YACMB (critique my build) thread

[HexiumVII]

After some nice (though agonizingly long) years with my P4, its finally time to upgrade as i really just can't wait anymore as my friend wants my current setup. I do lots of photoshop, graphics design and want to start up with the FPSes again. I will be overclocking like a mad man. I wanna hopefully get it running by he beginning of May.

Here is what i have:
Lian Li V2000 case
Zalman CNSP7700
2x 15k Fujitsu MAX SCSI RAID0
2x 15k Seagate program drive and scratch drive
2x 250GB 7200.10 RAID1 documents + photos
1x 400GB 7200.10 Video
Dell Perc4e PCIexpress SCSI RAID
Audigy 1
22" Samsung LCD
Geforce 8800gts 320mb


what i'm thinking of getting:
4MB Core2 Duo
Better heatsink maybe Gemini II or Tonque Tower, but wanna keep it ~ $30
2GB DDR2-800 (no clue which ones but hopefully as fast as a DB9) ~ $130

Motherboard
as for motherboard, this has been the absolute hardest decision. I've been waiting for the MSI P6N Diamond to come out, but its still not out, and when it does it will probably be way to expensive. I like the fact it has Xfi and Hardware SATA RAID. But it will probably be well over $300. I boycott the use of 2 video cards, so i dont really need too many PCIexpress 16x. One main feature i want is eSATA as i have some eSata enclosures waiting to be used. Lastly Penryn looks crazy, hopefully the motherboard i get will allow me to drop it in if i want to go quad core. LMK what you guys think!

 

[Wags1974]

dq6?

 

[Phantomaniac]

I think the E6420 would fit your "mad man" overclocking desires. I believe Xbitlabs got their test sample up to 3.72Ghz stable. It can be had on Mwave for $190. As for ram, if you're not partial to brands (like many are) I would go with this kit by G.skill. They use the infamous Micron D9s which are pretty much guaranteed to hit 1000Mhz. If you don't care about an SLI set up, then definitely go with a P965 board. Both the Abit QuadGT and the Asus P5B Deluxe are great overclockers and feature eSATA ports.

 

[Pariah]

You're throwing money away by using SCSI. Unless you're running a server (which you aren't), the current gen Raptor will be not only cheaper but faster. SCSI drives are tuned to excel at highly random access patterns that a multi-user server would have to handle. This is in no way how workstation workloads behave. The Raptor will perform better for graphics work than SCSI drives.

 

[Phantomaniac]

Originally posted by: Pariah
You're throwing money away by using SCSI. Unless you're running a server (which you aren't), the current gen Raptor will be not only cheaper but faster. SCSI drives are tuned to excel at highly random access patterns that a multi-user server would have to handle. This is in no way how workstation workloads behave. The Raptor will perform better for graphics work than SCSI drives.

You misread. The first block of computer components he listed are things he already has. Now why he has them is another question. :roll:

 

[HexiumVII]

Originally posted by: Pariah
You're throwing money away by using SCSI. Unless you're running a server (which you aren't), the current gen Raptor will be not only cheaper but faster. SCSI drives are tuned to excel at highly random access patterns that a multi-user server would have to handle. This is in no way how workstation workloads behave. The Raptor will perform better for graphics work than SCSI drives.

I guess you spend most of your time reading about this stuff than actually trying stuff out. You can't compare SCSI with regular IDE/SATA with the crappy implementation of it in Vista/XP. Multitasking is magnitudes faster on SCSI even when on a single core systems. Apps load a good measurable 25%-35% faster. Not only is my SCSI RAID0 insanely fast, the whole setup also cost me less than 2 Raptors 😉

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: HexiumVII
2GB DDR2-800 (no clue which ones but hopefully as fast as a DB9) ~ $130

You might want to spend more on memory if you're gonna seriously overclock.

I like the fact it has Xfi and Hardware SATA RAID.

Hardware RAID? Really? All the boards I have seen claiming to have this actually do the calculations on the host processor.

 

[Pariah]

Originally posted by: HexiumVII

Originally posted by: Pariah
You're throwing money away by using SCSI. Unless you're running a server (which you aren't), the current gen Raptor will be not only cheaper but faster. SCSI drives are tuned to excel at highly random access patterns that a multi-user server would have to handle. This is in no way how workstation workloads behave. The Raptor will perform better for graphics work than SCSI drives.

I guess you spend most of your time reading about this stuff than actually trying stuff out. You can't compare SCSI with regular IDE/SATA with the crappy implementation of it in Vista/XP. Multitasking is magnitudes faster on SCSI even when on a single core systems. Apps load a good measurable 25%-35% faster. Not only is my SCSI RAID0 insanely fast, the whole setup also cost me less than 2 Raptors 😉

I did miss the part about him owning that already, sorry about that. That said, I've been running 15k SCSI since its release in 2000 on an SMP system for my same system. I own 4 15k SCSI drives now, and probably a dozen or so 10k SCSI drives, and none of them are in my main rig anymore which is now run off a Raptor. You don't multitask as the term is meant to be applied to hard drive usage, and you haven't used a current gen Raptor, if you are still living in the dark ages thinking SCSI is faster for single users.