Getting QX9770 Today - What Else Should I get?

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JohnVM

Member
May 25, 2004
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Hey Everyone,

Picking up a QX9770 today, and planning on getting phase change cooling, and at least 8GB of RAM (Socket 775 = 8GB capped, unfortunately). Probably getting 2 9800's to go in it (unless you have a better card recco -- for PERFORMANCE, don't care about cost).

But, I want to overclock this thing through the roof. What kind of RAM should I get, and what board? Cost is no object at all. Also, the board would need space for the 2 gfx cards + an Areca 1280-ML RAID card (which requires PCI-E x8), as I'm putting 8x64GB MTron SSD's in this machine as well.

Let me know any recommendations you have to maximize pure performance (at the cost of anything other than, obviously, performance). This rig's already running well over $15,000 so I'm not looking to shave any corners.

Thanks.



EDIT 3/31/2008: This system has been purchased, most everything has arrived, and the build has started. If you're interested in checking out pictures/seeing our status, check out our blog of the build for this system at: http://battleshipjusty.blogspot.com/
 
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tylerw13

Senior member
Aug 9, 2006
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A

AmberClad

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2005
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Hehe, I think LOUISSSSS might have automatically picked the most expensive Intel board that NewEgg offers, based on the OP. Anyways, I think the ASUS Striker II Extreme might be what the OP's looking for.

Edit: And I see that the Striker II Extreme is apparently not yet available at NewEgg...but I assume it'll arrive eventually.
 
S

Shortass

Senior member
May 13, 2004
908
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It's sad when I get giddy about other people's rigs... post pics and benchmarks when it's done!
 
S

Shortass

Senior member
May 13, 2004
908
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I get amused when people buy CD's for $18 when you can buy the same thing for $10 in non-enormous chain stores because it's a total waste of money (and since I buy hundreds of cd's it makes a huge difference). Someone 'wasting' their money on a top of the line rig at least gives them the enjoyment of building an extreme computer nobody can afford and playing around with insane computing power. Sure, in a year the difference is negligible, but I'm sure everyone here would love to work with totally top end parts if they had the chance.
 
aigomorla

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
21,067
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mmmm money is no object?

You pm a guy named n00b 0f l33t. He has an account here, and on XS. His name is Nol[adam].

Tell him you want a dual stager cascade system. Its uber expensive.

Then slap that system on your computer, and watch your computer load at -80C :p

Probably give you the best possible overclock this way minus LN2.

But hey! you said money is no object!



on a serious note, id look at better cooling. If your looking at hardware [i recomend what im running]. I betcha when my system goes live, it will give a lot of members here a shocking result.

Edit: OOPS DIDNT SEE THAT YOU WERE GONNA PHASE IT!

http://i125.photobucket.com/al...aigomorla/IMG_0900.jpg

however if your budget is that big, why not go skulltrail? Seems like you want the best of the best. [that would involve you giving up on the QX9770 and picking up 2 x QX9775's :D
 
J

JohnVM

Member
May 25, 2004
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Skulltrail uses FB-DIMM's, right?, which I've read are in fact slower for various tasks. Is anyone able to shed light on this situtation?
 
PCTC2

PCTC2

Diamond Member
Feb 18, 2007
3,892
33
91
Originally posted by: gersson
Go skull-trail!

Then post pics :)

If you need some help, I can go over and Overclock it for you :D
Click to expand...

OP, get:
Asus Striker II Extreme
4x2 GB Corsair DDR3-1600
Dual 9800GX2 GFX Cards

You will have space for your RAID card at the bottom of the board.

But if you really want to spend.

Go skull trail and get two QX9775, a skull trail board, 16GB of DDR2-667 FB-DIMM Memory, dual 9800GX2 cards, and 2 of the cascade units aigo was talking about. no one would come close to touching your rig in terms of performance.
 
L

LOUISSSSS

Diamond Member
Dec 5, 2005
8,771
58
91
Originally posted by: PCTC2


OP, get:
Asus Striker II Extreme
4x2 GB Corsair DDR3-1600
Dual 9800GX2 GFX Cards
Click to expand...

didn't see 2 x video cards. this would be better than. well not better, but at least it will work with sli, the other won't.
 
nOOky

nOOky

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2004
3,259
2,344
136
Don't get a bleeding edge system, just get cutting edge, and send the extra grand or so saved to the Red Cross or some other charity and you'll feel much better than if you pissed the money away getting a Skulltrail board etc. Or send the money to me, I can use a new system :p
 
V

v8envy

Platinum Member
Sep 7, 2002
2,720
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Bah. The guy wants a toy, let him have it. How do you know he doesn't already donate plenty to charity? Computer parts have gotten so cheap that even a pure epeen rig like the OP is planning is half the price of a midrange laptop just 10 years ago. Yes, a midrange box 6 months from now will match it and a $500 build a year from now will utterly crush it, but who cares?

OP: you pretty much have to make the choice between OCing to the hilt and SLI. Skulltrail is the only way to do both -- with multiplier unlocked CPUs. 790i may also work, but is still new and not enough of the extremists have had a chance to push it past the limit. NV has some nice optimizations for SLI in that chipset, so that may yield the best performance in the wild. NV's track record with Intel chipsets has not been stellar though, and even the $$$ 790i boards use cheapie capacitors.

 
T

The-Noid

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2005
3,117
4
76
Everyone always bites on these type of posts that never pan out into actual computers.
 
magreen

magreen

Golden Member
Dec 27, 2006
1,309
1
81
Is cost no object? What about cost? Is that an object? Oh, and one more thing... Is cost an object?

I call shens, though Yoxxy beat me to it I think.
 
