Hello all,
I'm pretty new round here but this looks like the place to post this so here goes...
I'm about to build a new PC with the requirements of being both pretty fast but also near silent. I'll be using the same system for both gaming, and recording and producing music. Therefore it needs to be both high powered and quiet.
The spec and reasoning behind my choices:
Processor - E8400/8500, no real surprise there. The system will be a gaming system 1st, music system 2nd. Therefore I figure the outrageous overclocks people are getting with these for what they cost make it very desirable. I figure for the next 18 months the extra clock cycles that should be achieveable will be more beneficial than 2 extra cores when playing games. I know my music apps are probably one of the few apps that actually support multiple processors (suggesting Q6600 or new range of quad's about to come out) but they way I operate I'm not really using the capabilites of the existing cores. Sound logic?
RAM - OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8000C5 1000MHz ReaperX HPC Enhanced Bandwidth Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2RPX10005GK). The reasoning behind this is that, as I understanding it, being certified at 1Ghz should gaurantee me a good overclock, am i right? I need 4Gig RAM and as I understand it 2x2 is a better option that 4x1 for overclocking stability?
Case - Antec P190 +1200. I've have a P180 already and have been might impressed. The noise level from the three fans on low is about perfect for what I need. From the information I've gathered the P190's extra fans will give the extra cooling I need without adding to the noise. Furthermore, it comes with the PSUs that I know fit, have the right length of cables and are powerful enough for anything I could throw at it in the near future.
CPU Cooler - Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme seems to be the way to go from reading this board. I was thinking of marrying it with 2 Noctua NF-S12 1200RPM 120mm fans. These are a fairly reputable quiet fan (17dBA@1200RPM) with decent air airlflow (48CFM@1200RPM). With the case cooling, I should be able to keeps these at these speeds and still keep everything pretty cool, no?
HDD - 2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB drives. Seems to be the sweet spot for price/performance right now. I remember a few years ago that the Raptor used to be the drive of choice. However, am I right in thinking this has kinda fallen out of favour? The Barracuda at S300 will be more than sufficient for the track count I'm running during my music work so I will be using them in a RAID1 config. I can afford a raptor (I would probably go for two of the smaller ones and RAID0 them) but would it be worth it?
Gaming soundcard - Creative X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series. Pretty much made my mind up about this but if anyone knows of a good reason not to get this then let me know!
-------------------------------------------------
So those are the things I'm pretty sure about unless anyone has suggestions. However, I'm now stuck with the mobo and graphics cards. The main point is that I use two 19" CRTs and these are not being replaced right now (possible future upgrade after this mamoth spend!!). As I understand it, SLI does not support dual monitors but CrossFire does?
The games I mainly play are SupCom: FA and Battlefield 2/2142. The target is to build a system that can play Crysis at 1600x1200, everything on high, if possible very high. I expect Crysis to be a benchmark for the next 6 months - 1 year (look at how long far cry was used as one!) so my logic is; build a computer than can handle crysis now and it should last 1 year at least before looking to upgrade.
The PSU will certainly be able to handle a dual GPU solution although I'd like to avoid it if possible. I'd initially planned to wait for the supposed 9800GX2 but the rumours about this are unsettling. Coupled with the fact that the new 3870X2 appears to have matched the 8800 Ultra for £100 less I've had a rethink. Then today I found a small, possibly dubious, benchmark of the 9600GT which seemed to comfortably outperform the 3850. If that's what Nvidias next generation low end card can do, I can't imagine what their top card (real 9800 GTX) will do?
So the question is, what would you guys do in this situation. I know i can still go for SLI and just disable it when I want to use both monitors but SupCom:FA supports dual monitors so i'd effectively lose one card if I was to choose that approach. CrossFire supports dual monitors but ATI looks like it's current crop will soon be beaten by the 9x00. The mobo is effectively going to be defined by which graphics solution I go for so any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
I'm pretty new round here but this looks like the place to post this so here goes...
