european system build - please review

[mbdejan]

Hi,

Please review this build:
WESTERN DIGITAL
WD Raptor 150GB HDD 10000rpm sATA serial ATA 16MB cache 3,5Zoll intern RoHS compliant 24x7 Dauerbetrieb
€ 158,98

SAPPHIRE
Radeon HD 3870 512MB GDDR4 PCI-Express Dual DL-DVI TVout aktiv 256bit
€ 197,72

CORSAIR
DDR2 2048MB PC800 NON-ECC Kit
€ 46,57

INTEL
Core 2 Duo E8400 3000MHz LGA775 6MB FSB1333 ATX DT boxed CPU
€ 174,--

GIGABYTE
P35-DS3R Socket775 FSB1333 RTL ATX P35 LAN RAID IEEE
€ 94,69

CREATIVE LABS
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI Express BULK
€ 36,04

Sum: € 708,--

Any suggestions, comments? I am interested in your opinion.

I am not planning to OC, would just like that system components are approximately in same performance range considering price.

Would this be stable with 400W power supply?

Thanks!

 

[smokegfx]

i would suggest a good 550W psu if you dont want to eventually upgrade to crossfire.
also the cpu is 10 euro above average price, though they seem to be out of stock everywhere right now.

 

[mbdejan]

Yes you are right. I will go for E6750 cpu(160 euro) instead of E8400.

 

[smokegfx]

Yes you are right. I will go for E6750 cpu(160 euro) instead of E8400.

thats not what i ment though, if you use your machine just for gaming i would wait for the e8400, otherwise i would take a look at the q6600 as an alternative.

 

[mbdejan]

Or pay few extra euros for a E8400. I found E8400 for 184 EUR in stock.

q6600 is around 210 EUR.

From 184 to 210 is not a big difference but from 160 (E6750) to 210 is

 

[evongugg]

You are going to need a power supply with 20-22 amps on the 12v rails.
Please look at the PSU labels.

Top Tier PSU:

http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Tiered+PSU+Listings?t=anon

 

[evongugg]

For a CPU I would go either with a e8400 or Q6600.
I don't know the prices in Europe, since I live in America.

 

[smokegfx]

Or pay few extra euros for a E8400. I found E8400 for 184 EUR in stock.

q6600 is around 210 EUR.

From 184 to 210 is not a big difference but from 160 (E6750) to 210 is

link pl0x XD

 

[evongugg]

I don't see a case there. May I suggest the Antec 900.
I don't see a DVD-RW. May I suggest a Samsung SH203-B or SH203-N.
A floppy would be optional.

 

[evongugg]

I would get a ~500 GB drive for data, along with the Raptor.
I would use the Raptor for OS and programs.

 

[mbdejan]

I already have case, dvd-rw(motherboard has 1 x IDE connector) and extra drive from old system.

Thanks, I will need to buy new PSU. Top Tier PSU are either unavailable or expensive. Any alternative?

 

[nhobo]

Raptors aren't worth the extra cost. That PSU list is years out of date.

 

[mbdejan]

For me storage capacity has very low priority comparing to performance. Considering this, do you still think that raptors aren't worth extra cost?

What about these PSU:
LC-Power LC6560T Pro-Line Titan 560W ATX 2.0
Chieftec Smart GPS-550AB-A 550W ATX 2.0
OCZ StealthXStream 500W ATX 2.2 (OCZ500SXS)

All around 60 euros.

 

[nhobo]

Raptors are noisey and 5x the cost per GB. The miniscule boost you get in perfromance is all but unnoticeable. Get 2x SATA drives, no RAID. Put the OS and apps on the first and your paging file and data on the second. Huge performance boost compared to any single drive.

The only PSU I recognize is thhe OCZ.

 

[croc]

For me storage capacity has very low priority comparing to performance. Considering this, do you still think that raptors aren't worth extra cost?

What about these PSU:
LC-Power LC6560T Pro-Line Titan 560W ATX 2.0
Chieftec Smart GPS-550AB-A 550W ATX 2.0
OCZ StealthXStream 500W ATX 2.2 (OCZ500SXS)

All around 60 euros.

The new seagate 7200.11 drives are performing about on a par with the raptors. WD needs to update their drives, or their pricing model. All they have left is a small advantage in average seek times.

PSU's... No Antecs or Silverstones available?

OCZ is generally reliable, but some of their models tend to be a bit iffy. A good website for PSU reviews is jonnyguru.com .

 

[mbdejan]

Yes they are:
Antec Basiq BP500, 500W ATX 2.0 €46,73
Antec EarthWatts 500, 500W ATX 2.2 € 66,94
Antec Basiq BP550 Plus, 550W ATX 2.0 € 72,73

SilverStone Strider ST50F, 500W ATX 2.2 € 72,99
SilverStone Element ST50EF-Plus, 500W ATX 2.2 € 89,99
SilverStone Strider ST56F, 560W ATX 2.0 € 89,99

How about:
- for OS: Western Digital Raptor 73.4GB 16MB SATA € 121,49
- for data: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA II € 101

 

[nhobo]

Sorry, my mistake. Raptors are 8.3 times more expensive per GB. A fool and his money are soon parted.

Raptor = € 1.66 per GB
Segate = € .20 per GB

 

[mbdejan]

I said that do not give much on cost per GB.

Cost per performance is anther story.

 

[nhobo]

As croc said, there is no performance advantage to Raptors. This makes them very poor from a price / performance standpoint, even more so because you get 8x less capacity.

 

[IH8U]

Drop the Raptors, get a couple of STATA 3.0 and raid em (more space, 1 second slower load time 1/2 the price)

(250gb, or 320gb is where its at price wise)

 

[mbdejan]

OK, guys thanks for the reply I will think about it.