New system design, ideas

N

Neo Decoy

First time out of the vault
Hey guys, i know i havnt been around for a while, been busy with work. I had to sell my system *cries* - too damn hard to cart all over australia, now im setup again im sick of this laptop and really need to re-build another desktop. I have about a month or two while i save up the cash for this, so i thought id get some opinions on the hardware im going to put into it(had some really good ideas last time that saved me cash and gave me more power so i thought id ask again.) anyway here's the basic breakdown and a link to a detailed excell sheet for those tech enough to want to know Tongue

P.S - i use www.gamedude.com.au for my parts as they have always been reliable before(some parts may be a little more expensive, but the service there is top knotch so i really dont mind too much - plus its all tax claimable as i use it for work hehe).

EDIT: This is the updated system design after convo's over multiple forums.

Component Model Price
Motherboard ASUS M2-CROSSHAIR nForce 590 Dual Channel DDR2 800 Dual PCI-E SLI Ready $339.00
CPU AMD Athlon64 x2 6000+ 3.0Ghz 1MB Cache AM2 RETAIL BOX $205.00
Video ASUS EAH2900XT 512meg GDDR3 Dual Link DVI ViVo HDCP Ready Model: EAH2900XT/G/HTVDI/512M/A $595.00
ASUS EAH2900XT 512meg GDDR3 Dual Link DVI ViVo HDCP Ready Model: EAH2900XT/G/HTVDI/512M/A $595.00
BFG PhysX P1 128MB DDR3 Physics Accellerator PCI card $299.00
Case ANTEC P190 Super Mid Tower 2 Power Supplies 650watt and 550watt TOTAL 1200watt Neo-Link Black $549.00
DVD Drive ASUS 20x DRW-2014L1T BLACK and WHITE Faceplate SATA LIGHTSCRIBE NERO Software Retail $53.00
ASUS 20x DRW-2014L1T BLACK and WHITE Faceplate SATA LIGHTSCRIBE NERO Software Retail $53.00
Hard Drives SeaGate 500 gig 7200rpm SATA-2 NCQ 16meg Cache 7200.10 $182.00
SeaGate 500 gig 7200rpm SATA-2 NCQ 16meg Cache 7200.10 $182.00
SeaGate 500 gig 7200rpm SATA-2 NCQ 16meg Cache 7200.10 $182.00
Western Digital 150 gig 10,000rpm SATA RAPTOR MODEL : WD1500ADFD 16meg Cache $275.00
Western Digital 150 gig 10,000rpm SATA RAPTOR MODEL : WD1500ADFD 16meg Cache $275.00
RAM CORSAIR TwinX 2gig x 2 (4 Gig) DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 800mhz Matched Pair $399.00
CORSAIR TwinX 2gig x 2 (4 Gig) DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 800mhz Matched Pair $399.00
Monitors 22inch ASUS VW222U Black WSXGA+ 1680x1050 2ms Response DVI Contrast 2000:1 Speakers Splendid $345.00
22inch ASUS VW222U Black WSXGA+ 1680x1050 2ms Response DVI Contrast 2000:1 Speakers Splendid $345.00
Audio CREATIVE Sound Blaster X-Fi PLATINUM FATAL1TY CHAMPION Series PCI $319.00
Speakers Creative INSPIRE T7900 7.1 8watt RMS Sat, 20watt RMS Cen, 24watt RMS SUB $149.00
Cooling Thermaltake BigTyp 120 VX MODEL : CL-P0310 Silent and powerful VR fan, 16dBA at minimum fan speed. $75.00
Total $5,516.00
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I'd suggesting going for a raid setup of smaller 15000 rpm scsi drives, since all large storage should be done on portable media anyways (especially given recent advancements in flash technology). that'll help you nice and well with your hard drive bottleneck, and make your virtual memory run at top notch speeds. with scsi drives there is less load on your processor, leaving you with better utilization of resources, even if sata performs a tiny bit better at the cost of processor speed.\

What operating system do you intend to use, and also why are you going with AMD over the high end quad intels?

