Core 2 Duo E6850

[Mr-Q]

I'm in need of advise.. putting together a new box.

Core 2 Duo E6850 &
Asus P5N32-E nForce 680i SLI &
Corsair 4x1GB XMS2 Xtreme Memory PC6400 DDR2 800MHz &
Vigor Gaming Monsoon II Lite &
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB &
4 x 320 harddrives in RAID 0+1 &
2 x LiteOn LH-20A1H &
1200 Watt ToughPower in a
NZXT Zero Full Tower Case with Side-Panel Fans.

Does that sound like an ok system?

I'm not a serious gamer, but do a lot of video editing.

Which OS is recommended???

 

[Dudeson]

It looks pretty mean. You will have to go with a 64bit OS if u wanna use all that 4 gb of ram though. apart from that it looks very nice indeed.

 

[miahallen]

First off, at full load, even if you OC, you won't need any more than a 600W PSU, if you want to future-proof, you could get a 700-850W PSU, but 1200W!!! Come on, that's ridiculas!

320GB Western Digital HHDs sell for $75 - that's 4.27GB/$
400GB Western Digital HDDs sell for $95 - that's 4.21GB/$
500GB Western Digital HDDs sell for $110 - that's 4.54GB/$

320GB Seagate HDDs sell for $80 - that's 4.00GB/$
400GB Seagate HDDs sell for $100 - that's 4.00GB/$
500GB Seagate HDDs sell for $120 - that's 4.17GB/$

320GB Samsung HDDs sell for $80 - that's 4.00GB/$
400GB Samsung HDDs sell for $85 - that's 4.71GB/$
500GB Samsung HDDs sell for $110 - that's 4.54GB/$

In the case of the Western Digitals and the Seagates, the 500GB drives offer the best value, the Samsungs offer better value from their 400GB SpinPoint T drive at $85. It's also known for being very quiet. So I'd reccommend switching to those (plus it'll give you 800GB of usable space, instead of only 640GB). Video editing is a space hog, so the more space the better.

I'd also say something about your choice of RAID 0+1. But, I'm guessing you already compaired the advantages/disadvantages of RAID 5?

Lastly, check out the charts on this page showing coolers of varying performance. The Vigor is definitly good, but the Thermalright Ultra Extreme is as good and better, and it's quite a bit cheaper, that'd be my reccommendation. Plus the Vigor is pretty noisey.

Also consider a quad core. The Q6600 is about the same price as the E6850, but will give you a lot more power for video editing and encoding. Most shops are now stocking the G0 stepping, which are known to easily OC to over 3.0GHz (the stock speed of the E6850).

As far as a choice for an OS. I agree that Vista x64 is still a little buggy, but it'd still be my choice for a video editing rig. If you're comfortable with Linux (I am not, so I don't have any specific reccommendations), I'd also look into those options for better stability.

 

[elbert]

I'm in need of advise.. putting together a new box.

Core 2 Duo E6850 &
Asus P5N32-E nForce 680i SLI &
Corsair 4x1GB XMS2 Xtreme Memory PC6400 DDR2 800MHz &
Vigor Gaming Monsoon II Lite &
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB &
4 x 320 harddrives in RAID 0+1 &
2 x LiteOn LH-20A1H &
1200 Watt ToughPower in a
NZXT Zero Full Tower Case with Side-Panel Fans.

Does that sound like an ok system?

I'm not a serious gamer, but do a lot of video editing.

Which OS is recommended???

Most gamers are picking the Q6600 over the E6850. You are video editing so without question you should get a Q6600. The E6850 is overpriced compared the the more powerful but same priced Q6600.

I would suggest Vista home premium 64bit.

 

[Mr-Q]

First of, thank you so much for your speedy replies - after all - SPEED - is what we crave..

I have a few questions based on your replies..
-CPU.. since I can get the Q6600 for the same price as the E6850, I should go Quad, despite the lower FSB and clock Hz??

-Harddrives.. I forgot to put the data drive on the list, a 1.5TB SATA-II. The reason I want RAID 0+1 is speed, but mostly data redundancy. It's meant as storage for my current projects, which after completion will be moved to the data drive.

-Power supply.. when running at full load, with every mechanical drives in actions (5 harddrives and 2 DVD burners), using the 8800 GTX.. I'm just afraid I'm going to stretch the limits of a 700 watt PS. Besides, when spending about $3.500 on this box, I have no problem adding $100 to the power supply.

-OS.. Being that I do video editing and love the pleasing look of it, I'm going "down" the Vista Lane. Should I go 32- or 64 bit??


