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£1200/($2000) High-End Workstation upgrade

schmutz06

schmutz06

Member
I am upgrading my computer which I use for Video editing, Music production, gaming and extreme multi-tasking. After thorough research here is my shortlist:

CPU

Intel Core i7 2600k 3.4GHz Socket 1155 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor £235.65

RAM

Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDDR3 1600Mhz Memory Module CL9 1.5V £151.96

MOTHERBOARD

Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3 Socket 1155 onboard 7.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard £148.85

SSD DRIVE

Crucial 128GB 2.5" M4 SSD SATA-III 6Gb/s - Read 415MB/s Write 175MB/s £169.98

= £706.44 (well under budget 🙂)

I am upgrading from:

  • Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz
  • 4GB DDR2 RAM @800mhz
  • Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R
  • Coolermaster Silent pro Gold 1000W PSU*
  • Asus Xonar DX soundcard*
  • Dell U2711 + Samsung SyncMaster 245B*
  • Gigabyte GTX 560ti*
  • Keyboard/Mouse/Speakers/Hard drives*
  • Coolermaster CM690 II Advanced Case*
(*I will continue to use with the new build)

Do you have any suggestions for improvement? I hope to order tomorrow evening. I am happy to buy from any reliable website including ebay sellers my preferred websites are ebuyer and amazon.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions they will be much appreciated 🙂
 
The parts you've picked out are fine, if a bit overpriced. In particular:
- CPU: Good
- RAM: Don't buy a 16GB kit right now, they have a premium attached for no good reason. Get two of these Kingston DDR3 1333 8GB kits instead.
- Mobo: I don't see anything in your setup that calls for a mobo that expensive. Check out the GA-Z68A-D3H instead.
- SSD : Fine
 
mfenn said:
The parts you've picked out are fine, if a bit overpriced. In particular:
- CPU: Good
- RAM: Don't buy a 16GB kit right now, they have a premium attached for no good reason. Get two of these Kingston DDR3 1333 8GB kits instead.
- Mobo: I don't see anything in your setup that calls for a mobo that expensive. Check out the GA-Z68A-D3H instead.
- SSD : Fine
Click to expand...

thank you for your help.

- Mobo: I was very tempted to go for the GA-Z68A-D3H actually. I was advised to get the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3P because it has superior voltage regulator modules which will allow for better overclocking. If you could help clarify this for me it would be much appreciated. I intend on achieving a stable overclock on my 2600K.

- RAM: Would the Kingston 1333mhz offer the same performance as the Corsair 1600mhz memory?

I have found the highly recommended G.Skill ripjaws X-series available in the UK for £88.99 (2x4gb kit)

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/...Tab=2&NoMapp=0

Are two of these at all worth considering over the kingston 8gb kits? I only ask because I see this particular kit recommended all the time.
 
schmutz06 said:
thank you for your help.
Click to expand...

No problem. 🙂

schmutz06 said:
- Mobo: I was very tempted to go for the GA-Z68A-D3H actually. I was advised to get the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3P because it has superior voltage regulator modules which will allow for better overclocking. If you could help clarify this for me it would be much appreciated. I intend on achieving a stable overclock on my 2600K.
Click to expand...

Yes, the UD3P does have better VRMs and cooling, but it won't matter unless you really push the voltages on the CPU (not recommended for a 24/7 workstation).

schmutz06 said:
- RAM: Would the Kingston 1333mhz offer the same performance as the Corsair 1600mhz memory?

I have found the highly recommended G.Skill ripjaws X-series available in the UK for £88.99 (2x4gb kit)

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/...Tab=2&NoMapp=0

Are two of these at all worth considering over the kingston 8gb kits? I only ask because I see this particular kit recommended all the time.
Click to expand...