I

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
21,110
64
91
Originally posted by: JohnVM
Also, the board would need space for the 2 gfx cards + an Areca 1280-ML RAID card (which requires PCI-E x8), as I'm putting 8x64GB MTron SSD's in this machine as well.
Click to expand...

Make sure those Mtron SSD's support SMART correctly and properly.

1280ML's won't recognize any devices which have inproperly configured or non-existent SMART capability.

Gigabyte I-RAM falls into this category (no SMART, thus no function with Areca cards).

Areca refuses to add an option to their ROM for the user to allow non-SMART devices...I emailed Areca and the response I got was along the lines of "piss off, go tell Gigabyte to create a properly functioning device, we aren't going to stoop to their level, they need to rise to ours".

Gigabyte was more kind, they just told me to piss off.

Regarding pure speed...raid-0 gigabyte I-ram's are impossible to beat unless you want the capacity of the MTron's OR you get yourself a decent server/workstation board and load up on 32-64GB of DDR2 and set yourself up with a software-based ramdrive like Superspeeds.

I did the raid-0 with IRAM, I did the superspeed ramdisk, and I did the Raptor raid-0 on 1280-ML all in the name of speed. And that was with vaporphase cooling with a QX6700 when they first came out in 2006.

(I guess I am one of the few who followed thru on their quest to build a decent rig at any costs...mine came out to a little over $10k at the time)

Good luck and have fun!
 
Cookie Monster

Cookie Monster

Diamond Member
May 7, 2005
5,161
32
86
Since 9800GX2 SLi kind of suffers from alot of drawbacks, id say going with $349 9800GTX tri SLI or just SLI is the way to go. Obviously you will need to get an 790i ultra board. (Asus Striker II Extreme)

 
F

felang

Senior member
Feb 17, 2007
594
1
81
780i outperforms Skulltrail in gaming when using quad SLI (dual 9800's).

QUAD SLI 9800 GX2

790i is supposed to be even better (SLI optimizations).

When will people understand that Skulltrail is completely overrated!!!

Why spend so much on a skulltrail rig that won't even outperform other options that are probably less than half the price?

And no, Folding on 8 cores does not count IMO, just build two quad core systems for less money, probably faster anyway...
 
M

MarcVenice

Moderator Emeritus <br>
Apr 2, 2007
5,664
0
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Sure is pretty, but why dual HD3870's, right?, with full cover blocks, when you could do a HD3870 X2 with a single full cover block ;)

Can't wait for aigo to get that up and running.
 
Rubycon

Rubycon

Madame President
Aug 10, 2005
17,768
485
126
Originally posted by: Idontcare


Gigabyte I-RAM falls into this category (no SMART, thus no function with Areca cards).
Click to expand...

Actually this has been resolved in the newly release 1.44 firmwares.

OP: Don't waste your money on a 1281ML. It's a fine card - I have several but it's obsolete already!

What you want is the SAS equivalent - The ARC-1680ix-24. This puppy features a faster IOP (1200MHz vs. 800MHz) and can address a full 4GB ECC cache. (the 12xx cards only 2GB) That module is pricey at $400 but if it's performance you seek - you shall get! This card can also run SAS drives alongside SATA drives something the 12xx cannot do. That would be my recommendation. The cards have not shipped to distros yet but this gives an idea on cost.

I would NOT buy an nv based chipset for a mid to high end system! If you're taking off the kid gloves, might as well do things the right way. ;)

 
I

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
21,110
64
91
Originally posted by: Rubycon
Originally posted by: Idontcare


Gigabyte I-RAM falls into this category (no SMART, thus no function with Areca cards).
Click to expand...

Actually this has been resolved in the newly release 1.44 firmwares.
Click to expand...

Wait so Areca buckled? :shocked: I'd never have believed it. Time to dig up that nasty gram I got and reply back to ask what prompted the change in attitude.

Now I need to figure out how to flash that 1280ML...
 
aigomorla

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
21,067
3,574
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Why did i go HD3870 instead of 2 x 3870X2? DDR4 Nuff said. :D

Also have the bios flash to flash my cores to 900mhz and pass that stupid bug the HD3870's have.

I heard 900Mhz is manditory h2o cooling. But at 900mhz on 2 x 16 pci-e 2.0 fun fun fun!



Skulltrail will pwn any system out there in stability and options, maybe not in overclocking. Depends on how good your pair of chips are.

Hands down if it fits in your budget, its the system to get.

Intel D5400XS Skulltrail board ~ 650
Intel QX9775 x 2 ~ 1300 EACH so 2600
Areca 1680 ~ 1000 dollars
4 x 2gb FB-DIMM DDR2-800 ~ 450 dollars
8 x SSD drives = Uber Expensive wont get into it.
2 x ThermalTake Toughpower 1kw ~ 350 EACH so 700.
Now you can SLI on skulltrail OR Xfire. Its your call. So holding budget constant. [another 1000 here im guessing]

Add about another 500-800 for the phase unit if you want one that will last 24/7 for a while.
Another 400 on waterblocks for the board and GPU's and radiator.
Mount Mods Dually Case ~ 400 with options.


= One Insane rig even i would be jealous about.

Originally posted by: Old Hippie
http://i125.photobucket.com/al...aigomorla/IMG_0900.jpg
Click to expand...

Holey crap that's pretty! :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

You havent see anything yet. Wait til persephone is completed. :D

Originally posted by: JohnVM
Skulltrail uses FB-DIMM's, right?, which I've read are in fact slower for various tasks. Is anyone able to shed light on this situtation?
Click to expand...

Gaurentee you, that you wont see jack of a difference in anything you do besides super PI.
 
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