A Tale of Two Builds

jdogg707

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2002
6,098
0
76
Requested Info:

1. What your PC will be used for:
60% - Media Encoding (Mostly H.264 conversion, Blu-ray encodes, etc.)
40% - Gaming (Fallout 3, WoW, Far Cry 2, etc. I like a wide variety of games, so I would like to be able to play all of them with some fun eye candy)

2. What your budget is:
Looking to spend around $1700-$2300. I am willing to do a bit more or less of course, depnding on your recommendations!

3. Country:
USA, preferrably Newegg or Amazon.

4. If you have a brand preferenc, list here:
No real brand preferences. Just strong parts with good performance.

5. Current Parts:
Antec Quattro 1000W PSU - Purchased on BF for 129.99
Antec Twelve Hundred Case - Purchased on BF for 119.99
Dell 24" LCD 1920x1200 Monitor
Logitech G7 Mouse and Logitech Keyboard
Logitech Z-5500 5.1 Surround Sound speakers

6. If you have searched and/or read similar threads.
I have read a good number of these threads, just hoping to fine tune some things for my scenario.

7. Overclocking:
If I went for the Core i7, I would like to see at least 3GHz, preferrably around 3.2GHz if possible. If I went with the Q9550, I would like to see at least 3.2GHz, preferrably around 3.4GHz if possible. I don't want to spend a ton of time overclocking the system and worrying about crashes or problems. I would like to get it, fine tune it to a safe speed, and then start enjoying it.

8. When do you plan to build it?
As soon as possible.

My Builds:

Intel Core i7 920 Retail Processor - $294.99
Asus P6T Deluxe Motherboard - $299.99
G.Skill 6GB (3x2GB) (8-8-8-21) DDR3-1600 RAM - $261.99
Western Digital 1TB Black Edition Hard Drive - $109.99
2 x XFX 896MB GTX260 216 Black Edition Video Card - $539.98
LG GGW-H20LK 6X Blu-ray Burner - $224.99
Creative X-Fi Titanium Fata1ty Pro - $139.99
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme 1366 HSF - $69.95

Total: $1,967.22 Shipped
__________________________________________________________

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Retail Processor - $319.99
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P Motherboard - $136.99 - $20 MIR
2 x OCZ Reaper 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-1066 RAM - $87.98
Western Digital 1TB Black Edition HD - $109.99
Sapphire 2GB Radeon 4870 X2 Video Card - $489.99
LG GGW-H20LK 6X Blu-ray Burner - $224.99
Creative X-Fi Titanium Fata1ty Pro - $139.99
Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer HSF - $39.99 - $10 MIR

Total: $1,537.16 Shipped
__________________________________________________________

I will probably keep this system and upgrade it gradually over the next few years, depending on what comes out. I do a lot of video encoding, and the only reason I am considering the i7 is because it performs very well for this. Should I consider a faster hard drive? Should I go with the 4870 X2 on the i7 rig? Or would I be better off with a GTX280 on either one? I appreciate any suggestion you guys can provide!



 

krnmastersgt

Platinum Member
Jan 10, 2008
2,873
0
0
GTX260s in SLI is pretty damn powerful, just 1 would be enough for most games (assuming you don't want every feature turned to its max possible setting on every game) but would definitely not be a hindrance. 4870X2 is pretty damn powerful too, either would be nice choices, maybe wait just a tad for the 55nm refresh?

As for the hard drives, most apps/games don't see a real benefit from a 7200 rpm HD to a 10k rpm. Maybe one of those custom 15k rpm drives though I haven't really seen how they stack up. Alternatively there's SSD for a quick boot/load drive if you want to put your OS and whatever commonly accessed programs on it. I'd suggest the i7 system over the S775 since you get a nice boost in encoding performance.

As for the sound card, the fact that the card of choice is branded Fatal1ty means you're paying a premium just to have John Wendall's ugly logo attached to it. If possible look for a cheaper but just as satisfying card?
 

jdogg707

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2002
6,098
0
76
Originally posted by: krnmastersgt
GTX260s in SLI is pretty damn powerful, just 1 would be enough for most games (assuming you don't want every feature turned to its max possible setting on every game) but would definitely not be a hindrance. 4870X2 is pretty damn powerful too, either would be nice choices, maybe wait just a tad for the 55nm refresh?