I doubt you would be able to tell a difference between DDR3 1333 and DDR3 1600 unless you were running benchmarks. The Ripjaws kit is quite good, but the price of the Kingston is unbeatable IMHO.
 
well then, thanks again. You may have saved me ~£70 🙂 I do not have any intentions on pushing the voltages and compromising the stability. My Q6600 runs extremely stable at 3.0Ghz with default voltage/Zalman CNPS 9700 and this is the level of overclock I would like to achieve with the 2600K. Speaking of which, I am tempted to get the Corsair Cooling Air Series A70 @£53.71 because the product reviews on ebuyer are largely positive. It is pricey for a cooler though are there alternatives you would recommend?
 
after reading through a comparison on tomshardware and other reviews, I am now inclined to go for the:

Asrock Z68 EXTREME4 Socket 1155 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard - £139.79

This motherboard gets praise everywhere I have looked. Is it worth considering over the gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H? It is quite naive and I probably need a good slap to be set straight but there is a voice inside my head which strongly opposes putting hundreds of pounds worth of new components on a "cheaper" motherboard :hmm:

lol, thanks for any suggestions

also, after more research regarding CPU fans the Noctua NH-D14 cooler at £65.02 seems to be quiet and extremely efficient. Also, it has come out on top of many product comparisons/reviews. I think I want to go with that over the Corsair A70...
 
Be careful, you're playing the parts ladder game again! Take a look at the Hyper 212+ cooler. It's not as good as the Noctua, but you don't really need something as ridiculous as the DH14 given your overclocking goals.

As for the mobo, the Gigabyte certainly does not quality as "cheap". It is a quality board, as is the ASRock. The ASRock has more features, which are nice but you most likely don't need.
 
aha, I have discussions open on other forums too and have made some adjustments to my selection. Thankfully I also learned the DH14 is overkill for my requirements I should have updated this thread earlier.

I was actually recommended the Hyper 212+ by another person too, it is clearly a highly recommended cooler.

This is an interesting case study where someone has upgraded from the Hyper 212 to the silver arrow:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1573057

I do have intentions to achieve a good overclock on my 2600K and I am after extremely high stability/minimum temperatures and noise. I don't want to overlook getting a quality cooler.

The silver arrow appears to be the "sweet spot" between the overpriced noctua/inferior hyper 212. What do you think? 😀

as for the other components, I've found the faster RipJaws X series for considerably cheaper, £126 for two 8gb kits now it is a real contender against the HyperX memory. Here is a performance comparison between 1333/1600 which recommends 1600mhz memory for best price/performance:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/sandy-bridge-ddr3_7.html#sect0

With regards to the motherboard; I was convinced the ASrock was the one to get, it came out on top in a toms hardware comparison and I read a few worrying articles regarding Gigabyte boards. What extra features does the ASRock have over the GA-Z68A-D3H? If they will offer more future-proofing or more versatility for expansion then I'm happy to spend extra!
 
CPU: Fine

Ram: As stated before, two slower 1333Mhz 8GB kits would be fine. You wont notice the difference unless the 16GB kits can be found for a good price

Motherboard: My motherboard is a cheaper MSI P67A-G43 and I hit 4.4Ghz with my 2500K without any voltage increases. So depends on how far you intend to take your overclock. But overclocks like mine doesn't require high end motherboards

SSD: My preference is intel 320 120GB but yours is fine too
 
Overclockers are having a massive special on the Kingston 1333MHz 8gb kits tomorrow, I'll be able to get 16GB for £95.98

Stuck again now! I thought I had it sorted when I found 16gb's RipJaws X series @ £126, but now I am looking at a saving of £30........

Is £30 worth it for 1600MHz over 1333MHz? Every comparison review I have read recommends 1600MHz RAM as the greatest bang for buck. For the multi-tasking and video editing I do the RAM will be pushed to it's full potential. If I will get greater performance with 1600MHz that £30 will be well spent.
 
any thoughts on the RAM? As it stands I'm going to be buying everything tomorrow and going with the RipJaws memory for peace of mind.
 
schmutz06 said:
aha, I have discussions open on other forums too and have made some adjustments to my selection. Thankfully I also learned the DH14 is overkill for my requirements I should have updated this thread earlier.

I was actually recommended the Hyper 212+ by another person too, it is clearly a highly recommended cooler.

