I need advice on (soon to be) my computer

[Pedbor]

Hey^^
I'm a swedish student and I'm going to buy a new gaming rig.
The total cost of this rig (in sweden) is about 2.800 USD (17.000 SEK)
My budget doesn't allow any more so, is this rig good or should i change/remove anything?

Power supply - Corsair TX Series PSU 750W 140mm fan ATX 20/24-pin 4/8pin 12V

Case - Antec Case Performance One P182 Gun Metal Black without PSU

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5 iX48 4DDR2-DIMM 2PCI 5PCIe SATA Raid Audio DUAL GB-LAN Firewire Socket775 ATX

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz 6MB FSB1333 Boxed (with cpu-cooler!) Socket 775

Heatsink/fan for the CPU - Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme Socket 775 / AMD

Memory - OCZ Reaper HPC 2x2048MB (tot. 4GB) DDR2 PC2-8500 1066MHz 5-5-5-18

Primary hard drive - 3 x Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10000rpm 16MB Cache SATA

Primary optical drive - already got one

Video card (unless you?re using onboard video) - 2 x Gigabyte Radeon HD4870 512MB DDR5 TV-out HDTV DUAL DVI RETAIL PCI Express

Monitor - already got one

Mouse/keyboard - already got em

Operating System - already got one

Snacks - gonna get some with the shipping ^^

Heatsink/fan for the GPU - 2 x Arctic Cooling ACCELERO S1 Rev.2

Fans - 2 x Nexus Real Silent 120mm 22.8dB

Thermal compound - Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound 4gr

Every reply is grealty appreciated.

 

[DSF]

How big is your monitor? 2 4870s is probably over the top for most people.

Also, two passively-cooled 4870s are going to be dumping a lot of heat into your case. I don't know whether two silent fans will keep enough air moving. Not saying that it won't work, just that I don't know, and it's something you'll want to double-check before you build.

 

[nbowman]

any particular reason for 3x150 GB Raptors Vs 1 Velociraptor + a larger 7200 RPM storage drive?

 

[Pedbor]

Originally posted by: DSF
How big is your monitor? 2 4870s is probably over the top for most people.

Also, two passively-cooled 4870s are going to be dumping a lot of heat into your case. I don't know whether two silent fans will keep enough air moving. Not saying that it won't work, just that I don't know, and it's something you'll want to double-check before you build.

I don't know the exact numbers but it's slightly above normal.
and the resolution isn't my thought behind 2 4870 it's the additional performance I'm after.

I know it works with the passive cooling with additional fans.

Originally posted by: nbowman
any particular reason for 3x150 GB Raptors Vs 1 Velociraptor + a larger 7200 RPM storage drive?

I'm only gonna have games and applications(photoshop etc..) on this rig so i don't need the extra storage, I just want performance. And I've got external disks for storage (Sharing with my brother).

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: Pedbor
I'm only gonna have games and applications(photoshop etc..) on this rig so i don't need the extra storage, I just want performance. And I've got external disks for storage (Sharing with my brother).

That still doesn't answer why you'd go with 3 older Raptors over the newer, larger, faster one.

 

[nbowman]

oh, something to look out for with those video card coolers: they make a new version with heatsinks for the VRMs (look for one produced after May of this year) if you get an earlier one, you will need a couple extra RAM sinks or to cut the stock heatsink to fit. just something to keep an eye on.

 

[Cutthroat]

Yeah it doesn't make sense to buy more than one old Raptor when you can get a Velociraptor which smokes the old Raptor.

 

[Pedbor]

Originally posted by: DSF

Originally posted by: Pedbor
I'm only gonna have games and applications(photoshop etc..) on this rig so i don't need the extra storage, I just want performance. And I've got external disks for storage (Sharing with my brother).

That still doesn't answer why you'd go with 3 older Raptors over the newer, larger, faster one.

Originally posted by: Cutthroat
Yeah it doesn't make sense to buy more than one old Raptor when you can get a Velociraptor which smokes the old Raptor.

I can manage to get two velociraptors and raid them (raid 0) is that a good idea?
would it beat 3 150gb raptors in raid0?
Does it really make alot of difference?

Originally posted by: nbowman
oh, something to look out for with those video card coolers: they make a new version with heatsinks for the VRMs (look for one produced after May of this year) if you get an earlier one, you will need a couple extra RAM sinks or to cut the stock heatsink to fit. just something to keep an eye on.

VRM?

 

[nbowman]

Hardware Canuks review - it shows the parts better than I can without pics.

 

[Pedbor]

Originally posted by: nbowman
Hardware Canuks review - it shows the parts better than I can without pics.

ok thx ^^ doesn´t seem to hard to fix.

