ok guys i just did it, i get the i7 960, im trying to see what motherboard is the best, personally i have two in mind:

asus
asrock

my last motherboard was a zotac, wich i dont know if there are good models


my friends told me about getting some water cooling system, i dont know if this is really necesary in my situation, they told me that because "that fcking cpu will make a fire in your room"

i was thinking to get at least 3 big fan coolers, one in each side and one in the roof of the case...

so 3 big fan coolers may need a lot of electric power, dont they??

what to do?
wich motherboard?
wich cooling system?

please help


sorry for bad english

For a high quality MB I'd consider Abit, Asus, DFI and perhaps MSI. It's mostly down to an exact model, even Asus produces cheap lowend crap. Unless you want to seriously overclock the CPU, you don't really need a super high-end MB.
Same goes for the cooling, unless it's constantly very hot in your room or you plan to do some serious OCing, you'll be fine even with the stock cooler. I can get my i950 over 3.5 GHz with Thermaltake Frío which is slightly above average air cooler.

Asus motherboards are the best IMO. And lol'd at what your friends said. You don't need water cooling. You don't need 3 big fans and the fans don't need lots of power.

Didn't you get the stock intel cooler with the cpu?

well, I live on a caribbean country, here the average temp is about 25 C° to 35°C now in summer...

Im not interested in overclocking but im expecting to get a nice PC that last at least 5 years without changing hardware due to software requirements (except for RAM upgrading and maybe a xeon processor in the next 5 years just if i need a new cpu)

So, I want to get a good video card (from 200 to 300 us$) and all that will do some serious heat, or not?

Im really serious with my pc this time, i dont want to fail lol because i failed last time with my cpu (stupid intel e2200)

I've had temps around 35 °C here in July and the only thing that had some overheating problems was my OCed graphics card with stock cooling. You don't have to worry about that, stock cooling is designed to work just fine under normal conditions. Get a large enough case to ensure there'll be adequate airflow and you'll be fine. You should concentrate more on getting a decent MB, cheap models might develop all sorts of weird problems after some time.

Quote from MadCatX :

For a high quality MB I'd consider Abit, Asus, DFI and perhaps MSI. It's mostly down to an exact model, even Asus produces cheap lowend crap. Unless you want to seriously overclock the CPU, you don't really need a super high-end MB.
Same goes for the cooling, unless it's constantly very hot in your room or you plan to do some serious OCing, you'll be fine even with the stock cooler. I can get my i950 over 3.5 GHz with Thermaltake Frío which is slightly above average air cooler.

You forgot EVGA as one of the top mobo's



Tho if overclocking aint a priority i'd go with a ASUS or Gigabyte tbh..

Very-high airflow fans can indeed use quite some power (Scythe's 133 CFM 120mm one, for example, draws 0.6A, which at 12V results in 7.2 watts per fan, and 22W for 3 fans), but 'mainstream' fans usually don't, so unless you get uberfast fans, you should be fine.

What case is all this going into?
Noctua coolers are very good if your worried about cpu cooling but they are very big and heavy.

As for motherboards EVGA or DFI in the high end but gigabyte if your on a budget, asus customer support suck but thats just personal experience.

BTW MadCatX, Abit went out of business a long time ago

my i7 920 runs fine on the stock cooler... and north america had some sort of heat wave a couple weeks ago, it was 40C out, with a humidex of 50C...

so, is better to have a big case and big fan coolers to get a good cooling on the video card? Im pretty worried about it, i still dont have a video card in mind but im pretty sure it will be a nvidia in the range of 300 us$

I usually use 3 hard disc drives and i need 3 because i use massive storage for video testing and stuff, besides my files that are a bunch

will a 900w powersupply takes all that?

Most likely 900W is more than enough unless your GFX card zaps lots of power then you'd need more than that. Personally I think 750W is enough but 900W will take a lot of strain from it and hence less heat. Also remember, if you have a big case and fans, it'll bring more dirt into the system. Maintainance is still important.

DECENT 900W power supply will run any GPU (even dual-GPU GTX 590 / HD 6990, but those are far out of your $300 budget - that'd be more like GTX 570), but if your PSU is some noname $40 one you got with a case - I have bad news for you :P

I have a Corsair TX750 that powers an OCed i950 and GTX470, two 82 mm fans and stuff and doesn't seem to have any problems with it. Seriously, I don't see what would you need a 900W PSU for. Stay away from cheap PSUs that come with cases, they deliver the amps on wrong lines and will probably age very quickly and might even blow up eventually, toasting your MB, CPU or GPU.

Quote from MadCatX :

Seriously, I don't see what would you need a 900W PSU for.

i concur. i bought a pair of 650W kingwin power supplies not knowing my true usage, now that i have a UPS with a usage display, i know that my i7 uses 100W at idle. and that's with 4 hard drives. my prescott uses more than that, and it also has 4 hard drives.

would you say a UPS is a good investment?

hey guys im getting it but if you put some brand names or links where to buy i would appreciate it a lot

Quote from bunder9999 :

i concur. i bought a pair of 650W kingwin power supplies not knowing my true usage, now that i have a UPS with a usage display, i know that my i7 uses 100W at idle. and that's with 4 hard drives. my prescott uses more than that, and it also has 4 hard drives.

so 700w is more than sufficient

im sorry guys, i actually have a 350W Powersupply and it left me some drama in my mind

Technically speaking, the overall wattage tells you nothing about the PSU's ability to give enough juice to all components. A branded (Corsair, Enermax, Chieftec, Tagan, Seasonic) 700W PSU will most likely suffice, there are tools on the web like Outervision PSU Calculator that can tell you how much amps you need on 3.3V, 5V and 12V rails

Quote from dadge :

would you say a UPS is a good investment?

it depends on how your input voltage is, as well as caring whether the machine goes offline if the power goes out.

Quote from MadCatX :

Outervision PSU Calculator

for comparison, it says i should have a 300W power supply for my i7.

Hello there, may I suggest that you get the second generation of i7 processors. Probably an i7 2700k which already sports the new sandy bridge technology.

It would be better to get the one with the new lag 1155 socket which offers a better boost as compared to its earlier predecessors.

Then choose an asus h67 motherboard. It looks cool with the shiny blue finish to most of its components.