Ditch the P183 and go for a Xigmatek, apart from the cheesy pictures on the box, the UTGuard is the best case I have ever had, it knocks spots off my old Antec 9000 gaming case and is far easier to keep clean.

More info

http://www.xigmatek.com/product.php?productid=26

Edited 12 January, 201115 yr by fluffmeister

That's not a bad price! I keep looking at a new system, built 2 I7-960 and an I5 system before Christmas and was looking at one for myself so glad I've waited a bit longer for sandy bridge.

I think you're along the right lines with the RAM, that's the option i was looking at, but again, it's stupid easy to get 4x2gb sticks, but not so 2x4gb.

Kev

Looking at the benchmarks, performance suffers slightly by populating all 4 slots with 2Gb sticks rather than just two slots with 4Gb sticks. It really is only marginal, maybe i am just being too fussy. But having 4Gb sticks does give the option to go to 16Gb in the future.

Look on bit-tech they have a step by step guide on how to OC the i5-2500K with each of the current motherboards to achieve a stable 4.5Ghz. http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2011/01/07/how-to-overclock-the-intel-core-i5-2500k/1

Ditch the P183 and go for a Xigmatek, apart from the cheesy pictures on the box, the UTGuard is the best case I have ever had, it knocks spots off my old Antec 9000 gaming case and is far easier to keep clean.

More info

http://www.xigmatek....hp?productid=26

Its just a bit ghastly looking lol! I have a long history with antec and coolermaster, never failed to impress me :p

I would keep my wavemaster, but the gfx card wont fit and i am dubious about the cooling. :(

Anyone want to buy a 6 year old wavemaster? :p

Its just a bit ghastly looking lol! I have a long history with antec and coolermaster, never failed to impress me :p

I would keep my wavemaster, but the gfx card wont fit and i am dubious about the cooling. :(

Anyone want to buy a 6 year old wavemaster? :p

I have got one in the attic, and the Antec 9000

In the flesh, it's actually very discreet and the internals are nicely powder coated. Mine lives under the desk in my office and I like the easy access to the fan filters to keep everything clean. I have had the corsair cooler you are looking at fitted to my Quad core 6600 now for almost 12 months, it's silent and the cpu is clocked rock solidly at 3.8ghz with that fitted, I could only get to a flaky 3.6 on my arctic freezer air cooler and then crysis would crap out all the time.

Interesting seeing the spec your building as I may go a similar route myself as the Q6600 is starting to show it's age a bit with Hyper-V

hmm just found an 8gb kit for a few quid more than the kingston; http://www.aria.co.u...productId=43028

in stock on friday, perfect

Attic cases, i have a few! about 6 spread across my house and my parents.

Sounds like a good find to me!!

Good spec.

Got a couple of guys in my clan running sandy's. No complaints. No water cooling available for them yet? Know they run 1155 pin instead of 1156 but is the figment the same ?

The new closed loop Hxx corsair's are awesome , cant recommend them enough. Incredibly quiet and super cool. Would take one over a more expensive air option for sure.

Interested on your thoughts on the 6850 once it in. What was it replacing?

Good spec.

Got a couple of guys in my clan running sandy's. No complaints. No water cooling available for them yet? Know they run 1155 pin instead of 1156 but is the figment the same ?

The new closed loop Hxx corsair's are awesome , cant recommend them enough. Incredibly quiet and super cool. Would take one over a more expensive air option for sure.

Interested on your thoughts on the 6850 once it in. What was it replacing?

6850 is replacing a 4850, i was going for the 6870 but cant justify the extra £60 for what i play.

Intel demo'd the sandy running at 4.9Ghz on air, it has a theoretical OC of 6Ghz

Well all of the parts have just been ordered.

I will let you know my verdict when its built, going to be a beast i hope!

Interesting seeing the spec your building as I may go a similar route myself as the Q6600 is starting to show it's age a bit with Hyper-V

Hhhhhmmmm

I'm getting that feeling as well

Well all of the parts have just been ordered.

I will let you know my verdict when its built, going to be a beast i hope!

Good... i have a ballistic knife with your name on it

Well parcel farce have managed to deliver the cooler.. just the cooler!

Oooh more arrived, a nice surprise as well. Aria PC have sent me the i7-2600K not the i5 by mistake, thank you very muchly!

Well parcel farce have managed to deliver the cooler.. just the cooler! :rofl:Oooh more arrived, a nice surprise as well. Aria PC have sent me the i7-2600K not the i5 by mistake, thank you very muchly!

SCORE !!

no excuses now if I see you on BO.

Well parcel farce have managed to deliver the cooler.. just the cooler!

Oooh more arrived, a nice surprise as well. Aria PC have sent me the i7-2600K not the i5 by mistake, thank you very muchly!

But doesnt the i7 need a different socket to the i5?

But doesnt the i7 need a different socket to the i5?

I don't think they do with the Sandy Bitch both 1156's

I don't think they do with the Sandy Bitch both 1156's

1155 actually :p and yeah they are all the same socket.

The beast is built!

Only problem now is my windows 7 64bit DVD is corrupted.. so having to re download a copy! Bootable USB drive is the way to go i think.

Check that shizzle!

Also, if anyone does get themselves a sandybridge and Asus P8P67 then this OC'ing guide is about the best one i have found; http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overclocking/39184-p67-sandy-bridge-overclocking-guide-beginners.html

Well.. i have had the machine about a week now so thought i would share my initial impressions.

The Asus board has not been without its problems, the machine failed to boot first time with a RAM error but after reseating the RAM and resetting the cmos we had life! There have also been reports of lots of problems with the bios that came loaded. Asus recommend loading the latest beta which was much better but it has been plagued with problems as well. The machine double posts from cold and will not start without removing the power cord.

Asus have adressed this with a brand new bios a few days ago and it would appear to have sorted the issue for most users. The UEFI bios its lovely to use and is a huge improvement on the old blue screen bios. Interestingly this new bios was released so fast that it was posted on forums with a link to mediafire.com rather than the Asus FTP server.

Overclocking is super super easy! There are about 3 settings to change to achieve a 4.5Ghz OC, which is easily achievable on air cooling with a decent heatsink. The corsair A70 i have is maaaahoosive so thanks to speedstep i have an idle temp of around 24c and a full load temp of about 68c. Interestingly someone has managed to OC the sandybridge to 5.7Ghz on just air cooling, so it really is an astonishing cpu.

The HD6850 is decent, but i probably wouldn't buy the XFX card again if i had a choice. The cooler and fan are quite loud when its being stressed. But i am running BOps at 1920 x 1200 at full detail with 4 x AA beautifully.

The case i bought was a bit of a dissapointment. I was expecting a better finish and build quality for the money. The antec and coolermaster cases i have used in the past are in a different league. However, it houses everything nicely and keeps everything running nice and cool.

Just need to order me one of them Sandforce SSD's.. but i fear SWMBO would chop my nuts off if i spent any more!

Ah, i even have a rather boring photo of the finished product!

Good stuff!

Win on the I7 too!

Now to convince myself to dip into my savings and build one similar!

Kev

Good stuff!

Win on the I7 too!

Now to convince myself to dip into my savings and build one similar!

Kev

Yeah the i7 was a stroke of luck, although unless you find a use for the hyperthreading there really is no different between the i7 and £100 less expensive i5!

Lol...

Sandy Bitch Fail

Oh noes!