quad core build

i was wondering if this new build im doing is worth it

http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersio [...] ercart.asp

when the asus 680i mobo is in stock ill get that one instead of the evga also ill be using it for gaming video encoding music etc this is my 1st build and i want to make it last for 5 yrs or more also in the list ill be getting the logitech z5500 and a creative x-fi sound card but right now i think its a good build and will last for a while it would help if a few people give me your opinions about this build oh and i already have my case its a APEVIA X-Navigator Metal Case-Black/Silver please give me some insight on this thx

sorry about that heres the list

APEVIA X-Navigator Metal Case-Black/Silver
ASUS NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
eVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS
Logitech Z-5500 505 Watts 5.1 Speaker
Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150
SeaSonic M12 SS-700HM ATX12V/ EPS12V 700W Power Supply
SCEPTRE x22wg-Gamer Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen HDMI LCD Monitor
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 2.66GHz
Creative SOUND BLASTER X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS 7.1 Channels
SAMSUNG Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write, LightScribe Technology
NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Beige IDE Model ND-3550A
Logitech MX Revolution 931689-0403 Black 7 Buttons 2x Wheels USB RF Wireless Laser Mouse

thats the list as for the mouse sound card and hd i already have one my old pc fried and i can use thoses from it so if anyone can give an opinion to see if im making the right choice

How is this RAM instead of your current DDR2 800s

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820161038

That's all i could Swap from your current Build, Everything seems good for the next Few years. And maybe an Over clock to 3Ghz, Would keep you on top CPU for the next 2 years at Minimum from Intel.

And DDR2 1000 would at least be on top of the DDR2 generation and be able to keep up with minimum DDR3 Offerings.

-Faster speed
-More Memory Bandwidth
-Similar Cost
-Similar latency Timing

*To sum it all up You'll just have a faster DDR2 for future applications. with More Memory Bandwidth to Compliment your very lustrous 8800 DX10 Card

Nothing really to loose only spending about a few more dollars. And you'd have a DDR2 equivalent Mid-range DDR3 if clocked to 1066Mhz

sounds mix and match so i ahve to think about what to get i may go sli in the future but right now just 1 video card also can you give my link to what would work best with my setup and thx for the info

Patiently waiting...

I have until August to make up my mind... I can afford to have three or four PC's, but I can't afford the space, and with one baseboard circuit of 20 A @ 220 VAC.... So I'll patiently wait, and leave you (and others) to the anxiety bits... 8)

Raid 5 is actually a good compromise between raid 1 and raid 0. HD's do fail, but in my experience if they last past 90 days, and are not mistreated, they're good for a while. At least with raid 5 the OP can lose a drive, replace it and patiently wait for the raid to rebuild. His backup strategy, with an external drive, isn't a really bad option either. He's not running a 24 /7 database, for (whomever's) sake!

Now, if he lost his MB, say after two years, and the replacement had a different controller... That's an issue. And one that needs to be thought about.

OP... Don't forget to enable 'smart' in your bios, if that's an option. An after thought...

I bought my system in September 2002, and I have no hope of being able to run new release games; the best that I was able to get was around 20fps in FEAR on 1024x768 with medium settings and no filtering, and that was after a lot of Windows tweaks.

In all honesty I woud wait until quad-core CPU's mature; Intel's QX6700 has a massive 130W TDP, which means the cooler is loud as hell and overclocking is basically non-existent without some serious cooling gear, not to mention that the Core 2 Extreme is actually faster in single threaded apps.

You would probably want to get more RAM although with the "USB RAM" (forgot it's proper name) feature in Vista that may not be a problem. Will definitely be slower than proper RAM though.

I have the Logitech Z-5500 attached to an X-Fi XtremeMusic and I can tell you right away... it's great. 8)

This combination is so good that, for starters, if you listen to a recorded conversation you could swear that the conversation is taking place in the real world, and not being reproduced. All other familiar sounds also sound like the real thing... it's really very impressive...

The only downside: if you ever, ever get to hear any other computer sound system you'll be majorly disappointed. Actually, you might be disappointed at quite a few TV sets and even home theaters as well...

Z-5500 = devil's work

i can burn 2 dvds etc at once which will cut my burn time in half goes for muisc aswell and also i can encode 2 types of movies and burn them at the sametime so i dont have to wait for the 1st one to get done

so how do i make a balanced rig for gaming video encoding and editing etc tryin to make this last for a while since quad core is expensive

Looking towards using [NV]-RAID-5 and getting more than 150 GB of storage would be a good start.

Video is a streaming media by nature regardless of CODEC (or uncompressed frames), so a 10,000 rpm HDD is a waste, you need throughput not I/O.
(I/O being fast seek times).
I'd also ensure you can upgrade to 8 GB RAM down the track, via 4 x 2 GB DIMMs if need be. So look to get 2 x 2 GB DIMMs now, but make sure they are ones that will be available on the market still in 1-2 years time.

Consider partitioning to run Win.32 (Windows XP Pro) and Win.x64 (Windows XP Pro x64 Edition), and at least one other OS (eg: Linux.x64 or Vista.x64).

You'll also need the software.

:?: What resolution is that monitor anyway ? - 1920 x 1200 makes video editing heaps nicer than 1680 x 1050 and 1440 x 900 should be avoided at all costs. IMHO it is is less than 1024 pixels 'tall' it isn't a monitor.

What is so "left field" about it?

Did you read the link?

