ddotroq

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Jan 9, 2009
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Hello Everyone,

I need your help... I know "MyG37" is not the place to put this, but maybe we have some tech junkies that can help me out.

I am looking to build the following system:

*Fujitsu MBA3300RC 300GB 15000 RPM Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) Hard Drive - OEM
*ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black
*ASUS VK266H Black 25.5" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen
*ASUS ENGTX295/2DI/1792MD3/A GeForce GTX 295 1792MB 896 (448 x 2)-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
*CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C9 - Retail
*ASUS P6T Deluxe/OC Palm LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
*Intel Core i7 940 Nehalem 2.93GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601940 - Retail

The Hard drive is pending.. Is there a better hard drive out there besides the insanely priced SSD's? for Gaming, I heard the velociraptor is better... is this true?

What type of cooling should I get?

Is the Intel core i7 940 as easily overclocked and as powerful as the 920?

What is a good silent cooling choice I can use?

According to the setup above? Would you change anything (Not more powerful, if not, a better alternative or perhaps a better choice due to overclocking capabilities or more competitive pricing?

In regards to heat issues, is a water cooling system recommended?

I was also suggested Two striped black drives.

Sorry for the excessive questions, but I want to make sure I know what I am buying before I jump on it...



FWIW, it will be triple booting Mac, Windows, Linux.

Thank You!


 

mexpedip

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Feb 2, 2008
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OK, I'll start with the HDD's
The scsi is neat but the value is not great. If you need the fastest drive without breaking the bank get the 300gb vraptor. What I would recommend, however, is getting 4 x 1.5TB (makes the math easier)Seagate drives and run them in RAID 0+1. The would give you 3TB of storage with everything simultaneously backed up. In other words, you could partition 1TB off for each OS and never have to worry about space. Last thing on HDD's, the vraptor is fast but the new 7200 RPM drives are not far behind.

get the core i7 920 and save yourself $300 (use for the additonal HDD's). Read some of the reviews and look at the OC'ing section of the forum. You can get almost the same peformance out of the 920 as you can the 940. Basically that means the only thing that will recognize a difference in peformance will be your benchmarking utulities.
 

sharken

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Feb 4, 2007
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actually again the 920 and 940 are the same chip exactly just clocked differently, if you want to pay them 300 more to clock it up for by all means, the 920 is one to buy, homework son...
 
How many systems have you built?
This system seems awfully complicated for a first time build, esp water cooling. If I'm assuming too much, well I'm sure you can judge for yourself if your ready to dive into water cooling.
 

ddotroq

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Jan 9, 2009
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I have built over 20 systems in my lifetime, but its been over 2 years since I've built one and never done water cooling. I don't mind learning something new, and it can't be a complete rocket puzzle.

I guess the 920 overclocked could work. It does save a nice amount of $$$.