AJLynn Posted July 5, 2007 Share Posted July 5, 2007 That's pretty hard core. Should work well but I'm not at all sure it would give you any advantage over the cheaper options, since you're not going to get to, let alone over, 400MHz - the limiting factor will be the CPU's capabilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted July 6, 2007 Author Share Posted July 6, 2007 That's pretty hard core. Should work well but I'm not at all sure it would give you any advantage over the cheaper options, since you're not going to get to, let alone over, 400MHz - the limiting factor will be the CPU's capabilities. What if I went with the QX6700 proc? Would that justify the faster more expensive ram? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 No - within the same series, they change the CPU speed by changing the multipler, so they use the same RAM speed. You can still buy the faster RAM if you want, and I think it will work, but you'd need to check on that. Buy the faster stuff if you want to get into really extreme overclocking (where you need much more cooling). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted July 6, 2007 Author Share Posted July 6, 2007 No - within the same series, they change the CPU speed by changing the multipler, so they use the same RAM speed. You can still buy the faster RAM if you want, and I think it will work, but you'd need to check on that. Buy the faster stuff if you want to get into really extreme overclocking (where you need much more cooling). No, I won't be doing any extreme overclocking. I want stability above all else here. Here's the guts of what I'm looking at so far: EVGA nForce 680i mobo - $200 PNY 8800GTX video card - $580 Thermaltake W0106RU 700W power supply - $145 Q6600 proc (maybe the 6700 if the price drops enough on the 22nd) - $480 4 GB Patriot eXtreme DDR2 800 ram - $158 3 WD 250 GB Hard Drives - $204 Arctic Cooling CPU cooler - $35 Here's a link to the details: https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=5470592&WishListTitle=Quad+Core+computer Is the video card overkill? The scenes I work with are in the 2-3 million poly range usually but maybe 1 8800GTS would be good enough still? I'm thinking that I will use one hard drive for the apps and OS and the two others to be mirrored for data. Is this a good idea? Now I'm down to trying to find a good case. Something that will allow me to get plenty of airflow (including intake from the front), has enough room for everything, and has usb and audio from the front. I found this one http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811119068 It's priced nicely and has really nice reviews but is it big enough inside? If anyone could suggest some good quality case fans that would be great too. Thanks for everything so far guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 I actually recently built a computer using a Cooler Master Centurion, and I was not at all impressed with the build quality. Maybe I'm spoiled with my Lian Li, but in comparison the Centurion seems like cheap crap. Though the box it comes in has the slogan "Armed With Honor", which is pretty cool. Anyway, I'd recommend this one even though it's more expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted July 6, 2007 Author Share Posted July 6, 2007 I actually recently built a computer using a Cooler Master Centurion, and I was not at all impressed with the build quality. Maybe I'm spoiled with my Lian Li, but in comparison the Centurion seems like cheap crap. Though the box it comes in has the slogan "Armed With Honor", which is pretty cool. Anyway, I'd recommend this one even though it's more expensive. That looks pretty swell, although I think I would prefer the black version. Is a mid case large enough? For some reason I had it in my mind that I would need a full tower, or an e-atx. Lian Li makes a couple of those that look pretty nice but are $200+ Also, are all the fans removeable? Any suggestions on good quiet case fans? I've had a lot of trouble with ones I've had in the past. Everything else look OK? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted July 6, 2007 Author Share Posted July 6, 2007 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185006 Found these fans. Seem to have really good reviews with one caveat. They are loud at top speed (understandable) Does anyone know if the mobo I'm looking at has fan speed managment? I tried to check it out but couldn't find anything. Also, I have no idea if the power supply I've listed is appropriate or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F J Posted July 7, 2007 Share Posted July 7, 2007 yes, i'd say that graphic card is indeed overkill.. 8800GTS will be more than enough.. actually thats why im gettin' a 8600 series instead.. also the 700W power supply is overkill, a 550W PSU will do just fine, although i've heard that a 700+W PSU will be more economic since it doesnt use all the power thats available, but thats a technicality im not sure of or understand.