Hello.
I'm having trouble deciding the best configuration for a new system I've been working on, so I decided that instead of thinking about it alot ending up making the wrong decision I would let you guys battle my doubts.
Purpose
This new system main objective is to last. Meaning it should be considerably future proof delivering excellent performance for at least two years. Most of its usage will be university work, games, and some heavy applications once and again. The main point is that I don't do much with it, but its very important for me to be able to do (almost) anything with it.
Budget
First of all, I would like to clarify that all of the prices I'm about to mention refer to Israel. Prices here are terrible. So terrible, in fact, that it would arguably be cheaper to fly to the US, buy the new rig, fly back and then pay off a customs clerk. Most truly high-end components here cost almost twice their price in the US.
Nonetheless, I have some dough to spend, and I realise that this pc will probably serve me for the next five years or so, so I'm willing to spend some money on it. 2000$ would be the most.
A word of clarification and disclosure
Up until about a month ago, I was totaly clueless about hardware. Just to give you some perspective: I didn't know what dual core processors are, or that they exist. All of the considerations (and misconceptions) I'm about to describe solely rely on the research I've made in the past month.
I have never overclocked anything, but would seriously like to give it a try, so it is one of the considerations in component selection.
Specs
CPU: Intel C2D E6600
Price: 410$
Considerations: speed, cache size, overclockabilty and price.
Alternatives are the E6300 which costs 240$ and the E6400 which costs 300$. Both highly overclockable but with lower speeds and smaller cache size.
RAM: Corsair XMS2 2GB 800Mhz CL 4-4-4-12
Price: 410$
Considerations: price, latency, availabilty and EPP (for SLI).
I won't have less than 2GB, but thats just way too much to pay for RAM.
My options are very limited though, as this is probably the only RAM available supporting EPP in Israel (the CL5 version peculiarly costs slightly more). Non-EPP (or should I say - Non-Corsair) options are the OCZ, G.Skill CL4, Kingston, Twinmos and Kreton CL5 (all 800mhz 2gb), all at about 300$.
Graphics: Gainward nvidia 7600GT 256mb
Price: 170$
Considerations: price, extendability and gaming performance.
I don't game alot - possibly due to the fact the current system I have can hardly carry Half-Life. (I didn't forget the 2). At any rate, its clearly unreasonable to buy a twin 8800gtx sli configuration (which btw cost about 900$ a piece here) with my gaming habits. This led to a decision to buy the cheapest card that can carry the highest percent of modern games, while leaving room for future upgrades. This means two things:
1. I had to choose sides between nvidia's sli and ati's crossfire. nvidia was the easy choice to me.
2. I need to choose a mobo with two x16 pcie slots for when and if I decide to stick another 8800 320mb gts there at some point to support my gaming habits.
Motherboard: Undecided.
Price: Up to 200$ (US market prices)
Considerations: extendability, overclockabilty, sli support.
This is a big question for me. I was thinking about buying the Asus P5B Deluxe or the DQ6 but that would mean I cannot extend my graphics (it has no sli support). On the other hand 680i boards are really expensive, and I wouldn't want to buy a 650i board when a newer chipset is out.
The 122-CK-NF68-AR motherboard (like most 680i sli boards) costs about 360$ here, and I can't even afford to dream about the asus extreme.
Perhaps I am being to hard not wanting a 650i based board, but these still aren't too cheap, not to mention that perhaps a different (ati based) graphics solution would solve most of my problems (both mobo and ram).
One last thing to note is that which ever motherboard I buy, it has to be reasonably overclockable, and have some IDE support for the optical drives.
Storage: a Raptor (not X) WD1500ADFD 150gb 16mb cache at 10000rpm, Samsung HD401LJ 400 gb 16mb cache at 7200rpm
Price: 330$ for the Raptor, 150$ for the Samsung.
Considerations: extendability, speed, price.
The Raptor is to be the new system drive, for OS, applications and games. The rest is for movies, mp3s, etc. A main question here is whether or not the raptor really is worth it. I guess I could probably throw both it and the samsung away and raid-0 a couple of 200gb 7200rpm drives, or alternatively buy 2 samsungs. The point is that I would probably buy another sumsung in the future for raid-0 and that a fast system drive might be more important. Also I probably wouldn't want to setup a 200gb raid array for the 'extendability' cosideration.
Case: Undecided.
Price: Up to 100$ (US market prices)
Considerations: size, comfort, cooling.
I would like a big case. one that is easy to move around in. Was thinking about the Silverstone TJ-09 but I couldn't find it here. I did however find the Antec 900 for about 180$, but it doesn't have a floppy bay (which is a minus for me). I would like a case with at least 3 optical drive bays, at least 6 3.5" bays, a floppy bay, a good cooling solution and ofcourse big and comfortable.
DVD-RW: x18 LG GSA-H42BK (or something similar)
Price: 45$
CD-RW: 52*32*52 Sony CRX-230EESV (or something similar)
Price: 23$
TV Card: VideoHome TVChamp
Price: 40$
PSU: 520W
Price: 40$
Cooling: No idea. You tell me. Something that will enable me to overclock, but something cheap at the same time.
Audio: Integrated. For now.
Display: Probably the cheapest 17'' or 19'' LCD, I really have no idea what to get here. Might even get two.
Printer: One that prints. And is cheap. And has cheap ink.
Finally
I realise that it is probably not likely to get -everything- I want for the prices here, but perhaps you guys can save me some money by showing me a new path (perhaps ati based), or just correct some of the mistakes in my considerations. Any help appreciated!