 

[DSF]

RAID 0 is overrated, but if you pressed me for an answer, 2 VelociRaptors would beat 3 Raptors in RAID 0. In fact, a single VR might even win that contest, I'm not sure. Just don't expect those RAID 0 benchmark results to show up in the real world.

 

[Cutthroat]

The hassle of RAID 0 is not worth it, been there and done that. A VR is as fast as two 7200rpm drives in RAID 0, but probably not as fast two raptors in RAID 0. Two VR's in RAID 0 would be extremely fast. But as DSF said, it's only in benchmarks that it's really noticeable. One VR by itself is very fast, and you likely won't notice much of a difference in speed, you will however notice the difference in your PITA after a bit with RAID 0.

 

[Pedbor]

Originally posted by: DSF
RAID 0 is overrated, but if you pressed me for an answer, 2 VelociRaptors would beat 3 Raptors in RAID 0. In fact, a single VR might even win that contest, I'm not sure. Just don't expect those RAID 0 benchmark results to show up in the real world.

Originally posted by: Cutthroat
The hassle of RAID 0 is not worth it, been there and done that. A VR is as fast as two 7200rpm drives in RAID 0, but probably not as fast two raptors in RAID 0. Two VR's in RAID 0 would be extremely fast. But as DSF said, it's only in benchmarks that it's really noticeable. One VR by itself is very fast, and you likely won't notice much of a difference in speed, you will however notice the difference in your PITA after a bit with RAID 0.

What would you recomend for me?
There will only be OS, Games and applications on the disk and I'm sure i will manage to fill atleast 400 gb.

PITA?

 

[Blain]

VelociRaptor for OS, games and apps.
WD 640GB SE16 for pure storage

Since your budget is so large, maybe even...
4 x WD 640GB SE16 in a RAID 10 array. You'd get added performance as well as redundancy.
And at a very reasonable price! :thumbsup::laugh:

BTW, You don't need more than a single 4870, one will be fine.

 

[Cutthroat]

Originally posted by: Pedbor
What would you recomend for me?
There will only be OS, Games and applications on the disk and I'm sure i will manage to fill atleast 400 gb.

PITA?

PITA = Pain In The Ass

What Blain said is your best bet, without the RAID. I've found the best way for redundancy with a normal home user is regular backups to an external hard drive.

 

[TheKub]

Originally posted by: Cutthroat
The hassle of RAID 0 is not worth it

Exactly, and with RAID 0 the performance gain is going to be marginal for most applications. Also just using photoshop does not make striping a requirement. You really have to be working with 100+mb images before you start to realize any performance gain. You may be working with large files but 9 times out of 10 when someone says they use photoshop and "need" this extra performance they are using to to crop and touch up normal digital images from consumer grade cameras or making lol cat images, which believe it or not are not that demanding.

And remember with raid 0 you are 2x\3x\etc more likely to loose all your data should a drive die.

 

[virtualskunk]

You wont get noticeable additional performance from putting two of those 4870's together until you hit super high resolutions, not worth it.

If you want better performance you upgrade the video card, not get a second one. Save some money, get one 4870 and then replace it with a 4870 x2 when they come out. Also the three raptor hard drives, not worth it, get one 10k RPM and then another two high storage ones.

 

[Pedbor]

Originally posted by: Blain
VelociRaptor for OS, games and apps.
WD 640GB SE16 for pure storage

Since your budget is so large, maybe even...
4 x WD 640GB SE16 in a RAID 10 array. You'd get added performance as well as redundancy.
And at a very reasonable price! :thumbsup::laugh:

I won't need storage or redundancy cuz this will only be a gaming rig and everything in need of storage or backup will be done as Cutthroat said on an external drive.

Originally posted by: Cutthroat
I've found the best way for redundancy with a normal home user is regular backups to an external hard drive.

So my question now is, is a single VR the best performance i can get without wasting money?

 

[videogames101]

Originally posted by: Pedbor

Originally posted by: Blain
VelociRaptor for OS, games and apps.
WD 640GB SE16 for pure storage

Since your budget is so large, maybe even...
4 x WD 640GB SE16 in a RAID 10 array. You'd get added performance as well as redundancy.
And at a very reasonable price! :thumbsup::laugh:

I won't need storage or redundancy cuz this will only be a gaming rig and everything in need of storage or backup will be done as Cutthroat said on an external drive.

Originally posted by: Cutthroat
I've found the best way for redundancy with a normal home user is regular backups to an external hard drive.

So my question now is, is a single VR the best performance i can get without wasting money?

yes

 

[Pedbor]

Originally posted by: videogames101
yes

Thank you

and thanks to all who have helped me ^^