TheRig Posted June 15, 2009 Posted June 15, 2009 Hello everyone! My ancient Pentium 4 rig has been with me for pretty long while an recently it's dying on me. There's no way to salvage it and it could no longer meet my needs. Long story short, it's about time to build The Rig. Here is my needs. The Rig will be designed mainly for multitasking and things like Photoshopping, video editing and doing various projects. It'll be able to play some casual games such as L4D etc. I was thinking to skip the Core 2 series entirely as it's pretty considered obselete (Lynnfield's gonna replace that line soon), choosing not to go AMD's Phenom II line as I'm not a hardcore gamer. So it's pretty much settled with Core i7 (the most bang for buck 2.67Ghz D0 processor). Budget will be estimated 1.6K USD. (Rig without graphics card, PSU, DVD drive, monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse) As for the motherboard, I end up with a few choices, but couldn't really decide which one will be the most ideal choice. I'll be overclocking the processor to a decent 3.6Ghz at all times, able to do SLI, decent layout, decent color theme, able to fit heatsinkfan and rams nicely (refer below), firewire and ESATA, user friendly BIOS for n00bs like me. (hence DFI choice is out of my question for now) Motherboard: -EVGA X58 SLI -EVGA X58 SLI LE -ASUS Rampage II Extreme -ASUS Rampage II Gene -Gigabyte X58 Extreme -MSI Eclipse Plus -??? Next I need a good Heatsink Fan for overclocking, and it must fit nicely and preferably 2 fans configuration (airflow from right to left). Heatsink Fan: -Thermalright True Black 120 -Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme -Xigmatek Thor's Hammer Here's the headache part. Many folks recommend corsair rams but the high profile can be worrying. Here my list: RAM: Team Elite 1333Mhz 3x2GB Team Xtreem 1600Mhz 3x2GB Corsair Dominator 1600Mhz 3x2GB OCZ Platinum 1600Mhz 3x2GB Kingston HyperX 1600Mhz 3x2GB ??? Decide not to go SSD yet as its too expensive. HDD: Choice 1: 2x 150GB WD Velociraptors + 640GB or 500GB WD Black Caviar Choice 2: 1x 300GB WD Velociraptor + 1TB WD Black Caviar ??? Take note that choice 2 is the most bang for buck in terms of cost per GB, but Choice 1 can be in RAID 0, probably means faster. Can't make up my mind. Chose WD because I pretty much trusted their HDD. Graphics card: I've already chosen on a GTX 260 216 Overclocked. Not in budget. PSU: I've already chosen on a 700W 80+ Bronze Modular. Not in budget. I decide to choose a Full tower, aluminum, black exterior, dust-proof and something decent. Casing: -Lian Li PC A70B -Lian Li PC A71B -Ikonik RAX10 Smooth -Ikonik RAX10 SIM -??? Please advice. Thank you. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheConqueror Posted June 15, 2009 Posted June 15, 2009 Umm if your not a hardcore gamer, Phenom II should be fine.. But why not include PSU in the price? If you are going to use your P4 PSU you are sadly mistaken. You dont velociraptors, just get one or two 640GB Caviar Blacks. Corsair Dominator 1600Mhz 3x2GB Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme (black edition has no improvements just looks cool) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRig Posted June 15, 2009 Posted June 15, 2009 Thanks for the quick response. As much as I love the Phenom II X4 955 with high overclocking abilities and such, the choices of the motherboards are kinda terrible, especially I'm an Nvidia user (the thought of SLI in the near future), no offense. I don't mind paying a little more for an Core i7 rig. It's a long story in regards to the PSU and graphics card. These two stuff are fairly new and I did not use it on my Pentium 4 rig. Why not velociraptors? They are faster (10Krpm?) compare to 640GB Caviar blacks (7200rpm?), isn't it? As for the ram and heatsink issue, if I chose Thermalright 120 + 2 fans (push pull configuration), will the right fan kinda block the high profile dominators? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coors Posted June 15, 2009 Posted June 15, 2009 I have a Veloci and if I was in the market now would not buy one again. Are they a bad hdd? No. But with the newer 32MB cache drives out they're really not worth it. If you want more performance from your hdd then you should be looking at SSD's. And you seem to have a misconception about the Phenom 2's. I have a X4 940 on a Foxconn Destroyer 780a and it is damn there one of the best motherboards I have ever owned. And i'm not sure what you mean by "choosing not to go AMD's Phenom II line as I'm not a hardcore gamer." If you're not a hard core gamer then the Phenom 2 would be a better bargain then an i7. If you're not a hardcore gamer why do you need SLI to be an option on the mobo? ram - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231247 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRig Posted June 15, 2009 Posted June 15, 2009 (edited) I've been reading reviews and such, I believe that the Phenom II processors are designed more for gamers and less for processing intensive applications, and Core i7 is more on processing heavy intensive applications and such. Since I'm planning for The Rig to be able to do heavy multitasking, photoshopping and video editing, I'm kinda convince