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PC upgrade final tweaks

D

dhmacdonell

n00b
Joined
May 17, 2008
Messages
39
Alright guys, maybe a few of you will remember me (maybe not lol). I built a rig back in May of 08 while i was still in Iraq... you guys were a huge help then and now I'd like to get a few more of those good ol' constructive criticisms you're so well known for.

btw, i'm back in the states, loving being home! I'm building this so i can give the previous build to my little brother. Thanks ahead of time guys.

$144.99 - Antec P182 ATX Mid Tower
$299.99 - ASUS P6T Deluxe Intel X58
$119.99 - CORSAIR PSU-750TX 750W ATX12V
$294.99 - Intel Core i7 920
$159.99 - G.SKILL 6GB DDR3
$429.00 - SAPPHIRE 100251SR RadeonHD 4870 X2 2GB
$359.98 - VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB x2
750GB Samsung F1 HDD (already own)
$84.99 - Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 120mm SSO CPU Cooler
$1,943.91 - with keyboard. Razer Reclusa


I'm not partial to any brands, quality is my goal.

I have a coolermaster case now and I am not all that pleased with it, the hookups were kind of inconvenient and some of the wires needed to be altered to make it work with the mobo. *shrug* It works...

Made Quite a few changes...
 
The SSD, at this point in time, is not worth the money. You could get two 150GB VelociRaptors and put them in RAID 0, all while still having money left over. And even the VelociRaptors aren't worth the money as some of today's 7200RPM hard drives (like the WD Blue/Black 640GB drives) can perform almost as well for a fraction of the price.

If you like the HAF 932 case, you could get it at Provantage for a bit less.

The latest dual-GPU card in the market is the GeForce GTX 295. Regardless, you don't need a 1000 watt monstrosity for a single-card setup. You could find a decent power supply, like the BFG Tech ES-800, for under $150.

What keyboard are you considering? Do you plan on overclocking? And which monitor/resolution are you (planning on) using?
 
I have a Samsung F1 sitting here that I will throw in for an additional 750GB of storage. Does that make a difference to you guys as far as the value of the SSD goes?

30" Dell Monitor normally @ 1920x1200 for gaming. I'm not really satisfied with it though as it doesn't do internal scaling and I can't play my XBOX on it. I wanna buy a different monitor and ebay this one off so I can have the ability to hook up my xbox to it. The 3008wfp from Dell might do it... gotta look into that. For now though thats what I'm on.

This will be primarily a Gaming Rig however, I do want the freedom of multitasking and graphics packages (3DMAX, etc.).
 
I still don't believe that SSDs are worth their current prices, as a whole, since they are relatively immature technology. The cheaper SSDs don't offer a significantly noticeable performance boost over HDDs and the ones that do are often very expensive. However, I can't stop you from getting one.
 
I'm leaning more towards the two RAID 0 VR's... Anyone know if the newer Dell 30'' is compatible with Xbox 360?
 
dhmacdonell said:
I'm leaning more towards the two RAID 0 VR's... Anyone know if the newer Dell 30'' is compatible with Xbox 360?
Click to expand...

If you're willing to accept that an SSD isn't really worth the price to performance ratio, then you should really consider going with a pair of WD Black/Blue 640 drives, as tiraides suggested. The raptors will only have a 10% or so increase in speed over the WDs for a lot more money with a lot less space. If you have got the money and are willing to drop that much for a slight (probably unnoticeable) increase in performance, then by all means, it's your call.
 
What's the diff between these two?

$79 - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache
$79 - Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache

Because right now I already have two F1's in RAID 0 on my current rig. (which i'm giving to my brother)
 
dhmacdonell said:
What's the diff between these two?

$79 - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache
$79 - Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache

Because right now I already have two F1's in RAID 0 on my current rig. (which i'm giving to my brother)
Click to expand...

Probably around 15MB/s (C.Black is faster) -- typically unnoticeable. My HD753LJ's get around 80MB/s on HDTune while my 1TB Caviar Blacks do around 95MB/s. My VRaptor 300GB gets like 103MB/s. Splitting hairs.
 