As for the hard drives, most apps/games don't see a real benefit from a 7200 rpm HD to a 10k rpm. Maybe one of those custom 15k rpm drives though I haven't really seen how they stack up. Alternatively there's SSD for a quick boot/load drive if you want to put your OS and whatever commonly accessed programs on it. I'd suggest the i7 system over the S775 since you get a nice boost in encoding performance.

As for the sound card, the fact that the card of choice is branded Fatal1ty means you're paying a premium just to have John Wendall's ugly logo attached to it. If possible look for a cheaper but just as satisfying card?

I appreciate your feedback! The only reason I went with that sound card was due to EAX 5, PCIe, and Optical Out. For gaming these tend to be better than onboard. I could care less about the Fatal1ty naming convention.

As for the hard drive, I have everything on a home server, so space isn't a huge issue. Other than having scratch space for video encodes and space to install games, I don't need anything huge. Not sure if I want to invest in a 15K SAS drive, and definitely don't want to throw down the cash for an Intel SSD.
 

krnmastersgt

Platinum Member
Jan 10, 2008
2,873
0
0
Originally posted by: jdogg707
I appreciate your feedback! The only reason I went with that sound card was due to EAX 5, PCIe, and Optical Out. For gaming these tend to be better than onboard. I could care less about the Fatal1ty naming convention.

As for the hard drive, I have everything on a home server, so space isn't a huge issue. Other than having scratch space for video encodes and space to install games, I don't need anything huge. Not sure if I want to invest in a 15K SAS drive, and definitely don't want to throw down the cash for an Intel SSD.

Well SSD drives have dropped in price considerably over the past few months, this is something I was considering for a boot drive, not too overpriced at all for the load times you can get in some apps. Of course I suppose you could call it a waste of money as well since the total time you'd save wouldn't be much at first, but every little bit adds up imo. How much space would you need for scratch space by the way? I think some people considered ramdisk a viable option? But with the i7 system the amount you'd have to put down would probably far outweigh the benefits. Just a thought. :roll:

On another note, only reason I don't recommend this drive as a primary for your editing is that, iirc, after a few hundred writes these drives start to fail or corrupt data, not sure how true that was though. I'll get back to you when I've looked into it further.
Add: Seems to be between 1k-10k per drive, not good as scratch space I suppose, good for loading all your programs though :p
 

Blain

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
23,643
3
81
For heavy encoding, go with the Core i7 setup.
* I'd drop back to one fast video card (1900x1200 isn't an extreme resolution).
Maybe 4870x2 or GTX 280
* Also for your encoding chores, I'd use a 300GB VelociRaptor for the OS & Apps and the 1TB "Black" for storage.
* I'd also save some cash by going with the G.Skill DDR3-1333 instead of the 1600.
You're paying a huge premium for very little real-world benefit with the 1600.
 

jdogg707

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2002
6,098
0
76
So taking some of your suggestions, I am almost ready to commit to the following:

Intel Core i7 920 Retail Processor $294.99
Asus P6T Deluxe Motherboard $299.99
G.Skill 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3-1600 RAM $214.99 (Stuck with DDR3-1600 for flexibility when overclocking, but went with higher timings: 9-9-9-24 vs. 8-8-8-21)
Western Digital 300GB Velociraptor HD $219.99 (I had been looking at getting a VelociRaptor for my primary drive, so I decided to add)
Western Digital 640GB Black Edition HD $84.99 (Since I don't necessarily need the storage, I went with the 640GB WD Black Edition)
Sapphire 2GB 4870 X2 PCIe Video Card $489.99 (Went with the single 4870 X2, but wondering if I shouldn't look at the SLI GTX 216's again, which would provide the better eye candy at 1920x1200?)
LG GGW-H20LK 6X Blu-ray Burner $229.99
Creative X-Fi Titanium Fata1ty Pro $139.99
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme Black HSF $75.90