My New System - Comments Please :)

[SLCentral]

I'm about to build my latest system, and here's my config. Please tell me what you think!

Here.

Thank you .

 

[DaveSimmons]

P4 3.2 is way overpriced for the tiny tiny speed bump over at 3.0 GHz, and if you can wait about a month you could save $50-100 on the video card.

Are you planning to overclock? You probably won't get much of an OC on a 3.2, so buying PC3500 instead of PC3200 is probably a waste.

You don't need the arctic silver unless you are planning to overclock, probably not even then for the small OC you'll get from a 3.0-3.2. The thermal pad on the retail P4 heatsink works fine.

 

[Budmantom]

lotsa bux

 

[modedepe]

Expensive..you could definitely save some money by getting a different proc and video card. You could get a little slower processor and just oc..

 

[jfall]

Personally, I would drop the 3.2 and go for a 2.6/2.8. I would also drop the Segate SATA drive and get a Raptor and a regular ATA 80-120gig drive. You could also save money on the motherboard if you don't plan on using onboard lan and do not need the extra SATA connections.

Either way, it's going to be a very fast system

 

[Nebor]

As long as you're going 'hog wild' get the gainward 256mb Ultra.... it's the best one.

BTW, if you can afford the 3.2, go for it, your computer will be faster than a 3.0. These budget buyers seem to think that everyone shops for the best price\performance.... Some of us shop just for performance...

 

[SLCentral]

Actually, like Nebor said, I'm shopping for pure performance. Of course, the cheaper the better, but I want top of the line so it lasts me for a while. Plus, since I am Senior Editor at SLCentral.com, I need a powerful rig to review things accuratly.

About the video card, I also need top of the line because I play at 1600x1200 with all setting on max with AA and AF on, not very easy to be done with a different graphics card .

I'm not planning on overclocking significantly, maybe 100MHz or so? If you guys think so, I'll get the PC3200, whatever is best.

The problem with getting the Raptor is that I would have to get the Raptor, as well as one other drive (or even two Raptors fror a sweet RAID setup). I am trying to keep the system under $1800, so I dunno if that could be done without downgrading other components.

Unfortunatly, I cannot wait for this system, I will be purchasing in about 10 days. I have both my laptop and desktop on eBay right now, and the last auction ends in 9 days, and there's no way I can live without a PC...hehe .

 

[SLCentral]

Actually, thinking about it, I'll drop the 3.2GHz, and grab the 3.0. Then, I'll get two Raptors and put into a SATA RAID, DROOL! The ABIT Motherboard I'm getting has support for SATA RAID onboard (but not IDE RAID), so it will be perfect. Can someone tell me how hard it would be to set up a RAID setp (not mirroring, striping)?

I'm putting together a "updated" Wish List right now, so in a few minutes, I'll post it on this thread.

 

[SLCentral]

Updated Wish List!

I did a few changes:

1) I changed the processor to the 3.0C.

2) I changed the hard drives to two Western Digital Raptors (In a SATA RAID).

3) I changed the RAM to Geil 1GB PC3200.

4) I changed the video card to the Gainward 5900 Ultra 256MB

I decided to stick with the Artic Silver. I mean, even if I don't overclock, therefore not really needing the artic silver, it's always good to have, and its only $5.

Unfortunatly, the case I want, the CoolerMaster 710 is out of stock at Newegg, therefore I'll have to buy it from somewhere else.

Any comments on this one?

 

[jfall]

Looks awesome dude!!! I think the raptors will give you a better performance increase then the extra 200mhz from the 3.2

 

[Nebor]

Seems like a good solid system, very much like my own. Except I haven't actually bought my 5900U yet...

RAID is very easy to set up... I think the intel controller is a little better than the Silicon Image one, at least for ease of use.... But the way they have you go about enabling the RAID in the bios is ridiculous. Mainly because the Intel RAID controller is the OnChip RAID, and the Silicon IMage is the OnBoard RAID. Easily confused... Anyways, you have to set Onchip RAID to enabled... then change your primary boot device to "Other Hardware" or something like that... Then under the "Other bootable hardware" choose OnChip RAID.

Then when you start it up, it'll come up w/ the intel raid screen, you'll need to press Ctrl + I. Then you just push create new array. It doesn't take long.

Edit: Oh, also remember that they give you a SATA floppy disk to use during windows install, you'll need to hit F6 at the start of the install.

 

[Alex]

its gonna be amazing what else can i say
good call on the 3.0 instead of 3.2
personally id get an ATI card instead of the geforce, afaik they already have their 256mb cards available.
instead of the raptors id get special edition caviars with the 8mb cache but since your mobo already has onboard SATA raid i suppose it works out really nicely!

 

[Pocatello]

Look awesome. That's beaucoup bux of a system.

 

[SLCentral]

Thanks for the comments everyone, huge help . Now I have a huge problem though. I was in love with that CoolerMaster 710, but because it is being phased back, no one has it in stock! Does anyone have any reccomendations on a nice, SLEEK, sexy, $100ish case?

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: SLCentral
Thanks for the comments everyone, huge help . Now I have a huge problem though. I was in love with that CoolerMaster 710, but because it is being phased back, no one has it in stock! Does anyone have any reccomendations on a nice, SLEEK, sexy, $100ish case?

Cooler Master ATC-111C-SX1 / SX2 All Aluminum Alloy Case

At $150 it is a little pricey but it looks pretty shweet.

 

[IronWolf11]

If you going to go with ABIT and moeny doesnt matter, then look towards there new board. The Abit IC7-Max3 I think its called, its a suped up G.

