New PC I'm considering

[SandmanNinja]

Hello...

 

I'm considering this system as my new computer.

I anticipate getting a new system in about 2 weeks, and have been shopping about.

 

http://www.megapc.com.au/product_details_and_order.php?select_part_indx=7818

 

And it's reviewed quite favourably here:

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/taxid;2136212625;pid;4476;pt;1

 

My concern: Do you think it would handle the heat of sustained full-power rendering for hours at a time?

 

Thanking you...

 

• This system consists of: Intel Q6600 QUAD CORE Processor overclocked from 2.4GHz to 3GHz at no extra charge and tested for stability.
  
• 4 Gigabytes of 800MHz DDR2 Memory with Lifetime manufacturer's warranty
  
• Intel P35 Chipset motherboard with 1333MHz FSB, Dual DDR2-800, Dual PCI Express x16, SATA II RAID, Giga LAN, 8Ch, ATX
  
• nVidia 8800GTS New Version faster than the 8800GTX 512 Megabyte DirectX 10 Graphics Card with dual DVI
  
• 560w Silverstone Powersupply
  
• 500GB SATAII Hard Drive
  
• SATA Dual Layer DVD Burner
  
• iCute Case with Massive Silent Side Fan with Blue LEDs New Stronger Case!
  
• Windows VISTA Home Premium Edition installed with all drivers ready for use
  
• 2 Year Return to Base Warranty

[malevy]

Thats pretty much the same system i bought last week but mine is a dell.. i would ditch the vista though it is no good for 3ds max, i installed XP 64bit and its super fast.

 

Hello...

 

I'm considering this system as my new computer.

I anticipate getting a new system in about 2 weeks, and have been shopping about.

 

http://www.megapc.com.au/product_details_and_order.php?select_part_indx=7818

 

And it's reviewed quite favourably here:

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/taxid;2136212625;pid;4476;pt;1

 

My concern: Do you think it would handle the heat of sustained full-power rendering for hours at a time?

 

Thanking you...

• This system consists of: Intel Q6600 QUAD CORE Processor overclocked from 2.4GHz to 3GHz at no extra charge and tested for stability.
  
• 4 Gigabytes of 800MHz DDR2 Memory with Lifetime manufacturer's warranty
  
• Intel P35 Chipset motherboard with 1333MHz FSB, Dual DDR2-800, Dual PCI Express x16, SATA II RAID, Giga LAN, 8Ch, ATX
  
• nVidia 8800GTS New Version faster than the 8800GTX 512 Megabyte DirectX 10 Graphics Card with dual DVI
  
• 560w Silverstone Powersupply
  
• 500GB SATAII Hard Drive
  
• SATA Dual Layer DVD Burner
  
• iCute Case with Massive Silent Side Fan with Blue LEDs New Stronger Case!
  
• Windows VISTA Home Premium Edition installed with all drivers ready for use
  
• 2 Year Return to Base Warranty

[SandmanNinja]

Thanks for the reply, Marc.

 

It's in my price neighbourhood (~$2000), had a favourable review in a hardware magazine, and they even rectified the one negative comment that was made in the review (the case - they made it stronger) and dropped the price by $200.

 

I was a bit worried about the heat, but it has a HUGE fan on the side of the case. Plus, 2 year warranty.

 

I'm pretty sold.

 

Yeah, stock is Vista, but I'm putting XP64 on it.

 

Thanks again.

 

-Joel

 

PS: Anyone else have any words of wisdom or warning before I drop the money on it?

[AJLynn]

"iCute"? I'm going to need to see pictures. (Also, I could be wrong, but I don't believe the part about the new 8800GTS that's faster than a GTX)

[SandmanNinja]

Here are some decent sized photos of the case, fan and internals.

 

I think you're right about the GTX and the GTS - here are some comparisons:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/132

 

And this one compares these 2 video cards directly:

http://xtreview.com/review159.htm

 

I've attached a graph showing benchmark results of a few video cards.

 

Bri - thanks for the reply.

What's interesting is that they 'guarantee' the system will be stable at 3.0 GHz. I noticed that it's not "pushed" to 3.2 or 3.4 GHz (like some systems).

I figure I'll tell them that I intend to run it at full power for 24-48 hours at a time, and if they are worried that it will void the warranty or cause undue stress, to please tell me now.

[AJLynn]

I run stuff like that on OC'ed boxes, ad it's fine. You do need very good cooling.

 

BTW that case doesn't really say "iCute" to me. Can you get it in pink?

[SandmanNinja]

hehe

 

Well, I didn't make the name up, but the company has been in business for quite a while, not too far from me, and it seems okay.

 

Good to know OC'ing is acceptable.

 

I've shot them a pre-sales inquiry, asking about the prolonged render times and swapping xp64 for the vista.

 

Thanks again guy...

[Slinger]

Hello...

 

I'm considering this system as my new computer.

I anticipate getting a new system in about 2 weeks, and have been shopping about.

 

http://www.megapc.com.au/product_details_and_order.php?select_part_indx=7818

 

And it's reviewed quite favourably here:

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/taxid;2136212625;pid;4476;pt;1

 

My concern: Do you think it would handle the heat of sustained full-power rendering for hours at a time?

 

Thanking you...

• This system consists of: Intel Q6600 QUAD CORE Processor overclocked from 2.4GHz to 3GHz at no extra charge and tested for stability.
  
• 4 Gigabytes of 800MHz DDR2 Memory with Lifetime manufacturer's warranty
  
• Intel P35 Chipset motherboard with 1333MHz FSB, Dual DDR2-800, Dual PCI Express x16, SATA II RAID, Giga LAN, 8Ch, ATX
  
• nVidia 8800GTS New Version faster than the 8800GTX 512 Megabyte DirectX 10 Graphics Card with dual DVI
  
• 560w Silverstone Powersupply
  
• 500GB SATAII Hard Drive
  
• SATA Dual Layer DVD Burner
  
• iCute Case with Massive Silent Side Fan with Blue LEDs New Stronger Case!
  
