Figuring out how to rebuild my machine. I need your advice, please.

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4eak

Junior Member
Oct 2, 2009
6
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Hardware newbie here. I need your advice!

So, my motherboard died last week. This sucks. The good news is that my wife said I can rebuild or buy a new computer (yay!!). I really want to keep my case, RAID controller, hard drives, PSU. Everything else I'm willing to replace. I need help figuring out which option is best. Here are my computer specs:

Processor: 2x Intel Xeon E5410
RAM: 16GB Kingston DDR2 FB-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) ECC (4x4GB)
Graphics: XFX nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS
Mainboard: ASUS Z7S WS Dual LGA 771 Intel 5400 SSI CEB Server Motherboard
Computer Case: Lian-Li Classic Series PC-A70B / Black / Full Tower Case
Power Supply: ZALMAN ZM1000-HP 1000W
Cooling: 2x Noctua NH-U12DX heatsinks; 3x Noctua NF-P12 120mm fans; etc.
3x Seagate Barracuda ES.2 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
RAID Controller: 3ware 9650SE-8LPML KIT PCI Express x4 SATA II (3.0Gb/s)
8x 500GB Seagate RAID-5 for 3.17TB usable space

For context, I did consistently use a substantial portion of the power of my now defunct machine, and so I want a machine with similar (perhaps slightly lower) power. I have some programs that really only use 1-core, so I wouldn't mind if the strength of a single core was higher, but I don't really need 8-cores.

In addition to this computer's previous duties, I'm going to rebuild with gaming in mind (Tribes Ascend and Diablo 3). It doesn't need to be godly (I sometimes bring graphics settings in games down on purpose), but I want it to be very smooth.

Unless you convince me otherwise, I'm picking up a Radeon HD 6850. According to Passmark, this is the best bang for my buck. I could also crossfire these down the road if I wanted to improve the graphics (assuming whatever motherboard I get allows for this).

I think this video card would handle my needs. I had also considered a GeForce GTX 480, which for $100 more seems to benchmark well and still be a fairly efficient use of money according to the passmark benchmark(although, not as efficient as the Radeon).

Now, I need to figure out what to do about this motherboard. The dead motherboard is very expensive to replace (if you can even find it), and frankly, while it is a great motherboard when it works, it is known for failing and being a pain to install and get working. It lacks Win 7 support also. Unless you can convince me otherwise, I will not be buying an identical motherboard. I need to revamp my system. Here are what I believe are my options:


Possible Option 1)

SUPERMICRO MBD-X7DWA-N Extended ATX Server Motherboard Dual LGA 771 Intel 5400 DDR2 800

I think this will fit a my raid controller (see specs) and a new video card. I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure I'd need to buy new RAM also. If I have to buy new RAM, I think this is the cheapest option. I'd pick up 8GBs, although, I would prefer more (I do spike above 8GB often enough).

~$520 for this.


Possible Option 2)

Since a Dual Xeon motherboard is going to be so expensive, I was thinking about just ditching the Xeons and going for a different processor altogether. I can also sell the parts.

~$560 for this.


I think these options are sound and compatible. Am I missing anything? Perhaps there are other great options which I haven't considered. I am all ears.

What should I do?



peace,
4eak
 
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4

4eak

Junior Member
Oct 2, 2009
6
0
0
Sorry about that, edited the specs in the opening post at about the same time you posted.


peace,
4eak
 
NTMBK

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
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5,719
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If you're going to go Xeon, I'd hang on until Sandy Bridge-E Xeons launch if you can. The single-threaded performance boost is pretty impressive.

If you need a machine to keep you going right now, I might recommend getting a dual-socket 2011 motherboard for the time being, and just running it on a single i7 3820 (the 4-core socket 2011 chip) until the new Xeons drop and upgrading to two 8-core beasts.

EDIT: Alternately, a single i7-3930K might be enough for you. Sandy Bridge single threaded performance, 6 cores and 12 threads, and it's available today.
 
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4

4eak

Junior Member
Oct 2, 2009
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I already have Xeons. I'm not sure if I want to keep though. My opening post may not have been clear enough.

The i7-3930K is very expensive, in my view. Is that really what is needed to get a similar experience/power level to what I had before? Benchmarks show it is way beyond it - that said, even the 2600k (especially after OCing) looks pretty far beyond dual 5410 Xeons.



peace,
4eak
 
NTMBK

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
10,422
5,719
136
It depends on how heavily threaded the software you use is, frankly. What do you typically run? You may very well be fine with the 2600k if you don't need 6 cores. Alternatively, if you run software with lots of integer-heavy threads then you may even want to look at the new AMD chips.

EDIT: The reason I say integer heavy for the AMD chips is that their "Bulldozer" architecture has its cores in pairs, with floating point resources shared between a pair and separate integer pipelines. It's like Hyperthreading on steroids, in some aspects.
 
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Ken g6

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
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It's hard to make suggestions when I don't know what this computer's doing that's so resource-intensive. I would tend toward LGA1155. Would an SSD help more than more cores?
 
DSF

DSF

Diamond Member
Oct 6, 2007
4,902
0
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Maybe you could answer the questions you haven't yet addressed in the stickied thread by Blain? You've given a lot of great background info, but some pertinent details are still not clear.

How much money do you actually have to spend?

What is the computer used for besides gaming?

Those are the big two, but there are a couple others. Check out Blain's thread.
 
DSF

DSF

Diamond Member
Oct 6, 2007
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T_Yamamoto said:
What is the computer used for besides gaming?
he doesnt game
Click to expand...
"In addition to this computer's previous duties, I'm going to rebuild with gaming in mind (Tribes Ascend and Diablo 3). It doesn't need to be godly (I sometimes bring graphics settings in games down on purpose), but I want it to be very smooth. "

That's what I was going off of.
 
M

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
22,400
5
71
www.mfenn.com
DSF said:
Maybe you could answer the questions you haven't yet addressed in the stickied thread by Blain? You've given a lot of great background info, but some pertinent details are still not clear.

How much money do you actually have to spend?

What is the computer used for besides gaming?

Those are the big two, but there are a couple others. Check out Blain's thread.
Click to expand...

Agree with this.

Generally speaking, a Sandy Bridge is going to be slightly less than twice as fast as your Harpertowns clock for clock. So, you're probably still look at a improvement in terms of raw performance by going with a 2600K because it'll also clocked at 3.4GHz versus 2.33GHz.

Your part choices look fine, though you could spend less on the mobo. For example, the ASUS P8Z68-V LE.
 
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