This is an interesting case study where someone has upgraded from the Hyper 212 to the silver arrow:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1573057

I do have intentions to achieve a good overclock on my 2600K and I am after extremely high stability/minimum temperatures and noise. I don't want to overlook getting a quality cooler.

The silver arrow appears to be the "sweet spot" between the overpriced noctua/inferior hyper 212. What do you think? 😀
Click to expand...

Either one is fine IMHO. It really doesn't matter if you're going for the "safe" quiet 4.4Ghz OC.

schmutz06 said:
as for the other components, I've found the faster RipJaws X series for considerably cheaper, £126 for two 8gb kits now it is a real contender against the HyperX memory. Here is a performance comparison between 1333/1600 which recommends 1600mhz memory for best price/performance:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/sandy-bridge-ddr3_7.html#sect0
Click to expand...

Ah, that article again. If you actually take a close look at the charts, you'll see that there is really very little difference between DDR3 1600 CAS 9 and DDR3 1333 CAS 9. And that's a 1680x1050 with a 6970. At realistic GPU/resolution combinations, the games are GPU-limited anyway, so the already small advantage goes to nil.

schmutz06 said:
With regards to the motherboard; I was convinced the ASrock was the one to get, it came out on top in a toms hardware comparison and I read a few worrying articles regarding Gigabyte boards. What extra features does the ASRock have over the GA-Z68A-D3H? If they will offer more future-proofing or more versatility for expansion then I'm happy to spend extra!
Click to expand...

You're the mobo manufacturers' perfect customer! 😀 You can compare the feature lists yourself, but basically the Extreme4 gives you a front USB 3.0 breakout box and Firewire. The "fear" of "needing" a feature is what drives people up the ladder. I've been there done that for 15 years now, and I can tell you that I've never wished I'd bought a fancier mobo. Anything that you "really really need" can always be done with an add-in card.
 
mfenn said:
Ah, that article again. If you actually take a close look at the charts, you'll see that there is really very little difference between DDR3 1600 CAS 9 and DDR3 1333 CAS 9. And that's a 1680x1050 with a 6970. At realistic GPU/resolution combinations, the games are GPU-limited anyway, so the already small advantage goes to nil.
Click to expand...

You are right. After more research I went with the Kingston 1333MHz kit as the performance gain of a few % didn't warrant paying an extra ~35%. I didn't mean to link to the "games" section of that article, more the entire article itself - application and multi-tasking performance is going to be the important factor for me. Even still the performance gains are only a few %. I also bought the Thermalright Silver Arrow this morning too.

mfenn said:
You're the mobo manufacturers' perfect customer! 😀 You can compare the feature lists yourself, but basically the Extreme4 gives you a front USB 3.0 breakout box and Firewire. The "fear" of "needing" a feature is what drives people up the ladder. I've been there done that for 15 years now, and I can tell you that I've never wished I'd bought a fancier mobo. Anything that you "really really need" can always be done with an add-in card.
Click to expand...

Thanks, the GA-Z68A-D3H is the better deal in your opinion? Picking out the motherboard has been by far the trickiest part. You are right about the fear of needing extra features and things, it is damn intimidating! haha.

For reference here is the post which had me concerned about the GA-Z68A-D3H: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2172642 The OP is taking quite a beating from the responses though, none of his issues appear to be very significant.

As it stands the GA-Z68A-D3H is now my top candidate. And I am sorry if it was bad practice to start another thread. It was because the focus was on post-build actions rather than pre-build and I thought it was worth isolating them. Regardless, I am concerned about the lack of IDE drive support. Now I have found IDE-->sata converters but they are expensive and it seems to be worth considering a SATA drive instead.

My problems:

1) I am concerned about the lack of support for my DVD drive! It's an IDE drive, and I'll need it to install windows 7 on the new SSD... what are my options? Can you get a conversion adapter? Do I need to get a SATA DVD/Blu Ray drive?

2) Will the ASROCK Extreme 4 Z68/GA-Z68A-D3H motherboard fully support all four of my sata hard drives, a SATA Bluray/DVD drive and the SSD?

