Need suggestions with i7 + GTX295 setup

[Alex_rcpilot]

Hi guys, I'm new to this forum. My current setup is 3 years old and I'm in need of some new hardware.

The idea is building a new system based on Intel i7, with GTX295 graphics card.

I thought about going triple head, coz it's simply so awesome with flight sims. But after checking price tags, I think perhaps it'd be better to build the basic system first, and purchase the rest some time afterwards. I just need time to recover from this cash withdraw.

This setup will be used for electronics+mechanical design, flight simulator(DCS-Black Shark) & FPS(Crysis) gaming and watching HD movies. I will ocassionaly run MAYA on it as well.

Honestly I'm not very familiar with computer hardware at present days, so even after doing some homework, I will still sound naive and immature, so please correct me when needed.

Here's a rough list of what I'm probably going to end up with:

CPU: Intel i7 920/940
Mother board: GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 / ASUS P6T Deluxe V2
RAM: Corsair 6GB DDR3 1333 (TR3X6G1333C9)
Graphics: Inno 3D GTX295 standard edition
HDD: Seagate 1.0TB/7200.12/32M 500GB per disc
PSU: Tt Toughpower 850W (W0131)
Monitor: ViewSonic VX2433wm + Dell UltraSharp 2209WA *3
Multi-display device: Matrox TH2G digital edition

Talking about the CPU, first I need to let you know that I will only overclock to a reasonable extent, just so everything won't run with too much redundancy wasted. Extreme overclocking will be a waste of electricity because I won't be playing games all the time. On that basis, I don't know if i7 920 or 940 will make much difference.

Motherboards have given me a shock coz so many of them support triple SLI, which I don't really need. Instead, I need dual LAN connectors and as many PCI slots and USB ports as possible. Since I won't overclock the CPU too much, an ordinary board with good reliability will be more than enough. Any suggestions with the list above? You're welcome to pass them both and name another one. Thanks!

Graphic cards appear to be simpler than other parts. Since I'm focused on GTX295 standard edition, the only thing I need to do is choosing a brand. Inno 3D looks good, and ZOTAC sounds fine as well. And I see nVidia is going to release their own GTX295 too. Is there any suggestion of which brand to go with or NOT to go with?

With single GTX295 graphic card, will an 850W power supply do the job? And here comes another issue: if I go quad monitor, three of them will form a triple display with TH2G, the rest will be directly connected with the graphic card. When I play games I may disable the individual head. And when I design stuff I may activate it and put different windows here and there, and render 3D views in at most 1 window. I don't know if this will be too much workload for single GTX295. If it slows down the setup too much, I may consider adding another card. Be it another GTX295, or 260; with SLI, or without ( connecting 2 of the triple display to secondary card ), the power supply will become an issue again. So do I have to use a 1000W PSU?

I may purchase a VX2433wm in the beginning, then go with TH2G and the Dell monitors in a couple of months. Or I will give up on triple head, and buy another VX2433wm.

Well those are a hell lot of questions. I'm still searching for examples and evaluation threads all over the web. If you find it worth answering, I'll appreciate your replies. :)


Thanks with best regards,
Alex

[Gilly]

i would get a corsair/ seasonic PSU or a PC Power and Cooling (if you dont value your ears too much)/ OCZ unit.

other than that it looks good :)

I had personal bad experience with a TT PSU.

850w Corsair would be nice :P

if you want to add more graphics cards later definately think about it

[Alex_rcpilot]

i would get a corsair/ seasonic PSU or a PC Power and Cooling (if you dont value your ears too much)/ OCZ unit.

other than that it looks good :)

I had personal bad experience with a TT PSU.

850w Corsair would be nice :P

if you want to add more graphics cards later definately think about it

Thanks dude, I'll check it out.
I'm currently using a 500W server PSU on my old machine and the two fans inside are truely annoying. I will need a quiet PSU.

[p2987]

1 side note: Stock hsf is good enough if you wont overclock. But since you said you will do some mild overclocking, I suggest you to get a mid range 3rd party hsf (eg Cooler Master N520/620). For serious overclocking, Thermalrigt 120 Extreme or CM V8 is a must.

