Balanced developer rig

usegno

September 17, 2009 3:35:26 AM

Looking to put together a quiet system that is well balanced for disk, memory and cpu access for software development and system/database testing. System will consist of approximately 15 virtual systems, with only a few having significant activity at one time.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: within a couple of days
BUDGET RANGE: US$ 2000
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: software development, virtualization, database and system testing
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS, video (on-board)
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg.com, although will consider others
PARTS PREFERENCES: raid ready disks, fast system disk
OVERCLOCKING: Probably, if system remains stable and cool (quiet).
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: This is what I've spec'ed out, but I would be interested suggestions and comments from more experienced builders.

1 Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $140
1 ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard $140
1 Antec Signature SG-850 850W Power Supply $230
1 LINKSKEY LDV-DM702AUSK Dual Monitor KVM Switch $320
1 AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 $190
2 OCZ Gold AMD Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) $216
3 Western Digital RE3 WD1002FBYS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive $480
1 Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive $230
1 LITE-ON 24X CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model iHAS324-08 32
1 Thermaltake CLP0539 120mm Hydro Dynamic Fan CPU Cooler $50

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hunter315

September 17, 2009 4:26:30 AM

The raptor isnt worth it, 3 of the RE3 drives in RAID will provide you with better peformance, if you need an extra disk to hold the OS get a samsung F3 500GB drive, its as fast as the raptor but only 50 instead of 230.

I would have to suggest an LGA 1156 rig over an AMD rig at this point, it will perform significantly better for $120 more
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

And you can drop the power supply down to a TP-650 to make sure you have enough connectors for all the HDDs
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

Since the P55 does not support onboard graphics you will need a graphics card, a 4670 will be more than enough and is rather inexpensive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

That should lower the total cost of the system significantly, oh and check out frosty tech to find a good quiet cooler.

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usegno

September 20, 2009 2:41:21 AM

Thanks Hunter315!

I went with your recommendation on the LGA 1156 rig, and the power supply, but kept the raptor, and got a different video card. The raptor is expensive, but it's seek time is 100% better, which should help the database. Some comments I read about Radeon 4670 suggested it wasn't quiet. Thanks for your help. I have a much better system now and was still within my budget

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hunter315

September 20, 2009 3:10:28 AM

If you want quiet there are passively cooled 4670s which will make no noise at all
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

If you really need the fastest possible seek time and are willing to pay that much for a drive that will provide it then definitely consider a SSD. If your database is reasonably sized and you can fit it onto an 80GB drive then you can get an intel 2nd generation solid state disk which is currently the fastest available for about $100 more and greatly outperform the raptor, it performs the same as its 160GB brother in this review
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-x25-m-vertex,23...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

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