i7 Builds - Specs and Results

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by philip888

I just did a build for a friend. Gigabyte EX58a-ud3r i7 950.

The CPU Cooler sux we all know that. But I did not realize how bad because I have never used one of the i7 coolers in my own builds.

I have Noctua NH-D14 which is great but is a bit over kill for this persons build. Because I will not be over-clocking it.

Can I get some suggestions on a decent CPU cooler?

Thanks

The stock cooler worked fine for me. I went with a Corsair H60 liquid cooler for the extra quiet

[philip888]

Originally Posted by albee1952

The stock cooler worked fine for me. I went with a Corsair H60 liquid cooler for the extra quiet

The stock cooler idles around 60c which is a bit high for me.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[jello]

Got my approved Siig firewire, but it gave me blue screen on shutdown almost every time (it also freezed protools, and the whole machine, so I needed to do a hard boot).

The good news is that theasus p9x79 ws onboard firewire works fine, I have only tested it a few days - will report back if it crashes down on me.

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by albee1952

The stock cooler worked fine for me. I went with a Corsair H60 liquid cooler for the extra quiet

I have a similar cooler, in fact it may be identical (but with a different brand name stamped on it)... Antec KUHLER 620. I'm not all that impressed with it.

It does keep my idle temps in between 30 and 38 celsius, depending on ambient temperature. Under 100% load with Prime95 the temps climb to 70 with hyperthreading on, 60 with HT off. That's really good. EDIT: forgot to mention that my processor is an i7 960, quad core slightly overclocked. 70 degrees might sound like a lot but that's 10 degrees under what a stock cooler would do when NOT overclocked, so I figure I'm running around 17 degrees under what it would normally be. The Bloomfield and Gulftown processors are notorious for running hot, so in hindsight I should have gotten a 920 or waited until the 2600K came down in price.

My problem with it is that the fan on the radiator is fairly loud. Even after I swapped it for a "noiseless" fan recommended by the overclock.net crowd. I think the Noctua and Zalman air coolers perform as well as the liquid cooler I have, but they are quieter because the fan(s) are inside the case as opposed to against the cage.

TL;DR Go with an air cooler by Zalman or Noctua

Originally Posted by jello

Got my approved Siig firewire, but it gave me blue screen on shutdown almost every time (it also freezed protools, and the whole machine, so I needed to do a hard boot).

did you try switching to a legacy driver in windows? That fixed my connection problems with my FW card

[Infiltrator]

I have no idea where to begin on this matter. As i did not realize this nonsense still existed as soon as windows 7 came out. Ive been out of the loop.

Should I even go i7 or should i just go i5?

Looking to spend no more than 800. In addition to my good tower case. which i already have.

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by Infiltrator

I have no idea where to begin on this matter. As i did not realize this nonsense still existed as soon as windows 7 came out. Ive been out of the loop.

Should I even go i7 or should i just go i5?

Looking to spend no more than 800. In addition to my good tower case. which i already have.

i7 would be my recommendation. The hyperthreading doubles the useable cores in PT. On a tight budget, you might consider the "older" X58 and socket 1366 cpu's(950 and up) as they have come down in price, but still deliver plenty of grunt

[Infiltrator]

Asus P8P67 I guess. I need to see if those are going to be compatible processors to the board. But its socket 1155. some guy on this motherboard and i5 aint doing so well.

this is definetly a nasty pursuit with too many variables.

[filosofem]

Originally Posted by Infiltrator

Asus P8P67 I guess. I need to see if those are going to be compatible processors to the board. But its socket 1155. some guy on this motherboard and i5 aint doing so well.

this is definitely a nasty pursuit with too many variables.

Agreed. Dismiss LGA 1155 and supported Chipsets. The best solution for Pro Tools is LGA 1366 or LGA 2011.

[jello]

Originally Posted by mesaone

did you try switching to a legacy driver in windows? That fixed my connection problems with my FW card

Thanks mesaone, The driver switch worked great

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by Infiltrator

Asus P8P67 I guess. I need to see if those are going to be compatible processors to the board. But its socket 1155. some guy on this motherboard and i5 aint doing so well.

this is definetly a nasty pursuit with too many variables.

That would be me. Asus P8P67 with i5 2500k and 16GB of compatible RAM. The system works, but I MUST use LLM and set the buffer to 1024 to do any recording. My i7 920 and 950 rigs will roll plenty of tracks at the 64 buffer. Maybe if I can get expert help on BIOS settings, I could turn this rig around, but for now, its in the closet