Once the box is up and running, hopefully within 2 weeks time, I will gladly provide benchmark tests for anyone interested,

 

[miahallen]

-CPU.. since I can get the Q6600 for the same price as the E6850, I should go Quad, despite the lower FSB and clock Hz??

As we have all already said, yes. Go with the quad, you'll thank us later. Most people who argue in favor of dual core are arguing for gaming performance. For video editing, there is no argument, quad is the better choice hands down.

-Harddrives.. I forgot to put the data drive on the list, a 1.5TB SATA-II. The reason I want RAID 0+1 is speed, but mostly data redundancy. It's meant as storage for my current projects, which after completion will be moved to the data drive.

It sounds like I was wrong with my assumption that you are aware of RAID 5, you should look into it. It offeres similar perfromance to RAID 0+1 and data redundancy...but with 4 400GB drives you'll have 1200GB of usable space instead of 800GB.

-Power supply.. when running at full load, with every mechanical drives in actions (5 harddrives and 2 DVD burners), using the 8800 GTX.. I'm just afraid I'm going to stretch the limits of a 700 watt PS. Besides, when spending about $3.500 on this box, I have no problem adding $100 to the power supply.

First of all, with all the gear mentioned, you still will not need anywhere near 700W. There are dozens of reviews I could point to showing real world values, most recently I read one from tweaktown.com that used an overclocked quad core, and two HD 2900 XT 1GB cards in crossfire (these draw more than the 8800GTXs), the whole system only used 580W from the wall, correct for PSU inefficiencies at 85% that's less than 500W actually used by the system. You'll have to add 10W for each extra HDD and 10W for your additional optical drive, but you can knock off at least 100W for the loss of a video card (realistically more like 200W, but I'm giving you the bennefit of the doubt). By my calculation, you'll never draw more than 600W from the wall.
$3500!!! I could build that system for about $2000 easy, what else are you getting that you left out of your list?
CPU - $300
CPU cooler - $65
RAM - $200
Mobo - $200
HDD - $340
8800GTX - $500
700W PSU - $180
Case - $200
Total $1985

-OS.. Being that I do video editing and love the pleasing look of it, I'm going "down" the Vista Lane. Should I go 32- or 64 bit??

As we already stated, in order to use all your memory (4GB) you'll need x64. Personally, I'd get a 2x2GB kit now, so you can upgrade to 4x2GB (for 8GB total) later. You can get a 2x2GB kit for under $250 now. For video editing, the more RAM the better.

 

[Mr-Q]

miahallen.. I'm sure you could build it cheaper, but there's certain things not added to your list:

-DVD burners: $75
-HDD: $150 (xtra)
-Cables: $30
-PSU: $100 (xtra)
-misc: $30
-OS: $340 (Vista Ultimate FULL)
-Office Suite: $300 ('07 Small Business Edition FULL)
Total: $1,025
Tax: $250 (of $3,025)

Grand total: $3,275

Nah dude, I don't mind spending that extra $150-200 on my 3 years on-site repair warranty.

 

[sycshk]

250G hard disk would be better and faster

 

[Lempira72]

I'm in need of advise.. putting together a new box.


Asus P5N32-E nForce 680i SLI &

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB &




Does that sound like an ok system?

I'm not a serious gamer, but do a lot of video editing.

Which OS is recommended???

My best advice is wait a couple more months for the new nvidia 7 mobo series and GeForce 9 card series , and specialy for video encoding a Q6600 can kick some E6850 any time any day. Hope this helps.

 

[Mr-Q]

Lempira72.. thing is, I can't wait a few months. Video production never stops.

I'm actually considering down scaling my Video card needs, as I don't do gaming much, only playback video. But I will get a Quad core, 'cus I need the video encoding power.

 

[Mousemonkey]

My best advice is wait a couple more months for the new nvidia 7 mobo series and GeForce 9 card series

GeForce 9 card series?, links to some evidence please.

 

[KyleSTL]

Q6600, no doubt with your needs.

 

[Mr-Q]

Just a little side question...

I'm planning on using Vista 32 and I am aware of the 4 GB RAM limit. If I put in 2 GB instead of 4 GB (with probably 3 GB usable for system), will it slow my video encoding down? Or should I go for the 64 bit Vista and 8 GB RAM??

 

[Lempira72]

GeForce 9 card series?, links to some evidence please.

meant to say 89xx series

 

[Mousemonkey]

meant to say 89xx series

Damn, I thought you might have had a scoop.

 

[sharp910sh]

the q6600 is better if you can OC to 3.6ghz, but if yo get 3.2 ghz a 3.8ghz e6850 will be better