[Alex_rcpilot]

1 side note: Stock hsf is good enough if you wont overclock. But since you said you will do some mild overclocking, I suggest you to get a mid range 3rd party hsf (eg Cooler Master N520/620). For serious overclocking, Thermalrigt 120 Extreme or CM V8 is a must.

Thanks dude. Yes, I'm not planning to use the stock HSF. I bought ASUS Planet ICE for my current AMD64 Athlon 3200+ setup which has been overclocked to 2.2GHz. I will choose a good 3rd party HSF upon purchase of the new setup.

[Frag Maniac]

You could get by with just the i7 920 if you OC it properly, but definitely get an aftermarket cooler, as those CPUs run hot. I would recommend something like the Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ. You could easily OC to 3 to 3.4 Ghz with that cooler.

Many coolers including this one are based on the exposed heatpipe design Xigmatek made famous, but none do it as well as Titan. This unit is not only beautiful, it has whopping 8mm heatpipes and a very quiet low profile fan that auto adjusts it's speed.

It's very reasonably priced too.

http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2383

I would lean toward the ASUS MB and just out of curiosity, what case are you throwing all this into?

[Alex_rcpilot]

You could get by with just the i7 920 if you OC it properly, but definitely get an aftermarket cooler, as those CPUs run hot. I would recommend something like the Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ. You could easily OC to 3 to 3.4 Ghz with that cooler.

Many coolers including this one are based on the exposed heatpipe design Xigmatek made famous, but none do it as well as Titan. This unit is not only beautiful, it has whopping 8mm heatpipes and a very quiet low profile fan that auto adjusts it's speed.

It's very reasonably priced too.

http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2383

I would lean toward the ASUS MB and just out of curiosity, what case are you throwing all this into?

Oh man, that Titan cooler looks awesome, it's a pity that I can't find it on local hardware websites. Actually Taitan is not even within the brand list. What I have here is actto, ANTEC, Arctic-Cooling, AVC, Calibre, CHOIIX, Coolink, CoolJag, ENERMAX, idock, Thermalright, Tt, ZEROtherm, Corsair, Cooler Master, etc.

Anyway I've managed to spot some discussions in a few local forums, confirming that the price is indeed quite reasonable. I will consult local dealers to find out if it's gonna be available.

My current case is of a local brand. It came in good quality, and I bought it for 70 bucks.

I just realized that this forum might not allow attachments. So I have to put it up elsewhere:


I've built a digital thermometer and fit it into one of the CD bays. Right now, with room temperature at 23C(73F), I'm getting 27.8C(82F).

[Frag Maniac]

That's not a bad looking case there. Quite unique, interesting and thorough dust filters. It might be a bit louder than some cases, but it does look to have good cooling potential and a nice style to it. Does it have a 120mm front and rear fan, and is there one at the top too? Also, whom manufactures it btw?

Only thing I can say is it looks a bit smallish for a gaming case with too much clutter on the front for two intake fans. You'd probably have to forgo the thermometer and CD-RW to put another one in.

[Alex_rcpilot]

That's not a bad looking case there. Quite unique, interesting and thorough dust filters. It might be a bit louder than some cases, but it does look to have good cooling potential and a nice style to it. Does it have a 120mm front and rear fan, and is there one at the top too? Also, whom manufactures it btw?

Only thing I can say is it looks a bit smallish for a gaming case with too much clutter on the front for two intake fans. You'd probably have to forgo the thermometer and CD-RW to put another one in.

Well since I bought it 3 years ago, 120mm fans weren't quite popular back then. What it has is an 80mm fan in the front, top and rear. I've also installed an intake fan on the left filter panel facing my graphics card. The power supply is a 500W server PSU, and there're two noisy fans inside. The CPU cooler is ASUS Planet Ice, with a speed-regulated fan and a bunch of heatpipes & copper fins inside.

The model name of this case is ATX-6097 and it's manufactured by a Chinese company, if you check out their website you can see the picture.

Now the ASUS DVR has been replaced by a Pioneer DVR. And the gray CD-RW bay is actually empty. Moreover, the thermometer is so thin that I don't have to tear away the original metal plate in the case behind it. So I can get an opening two CD bays' high at the surface, and have fitting room three CD bays' high for an extra intake fan. But I will monitor the actual operating conditions to determine whether that's necessary, for it's too difficult to find a proper filter for that hole.