Quad core is here and it is cost-effective. And the Tyan mobo would certainly give you bragging rights ... A dual quad-core system with 64 GB!

Then top that off with SAS/SATA disk storage. I like the idea of RAID 5, but think about doing that only for your SATA drives. Put your OS -- or OS's -- on the SAS drives. They are faster and they are Enterprise quality. You can beat the crap out of them -- thrash, snarl, chew -- and they'll still deliver. The Seagate 750 GB's are great drives. Get those or get some Raptor's for your SATA sub-system. [The best performing drives can be seen at http://www.storagereview.com/ They have the best listings I've seen. Is there any better? ]

PC Power & Cooling makes an awesome 1KW PSU. It is what AMD, NVIDIA, etc. use when they build out a demo system. Very dependable. I've had puss PSU's go out on me. Never again. Spend a couple extra bucks and get the quality, and peace of mind.

For large monitor's, CRT's are still more cost effective, and faster especially for gaming. For cheap prices check out
http://www.azatek.com/
LCD's are cooler though and take less space. PC World still thinks the Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP is good. Check out
http://www.pcworld.com/ic/monitors/#
though it's been a few years since I've investigated this....


--M

May I ask why 8800 GTS and not 8800 GTX? Considering the rest of the components you have picked, the price difference would only add 5% to 10% to your total cost.

ok just let me know how it works out for you good luck

make sure you get the 4-4-4-12 800mhz, buy 2, 74 gig raptors and raid 0 them!

nice psu = i like module - strider series from silverstone you can find that psu for less -its $140-$150 @east luna - kiiler psu super cool - cool temps is #1 the psu hardly gets hot with crossfire x1900xtx and overclocked cpu's

you might 1 month and get the QE6600 - u can run it 3.2ghz and it be $400 less - take the $400 and put it into the video card.

asus board the middle one ( i think its called p5n32-e sli)the best the strider is too expensive - unless you really need its features - if u ask me - since u asked - lol

the sound card is waste, unless u doing recording - the highend boards have killer descrete audio - sound cards are dead!


with all the savings i listed you can buy 2 8800gtx instead - your system will be just as fast, faster to boot. your sound will be the same with the extra card - and u have unreal frame rates!


APEVIA X-Navigator Metal Case-Black/Silver
ASUS NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
eVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS
Logitech Z-5500 505 Watts 5.1 Speaker
Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150
SeaSonic M12 SS-700HM ATX12V/ EPS12V 700W Power Supply
SCEPTRE x22wg-Gamer Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen HDMI LCD Monitor
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 2.66GHz
Creative SOUND BLASTER X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS 7.1 Channels
SAMSUNG Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write, LightScribe Technology
NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Beige IDE Model ND-3550A
Logitech MX Revolution 931689-0403 Black 7 Buttons 2x Wheels USB RF Wireless Laser Mouse


http://www.warpedsystems.net/ - my site sucks my computers kick ass check ebay!

DO not raid 5 ---raid 5 suxs on nvidia and intel onboard controllers - i been building raid systems for 3 years, i built 3 raid 5 systems last year they all crashed.

the controllers get overloaded i think and crash. as said i build raid 0 and they are all running as far as i know.

raid 10 is 50/50

some crashed after a month - some crashed in a day!

ok ill look into im going to 2 74gb raptors(hopefully i save some money) wait til the qe6600 comes out which will be cheaper fot the mobo im thinking about changing to evga 680i since its cheaper at newegg there sold out of the asus 680i ill drop the sound card to save some money ill look into that silverstone psu but i heard seasonic is one of the best thx for the info

i never really made a server pc before i just stuck with desktops or laptops plus its way expensive thx for the insight tho

Figure in, a core 2 duo is 75 watts - quad core is 130 watts, add to that if oc. Then add, the GPU's, they use ~ 150 watts, plus during heavy gaming, - all that heat means alot of watts remember the heat is the wasted juice the rendering energy is not heat.

so figure 400 watts just for sli and quad core, 225 for c2d and single gpu. best psu is 80% effecient so that means you need nearly500 watts to get 400 in the compnets - the other 100 is what u feel out of the psu fan.

8800's use alot of juice - the minimum psu i would use is 600 watt silverstone which is 675 watts/42 amps with C2D and ~$110

to be safe and if you upgrade to SLI and quad core use the 750w/54 amps@12v ~$140


first, the better psu is more efficient - it will run cooler then the lower amp one - believe or not!

second, you better off running a psu at mid level like a car engine - below 2000 rpms a 4cyl bogs down over 3500 rpm you putting a lot of wear and ter on the engine. So to be its a not brain-er - if you are going to go Q-core one day and plan on running high end gpu's, spend extra and use the 750w.

I use the 750 on my big machines $3-4k, 600 strider (really a 675 watt) on all my mid level gamers and hipro 600 watt on my noobie systems.

if you check out my high end systems when they are listed on ebay, wapredsystems, u see i list a hipro and upgrades. i actually do not list that i always use better psu's and mobos! Too small PSU is #1 problem when building systems. Crappy mobo is #2! Too little spent on the gpu and too much on the rest is #3!

http://www.warpedsystems.net/ the "need4speed"

I'm sure that we will all be waiting with 'bated breath.

Looking forward to it Jack, a lot of people were saying Kentsfield would be starved of bandwith with the 1066MHz FSB, but from what I've seen there is at most only a few percent difference between 1066MHz and 1333MHz bus speeds.