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$2500 for a new rig

M

markbuxton

n00b
Joined
Sep 15, 2006
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Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 ATX Motherboard - Intel P965 Socket 775 PCI-E $150 @ NewEgg

CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600 - Retail $329 @ NewEgg

Memory $250 can go higher DDR-667

Hard Drive Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM $160 X2 $320 @ NewEgg

DVD Burner LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner W/ 5X DVD-RAM Write Black ATAPI/E-IDE Model SHM-165P6S RTL - Retail $35 @ NewEgg

Case COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel, SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case – Retail $45 @ NewEgg

Power Supply SILVERSTONE SST-ST56F ATX12V/ EPS12V 560W Power Supply - Retail $119 @ NewEgg

Video Card eVGA 256-P2-N554-AX Geforce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card – Retai $153 @ NewEgg

Monitor ViewSonic VP930b Black 19" 8ms LCD Monitor 250 cd/m2 1000:1 0.294mm Pixel Pitch – Retail $286 X 2 $557 @ NewEgg

Keyboard ? $50

Mouse ? $20

Floppy Disk Drive $20

OS Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B 1 Pack - OEM $88 @ NewEgg It will be upgraded to XP-Pro.

TOTAL = $1886
Total Cost not to exceed $2500 before tax and shipping. Ok just so you know I can go a little higher. ;)



I have $2500 to spend on a new workstation. I don’t need to pay taxes because this if for an educational facility (tax exempt.) What do you think of the setup? This will be used mainly for spreadsheets and VMWare image testing. I figure dual 1280x1024 displays will be nice for spreadsheets, and having many applecations open at one time. But do you think 20 inch monitors are worth the extra cost? I want fast drives but do not need tons of disk space. I have other resources for that. I will not be playing many games on this system, but do run processor intense applications.

I need help deciding on RAM.
I do not plan on overclocking.
I may be interested in a RAID card for better disk performance.

Any feedback would be appreciated.
 
ddr800 for your ram.. crucial ballistix or ocz platinum would fit nicely. Look for ram with lower CAS latencies, and don't worry too much about spending more money on it if you do not plan on oc'ing. I'd go with some larger drives in raid as well... Many of the latter SATA drivers are close in performance to the raptors, and the price doesn't justify the miniscule speed difference. 2x250gb's (16mb/7200) in RAID-0 would give you great results, give you more space, and drop your price tag by about $150.

And for displays what about a single dell 2405 or 2407 instead?

BTW: Most SATA mobos (maybe all of them?) Don't require a RAID card to run RAID. Although in many cases you need a floppy drive to load RAID drivers during windows setup. Dunno if that's changed or not.
 
For a 2500$ budget I would get the ddr800 and at least a 7900gt but with 2500$ I would get x1900xt
 
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2797&p=19
Check out that article. I'd go with a 975X board instead of a P965. That article lists all the good ram choices as well. I'd go for the Patriot Extreme Series PDC22G5300LLK due to its low voltage. As for the dvd burner, go for an NEC ND-3550A ($30) or BenQ DW1650 instead of the lite-on. If this is a single user workstation, then you won't need to RAID0 two raptors... a single raptor will suffice. Though, the seagate 7200.10 series drives are pretty damn fast for their price (320GB for $95 at the egg). If you have XP Pro, why buy XP home? you don't have a 98se disc layin around? don't educational orgs have a volume lic. for xp? While two 19" screens are nice, the extra real estate from 1600x1200 would be worth the extra $, imho.

$350 - $60MIR - SAMSUNG 204B-BK Black 20.1" 5ms LCD
$290 - $30MIR - BenQ FP202W Black 20.1" 8ms Widescreen LCD
 
I visited NewEgg and saw

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM for 95.

I could get 3 and RAID 5 them. But probably will just get 2 and RAID 1 them.

As for the monitors, I prefer 2 monitors. I will look at the 20" models and see if I want to go that route. I am leery of getting a wide screen. I have visited the Dell forums for wide screen monitors, and it looks like it is a bit of hit or miss on getting a good one.

Yes I will need a floppy disk drive.

