New Office Build

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Adam

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 9, 2003
Messages
1,592
So I have some NewEgg money to burn (preferred account credit, 12 months no interest) and being I spend more time at my office then home, figured id build a really nice rig for my office.

I have a quad-core (Q9440???) right now i just upgraded to with like 2-4GB ram, i forget. Windows 7 pro x64... but i still want something screaming. I don't game much but want the ability to. I also have a 32" 1080p tv on my wall i'll be hooking up via HDMI as a 3rd monitor. And a 5.1 surround setup, so i'll be going via toslink to my receiver in another room for this.... any thoughts? suggestions??? My budget was about $1,000. Im getting the processor locally because its $199 locally (MicroCenter)

CPU: Intel i7-860
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128412)
Video Card: Radeon HD 5770 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150447)
Memory: 8GB total: CORSAIR XMS3 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145198)
Case: Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042)
Power: Antec TruePower New TP-550 550W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371020)
HD: Western Digital Black 640GB SATA 6.0Gb/s (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136544)
Optical: Sony 24x DVD/CD Burner (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118030)
Monitors: 2 Acer 21.5" 1920x1080 screens (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009219)
 
You could probably get more stuff locally, too, just ask MC to pricematch and see what they can do.

What games do you play and will you be playing them on the HDTV? If so, and you play some highly gpu bound games (typically FPS games), then you'll probably want an HD5850 or better.

I'd switch the HDD to the Samsung F3 500GB (15% off ewiz coupon in hotdeals subforum), it's fast and cheaper, too. BTW, the SATA600 cavblack isn't fast enough to warrant it's price premium, IMO.

Only 2x monitors? You'll need a 3rd for triple eyefinity. :p
 
Im only buying from newegg because i have a preferred account and credit availalbe... sooo only going to MC for the CPU because its like $60 cheaper.

Shouldnt there be a nice increase in performance from a 3Gb drive to a 6Gb?

Games.. not sure... just planning a bit, its an office machine so its mostly used for offfice junk, but i still want the ability to. Maybe games like borderlands/etc...

Yeah 2 monitors... don't have a terrible amount of room on my desk. My boss has 3 monitors and it can be a bit much sometimes, i use 2 now and im happy just going from 19" to 21.5" and my 3rd will be the 32" HDTV on my wall when i need to.
 
Adam said:
Shouldnt there be a nice increase in performance from a 3Gb drive to a 6Gb?
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Nope. Current mechanical drives have not reached the limit of 3Gb/s. Only SSDs have gone passed the 3Gb/s mark. So in other words, the Samsung F3 drive or the WD 5000AAKS drive will still be faster than the WD6402AAEX since those two drives are based on a single 500GB platter design. That's significantly faster than the 2 x 320GB platters that the WD6402AAEX has.

Drop the PSU and go with this larger PSU for only $6 less:
$90 - Corsair 650TX 650W PSU
 
Danny Bui said:
Nope. Current mechanical drives have not reached the limit of 3Gb/s. Only SSDs have gone passed the 3Gb/s mark. So in other words, the Samsung F3 drive or the WD 5000AAKS drive will still be faster than the WD6402AAEX since those two drives are based on a single 500GB platter design. That's significantly faster than the 2 x 320GB platters that the WD6402AAEX has.
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In fact, the only WD Black drives that use 500GB platters are the 1TB SATA 6Gbps version (2 x 500GB platters) and the 2TB models (4 x 500GB platters). Both of them are currently significantly more expensive than other drives of the same capacities.

And mechanical hard drives are only now just beginning to touch the 1.5Gbps mark of the first revision of SATA.
 
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I ended up getting a 750GB WD Black, as i like the black drives. I also got a different motherboard to save $20 since i don't really need the 6Gb/s (SATA 3 they call it?)
 
Adam said:
I ended up getting a 750GB WD Black, as i like the black drives.
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But that's one of the slowest Black or blue drives out. The WD 500GB Blue (WD5000AAKS), 1TB Black, and 2TB Blacks outperforms the 750GB Black due to the 500GB platter. So in other words, you wasted your money on the 750GB Black.
 