3) Will the Thermalright Silver Arrow and the G.Skill RipJawsX memory play nicely together? I've read it is possible to fit them both in with a minor adjustment to the fan height. Can anybody help me from personal experience?

4) Will I need to pay attention to which SATA/USB drives are which? With SATA III/USB III support, is it standard practice to use the correct peripherals/components with the matching technology? (for example my sata HDD's will need to be plugged into the SATA II drives..)

5) What is a good average/stable overclock for the 2600K?
 
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I have my eyes on this blu ray drive with dvd re-writing (required):

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/242243

OEM, £47.99. It's a pain IDE sockets have been phased out... could I install windows 7 on the SSD using my Q6600 build and then pop it in the new build after without any hiccups?
 
Last edited:
schmutz06 said:
could I install windows 7 on the SSD using my Q6600 build and then pop it in the new build after without any hiccups?
Click to expand...

No. You would be in line for some serious hiccups. That's if it doesn't just error & lock as soon as it tries to load anything related to the Q6600 that gets automatically installed as part of the initial process. A whole lot of the OS load is motherboard/hardware-related components.

Patience. Install the OS when you have all the hardware in place.
 
betasub said:
No. You would be in line for some serious hiccups. That's if it doesn't just error & lock as soon as it tries to load anything related to the Q6600 that gets automatically installed as part of the initial process. A whole lot of the OS load is motherboard/hardware-related components.

Patience. Install the OS when you have all the hardware in place.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the heads up. That is unfortunate. Patience isn't the object, I am trying to find an alternative to spending money on a new optical drive when I already have one. Now I have a choice between a sata DVD RW drive like this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/268621 ~£14

Or spending around triple on a blu ray drive

OR... try one of these:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139071 £4 Sata to IDE converter

WHY OH WHY have IDE drives been phased out? I've used the same DVD drive since my AMD 3500+ build and I have never had any reason to upgrade it :'(
 
schmutz06 said:
You are right. After more research I went with the Kingston 1333MHz kit as the performance gain of a few % didn't warrant paying an extra ~35%. I didn't mean to link to the "games" section of that article, more the entire article itself - application and multi-tasking performance is going to be the important factor for me. Even still the performance gains are only a few %. I also bought the Thermalright Silver Arrow this morning too.
Click to expand...

Sounds good. :thumbsup:

schmutz06 said:
Thanks, the GA-Z68A-D3H is the better deal in your opinion? Picking out the motherboard has been by far the trickiest part. You are right about the fear of needing extra features and things, it is damn intimidating! haha.

For reference here is the post which had me concerned about the GA-Z68A-D3H: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2172642 The OP is taking quite a beating from the responses though, none of his issues appear to be very significant.
Click to expand...

I read through that thread and ibex is just ranting. Honestly, it sounds like s/he hasn't built in a while and was surprised that things are different now.

schmutz06 said:
As it stands the GA-Z68A-D3H is now my top candidate. And I am sorry if it was bad practice to start another thread. It was because the focus was on post-build actions rather than pre-build and I thought it was worth isolating them. Regardless, I am concerned about the lack of IDE drive support. Now I have found IDE-->sata converters but they are expensive and it seems to be worth considering a SATA drive instead.
Click to expand...

No worries, now you know about the proper etiquette. Regarding the DVD burner, you might as well just junk the old one and get a new SATA one. They're not very expensive at all. This Samsung is 15 quid.


schmutz06 said:
1) I am concerned about the lack of support for my DVD drive! It's an IDE drive, and I'll need it to install windows 7 on the new SSD... what are my options? Can you get a conversion adapter? Do I need to get a SATA DVD/Blu Ray drive?
Click to expand...

See above, a new burner is very cheap. You can also install Windows 7 from a USB drive if you have a ~4GB one laying around.

schmutz06 said:
2) Will the ASROCK Extreme 4 Z68/GA-Z68A-D3H motherboard fully support all four of my sata hard drives, a SATA Bluray/DVD drive and the SSD?
Click to expand...