And are you seriously getting 3 monitors?
Fuckin A, I'm jealous.
Also, considering that support is now out, it might be worthwhile for you to get something that is ddr3 ready, because itll be here real soon.
 
Thanks for the reply!

3 Monitors because when i do serious work on graphics i use all 3 - one for my modeller, one for the layout and one for my reference images, and when gaming i use one for reference images, one for audio and one for the game - they are very usefull.

I chose AMD over INTEL for the tests - i can post the links here if you want, and from personal experience. Intel looks better on paper, but AMD is kicking the absolute crap out of them in real life(even though they generate a little more heat, which i have take into account, with a water cooling system, but i forgot to include the specs of that here - but then again they would take a fair while to type out and explain).

As for OS - i will probably go with XP 64 and VISTA, then figure which one is working better in 12 months.

That idea of raid SCSI's is interesting, but the problem is i do kind of need the space, and the only items i can get from gamedude is the western digital(not even sure if Seagate makes 15000 rpm's), and then only at 150 gig - with only 6 raid controllers that would limit me to 900 gig - which i can fill up niin about 2 months - i considered a blueray to use as a backup to offset a lack of HD space but with the extra cost of the HD's if i go with that option would make it rather expensive - and i am on a budget - a large one but a budget none-the-less. I might consider sacrificing say .5 TB for a few more 150g 15000's, but i was basically only going to sue that as my swap drive - personally i have never used a 15000 before - are they THAT much better to be worth the extra 500gig?

Oh and the DDR3 - there was not any boards available on that site that supported it, maybe when i finish saving up there will be, but id prefer not to design around something that may not appear. But i would like DDR3 - and would be willing to spend another 1k for it :D
 
Ahh, designing stuff. the need for massive storage suddenly makes itself apparent. I've seen how big projects can get.

you know, i would believe what you say about amd, if I hadnt read amd say that they dont have anything out as good as the best intel chips since the four cores came out (I can't remember the source, its possible i could have hallucinated it)

If you're real software savvy, i strongly suggest getting the gutsy gibbon on a another partition. It's really just a fantastic OS, and if you are good at it, you can redesign it manually to be as efficient and streamlined as you need. and ofcourse, its free \m/
Plus all the best software works on it, pidgin and foobar2k and firefox/iceweasel and vlc player

do you use wacom pads, or are you a mouse guy?

also, do you plan to get a motherboard that will let you overclock? (itd help justify using a liquid cooling system)

I also highly recomment getting a little software app called powerstrip to really optimize your monitors.
 
From what i read about the quad cores:

Basically intel wired two dual cores together, while AMD went with a full redesign and had four individual single cores together with their own separate memory core, which broke down into 2 then one, where as intel went two into one(with a bigger bottle neck at the two cores using the one memory area).

Ill have to look at that gutsy gibbon, sounds interesting(mostly i have been working on MS for the compatability, and the fact i work 60 hrs a week, kinda bites into my learning time for new os's haha).

For the graphic design, i use mouse at the moment, but freehand sketch all my models and video sequences, so ill be moving to a watcom pad soon(recommended by a mate who does graphic design).

Powerstrip? googling it now :)

Thanks for your feedback mate, its great to be able to bounce the system off someone else. The only real problem im seeing is the limit of 8GB of ram, im sure ill be able to chew that up in no time, and really dont want to fork out 10-20k for a damn blade server lol.

Usually i use lanparty mobo's but there wernt any available at gamedude(im seriously considering another company, but finding one in aus that can supply me as well with such good service is making me hesitant), and if worse comes to worse i can still OC a standard mobo. With the dual video cards, full ram banks, dual power supplies, im expecting ill need the watercooling without OC(going to have to test during summer to verify that).
 
They have an interesting range, but unfourtanetly only ship to the US. Ill have a look around and see if i can find one that ships to aus, hopefully if the delivery price is acceptable it will save me a bit - as the latest AUS to US is rather good hehe. Thanks for the link though, gives me an idea of prices over there at the moment.