• Windows VISTA Home Premium Edition installed with all drivers ready for use
  
• 2 Year Return to Base Warranty

Is that price in pounds or american dollars? If it is american dollars, I could build that same system for about $1200 or less

 

-The Q6600 can be had for $199 at http://www.microcenter.com

-the 8800gts512 can be had at newegg for $208 after rebate right now(eVGA model)

-You can get really good ram 4 gigs of it for less then $100

-hdd- $50-80 if you look for deals

-dvd drive- $35 from newegg

-good mobo--p35 chipset $50-$200( I just got a abit IP-35 e for $30 shipped from buy.com last week)

PSU-good deals everywhere--let's say $150 for high quality

 

Thats $833 with top prices and no OS or case, which you can get a case for cheap. I would shop around. The only good thing for the company you chose is there is a warranty but most companies offer warranties on parts and if something goes bad, you can always RMA.

I would shop around some more and save you some money.

[SandmanNinja]

It's in Aussie dollars - and admittedly, there isn't that much of a difference between the two currencies...

 

I've shopped parts and everything seems to always come in around $2000 or a touch more.

 

I prefer someplace local (i.e. Melbourne), where I can actually go to in case something goes 'wrong'.

[Slinger]

Thats understandable.

[SandmanNinja]

UPDATE:

I sent a question to the company and actually got a reply first thing this morning. Gives me a bit of confidence in them. They said they'd build it and then stress-test it for 3 days solid before selling it to me. While testing it, they'd monitor the temperature. If it got too hot, they'd suggest a different/heftier cooling system. No problems switching Vista to WinXP64 either.

 

So, anyone in Aussie take note - this company seems to be on the ball.

[AlekseyR]

Hey dude, i live in aussie too and that is overkill, unless your getting like a 24" lcd with it.

 

I got the same thing but with a 8600gt for under a 1000, like 950 or something. Yeah i built it myself, but i'm sure if you find an asian pc shop they'll build it for you for an extra 100-200 bucks.

 

Also most def switch to xp, that's a no brainer.

[SandmanNinja]

Okay - I ended up going to another, local dealer and got the whole thing for $1800:

Quad Core Q6600

8 gigs Corsair ram

1000 gig HD (in RAID0 configuration)

nVidia GeForce 8800 GT with 1 gig of RAM

WinXP64

 

Picked it up yesterday and am configuring it and backing it up now.

 

The shop put a game on it (think it came with the video card) and I'm thinking, "I told them it was only for work". I (naturally) clicked on it and... IT'S SO FAST!!

 

Very happy with it.

 

Had to switch anti-virus protection (Avast! makes a 64-bit version) and everything is humming along smoothly. The built-in firewall / internet security of WinXP64 even recognises Avast! and whether it's out of date or not.

 

As soon as I Ghost it and make the recovery disc, I'll start installing apps.... (and maybe a game)

 

So far, it looks just like the XP Pro that I'm use to - only heaps quicker.

[AJLynn]

I'm using Avast at home for the 64-bit-ness and also installed it on both my parents' PCs to replace previous Norton versions. Going from Norton to Avast on those PCs, which were a couple years old and not very good, Celerons with 256mb RAM, the difference was astounding - Norton had been hogging so many system resources, they got a lot faster with Avast, probably extended their usefulness by a year.

[Tim Saunders]

I just got nearly the same system from Dell just the other day. I just got it as a node to render seperately, so I just send rendering jobs to it.

 

It sucks! I'm extremely disapointed in the rendering speed. I don't know squat about hardware, which is why I made a bad choice in the first place.

 

All I know is, my regular workstation is 2 years old which runs with 2-dual opteron 2200 and 4gb of ram on windows 32-bit runs curcles around this new machine which is the same as listed above, but we upgraded to 8gb of ram. the thing is a snail.

 

I'm not sure what I did wrong. I think I just didn't read enough. I was expecting the Core 2 QUAD to be "dual quad core". It turns out it's just 2 cores of dual processors. I'll be checking with Dell, but I hope I can add another quad to it--but I'm guessing I'm screwed. Because I am sorely dissapointed in how slow it renders compared to my opties.

[AJLynn]

Huh and huh?

 

-A Core 2 Quad is quad core. If you want 8 cores you need dual-quad Xeons.

-I've got a Q6600 running XP64 and it's very fast. I haven't done side-by-side comparisons but in Cinebench scores you can look up on the net, my Q6600 was beating any AMD configuration with 4 cores, before I overclocked. And this is a $200 CPU that's got the total power of maybe 20GHz worth of P4.

 

There must be something misconfigured on your system. Could you run Cinebench 10 on it and post the results?

[Tim Saunders]

You got it right, I was hoping for 8 cpus. My unlearned mind took Core 2 Quad to mean 2 x 4. Duh.

 

Anyway, I would love to run a Cinebench 10 if I knew what that was.

 

I would be happy to get it at least as fast as my dual-dual opterons.

[AJLynn]

Just Google for Cinebench, and use it in 32 and 64 bit modes on your Intel and 32 bit on your AMDs to get the single and multi CPU render scores and the multiprocessor speedup. That will help you tell if it's the CPU itself that underperforms where you think it should be or if Dell screwed up something.

[Tim Saunders]

HAH! I failed to mention I use Max 2008.

[AJLynn]

Oh, right, sorry, I forgot that Max uses the CPU and Cinema doesn't