Planning on building a new PC next year...
- Thread starter Slappy*McFish
- Start date
legendaryfrog
Tactical Refreshment Action
I feel that you could manage with only 850 watts if you choose to SLI it. My comp is *fairly* similar (lots of OC'd parts), and runs with a 550 watts PSU, no hicks whatsoever.
Im not too good with motherboards myself, but if you do change, stick to the more reputable brands....like intel, XFX, or EVGA. If you ever have troubles, these companies always provide EXCELLENT customer service and great directions.
Im not too good with motherboards myself, but if you do change, stick to the more reputable brands....like intel, XFX, or EVGA. If you ever have troubles, these companies always provide EXCELLENT customer service and great directions.
After considerable research I think I may go with this setup. It's mostly the same but with a few minor changes.
- EVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 Core 2 Quad/ nForce 680i SLI/ DDR2/ SLI/ A&2GbE/ ATX Motherboard
- Dual eVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTX 768 MB PCI-E Graphics Cards
- COOLER MASTER Stacker 830 Evolution RC-830-KKR3-GP Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case Real Power Pro 1000W Power Supply (already comes with it's own 1000w PS
)
- Kingston HyperX 2-4GB 1200MHz DDR2 9600 Non-*** CL5 (5-5-5-15) DIMM (Kit of 2-4)
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor or Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor (the Core 2 Quad over-clocks better but performance is slightly better with the Core 2 Duo at factory speeds)
- Tunic Tower CPU cooler
- HITACHI Ultrastar A7K1000 HUA721050KLA330 (0A35770) 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (had a really hard time finding a good Hard Drive)
- ASUS Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 14X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe
- SAMSUNG 226BW Black 22" 2 ms (GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor
- Logitech Z-5500 505 Watts 5.1 Speakers
- and a few extra case fans.
This Rig's technology will be about a year behind the latest and greatest but should last me 2-3 yrs before I'm ready to upgrade again. By the time I build this, Nvidia probably will release the new GeForce 9 series cards and the 'older' 8800s will drop in price considerably.
I can always just upgrade to a Core 2 Extreme and add more memory sticks later on down the road.
I'm 'really' looking forward to building this machine. :headbang2:
It will be a very nice upgrade from my current 'old school' P4 Northwood 2.8Ghz w/ GeForce 6600GT and 768mb of RAM. I've had this comp for about 3 1/2 yrs now...it's time to build again. Before that, I had an old P3 1ghz w/ GeForce 2 Ultra and 256mb of ram. lol
I eventually ended up with a GeForce TI4600 and 500mb of RAM on that system before building the P4 back in 2004.
I'm not even going to mention the P2 450 I had 'back in the day.'
- EVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 Core 2 Quad/ nForce 680i SLI/ DDR2/ SLI/ A&2GbE/ ATX Motherboard
- Dual eVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTX 768 MB PCI-E Graphics Cards
- COOLER MASTER Stacker 830 Evolution RC-830-KKR3-GP Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case Real Power Pro 1000W Power Supply (already comes with it's own 1000w PS
)- Kingston HyperX 2-4GB 1200MHz DDR2 9600 Non-*** CL5 (5-5-5-15) DIMM (Kit of 2-4)
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor or Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor (the Core 2 Quad over-clocks better but performance is slightly better with the Core 2 Duo at factory speeds)
- Tunic Tower CPU cooler
- HITACHI Ultrastar A7K1000 HUA721050KLA330 (0A35770) 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (had a really hard time finding a good Hard Drive)
- ASUS Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 14X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe
- SAMSUNG 226BW Black 22" 2 ms (GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor
- Logitech Z-5500 505 Watts 5.1 Speakers
- and a few extra case fans.
This Rig's technology will be about a year behind the latest and greatest but should last me 2-3 yrs before I'm ready to upgrade again. By the time I build this, Nvidia probably will release the new GeForce 9 series cards and the 'older' 8800s will drop in price considerably.
I can always just upgrade to a Core 2 Extreme and add more memory sticks later on down the road.
I'm 'really' looking forward to building this machine. :headbang2:
It will be a very nice upgrade from my current 'old school' P4 Northwood 2.8Ghz w/ GeForce 6600GT and 768mb of RAM. I've had this comp for about 3 1/2 yrs now...it's time to build again. Before that, I had an old P3 1ghz w/ GeForce 2 Ultra and 256mb of ram. lol
I eventually ended up with a GeForce TI4600 and 500mb of RAM on that system before building the P4 back in 2004.
I'm not even going to mention the P2 450 I had 'back in the day.'
Slappy*McFish:
You have "really done your homework" and know what you want.
My input would now be counterproductive as when I stated workstations I was referring to "creatures" which the intense use is for GPS vector postprocessing and CAD (BTW these creatures are "hooked up to" a 1G network, way over 4T of data storage and 3 XP servers).
One additional item though which you may need to research is the USB ports and locations and placement thereof.
The specs for your proposed motherboard indicate two USBs which will obviously support 4 USB ports.
USB ports on the back of a PC are virtually as useless as ......
I reviewed the documentation for your case and could not ascertain if the 4 ports could be placed where evident on the front of the case.
BTW:
The above comes from hard earned experience.
On my workstation all USB ports on the rear of the case.
I now have a real kludge which takes up space on my desk.
TR
You have "really done your homework" and know what you want.
My input would now be counterproductive as when I stated workstations I was referring to "creatures" which the intense use is for GPS vector postprocessing and CAD (BTW these creatures are "hooked up to" a 1G network, way over 4T of data storage and 3 XP servers).