I'm having trouble deciding the best configuration for a new system I've been working on, so I decided that instead of thinking about it alot ending up making the wrong decision I would let you guys battle my doubts.
Purpose
This new system main objective is to last. Meaning it should be considerably future proof delivering excellent performance for at least two years. Most of its usage will be university work, games, and some heavy applications once and again. The main point is that I don't do much with it, but its very important for me to be able to do (almost) anything with it.
Budget
First of all, I would like to clarify that all of the prices I'm about to mention refer to Israel. Prices here are terrible. So terrible, in fact, that it would arguably be cheaper to fly to the US, buy the new rig, fly back and then pay off a customs clerk. Most truly high-end components here cost almost twice their price in the US.
Nonetheless, I have some dough to spend, and I realise that this pc will probably serve me for the next five years or so, so I'm willing to spend some money on it. 2000$ would be the most.
A word of clarification and disclosure
Up until about a month ago, I was totaly clueless about hardware. Just to give you some perspective: I didn't know what dual core processors are, or that they exist. All of the considerations (and misconceptions) I'm about to describe solely rely on the research I've made in the past month.
I have never overclocked anything, but would seriously like to give it a try, so it is one of the considerations in component selection.
Specs
CPU: Intel C2D E6600
Price: 410$
Considerations: speed, cache size, overclockabilty and price.
Alternatives are the E6300 which costs 240$ and the E6400 which costs 300$. Both highly overclockable but with lower speeds and smaller cache size.
RAM: Corsair XMS2 2GB 800Mhz CL 4-4-4-12
Price: 410$
Considerations: price, latency, availabilty and EPP (for SLI).
I won't have less than 2GB, but thats just way too much to pay for RAM.
My options are very limited though, as this is probably the only RAM available supporting EPP in Israel (the CL5 version peculiarly costs slightly more). Non-EPP (or should I say - Non-Corsair) options are the OCZ, G.Skill CL4, Kingston, Twinmos and Kreton CL5 (all 800mhz 2gb), all at about 300$.
Graphics: Gainward nvidia 7600GT 256mb
Price: 170$
Considerations: price, extendability and gaming performance.
I don't game alot - possibly due to the fact the current system I have can hardly carry Half-Life. (I didn't forget the 2). At any rate, its clearly unreasonable to buy a twin 8800gtx sli configuration (which btw cost about 900$ a piece here) with my gaming habits. This led to a decision to buy the cheapest card that can carry the highest percent of modern games, while leaving room for future upgrades. This means two things:
1. I had to choose sides between nvidia's sli and ati's crossfire. nvidia was the easy choice to me.
2. I need to choose a mobo with two x16 pcie slots for when and if I decide to stick another 8800 320mb gts there at some point to support my gaming habits.
Motherboard: Undecided.
Price: Up to 200$ (US market prices)
Considerations: extendability, overclockabilty, sli support.
This is a big question for me. I was thinking about buying the Asus P5B Deluxe or the DQ6 but that would mean I cannot extend my graphics (it has no sli support). On the other hand 680i boards are really expensive, and I wouldn't want to buy a 650i board when a newer chipset is out.
The 122-CK-NF68-AR motherboard (like most 680i sli boards) costs about 360$ here, and I can't even afford to dream about the asus extreme.
Perhaps I am being to hard not wanting a 650i based board, but these still aren't too cheap, not to mention that perhaps a different (ati based) graphics solution would solve most of my problems (both mobo and ram).
One last thing to note is that which ever motherboard I buy, it has to be reasonably overclockable, and have some IDE support for the optical drives.
Storage: a Raptor (not X) WD1500ADFD 150gb 16mb cache at 10000rpm, Samsung HD401LJ 400 gb 16mb cache at 7200rpm
Price: 330$ for the Raptor, 150$ for the Samsung.
Considerations: extendability, speed, price.
The Raptor is to be the new system drive, for OS, applications and games. The rest is for movies, mp3s, etc. A main question here is whether or not the raptor really is worth it. I guess I could probably throw both it and the samsung away and raid-0 a couple of 200gb 7200rpm drives, or alternatively buy 2 samsungs. The point is that I would probably buy another sumsung in the future for raid-0 and that a fast system drive might be more important. Also I probably wouldn't want to setup a 200gb raid array for the 'extendability' cosideration.
Case: Undecided.
Price: Up to 100$ (US market prices)
Considerations: size, comfort, cooling.
I would like a big case. one that is easy to move around in. Was thinking about the Silverstone TJ-09 but I couldn't find it here. I did however find the Antec 900 for about 180$, but it doesn't have a floppy bay (which is a minus for me). I would like a case with at least 3 optical drive bays, at least 6 3.5" bays, a floppy bay, a good cooling solution and ofcourse big and comfortable.
DVD-RW: x18 LG GSA-H42BK (or something similar)
Price: 45$
CD-RW: 52*32*52 Sony CRX-230EESV (or something similar)
Price: 23$
TV Card: VideoHome TVChamp
Price: 40$
PSU: 520W
Price: 40$
Cooling: No idea. You tell me. Something that will enable me to overclock, but something cheap at the same time.
Audio: Integrated. For now.
Display: Probably the cheapest 17'' or 19'' LCD, I really have no idea what to get here. Might even get two.
Printer: One that prints. And is cheap. And has cheap ink.
Finally
I realise that it is probably not likely to get -everything- I want for the prices here, but perhaps you guys can save me some money by showing me a new path (perhaps ati based), or just correct some of the mistakes in my considerations. Any help appreciated!
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