New build - Opinions wanted :-)

richieoflynn

Hi all,

I'm in the early stages of a new build. It's for my home office but I want something fairly decent. What I'm thinking of will be overkill for what I'm going to do with it in the beginning but I want to have a bit fun with it too and keep my options open

Here's what I've been thinking of :

Cooler Master Haf-X case
Corsair HX750 PSU
Asus P8Z68 Deluxe Mobo rather than the P8P67 (when ever they are available)
Intel i7-2600k (already bought)
Intel 320 Series 160GB SSD (alread bought)
Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 8 GB

Parts not decided on yet :

Graphics card
Mechanical HDD's for storage
Thermal paste
CPU fan & cooler, will change from stock Intel one incase I decide to overclock

I also have a few questions :

If I use the SSD as a boot / OS drive, can I still set up 2 x mechanical HDD's to run raid ?
Also not sure about which version of Windows 7 to go for, is there any benefit going for the Pro or Ultimate versions ?
If I want to run 2 x LCD screens, do I have to have an SLI or CrossFire setup or can I do this from 1 card ?

As it's half 12 and I should be in the cot, I'm probably forgetting something vital so I'd be very grateful for any feedback and advice.

Thanks,

Richie.

slave1

richieoflynn wrote: »

Also not sure about which version of Windows 7 to go for, is there any benefit going for the Pro or Ultimate versions ?
Richie.

Without getting into Pro Versus Ultimate, your cheapest option is with software4students, I always go for Pro @€45.45 delivered.
Not sure whether the premium for Ultimate is worth it...

richieoflynn

Is that not just an upgrade as in, do I have to have XP or Vista already loaded or can I install this on a blank ssd ?

RoyalMarine

if you install the os on the ssd, then you will have no problem setting the raid for 2 or more mechanical hdd's etc for storage.
you can either do hardware raid, or software raid through windows.

deconduo

-Raid will work fine.
-You can install an upgrade version of windows from scratch, just google
-Pretty much any GPU can run multiple monitors without a problem.

You seem to have a pretty high budget, so a 6970 would be a decent GPU. That PSU is enough to handle a second one in crossfire later down the line as well.

richieoflynn

Thanks for the info fellas. That GPU looks the business alright. Must look into it when I get a chance later. Will also google what you said about the Windows install

richieoflynn

Ordered up some parts today. Here's what's on the way...

Asus P8Z68 Deluxe Motherboard
Coolermaster HAF-X Tower
Corsair HX850W Modular Power Supply
2 x 1TB WD Caviar Black Sata 6Gb
HP Bluray DVDRW Optical Drive
MSI 1280MB GeForce GTX 570 OC Nvidia GPU
Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom Ultra Performance Cooler
8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz RAM

Also ordered Win 7 Pro 64bit 'upgrade' as recommended

Looking forward to the build now, can't wait !!!

Burgo

richieoflynn wrote: »

Ordered up some parts today. Here's what's on the way...

Asus P8Z68 Deluxe Motherboard
Coolermaster HAF-X Tower
Corsair HX850W Modular Power Supply
2 x 1TB WD Caviar Black Sata 6Gb
HP Bluray DVDRW Optical Drive
MSI 1280MB GeForce GTX 570 OC Nvidia GPU
Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom Ultra Performance Cooler
8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz RAM

Also ordered Win 7 Pro 64bit 'upgrade' as recommended

Looking forward to the build now, can't wait !!!

Looks good, did you order a cpu too btw? :pac:

slave1

Just install the OS via booting the DVD drive, when it comes to the part where you put in the serial number leave it blank, this will default as a 30 day trial, when you boot up windows a short time later you can then activate with the serial number on the back of the DVD and that's it

richieoflynn

Thanks for the replies lads. BTW I already have a cpu Got an i7-2600k and an Intel 320 Series 160GB hard drive. Brother works for Intel so I got 'mates rates' !!!

M00lers

Looks like a tasty build.

richieoflynn

Well lads, the parts arrived earlier in the week and to be honest, I spent a good many hours putting things together. It's a bit daunting sticking over €1000 worth of parts together and you're double checking everything and checking again and re-routing cables, it's great fun Heartbeat was up a good bit just before I pressed the on button !!!

I have everything functional as it should be from what I can see. No issues with loading Windows 7 Pro upgrade except it didn't take the serial number, I had to change a registry key before it would accept it. The ssd is unreal, no clicking and clunking and is super fast. Had some issues setting up RAID 1 but after a bit of time on Google, found out what my problem was. I was getting a bsod on boot up and there was a Microsoft fix available to sort this out. Hard part was finding the info. Here's the link, I'm sure more people have had this problem http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

She's running on default settings at the moment, have to tidy up the cables and close up the case and I'll have a bit more of a play with it later. Will put up some pics too just to show off my handy-work !