New System Advice

PooPeH

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Feb 26, 2007
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Im currently building a new system but need some advice.

Mobo - Asus P5N32-E SLI
Memory - 2GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-6400C4 TwinX
PSU - 580W Hiper HPU-4B580 Type R Modular ATX2.2 SLI
GFX Card - Gigabyte 8800GTX PCI-E
Case - Gigabyte 3D aurora
OS - Windows Vista 64 bit
CPU Cooler - Titan Vanessa-L Heatpipe Cooling Fan
Hard Drives ????
CPU ??????

The questions -

1. Is it really worth spending money on 2 150GB raptors or should I get 2 cheaper hard drives and save the money to buy more memory later on.

2. Which processor should I get? Do I blow my brains out and get Quad Core? or the X6800, or go with my gut feeling and get the E6700 and save some cash to go SLI in the future?

Any advice would be much appreciated as I dont want to be kicking myself by making the wrong decision.
 

PC_Side_Line

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Feb 7, 2007
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after 1 yr of heavy surfing and wathing vids on a 160 gig hdd, its already half full plus games, utilis, and updates already 50% full.

The bigger hdds u can afford, the better u are in the long run!
 

akhilles

Splendid
HDD = Seagate 7200.10 any size.

Best would be a Raptor + a large hdd. 80GB for os/software is fine.

CPU = 6400/6300.

Reason being that c2d will have price drops in a few months. So get the slowest, & upgrade to quad when its price drops by hundreds & sell the existing cpu.

CPU HSF = Tuniq Tower 120, Big Typhoon, Freezer 7 Pro or Scythe Ninja

Cool very well.
 

fredgiblet

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Jul 8, 2006
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1. Is it really worth spending money on 2 150GB raptors or should I get 2 cheaper hard drives and save the money to buy more memory later on.

Not unless you have piles of cash sitting around, I would get the larger drives, if you get the Seagate .10 series as the toher guy suggested then they will be quite fast.

2. Which processor should I get? Do I blow my brains out and get Quad Core? or the X6800, or go with my gut feeling and get the E6700 and save some cash to go SLI in the future?

Don't get quad-core unles you are running and enterprise level SQL server off that computer. I would suggest a 6300 or 4300, they will be blazing fast enought for almost anything you can throw at them now. Upgrade to quad-core once the price drop to sane levels.
 

jamiepotter

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Oct 8, 2006
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ARe you intending to go Sli later?

If so: get a 700w PSU at least (and check it has enough amps on the 12v rail). Good brand needed too: I like the OCZ GameXstream, but there's loads of options.

If not: why are you getting the P5N32-E SLI? Just get the P5N-E Sli. It'll do pretty much everything you want for almost half the cost.

CPU: personally, I think the E4300 is a nice option, esp if you're getting the tuniq cooler and OCing. e6600 if you want the cache. No point getting anything more.

There's no point going quad (there's barely much point going dual yet, but it's kinda become the standard anyway).

I've got two raptors in RAID, and let me tell you, it's not worth it unless you use HDD intensive stuff. You notice the reduced XP startup times, but who really cares in the end if it loads up in 35 seconds or 25 seconds? You get used to it whatever.
 

PooPeH

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Feb 26, 2007
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Yes I will be going SLI in the future but already have the PSU, been looking at
booster units when I do this. ( Thermaltake 250 watt or the Sparkle 300 watt currently available)

I think my minds set on not getting raptors now, my current system has a 200gb hd and its only 60% full after 4 years :D so I'll probably go with 2 x 150gb raid 0, maybe add another later but I seriously dont think i'll need it.

Upto now with the comments I will be going for the E6600 (4mb Cache) unless someone changes my mind with 2mb cache E6400.

Thanks for the advice upto now :D
 

jamiepotter

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That sounds good to me. I suppose that the nice thing about buying Raptors is that, so long as you take care of 'em (I use those Antec 5.25 bay heatsink/fan things with them that keeps them below 40 'C), you will just keep 'em going for yonks. For running the system, they're not going to be out-dated until Solid State HDs take over, which could be ages (if at all). But they will get hotter than normal drives. (It's funny: a lot of people run their HD's hotter than their CPU's!)

You're going to have a drool-worthy PC, no doubt.

One last thing: that motherboard has a bit of a crappy initial BIOS, from what I understand, but don't let it worry you. It's still a great board; just update it ASAP and keep checking Asus.
 

PooPeH

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Feb 26, 2007
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Cheers for the advice will look into the BIOS issues, any links you know of about it are well appreciated. ( my memory just arrived 8O they are big )