Tax time.....rate my planned build :)

[Knytestorme]

Ok, heading into tax time here in aus and looking to build a system up asap to take into account tax benefits.

PC will be used primarily for games development and video/DAW work, along with multiboxing WoW (5 instances) and a file/sql server...ie, it will be my general goto pc in most instances for work or play related functions.

Motherboard eVGA nForce 780i SLI 775 A1: 1333MHz FSB, 4xDDR2/800(2x), 1xATA/133, 6xSATA/300, 3xSLIx16xPCI-E, 2xGigaLAN, 7.1 Sound, Firewire, ATX

CPU Intel Core 2 Quad 'Q9450' CPU - LGA775, 4x2.66GHz, 2x6Mb, 1333MHz

RAM 2 x Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4Gb 800MHz CAS 4-4-4-12 DDR2 Memory Kit - 2 x 2Gb, LEDs

Hard Drives 6 x 1000Gb Western Digital Caviar GP 7200rpm Hard Drive - S/ATA-II, 16Mb - 3Y

Floppy Drive Sony 1.44Mb Floppy Drive - Black

DVD Writer LG GSA-H55NBBK Internal DVD Writer - P/ATA, Drive + Software - Black

Video Card 2 x eVGA GeForce 9800 GX2 1Gb 16xPCI-E Video Card - 600MHz/2.0GHz - 2xDVI, HDMI Out

Video Capture FusionHDTV DVB-T Dual Digital 4 TV Tuner - 1xPCI-E

Case Antec Twelve Hundred ATX Case w/ *NO PSU* - Black

Power Supply SilverStone ST1000 1000w ATX 2.2 Power Supply - 135mm Fan, 4xPCI-E6, 2xPCI-E8 - Black

My main concerns here are:

* Should I look at going with an asus 780 that will support 1066MHz ram and the appropriate ram (will I see much of an increase over the 800) or if I should bite the bullet and go with a 790 and DDR3 (decided against this as I can see by the time I need to upgrade there will be new cpu arch and pin layout anyway)

* Will the PSU be up to the task or should I look at one of the modular 1200w Silverstones?

* Will the 2 GX2's run 4 monitors without a drop in fps when not in SLI?

Overall I think this build meets my needs and has a decent tradeoff between price and power (eg the Q9550 is an extra $300 but don't think I'd see enough increase to make that worth it) but I am open to suggestions and advice so have at it.

Budget for the build is about $6k AUS (including 4 BenQ 22" monitors @ $300 each) so there is about $4800Aus for the actual PC.

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

I'd go with the faster ram, just to ease overclocking. dividers such, and it seems for your uses, even a tiny increase in badnwidth would be beneficial. What kind of array will you run with 6 drives? 3? 5? jbod?

 

[PurdueRy]

Why a floppy drive?

Why a PATA Optical drive?

The PSU will be more than fine.

For the price your paying you should be getting 24" screens(1920 x 1080 vs 1650 x 1080)

 

[Knytestorme]

For the drives, I'm going to go with 1 drive for OS and software installs, 1 drive for data and general use/temp workspace for video/audio work and then 4 drives in Raid5 for the file server and final storage space for finished work.

Reason for floppy drive is simply for if I need to load raid drivers during Vista install (though have never tried dumping them from a USB at that stage, will it work?)

PATA rather than SATA purely because the mobo only has 6 sata ports and I intend to use them, while the pata controller will be empty so may as well drop the optical on there.

I agree on the monitor size, and will likely try to adjust this but I'm not sure I can justify an extra $800 for the 4 monitors (24" are around $500 atm) for the smallish amount of screen real estate increase (the extra pixels work out at ~ 1/3 the number on a single 22" so I end up paying $800 for $100 worth of screen)

In regards to the RAM for overclocking and such, I haven't ever bothered overclocking RAM, only CPU's, so I'm not sure there is a need for that but the point you make about the extra bandwidth could be the deciding factor.

I took a quick look again today, and one of the evga 790's is only about $100 more than a 780 so it's ok, it was more the price of DDR3 I was worried about but it seems to only be around $177 for 2x 1Gb of Corsair 1333 which is certainly a decent price (around the same as the 2 x 2Gb DDR2 I listed) but I can't find a price for 2 x 2Gb sticks yet and that's the main sticking point. Will the benefit I see from going with a 790/DDR3 be worth $500 to the cost of the build?...and the problem with that, is I don't think anyone can answer that question for me :/

 

[Urtho]

Originally posted by: Knytestorme

Reason for floppy drive is simply for if I need to load raid drivers during Vista install (though have never tried dumping them from a USB at that stage, will it work?)

Many (most? all?) modern boards these days can load drivers/bios files from USB flash drives without needing an OS. I'd personally skip it but it's up to you and your comfort level.

* Will the 2 GX2's run 4 monitors without a drop in fps when not in SLI?

