Would CPU @ 3.2 Gig Bottleneck System?

[raybob95]

Building another system for friend.......



Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P
OCZ StealthXStream OCZ700SXS 700W PSU
Antec 900 + Cooler Master Neon LED TLF-S12-EB 120mm Side Mounted Fan
Vista x64 Home Premium'
OCZ Platinum 8GB DDR2 1066 SDRAM
WD Caviar Black 1TB WD1001FALS (Storage/apps drive)
OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX60G 60GB SATA II MLC SSD (FAT32) + ICY DOCK MB882SP 2.5" to 3.5" SSD Converter (FAT32 Windows Boot Drive)
LG Black 6x Blu-Ray DVD-ROM 16X DVD+R Burner Model GGC-H20L - Retail
LG Black 22x DVD+R 2MB SATA DVD Burner w/ Lightsribe - Retail
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro + Arctic Cooling Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Card Reader + Floppy with 3.5 to 5.25 mounting frame
LG W2353V-PF Black 23" 1080p LCD Monitor
EVGA 896-P3-1170-AR GeForce GXT 275 896MB (May OC this a bit)
ASUS My-Cinema PE9400 Combo TV Tuner

And the CPU:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 w/ FSB raised from 333 to 377 (OC from 2.83 to 3.2 GHz)

 

[WR2]

Yes.

 

[raybob95]

Yes.

Uhhh, Elaborate?

 

[WR2]

Ask yourself. Will the computer run programs faster @ 3.3Ghz? 3.4Ghz?
If you tell yourself yes - then you know the CPU @ 3.2Ghz is a "bottleneck".

 

[raybob95]

Ask yourself. Will the computer run programs faster @ 3.3Ghz? 3.4Ghz?
If you tell yourself yes - then you know the CPU @ 3.2Ghz is a "bottleneck".

I don't know, that's why I was asking you guys.

I don't have a ton of experience with the Q9550s o this particular hardware, I've only built like 4 PCs in my life.

My main question is, would I see a huge drop of performance with this under an i7? I would go i7, but the $200+ motherboard just doesn't meet my budget.

 

[xthekidx]

The CPU is always some sort of bottleneck because you can always get more performance by going with a faster one, but a Q9550 at 3.2ghz is going to handle just about everything very well, that is a very fast processor.

 

[WR2]

Refer to my first post.

 

[xthekidx]

That being said, you could fit an i7 in your budget. Drop the SSD and just pick up an WD6401AALS instead. But for gaming an i7 isn't really any better than a Q9550.

 

[WR2]

Is this a gaming only build?

 

[knotknut]

In the Gaming only catagory, and a single Video card, the AMD PII x4 940 steps out in front.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/260318-28-phenom-benchmarks

 

[raybob95]

Is this a gaming only build?

No, it's also for Multimedia purposes, namely recording television, and other general purposes more than gaming, like word processing, music listening,
IPOD MPG to MP4 Encoding, watching movies, etc.

I multitask a lot, like typing a word document, listening to music, surfing the web, encoding an IPOD video, and recording TV at the same time.

My budget for this build was 2k, and so far I'm at $2,020.

I did consider a WD640, but the Vertex as a boot drive would suit me better as I have about a million background programs that boot at startup.

Like I said, I would go i7, but it doesn't meet my budget. I even had to settle for a really cheap TV tuner that probably won't even work and doesn't have the ability to record HDTV.

But I am very pleased with the monitor I picked out!

Oh yeah, for games I'll probably only play some REALLY old '90s games, FSX, and GTAIV. The only thing about FSX is that I heard it really works great with an i7. The i7 isn't expensive, and I found some GREAT prices on 6GB DDR3 1600 RAM for $90, but the $200 mobo just won't meet my budget.

 

[Helloworld_98]

the ssd kinda kills the budget.

if you didn't get the SSD you would've been able to get an i7 build. or you could've at least only got a 30GB vertex.

 

[raybob95]

the ssd kinda kills the budget.

if you didn't get the SSD you would've been able to get an i7 build. or you could've at least only got a 30GB vertex.

Vista fit on it and still have plenty of space left over for the page file/ swap space, etc.?

 

[Helloworld_98]

9GB + 9GB= 18GB, still 12GB left over for apps.

 

[WR2]

the Vertex as a boot drive would suit me better as I have about a million background programs that boot at startup.

