# What you guys think of my new build (i7)?



## CdnAudiophile

Hey guys, I am new to the forums and thought I would post my rig and see what you guys think. 

It consists of:
   Intel 920 i7 2.66 stock @ 3.9ghz
   Thermalright IFX-14 cooler
   Asus P6T Deluxe
   12GB Patriot Viper 1600 DDR3 ram (6x2gb tiple channel)
   2 Radeon 4870x2's in Crossfire
   4 Western Digital 500gb RE2's in raid 5
   Corsair HX1000 watt PSU
   Antec 1200


 Right now I have it oc'd to 3.9ghz with idle temps around 26-28 and max on all 8 threads around 65-67. It does really well in most games out there. Most of the time I play with all max settings in game at 1920 x 1200. The only game that slows a bit is Crysis with all max settings it dips in the 40fps range.


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## Scubie67

THERMAL-REACTOR said:


> Hey guys, I am new to the forums and thought I would post my rig and see what you guys think.
> 
> It consists of:
> Intel 920 i7 2.66 stock @ 3.9ghz
> Thermalright IFX-14 cooler
> Asus P6T Deluxe
> 12GB Patriot Viper 1600 DDR3 ram (6x2gb tiple channel)
> 2 Radeon 4870x2's in Crossfire
> 4 Western Digital 500gb RE2's in raid 5
> Corsair HX1000 watt PSU
> Antec 1200
> 
> 
> Right now I have it oc'd to 3.9ghz with idle temps around 26-28 and max on all 8 threads around 65-67. It does really well in most games out there. Most of the time I play with all max settings in game at 1920 x 1200. The only game that slows a bit is Crysis with all max settings it dips in the 40fps range.



 Yeah I saw your rig stats on another thread in the Cpu section .Thats a really nice rig .I havent decided yet whether or not to go with a Hd 4870 X2 or the new Gtx 295.Both are pretty good.

 How is scaling with Quad X fire with 2 HD4870  X2's on the I7 BTW?

 Is it as good as the Sli?

 Oh And BTW ...Welcome to the Computer forum.Its one of the best and most active computer related sites around I have found


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## CdnAudiophile

Scubie67 said:


> Yeah I saw your rig stats on another thread in the Cpu section .Thats a really nice rig .I havent decided yet whether or not to go with a Hd 4870 X2 or the new Gtx 295.Both are pretty good.
> 
> How is scaling with Quad X fire with 2 HD4870  X2's on the I7 BTW?
> 
> Is it as good as the Sli?
> 
> Oh And BTW ...Welcome to the Computer forum.Its one of the best and most active computer related sites around I have found



Thanks for your comments man. 

With my i7, my gpus are the bottle neck in my computer. To be honest Quad fire isn't worth it. I basically paid 600 bucks to get 5-10 more fps in most games and be able to run 8xAA. The GTX 295 beats out this card up to 1920x1200 but because ATi has 1 gb of ram per gpu and more mature drivers right now, the 4870x2 beats it at the higher resolutions. 

I just bought this and wont be switching to the GTX 295's. When the next gen stuff comes out tho I will.


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## Scubie67

THERMAL-REACTOR said:


> Thanks for your comments man.
> 
> With my i7, my gpus are the bottle neck in my computer. To be honest Quad fire isn't worth it. I basically paid 600 bucks to get 5-10 more fps in most games and be able to run 8xAA. The GTX 295 beats out this card up to 1920x1200 but because ATi has 1 gb of ram per gpu and more mature drivers right now, the 4870x2 beats it at the higher resolutions.
> 
> I just bought this and wont be switching to the GTX 295's. When the next gen stuff comes out tho I will.



 Cool ,thx for your honest reply.The Sli'ed Gtx 295's benchies look pretty good from a couple of reviews I have seen I guess the I7 prefers them.Regardless though I was pretty much going to just start off with 1 card myself and maybe pick up 1 later as the prices drop.I game at 1920 x1200 (27.5 " Hannspree) so the 2500 x1600 doesnt really matter to me


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## Kornowski

That's awesome! Looks great, too!

Does CF not need a bridge to connect the cards?

/jealousy.