Danny Bui said:
But that's one of the slowest Black or blue drives out. The WD 500GB Blue (WD5000AAKS), 1TB Black, and 2TB Blacks outperforms the 750GB Black due to the 500GB platter. So in other words, you wasted your money on the 750GB Black.
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I agree. The 750GB Black is still a three-platter design that uses five sides of the three platters (one side of one platter remains "permanently" blank) - and those platters have been short-stroked internally to 300GB per platter. And although the outer-track transfer rate is about the same as the 640GB Black and the SATA 3Gbps version of the 1TB Black, it's still among the slowest Blacks that are currently shipping. The random access speed of the 750GB model is a tad quicker than its 640GB and 1TB brandmates due to this short-stroking (in the 750GB Black, the inner portion of the platters remains unused).

And I am somewhat disappointed in WD for not distinguishing between older-design drives and newer-design drives. In the case of the Blacks and the Blues, various different generations of platter designs have been sold under the exact same model number. The only way to tell whether it is of an older design or a newer design is to look at the firmware version that's printed on the drive's label.

And there is a slim chance that the 750GB Black that the OP got might be of the 500GB/platter design (in this case, two platters and three heads). This is because WD has been slowly migrating its hard drive lines to the 500GB/platter design without fanfare.
 
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How bout the 1TB Black Drive? Its $89.99 at NewEgg right now
 
Adam said:
How bout the 1TB Black Drive? Its $89.99 at NewEgg right now
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That's the newer SATA 6Gbps version (WD1002FAEX), which is confirmed to use two 500GB platters. That drive should not be confused with the older WD1001FALS, which uses three 333GB platters. Plus, with Newegg's discount code, you're actually saving $10 by choosing that newer design instead of the older model.
 
So what drive should i get if you guys wanna recommend something? One guy says the 1TB one guy says this, the other says this... very confusing, lol.
 
Adam said:
So what drive should i get if you guys wanna recommend something? One guy says the 1TB one guy says this, the other says this... very confusing, lol.
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That's because there has been two different versions of the 1TB WD Black. The one that's on sale at Newegg for $89.99 is the newer SATA 6Gbps version (WD1002FAEX). That drive will run in SATA 3Gbps mode on most current systems. The older WD1001FALS drive is still $99.99 at Newegg.

As such, get the WD1002FAEX drive: It's guaranteed to use two 500GB platters whereas most units of the WD1001FALS drives still in the reseller channels still use the older three-platter design.
 
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Well the board i got doesnt have SATA 3 connections... so can't get that now. I think im just gonna get a 300GB VelociRapter drive from WD. Its $199.99
 
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Adam said:
Well the board i got doesnt have SATA 3 connections... so can't get that now. I think im just gonna get a 300GB VelociRapter drive from WD. Its $199.99
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The Velociraptor is a p***-poor value right now. Especially since its maximum sequential transfer rate is still slower than those of the newest 7200 RPM drives and much slower than most if not all SSDs; in other words, the 300GB Velociraptor is now well past its prime.

And SATA 3 drives are fully backwards-compatible with SATA 2 host controllers (despite your claim that the different generations of SATA are totally incompatible with one another).

It seems as though you really prefer components that have the very worst bang for the buck (the worst performance at the highest price). Simply put, we've been trying to advise you against making such expensive mistakes as this - but either you weren't listening at all or you chose to completely ignore or go totally against our advice. Such a person is not [H]ard - but rather tiff.
 
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Adam said:
So what drive should i get if you guys wanna recommend something? One guy says the 1TB one guy says this, the other says this... very confusing, lol.
Click to expand...
Any drive using 500GB platters from either WD or Samsung. Seagate is fine, but it's slightly slower than the other two. 500GB platters implies certain sizes, such as 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, etc. Yes, they could use half the platter for 250GB drives, but they're probably not very cost effective and I haven't seen any 3-platter 1.5TB drives yet.
 
enginurd said:
Any drive using 500GB platters from either WD or Samsung. Seagate is fine, but it's slightly slower than the other two.
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That's been my experience with the 1TB Seagate 7200.12 drives. The sequential transfer rate on the outer tracks is slightly lower than those of the latest WD or Samsung drives while the random access speed of the 7200.12 is about equal to that of the Samsung (13.5 ms or so with the Acoustic Seek Management feature disabled). This puts the 7200.12 just below the 1TB F3 and the WD1002FAEX drives overall.
 
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