpful. The memory is overpriced and performs poorly.

 

I went with GSkill Trident 2000, it was less than the Corsair and higher speed. I am currently running both 6 gig sets and they are running at full speed. Their tech support forum is top notch and were very helpful.

[Groove]

Overclocking the i7 to 4 GHZ, ist the 5870 fast enough? Or do i have a GPU limitation with 4 GHZ ?

[Feuerfalke]

The X58-chipset usually allows to make independent settings, so the graphics card won't stop you from overclocking your FSB and/or CPU-clockrates. I don't know what BIOS is used by ASrock, though. Overclocking your GPU is independent of your FSB and CPU clock.

 

IMHO a 800W PSU is well enough for your planned rig. I use a similar setup, just with the GTX285, which is not really a power-safer. Never had a problem with my 650W-PSU.

In theory you should set your PSU about 25% higher than the added consumption of your components, because efficiency of PSUs will decrease after a few months and more power is needed during startup. Newer PSUs and online-Wattage-Calculators take this into account, though, so 1000W for your intended rig is a bit overdone. There's more things to consider on this, though, like connected passive USB-Devices, HDDs and cooling stuff like that.

 

I agree with SeaFoam on the cooling-advice: The Megahalem is really one of the top-coolers at the moment and still offering a reasonable weight and efficiency ratio - nothing for passive cooling when overclocking, but with standard-frequencies and low-duty (watching a DVD) passive mode is possible, when the case has a solid airstream over the main components and cooler.

 

I cannot agree on the Corsair-thing, though. Corsair has very stable memory to my experience and I've never had a problem with sticks from Corsair in any rig I built. You just have to watch very closely if the BIOS adapts to the installed memory and increases voltage accordingly. Most motherboards are still rigged for gaming and more than 2x2GB is still a rare sight for the common customer.

So I'd increase the voltage for any rig with more than 3 sticks and/or more than 4GB of RAM. This is also recommended in the manual that comes with the sticks and the recommended values are e.g. visible via CPUZ-Tool, directly reading from the sticks.

 

In general, overclocking depends most on the mainboard and the BIOS used. If you plan to overclock, ASrock may be not the best source to get a MB from. They're good and solid, of course, as it is an ASUS-company, but it's cheaper than ASUS' top-notch-hardware for a reason. ;)

 

Well, just my 2 cents ;)

[emenance]

http://ati.amd.com/products/certified/powersupplies.html#pstop

 

 

This link will show you AMD ATI certified PSUs for thier stuff. Engineer and match the parts! In your case 1000 watt OCZ PSU is what I would go with. I also trust Tagan and Silverstone.

Edited March 1, 2010 by emenance

[hitman]

Well, i think i will go for the 850 Watt PSU then. Do i need a custom CPU fan for a 4 GHZ OC?

 

let me put it this way: the stock fan SUCKS!!! the monsoon is a good after market fan.

[hitman]

Overclocking the i7 to 4 GHZ, ist the 5870 fast enough? Or do i have a GPU limitation with 4 GHZ ?

 

and the 5870 is the best card on the market. you can o/c to 3.8 and not notice a difference at 4.

[Groove]

Okay guys, thanks for all your advices.

 

Im still uncertain about two components, RAM and PSU:

 

3x2048MB Kit Mushkin PC3-12800 1600MHz CL6

 

Enermax POWER SUPP. MODU87+ 800W

 

 

That's my choices.

 

 

PS: The 5870 seems to be sold out right now....