Are you asking if the 2 cards working independently can drive all the applications you mentioned on 4 monitors at good fps? That's very difficult to say really, but I'd answer with a qualified 'yes' here, all depending on how heavy your usage patterns and multitasking are between your games and development work.

Will the benefit I see from going with a 790/DDR3 be worth $500 to the cost of the build?...and the problem with that, is I don't think anyone can answer that question for me :/

Sure we can - the answer is no 790/DDR3 is not worth $500 added onto your build cost. The only place you'll notice a difference will be if you "play" synthetic benchmarking software. Stick with tried and true DDR2 as it is dirt cheap at the moment.

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

the 790 offers hybrid sli, but you were already planning to go well beyond that. DDR3 offers higher densities, so you could fit more ram in the same number of slots. It begins with much higher bandwidth, and uses less voltage. starting at ddr3-1333 is the only way to see a difference, and it may not be all that appreciable in many applications. Most reviews are pointing toward 1333-1600mhz ddr3 to be necessary to both overcome the cas latency increase between ddr2 and ddr3, and to notice the increased bandwidth to an appreciable extent.

The point I made about ram dividers with the 800mhz ddr2 is to allow you to overclock the cpu without the memory being a limiting factor (if it runs at 800 when your cpu is at stock, having 1066 ram will allow you to increase your fsb by 133mhz, and the cpu speed would go up by that times whatever your multi it- all without the ram going above stock rated volts or speed.) Say your fsb is 1066 stock, it is actually 266mhz quad-pumped (kinda like a fsb multi), so to go from 1066 to 1333 would require ddr2-800 to go from stock speed and volts to 1066 (if you used no dividers). The bandwidth increase is small, as ddr2 reaches near its mechanical limits of throughput @ 800mhz, but the headroom for the fsb, allowing ram to run unaltered in tandem is convenient, and at times necessary (some mobos don't like mixed cpu and ram dividers, and won't be stable).

don't get a board with ddr2 + ddr3 support. Those chipsets are optimized for ddr2 use, and putting in ddr3 will not give the performance purely-ddr3 based board will. DDR3 should come down in price and latencies, as well as ramp in density and speeds over time. I'm not sure, but I'd assume intel x chipsets (x38, x48) will offer the best ddr3 performance, although the 790 is probably just as good of a contender (and nvidia releases software updates to make their chipsets more efficient, where-as intel typically creates new spins, or revisions or silicon, unless a large kink or bug is present: just another plus on the side of nvidia...)

worth the 500 dollars? probably not now, but the ability to throw in the better ddr3 of the future may make it a bit more enticing

 

[Knytestorme]

Originally posted by: Urtho

Are you asking if the 2 cards working independently can drive all the applications you mentioned on 4 monitors at good fps? That's very difficult to say really, but I'd answer with a qualified 'yes' here, all depending on how heavy your usage patterns and multitasking are between your games and development work.

This is purely for multiboxing WoW, since for everything else I'm not too concerned with losing frames (eg for most other games I'll be running single screen SLI, and for desktop work I can just run 4 screens without worrying too much).

With multiboxing WoW atm I run one instance fullscreen and 4 on a second screen at 1/4 screen res (running Q6600 + 9600GT). I'm wondering if with 4 outputs and 4 monitors hooked up to them I can then run one instance per screen at full res (with the 5th on my current box) without losing too many fps...mainly I have heard some reports that it will produce slower framerates that way then just using 2 monitors on one card.

And Popnfresh, you have managed to confuse the issue a lot more, thank you .....It's actually interesting, as I have never bothered getting too much into RAM (for instance I still don't know if 4-4-4-15 is better than 5-5-5-15 or 4-4-4-12) but based on my reading of what you are saying, I'm leaning towards a 780 + DDR2 at this stage and see what the next gen brings once Intel bring out their next architecture and pin config, make a decision then when I need to get a new mobo and ddr3 is all that's available.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: Knytestorme
Tax time.....rate my planned build

I rate it a 3.75 out of 10.

 

[Knytestorme]

Originally posted by: Blain

Originally posted by: Knytestorme
Tax time.....rate my planned build

I rate it a 3.75 out of 10.

Guess I should have said critique instead

 

[Roguestar]

RAM with lights in it? Seriously?

 

[Knytestorme]

Originally posted by: Roguestar
RAM with lights in it? Seriously?

Was the only 2 x 2 they had listed /shrug

 

[DSF]

What site are you buying from?

 

[Knytestorme]

Originally posted by: DSF
What site are you buying from?

http://www.secret.com.au is the site I use for prices to start with, but 3 times a month we have a computer fair where prices are about 5-10% lower than secret

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Originally posted by: Blain

Originally posted by: Knytestorme
Tax time.....rate my planned build

I rate it a 3.75 out of 10.

i would rate it 3.5 out of 10. not a good build at all..

about the only thing u got right was the CPU
-drop quad sli, its a POS.
-drop the floppy drive you'll use it once a year.
-get an intel-chipset mb
-6TB of storage? there are better and faster hdd's out there.
-etcetc