Hmm i like the prices there, save a few hundred - might ship to a mate in america dump the cash into his acct and get him to ship to me haha.

EDIT:

After reading some reviews on the FX chip, im going to switch to a quad core motherboard. Ill update the top when i have finished, thanks for your thoughts so far mate :)
 
there is some problematic info here on SCSI.

right now, i run SCSI 320 15k rpm drives.

you CAN get 146 gig 15k rpm drives for like $1,000 each drive.

you also can get an Adaptec 2120s for like $400.

the biggest benifit for using SCSI, is it would allow you to run 15 HDs in a raid 5 array.

you are not limited to 6 hard drives in SCSI. the vast majority of the time you are limited the following:

the first 8 are free, if you go over 8, you lose 1 slot for every 8 after that.

for an 8 device controller, you get 8 devices.

for a 16 device controller you can use 15 of them. for a 24 device controller you can use 22 of them. for a 32 device controller you can use 29 of them.

the highest device chain i have ever heard of was a 64 device controller where they used 58 of them. and the idea of that controller was: 2 hds in a mirror for OS, 28 drives in a raid 5, then another 28 drives as a mirror of the other 28 drives.

it was for a bank and their user accounts data storage.


right now i have a 15 device SCSI card that natively supports raid.

so technically with a card like mine your max storage is 15x146gb = 2,190 GB. and of course these are add-on cards so you could theoretically run 2 of these cards.

you just need one hell of a power supply.
 
ROFLOL now THAT is an array! I dont think i quite need that much space lol, im just about to update the top post with the revisions here are the changes i made:

Video cards - dropped them to 512MB's of the same units - the 1G units disappeared off the site, i think they may have been pre-maturely put on there. I was looking at other brands/types etc, i can get a 1g unit, but not in a brand i recogonise, and frankly their site is horrible so im not going to trust them in my system.

I have added a physx card - i finally found a supplier where i could get one, even if it is different than the rest of the system part locations, ill install it later when it arrives.

I have changed the HD configuration to 2 x 10k rpm 150g's (raid 0), and reduced the others to 2x500g for storage - im considering adding a blueray burner for storage, so im not panicky about excessive storage locally (plus im planning on building a 2nd system for storage and media center work)

I have taken the monitors down to two 22'' - two reasons, one the footprint on those is bloody large, and im having trouble finding someone to build my desk! Also im not sure on the rear configuration of the cards once they are in linked mode, so i dont exactly want to buy 3 and only be able to use two(kinda hard to get information on things like that, not many of my mates have a setup like this for the obvious overkill reason).

I had originally put in the incorrect ram - i had 8 x 1g - whoops, now its the correct 4 x 2 gig(unfourtanetly i was not able to get corsair's premium ram in 2x2g units which i was a little disappointed about).

I designed a system using 2 x amd AM2 chips, but im hesitant about using that as true quad cores for the AMD are not released yet, and really dont want to buy a system this expensive with a damn bottleneck in it, instead ill build this and when i do my usual upgrade in a year or two, shift this motherboard into my media center and upgrade to a quad then.

Same applies to the DDR3 - infact i was not able to find a board that supported DDR3 yet in AM2 - i thought i was going a little crazy at one stage, but after checking multiple sites i couldnt find a reputable board.

so this is where the design stands at the moment. And somehow even after removing a monitor its still the same price :P And as of today, $1800 saved so far - 4 weeks to go - probably 6 and ill be buying the system.
 
AMD generally runs cooler than intel. I'm betting you could use an intel cpu as a space heater :P.
 
Neo Decoy, I've read through your list and it sounds like you are building a plane with a ton of useless steel on board.

You could have much better components than what you have listed, for much cheaper.

For example; I don't know who the fuck pays $600 for 4 GB of 800Mhz Ram. $600. You could get an 8800GTX for that price.

As well as your other blatantly ill-advised choices; regarding the monitor, video cards, processor, etc.

My best bit of advice, is to immediately do some more research, and do not buy that list that you are currently thinking about. You'll be getting ripped off, in short.

I highly recommend this website for further research: http://hardocp.com/
 
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