I'm about to build a new PC with the requirements of being both pretty fast but also near silent. I'll be using the same system for both gaming, and recording and producing music. Therefore it needs to be both high powered and quiet.
The spec and reasoning behind my choices:
Processor - E8400/8500, no real surprise there. The system will be a gaming system 1st, music system 2nd. Therefore I figure the outrageous overclocks people are getting with these for what they cost make it very desirable. I figure for the next 18 months the extra clock cycles that should be achieveable will be more beneficial than 2 extra cores when playing games. I know my music apps are probably one of the few apps that actually support multiple processors (suggesting Q6600 or new range of quad's about to come out) but they way I operate I'm not really using the capabilites of the existing cores. Sound logic?
RAM - OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8000C5 1000MHz ReaperX HPC Enhanced Bandwidth Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2RPX10005GK). The reasoning behind this is that, as I understanding it, being certified at 1Ghz should gaurantee me a good overclock, am i right? I need 4Gig RAM and as I understand it 2x2 is a better option that 4x1 for overclocking stability?
Case - Antec P190 +1200. I've have a P180 already and have been might impressed. The noise level from the three fans on low is about perfect for what I need. From the information I've gathered the P190's extra fans will give the extra cooling I need without adding to the noise. Furthermore, it comes with the PSUs that I know fit, have the right length of cables and are powerful enough for anything I could throw at it in the near future.
CPU Cooler - Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme seems to be the way to go from reading this board. I was thinking of marrying it with 2 Noctua NF-S12 1200RPM 120mm fans. These are a fairly reputable quiet fan (17dBA@1200RPM) with decent air airlflow (48CFM@1200RPM). With the case cooling, I should be able to keeps these at these speeds and still keep everything pretty cool, no?
HDD - 2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB drives. Seems to be the sweet spot for price/performance right now. I remember a few years ago that the Raptor used to be the drive of choice. However, am I right in thinking this has kinda fallen out of favour? The Barracuda at S300 will be more than sufficient for the track count I'm running during my music work so I will be using them in a RAID1 config. I can afford a raptor (I would probably go for two of the smaller ones and RAID0 them) but would it be worth it?
Gaming soundcard - Creative X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series. Pretty much made my mind up about this but if anyone knows of a good reason not to get this then let me know!
-------------------------------------------------
So those are the things I'm pretty sure about unless anyone has suggestions. However, I'm now stuck with the mobo and graphics cards. The main point is that I use two 19" CRTs and these are not being replaced right now (possible future upgrade after this mamoth spend!!). As I understand it, SLI does not support dual monitors but CrossFire does?
The games I mainly play are SupCom: FA and Battlefield 2/2142. The target is to build a system that can play Crysis at 1600x1200, everything on high, if possible very high. I expect Crysis to be a benchmark for the next 6 months - 1 year (look at how long far cry was used as one!) so my logic is; build a computer than can handle crysis now and it should last 1 year at least before looking to upgrade.
The PSU will certainly be able to handle a dual GPU solution although I'd like to avoid it if possible. I'd initially planned to wait for the supposed 9800GX2 but the rumours about this are unsettling. Coupled with the fact that the new 3870X2 appears to have matched the 8800 Ultra for £100 less I've had a rethink. Then today I found a small, possibly dubious, benchmark of the 9600GT which seemed to comfortably outperform the 3850. If that's what Nvidias next generation low end card can do, I can't imagine what their top card (real 9800 GTX) will do?
So the question is, what would you guys do in this situation. I know i can still go for SLI and just disable it when I want to use both monitors but SupCom:FA supports dual monitors so i'd effectively lose one card if I was to choose that approach. CrossFire supports dual monitors but ATI looks like it's current crop will soon be beaten by the 9x00. The mobo is effectively going to be defined by which graphics solution I go for so any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
It's just a matter of time. Stick with 2X2.
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