[09mlb86]

I am making a high performance computer.

The parts I have already include:

Case: Cooler Master Cosmos

PSU: PC Power & Cooling 910W Silencer

GPU: (2X) XFX ATI Radeon 5870s (for Xfire)

RAM: Mushkin XP DDR3 1333 (3x1GB) 6-6-6-18

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 (hopping to OC to around 3GHz)

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-UP12

Thermal Paste: Noctua NT-H1

OS: Windows Vista 32bit Ultimate (free upgrade to Win7) (Microsoft said I will get it around November 5th)

I believe that covers everything.. let me know if I forgot to list it...

I need a high quality Motherboard that supports ATI Xfire. I will not buy another ASUS product. I was looking at the Gigabyte UD5 but figured I would see what the opinion of smarter ppl than me are.... thanks for your time!

PS: Those 5870s were hard to get... do u know when they will be in full stock? (my friend is mad at me, says i bought them all)

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Well it remains to be unseen whether I'm smarter than you or not but eVGA makes some pretty awesome boards. http://www.newegg.co...amp;Order=PRICE I use the $259 one. The best one that supports Crossfire is the $299. Take a look at this pdf

Just so you know, guys are overclocking the i7 to 4.0ghz and it doesn't seem to be too much of a problem. If I were you, I would get a hold of an i7 with DO stepping, not CO/C1. The DO over clocks a bit better and will run a little cooler. Newegg doesn't guarantee DO, but I heard Microcenter does, if you watch TJ Harlow's video on it he tells you all about it.

Why only 3gigs and only a 32bit system?

PS: Those 5870s were hard to get... do u know when they will be in full stock? (my friend is mad at me, says i bought them all)

Try Tiger Direct, Micro Center, performance-pcs.com, or crazypc.com. See what they have.

EDIT: I have the Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 as well, hard drives run warm, but there is options for an extra fan, and if you're into "modding" TJ Harlow has a great video where he puts in a fan that keeps em pretty cool.

Is it the S or the 1000? Make sure to tell me...

Edited by Ferrari, 25 September 2009 - 06:47 PM.

[Ferrari]

Well it remains to be unseen whether I'm smarter than you or not but eVGA makes some pretty awesome boards. http://www.newegg.co...amp;Order=PRICE I use the $259 one. The best one that supports Crossfire is the $299. Take a look at this pdf

Just so you know, guys are overclocking the i7 to 4.0ghz and it doesn't seem to be too much of a problem. If I were you, I would get a hold of an i7 with DO stepping, not CO/C1. The DO over clocks a bit better and will run a little cooler. Newegg doesn't guarantee DO, but I heard Microcenter does, if you watch TJ Harlow's video on it he tells you all about it.

Why only 3gigs and only a 32bit system?

PS: Those 5870s were hard to get... do u know when they will be in full stock? (my friend is mad at me, says i bought them all)

Try Tiger Direct, Micro Center, performance-pcs.com, or crazypc.com. See what they have.

EDIT: I have the Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 as well, hard drives run warm, but there is options for an extra fan, and if you're into "modding" TJ Harlow has a great video where he puts in a fan that keeps em pretty cool.

Is it the S or the 1000? Make sure to tell me...

Edited by Ferrari, 25 September 2009 - 06:47 PM.

[09mlb86]

well its only 32bit b/c im in the army and my CAC reader does not like 64bit... (lesson learned from my laptop)
so 32bit can only use three gigs... so i went w/ 3 gigs :-}

i know ppl have pushed them over 4GHz, but seeing as how i make about $15,000 a year... it kinda has to last if it costs this much...

thats why im looking for a good board... I have had two asus boards die and i never got the last one back from RMA.... as for the stepping... I started this build b/c some one gave me a Dell XPS with this i7 in it... for FREE :-) so i really cant complain either way with that...

and the 299 EVGA... my cpu cooler is prety big do u think it will fit w/ thoes huge heat sinks?

u think that would be better than: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128362

[09mlb86]

case is: COSMOS 1000

[Ferrari]

Either one you will be happy. Gigabyte and eVGA are great companies. I almost went with that board. I think eVGA is awesome, personally. There boards have some nice whistles and bells if you look at that pdf sheet I linked you to. Take a look at my video of my build in my signature, get a more close up look at it. Skip to 2:10 to get past the reboot test. That video will also show the Xigmatek Dark Knight, which is an awesome cooler and gets great reviews. You can tell there is some room for big coolers. I mention my temps in the video, I'm at stock 2.67ghz speeds.

