My turn, plz critique my build

[LiuKang]

Never bothered to build my own machines, so I figured I'd take a crack at it... This will also be my OCing guinea pig.

- Lian Li PC-75Bk Aluminum Server Tower Case
- EVGA Nforce 680I SLI LGA775 Conroe ATX
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (& Zalman 9700 to keep it cool)
- OCZ Platinum XTC REV.2 PC2-6400 4GB 4X1GB DDR2-800
- MSI NX7900 GeForce 7900 GTO 650MHZ PCI-E 512MB 1.32GHZ DDR3
- Western Digital Raptor X 150GB
- Western Digital SE16 500GB (x2)
- Silverstone Strider ST75F 750W ATX12V 24PIN (mmm... modular)

I'm an independant consultant, so I work from home a lot. I'd rather not have too many machines as space in my office is limitted. I will be running it as both a gaming and work rig (dual boot). I will RAID the 500 giggers and have them run whatever software/testing environment I need for work, while the Raptor will run XP.

I used to run 3 monitors, but one of them crapped out, so I might run a second video card to handle additional monitors and SLI in the future. For now, I'd rather save my cash and wait to see how DX10 cards progress.

I will mate this to all my existing peripherals... dual 19" flatrons, pixma 830 etc.

Any and all feedback is appreciated. TIA.

 

[mcain591]

Nice rig.
Except, maybe the Lian-li v1000. Beautiful case.

 

[RJ]

Never bothered to build my own machines, so I figured I'd take a crack at it... This will also be my OCing guinea pig.

- Lian Li PC-75Bk Aluminum Server Tower Case
- EVGA Nforce 680I SLI LGA775 Conroe ATX
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (& Zalman 9700 to keep it cool)
- OCZ Platinum XTC REV.2 PC2-6400 4GB 4X1GB DDR2-800
- MSI NX7900 GeForce 7900 GTO 650MHZ PCI-E 512MB 1.32GHZ DDR3
- Western Digital Raptor X 150GB
- Western Digital SE16 500GB (x2)
- Silverstone Strider ST75F 750W ATX12V 24PIN (mmm... modular)

I'm an independant consultant, so I work from home a lot. I'd rather not have too many machines as space in my office is limitted. I will be running it as both a gaming and work rig (dual boot). I will RAID the 500 giggers and have them run whatever software/testing environment I need for work, while the Raptor will run XP.

I used to run 3 monitors, but one of them crapped out, so I might run a second video card to handle additional monitors and SLI in the future. For now, I'd rather save my cash and wait to see how DX10 cards progress.

I will mate this to all my existing peripherals... dual 19" flatrons, pixma 830 etc.

Any and all feedback is appreciated. TIA.

Why not go with a P965 board like this one. It's got a 16x and a 4x slot. You could use a really good card in the main slot and a cheapy in the 4x slot. That'll give you the capability to run your 3 monitors, like you had before.

Are you running the 500 giggers in RAID 1?

Why get a single Raptor for gaming? You could get a couple of 80 giggers and set them up in RAID 0 and beat the Raptor in space AND performance....and they'd be cheaper for the set.

You do realize that Windows 32 bit OS won't use 4 gigs of memory. If you want to utilize the full 4 gigs, you'll need 64 bit. You could always get 2 gig sticks and 2 512s for a total of 3 gigs. The 965 chipset lets you mix and match sizes. I'd suggest comparable memory as far as voltage, timings, etc.

 

[LiuKang]

Thanks guys.

MCAIN -- V1000 huh? I've been a fan of the PC-65 for ages, but wanted a full tower case, so I went ahead and ordered the 75 (it's the only part I've actually ordered so far).

RJ, it's funny that you mention the DQ6, I had ordered one weeks ago but it never came in, so I finally cancelled the order. I decided to go with a board that had 2x16 PCIe slots. If I'm going to run the additional monitor, I figured I might as well run a second identical card for SLI as well. I figured the EVGA was a better 'future proofing' option, and it's only $17 more than the DQ6. Thoughts?

Yes, the 500s will be RAID1 -- I need the space and security for some of my projects.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but everywhere I've read (including articles on Toms) says that the Raptor beats RAID0 7200rpm HDs in every aspect except data transfer?

As for the memory, the 4 gigs is strictly to help me run some of the work apps and OSs.

 

[RJ]

Thanks guys.

MCAIN -- V1000 huh? I've been a fan of the PC-65 for ages, but wanted a full tower case, so I went ahead and ordered the 75 (it's the only part I've actually ordered so far).

RJ, it's funny that you mention the DQ6, I had ordered one weeks ago but it never came in, so I finally cancelled the order. I decided to go with a board that had 2x16 PCIe slots. If I'm going to run the additional monitor, I figured I might as well run a second identical card for SLI as well. I figured the EVGA was a better 'future proofing' option, and it's only $17 more than the DQ6. Thoughts?

Yes, the 500s will be RAID1 -- I need the space and security for some of my projects.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but everywhere I've read (including articles on Toms) says that the Raptor beats RAID0 7200rpm HDs in every aspect except data transfer?

As for the memory, the 4 gigs is strictly to help me run some of the work apps and OSs.

A Single Raptor beats a Raid 0 array with 7200 RPM drives in data transfer rate? I wouldn't go by response time for your judgement. When you're running games, it's not how fast a drive answers "your call", but how quick it can get megabytes of data loaded and ready to play.
I started out with a single Raptor for it's overall speed. I didn't understand RAID arrays at the time and I thought it was all a foreign language. When I did research the benefits of RAID arrays, I got another Raptor, because I didn't want the first one to go to waste. I got the third just to push it that much further. Had I understood RAID arrays from the get-go, I would have bought 4 7200 RPM drives and saved a ton of money.

I'd check into the whole SLI thing if I were you. I think you can run 2 monitors in SLI, but I doubt it'll run 3 or 4. the second vid card is kind of like a turbocharger....you only access it when you need the extra boost in performance.

 

[LiuKang]

A Single Raptor beats a Raid 0 array with 7200 RPM drives in data transfer rate?

No, I was saying the opposite...

Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it.

 

[carpcmelee]

plz tell me where u can get the 7900gto. I cant find it anywhere?

 

[RJ]

That was my point. When you're playing online related games, getting into an area earlier than others is certainly helpful. It's the high data transfer rate that gets me in faster than most. It's also nice to have the high DTR for things like recording TV shows.

That's why I'm pushing the RAID 0 setup. Having a high DTR will be a hell of a lot more noticeable over the ms access rate that the Raptor offers.

 

[lmimmfn]

I was basically looking at a similar setup to yours over the past few weeks, i ended up going for the following:
E6400 instead of the 6300 because it overslocks higher than the 6300 and isint much more expensive
Asus P5N32-E SLI - because its cheaper( only 2/3rds of the cost ) than the EVGA 680, its not the best performer in the 860 range but it has everything i need, its an SLI board, supports quad core CPU's, gigabit ethernet etc.
2 Gigs of Corsair XMS2 6400C4 - the 4-4-4-12 timings are excellent for overclocking
Scythe Mine CPU cooler
The above setup is supposed to allow an overclock of 3-3.5Ghz all im waiting on for the past week is the damn memory to be delivered, grrr, lol

Your selection is pretty good, id think about the Western Digital SE16 500GB x2 though, theyre quite slow compared to the 160Gig versions, personally i would go with 2 seagate Barracuda 7200.10 drives

I would also not go with raid 0, it would be fine for just installing the OS and games, and put ALL data on another drive, for me the speed advantage at the cost of integrity isint worth it, but of course there are others who prefer the speed