You have to understand that many of us here are thinking from a price-to-performance perspective. We aren't going to recommend that you spend a lot of money on "the latest and greatest" if there's something else on the market that could get the job done just as well for less.

In all honesty, unless you're really feeling generous, you could easily transfer (physically, not literally) your RAID setup to your new rig.
 
From a price/performance standpoint, at this current point in time, SSDs are a horrible choice. They'll only get better and cheaper as time progresses.

But since you're so set on getting one, go ahead and get one. However, I don't believe that you should be spending more than $300 on a decent SSD -- beyond that price, a WD VelociRaptor becomes a more practical alternative.
 
A velociraptor by itself? or 2x in RAID 0? I'm not DEAD set on SSD I just saw the benchmarks and stuff and had seen how much they outperform most others.
 
dhmacdonell said:
A velociraptor by itself? or 2x in RAID 0? I'm not DEAD set on SSD I just saw the benchmarks and stuff and had seen how much they outperform most others.
Click to expand...

A single Velociraptor by itself or 2 150GB Velociraptors in RAID 0,.
 
dhmacdonell said:
A velociraptor by itself? or 2x in RAID 0? I'm not DEAD set on SSD I just saw the benchmarks and stuff and had seen how much they outperform most others.
Click to expand...

I have a 6400AAKS WD 640GB Hard Drive, that I love. It's very fast and costs 1/4 the amount of money. Not telling you how to spend your dough, but from my HDD to a SSD is not 4x increase. /shrug
 
dhmacdonell said:
two velociraptors would cost more than THIS SSD
Click to expand...

Two WD6400AAKS in RAID0 (1.2TB) can do around 130MB/s, and costs $140.

That G.Skill 128GB SSD does around 175MB/s, and costs $330. Thats 35% faster than a Caviar Blue array, yet over twice (2.3x) the price.

Two 150GB VRaptors in RAID0 (300GB) can do around 160MB/s, and costs $360. Thats 23% faster than the Caviar Blue array, yet over twice (2.5x) the price.

Your money... knock yourself out! ;) ...Diminishing returns...
 
Cooling suggestions? I made quite a few changes to the original build... check it out. Way down in price.
 
How about $245 - Swiftech H20-220-APEX ULTIMA CPU Liquid Cooling Kit w/ Apogee GTZ

?? Or do you think Air Cooling is more than enough?

$85 - Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 120mm SSO CPU Cooler
 
Danny Bui said:
Cool about the same IIRC.
Click to expand...

Awesome cuz that way i can order everything from the same place. Newegg has never done me wrong... i'm weird about customer loyalty.

kevinzak said:
Seems like a terrible idea to me. Allows moisture, dust, mice, and dozens of other unwanted hazards direct access to your components and wires.
Click to expand...

Yeah man i just thought it looked cool... very impractical...


ALRIGHT, everything is almost there... notice anything I missed? I have a mouse and monitor already.
 
Just want to make sure that you know this: You do know that you're paing $120 more for a 23% increase in performance right?

Also, do you already have a legit OS key and license?
 
what are you referring to on the bonus %??

yeah i have vista 64bit... I have a disc already... bought it back in may 08 and installed it on THIS system... do i have to buy more?
 
dhmacdonell said:
... yeah i have vista 64bit... I have a disc already... bought it back in may 08 and installed it on THIS system... do i have to buy more?
Click to expand...

If you bought an OEM version, you must be upgrading "THIS system" for it to be legal. If you bought retail, then you can install it on any 1 system, provided that you remove it from any other system.

kevinzak said:
Seems like a terrible idea to me. Allows moisture, dust, mice, and dozens of other unwanted hazards direct access to your components and wires.
Click to expand...

It looks like an overpriced tech station. If you test parts quite frequently or need access to allt he different hardware, then its a nice case. I always have a system on my test bench (for the past few years)... just gotta be careful around it and all will be well.
 
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