Have some specific questins on a new system.

[pablo scapi]

Hello:

Firts off all, excuse my english, i´m from Spain.

 

I´m going to build a new worktation, these are the components i choose, and would like to ask you if you see something wrong or not the best choice for the same money, this prices are w/o taxes. Keep in mind i want to work with Acad and Max.

 

MB : ASUS P5W64 = 205,5€

I always liked Asus, i asume this can be overlocked right?

 

CPU : Core 2 DUO E6600 = 255 €

 

RAM : 4 x 1GB Kingston DDR2-667 = 225 €

Is it worth it the ECC memory??

 

VCard: Quadro FX 1500 256 MB or 8800gt = +- 325€

I have no idea with is best for Max, always thought the Quadro where better, but recantly read that the 8800 will be the best choice ???

 

HDD : 1x 80 GB

2x 320 GB (raid 0) = 190 €

 

Monitor: Benq FP91GP = 235 €

 

Case : Aopen KH700BP = 105 €

 

This would be a total of 1540€ aprox.

 

So the question woul be, ¿Is there something you would change?

 

BTW, i read that is better to install XP64 than Vista, Is this true, why? and is true that with these windows the memory problems for rendering with Vray are gone? no more need to do the 3GB switch???

 

Thank you for your time.

[AJLynn]

XP64 is better than Vista. At least, for the forseeable future. Vista uses much more system overhead and will make high-CPU tasks run a bit slower, and does not support OpenGL hardware.

 

A Geforce 8800 is probably going to be faster than a Quadro 1500.

 

For overclocking, what you wnat is faster RAM than you would otherwise need. ECC is not necessary or even very beneficial, but I'd invest a bit more and get DDR2-800.

 

Asus P5W boards overclock well. So does the P5B Deluxe. I don't know much about P5W64... if it's a 975 board that's been getting good BIOS updates, it will be good.

[pablo scapi]

Thank you.

 

The problem is that the MB i said before, doesn´t suport more than DDR2 -667, so i´m looking for a MB that suports 800, will check the P5W as you said.

[AJLynn]

There's a P5W that does... the P5WDsomething I think. Also the P5B Deluxe does. It's very difficult to get any of these to actually run at 800MHz though - what you do is crank up the RAM speed in the BIOS in order to overclock it, and the CPU with it (since CPU speed is equal to RAM speed multiplied by a set number - I think that it's 9 for the E6600. For my E6400 it's 8. So you crank up the RAM speed to, say, 350, which I've used on my MSI 975X, and get a CPU speed of 2800 in my example. Multiply the RAM speed by 2 to get the RAM's advertised speed, so I'd be running it as DDR2-700, which would be out of spec for 667 RAM but comfortably under spec for 800 RAM.

[Macpod]

Get a good 650W powersupply or you'll fry your board. I see it happen to people ALL the time. dont be cheap, get a silverstone, they are quiet beyond belief and my HDD runs cooler with it for some reason.

 

Aopen is not the best cases around and certainly dont use the powersupply that comes with the case! You'll be lucky to get a 430W PSU with the case.

 

that 8800 will definately benefit from a 650W. Infact i dunno if its necessary to go 750W since you are overclocking.

 

GET PREMIUM POWER SUPPLY.

[AJLynn]

750 would be overkill. The important stat here would be amps at +12V. But don't spend more on the power supply than the CPU

 

Mine is actually running on a 480W PSU with a converter for the 24-pin MB plug. E6400 OC'ed to 2.8, 4 HDD's, 2 DVDs, 5 case fans, but the video card is a FireGL v5100, which uses less power than a new Geforce.

[manta]

I know, come on guys that's crazy...I just built a new computer that has a 250 watt PS, its one of those xpc's from shuttle, it has an AMD X2 3800, 2 gigs of ram, a 300 gig hard drive, and a Geforce card 6xxx something or other, oh and a dvd RW drive, I've been trying to stress it out, but it runs like a new BMW, and its soooo tiny...

[AJLynn]

My computer is bigger than your computer.

[jsk]

Hi,

I too use asus for a longtime since im in the media field. They are really good.

But why don't you consider higher end asus MB with AMD duo? I think this would make you proud. Try this combination.

1) Asus MB K8 Deluxe series

2) AMD Duo series Processors

3) Transcend DDR2 Memories (1Ghz) - 4 No.s

4) Accelator card Nivida Geforce 6200 - 256MB RAM

5) Seagate 160GB SATA HDD

6) LG DVD writer 18X

7) Zebronics Cabinet (5 fans)

8) Logitech Keyboard & mouse kit

9) LG/Samsung 17" LCD monitor

[pablo scapi]

Thank you all for the tips.

 

Macpod: 650 or 750 Watt PS !!!!! isn´t that too much, i thougth that 450 Watt or 500 Watt would be more than enough. Arn´t the core 2 Duo suposed to be very power eficient?

 

AJLynn: I´m choosing the ASUS P5W DH deluxe now, it suports 800 Mhz which i´m going to need to overlocking, thanks for that info.

 

jsk: I think your sugestion is for a much slower PC, i´m looking for more power than that. btw, i think now at days AMD are out of the quiestion, at least until they show something that can beat the power of the Core 2 DUO chips, im i wrong?

 

So, couple of questions again.

 

If you think thats not a good case, which one you recomend?

About the Monitor, i am a litle afraid of buing a Benq, but the specs are really good, contrast 1000:1, 4ms, etc. Do you think are better choices for that money?

 

Thanks again

[spanish pants]

Que tal Pablo,

 

I´m in the same boat as you. I need a new system as soon as possible (my old dell is on its last breath and as slow as the bad guys horse) Where are you buying/pricing your parts from?

If i had been in canada i would have known where to go but here in Spain i have no idea where the best place with competitive prices is.

[pablo scapi]

Hello again.

 

spanish pants:

 

Those prices i put are cheaper than the ones you would probably find in stores, those are "majoryst" prices ("mayoristas" esa palabra en ingles creo que me la inventé).

But the parts i coudn´t find with my brother, i bought here; http://www.alternate.es is an internet store, the prices are pretty ok, and for my experience, they are very serius.

 

BTW, i´m whaiting for the MoBo to finally mount the pc, the final specs are:

 

MoBo: ASUS P5W DH deluxe

CPU: Core 2 DUO E6600 (cooler: zalman CNPS 9500, thinking in overclocking)

Ram: 4Gb DDR2 4,4,12 - 800mhz (this one didn´t knew was better to buy a corsair)

Gcard: ASUS 8800 GTS

HDD: 1x 160Gb

2x 320Gb (RAID 0)

CASE:Chieftec Meshseries (better than i expected)

PS: Seasonic 600W (i hope this is enought, it has very good reviews)

 

My better actual Pc is a P4 3,4 Ghz with 2 Gb ram, and ati 1500, so i espect to feel the diference, in render time as much as in managing my scene in MAX and ACAD.

 

Cheers, and thanks to all for the input.

[spanish pants]

Thanks for the help Pablo. I pick up my new machine on tuesday. Can´t wait