[Frag Maniac]

Well since I bought it 3 years ago, 120mm fans weren't quite popular back then. What it has is an 80mm fan in the front, top and rear.

I guess that explains the feet and handles looking a bit like the old style Mac cases. I bought my case/system about 4 1/2 yrs ago, so it has 80mm fans too. I have two front and one rear, but no top or side fans. My system has older parts though, like a fairly cool running P4 Northwood 3Ghz CPU and X1950Pro GPU, which I've modified the fan settings on.

IMHO these new parts that run hotter need more space and bigger fans, esp with all that filtration slowing down the airflow a bit. I've been looking at the Antec P182, but I'm a bit worried about the space inside. I'm looking to wait for the die shrinkage in current Nvidia/Intel GPUs and CPUs though, which should keep the heat down some. I want a fairly quiet case with well made easy to service filters.

[Alex_rcpilot]

IMHO these new parts that run hotter need more space and bigger fans, esp with all that filtration slowing down the airflow a bit. I've been looking at the Antec P182, but I'm a bit worried about the space inside. I'm looking to wait for the die shrinkage in current Nvidia/Intel GPUs and CPUs though, which should keep the heat down some. I want a fairly quiet case with well made easy to service filters.

I bought a power socket with a built-in wattage meter. The power supply cord on my current setup is a Y shaped cord, which is connected to both the LCD and the case. I'm getting roughly 200W on this cord while playing HD movies. This is why this system runs so cool, the 450W PSU still has much redundancy in it.

ANTEC P182 looks neat, I like the modular arrangement of HDD bays, etc. The filters in my case are not really easy to maintain. I have to unscrew eight tapping screws to take off the filter on each side. Even this is the easiest part. The top filter requires absence of both PSU and DVR, and I have to reach inside the case to take off two screws to disassemble the front panel. The front fan gets really dirty even with the filter which is hard to clean.

However, since this case is going nowhere but staying, I may try fitting everything in it and see how they glow. If it doesn't work out, I'll get one from ANTEC or Tt.

[Frag Maniac]

I'm getting roughly 200W on this cord while playing HD movies. This is why this system runs so cool, the 450W PSU still has much redundancy in it.

The filters in my case are not really easy to maintain. I have to unscrew eight tapping screws to take off the filter on each side. Even this is the easiest part. The top filter requires absence of both PSU and DVR, and I have to reach inside the case to take off two screws to disassemble the front panel. The front fan gets really dirty even with the filter which is hard to clean.

Yes but movie playing, even HD movies, is nothing for a modern rig. I was referring to using it for gaming, if you plan to.

Wow, that sounds as high maintenance as Silverstone's new filtered unibody cases. In fact the front filter on yours is even harder to maintain than theirs. However their top filter is screwed in and would be near impossible to remove with an aftermarket CPU cooler in place. They also have a bottom filter under the PSU, which of course requires removing the PSU to clean.

I spoke to them on the phone about the possibility of them making an economy model with steel vs alu and riveted construction vs unibody using more easily removable filters. They said they'd ask the engineers. I don't think anyone is beating Antec for quality and features in the price range they charge though.

[Alex_rcpilot]

Yes but movie playing, even HD movies, is nothing for a modern rig. I was referring to using it for gaming, if you plan to.

Well my point was I wasted some money on a 450W PSU for my old rig. Back then, playing HD movies wasn't such an easy task for computers like mine. I tried playing Eagle Eye at HD res, my CPU occupation hit 100% and the audio desynchronized with video. Noticeable lags appeared just about when anything was done, unless the movie was paused. So that pretty much yielded the same result as gameplay. Anyway it's the old rig.

If I'm to test new rigs, I'd better take my meter socket along when I go to the market. So that will have a better understanding of parameters under various operating conditions. I'll consider an ANTEC 850W PSU.

I still haven't found a proper substitute for my current case should it not work out. Tt Armor (VA8000SWA) looks fine for me. I'll go check it out in the store, and see if it's easy to clean the filters.