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$3k Summer Super-computer: comments?

S

Sovereign

2[H]4U
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
3,098
This is my current config on my NewEgg wish list.
- SILVERSTONE SST-TJ05S-X Silver Aluminum front panel/door, 0.8mm SECC body ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
- MSI K8N Diamond Plus Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
- 2x eVGA 512-P2-N570-AX Geforce 7900GTX 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
- PC Power & Cooling 510 SLI-PFC ATX12V 510W Power Supply - Retail
- AMD Opteron 170 Denmark 1000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model OSA170DAA6CD - Retail
- G.SKILL Extreme Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500 (PC 4000) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model F1-4000USU2-2GBHZ - Retail
- Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000KS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
- PLEXTOR CD Burner Black IDE Model PX-230A-BPS-BL - OEM
- PLEXTOR 18X DVD±R DVD Burner included Replaceable beige front bezel Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model PX-760A/SW BL - Retail
- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail
- ZALMAN CNPS7000B-AlCu LED 2 Ball Blue LED Light Cooling Fan/Heatsink - Retail
- Antec 77095 120mm Blue LED Light Case Cooling Fan - Retail
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional With SP2 - OEM

Comments? Not buying NOW, however. No, I will not wait for new sockets unless they show up before I build (no later than July). This build is somewhat speculative, but this is the idea. Dual-core, dual GFX, dual optical drives and 2GB RAM. Open to changing CD/DVD burners if there's better stuff out there. Want one 52x32x52 CD-RW and a good DVD multiformat burner....*goes to NewEgg and looks*
 
Nothing. But I have a 24k inheritance coming, and 3k worth of summer job money guarenteed. In addition, it is essential that if I'm to build a super-PC, my parents must approve (they can be real douchebags when I do something that is perfectly fine/legal/moral that they happen to disagree with) Fought tooth and nail for this PC here. And my mom, the anti-PC fanatic, told me when I got the first half of the inheritance that I could build my "dream computer" this summer. No objections to the $3k either.

boomheadshot45 said:
newer stuff will come out, amd2 will come out
Click to expand...
True. But I would wait forever playing the "I'll wait until X and Y come out" game, and it's up in the air whether I can take the rig to college first semester. So I want to get maximum time on it during the summer. Reviews @ Tom's (I think, or was it X-Bit, or Anandatech) said that DDR2 performance on the AM2 is not where it should be. It just about matches existing DDR1). And I don't want to be using an untested platform. S939 will kick ass for about another two years, (look at Socket A and how long that lasted, or Socket 478 for that matter) and this is an Opty system. OC City, anyone?
 
Maybe cause it's somewhat outdated ;)

Anyways, for the PSU, you could save a bit of money and get this one (Silverstone 560W Zeus). High quality PSU, maybe just a touch under PCP&C <shrugs> Also, if you're going to spend that much money, why such a weak cooler?!?!?!?!?! :eek: You'd be SO much better off with a Tuniq Tower, Scythe Ninja, or TT BT! Also, you have $500 more, why not go for SLI? :D
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827101010
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811133154
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822136012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822148108
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813136166
2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130279
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827135085
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817163111
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16835185001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820231021
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103586
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16837102062
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829156001

That would be my $3k setup :)
 
My suggestions would be:

  • Diff PSU if you want silence
  • 74gb Raptor for boot

EDIT:

oh, and a sythe ninja.

Also, above post; good stuff! Im just sensitive to noise, so id get a diff psu ofcoarse :)
 
Whoops. It was gonna be SLI. *fixes typo* And would my case fit a TurboCool 850SSI?
 
Noise = CARE (aka it can sound like a jet engine and I won't give a crap)
And would the TurboCool 850SSI fit in this Thermaltake?
I'm not gonna play the waiting game....even if Conroe is 5x faster than the X2/Opty...gotta do it soon cause of parent issues.
 
I have a comment, but you most likely wont like it

split the moolah in half if your going to college, one compy now, one in 2 years
 
I would bump it down to an OEM 165. You would save about $130

I would also get 2x300 GB HDDs, you could get them for about $65-70 less than 1x500GB and have an extra 100GB to boot.

I would dump the CD burner, The 760 can do it all.

I think you are going to top out that PCP@C 510. I would recommend going with the 1KW, If you follow the options I have suggested it makes up the difference in price.

