Ok here is my new build what do you all think? Also I already have 2 74g Raptors I am ordering another so I can setup raid 0+1 Thanks for the input




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Save some money and get a quality motherboard with the latest P35 Chipset. Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R is a great choice.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128050

Invest in a better PSU, Corsair 620HX or PC Power & Cooling 750 Quad are in top 5 there are. Both are exceptional in all aspects (quality, quietness, reliability, power)

http://tinyurl.com/yu6qrg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817703009

If you are planning to overclock, Q6600 is a better choice, you can reach the 3.0Ghz very easily and have an extra 2 cores than E6850. If you decide to buy Q6600, make sure you get the G0 stepping, they overclock a lot better and run cooler than the old B3 ones.

http://clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A1938452

Get some faster RAM, this Super Talent kit is great, 4-3-3-8 timings:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820609026

this Crucial kit is also very good:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820146565

Seagate 500GB has longer warranty than WD.

I would also suggest getting an audio card, you'll notice the difference, especially in headphones.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6829102006

Rest is looking good, unless I missed something.

Good luck.

Thought about a Q6600?

I'd toss the Raptor and just RAID another 500GB drive. It'd cheaper, you'd have more storage, and the speed gain from a RAID makes up for a lot of the speed lost going from 10k to 7.2k RPM. You can still install Vista on your first Raptor drive. It's the best of both worlds in that the only real speed advantage of a Raptor over RAID is for housing the operating system. (Because RAID is better with big files, Raptor better for small files)

I'd also opt for the P182 or a Lian Li case, but that's probably just personal preference.

Love seeing a 1.44 drive on a new build.

For 99% of people, there is nothing in Vista Ultimate that they would use that isn't already in the cheaper Home Premium.

I did, throw in an extra $20 and get Tuniq 120 Tower instead of the Freezer 7 Pro, cools noticeably better. Get some $7 Arctic Cooling MX-2 paste along with it too.

http://www.xoxide.com/tuniq-t-120-hsf.html

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835186020

PLEASE DON'T BUY FANCY THERMAL PASTE!!! Sorry, I know it's only a few bucks, but it's a complete scam. Test after test shows the cooling properties of fancy expensive paste vs. those of the cheapo generic stuff is so small as to be negligable.

This thread should prove you wrong:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forum [...] p?t=135359

Also, quick test of MX-2:

http://www.driverheaven.net/review [...] esting.php

http://www.driverheaven.net/review [...] lusion.php

That's a big difference in temperatures, especially if you are overclocking.
Imo, it would be wrong NOT to buy it for $7.

Every time a new paste comes out we have to hear about how it drops temps by 5 degrees.(we should be running our CPUs below freezing by now) They've all been scams, I don't buy into it now anymore then when the first artic silver came out. Even if we gave it credit for 5 degrees(which I don't, maybe 2 or 3, probably less) that would only be worth it if you couldn't get that same 5 degree drop by spending $10 (7 + shipping) more on a heatsink.

I won't turn this thread into a debate and advice the OP to do all the necessary research before buying anything.

I haven't seen anyone comment on this, so I'll do that now. Inorder for you to do RAID0+1, you need four drives, not 3. RAID0+1 is a mirror of a striped set. If you have two drives on your striped set, you'll need two drives for your mirror. If you already have the drives, use them in your new build, but just get a nice large 500GB+ drive for backing up important stuff for when your AID0 array dies. Other then that, and with the suggestions already given, have fun with your build.

Good catch. Yeah, I would forget about adding anymore Raptors. They just don't make a lot of sense anyways at $2/GB. Assuming you have any kind of budget, your money is best spend elsewhere.

Well thanks for all the Input as far as the Raptor I already have two of them so onemore is nothing and they run fast!!!!! as for the Motherboard It still has been getting great reviews and it has Creative X-FI Built in. Also IMO
The E8650 is Awesome and performs better then the Quad and another note Its going to be a long time before anything really uses the 4 cores there still isnt really anything out there the uses the 2 core setup now.
And just how long has 64bit been out and how many programes/ games our optimize for that? Again thanks guys for you input

1) One more will NOT allow you to setup RAID0+1. You need to buy two more for that.

2) The E8650 is awesome and very fast, but when overclocked, the Q6600 should have no problem beating it. Game currently may not use more then one or two, but there are programs that do. When Alan Wake and other games like it come out, you'll wish for a quad.

3) While I wouldn't run XP 64bit, the driver situation for Vista 64 looks a lot better. You will probably have some trouble with older devices, but all the things you're buying now shouldn't have a problem. Are you still sticking with Ultimate, or are you switching to home premium? (which is also 64bit.)

4) Looking over your last post, I noticed that you didn't take ANY of our advice. Whats the point of asking if you aren't open to the critiques? You already have the two raptors, plenty of speed there. What you need is space. Grab a couple of 500+GB drives, and plug them in. P35 is a better chipset then the 680i. If you buy a motherboard that supports DDR2 and DDR3, you won't have to switch boards when DDR3 takes over. But then again, what do we know, these aren't the choices you picked out.

Sorry I am taking into consideration on everything that has been said I guess I should have posted it I am now looking at a better PSU you where right I got confused about the Raid I will go raid 1 with the three Raptors and use the 500 GB for back up and video files as for the os I will have duel boot with xp 32 and vista 64 I want the ultima vista for many reasons mainly for my work I am still not convinced about DDR 3 but still looking at MBs

Also you all suggested that I go with the P35 Chipset but i also want to do SLI in the future but from what I am reading te P35 can only do 1 PCIe at 16 x not both like the Nvidia chipset can do any suggestions? also i have 2,500 to spend so a 200+ MB is no Biggie and as I stated before the first board I picked out had the X-FI Audio built in so I was thinking of also getting the Agiea Pysix card

Why are you looking at RAID? You clearly have no idea what raid is if you think you can use 3 Raptors in a RAID0+1 setup, or 3 Raptors in a RAID1 setup. I don't mean to be rude, but you seem like a person who has $2500 to blow on a computer, and is simply buying the things he has heard about. (RAID, SLI, Agiea, etc) Although you haven't said what you will be using this computer for, I get the feeling you need none of these.

Valid enough.

DDR3 at the moment isn't any faster then DDR2. But when DDR2 came out, it wasn't any faster then DDR1. Then DDR3 hits the 1.8GHz/2GHz mark, it will start to overcome the increase in latency, and will be faster. By buying a board that supports both, you won't have to upgrade your motherboard later on when DDR3 takes over. This is just an idea you might want to consider, it isn't a deal breaker. I suggested the P35 because it has better memory support then the 975/965. It also supports all the new 1333FSB chips. It does indeed only support CF and not SLI, but SLI isn't something you probably need anyways. It usually makes more sense to buy one newer faster card then it does to put a second older slower card in. For example, two 7900GSs would cost ~$250, but would get killed by a single 8800GTS that would cost the same amount.

You haven't stated the reason for the build, you probably should. You said you are getting Vista ultimate because of work, but you are also planning on getting a physics chip, which would imply a gaming build.