Advice On New Build

[r2o2]

Hi,
I have just joined this forum, having found some useful information that helped me in choosing components for a new build. I am a developer, and have good knowledge of computing, but have not worked with hardware much for a few years now, so am fairly out of date. I am looking to build a general purpose machine, which I'll use for both web design/development work and personal use : Adobe CS4 (Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator), Visual Studio 2010, multiple VMWare VM's, Sony Acid Pro (music editing), Sony Vegas Pro (video editing), foobar (flac -> mp3 conversion), YouTube. I have a large collection of multimedia files, approaching 500GB. I am not planning on overclocking or gaming on this PC. I have two 1280x1024 Hanns-G monitors connected to DVI and VGA ports on my current system's Radeon X1650 card, configured in dual-monitor clone mode (the 2nd one for a digital piano).

I have selected the following components for the build - I would appreciate any comments on it :-

Intel Core i5 2500 3.3GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache
(http://www.ebuyer.com/251597-core-i...mb-cache-retail-boxed-processor-bx80623i52500)

Asus P8Z68-V LX Socket 1155
(http://www.ebuyer.com/281367-asus-p...raphics-output-8-channel-audio-atx-p8z68-v-lx)

Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz CL9
(http://www.ebuyer.com/248759-corsai...cl9-1-5v-non-ecc-unbuffered-cmz16gx3m4a1600c9)

WD 3TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s Caviar Green Hard Drive - 5400rpm 64MB Cache
(http://www.ebuyer.com/260668-wd-3tb-3-5-sata-iii-6gb-s-caviar-dreen-hard-drive-5400rpm-64mb-wd30ezrx)

Corsair TX 650W V2 PSU - 80plus Bronze Certified
(http://www.ebuyer.com/257232-corsair-tx-650w-v2-psu-80plus-bronze-certified-cmpsu-650txv2uk)

Antec 300 Three Hundred Case
(http://www.ebuyer.com/143854-antec-300-three-hundred-case-0761345-08300-3)

SSD
not yet decided

Win7 x64



I plan to buy from EBuyer in the UK. I was going to start off using only the integrated CPU graphics, and was wondering will this work on the dual-monitor setup? Is the integrated CPU graphics good quality?

I currently have an Audigy 2 ZS sound card which I plan to install in a PCI slot.

Re the memory the current maximum seems to be 16GB, ie 4x4GB - I assume 8GB DDR3 modules are not commonly available at present. I require a lot of memory as I often run multiple VM's concurrently.

The mobo QVL does not list the above Corsair memory as compatible - but on Corsair web-site it says Asus P8Z68-V PRO and Asus P8Z68-V boards are compatible - so I assume I should be OK with this memory?

I was surprised at the PS/2 mouse/keyb 'combo' port on the mobo - I guess I will need a USB-PS/2x2 adapter, since I currently use a KVM switch with only PS/2 cable connectors.

I chose a fairly big PSU wattage to accommodate any future power needs, eg graphics card, more disk drives, expansions cards etc. Also 80plus Cert will save money as this PC will be on 12+ hours a day on most days (though I'm not actually working on it all that time!).

VT-x support is very important to me. I'm not sure how VT-d affects VM's, but I chose Core i5 2500 rather than Core i5 2500K because the latter lacks VT-d :- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_i5_microprocessors#.22Sandy_Bridge.22_.2832_nm.29_2

Re SSD one question I have is how can you tell when an SSD is starting to wear out? Does the contoller recognise this condition, and is there some form of notification? Also, I read that Intel Z68 chipset allows an SSD to be used as a cache for an HDD - can a portion of a 128/256GB SSD be used for this, or do you need to use a dedicated cache SSD? Also any suggestions/advice for possible SSD models (128/256GB) would be welcome.

I think I'd probably have to go 256GB for SSD as I currently require 80GB system partition on my old 32bit XP system, so 128GB doesn't really seem that much for Win7 x64.

Many thanks for advice/comments.

 

[fralexandr]

the integrated HD2000 is perfectly capable of handling 2 displays and is usable for most non-gaming/non-GPU intensive tasks

most RAM sticks don't have any compatibility issues

8gb sticks are in the process of becoming common, with several going on sale at ~$50 USD per stick in the USA, though I'm not sure about the UK

the Audigy 2 ZS is likely inferior to onboard sound now

PS/2 has largely gone away, though ASROCK tends to supply motherboards with many legacy ports, and they typically still have 2 ps/2 ports
amazon.co.uk has several cheap 2x ps/2 -> 1x usb connectors though, if you want to save a usb slot

http://software.intel.com/en-us/blo...el-virtualization-technology-for-directed-io/
VT-d is a very specialized Input/Output virtualization that isn't required for VT-x
that said, performance wise, the 2500 can't overclock well, but is otherwise identical to the 2500k

The intel 320 series, crucial m4, or samsung 830 series are all highly regarded for reliability
sandforce based SSDs tend to be cheaper, though some users have problems getting them to work right

http://serverfault.com/questions/14...osting-os-that-its-wear-level-is-getting-high
that link says wear level can be checked using SMART

 

[mfenn]

