New compiled computer

[MMX]

Since my current gaming computer refuses to let me know whats wrong and I am in the need of a new one anyway here is a my now compilation.

So it took me almost 2 days to compile a whole new computer form scratch.

This is the list:

Code: Select all

Case         Chieftec         DX-01B-D-U
                
PSU          be quiet!        Straight Power BQT E7-CM-680W
Motherboard  ASUS             Maximus III Formula
CPU          Intel            Core i5-750
RAM          Kingston         HyperX Kit 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL7 DIMM (Kit of 4) Intel XMP
GPU          XFX              ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB DDR5 DisplayPort XXX
HDD1         Western Digital  Caviar Black 1TB
HDD2         Western Digital  Caviar Black 1TB
Sound        Creative         Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
                
Fan1         EKL              Alpenföhn Brocken
Fan2         be quiet!        SilentWings USC 80mm
Fan3         be quiet!        SilentWings USC 120mm
                
Keyboard     Logitech         G110 Gaming Keyboard
Mouse        Logitech         G500 Gaming Mouse
                
OS           Microsoft        Windows 7 Professional 64bit

What do you think?
Any suggestions?
Or concerns?

I'd be glad for some feedback. Thanks

[Fraulein Arztin]

Get a monitor. That might be useful

[Clay Pigeon]

I can't see anything that jumps out at me as terribly wrong.

It seems a bit pricy, but I think the EU has both VAT and GST, which raises the prices compared to what we pay here (most internet parts purchases are tax-free in the USA).

I'm not too familiar with lynnfield and p55 mobos. I'm sure someone who pays more attention to intel parts could give you more feedback.

I noticed you didn't add a Heatsink for your cpu. I know dirty dan had troubles with his i5 system getting very hot on stock cooling. Your mileage may vary.

[Checkm8]

[quote="Clay Pigeon";p="238238"]
I noticed you didn't add a Heatsink for your cpu. I know dirty dan had troubles with his i5 system getting very hot on stock cooling. Your mileage may vary.[/quote]

Get an aftermarket heatsink! I have the same i5 and the stock fan/heatsink is not sufficient enough for a full workload/gameload.

[Araris]

The i5 750 and p55 is one of the best setups available. I use it in my secondary and it's by far extremely fast. I have it running 67C max at 3.6Ghz on a $35 aftermarket heatsink so I'd recommend getting one of them.

[MrBlah]

What I would do with your hard drive situation is get 1 large HDD that is more or less strictly for storage purposes and then pick a smaller HDD, 500GB-750GB drive that has a high read and write speeds. tomshardware.com charts will help you make your decision on which on to get. Keep in mind, you don't need to get the best HDD on the market. something 105MB/s or greater as a main HDD.

[gator]

You may want to budget for an aftermarket heatsink/fan based on Chk/Dan's experiences, although I'm still suspicious of the reason why. I've been running an i7 860 on the stock heatsink/fan without any problems.

[MMX]

I have to admit that the listing is not tat obvious, but it already includes a CPU heat sink.

EKL Alpenföhn Brocken:
[spoil][/spoil]


Also I planned to setup the hard drives as RAID 1 (Mirroring). The spec sheet [1] claims that these drives should transfer 106 MB/s (Host to/from drive (sustained)). The Caviar Black drives are advertised to be their high performance drives. Adding the Mirroring should add some read performance but decrease write performance.

[1] http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/S ... 701276.pdf

[Boss Llama]

Caviar Black drives are wonderful, I can't say enough about them. They're all I'll buy right now!

Looks like a solid setup from my perspective. The only thing that raised an eyebrow for me was the PSU, because I'm not familiar with the be quiet! brandname. If you know they're good, right on. I just don't trust offhand a name I don't know for that particular part.

[MasterChef]

I don't know if creative has come out with working drivers for windows 7 yet. But I know I can't use my sound blaster x-fi after upgrading to 7.

[Checkm8]

[quote="gator";p="238246"]You may want to budget for an aftermarket heatsink/fan based on Chk/Dan's experiences, although I'm still suspicious of the reason why. I've been running an i7 860 on the stock heatsink/fan without any problems.[/quote]

Have you put your i7 through a prime 95 cpu stress test or any other sort of stress test? With all cores at 100%, my cpu got extremely hot. Sure, I am not going to use all my cores at 100% all the time but its the sake of safety that the aftermarket heatsink keeps my cpu cool.

[gator]

[quote="Checkm8";p="238457"][quote="gator";p="238246"]You may want to budget for an aftermarket heatsink/fan based on Chk/Dan's experiences, although I'm still suspicious of the reason why. I've been running an i7 860 on the stock heatsink/fan without any problems.[/quote]

Have you put your i7 through a prime 95 cpu stress test or any other sort of stress test? With all cores at 100%, my cpu got extremely hot. Sure, I am not going to use all my cores at 100% all the time but its the sake of safety that the aftermarket heatsink keeps my cpu cool.[/quote]

Nope, I didn't do any burn in/stress testing on my computer. My primary use for the desktop is gaming, which I haven't run into any issues yet. If I ever ran into heat issues (which more likely would come under situations like video encoding or 3D animation, neither of which I do), I wouldn't hesitate to look into an aftermarket heatsink; I just don't see a personal need for it right now.

[MMX]

Right now I am already using a PSU of be quiet! which is the first one I use. The current issue my computer has might also be caused by a defective PSU. But as far as I know they are one of just a few Manufactures that have a Cable management feature. You can detach/attach almost all cables form the PSU just leaving in the ones needed for operation. This way you don't end up with unused cables inside your case, so it stays tidy clean and dose not disturb the air flow inside.

What got me a little bit concerned was the report of MasterChef.
I choose the Creative SB X-FI because of the hardware.
I never thought their drivers would be any good. Creative is a hardware company and dose not much care about drivers. At least it seams to be that way for me.
The sound card is the last part that I added and I debated about it quite some time. Dose anyone has a good alternative suggestion? Although I might still just stick to it. And sit it out, or find my ways to get it working.
Luckily I am not fallen onto my head (German figure of speech, I know they translate badly :/), so I eventually be able to get it running even if I encounter driver issues.

[Dirty Dan]

[quote="gator";p="238246"]You may want to budget for an aftermarket heatsink/fan based on Chk/Dan's experiences, although I'm still suspicious of the reason why.[/quote]
I'm not up to my old habits on this one, no fire.

[Clay Pigeon]

Do you mean modular cabling, mmx? Corsair offers some models with modular cables, as does antec.