System Critiques Please...

[TheRaven_62]

Bought a starter on eBay and went to town on it. My objective was to design a workstation around a gaming capacity to support media development without using servers for distributed processing. The determinant factor was price when considering parts but, another serious principle was power usage as a system like this could become a utility company's third world.


The direct formula that I employed was: A.) performance against power consumption, then B.) price.

The newer specs are below and are broken down into categories for easier navigation.


Motherboard:

01.) MoBo ------- Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
02.) CPU --------- Intel Core II Duo 8500
03.) RAM --------- Mushkin 1033MHz "Blackline" [8GB]
04.) Audio ------- HTO | Striker w/Dolby Surround
05.) Video ------- NVidia GTX275 [Gigabyte Branded Model]
06.) Wireless --- Edimax Triple Dipole Antenna [802.11N]
07.) PSU --------- Corsair 650 Watt Professional Edition Single Power Rail

(Motherboard components were chosen for: performance, reliability, and cross-platform O.S. operability with BSD, Linux, and Windows)


Internal Storage:

01.) O.S. Drive ----------------- 150GB WD-Velociraptor *is
02.) SWAP Drive --------------- 74GB WD-Velraptr. *is
03.) Software Drive ----------- 300GB WD-Velraptr. *is
04.) Game Drive --------------- 300GB WD-Velraptr. *is
05.) Virtual Machine Drive --- 150GB WD-Velraptr. *is

(*is - power efficiency out performs even the Hitachi Deskstar 7200rpm, these models are the newest 'HLFS' series)


Case:

01.) Box ------------------ Raidmax Saggita ATX
02.) HDD Drive cage --- Backplane [trayless-hotswap]


Monitors:

01.) Primary ------- Acer x203w [20 inch LCD Flat-screen]
02.) secondary --- Acer x173w [17 inch LCD Flat-screen]

(Dual monitor setup with VGA and DVI compatibility)


Sound System:

01.) Logitech 2.1 Stereo (two desktop speakers and a bass box)

(pretty decent starter for $50)


External Storage:

01.) System Drive Clones ------------------- 1TB Hitachi Deskstar 7200rpm (power efficient)
02.) Software and Document Backups --- 320GB WD MyPassport (USB 2.0 powered)
03.) Virtual Machine Backups --------------- 500GB WD MyPassport (USB 2.0 powered)


Media Storage and accessibility:

01.) ARTiGO 2000 Barebone Data Storage P.C./Home Server (for UPnP media [audio and video], web based services)

(Still have to get drives for the ARTiGO and am considering 74GB WD-Velraptr. for the head and a 300GB WD-Velraptr. for the storage)


UPS:

01.) still looking but, am snooping around an APC system @around 700+ with power management software via USB/RJ-45.

(any recommendations on a UPS that will support this monstrosity of a system are greatly appreciated.)

 

[tecmo34]

I voted don't like. Some reasons...

You could've done an i5 750 build for the same price and been better off. Also, why no ATI 58xxx series card, instead of the GTX275?

Have you heard of a SSD or Samsung Spinpoint F3 500 GB? The Samsung is about equal in performance at 1/4 the price. Solid State Drives are in a class above all. For the amount of VRaptors you got, you could've had a much faster & bigger drive spaces.

 

[Proximon]

Since your MB is a DDR2 version, I'm guessing you meant 4x2GB DDR2 1066?

You did not mention actual usage much, but you should have gone with a Q9550 as far as I can tell.