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Building a dream machine...

R

RMD

n00b
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Messages
12
I wanted to get everybody's input on my dream machine config. The primary role of the machine will obviously be gaming, but I also do a lot of software development. I've got a pretty big budget, but it's not like money is no object or anything. :)

Here is what I have so far. Please, pick it apart and tell me what I should be doing differently.

ASUS K8V Deluxe - VIA K8T800 Motherboard --- ($145.00, newegg.com)
AMD Athlon 64 3400+ --- ($404, newegg.com)
Corsair TWINX PRO PC3200 1G(2X512M) TWINX1024-3200C2PRO --- ($277.00, newegg.com)
ATI RADEON 9800XT 256MB, DVI --- ($463.00, newegg.com)
2 74GB Western Digital Raptor Serial ATA 10,000 RPM 8MB Cache (RAID 0) --- ($506.00, newegg.com)
2 250GB Western Digital Caviar SE Serial ATA 7,200 RPM 8MB Cache (RAID 1) --- ($400.00, newegg.com)
Plextor PX-708A 8x DVD±R/W Drive --- ($193.00, newegg.com)
Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy 2 ZS Platinum --- ($167.00, newegg.com)
3.5" 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive --- ($10.00, newegg.com)
Antec TruePower 550 --- ($126, newegg.com)
Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu Socket A/478/754 Heatsink/Fan --- ($43.00, newegg.com)
Lian Li Aluminum 6 in 1 Card Reader ($38, performance-pcs.com)
Lian-Li PC-6070B Aluminum Case --- ($200, performance-pcs.com)
Microsoft Windows XP Professional --- ($127.50, Ebay.com)

Total Price: $3,099 (Shipped)
 
No need to drop anything. I really want a large RAID 1 backup drive.

I would go with 2GB, but the price jumps fairly dramatically. In fact, I can't find any configuration on the net (like from Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Voodoo PC, etc) with this mobo and more than 1 GB of ram.

It has 3 DIMM slots, but one is a different color (not sure why) and I'm kinda confused about that. I know the FX line of Athlons require RAM in pairs, but I'm pretty sure the 3400+ doesn't.

At any rate, I really wanted to go with Corsair and I don't see them selling any 1GB DDR400 dimms. Any ideas where I could get a couple? Otherwise, the best I could do is 1.5GB. (3x512MB).
 
How about two Opteron Model 248s instead? It'll give your compiling time a "bit" of a boost, plus you get true multiprocessing. You may also want to opt for higher spec'd memory--that is, if you plan to overclock.

Also, where's your keyboard, mouse, monitor(s), and speakers? Otherwise it looks alright, but the Athlon 64 3400+ will quickly be supplanted by the FX-53 right around the corner, or maybe even the 3.4 GHz Extreme Edition from Intel.

edit: About the RAM, Corsair and I think Kingston recently offered double packs of 1024 MB modules in PC3200 speeds at least. When they were announced earlier this week, the retail price was $999...ouch. You don't need to install your memory in pairs like with the FX-51; just follow the motherboard manual's instructions in terms of the order the slots should be populated with RAM.
 
That's a pretty nice setup, but if you want a dream machine, then you might as well go for a PC Power & Cooling 510 Deluxe. The Antec True550 is nice too, of course, but it seems like you're just piling on every single high end part, so why not go for a high end PSU as well?

And do you really need 574 GB on RAID of space?
 
USMC2Hard4U - LOL... the Raptors are pretty close in terms of speed, and a LOT cheaper. Again, money IS an object! :)

BillLeeLee - What about the PC Power & Cooling PS is better than the True 550? I'll start searching for reviews. Oh, and it's only 398GB. The two 74GB drives are for my system and applications/games (RAID 0), and the two 250GB drives are for backup/misc storage (RAID 1).

As far as the RAM goes, I'm somewhat confused as to what I should get. I would really like 2GB, and I don't plan on overclocking... so should I settle for something like the Corsair TWINX2048RE-3200 with 3-3-3-8 timings?

Here is a list of RAM Corsair offers for gaming rigs:
http://www.corsairmicro.com/corsair/xms.html

What does everybody recommend as far as that goes? Should I even go with Corsair? Somebody else?

$999 is a crap load of money just for RAM.
 
Naw, he should just jump into a decent home theater set, like the set at Acoustic-Visions(.com) for around $1500. Now that's a computer speaker set worth talking about.
 
The PC Power and Cooling 510w is very expensive and loud. And you dont need 500w of power anyways. Get an Antec 430w or Fortron 400w.

I would ditch the 9800XT and get a 9800 pro. The new cards will be out in just a couple months so theres no need to spend so much on a card thats 5%-10% faster.

Alot of the A64 boards have problems with 1GB and more of RAM. So you might want to check into that. I think the Biostar and Chaintech were the boards that didn't have memory compatibility issues.