 

[Mikesta]

nice and expensive lol

 

[billyjak]

Looks good, I have the 3.0 and it oc/3.20 very easy and with pure stability.
You'll love those Raptors, they're fast.
You should have a kick ass setup there.

I would get the Max 3 though if it were me.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: billyjak
Looks good, I have the 3.0 and it oc/3.20 very easy and with pure stability.
You'll love those Raptors, they're fast.
You should have a kick ass setup there.

I would get the Max 3 though if it were me.

My 3.0 seems to hit 3.4 at 1:1... Ram was holdin gme back....

Yeah, I'd get a Max 3 as well.

 

[SLCentral]

Yeah, I was reading about the Max3 yesterday, if I have some spare cash when buying, I'll be sure to buy it.

Thats a nice case, but as I remember it was out of stock?

 

[440BX]

Before you rush out for the raptors you should read the harddrive review and tests on this site,it dosent look good for the raptor,better to get a regular sata hardrive.

 

[Hasse]

Howsa... Just thought I'ld pop in a few things...
1. Why go with IDE raid if you want max performance.. I know SCSI is expensive, but hey when it comes to raid nothing beats scsi raid.
2. I've had a lot of bad experience with WD disks, even though they replace the disks it's a friggin hassle, especially if you run Raid 0. SCSI disks have way more MTBF than IDE disks, but well the bad thing about scsi disks is that they're pretty noisy, though not more than a raptor.
3. What kind of cooler are you planning on? The boxed one? They're not bad, but if you want a cooler one go for TT SLK900U, a huge thing, but cools good, and you can fit a 92x92mm fan on it.
4. There is a special Gainward 5900U card out there, with the CoolFX cooling. Here in Norway it's allmost $1000 for the thing, but it's water cooled and run silent, and fast .
5. The Geil memory I have myself, and it's a bit tricky to get to run smooth, but I found that cranking the Volt on the memory to 2.9V fixed it nicely. And they don't even run hot due to the WLCSP memory, besides they're rated to run fine at 3.1V. Anyway, just thought I'ld mention it.


Hepp I think that's it...

 

[SLCentral]

Originally posted by: 440BX
Before you rush out for the raptors you should read the harddrive review and tests on this site,it dosent look good for the raptor,better to get a regular sata hardrive.

Actually, the review says its a great drive. I think you may be thinking of the original review? Alll reviewers had a bad sample hard drive because WD didn't do something correctly, but the updated review is a great one.

 

[SLCentral]

Originally posted by: Hasse
Howsa... Just thought I'ld pop in a few things...
1. Why go with IDE raid if you want max performance.. I know SCSI is expensive, but hey when it comes to raid nothing beats scsi raid.
2. I've had a lot of bad experience with WD disks, even though they replace the disks it's a friggin hassle, especially if you run Raid 0. SCSI disks have way more MTBF than IDE disks, but well the bad thing about scsi disks is that they're pretty noisy, though not more than a raptor.
3. What kind of cooler are you planning on? The boxed one? They're not bad, but if you want a cooler one go for TT SLK900U, a huge thing, but cools good, and you can fit a 92x92mm fan on it.
4. There is a special Gainward 5900U card out there, with the CoolFX cooling. Here in Norway it's allmost $1000 for the thing, but it's water cooled and run silent, and fast .
5. The Geil memory I have myself, and it's a bit tricky to get to run smooth, but I found that cranking the Volt on the memory to 2.9V fixed it nicely. And they don't even run hot due to the WLCSP memory, besides they're rated to run fine at 3.1V. Anyway, just thought I'ld mention it.

1. I am going with SATA RAID. SCSI is just too expensive for my budget.

2. I'll have to take my chances .

3. The boxed one should be fine for me because I am not planning on overclocking.

4. Hehe, $1000 for a graphics card. Besides the fact I don't have water cooling, pretty cool .

5. Do you reccomend Corsair or OCZ over Geil, or is the Geil memory fine?

Hepp I think that's it...

 

[jacktesterson]

O

Originally posted by: SLCentral

Originally posted by: Hasse
Howsa... Just thought I'ld pop in a few things...
1. Why go with IDE raid if you want max performance.. I know SCSI is expensive, but hey when it comes to raid nothing beats scsi raid.
2. I've had a lot of bad experience with WD disks, even though they replace the disks it's a friggin hassle, especially if you run Raid 0. SCSI disks have way more MTBF than IDE disks, but well the bad thing about scsi disks is that they're pretty noisy, though not more than a raptor.
3. What kind of cooler are you planning on? The boxed one? They're not bad, but if you want a cooler one go for TT SLK900U, a huge thing, but cools good, and you can fit a 92x92mm fan on it.
4. There is a special Gainward 5900U card out there, with the CoolFX cooling. Here in Norway it's allmost $1000 for the thing, but it's water cooled and run silent, and fast .
5. The Geil memory I have myself, and it's a bit tricky to get to run smooth, but I found that cranking the Volt on the memory to 2.9V fixed it nicely. And they don't even run hot due to the WLCSP memory, besides they're rated to run fine at 3.1V. Anyway, just thought I'ld mention it.

1. I am going with SATA RAID. SCSI is just too expensive for my budget.

2. I'll have to take my chances .

3. The boxed one should be fine for me because I am not planning on overclocking.

4. Hehe, $1000 for a graphics card. Besides the fact I don't have water cooling, pretty cool .

5. Do you reccomend Corsair or OCZ over Geil, or is the Geil memory fine?

Hepp I think that's it...

I'd take OCZ personally