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## Shane

wow sweet rig mate,but 12Gb of ram thats OVERKILL 

should have just got 6Gb in tripple channel because i doubt you will notice any difference goinf from 6-12


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## ScOuT

WOW...that thing is a monster! Nice work

The only thing I would have to say is...overkill? You could have saved about $800 with only a single 4870x2 and lower the RAM a little. In reality all you do is play a $40 game with it. 

Very nice work...Have you posted a 3Dmark06 run with that beast yet?
http://www.computerforum.com/129170-official-3dmark06-rank-thread.html


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## just a noob

dammit! lol there goes my chance of being number 1 when i get everything :S and why didn't you use a true(thermalright ultra extreme)?


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## bm23

wow, thats a freaking awesome rig. how much did you pay for all that?


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## Scubie67

Yep you have the strongest rig on here I would say and furnish the pics to back it up.You kept it cleanly cable routed to.good Job!


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## DarkTears

pic of your monitor please?


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## SRcobra

This is INSANE 
Love the cable management on it too, done a really good job with that man!


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## mac550

Kornowski said:


> That's awesome! Looks great, too!
> 
> Does CF not need a bridge to connect the cards?
> 
> /jealousy.



yeah they do, i think crossfire uses 2 bridges for some reason


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## mep916

Nice. My i7 stuff will be here Wednesday. I went with the Foxconn Blood Rage board.


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## CdnAudiophile

Thanks guys for all the awesome comments. To answer some of your guys questions:

Why 12gigs of ram? I run multiple virtual windows at a time and it can be very straining on the ram. I have gotten my usage up to close to 10gigs so it really is useful.

Why no bridge on the cards? The old crossifire setups used to require that you had the 2 bridges connected to the cards. The new setup only uses one but is not required for crossfire to work. I do use it, I just left it out when I was taking the pictures.

Why dont I have a true 120 cooler?  When I was ordering the parts for my computer all the LGA1333 coolers were on back order so instead I bought the Thermalright IFX14 that was made for the lga775 socket. I modified the bracket to work the newer socket. I am very pleased about this actually as my temps are super low with my oc. Right now I idle around 29 and max is about 65. At stock speeds my temps were 25 idle and 52 max.


And I havent posted the 3dmark06 score yet but I score near 25,000 (like 24800 or so) so I will be doing that shortly. Again thanks everyone for your comments and I hope to be part of the these forums for a long time.


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## mep916

THERMAL-REACTOR said:


> And I havent posted the 3dmark06 score yet but I score near 25,000 (like 24800 or so) so I will be doing that shortly. Again thanks everyone for your comments and I hope to be part of the these forums for a long time.



When you're ready, post your score in this thread. You'll probably take the top spot.


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## ThatGuy16

You definitely need more ram!


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## funkysnair

very impressive rig there mate!

im thinking if it was mine i would fill it up with water cooling and cathodes

i do like the specs but i think i would have stuck with 1 4870x2, get the 3d mark posted up m8 should be killer


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## CdnAudiophile

mep916 said:


> Nice. My i7 stuff will be here Wednesday. I went with the Foxconn Blood Rage board.



Very nice man. The i7 is amazing. The amount you can OC is crazy. Also clock for clock it is one of the best processors out there. Just curious why did you go with the Bloodrage?


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## CdnAudiophile

ThatGuy16 said:


> You definitely need more ram!



Thats sucks because I am at the max the board can take!


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## mep916

THERMAL-REACTOR said:


> Just curious why did you go with the Bloodrage?



For starters, I'm going with a red and black theme for my rig. The Blood Rage will look hella sick. 

Also, it's a good overclocking board with a good BIOS. It has all the advanced features one would need to learn and use the new OC features that come with the i7. Soon I'll be installing a LCS, so I like the fact that it ships with a red, copper NB block.


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## CdnAudiophile

DarkTears said:


> pic of your monitor please?



It`s a 46 1080p LCD by Samsung. Works really well for gaming.


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## CdnAudiophile

mep916 said:


> For starters, I'm going with a red and black theme for my rig. The Blood Rage will look hella sick.
> 
> Also, it's a good overclocking board with a good BIOS. It has all the advanced features one would need to learn and use the new OC features that come with the i7. Soon I'll be installing a LCS, so I like the fact that it ships with a red, copper NB block.