The 510 is an awsome powersupply, I bumped mine down to my wifes computer once I got my 1KW.
 
ndruw said:
I have a comment, but you most likely wont like it

split the moolah in half if your going to college, one compy now, one in 2 years
Click to expand...

Good idea.
 
What's the point of getting a CD & DVD burner when the DVD burner will do both. Change the CD burner to a regular DVD-ROM and use it to read your discs instead of wearing out the DVD+RW on reading duties.
 
Asian Dub Foundation said:
1 word bro... CONROE

said they will be available july too
Click to expand...

unless you had something against intel, its time to crawl back into intel computers
 
The 1KW will be overkill. Try the Seasonic S12 600 watt - from what I've been told, Kyle runs a pretty beefy system off of one of those, and they're near-silent.

Dan_D said:
Kyle has a Seasonic 600Watt in his machine powering 2 7800GTX's, an X2 4800+ and 6 or more hard drives. (Last time I checked) So I'd say the Seasonic is a good one. If it was crap Kyle wouldn't have put it in his machine.
Click to expand...

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1029200156&postcount=33

The 850 and 1kw are 23cm deep, so they will fit in a case with a top-mounted psu, so long as there are no fans or anything mounted in the top, and they may block the top drive bays. The 850 is a waste of money, imo, because the 1kw is just slightly more money.

I would post your power questions in the PSU forum, but from my own research, the Seasonic S12, Enermax Liberty 620, or the Silverstone Zeus psu's are all great for this sort of system.

If I had $3k to spend on a machine, I would get dual opty 270's ;)
 
Conroe will be out by July (isn't it suppused to come out this May?) and is a better option than the Opty.

I'd go with two DVD-burners over a CD burner and a DVD burner, than way you can still burn CDs, but also do disc to disc DVD burns.

Agreed that 2 x 300 gig drives is a better option than 1 500 gig, cheaper + more storage is teh win.

I'd also personally go with 2x x1900xtx rather than 7900gtx, but that is personal preference.

Also, with all that horsepower, I am assuming you are getting a new monitor? You don't need SLI 7900gtx s to max out the resolution of a 17" screen even at max details.
 
I'd just build a sweet PC for 1200 right now but that's just me. You would then have another 1800 to spend on a sweet PC with a Conroe.
 
Thinking I get a new LCD for graduation present, or with the $$$ get a new monitor. As far as Conroe etc, I certainly can't be disappointed with this system I am looking at (yeah it loses in synthetic benchmarks, it's still a lot faster than my current one.) And keep in mind that hte longer I wait, the more likely it is my parents will not support this and become total assholes when I suggest it, I'd wait but I gotta move NOW.

EDIT: Changed out the WD500 for dual Maxtor 300GB DiamondMax10s. Good or bad?
 
If you're building your ultimate PC you almost have to add in a PCP&C 1kw.

Also I'd suggest getting a DVD-ROM and DVDRW combo with SATA connections. Because down the road those IDE cables are gonna be annoying. And doing DVD->DVD burns can be handy and you definately don't want those sharing an IDE cable.

Of course I'd also recommend the 1900 CF setup but I guess it's a personal preference. Although if this is being put off a bit whatever ATI's DX10 card(if it's out then) would be my choice. I just have a feeling it's going to outpeform the NV option.

And conroe is looking pretty good although it's still a wait and see approach to see what AMD releases. Conroe looks impressive but still needs to see some serious benchmarking done to see just how well it actually performs.
 
alkaline said:
$1000 on pr0n
Click to expand...
You need to check out this thing called the "internet", it has free pr0n :p

Just remember today's ultimate computer is tomorrows door stop.
 
BenQ Combo Drive Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model CB523C BK - OEM
 That's what I replaced the CD-RW only drive with. It's paired with this:
NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model ND-3550A - Retail
Good? Bad? You're a n00b and let me do this optical config for you?
PATA = care. I'll ditch PATA when there are no PATAs on the mobo. And I'm already hitting my $3k limit. So SATA burners will have to be next time. Besides, some of the "SATA" burners are just PATA-to-SATA bridged crap for 50% more than the same drive on PATA....
 
