New build, advice please

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by luminousone, May 16, 2007.

  1. luminousone

    luminousone Private E-2

    Hello major geeks.

    I want to build a system by summers end. I have built one other system from scratch and it was mostly a frankenstein of this i could drudge up. It is now getting on in years and needs replacing.

    Aesthetics are important to me both inside and out as i do plan to add a window at some point. Money is also important so it will not be State of the art. I find it is nice to stay at least a year behind to be wallet friendly.

    I will be building an AMD even tho i know the Intels are faster and more overclockable in hopes that the Phenoms actually do fit these boards, thus saving me money a little later on. Other than Ram and a processor i will probably not do any thing to this PC until i again get a new one.

    Anyhow this is what i have in mind

    Asus crosshair
    2 GB corsair Dominator
    AMD 64x2 4600+ 65w
    zalaman 9700 CPU heatsink
    4 - Seagate SATA 250Gb 7200 16mb in raid 0
    Kingwin mach 1 600 watt power supply(would prefer the 800 but i can find it)
    LG 8164B DVD-rom
    Pioneer DVR-112DBK 18x DVD burner
    lights fans and crap
    OTZ XTC Memory Cooler
    a video card or two
    All stuffed inside a Antec P182

    I dont have a Video card (or set of them) picked out. I want to run dual monitors and connect to my telivision. I play games some but this system is primarily for Video and music encoding.

    I plan on moding the case a bit...i was very upset that the p182 was not black interior like the Special for one thing. I am not afraid to cut in to the box to fit fans in front of the hard drive cages or fit in larger Video cards later if need be.


    I like the look of this Mobo a lot but am open to suggestions as the price tag is a bit daunting. I also realise this is a Bios pro's board and while i am not pro i am a quick study and willing to learn. Please keep in mind i do want the option to upgrade to Quad if possible so a higher end board is needed i think.

    I would like to know:
    - if anyone knows of any conflicts with these items.
    - If there may be price drops soon
    - If having those drives in one array will be faster than two separate when Multi tasking
    - If anyone here has owned these items and what they like or did not like
    -If there is anything i should consider instead
    - If Crossfire will work in here
    - If All in wonder cards are crossfire compatible
    - if 600 watts will be enough to future proof
    - If Vista is worth it now (ie: not to buggy, legacy apps, ect.)
    - where in my town i can get more chicken wings at 2am
    - Anything else you think may be useful
     
  2. lowie57

    lowie57 Private First Class

    ok,

    firstly if your going to be doing video and audio encoding, more than anything you will want a good cpu and ram, that cpu is a bit old now, its still a decend lil thing, but if ur not a gamer than a fairly cheap graphics card will suffice, use the money saved from the graphics card and get a kik *** cpu. Majority of new cards these days support dual monitors, hell u can even pick up a ati 9550 for $50 aust that supports duel monitors.

    and 600w psu should be fine, if ur wanting a bit more oommf i would look at the antec range, they are quality psu's.

    on a second note, dont even worry about crossfire if ur not gunna be pushin ur cards to the limits, its just wasted money imo, i wouldnt bother with crossfire in any case just yet lol.

    and i would hold out on vista, it is still quite buggy, wait till they release a SP edition, just less hastle, XP is still a good OS.

    and i too would like to know were to get more chicken wings :D lol

    hope this helps you
     
  3. MeitHed

    MeitHed Specialist

    that PSU will be good for that rig.. if only one video card.. if you want future proof, go with a better PS
     
  4. luminousone

    luminousone Private E-2

    - lowie57
    I understand the CPU is a bit old and i have been considering the 5200 model as it is the first with 2 megs cache. But of main import for for me is a good AM2 platform as any dual core will beat the crap outa my 2300+. And this is the part most likely to fall in price.

    As for crossfire i am not particular i just like my AiW and was wondering the newer Aow is Crossfire compatible. I also wonder if to run crossfire/SLI the cards need to be the same models.

    I looked up the PSU in some reviews and there a few things i Really don't like, namely that the PCI-e power is a y cable which will be fine if i run 2 cards & that although it has 6 Modular cable ports it only comes with 5 cables leaving out a Sata cable so it only can power 2 SATA drives. WTF!?!? Other than that its power efficiency is bad but the power is stable at least. Really i want the look of the PS more than any thing else but the 2 SATA connections will probably make me look else where. Although it was only mentioned in one review and kingwins site says 4 SATA.
    What i was wondering is if i do decide to go with 2 cards and a bunch of lights and crap will this be enough to power it? How about if i upgrade to a phenom later? Should i be looking for a 700+.


    I assumed that would be the case with Vista, like XP i will wait at least a year. (Can i run Vista as a virtual Machine in XP?)

    -MeitHed
    this PSU is SLI/Crossfire ready, are you referring to separate rails for PCI cards or the wattage of this unit? All the reviews i have looked at say this is a stable PSU and give it high marks there. That being the case if the 800 watt model comes out soon (and is a highly rated) would that be a better bet?
     