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted July 7, 2007 Share Posted July 7, 2007 Power supplies: a lot have efficiency ratings, they have some models that are meant to be efficient and can be 5-10% more efficient than normal ones, and some are quieter than others. Depends on your priorities. As for the case, it's got 4 external 5.25" bays, 2 3.5" and 5 internal 3.5" for hard drives so it's more than I've ever needed but if you have a lot of drives or want more air space go for a tower. The internal hard drive mount is 5 drives set up like a masonry rowlock course with the front fan blowing through so you get the best airflow with 2 or 3 hard drives with air space between. EATX isn't necessary - the MB in your list is regular ATX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viper04 Posted July 7, 2007 Share Posted July 7, 2007 Hey. The computer you get is based off what you can afford. I have built computers for as low as $600 and as high as $3000. You can build a computer for $10,000 if you have the money. I'd recommend EVGA 680i SLI MOB. Intel Quad Core Q6600, 4 GIGS name brand RAM, nVidia Quadro 4600, a Large case ie Thermaltake Armour, WD 150GIG Raptor drives in RAID 1 (or the new WD 750GIG drives that now out perform the Raptors). 3GIG RAM is the limit for 32bit (4 gig would work but u'll never use the other 1 gig) 64bit the sky is the limit, well almost. And go with a large 24 or 30"/dual 30" monitors. YOu will work faster and more efficient. Thats my 2 cents. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted July 25, 2007 Author Share Posted July 25, 2007 Thanks for all the help guys, I am so close to pulling the trigger on this: Antec P180B case (this I already ordered) Q6600 processor Asus Striker Extreme nForce 680i mobo 4GB Kingston DDR2 memory 8800 GTS 640MB video card Western Digital 150GB Serial ATA/150 10,000rpm Hard Drive with 16MB Cache Lite-On 20x DVD±RW Dual Layer SATA Drive Lightscribe Black Thermaltake Toughpower 650WPower Supply Sony 1.44MB Floppy Drive Bytecc U2CR-418/HUB : 42-in-1 Internal Flash Media Reader XP Professional Edition 64Bit 2 YR local parts and labor warranty I do plan on overclocking this some. Grand total including the case I bought is right at $2300. Am I good? Now for a new twist. All this sounded really great untill I saw this thread: http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/24781-quad-core-software-issues.html a quad core machine for $750! and that is prior to the intel price drop which my spec does include. Naturally I would need to add an extra 2 gigs of ram and pony up for a better video card and figure something out to get XP 64 but even if I were to add that to the $750 is only comes out to less than $1500 and I've got an OK video card and a version of vista that I could sell. I can't tell what mobo is being used on the one in the link and I really like the idea of having local support, so I guess I'm still leaning toward going with what I have speced at the top here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted July 25, 2007 Author Share Posted July 25, 2007 Other question now. The hard drive I have is pretty fast already but I'm considering going with two of them in Raid-1 as someone suggested for even more speed. I don't think I need the room but it wouldn't hurt and if there were a significant improvement I'd go ahead and do it? What do we all think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tecton3d Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 brian, you're thinking of RAID 0 (zero) for striped disks for speed. From Wiki: "# RAID 0: Striped Set (2 disks minimum) without parity. Provides improved performance and additional storage but no fault tolerance from disk errors or disk failure. Any disk failure destroys the array, which becomes more likely with more disks in the array. The reason a single disk failure destroys the entire array is because when data is written to a RAID 0 drive, the data is broken into "fragments". The number of fragments is dictated by the number of disks in the drive. Each of these fragments are written to their respective disks simultaneously on the same sector. This allows smaller sections of the entire chunk of data to be read off the drive in parallel, giving this type of arrangement huge bandwidth. When one sector on one of the disks fails, however, the corresponding sector on every other disk is rendered useless because part of the data is now corrupted. RAID 0 does not implement error checking so any error is unrecoverable. More disks in the drive means higher bandwidth, but greater risk of data loss. # RAID 1: Mirrored Set (2 disks minimum) without parity. Provides fault tolerance from disk errors and single disk failure. Increased read performance occurs when using a multi-threaded operating system that supports split seeks, very small performance reduction when writing. Array continues to operate so long as at least one drive is functioning." basically, RAID0 will make all HD functions faster though not twice as fast but the difference could be noticeable (and worth it) if/when working with large files. However, like mentioned above - if either of the two disks fails which is twice as likely since there are indeed two instead of one, you loose the all the data on each disk which means you're left with an empty bucket. If you're looking at speed and want added security and a little better performance RAID5 could be an option, ... if you want the best of both worlds.. go for a RAID 0+1 with 4 identical drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted July 25, 2007 Author Share Posted July 25, 2007 I meant raid0 my bad. I don't think I can afford to go 0+1, although that would be ideal ineed. How about the rest of my specs and those specs vs. the deal at compUSA for $750? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tecton3d Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 your parts look pretty good... with that mobo, I don't know much about it specifically but at that price point for a gaming board, you'll have a lot of room to OC so make sure you find good sticks of ram that "play well" with that mobo and cpu. A good place to start researching such a thing is overclockers.com ... there is much info about all the parts and the guys there can recommend what's up to date more than what I could. I'd forget about the 150gb Raptor drive... even though i've got on as my OS drive... it's just not worth it. Case in point, I'm working on my m.arch thesis book and my Illustrator file atm is 640mb's. I saved the file to 1) the 150gb - 10k raptor and my 2) 250gb 7.2k storage drive with no difference in saving time. I'll admit that the machine boots fast but i paid over $230 for a single 150gb drive which considering the cheapness of drives now, can fetch 2 - 500gb drives for your RAID0 which would defnitely be faster than a single 10k raptor and much more capacity. PSU - i've always heard that Seasonic and PC Power & Cooling is about the best around. Knowing you'll be running high end hardware that's overclocked, you're going to want the most stable power you can get (no surges from cheap psu's please) to make sure you get the most oc for your $. good choice on the case... lesser folks would say it's loud but i would buy either the p180 or the Antec Nine Hundred with loads of fans to keep those expensive components cool. all in all... loose the 150gb raptor and get one (or two) bigger-fatter-and "as fast" HD's, Pick up a PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad, find a RAM that's PROVEN to play well with your chosen mobo and you're off to the races! As for the COmpUSA system... that's friggin dirt cheap (just bookmarked it)! If what you're building is your primary workstation, i'd not even consider it since it's only available at that price because of the the cheaper innerds (a la Dell) ... i must admit - it would make for a killer rendernode though. See if you could reduce the hd size, vid card (it's got onboard anyway), reduce to a cd drive... etc for a killer ghz/$$ machine hope this helps ______________________________________________________ edit: also add an aftermarket CPU heatsink (maybe a fan too) the mix as the stocker will not get the heat away from the processor fast enough and will limit your OC. You'll find this info at the overclockers forum i mentioned above but the Zalmans are generally held in high regard editII: just make sure said heatsink fits into your p180! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F J Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 hey Brian, looking at ur list there, i see ur harddrive is SATA "v1" (150MB/s).. make sure u get a SATA "v2" (300MB/s) which is twice as fast n also u wouldnt have to setup a raid config since its barely noticeable if u use SATA2.. as for the Q6600 watch out for the Stepping! during these couple weeks every store will try to "dump" a Stepping B3 on u so that they can "drain" the "old" Q6600 stock.. some stores just got the new Stepping G0 which fixed several CPU issues.. probly the most relevant issue is the heat which now will operate @ 95W (instead of the previous 105W), which is even better if u'r thinking of overclocking it.. so make sure what Stepping u'r getting.. http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/230/g0gn1.jpg cheers Editing: BTW, u can also double-check the CPU's box for the reference "*SLACR".. that means its Stepping G0.. http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e288/iamtiramisu/DSC00009.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted July 25, 2007 Author Share Posted July 25, 2007 hey Brian, looking at ur list there, i see ur harddrive is SATA "v1" (150MB/s).. make sure u get a SATA "v2" (300MB/s) which is twice as fast n also u wouldnt have to setup a raid config since its barely noticeable if u use SATA2.. as for the Q6600 watch out for the Stepping! during these couple weeks every store will try to "dump" a Stepping B3 on u so that they can "drain" the "old" Q6600 stock.. some stores just got the new Stepping G0 which fixed several CPU issues.. probly the most relevant issue is the heat which now will operate @ 95W (instead of the previous 105W), which is even better if u'r thinking of overclocking it.. so make sure what Stepping u'r getting.. http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/230/g0gn1.jpg cheers Editing: BTW, u can also double-check the CPU's box for the reference "*SLACR".. that means its Stepping