Yep, the Extreme4 has 8 SATA ports and the D3H has 6.

schmutz06 said:
4) Will I need to pay attention to which SATA/USB drives are which? With SATA III/USB III support, is it standard practice to use the correct peripherals/components with the matching technology? (for example my sata HDD's will need to be plugged into the SATA II drives..)
Click to expand...

SATA ports and drives can be mixed in any combination. They will auto negotiate to the highest speed supported both the port and the drive. Obviously, you'll want to plug your SATA 6Gb/s SSD into a SATA 6Gb/s port for best performance. USB is the same way.

schmutz06 said:
5) What is a good average/stable overclock for the 2600K?
Click to expand...

4.4GHz is pretty common.
 
I've just finished ordering everything. I went with the 2600K, Crucial M4, Sony Optiarc AD-5260S Optical Drive and the ASROCK z68 extreme 4.

Why did I go for this motherboard? First, it has largely positive reviews/response everywhere I look whereas I couldn't find any feedback on the cheaper gigabyte board at all besides a few "rants". Second, the gigabyte is a little tight on sata ports since I have 4 HDD's, a sata optical drive and the SSD drive. Lastly, the gigabyte board has a 4 pin CPU power adapter, and the ASrocks 8 pin adapter will probably serve me better with regard to overclocking.

I hope I have justified spending the extra £30. It has certainely gave me peace of mind.
 
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I'm sure you will like it! Let us know if you have a problem during the build.

The ASRock isn't a bad board by any stretch of the imagination. It's not as good a value as the Gigabyte IMHO, but at least it's not one of the $200 monstrosities.
 
mfenn, thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions.

It has allowed me to make well informed and confident decisions over which components to go for. I really appreciate it!

I am sure I'll be back in a few days trying to get my new system calibrated/optimised. ()🙂
 
Hi, before I put everything together tomorrow I have some questions mostly regarding the SSD. I do not wish to install OS/software etc only to find I've messed something up in the BIOS and need to re-format. I am going to improvise my way through the various SSD optimization guides out there but I am not 100% confident about the details especially since a lot of them relate to older SSD drive technology I am not sure if some of the process is now "automated" on the newer SSD's like the Crucial M4. Please, flag anything that stands out!

My action plan:

1) Install SSD drive into one of the two Intel 6GBPS sata III controllers

2) go into BIOS and find "SATA Controller"/make sure it is set to AHCI Mode

3) FIRMWARE UPDATES.... are they necessary? and is it possible to do via USB?

4) Install Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (no turning back now, hopefully)

5) Install my four SATA hard drives into the 3GBPS Sata II ports

6) Verify "TRIM" is enabled

7) Verify scheduled disk defragmentation is disabled

8) SYSTEM RESTORE... I do not wish to disable this. Is it possible to keep my restore points on another HDD?

9) Disable drive indexing

10) PAGE FILE... in some instances my video editing software Adobe After Effects will try to eat up all 16GB of RAM and then some. For this reason I don't think that disabling the page file will do me many favours. I would like to minimize it's size though or if possible use another hard drive for it

11) Disable hibernation

That's it. Is there anything else I should consider?

for reference here is my entire spec:

i7 2600K
Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 RAM (4x4GB dual channel)
ASRock Z68 Extreme 4
Crucial M4 128GB SSD
Coolermaster Silent pro Gold 1000W PSU
Asus Xonar DX soundcard
Gigabyte GTX 560ti (X2 SLI)
Coolermaster CM690 II Advanced Case
2x 1TB HDD
1x 2TB HDD
1x 500GB HDD
SATA DVD Drive
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
 
I would just use the SSD like it's a normal HDD. The defaults work pretty well in Windows 7.

You don't have to update the firmware. Screwing up can mean you'll brick the SSD (doesn't have to be your fault, you could be unlucky with a sudden power outage).

Just so you know, you can check if TRIM is enabled, but you cannot verify it's actually working.

I'm not sure if the system restore can be set to another HDD, but the page file can. I'm not sure why you would want to move the page file though. Any access to the page file would be slow on a HDD.
 
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