  5. MeitHed

    MeitHed Specialist

    Both, actually. My personal preference is Silverstone. They cost a bit more, but well worth it. The PSU is the one component of your system that when / if it goes, can and probably will take other things with it (HDD, CPU etc.).

    The 2nd 12v rail is typically dedicated to the CPU. So you are pretty much limited to just one rail for your video cards. For instance, if you have say.. an x1950PRO GPU, it requires 34 amps on the 12v rail.. if you are pushing less than that, you will never see the maximum performance of the card. Some, if not most, of the high-end PSU's can combine the 12v rails on an on-demand basis.

    Here are a few I would reccommend:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817812005

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256021

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194004

    Meit
     
  6. viper_boy403

    viper_boy403 MajorGeek

  7. luminousone

    luminousone Private E-2

    Meithead- I do understand that the PSU is my comps morning cornflakes, but i do like the style of this PSU and the reviews at modthebox, overclockers.com, virtualhideout and overclockers cafe tell a different story of stability. Currently the biggest reasons i have against this are the y-cables, only 2 SATA (some seem to have 4 !?), the low wattage relative to possible future needs and the fact that the long connectors seem to cause trouble setting up the case i want...oh and apfc would be nice. Hopeful the larger models come out before i buy and i can get a 750watt.

    Viperboy_403-

    1. I should have realized that i can run Crossfire on a sli board, the chip sets don't allow it. If i choose i can run an ATI card just not two in crossfire mode. Besides that to run crossfire/sli do the cards need to match? this is all new to me.

    2. I have seen the Li cases and i don't get what the big deal is, besides the fact that I don't have any spare babies to sell to get one I dont think they look that shit hot. The first time i seen the P180/182 wanted it. For me it is the epitome of style, then i saw the interior of the special...DAM. Those bastards should offer the black interior on the regular, i hate painting.

    3> the OCZ are nice but again cost is an issue At most i got 1400$ Canadian and the extra 80$ could go to my 5200 if i go that way. Maybe a middle of the road price like the Emermax liberty....hmmmm
     
  8. Bold Eagle

    Bold Eagle MajorGeek

    VB agreed:

    OCZ GameXtreme, find the extra money because the reviews just dont stop!!!!

    RAM personally Crucial Ballistix r arguably the best thr r and after PSU >> CPU >> RAM is next most imp.

    No point goin whiz bang on a decent GPU if the RAM aint gettin the info thr.....both fast and reliably
     
  9. luminousone

    luminousone Private E-2

    The OCZ does not have modular cables for me to lose while not using them...that does not fit in to my idea to well...whats a good Modular cable solution that is not to over sized? I really want no case clutter.

    I may decide to go with the Deluxe wireless 590 chipset or the deluxe 570 to save cash if need be....besides the lights and toys of the crosshair will i lose much performance? The bundles look better for one thing...the main things i want still seem in place Firewire, Sata Raid, Dual Ethernet, First packet tech.

    This is rather a large decision for me i don't want to mess it up.
     
  10. Bold Eagle

    Bold Eagle MajorGeek

    Okay as far as PSU's go here is my personal Bible and some for these are modular:

    http://www.diy-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10854

    These guys take thr systems very seriously. Not sure if there are any Modular ones there but it gives u an idea of some of the better "Top-End" Brands.

    If u are only going for a single Vid Card (who really needs 2!!) scroll 1/2 way down the page to the Modular section.

    Some of the Modular PSU's they recommend:

    http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/HX_power_supply.html

    http://www.google.com/products?q=Corsair+HX+520W&btnG=Search&lmode=online&scoring=p

    http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/HX_power_supply.html
     
  11. jokerswild555

    jokerswild555 Private E-2

    The P182 has a top exhaust fan that can get in the way of large aftermarket HSF's so you might want to check out if the zalman 9700 will interfere with that fan. Here's a pic of a Thermaltake HSF that had to have the fan bracket bent to clear the top case fan and the P182 needs all fans it has to stay cool.

    [​IMG]
     
  12. luminousone

    luminousone Private E-2

    Bold Eagle...ok i will take a look at those PSUs

    Jokerswild555- i think i saw a pick of the board and cooler in that case but i will recheck...thanks for the heads up.
     
  13. luminousone

    luminousone Private E-2

    I went and found the pic i was thinking of, but it shows the 9500 in the P182

    http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/cases/antec/p182se/an-pic5.jpg

    There appears to be about 1.5 CM clearence in that pic
    The board they used was the Asus A8N-VM CSM and when compared to the Crosshair and the ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe are much further inset and it looks as if it will fit nicely.

    Newegg gives the following dimensions for the zalman coolers
    9500 - 85 x 112 x 125mm
    9700 - 90 x 124 x 142mm


    so the width are the 85/90 right?

    The other thing i am hoping is that this huge Zalman will cool the Heat pipes and ram at the same time, an idea that makes the crosshair even more appealing due to the ram placement. I still worry about the topmost heat sync


    Edit...sorry for bumping my self
     

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