G0.. http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e288/iamtiramisu/DSC00009.jpg Thanks! I've read some about this stepping and how to try and make sure I get one with the niew "GO" stepping but this cleared it up perfectly for me. Awesome! I think I'll stick with the single raptor drive and I will indeed make sure it's SATA2. I'm on the overclockers forum now and consensus seems to be that a P5K mobo is much better in terms of stability if not going SLI so I may switch over to that one. I'll update in a little while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted July 25, 2007 Author Share Posted July 25, 2007 Hmmm... I just checked on newegg and it doesn't appear that a sata2 version of the 10,000 rpm drive exists. Maybe I'm an idiot, but can someone prove me wrong? edit: Just checked WD's site and confirmed that I am not an idiot... at least not becuase of this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted July 25, 2007 Author Share Posted July 25, 2007 Sorry for the triple post but after some research on overclockers here's what I just asked the building to give me a bid for: - Asus P5K deluxe Mother Board - Q6600 (with the new “GO” stepping) - WD raptor drive (not raptor X) - Crucial Ballistix 2GB DDR2 800 (I’m told this works very well with the P5K deluxe mother board) (2 of these for a total of 4GB of ram) - 8800 GTS 640mb - Corsair 620HX power supply (I’ve read ridiculously good reviews about this) - Floppy drive - All in one card reader - Lite-on 20x DVD drive w lightscribe - Xp 64 pro - Antec P180B case... which is sitting next to me empty right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pipjor Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 Brian, I've been following this thread, i almost mirrored your setup and ordered my parts. My buget was around $1500 so i went with Quadro Fx 560 video card. Also I was uncertain about XP 64 so went with XP Home.. didn't get a floppy, or card reader.. all my stuff should be here by friday,(I've already recieved the video card)... I've never built a PC before but i'll give it a try probally monday, i'll let you know how it all turns out.. good luck to you also... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F J Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 Hmmm... I just checked on newegg and it doesn't appear that a sata2 version of the 10,000 rpm drive exists. Maybe I'm an idiot, but can someone prove me wrong? edit: Just checked WD's site and confirmed that I am not an idiot... at least not becuase of this. heh, my bad.. i guess i underestimated the Raptor.. looks like in fact the is no SATA2 version of the 10kRPM Raptor, because, as it turns out, it does not need it.. going thru the manufacturer's specs they point out some other new technologies to its advantage.. www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/12/cheap_raid_ravages_wd_raptor/ "Clearly, SATA interface speed should not have an influence on your purchasing decision." (--says the expert on PAGE 3 of 11).. if u page forward to the benchmark graphics u'll see that ur chosen HD is in fact the performance king.. again, sorry 'bout that :X from personal experience i thought the SATA version mattered big time cuz for some time now i've had a SATA1 n recently acquired a SATA2 which i used to transfer a whole DVD image.. the transfer speed was crazy! noticeably twice as fast.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted July 26, 2007 Author Share Posted July 26, 2007 I think I'm set. I going to pull the trigger on the system with the P5K board. I'm also going to add an after market heatsink and fan... either the Ultra120 or the Tuniq Tower. The whole thing including 2 years support and warranty comes out to $2100. Thanks for all the help everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted July 26, 2007 Author Share Posted July 26, 2007 Brian, I've been following this thread, i almost mirrored your setup and ordered my parts. My buget was around $1500 so i went with Quadro Fx 560 video card. Also I was uncertain about XP 64 so went with XP Home.. didn't get a floppy, or card reader.. all my stuff should be here by friday,(I've already recieved the video card)... I've never built a PC before but i'll give it a try probally monday, i'll let you know how it all turns out.. good luck to you also... Please do let us know how it turns out for you. The next machine I get I will probably try to build myself. In fact I may practice doing one with some cheap parts and build a computer for the kids, I've never done so before so if it doesn't burn the house down, I'll be happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tecton3d Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 sorry if i missed it earlier in the thread but where are you purchasing from with those components that provides the warranty/support? and congrats on your new rig! proust! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 Let us know how you like those parts, especially the P5K and the CPU cooler - I'll be building myself one of these pretty soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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