It looks like the DDR2-800 ram preformed about 10-12% better then the DDR2-667, so I will need to look at the prices.

Different schools have different agreements with MS. We have one that allows for new computers to be purchased with XP-Home and can be upgraded for free. I also get FrontPage, Office, and some other software for $85. ( I don’t make the rules just need to follow them).

As far as using a 975X based board, ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe seems to be the one most are recommending. I don’t know if I need that much board. What does that board offer to justify $120 more (almost double the GA-965P-DS3’s cost?)

Let me see what some of these changes will do to the budget then see what I can do about the video card.
 
$120 gets you the most stable conroe board with the best overclocking features (though, not needed in your situation), as well as: Firewire, better RAID support(0+1 & 5), 2 EIDE controllers, and a 2nd gigabit NIC. The 975X is just a better chipset for conroes. Is the Asus P5WDH worth it for $270? of course not. Though, you do have the budget for it, lol. A cheaper alternative would be the MSI 975X Platinum. For $30 more you get the better chipset, 0+1 raid support (if thats worth anything, lol), 2 EIDE controllers, and firewire.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2E16813128012,N82E16813130051,N82E16813131025

As for widescreen LCDs... hit or miss? Dell fixed their banding issues with their recent xx07(w)fp models already. For simple office use, I'm sure you won't even notice the banding should you get a faulty model. Though, I'd still test it and RMA it... and Dell's good about RMA'ing defective products, should you go with a Dell. That BenQ one I listed above is pretty good, and cheaper than a dell... I forget if they use the same panel or not. You don't need a high end vidcard for a workstation unless you're doing 3D rendering on the machine.

Why RAID1? No network backup server? RAID5 would be better since it lessens the chances of data loss. Though, you'd need either the expensive asus board or a raid controller card for RAID5. A network backup solution would be best, though. Yes, those 7200.10 drives you listed are fast. I have one, as well as a WD1500ADFD. I could post some single drive benchmarks if you'd like.
 
Can the eVGA 256-P2-N554-AX Geforce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card – Retail handle Dual 1600x1200? Or do I need to go to eVGA 256-P2-N562-RX Geforce 7900GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail .

Or if you don’t like eVGA what brand do you recommend?
(No games... well not many mostly a work computer)
 
thats an awfully fast computer for running spreadsheets.....you have money to burn....
 
markbuxton said:
Can the eVGA 256-P2-N554-AX Geforce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card – Retail handle Dual 1600x1200? Or do I need to go to eVGA 256-P2-N562-RX Geforce 7900GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail .

Or if you don’t like eVGA what brand do you recommend?
(No games... well not many mostly a work computer)
Click to expand...
eVGA is great. I don't see why it wouldn't be able to run dual 16x12 in 2D mode :) But if you're looking for more ways to spend the money (or want better 3D performance), then go for the 7900GT, lol.
 
if u just want word processing/tax apps/stuff like that id personally go with the e6600 xtreme and 2-4gigs of crucial balistic ddr800 ram...
 
coolxboxgamer said:
if u just want word processing/tax apps/stuff like that id personally go with the e6600 xtreme and 2-4gigs of crucial balistic ddr800 ram...
Click to expand...
e6600 extreme? A regular person doesn't need 2-4 gigs of ddr2-800 for a word processing/tax apps type of system. He's just buying all this cuz he has the budget, lol.
 
If you have never used VMWare. It allows you to run multiple operating systems at once. That is why I need fast disks, CPU, and ram. All of the resources are shared. The video is just icing on the cake. I have servers with quad processors and 16 GB or ram running 10 operating systems at once with VMWare.

I am more familiar with server class hardware then the desktop. BTW my last and current system is a dual P3 700MHz with a gig of ram and 3 18 7200 rpm Ultra2 Wide SCSI hard drives with a 2 MB raid card. All devices were SCSI until I needed to upgrade my 4x CD burner and ZIP Drive. And a Radeon VIVO. It had 64 MB or DDR ram. This was a smoking system 6+ years ago. Now it just lives on until I can replace it. It will probably by another 2 or 3 years. (I will just use my work computer.)
 
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