I7 PC Build

Oh man, it's been 8 months now without a desktop gaming setup, having to use my wife's laptop. By wringing every last cent I could out of the budget, I can see some light at the end of the tunnel.

My plan is as follows:

INTEL Core i7 Extreme Edition I7-980X Processor
GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD7
XSPC X2O 750 Dual 5.25” Bay Reservoir Pump
DANGER DEN X-Flow Black Ice Xtreme
SWIFTECH Apogee GTZ CPU Waterblock - Socket LGA 775/1366
SWIFTECH GTZ-UHD-1366-BP-Socket LGA 1366 Upgrade kit, including SWIFTECH Universal Hold-down plate and S1366 back-plate
ULTRA X4 Series 1600w ATX ps U1240500
INTEL X25-M 2.5" 80GB MAINSTREAM SATA II SSD, SSDSA2MH080G2R5
WESTERN DIGITAL Caviar Black 750GB WD7501AALS
WESTERN DIGITAL Caviar Black 750GB WD7501AALS
WESTERN DIGITAL Caviar Black 750GB WD7501AALS
WESTERN DIGITAL Caviar Black 750GB WD7501AALS
SAMSUNG 18X SATA DUAL LAYER DVD+/-RW DRIVE LIGHTSCRIBE TECHNOLOGY
SAMSUNG CD-RW/DVD-ROM SH-M523B/SATA
EXCELL 5.25" USB 2.0/FireWire/SATA All-in-One MultiFunction Internal Card Reader w/Temp LCD/CMO-CX-ICR-009
CORSAIR Dominator TR3X6G1600C8D Dominator 6 GB 3 x 2 GB PC3-12800
CORSAIR Dominator TR3X6G1600C8D Dominator 6 GB 3 x 2 GB PC3-12800
GIGABYTE ATI Radeon HD 5970 2GB Video Card GV-R597D5-2GD-B (Hemlock)
GIGABYTE ATI Radeon HD 5970 2GB Video Card GV-R597D5-2GD-B (Hemlock)
CREATIVE LABS SB X-Fi SB X-FI Titanium PCIe

The red lines are the parts left to buy. For right now, I will limp along with 6GB of ram and 1 video card. As to the processor, I'm gonna buy a I7 950 until I can save up enough to buy the 980x. I found a 950 for $250.00 + shipping.

Quite the setup. Most of these left over parts from the last rig?

Flak Monkey wrote:

Quite the setup. Most of these left over parts from the last rig?

You mean the aborted/ticked off attempt at the 780 sli? Yes, just had to get the motherboard and other items that go on the motherboard.

Nice! Green with envy!

Bought the motherboard and video card used--really don't like doing that but saved $105.00 on the motherboard (manufactured the 39th week of 2010) and $360.00 on the video card (manufactured the 3rd week of 2010) so the warranty on both are still in force. Both are from Gigabyte.

Ya, I can't wait to rebuild mine...it's so sick.

Flak Monkey wrote:

Ya, I can't wait to rebuild mine...it's so sick.

I know, bro. You will be able too very soon.

I hope so... I'm so tired of staring at these 4 walls. The red tape cant move fast enough. I had to turn down an interview as it didn't pay as much as the job I'm supposedly getting. Just waiting for that offer to come in.

got the old 1.2ghx gateway rig hooked up again for the one kid and the wife agrees she needs a faster system. now get this! she is willing to buy her a better system but! won't let me build a better rig than I have and let her have this one, when this one will just fine for her to play her games and drawing tablet! I'm not looking to spend much! but she is stone walling about it!

dom60 wrote:

got the old 1.2ghx gateway rig hooked up again for the one kid and the wife agrees she needs a faster system. now get this! she is willing to buy her a better system but! won't let me build a better rig than I have and let her have this one, when this one will just fine for her to play her games and drawing tablet! I'm not looking to spend much! but she is stone walling about it!

DOM!!! Do as she says.

If mama aint happy, aint nobody happy.

its not for the wife its for the kid! The last time I built I made one slightly better than what she had, that was in july of the yr. that x-mas she pleads can she buy herself a new one?! She bought her self one that was twice what I had! only got a new hard drive cuz mine died and it took her 3 or more months to agree to let me get one! and managed to get a new vid card at same time cuz after the smoke cleared it was like $60 for card and drive! he he she had a hard time say'n no then, but at the same sale I got us both some memory also and spent less than $100 total on it all. I can probably ,maybe squeak buy with $200-$250 to build a better than what I have.

I'll need a MB and CPU w/fan and some memory and probably a new PS if I get the right board it'll let me use the currant drives and have a upgrade path to it, and the on-board vid will have to work until I can scrounge the cash and buy something better

I feel your pain. Wife's Vid card just took a dump (was the one that caused the issues in my system) It worked fine in hers for several months now...but I guess the overheating finally took it's toll. A month ago, we heard a huge snap. Thought it was mine. I didn't find nothing. Then we heard another one some time afterwords, with no sign of nothing. Last night, we heard another large snap. It was her machine, cuz mine was off. I tore her machine down, didn't find nothing, nothing burnt. I did tare down here PSU and cleaned it out, it was filthy. Well, the next day, she started having video problems. I took out the card today and there it was, 3 busted capacitors. In the trash it went and got out the spare I bought.. The first spare didn't work right, and I never tried this one (stupid 3rd party, unknown maker vid cards from ebay) This one works on generic windows drivers only. The ATI drivers don't recognize the card on install. So, again, gotta contact the seller...and right now, I don't have the money to send this one back. But it works for rudimentary stuff for her. Only downfall is that there is no video acceleration so even web pages kinda jerk a bit when scrolling, but at least I had the spare, fully functional or not.

HOLY ********. Just got the video card. Keep in mind that my last video cards were the 8800GT OC version. This one is so big that it makes the old cards look like the old AGP 8 bit!!!!!!! and heavy. Hope I do have the room in the case for this monster and it's a good thing that I do have the 6 and 8 pin power hookups already. Imagine, a 14 pin power hookup and all I ever had to use before was a 6 pin.

It's not the size that matters, it's how you use it...

I can't tell, all the images I find of this card are rather small. hard to judge. Hope it fits!

Oh, and my wife's vid card refused to work this morning. Got the dreaded POST code errors today. Contacted the seller...hope I get a replacement that works soon. Now we are down to just my ailing machine.