What do you think of this iCore system?

[djaef]

Hi Guys,

Seems like there's a few clever techie heads floating around here. I'd love your advice on this.

I'm looking to upgrade my current pc to a new iCore system. I've done my research and set my budget and have come up with these specs listed below. I'm still not sure about a monitor yet, and it seems very difficult to decide. I'd love a good one of course, but I'm trying to do all this for under $3000, and the current build parts below already comes to over $2400. Which leaves me about $500 for a good monitor, preferably 24" and full HD. Dell I believe make a good IPS model? And then I'd like more hdd's....

Anyway, my other issue is OS. I'm keen to get Windows 7 but I don't think I can wait as it may not be out for another 6 months or more. But is it silly to buy such a system now and have to install my old unused XP Pro license on it, only to have to reinstall the whole OS just a few months later and have to pay retail price for Windows 7 instead of getting it OEM at the time?

What would you do? And what do you think of the system? I'm not a gamer, but mad multi tasking photographer.

CASE - SilverStone Raven RV01
PSU - Corsair HX620
Mobo - GA-EX58-UD3R
CPU - iCore 920
CPU COOLER - Thermalright Ultra 120 extreme 1366
RAM - OCZ 6G(3x2G) DDR3 10666 Platinum CL-7-7-7-20
HDD - Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB HDD, 3.5", SATAII, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache (WD10EADS)
GPU - Saphire HD4870 512MB
DVD - Pioneer DVR-216BK 20x

Geoff

[Kym]

Not bad! But.... Unless Vista 64 you wont be using all that memory. Win7 is no where near the grief of Vista as it is really a big SP for Vista.

Raid 1 disks?
Planning to OC... Case fans?

AP proportionally does not have many tech types...
So use Whirlpool (which does)

http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/?tag=rmp_sg_whirlpoolpcs
http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/?tag=rm...oolpcs_systems
http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/?tag=rm...oolpcs_extreme <$14k system

Or OCAU.

[Colinz]

Yes, 4gb RAM would be all that was needed, 32-bit windows processes max out at around 2gb.

GPU- I recommend you get a CUDA capable NVIDIA card, maybe one of the 9 series and you'll be ready when Photoshop becomes CUDA capable- plus a heap of other programs. Google CUDA but it is like supercharging your processor if the software is written for it.

[oldfart]

Other than your choice of video card brand, and perhaps the over kill of the cpu fan

Is your memory choice on the memory support list for that board ?

[djaef]

Oldfart - what is it about the choice of video card? You don't like the 4870?
And why is the cpu fan overkill? I live in a warm area and I've always suspected I run my systems down needlessly with not enough cooling. But I'm intrigued...
And no, the memory is not on the MB list but it looks like it hasn't been updated and there are hardly any listed anyway. Do you think it's a concern?

CyperOz,
Raid 1 disks? Yes, probably. I'm big on backup but have never figured out how best to implement a RAID system for both system and data, or just to RAID the data and regularly mirror the system... It makes me dizzy the whole topic.

Planning to OC... Case fans? I probably will OC at some point (when I figure out how to do it). But this case is pretty special. MB is rotated 90 degrees, and there are two 120mm fans at the bottom. Plus the cpu cooler, it'll be the coolest pc on the block.

As for RAM, I'll be going Vista 7 64 bit.

Thanks for the comments.

[Kodi]

i agree with Old fart,unless you are a gamer that Video card is way over the top. You won't use all the gaming features built into that card and you could save a lot of money.
I also agree with CypherOz that a raid setup would be better Possibly a Raid1

[oldfart]

Was the Brand not the chipset of the video card that was my concern.

The fan that comes with the i7 is the best from Intel to date, I don't see you having issues.

Ram to be run in Triple Channel is fickle, if you can buy this all from one source, make sure they know what it's purpose is so it becomes the vendors problem not yours.