At a stand still on build, questions

K

Kryp2nitE

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Mar 28, 2007
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Read and provide input :)

Current build:
Intel 945PSN
Pentium D 820 2.8GHz
WD 250Gb SATA2
2x 1Gb DDR2 RAM (One is 667 Geil w/ heatspreader and one is Kbyte 5300 i think, unknown timings)
Sony IDE DVD burner
Allied 500W PSU 20A on 1 12v rail
BFG 8600GTS OC
Sandisk 4Gb Readyboosted Flashdrive
7x total fans 2 in PSU, 2 80mm in front of case, stock on CPU, stock on GPU, 90ish on back of case

The computer and monitor are plugged into a line condtiioner and i attribute that to my Allied PSU lasting as long as it is, too bad i didnt find out it was that bad until coming to [H].

when keeping an eye on my performance on my G15 my ram usage doesnt go over like 60% with the new GPU so it the pentium D holding me back?

My list of upgrades in order of importance:
New PSU: something that will be powerful enough to support SLi and be reliable, i was thinking Tt 1Kw or something similar

Upgrade my CPU cooling since the pentium D has seen like 78 degrees at fill tilt, possibly water-cooling.

Looking to upgrade my MB and Processor, possibly seeing what Retailedge is this year, which would also take care or 64-bit OS

Ram: upgrading after deciding on MB and Proc to see what it supports speed wise and slot wise

Questions:

i only use 50ish Gb from the WD, would i benefit from a raptor and use the current drive for long term storage?

If i went with watercooling what are the chances i can use it with a penryn? i guess worst case i could buy whatever new plate i would need, right?

ill post pics of the computer later when i get home, thanks in advance guys

EDIT: added some questions at the bottom:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144416 is the HD i have atm (i believe i will have to double check when i get home) would i be better off getting one of the seagate http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148140 and putting my games on it or getting another WD and RAID'ing them? performance wise (dont forget i dont think i would even fill half of these up =)

my other option is i have old school SCSI controller cards and HD's from my old CAD job i could put in and use for gaming, would this work well?

EDIT EDIT: found my answer in another sticky =)
 
PhillyPhantic said:
you already bought this, what are you planning on using the computer for?
Click to expand...

i dont understand the bought this but i do light gaming, CSS and WoW at moderate resolutions on a 37 inch LCD, programming for school, and some movie playing

EDIT: CPU sits about 70% and RAM at about 60% while playin WoW or CSS forgot i had that info on my flashdrive =)
 
PhillyPhantic, if you wrote in sentences people would be able to understand you better. :)

Raptors are a waste of money.
Your right about watercooling I think.
 
Tt 1kW would be overkill unless you do 2900XT Crossfire. Even then, there are 700W models which should handle it okay.

Raptors are overpriced IMO. Now that Seagate's perpendicular recording drives are mainstream, there's no reason to spend 2x-3x more for 1/2 the space of a Raptor which is only slightly faster.

There are good air-cooling heatsinks out there. Watercooling is great, but a bit expensive. Yes, if you went watercooling now, the worst which could happen is you might need a new block to fit the socket for the Penryn.
 
ok, what i meant is the parts you listed you have already bought them from newegg or where ever?

1) But actually you can get a 7200.1 hard drive for about 90 bucks and they will preform at the same speed as the raptor and you'll have considerable more space for a lesser price

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136012 -oem raptor 200, 170 after rebate

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148140 - oem 7200.10 80 dollars you could get two and still have ten dollars left

2) What are you doing that you need a 1kw psu, you could get a 750 pc&c or even better the corsair 620

3) you could get a Scythe and that should take care of cooling problems

4) ram is dirt cheap right now you can get some ocz 6400 kits from zzf for 107, 67 after rebates



What are you planning on doing with this build, what cards are you going to run in sli?
 
PhillyPhantic said:
1) But actually you can get a 7200.1 hard drive for about 90 bucks and they will preform at the same speed as the raptor and you'll have considerable more space for a lesser price

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148140 - oem 7200.1 80 dollars you could get two and still have ten dollars left
Click to expand...

The fact that you left out the 0 at the end leads me to think that you believe this is a simple decimal number. However, it is not, its a fkn model number. 7200.1 implies its much older than 7200.9, which its not.

</rant> Sorry... its annoying when people mean one thing but type another, then they wonder why nobody can understand wtf they're saying.

@OP: Why do you want water cooling? For the price of a good WC setup, you could probably get a faster CPU and a nice 3rd party HSF, lol.

My raptor's avg transfer speed is 78MB/s while my 'cuda's avg transfer speed is 65MB/s. Go for the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB instead.

I agree, you dont need a 1KW PSU. Check out jonnyguru.com for more PSU insight.

