Folding@Home news 20-27th January

[theheyes]

Cheers for the breakdown miniyazz.

I was reading this on anandtech before regarding Intel's manufacturing process:

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3731

Volume production will happen sometime in Q2, with products shipping before the end of the year. In my last SSD article I mentioned that Intel’s 3rd generation X25-M would be shipping in Q4 at 160GB, 320GB and 600GB. These drives will use IMFT’s new 25nm flash.

160GB capacity and a few other goodies sound worth waiting for. Xmas present for myself maybe.

Also, I finally ditched the Windows 7 RC this weekend and installed my copy of Home Premium - it took me 3 hours to get my RAID1 setup working properly so I don't fancy messing with it again any time soon, by Xmas I might be over it.

 

[SiriusB]

OK guys, you lot have been in the loop longer than I have so thoughts on the below much appreciated. Went for the ATI as tbh the noise from my two GTX260s is starting to bug me a little. Heat is also going to be a problem in the summer, so I would rather not GPU fold on my new rig.

I will be overclocking and I will be SMPing on it. Probably not -bigadv as I actually want to use it!

This is probably better in General Hardware, but just lately there are 42 different opinions every time someone asks for advice. So while it is an invaluable resource it is also completely useless, especially if you're impatient...

I value the opinion of you lot more at any rate!

EDIT: My budget will stretch to £1500 at a push, but it would need some rather eloquent persuation! A spec for less than than the above would, of course, be lovely.

 

[Happy]

Cheaper and in my opinion a better spec'd rig

 

[SiriusB]

Not gonna argue about the RAM - way too much choice and I have no idea. I just know OCZ do great RAM. If the Patriot is better then cool.

What makes the PSU better? Modularity is not a concern for me, so needs to be something good I will be sticking with the RV02 [wanted it for a while]. The HDD will stay the Barracuda, to match my two others for a RAID5 setup.

Is the H50 really any good? Looking around the last day or so the general consensus is its OK but similar priced conventional air coolers are better. Thanks for your input so far

No, Im not selling my GTXs! They are staying in my current machine which is going to live in the attic as my server.

 

[KE1HA]

Couple of suggestions:

CPU: Well, as much as you want to spend

MB: EVGA 170-BL-E762-A1 LGA 1366 Intel X58 4-WAY SLI Classified XL

GPU's: Your choise, but get a MB board that allows for MAX expansion.

PSU: Get a Big One !! 1000W / 1200W. If you dont use it, cool, if you need it, you have it, and provides expansion when you want to upgrade the rig. I prefer Enermax.

Ram: To many good choices but I like the new Crucial 6GB sets.

Case: Antec-1200. Best Airflow Case I've ever used. I have one, and also hae 4x 900's, but for a premo setup there too small, 1200 all the way.

HD: We've already went over all those, it's really down to user choice v.s. cost. Me personally, V-Raptors are the right choice at the moment.

Dont know what the cost delta is as Im in USD, but even with the components you've selected, it will be a Nice Box For Sure !!!

We do expect Build pictures
.

 

[Happy]

Last time I checked the TX series were made by a different OEM to the HX series which are made by Seasonic, they are just generally units - If you're wanting more power then go with the HX850. The H50 is certainly a better cooler than many of the top end air coolers when running with two fans in a push/pull config.

 

[miniyazz]

Why the 1TB drive? Clearly not as a boot drive with the Intel so my recommendation would be the Samsung F3 1.5TB - £75. At £5 more for 50% more capacity, it's a no-brainer, even if you don't think you'll use that much storage for a while.

I'd recommend the H50 as well tbh. It's worth pointing out, too, that extra heat from graphics cards wouldn't affect the CPU temperatures with that if that's what you're worried about, and I'm sure there are quiet NVIDIA graphics cards out there!

Also a vote for the UD7 motherboard. The UD5's a good board, but what swung it for me was the USB 3.0 and SATA 6bps, not to mention support for Intel's next-generation CPUs, that the UD7 offers (also an extra PCI-e slot ). I got mine for £250ish.

 

[SiriusB]

OK I think you have sold me on the H50, so will probably go with that. I will check out the UD7 and see how it affects my budget.

The reason for the 1TB Seagate is I have two 1TB Seagates already, I need a third for RAID5. My current PC is becoming a server and will not only hold my media [music and video] it will also have backups for 4 other machines. These backups become quite substantial. Since it will be holding important data, I want the RAID5 as an extra layer of protection. I probably shouldn't have put it in with my spec, so I apologise for the confusion!