Have you considered a slot-loading drive? I've got a PX-716AL dual-layer DVD burner (and all the other stuff), it's so nice. :)
 
Sorry to kick mud on you, but thats not a supercomputer. If it had about 100 CPU's and cost $50,000, then you're approaching a supercomputer :p
 
Whatsisname said:
Sorry to kick mud on you, but thats not a supercomputer. If it had about 100 CPU's and cost $50,000, then you're approaching a supercomputer :p
Click to expand...
Yeah yeah you have to ruin my fun and poke my ego. QUIET N00B!
 
ndruw said:
I have a comment, but you most likely wont like it

split the moolah in half if your going to college, one compy now, one in 2 years
Click to expand...
I have one he'll like even less: don't buy a machine and invest the money, instead.
 
mikeblas said:
I have one he'll like even less: don't buy a machine and invest the money, instead.
Click to expand...

if this is about oneupmanship, then why doesn't he send the money to me?

heh, just messing about.
OP: I think you build looks pretty solid. just pull the trigger already!
 
This is 2.5k at most of 24k of inheritance plus $500 from a summer job and whatever cash I have lying around. The rest is being invested. So there. Gonna pull the trigger on May 24th if everything goes right (budget may go up if I win a certain scholarship)...cross the fingers!
 
quadnad said:
if this is about oneupmanship, then why doesn't he send the money to me?
Click to expand...
It isn't about one-upsmanship. It's about helping the OP. Your suggestion leaves him with nothing, and doesn't strike me as terribly helpful.
 
FINAL config based on all the advice from here and MaxPC....comments?
Mobo - MSI K8N Diamond Plus Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
GFX - 2x eVGA 512-P2-N570-AX Geforce 7900GTX 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
PSU - PC Power & Cooling TURBO-COOL 850 SSI T85SSI SLI, EPS12V, SSI 850W Power Supply - Retail
CPU - AMD Opteron 170 Denmark 1000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model OSA170DAA6CD - Retail
RAM - G.SKILL Extreme Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500 (PC 4000) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model F1-4000USU2-2GBHZ - Retail
Floppy - NEC Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive - OEM (for the RAID....)
Hard Drive - 2x Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM RAID fun....500GB for less than 1x 400GB
Combo Drive - BenQ Combo Drive Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model CB523C BK - OEM
DVD Burner - NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model ND-3550A - Retail
Soundcard - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail
CPU Cooler - ZALMAN CNPS7000B-AlCu LED 2 Ball Blue LED Light Cooling Fan/Heatsink - Retail (overclocking fun)
Speakers - Logitech X-230 32 Watts RMS 2.1 Speaker - OEM (this works, I'm no audio nut, unless these are HORRIBLE I'm not changing this)
OS - Microsoft Windows XP Professional With SP2 - OEM (because)
Comments? Trigger isn't being pulled till May 26th, so there is time for changes.
TOTAL: $3028.05 including shipping from NewEgg.
 
Sovereign said:
This is 2.5k at most of 24k of inheritance plus $500 from a summer job and whatever cash I have lying around. The rest is being invested. So there. Gonna pull the trigger on May 24th if everything goes right (budget may go up if I win a certain scholarship)...cross the fingers!
Click to expand...
Hahaha! You're going to pull the trigger on my B-Day! :D Anyways, again, I told you: GET A BETTER CPU COOLER THAN THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For this setup, you want a TT BT, Scythe Ninja, or Tuniq Tower. Do it, you won't be disappointed.
 
mikeblas said:
It isn't about one-upsmanship. It's about helping the OP. Your suggestion leaves him with nothing, and doesn't strike me as terribly helpful.
Click to expand...

jeez dude, chill out. I'm playing around, but apparently your sense of humor wasn't playing nice when you read my reply.

I did leave him with something, and that was the notion that I agreed with the build he had created and that I feel that he should go for it.

Also, I agree about selecting another CPU cooler. Scythe Ninja or Zalman 9500 would suit your overclocking needs just fine.
 
Personally, I'd spent about $2000 and use the rest to buy a 23/24" LCD and a nice set of speakers or headset. I see a lot of places there where you are just spending money for the sake of spending it and not getting a lot of performance in return.

Opteron 170... $400
Scythe Ninja... $35
120mm Yate Loon... $4
DFI SLI-DR... $168
2x1GB OCZ PC4000... $204
2x BFG 7900 GT... $638
1x Western Digital 400GB... $182
Audigy 2 ZS... $69
BenQ 1655 (Lightscribe)... $49
Lite-On DVD-ROM... $26
Seasonic S12 600W... $160
Coolermaster Stacker... $155

Sub-total: $2090

Other items:

Logitech MX5000 Desktop... $115
Sennheiser HD485... $72
Sunbeam Rheobus... $11
Atech XM4U Card Reader... $19
4x Nexus 120mm... $56
 
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