What size monitor do you have? The 8600GTS isn't that great of a GPU, so I think that actually might be holding you back, lol.

Whats your budget?
 
better? I put changed it to 7200.10

But op, when are you looking to upgrade, this summer bc if you are should sit tight for the planned drops in intel's price cuts, which should be happening in a month in a half.
 
enginurd said:
@OP: Why do you want water cooling? For the price of a good WC setup, you could probably get a faster CPU and a nice 3rd party HSF, lol.
Click to expand...

i will look at better air cooling, was gonna go watercooling for the efficiency.

enginurd said:
What size monitor do you have? The 8600GTS isn't that great of a GPU, so I think that actually might be holding you back, lol.

Whats your budget?
Click to expand...

37 inch Westinghouse, after looking at graphs of CPU,GPU RAM usage while playing games the CPU seems to top out first




"ok, what i meant is the parts you listed you have already bought them from newegg or where ever?"



I have had most of the parts minus extra fans and 8600 GTs for almost 3 years




2) What are you doing that you need a 1kw psu, you could get a 750 pc&c or even better the corsair 620



i just looked at the price of the corsair on newegg and lets just say theoretically the Tt1Kw PSU was the same price after shipping, would there be any reason to go with the corsair?

i would be looking at SLi down the road, maybe if i found another GTS OC for cheap, cough modred cough, so when the next gen came out.



But op, when are you looking to upgrade, this summer bc if you are should sit tight for the planned drops in intel's price cuts, which should be happening in a month in a half.



honestly this is a long term list, the PSU within the next month or two, the CPU and cooler in say october and rest to follow

like i said as well i will be holding off to see what intel offers for a the retailedge package
 
almost forgot, pictures!


Case all together:
P6110086.jpg


P6110083.jpg


P6110082.jpg


P6110084.jpg


P6110085.jpg


EDIT: two things, when i first installed the CPU HS + F i used the pad it came with, could it hurt to scrape it all off and put some fresh thermal cmpd on it?
and uh i forgot but im sure ill edit it in later
 
ok, then that helps some.

1) lol, if they were the same price it would make more sense to go with the tt 1k. But the fact is they arent, from you're talking about the pc power& cooling 750 silencer which will be able to handle most of what you're going to throw at it. Unless you are planning on doing something crazy you really wont need the 1k psu, but if you feel it's in the best interest of the long term vision go ahead and get it.


http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTMwMSwsLGhlbnRodXNpYXN0 - corsair review from [H]

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTMzMCwsLGhlbnRodXNpYXN0 - a 1.2k tt review from [H] a little higher than your 1k but you'll get the idea

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp - use this to get an idea of how much power you'll need


2) dont get the 8600 it's not worth it at this point, and since you're in the mood for waiting, there should be price drops on them in the next few months. The 640 Gts would do well, if you have it get the gtx which is going to start sliding price wise. And if you really want to wait,buy an evga video card sometime in october and if you feel that the new cores that will be released in Nov wshould come out step up to them.

3) In October cpus will be really cheap, you could get that and ram for under 300 depending on your config. But you should also hear about penryn a little more in deapth at that point and amd (God Willing) will have something competitive out then. If you want to upgrade to possibly penryn and you want to buy the mb soon. Grab a 935 board but you'll lose the ability to run Sli
 
1) ty for the input ill have to do more research on them.

2) ill hold off on the card for now and see what is out when the time comes

3) ty again

im also very much looking forward to WAR so kinda building toward that but with no realeased specs or anything its hard eh =)

glad to know im more or less on the right track, thanks again guys
 
im very greatful for everyone at [H] for the suggestions =)

i picked up:
2gb more of 667 DDR2 memory, bringing me up to 4Gb
Corsair Nautilus 500 WC Kit
AS5 thermal compound
Got rid of the 8600GTSOC and picked up two new 7950GTOC (BFG) for the same price
A 700W SLI ready PSU

at this point im biding my time for intels retail edge package so i can upgrade to a 64 bit OS and a new mobo and processor, which should bring the next gen GPU right around the corner as well :D

thanks for all the help guys =)

EDIT: haha got too caught up on upgrades to ask my question

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144416 is the HD i have atm (i believe i will have to double check when i get home) would i be better off getting one of the seagate http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148140 and putting my games on it or getting another WD and RAID'ing them? performance wise (dont forget i dont think i would even fill half of these up =)

my other option is i have old school SCSI controller cards and HD's from my old CAD job i could put in and use for gaming, would this work well?
 
Chances are, those old skool scsi's are slower than the new barracuda's, depending on how old skool they really are. ;) If you don't mind raid, go for another WD2000JS and use RAID0. If you'd rather keep it simple, grab a 'cuda.
 
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