Cosmos 1000, it is gigantic, and I love it. Cosmos S has a fan that gets in the way of big coolers like mine and yours, that's why I wanted to make sure you told me which one.

Can you afford to go with 64bit and buy a new CAC Reader? They are fairly cheap last I checked... I wouldn't limit myself to just 3gigs and 32bit if I were you, but you do what you know is best for you.

Edited by Ferrari, 25 September 2009 - 07:08 PM.

[09mlb86]

well i already purchased that stuff.. i was posting it for reference... the only thing troublesome was the ASUS P6T SE... as i RMAed once, got a replacement, the replacement broke, and i have waited for three months and i just never got it back... the only thing diffrent realy is the 5870s.... but i know they r good :-}

[Ferrari]

Ahhh. What did you think of the board? Do you think your cooler will fit? Either way, it will be a tight fit on the Gigabyte or the eVGA.

[09mlb86]

yeah, i think it will, nice set up!

It just scares me a little getting a nvidia card brand of mobo for my xfire setup....

[Ferrari]

I think it would be cool. Don't worry, if it supports it then it supports it, and I checked the FAQ's, they said

The X58 motherboard will support all crossfire capable ATI cards in a crossfire configuration.

eVGA is just being smart, giving it's customers the option. Which sounds like a nice company, maybe one that would actually perform an RMA well?

[09mlb86]

lol well i REALY appreciate the time u spent w/ me on this build... if they are good maybe i wont have to RMA.... :-} ok thanks i think i will go with the eVGA mobo... thanks again so much for your time... and the video. you have a nice setup! I will deff. post back to let you know how thing made out... I get paid on the 30th then i will spend (more than half my check) on that mobo... hopefully for 100 more dollars... it wont brake till....well hopefully never lol

[Ferrari]

lol.

Take a look at this topic. Some suggestions on how to set some things up in the BIOS on those boards. Oh, and don't forget, with VISTA and WINDOWS 7, you want to use ACPI Mode(SATA Mode) for your hard drive, not IDE. It will perform better. XP doesn't support ACPI unless you add drivers or something... I'm checking into now, XP Pro is my back up, so I run it with IDE Mode currently.

[09mlb86]

thanks again for all your help!

[09mlb86]

UPDATE: I Purchased The eVGA 132-BL-E758-A1 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813188039

I am very happy with this board. Its very stable and I have my 920 overclocked to 3.2HGz I know i can go higher but I dont need it higher right now. Thanks again for your help!

I ran BurnInTest all night and I got 0 Memory Errors! I had every thing maxed, even the optical drive's (U put RW's in and this program writes random things to them all night)

Again very happy, thanks for the time in helping me look at all my options!

[Ferrari]

I'm glad you're happy. Good luck with everything. I've been meaning to give burnin a try, I used prime95 the other day and my computer blue screened. I don't have anything overclocked either, so I'm a little worried.

Anyways, have fun with it. Keep in touch.

[09mlb86]

Ok, so I thought things were going to be awesome.... with this build, i mean, it was build with the very best parts right..... :-{

So I was playing World In Conflict and... smoke started coming out that top vent of the CM Cosmos... yeah not good... that's why I don't buy dells.... So I [bleep] everything off and took the panel off. My south bridge literitly had smoke pouring from it.... I yanked my 5870's out to hopefully save them... but now im stuck with out a motherboard.....again.....