You probably really dont need 2GB of RAM anyways. Just buy 1GB and see if you actually need it. If your not using all of 1GB then 2GB will give you no extra performance. And why would you be looking at registered RAM for a 3400+? Get regular unbuffered RAM with 2-3-2-5 timings from Corsair or some of the expensive top of the line Mushkin lvl 2 with 2-2-2-5 timings. You want tight timings not loose. And yea do you really need 500GB of storage? I wouldn't bother running those huge drives on RAID1 unless you had a server or some crap and then i'd be doing something like RAID5. Thats just a waste of money to spend all that for RAID1 when the chance of the drive failing is pretty small and you can just keep CD or DVD backups of your important work you would never want to lose. The rest would be easily replaceable if for a freak reason one crashed.

If your building a dream system i would really wait for the 939 socket A64's or even the Prescotts which will be out in just a couple of weeks because they will definately take the lead from the current lineup.

For speakers definately get the Logitech z-680, their the best gaming speakers and pretty cheap.
 
IF you must go with a a64 (IMO go with opterons) I would use the chaintech znf-150 board, it has awesome audio, 4ch onboard SATA, 3IDE ports (6 channels) and a really cool front box, I just got one and I LOVE it!
 
Don't worry about speakers, monitors, or anything like that. I'm good to go. (Dell 2001FP, Gigaworks, etc.)

burningrave101 - Loud = bad. One reason I picked the case I did was because it's supposed to be fairly quite. Good point about the video card, but I think I'll pop for the best. I hadn't heard about the 1GB+ problem with the A64's. I'll have to read up on that some more. As far as needing 2GB... I actually could use it. I do heavy development in managed environments, and they tend to eat memory. (Especially the IDE's.) I also do a lot of graphics stuff (Photoshop, Painter, etc), and we all know how those eat ram. And don't get me started on all the virtual machines I often have to run (as in VMWare, not as in Java). I have 512MB now, and I regularly swap. As far as 500GB, again, it's only 400GB. :) But really I'm only looking at it as 150GB, plus a lot of backup room. I'm writing software that will do automated archival backups, and having a big redundant storage location will be awesome.

Now, several of you have commented that I should wait for some newer hardware. I'm not in a huge rush, so this seems like a good option.

Can somebody give me a list of stuff to look forward to? Socket 939? Prescotts? What time frame are we talking.

My real deadline is Half Life 2. :)
 
TekieB - The Asus has all of that, plus firewire, onboard gigabit (3com), and support for RAID on all 6 channels.

I usually pick Asus for their reliability. I've never had a problem with one. (I'm running the A7M266 right now.) I've had problems with pretty much everybody else... Tyan, Abit, Gigabyte, etc.
 
Originally posted by Silverghost
Then you've got tons of time. ;) So dont go in a haste to buy stuff just yet.
Click to expand...

You think so? I'm willing to bet it will be out by the end of Feb. What have you heard?
 
Stuff that you could possibly buy:

Prescott: Coming out next month
Athlon FX-53: March I believe
ATi's and Nvidia's new cards: probably sometime in the first half of the year
Athlon64 Newcastle core/ 939 Pin / Dual channel capable - Summer
PCI-Express: expected to be in mass distribution sometime in summer

edit: HL2 by February? When they were still talking about release dates, it was slated for April Fool's day. Now they've taken a Doom 3 approach with "when it's done."
 
Originally posted by RMD
USMC2Hard4U - LOL... the Raptors are pretty close in terms of speed, and a LOT cheaper. Again, money IS an object! :)

BillLeeLee - What about the PC Power & Cooling PS is better than the True 550? I'll start searching for reviews. Oh, and it's only 398GB. The two 74GB drives are for my system and applications/games (RAID 0), and the two 250GB drives are for backup/misc storage (RAID 1).
Click to expand...
There is no way you will ever need 148GB for windows and applications.

For less money, you could get a Fujitsu MAS series U320 drive and a decent SCSI U320 card, which blow those raptors away as a boot drive.


BTW, that is a fuckin sweetass case. It looks like my PC-65B, but with sound dampening and a front door.
 
Originally posted by EnderW
There is no way you will ever need 148GB for windows and applications.
Click to expand...

Well, I have 75GB right now for just windows / applications, and I'm down to 6GB free. I have a second HD (120GB) that's about 60% filled with various other files and backups.
 
Originally posted by EnderW
For less money, you could get a Fujitsu MAS series U320 drive and a decent SCSI U320 card, which blow those raptors away as a boot drive.
Click to expand...

Nope. According to storage review, a single Raptor is pretty close to a U320 Fujitsu. Throw in RAID 0, and I'm willing to bet the Raptors take the lead pretty easily.

http://storagereview.com/php/benchm...&numDrives=1&devID_0=254&devID_1=237&devCnt=2

A single MAS3735 costs a bit more than $500. Throw in a U320 controller, and you're topping $650 bucks. My two raptors cost only $506, and I get twice the space.
 