I thought this build was for a friend?
You've chosen a premium storage solution. If you applied the same standard of excellence in parts choice to your whole system you'd have chosen a Core i7 940 CPU, GTX 285 video card and definitely a better TV tuner card.
How many times a week do you boot your system? I usually go a couple weeks between bootups, and only then for program updates. I'd have a hard justifying a SSD just to save 30~40 seconds or so every other week.

If a Q9550 and GTX 275 is "good enough" for you wouldn't the same apply to a fast WD Caviar Black 640GB HDD?
Now I'm not trying to tell you to leave out the SSD, just pointing out an imbalance in price/performance ratio with your other parts.

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro + Arctic Cooling Silver 5 Thermal Compound Why remove really excellent MX-2 thermal compound that comes pre-applied to the Freezer 7 Pro and use AS-5? Thermal Compound review. If you're concerned enough to want to get better cooling performance upgrade the cooler, not the thermal compound. 120mm CPU coolers

Cooler Master Neon LED TLF-S12-EB 120mm Fan You can easily get by without this fan. If you want a side fan move one of the 2 front fans of the 900 to the side. Mixing fan make/models can sometimes lead to acoustic dissonance where the sound the fans make doesnt match and becomes noticeable/annoying.

LG Black SATA DVD Burner Do you really need 2 DVD burner? The Blu-ray unit is a DVD burner too. If you think you need burner to burner work you can always learn to use your HDD as a "virtual" DVD drive.

ASUS My-Cinema PE9400 Combo An upgrade here could really improve the overall satisfaction with the new system IMO.

 

[raybob95]

I thought this build was for a friend?
You've chosen a premium storage solution. If you applied the same standard of excellence in parts choice to your whole system you'd have chosen a Core i7 940 CPU, GTX 285 video card and definitely a better TV tuner card.
How many times a week do you boot your system? I usually go a couple weeks between bootups, and only then for program updates. I'd have a hard justifying a SSD just to save 30~40 seconds or so every other week.

If a Q9550 and GTX 275 is "good enough" for you wouldn't the same apply to a fast WD Caviar Black 640GB HDD?
Now I'm not trying to tell you to leave out the SSD, just pointing out an imbalance in price/performance ratio with your other parts.

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro + Arctic Cooling Silver 5 Thermal Compound Why remove really excellent MX-2 thermal compound that comes pre-applied to the Freezer 7 Pro and use AS-5? Thermal Compound review. If you're concerned enough to want to get better cooling performance upgrade the cooler, not the thermal compound. 120mm CPU coolers

Cooler Master Neon LED TLF-S12-EB 120mm Fan You can easily get by without this fan. If you want a side fan move one of the 2 front fans of the 900 to the side. Mixing fan make/models can sometimes lead to acoustic dissonance where the sound the fans make doesnt match and becomes noticeable/annoying.

LG Black SATA DVD Burner Do you really need 2 DVD burner? The Blu-ray unit is a DVD burner too. If you think you need burner to burner work you can always learn to use your HDD as a "virtual" DVD drive.

ASUS My-Cinema PE9400 Combo An upgrade here could really improve the overall satisfaction with the new system IMO.

It is for a friend, but later I am planning to build myself a PC with a build similar to/ the same as this PC. The TV Tuner Card does suck, but the GTX 275 and the Q9550 are great. The i7 is great too, and that's why I'm asking if I should get it. The GTX 285 is $300+, and the 275 is already more than enough. I didn't know the Freezer 7 Pro already came with thermal compound. I'll take the AS5 out. I do need 2 DVD drives, because not only do they tend to break a lot for me, but I want one that can burn DVDs really fast and read CDs really fast for transfers, and a Blu-Ray drive to use ONLY for blu-ray, also in case the other one breaks. The fan is partly because I heard the GTX 275 has bad cooling, also because of the cool Blue LED. With an OC to only 3.2, a better cooler isn't really needed. But if you can find me a better one for just as cheap, I'm open.

If anybody has any cheap TV card suggestions, let me know.

The budget will be eased down to about exactly $2k with my change to a UD3R mobo and no thermal compound. Once the prices on GTX 275s go down or aquire MIRs, this will also ease the budget, and allow me to get a better TV card.

P.S. guys, I'm also looking for general reviews of this PC.

And if absolutely needed to get a better TV Tuner, (Or an i7 if the mobo prices go down) I may be able to push my budget to $2,100, but my friend said 2k is the ABSOLUTE limit.