Tom's Hardware > Forum > Homebuilt Systems > General Homebuilt > What do you think of this system....

What do you think of this system....

Forum Homebuilt Systems : General Homebuilt - What do you think of this system....

Tom's Hardware: Over 1.4 million members in 6 different countries available to answer all your high-tech questions. Sign up now! Its free!
Ask the community Add a reply
Word :    Username :           
 
Yarricc   05-05-2006 at 06:12:59 AM

Lian-li PC65b (switched out the top and rear fans with enermax thermal controlled ones)
P5WD2-E Premium
P4 930 Dual Core (Presler 3.0ghz)
2x1gig Patriot DDR2-800 (4-4-4-12)
2xRaptor 36.4gig (raid 0 for OS and Programs)
1xRaptor 74gig (Genral storage)
1xWD 40gig (swap file, files print spool etc)
2 Plextor burners 1 slot load DVD 1 CD
Sapphire Radeon x1800xt 256meg
SB X-fi platinum
Enermax liberty 620 PSU
I don't intend to over clock this pc.

I have windows xp pro sp2 (oem) & windows xp 64bit edition (oem) not sure which I am going to run.

Add a reply
Sponsored Links
Register or log in to remove.
Jinx13   05-05-2006 at 07:53:17 AM
- 0 +

Why get the Raptor 74 for general storage?? For the same price you can get a much larger 7200 rpm drive that will hold much more. For general storage that extra speed just isn't much needed.

Reply to Jinx13
hashv2f16   05-05-2006 at 08:51:40 AM
- 0 +

Hi there, just some suggestions:

I like where the idea behind your hard drive setup is going, although I don't know why are you putting the swap file on the crappy 40gig? Put it on the Raptor 74!

If it were my system, instead of having 2 Raptor 36's, I would have gotten 2x RAID-0 Raptor 150's for doing OS and programs, plus storage. If there was then any need for backups/extra storage, I would use a single 250GB drive for that, just for good measure.

Not overclocking? I assume that you are using the noisy stock Intel CPU cooling with that pretiful case and its nice quiet auto speed controlled fans? If you don't have a Zalman CNPS9500 AT already, get it! It's a thermally-controlled version of the CNPS9500, and at lowest speed it really is silent.

By the graphics card and the CPU you have chosen, I see that gaming is probably not your top priority for this machine. You have got a much nicer sound card than graphics card, which tells me you favor your sound quality over your visual quality, and you also own an expensive set of 7.1 surround speakers.

At the moment, 64-bit computing is just a sales gimmick because not everyone else is using 64-bit software yet. My mate found that one out the hard way recently when he bought his new Athlon64 system and found after installing Windows XP 64-bit Edition he couldn't install or run any programs, (not even the anti-virus), because they were all 32-bit.

Reply to hashv2f16
weskurtz81   05-05-2006 at 09:03:12 AM
- 0 +

to be honest with you, you won't notice a difference between 1 or 2 raptors. The raided raptors may be faster, but you will not notice it unless you are transferring files from one raptor raid 0- array to another raptor raid 0 array. If anything set them up in a mirror for redundancy.

Reply to weskurtz81
chuckshissle   05-05-2006 at 09:11:55 AM
- 0 +

I would place the money on the cpu and get a good hd like the WD Caviar. Use that money for the 74Gb raptor and get the 950 instead and overclock it to 4Ghz for total performance.

950
2x36Gb raptor (raid 0)
80Gb WD Caviar

Reply to chuckshissle
weskurtz81   05-05-2006 at 09:22:10 AM
- 0 +

chuck is right. And if you are going to go with an Intel dual core cpu, I would not go any lower then the 940. The 930 and 920 are both slower than the X2 3800. The 940 is about equivalent to the X2 3800 as they both win about 50% of the benchmarks. The only downside to the 940 and 950 is they have a TDP of about 130w. The 3800 has a TDP of about 89W but in reality it is in the mid 70's. AMD tends to over shoot TDP's, I guess to be on the safe side. Since you said you don't want to OC I would not go lower than the 940. But in my opinion, unless you are going to get a conroe cpu, I would go with a dual core amd cpu. The X2 3800 is a good choice, will get roughly the same performance as a 940, the motherboard will cost you less... which makes up the price difference between the cpu's, it will run cooler than a 940 and use less juice.

Reply to weskurtz81
Yarricc   05-05-2006 at 04:51:52 PM
- 0 +

OK I made one minor change.....

delete Raptor 74gig
replace with WD 250gig 8meg cache

Ohhh by the way I am using a swiftech MCX775-V cooler with an Thermaltake TT-8025A-2B 80mm Fan on it for CPU cooling.

All parts have been ordered and the last of them should be in first of next week, the anticipation is killing me. All parts (cept cpu cooler) were bought through newegg so I know customer service won't be an issue.

Reply to Yarricc
weskurtz81   05-05-2006 at 08:55:30 PM
- 0 +

cpu cooler, I would go with a 90mm or a 120mm.... quiet and powerful

Reply to weskurtz81
Ask the community Add a reply
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Homebuilt Systems > General Homebuilt > What do you think of this system....
Go to:

There are 1134 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

Forum map
Bestofmedia Forum ©
2000-2009 Bestofmedia Group
Page generated in 0.241 seconds
Please mind

You are about to answer a thread that has been inactive for more than 6 months.
If you still wish to proceed, please ensure that your posting is original and does not duplicate or overlap any prior responses to this thread.

Add a reply Cancel
Sponsored links
  • Ask the community now
  • Publish
Ad
Related Topics
See all relatives topics
They won a badge
Join us in greeting them
How do I win badges?