Originally posted by RMD
Loud = bad. One reason I picked the case I did was because it's supposed to be fairly quite.
Click to expand...
Western Digital makes some of the loudest drives available. Their 7200 RPM line is especially loud. Granted, WD makes some pretty high performance drives, but if you are sensitive to the noise levels of your computer, you shoujld definitely consider an alternate, like the Hitachi Deskstar 7K250. It will be hard to find a quieter 10,000 RPM replacement; the WD740GDs are probably your best bet in terms of quietness.
 
I wouldn't buy anything from Hitachi. I dont care how quiet they are or how well they perform. Hitachi has a very bad history of drive failures and they even refused to give people their money back when they knowingly sold defective drives in mass production.

If you want a quiet drive Seagate makes about the best. The 7200.7 drives are really nice if you can find them with the 3 year warrantys instead of just 1 year. Seagates warranty system is a bit tricky.

And last rumors i heard was that HL2 is delayed again so we'll be lucky to see it in April even. May be summer before its around.
 
Originally posted by RMD
Well, I have 75GB right now for just windows / applications, and I'm down to 6GB free. I have a second HD (120GB) that's about 60% filled with various other files and backups.
Click to expand...
There are exceptions to every rule, but most people will never use anywhere near that much for programs.

Originally posted by RMD
Nope. According to storage review, a single Raptor is pretty close to a U320 Fujitsu. Throw in RAID 0, and I'm willing to bet the Raptors take the lead pretty easily.

http://storagereview.com/php/benchm...&numDrives=1&devID_0=254&devID_1=237&devCnt=2

A single MAS3735 costs a bit more than $500. Throw in a U320 controller, and you're topping $650 bucks. My two raptors cost only $506, and I get twice the space.
Click to expand...
First of all, SR hasn't reviewed the final version of the WD740GD, so none of those benchmarks are set in stone.

Yes, the Raptor is close to the MAS in most of the benchmarks, even taking the lead in a few, but look at the average seek time: 7.8 ms vs 5.6 ms.

Also, RAID 0 has little effect on real world usage for most people, as is explained here.

Now, if you need 100GB+ for os/apps, then get the Raptors.

If you don't, then get a 36GB MAS3367 for about $260, a LSIU160 card for $40, and a decent SCSI cable for $30.

This won't be incredibly faster than the Raptors, but it will be faster. This will also let you spend some more money for your storage drives.

And don't forget to consider the coolness factor of having the 'Fastest Drive In The World' in your machine.
 
Originally posted by burningrave101
I wouldn't buy anything from Hitachi. I dont care how quiet they are or how well they perform. Hitachi has a very bad history of drive failures and they even refused to give people their money back when they knowingly sold defective drives in mass production.

If you want a quiet drive Seagate makes about the best. The 7200.7 drives are really nice if you can find them with the 3 year warrantys instead of just 1 year. Seagates warranty system is a bit tricky.

And last rumors i heard was that HL2 is delayed again so we'll be lucky to see it in April even. May be summer before its around.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I love Seagate, but when did Hitachi release this bad batch of drives? I am generally up on the news and haven'theard of this.


Instead of the 9800XT 256MB, why not just get an AIW Pro? The 256MB does not help in games.
 
You need the SILVER A-TECH PRO 9 card reader. Looks good and does 9 in one. Comes with a USB2 header cable so you dont have to do the wrap around thing. comes with a cable for wrap around as well. never had a prob--it's hot.
 
If you're gonna be pulling RAID O, get yourself some hdd coolers---a cooldrive 4 and a cooldrive 3. they make a heck of a difference, especially in muffling the sound.

also hit up swiftech and get on the thermo electric cooling band wagon--you've got the power for it. i'd go with true controll 550 though, those fans get lound on the truepower models.
 
a third thought---get rid og hte WDs that you have and get 2 WD Raptor 740s...add a LARGE drive for storage.

the WD740's are awesome:
"The WD740 leaves its sister, the WD360, in the dust, and garners the title of fastest ATA drive for itself. The noise level, drastically lowered by the fluid dynamic bearing, is an advantage prized by computer fans who prefer to use this type of drive as the system hard drive."

the command queuing aspect of the drive is supposed to be the hottness. you have software development in mind? you need these drives. you can even store in an old machine on your network, the workhorse of your jimmy-jam need not be laden with lots of storage space...you want a thoroughbred, not a mule.
 
Corsair makes good memory but there are many other great manufacturers out there like Mushkin Level 2 and OCZ. In searching for memory I would limit my list to those three companies.
 
Hitachi hasn't made any bad batches of drives, or it hasn't been publicized like every other failure pattern. IBM's old storage division had two generations of problem drives, but those happened three generations ago and were since fixed by a mere firmware flash. Why do I recommend a "problem drive" over WD's offerings? First, the 7K250 series is faster, across the board. Also, they are far quieter than WD's offerings, and signficantly quieter than Maxtor's, arguably on par with the Barracuda 7200.7 or quieter.
 
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