to choose i7. Oh one more note, with this new rig I'll intend to use it for a pretty long time, lets say, about 6 years till the next upgrade? Correct me if I'm wrong. Thank you. Edited June 15, 2009 by TheRig Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coors Posted June 15, 2009 Posted June 15, 2009 It's not that they are more designed for gamers. It's just the best that AMD can make atm. Yeah the i7's are great at multi tasking and ripping through cpu intensive applications but at the same time are just as good at gaming as they are at apps. So it's not that Phenom 2 is the "gamer's cpu", it's just a less powerful cpu for less money. Basically if you want the best performance available atm then i7 is what you want. But you will be paying more for that performance too. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRig Posted June 15, 2009 Posted June 15, 2009 Thanks for the quick reply and clarification on my mindset of Phenom II and i7. I've decided to go for Intel Core i7 now, I believe it'll last me pretty well for 6 years till the next upgrade, and serve me well. As the original post mentioned the parts and stuff, please assist me in choosing the right and suitable parts with 1.6K in USD. (motherboard + ram + heastsinkfan + hdd + casing) Thank you! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coors Posted June 15, 2009 Posted June 15, 2009 cpu - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115202 mobo - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813186169 (this is the one I want, just trying to justify a new build >_<) ram - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231247 hdd - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136319 (x2 if you want raid 0) case I can't really say...more of a personal preference here. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebridgerofdoom Posted June 15, 2009 Posted June 15, 2009 I have a velociraptor myself..... and to be honest im pretty disappointed. There really isn't much of a difference with the caviar black. If you really want a faster hd, get two of those in raid 0. take a look over here http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=607466 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRig Posted June 15, 2009 Posted June 15, 2009 (edited) I have a velociraptor myself..... and to be honest im pretty disappointed. There really isn't much of a difference with the caviar black. If you really want a faster hd, get two of those in raid 0. take a look over here http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=607466 Hi thebridgerofdoom, I saw your specs of your rig (signature) and it looks impressive. I was thinking of the similar specs in terms of HDD (300GB WDVR + 1TB WDCB), but after reading the comments, I've decide to play around with the choices. Actually its been a pretty long time I built a rig. Wasn't very familiar with the idea of RAID 0 but all I learn was that it's faster and if 1 disk fail all fail. Nevertheless I'm going to try RAID 0 in the new rig. Just another question, a pair of Caviar Black in RAID 0 will perform faster than a single Velociraptor? Here's some options I have no idea which is worth it: A) 2X Western Digital 640GB Black 32MB Cache in RAID 0 B) 2X Western Digital 1TB Black 32MB Cache in RAID 0 C) 3X Western Digital 640GB Black 32MB Cache in RAID 0 (Is 3 possible?) D) 2X Western Digital Velociraptor 150GB (Backplane Ready) in RAID 0 + 1X Western Digital 640GB Black 32MB Cache E) 1X Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB (Backplane Ready) + 1X Western Digital 1TB Black 32MB Cache Edited June 15, 2009 by TheRig Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebridgerofdoom Posted June 15, 2009 Posted June 15, 2009 get C. Or if u really want safety, get A then get a caviar green for storage. Maybe you would like to take a look here - http://www.overclock.net/hard-drives-stora...0-vs-300gb.html. I don't know if you're willing to make the jump, but if u do, ssd + storage wil make stuff bloody faster. I got my father's rig set up with vertex + 7200.12 and it was blazing fast. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRig Posted June 15, 2009 Posted June 15, 2009 get C. Or if u really want safety, get A then get a caviar green for storage. Maybe you would like to take a look here - http://www.overclock.net/hard-drives-stora...0-vs-300gb.html. I don't know if you're willing to make the jump, but if u do, ssd + storage wil make stuff bloody faster. I got my father's rig set up with vertex + 7200.12 and it was blazing fast. Thank you for the suggestion. I'm aware that SSDs are pretty awesome devices that'll solve my concerns in regards to speed. However the prices of SSD bust my budget. I've sorta revised my finalized choices on my HDD options. A) 2X Western Digital 640GB Black 32MB Cache in RAID 0 + 1X Western Digital 1TB Black 32MB Cache as Storage B) 2X Western Digital 1TB Black 32MB Cache in RAID 0 + 1X Western Digital 640GB Black 32MB Cache as Storage Not too sure if choice B is overkill, considering B is basically 2TB RAID 0 for OS, programs and stuff with a decent 640GB as storage. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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