So after my Antec 500 PSU set me motherboard on fire (yes, actual fire, I saw it) last week, bricking every single piece of hardware in my system, I needed a new gaming rig. I ordered this today, after days and days of research. I finally committed when I saw the bit tech article today, and it matched what I had picked almost exactly. Now though, I'm sitting here in the dark wondering, could I have spent my money better on a system? I considered watercooling, but I didn't see the point when I'm after near silence rather than oc'ing(I will a bit). Here's what I got, tell me what you guys think: - ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model DRW-2014L1T - Retail - Logitech G11 Silver & Black USB Standard Gaming Keyboard - Retail - Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD - OEM - 2 SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD502lJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM - SAPPHIRE 100247L Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail - ASUS P5Q DELUXE & XONAR DX BUNDLE LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail -CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail -OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2P10664GK - Retail -Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model HH80562PH0568M - OEM -Noctua NF-P12 120mm x 25mm Fan - 54.3 CFM at 19 dBA -2 Noctua NF-S12-1200 120mm Fans (48 CFM) -Thermalright "Limited Edition" TRUE Black Ultra-120 eXtreme CPU Heatsink(ooh black, I couldn't resist!!) I'm reusing my monitor, mouse (MX revolution), case(thermaltake soprano, modded of course) and speakers, as they all still rock.
What is your case? Are you aiming at quiet computing? The Radeon HD 4870 512MB is nice, but if it's close in price or cheaper, I would go with the nVidia Geforce 280 GTX. It is the same as in performance, (based on Tom's Hardware testing). And you have PhysicX, and you have CUDA. PhysicX allows the support software use the GPU 240 (yes, that is correct) to perform physics instead of your CPU, which leads to greater gaming performance even thus your video card is harder at work. As for CUDA, it allows any software (ie: Photoshop CS4) that support it to perform tasks on your GPU instead of your CPU. If you go with this video card, don't get EVGA... they are on the cheap side with the accessories (no DVI to HDMI with audio connector, no SPDIF from sound card to video card cable). I would have o suggest BFG, I think they offer the best deal for the money. This include the service, life-time warranty, accessories, build quality. If you are buying the G11 for the keyboard light thingy, I suggest to take a look at this one that is coming up soon: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/keyboards/keyboard/devices/4740&cl=ca,en?WT.ac=pl|5110||hp Based on the picture, I think it will go perfectly with your MX Revolution mouse, and add a nice professional class to your computer (I am so getting it! It will/should match my Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000, my MX revolution, case, speakers, and future LCD).
WIN/FAIL/NG(No Grade) - Why FAIL - You really shouldn't need to spend more than 20 bucks on a DVD burner. NG - depends on how much you paid for it WIN - it's a necessity NG - It's Windows NG - I would have opted for one larger TB hard drive [WIN - If you bought it from zzf w/$20 when i get it rebate, and free GRID game FAIL - if you bought it from newegg] WIN - WIN? - http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10007112&prodlist=celebros NG - FAIL - It's getting a little long in the tooth FAIL - Overrated FAIL - see above WIN - wanted to fail you(you gave them free money, and it's already expensive), but its one of the best coolers out there and you're obviously happy with it
Dude, that rig is fine. Wait for the bits to arrive and enjoy the shininess. At the end of the day, half of the above is personal opinion anyway.
Thanks for the input guys, here's a bit of my dubious reasoning on a few items. Burner - chose it b/c reviews said it's reliable, quiet, it uses sata, and I've never played with lightscribe Once I resume writing, It will be used one, sometimes twice a day for the writing alone. It will be getting a LOT of use. The q6600 was my biggest question mark, I'm not current enough to know what a better choice would have been. I still see tons of people building with it, I doubt I'll be greatly disappointed. I hope. I do a lot of heavy cad work, some photoshop, and I'm a gaming machine. So I felt quad core was best suited for the heavy lifting. Most importantly, the two hard drives. I lost EVERYTHING when my system died. Every family photo, every song, cad, photo shop, etc. Every single thing I had created in the last 10 years. I'm still reeling at how much I've lost. I almost cried, I lost most of my novel. What were the odds of TWO drives dying in the same instant? Pretty good it turns out. So I intend to run them in raid 1, for the redundancy. Lightning doesn't strike twice, right? The old system only had 400gb woth of hdd's, and I'd only used about 200. Peace of mind with this choice. I hadn't seen that new keyboard, that thing is dead sexy.... P.S. I've played grid. Hated it.
Two disks in Raid 1 will protect you from a disk failure but not something which destroys the whole computer. I would back stuff up to DVD as well and store the DVDs somewhere away from the computer. You may be able to save a bit on the motherboard if you do not need (or want) all the features offered by the P5Q Deluxe. You may wish to take a look at a P5Q Pro or P5Q-E, they are both good boards. For pure gaming applications everything I have read leads me to believe that a E8400 will out perform a Q6600. If you particularly wanted a quad for CAD and photo work you may wish to look at a stretching your budget to a Yorkfield.
Yes it does, and redundancy doesn't stop one the controller going tits up and corrupting the drive partitions - I've had this happen before. It also doesn't stop your PSU sending a nice, large voltage spike down the 5/12V lines either, however unlikely. If you want backup it's DVDR, BDRW or a slight second place - NAS box that you only turn on once in a while to copy/read data but like RAID 1 it doesn't protect against user error and write/copy failures.
I was actually going to get the P5q-e, until I realized that the bundle with the xonar on the deluxe was actually cheaper than the e + a xonar. I believe this is what happened to me. According to my psu tester, the psu doesn't even have a 12v rail any more. I do not recommend the antec truepower 500. It was less than a year old. I spent a bunch of time testing the old hardware last night, and here's my results. Mobo: 2 chips next to the 12v aux plug melted<----this is where the rather pretty fire was. Southbridge also melted. CPU, Both HDD's, HD3850, DVD drive, 4 sticks ram: bricked. The only thing that survived was a cdrw, though it does seem really slow to respond, so I'll be tossing it too. My old man is giving me an external drive, so I plan to set up daily backups of my critical stuff in addition to the mirrored drives. Do you guys think the e8400 would have been a better buy?
If you want a selection of views on the Q6600 and the E8400 have a look at this thread http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=156563
Nice rig man... Smartly chosen really. I like them all except that motherboard. You could order new EVGA's Motherboard I would wait for that and would make some great machine... But maybe you were in a rush?
I would wait for reviews of this board. Following previous trends, Intel based nForce boards generally get owned by Intel's own chipsets; both in stock performance and overclocking.
I looked into it, but all the quotes I got were crazy expensive. Nothing I can do myself I suspect, as the platters don't even spin up when I plug it in. I couldn't really wait for that motherboard. I'm typing this on an 8 year old laptop. So all I can currently do it browse forums and email. I haven't done any research, do the nforce boards perform well with ati cards? I've switched back and forth between nvidia and ati the last couple years. My last nvidia card, a 6800gt had disappointing performance when I got it, and died 1 month out of warranty. Given the reviews I've seen on the 4870, it seems like a good buy. So I would have had to start my research over to include the nforce, and I just didn't have the time. Really, the cpu was the only thing I had doubts on, but it's still a great chip. Yeah, I went way overboard on the limited edition true and the noctua's. The true will be nicely featured in my system though. And just once, I'd like to have kick ass cooling in my system. I'm using the down time to mod my "new" soprano(translation: I gave my modded box to my brother and stole his plain one).
I don't know if this is marketing B.S. But I see no reviews that says if it true or not. nForce motherbord with Geforce = a higher performance than if you had an AMD or Intel chipset with a Geforce.