Some comments:
- CPU: You might as well get the i5 2400 because it is a good bit less expensive and you will never ever notice a difference of 200Mhz.
- RAM: 16GB kits are not good value right now. Get two of these 8GB DDR3 1333 kits to save some money.
- PSU: 650W is insane overkill for this rig which will draw about 110W fully maxed out. 80Plus certification or not, you are losing efficiency by operating the PSU at such a low load. Save a bunch of money by getting a competent 350W instead.
- KVM: The combo PS/2 port on the back is for keyboard or mouse, not both. USB to PS/2 converters might work with your existing KVM, but honestly you should just get a new one. USB + VGA KVMs are very cheap these days.
- VT-d: VT-d is completely unused in desktop virtualization, it is instead used for enabling dedicated access to peripherals (NICs, RAID controllers) in an enterprise environment.
- SSD : You will never ever wear out a competent SSD in a desktop workload. Anand used one in his main rig where he does all sorts of I/O intensive workloads like video editing and the average number of P/E cycles on each block of NAND was something like 4 out of 3000. A 128GB SSD like a Crucial M4 is plenty for an OS+apps drive.

 

[r2o2]

fralexandr & mfenn - Thank you very much indeed for replying - I appreciate your input, its very helpful to get a 2nd opinion.

I am very glad to hear an SSD is highly unlikely to wear out - I am looking forward to a new era of computing with SSD - for many years I have always thought the HDD to be the real bottleneck in a PC (I ALWAYS have Perf Manager /Sys Monitor open on my desktop with thick red line indicating current HDD activity - and I simply stop using my PC whenever that line goes up).

I will certainly check out the cheaper options for CPU and memory, and yes the PSU is maybe over-specified. I have one question on that - if you did underload a 650W PSU to 110W, as you mention, does it affect the functioning of the PSU? eg will it work less efficiently in such a case, or will it be less stable?

I just realised I actually already have a Y-adapter for USB -> 2 x PS/2 ports, which I bought years ago but never used - so I will give it a try on my old Dakota Scout KVM.

One thing I would mention also is I am not planning on any over-clocking.

There is one small question I would also like to ask - does above mobo have onboard speaker (ie the one that beeps for system errors on boot, or if you press Ctrl-D at command prompt) ? The reason I ask is the front panel header has 4-pins for 'chassis mounted speaker' - and I don't know if the Antec chassis has such a speaker.

One the things I also wondered about the mobo was why are there 3 PCI slots - I thought PCI-Express had long since replaced the PCI bus? It would seem more PCI-e slots would be preferable, and have maybe only 1 or 2 PCI?

 

[lehtv]

I will certainly check out the cheaper options for CPU and memory, and yes the PSU is maybe over-specified. I have one question on that - if you did underload a 650W PSU to 110W, as you mention, does it affect the functioning of the PSU? eg will it work less efficiently in such a case, or will it be less stable?

It won't be any less stable, just slightly less efficient. The difference to a 400W unit with the same efficiency rating wouldn't be very big. Regardless, if you're not planning on adding a powerful video card, you should definitely save on the PSU. Something like Corsair CX430 or equivalent is more than powerful enough.

 

[fralexandr]

with most devices being onboard or usb now, there isn't as much use for the PCI/ PCI-E 1x slots anymore

the amount of PCI and PCI-E 1x connectors vary per motherboard manufacturer, but having more PCI than PCI-E isn't wrong
as per newegg, there are more wireless PCI-e cards than PCI, however most people now use USB wireless adapters
for sound cards, PCI is more common than PCI-E. onboard sound is sufficient for many people, though soundcards are probably the most common expansion PCI/PCI-E 1x board added by consumers

since SATA connectors are smaller than PATA/IDE, and PATA is more or less dead more SATA slots can be fit on a motherboard reducing the need for expansion boards

one of the big driving forces toward PCI-E was the increased bandwidth, i think in its early implementations though, there were some issues with latency which may have hindered it's acceptance


I don't think the asus p8z68-v has built in beep code speakers, but it should have LEDs or something that display errors

 

[mfenn]

I will certainly check out the cheaper options for CPU and memory, and yes the PSU is maybe over-specified. I have one question on that - if you did underload a 650W PSU to 110W, as you mention, does it affect the functioning of the PSU? eg will it work less efficiently in such a case, or will it be less stable?

There is no "maybe" about it, it is over-specified by about 600% as I mentioned before. It won't make your unit less reliable, it will just cost you money in terms of unnecessary capex and increased opex.

There is one small question I would also like to ask - does above mobo have onboard speaker (ie the one that beeps for system errors on boot, or if you press Ctrl-D at command prompt) ? The reason I ask is the front panel header has 4-pins for 'chassis mounted speaker' - and I don't know if the Antec chassis has such a speaker.

No to both.

One the things I also wondered about the mobo was why are there 3 PCI slots - I thought PCI-Express had long since replaced the PCI bus? It would seem more PCI-e slots would be preferable, and have maybe only 1 or 2 PCI?

PCIe definitely hasn't replaced the PCI bus, there are plenty of old adapters out there that people want to use. You can obviously get a different mobo with a different slot distribution if it really bothers you, but the LX has plenty of both so it doesn't really matter.

 

[r2o2]

Many thanks for all inputs - this has been v helpful