Here is a parts list for a new system I was thinking about building, just wondering what everyone thinks, and what i should change...
WD VelociRaptor 300GB Hard Drive WD3000HLFS - 10K RPM, 16MB Cache, SATA 300MB/s
Corsair CMPSU-1000HX 1000-Watt Power Supply - ATX, 140mm Fan, SATA-Ready, SLI Ready
Intel Core i7 920 Processor BX80601920 - 2.66GHz, 8MB L3 Cache, 4.8GT/s QPI, HyperThreading, Quad-Core, Bloomfield, LGA 1366, Retail, Processor with Fan
MSI Eclipse SLI Motherboard - Intel X58, LGA 1366, ATX, Audio, PCI Express 2.0, CrossFire Ready, SLI Ready, Dual Gigabit LAN, S/PDIF, Firewire, USB 2.0, HyperThreading
Diamond Radeon HD 4870 X2 XOC Overclocked Video Card - 2GB GDDR5, PCI Express 2.0 x16, CrossFireX Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV
Corsair Core i7 Dominator 6GB PC12800 DDR3 RAM - Tri Channel, 1600MHz, 6144MB (3 x 2048MB), DHX
NZXT Tempest ATX Mid-Tower Case - Clear Sides, Front USB, eSATA Ports)
New System Need advice
Life's too short to drink cheap beer.
Re: New System Need advice
Honestly, although I have a raptor HDD for my main drive, I wouldnt bother. Most the HDD comparison benchmarks ive seen, some of the standard drives are doing just as well, and in some cases out performing the raptor for half the price. Just not value for money. You are much better having two drives, one for windows, and one for games. You'll get better performance than running off a single drive and you'll save money over buying a raptor.
Definitely need the PSU, and always good to buy a good brand, saves you frying stuff through incorrect voltage or not having enough peak output.
Core i7 is the way to go. Not worth getting the faster models because they jump in price too much. Even the basic model can be overclocked very well on the standard cooler.
Motherboards for the i7 are expensive. Personally, while i've owned quite a few brands, these days I only buy Asus boards, sure you pay a premium, but unlike other makes i've owned, all my asus boards are still running, even my old slot 1 boards. Not had a good run with gigabyte or msi personally, at least not long term, and i prefer to keep my old stuff, so i can use elsewhere once I upgrade.
If you go with 6 gig of ram, be prepared to need a 64bit version of windows, and keep in mind that they wont install unsigned drivers, so you maybe limited with older hardware (dialup modems, scanners, printers, joysticks etc), if you have any. I wish they'd hurry with Windows 7. Much nicer than Vista.
Very nice video card, dual core GPU. I want one
ATI generally are more stable and provide better quality filtering than Nvidia. Which is why I keep going back to ATI. Also all my ATI cards have been much quieter than the Nvidia equivalent.
Cases are a personal choice, but its amazing how much quiter and cooler certain cases can be, depending on their internal cooling and component placement. Keep in mind that Heat rises, so if it doesnt have a good escape route, then fans will run faster and louder. As an example. The other week I thought id unplug one of my case fans to see if I could make it quiter (my fan controller stopped working, so they were all running fulltime, or not at all), but once I did, every other fan in the case ran twice as fast, so it got louder
These are very cool fan controllers http://www.aerocool.us/peripheral.htm
Definitely need the PSU, and always good to buy a good brand, saves you frying stuff through incorrect voltage or not having enough peak output.
Core i7 is the way to go. Not worth getting the faster models because they jump in price too much. Even the basic model can be overclocked very well on the standard cooler.
Motherboards for the i7 are expensive. Personally, while i've owned quite a few brands, these days I only buy Asus boards, sure you pay a premium, but unlike other makes i've owned, all my asus boards are still running, even my old slot 1 boards. Not had a good run with gigabyte or msi personally, at least not long term, and i prefer to keep my old stuff, so i can use elsewhere once I upgrade.
If you go with 6 gig of ram, be prepared to need a 64bit version of windows, and keep in mind that they wont install unsigned drivers, so you maybe limited with older hardware (dialup modems, scanners, printers, joysticks etc), if you have any. I wish they'd hurry with Windows 7. Much nicer than Vista.
Very nice video card, dual core GPU. I want one
ATI generally are more stable and provide better quality filtering than Nvidia. Which is why I keep going back to ATI. Also all my ATI cards have been much quieter than the Nvidia equivalent.Cases are a personal choice, but its amazing how much quiter and cooler certain cases can be, depending on their internal cooling and component placement. Keep in mind that Heat rises, so if it doesnt have a good escape route, then fans will run faster and louder. As an example. The other week I thought id unplug one of my case fans to see if I could make it quiter (my fan controller stopped working, so they were all running fulltime, or not at all), but once I did, every other fan in the case ran twice as fast, so it got louder
These are very cool fan controllers
http://www.aerocool.us/peripheral.htm
Re: New System Need advice
I picked the case due to the fact that the power supply sits on the bottom so as the temp rises to the top the ps should remain cooler, plus there are 2 exhaust fans on the top of case..
I actually thought about making a case from scratch using wood, I have seen some pretty cool modded cases and would be a shame to let me wood shop class from jr go to waste..
Everyone else I have talked too said the same thing about the HD's I can get 2 WD caviar Black 1tb drives for less money and if i run them in a 0 raid config I think they will be faster and more than dbl the space..
I actually thought about making a case from scratch using wood, I have seen some pretty cool modded cases and would be a shame to let me wood shop class from jr go to waste..
Everyone else I have talked too said the same thing about the HD's I can get 2 WD caviar Black 1tb drives for less money and if i run them in a 0 raid config I think they will be faster and more than dbl the space..
Life's too short to drink cheap beer.
Re: New System Need advice
Hopefully the fans at the top of the case should take care of everything. I modded my case to have a large 120mm fan at the topParrot wrote:I picked the case due to the fact that the power supply sits on the bottom so as the temp rises to the top the ps should remain cooler, plus there are 2 exhaust fans on the top of case..
I actually thought about making a case from scratch using wood, I have seen some pretty cool modded cases and would be a shame to let me wood shop class from jr go to waste..
Everyone else I have talked too said the same thing about the HD's I can get 2 WD caviar Black 1tb drives for less money and if i run them in a 0 raid config I think they will be faster and more than dbl the space..
With the raptors you would get slightly faster windows boot up, but thats about all. Only thing that worries me about having two HDD in RAID 0 is that if one drive goes, you lose all your data, and two Tb is a lot of data to lose...
Right now I run two HDD on my PC. One for windows+programs and one for games (faster loading and less thrashing), then ghost backup both of them once a month to a large storage drive on my server.
Though you could mirror (RAID 1) two 1Tb drives, for real-time backup of all your data, and run a smaller drive for just windows. I'm not sure these basic onboard RAID systems will allow for RAID 5. I just dont like to keep all my eggs in one basket when it comes to that much data.