Yea it is an awesome motherboard no arguing that. I was put off tho by the fact it only has 3 ddr3 slots. If you dont need more than 6gb, than it is a great choice. What ram did you order with your systems. The G.skill with it`s red heatsinks would look awesome on it.


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## mep916

THERMAL-REACTOR said:


> The G.skill with it`s red heatsinks would look awesome on it.



Yup, that's what I got. I'm hoping Crucial releases a DDR3 Tracer series. I'm cool with the 3 RAM slots as I have no need to go further than 6GB atm.


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## CdnAudiophile

mep916 said:


> Yup, that's what I got. I'm hoping Crucial releases a DDR3 Tracer series. I'm cool with the 3 RAM slots as I have no need to go further than 6GB atm.



Awesome man, please post some pics when you have it all together. It will be one mean looking rig when completed!


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## Gooberman

your cards look like they had a tight fit there


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## SRcobra

If i was gonna build an I7 pc, id go for the Bloodrage, just looks awesome!


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## Twist86

Man look at the size of that cooler...looks like a persons head.


Very nice mod...more love for the Corsair ^-^ PSU of choice!


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## bomberboysk

Nice.. again i say it... Nice rig.


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## Gooberman

Mr.Rich   lol


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## gratefully_dead

excellent rig man i think i shit my pants when i read the specs how much did that build end up costing you?


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## Gooberman

I'm going to guess the price of just the tower is $2800  just a guess tho


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## pies

That is an amazing rig you got there.
Since one or two other people brought it up, you should connect your ati cards with the crossfire bridges that came with them.


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## DirtyD86

without a doubt the nicest rig on CF. beautiful stuff.


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## smoothjk

That's a crazy rig, man. You either have a very high-paying job, or you're irresponsibly swimming in credit card debt.  Either way, that thing is a monster. *jealous*


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## CdnAudiophile

I am very lucky that in the situation I am in, I have little overhead. It allows me to make some larger purchases. I guess you could say I a disease, I need to always have the latest and greatest. (to an extent) My last computer was a q6600 with dual 3870x2`s (horrible for quadfire). I have probably owned atleast 25 computers (that I can remember anyway) since I`ve been into them. What I try to do is sell the hardware before it becomes too old, when noone wants anymore. I maybe take a 30% loss and but atleast I stay current. Think of it like this: My video card cost me 600 so I will sell it for 400. I look at it as if  I paid 200 for renting it whatever amount of time I had it for. Whenever Ati comes out with the next card I will probably upgrade but I wont go to the GTX295 because it is too little too late.


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## Gooberman

Wow i just found the price of my computer  with everything that's going with it (Tower Monitors Keyboard Mouse Speakers) it's going to be around $3,300 lol


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## just a noob

Gooberman said:


> Wow i just found the price of my computer  with everything that's going with it (Tower Monitors Keyboard Mouse Speakers) it's going to be around $3,300 lol



you think thats bad, i'm going to have 200 dollars and then some in fittings for watercooling


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## Nums

I has competition, 

You should have gotten a U2 case, their frickin awesome!


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## mep916

THERMAL-REACTOR said:


> I am very lucky that in the situation I am in, I have little overhead. It allows me to make some larger purchases. I guess you could say I a disease, I need to always have the latest and greatest. (to an extent) My last computer was a q6600 with dual 3870x2`s (horrible for quadfire). I have probably owned atleast 25 computers (that I can remember anyway) since I`ve been into them. What I try to do is sell the hardware before it becomes too old, when noone wants anymore. I maybe take a 30% loss and but atleast I stay current. Think of it like this: My video card cost me 600 so I will sell it for 400. I look at it as if  I paid 200 for renting it whatever amount of time I had it for. Whenever Ati comes out with the next card I will probably upgrade but I wont go to the GTX295 because it is too little too late.



That's exactly what I do. I just sold my GTX 280 at ebay for $318, as I found little interest at a few forums. This time I was a little late with the sale. Had I listed it a couple weeks earlier, I probably would've received around $400. Yeah, you lose some money, but the loss is worth it to always run the best stuff. All my i7 hardware will be here Wednesday, and I haven't decided on my next GPU upgrade, but it will probably be awhile.


