Help building a new i7 liquid cooled computer

Landoflemon

Hi guys,

I'm an engineering student and have been saving up to make my first attempt at building a computer, I don't know if I'm throwing myself into the deep end though! I would like a computer that is very good with CAD software such as Pro Engineer. I need it to be quick for rendering images and 3D animations. For an animation of any significant length, this can take many hours on the computers we currently used, and the results are not always as high quality as we would like them to be. I'm hoping to enter a competition in 4th year through Pro Engineer and need something that will not hinder my work.

Also, when I would like my work hindered I want the computer to be nicely specced for gaming! I'm thinking Ati Radeon 5850.

I'm aware that gaming cards are no use for CAD work and vice versa, so I have also gotten my hands on an Nvidia Quadro fx 4500. I know it's a couple of years old, but I think it'll still pack a punch. I'm well aware that I could not use both the Nvidia Quadro and the 5850 at the same time. Is it a reasonable option to take them out and swap between them depending on what I will be using the computer for? Am I likely to run into trouble?

Also, my (very generous!) Heat Transfer lecturer in college has given me a Thermaltake Tide Water GPU cooler. I know this too is not brand new, but it's never been used. Is it practical to mount this to the 5850? I hope to overclock the card.

Here is a list of the components I'm looking at. Any advise would be greatly appreciated as I've never done anything like this before. I'm planning on overclocking the CPU as well to squeeze a little more juice out of the whole thing.

CPU = i7 920
Case = Antec 1200
Graphics = Ati Radeon 5850 / Nvidia Quadro fx 4500
PSU = Corsair 850W
RAM = 6GB Crucial DDR3 Ballistix 1333Mhz
Mobo = ASUS P6t SE X58
Cooling = Corsair H50 Hydro Series
Hard Drive = Western Digital 1TB Caviar
Disk Drive = Some Sony/ Samsung DVD-RW

I'm not overly concerned about the peripherals, but is the anything glaringly obviously not right about my component list thus far?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it!

ScumLord

An engineering student should have absolutely no problems putting a computer together. Computer parts these days are like Lego all you'll be doing is pretty simple assembly.

Is a gaming card really that bad for CAD work? I would have thought the modern gaming machine was so powerful it could basically run anything thrown at it.

Landoflemon

Thanks for your reply,

I'm a mechanical Engineering Student, since there are so few moving parts in the build my studies have proved unhelpful. Except that I know hot = bad, and cold = good! Seriously though, I should have no difficulty in putting this together, I was just wondering really if anybody had any words of warning regarding any of my components, or if the swapping of the cards on a regular enough basis would cause any problems, Or if that odd liquid cooling system for the graphics card that I was given is worth installing on the 5850. I'd like to use it.

See, it only cools the GPU, would taking off the fan lead to the rest of the card overheating in an overclocked state?

And Lego is nice and simple to put together. I'd like to think of this as Lego Technic, or Mindstorms, which is much more dynamic and has many layers of possible complexity!

Regarding the gaming card thing. I would get by with doing all the CAD work on a gaming card, just the very hardware intensive animations and mechanism modes would run an awful lot smoother on a workstation card. Seeing as I have one now I may as well include it!! Even though the workstation cards are an awful lot more expensive than their gaming partners, they are absolutely rubbish in games.

Solitaire

Only go for LGA1366 if you know you're going to be using apps that can bottleneck a normal dual-channel memory bus. The triple-channel is the only thing LGA1366 has going for it really :P

If not then go for an LGA1156 mobo and i7-860 CPU. Flat-out better than the i7-920/930 and nowhere near as bad in the heat dissipation stakes! The H50 might be overkill too; unless gunning for something past the 4GHz barrier or requiring near-silence (and I doubt it given the A1200!) the Mugen 2 Rev2 or even CM Hyper 212 Plus are good high-TDP coolers and probably just as good so long as you're not shooting for >3.8GHz with those 130W LGA1366 CPUs! :eek:

I'm not sure if the GPU cooler is going to work here. A HD5850 doesn't exactly belt out heat like some last-gen GPUs *cough*HD4870*cough*GTX280*cough* did. And even if the universal mount on that cooler can be made to work with the HD5850s mounting pins you'd need a new cooler or something to cool not so much the memory chips (although they do run fairly hot!) as the voltage regulators (which get insanely hot!) especially if you're actually crazy enough to overvolt this beast. You also need two free PCI slots with good ventilation for the area underneath the lower slot of the two, and that Quadro merrily taking up space could cause an issue there...

IMHO Samsung F3 1GB is better than the Caviar unless you have specialist requirements. I don't like Sony optics much so get the DVD from Samsung or LG or someone. The PSU is pretty heavy going even for a heavily OCd LGA1366 rig but I can't remember the Quadro's power usage right now And the Antec 1200 is a good case but not great nowadays as there's lots of competition above, around and below its price point. If you're going for looks, fine, but if you're going for cooling and cost look at the many cheaper rivals such as CM HAF922 and Storm Scout, Thermaltake V9, Xigmatek Utgard... and that's not even up in the premium maxi-tower range! :eek:

Deano12345

I highly doubt the TT kit will fit the 5850.As well as that,Thermaltake kits tend to hold water like a sive haha.

Other than that,the build looks great

Landoflemon

Hey guys,

Thankyou very much for the feedback. I think I will go for the i7 860 instead of the 920, so thanks for that suggestion, and maybe I'll use the thermaltake tide water on my NES or something?!