One additional item though which you may need to research is the USB ports and locations and placement thereof.
The specs for your proposed motherboard indicate two USBs which will obviously support 4 USB ports.
USB ports on the back of a PC are virtually as useless as ......
I reviewed the documentation for your case and could not ascertain if the 4 ports could be placed where evident on the front of the case.
BTW:
The above comes from hard earned experience.
On my workstation all USB ports on the rear of the case.
I now have a real kludge which takes up space on my desk.
TR
Hmm.. thanks for pointing that out. It's easy to overlook some details when planning a build.
I also want to use the best memory possible that this board will support. Any suggestions, or is the Kingston memory I listed sufficient?
Also, would I benefit from running 2 Hard Drives in RAID or would I be fine with just the one?
I also want to use the best memory possible that this board will support. Any suggestions, or is the Kingston memory I listed sufficient?
Also, would I benefit from running 2 Hard Drives in RAID or would I be fine with just the one?
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this is a very good read. ive thought about building a pc myself in the next few months. are there any good websites or books that i should read before i build? im a noob with this whole thing, but ive been told that building a pc is cheaper than buying a fully built model, which makes sense. sorry if im hijacking the thread...
There are too many sites to list but a good site that I'd recommend to start is: http://www.tomshardware.com/us/
Did I miss the part where you said what you wanted to do with this PC? Are you into Gaming, or Graphics? Do you just send email and surf noodie sites? I havent bought a computer in 1 piece since my old 386, I have built every one since then. It truely depends on what you want the machine to do. I have an HP DV6000 laptop with 2 gigs of RAM and a half terrabyte of HD that works for me just fine with an AMD Turion 64 2GHZ processor... (I scrapped vista and re configureed it to run XP) Then there is the computer upstairs... Pushes 4 GB ram and over a terrabite of SATA HDD's... I am building it to host my new website and gigabit network.
Slappy*McFish
Please do not think that I am a real guru as I am not.
The last computer which I built from scratch was the first P5 (or as I prefer to moniker it a 586) as I am old and shaky these days.
My later workstations/servers have been built by a "networking geek" but based on his and my research and experience.
I believe that one hard drive will be sufficient "as long as you have a reliable backup device and media".
With two drives the best bet is mirroring but with anything other than fiber channel or high end SCSI drive mirroring will slow down your throughput.
(I am certain that you have "checked into" the fairly new RAID 10 protocol. From my research I believe (but I could be wrong) that this protocol was developed only to sell ATA enclosures and two ATA drives.)
You could get two hard drives and use the 2nd for backup but I do not believe that in a catastrophic situation not only are the primary and backup drives in the same physical location they in the same case!
One bit of humor.
RAID is a joke with respect the Inexpensive portion.
If you have any doubts please check out the price of a Raid 5 enclose and 7 high end SCSI's which go in it! (Current projects are maintained on this RAID 5 configuration at the office.)
Slappy*McFish
As I am certain you are aware that the ATA which you are purchasing is very close to SCSI with respect to throughput.
While you are doing "all this researching" would you "keep your eye out" for RAID 5 enclosures which can utilize 5 or more ATA drives.
TR
The Zigman
"(I scrapped vista and re configureed it to run XP)"
:lol::lol::lol:
You must be much younger that 55!
Since Win 98/2 I have never purchased a 1st release of a Microsoft operating system (but broke my rule: you ever bought a "high end" laptop which was configured for Millenium and then had the joy of backing it down to 98).
TR
Please do not think that I am a real guru as I am not.
The last computer which I built from scratch was the first P5 (or as I prefer to moniker it a 586) as I am old and shaky these days.
My later workstations/servers have been built by a "networking geek" but based on his and my research and experience.
I really do not know about sufficient but I have had good luck with Kingston memory.
I believe that one hard drive will be sufficient "as long as you have a reliable backup device and media".
With two drives the best bet is mirroring but with anything other than fiber channel or high end SCSI drive mirroring will slow down your throughput.
(I am certain that you have "checked into" the fairly new RAID 10 protocol. From my research I believe (but I could be wrong) that this protocol was developed only to sell ATA enclosures and two ATA drives.)
You could get two hard drives and use the 2nd for backup but I do not believe that in a catastrophic situation not only are the primary and backup drives in the same physical location they in the same case!
One bit of humor.
RAID is a joke with respect the Inexpensive portion.
If you have any doubts please check out the price of a Raid 5 enclose and 7 high end SCSI's which go in it! (Current projects are maintained on this RAID 5 configuration at the office.)
Slappy*McFish
As I am certain you are aware that the ATA which you are purchasing is very close to SCSI with respect to throughput.
While you are doing "all this researching" would you "keep your eye out" for RAID 5 enclosures which can utilize 5 or more ATA drives.
TR
The Zigman
"(I scrapped vista and re configureed it to run XP)"
:lol::lol::lol:
You must be much younger that 55!
Since Win 98/2 I have never purchased a 1st release of a Microsoft operating system (but broke my rule: you ever bought a "high end" laptop which was configured for Millenium and then had the joy of backing it down to 98).
TR
useless as what? I personally hate having wires and plugs coming out the front of my case. the occasional use is nice and convenient, yes, but peripherals such as my printer, webcam, etc. stay plugged in 24/7, and there's really no need to access them from the front of the case.
Slappy, don't bother running a RAID array unless it is absolutely essential. they're more work than they're worth, IMO.
If you plan on running vista, GOOD LUCK getting it to work with a RAID array.
SATA is the way to go, friend. might not be the latest and greatest, but it works, and well.