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## CdnAudiophile

mep916 said:


> That's exactly what I do. I just sold my GTX 280 at ebay for $318, as I found little interest at a few forums. This time I was a little late with the sale. Had I listed it a couple weeks earlier, I probably would've received around $400. Yeah, you lose some money, but the loss is worth it to always run the best stuff. All my i7 hardware will be here Wednesday, and I haven't decided on my next GPU upgrade, but it will probably be awhile.



It`s the way to do it. 

I don`t think we will see anything till the summer for the next thing in video cards. I read an article somwhere (http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/117/1050117/intel-puts-lucid-hydra-on-x58) that intel is going to be releasing a new chipset (my bad it is an updated x58 with lucid hydra) that gives almost 100% scaling with video cards. If thats the case I might buy a motherboard like this with that new chipset on it: http://forums.slizone.com/index.php?showtopic=30894
With 6 of the best single PCB video cards available. (maybe 6 4870x2`s watercooled)


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## CdnAudiophile

Also here is something else to look at. Intels entry into the graphics world with multicore GPUS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrabee_(GPU)


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## DarkTears

THERMAL-REACTOR said:


> It`s a 46 1080p LCD by Samsung. Works really well for gaming.



Very nice

thought you forgot about me for a sec hehe


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## mep916

THERMAL-REACTOR said:


> (maybe 6 4870x2`s watercooled)



Well, there is no driver support for that type of configuration, and you'd have a severe CPU bottleneck. I'm not sure how you would adequately use that type of setup in gaming, but maybe video editing or something.


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## CdnAudiophile

mep916 said:


> Well, there is no driver support for that type of configuration, and you'd have a severe CPU bottleneck. I'm not sure how you would adequately use that type of setup in gaming, but maybe video editing or something.



The technology isn`t out yet but by the end of 2009 it should be. With hydra it`s 90 to 100 percent scaling in game so your fps would go through the roof. The game does not need to support it as the chip decides what gpu does what rendering. It will be the next big thing and sli and crossfire will be extinct. Also in the other post Intel has a card coming out with 4 cores to a GPU. Each core I heard is based on the Atom and runs similar to the x86 architecture. Therefore it would be possible to have a 24 GPU system.


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## Gooberman

Let's hope my brother's in a jolly mood when i tell him the price ^^


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## Iceyn1pples

Hmm....this was indeed a nice rig at that time. 

Actually...it still trumps the majority of the rigs out there.

But i can see in ur sig that you have progressed nicely.

Keep it up!


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## linkin

You revived a thread from 2 years ago... look at the last post date before you post


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## CdnAudiophile

Iceyn1pples said:


> Hmm....this was indeed a nice rig at that time.
> 
> Actually...it still trumps the majority of the rigs out there.
> 
> But i can see in ur sig that you have progressed nicely.
> 
> Keep it up!




Sweet thanks for the comment. My computer wishes it was like yours lol haha


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## Sdot

Hi thermal, i didn't know how to private message so i just decided to come here. I built my rig 2 years ago around the same time you did. Can't believe its been two years already. oh and how do you PM?

oh and is reviving 2 year old threads good or bad iceynipples?


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## CdnAudiophile

Sdot said:


> Hi thermal, i didn't know how to private message so i just decided to come here. I built my rig 2 years ago around the same time you did. Can't believe its been two years already. oh and how do you PM?
> 
> oh and is reviving 2 year old threads good or bad iceynipples?



I actually bought the orignal setup in late november/early december 2008. 2 1/2 years and is still is a very potent computer. It's going to be upgrading time soon tho. I have already decided with myself that I am going to drop the big bucks on the socket 2011 Extreme edition processor w/e that comes out in December/January. I was close to pulling the trigger on the Asus X58 Black Edition motherboard but I held back and it's probably for the best.

Oh and you need 100 posts to be able to PM. Thats why you couldn't.


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## NDSUTopGun

NICE SETUP!  Looks like a serious investment.  I like your style.  Check my computer stats in my signature...

And I like blue


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## CdnAudiophile

NDSUTopGun said:


> NICE SETUP!  Looks like a serious investment.  I like your style.  Check my computer stats in my signature...
> 
> And I like blue



Thanks man. You have quite a nice setup yourself. I have gone away from the blue in exchange for white in a Corsair 700D. I think it looks more "classy" compared to the other colors. Just my opinion though.


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