 

[Biffa]

Original spec looks good to me

 

[verbal]

Obviously you're going for a really nice high end system but even so I personally wouldn't go close to spending £330 on a graphics card.

You can probably get something like 80% of the performance at less than half the cost.

 

[miniyazz]

Obviously you're going for a really nice high end system but even so I personally wouldn't go close to spending £330 on a graphics card.

You can probably get something like 80% of the performance at less than half the cost.

The man does has a point
Unless you're planning on gaming at high res, or something?

Fair enough on the HDDs. I'm sure you've heard it before, but.. RAID 5 is not a backup in itself, if you have a power spike or some such thing, it could take down all your HDDs at once! I eventually bit the bullet and backed up my RAID 5 onto a few 1.5TB drives; now I have the RAID 5 in my case and another four HDDs stored separately. When you've got that much stuff, it's just not worth the risk of having it die on you! (Plus now I can take the backup round places and plug it into my laptop )

Anyway, it's looking like a solid build. Personally I'd be wary of having too small a PSU as it could limit your upgradeability, but 650W would be fine for your current spec - just not if you added a couple more graphics cards.

 

[SiriusB]

Obviously you're going for a really nice high end system but even so I personally wouldn't go close to spending £330 on a graphics card.

You can probably get something like 80% of the performance at less than half the cost.

I very rarely upgrade my graphics card once I have bought one - my X1900XT was in my system up until a few months ago when I got my first GTX260 to fold on. DX10 wasn't even around when I got my 1900! Given I am likely to have it for many years, £300+ is not a lot to spend. I am far more likely [and already have] to upgrade CPU/RAM/Mobo and that lot can cost 2-3 times as much as a graphics card.

 

[miniyazz]

I very rarely upgrade my graphics card once I have bought one - my X1900XT was in my system up until a few months ago when I got my first GTX260 to fold on. DX10 wasn't even around when I got my 1900! Given I am likely to have it for many years, £300+ is not a lot to spend. I am far more likely [and already have] to upgrade CPU/RAM/Mobo and that lot can cost 2-3 times as much as a graphics card.

All this is true, but the point is that you could spend £150 now for 3/4 the performance, then £150 in a year's time, for 1.5x the performance - spend less overall, but get more performance overall. But meh, whatever makes you happy really

 

[SiriusB]

The problem is I will want the best in a year's time to make up for spending less now!

I understand what you are saying, and it is the logical thing to do. However, if I were being logical I would say "Peter, you don't really need a new PC do you?". Since I am being illogical I may as well get the best I can afford.

To be honest when it comes to PC hardware no matter what you spend there will always be something new and shiny around the corner with more numbers and Xs tacked onto it. You can't win.

 

[Marine Iguana]

Poor SiriusB

I have had a few hours with my rig not on whilst i put my WC loop together and i am a happy little bunny right now although i need some sleep I'm am completely shattered and feel the need to close my eye's

 

[miniyazz]

Poor SiriusB

I have had a few hours with my rig not on whilst i put my WC loop together and i am a happy little bunny right now although i need some sleep I'm am completely shattered and feel the need to close my eye's

Any new heights reached with your OC?

 

[SiriusB]

The man does has a point
Unless you're planning on gaming at high res, or something?

Fair enough on the HDDs. I'm sure you've heard it before, but.. RAID 5 is not a backup in itself, if you have a power spike or some such thing, it could take down all your HDDs at once! I eventually bit the bullet and backed up my RAID 5 onto a few 1.5TB drives; now I have the RAID 5 in my case and another four HDDs stored separately. When you've got that much stuff, it's just not worth the risk of having it die on you! (Plus now I can take the backup round places and plug it into my laptop )

Anyway, it's looking like a solid build. Personally I'd be wary of having too small a PSU as it could limit your upgradeability, but 650W would be fine for your current spec - just not if you added a couple more graphics cards.

I missed this post somehow!

The vast majority of the data is not irreplaceable - music and movies for instance wouldn't be a huge loss if my entire RAID array bit the dust. For stuff like family photographs, documents for work etc are all backed up locally on each machine, then backed up the server [or will be] and the really important stuff will be backed up again onto an external HDD I have. I am also planning on backing up the smaller stuff to my webhosting [which itself is backed up].

Once it is all set up the only way I would permenantly lose the most important items is if the UK and USA were simultaneously wiped out. And if that happened I doubt I would be alive to even care if my backups survived!

As an update, I have ordered my new i7 system. I tweaked it a little by going for the H50 cooler, the HX 750watt PSU and the UD7 mobo. Should all arrive by Tuesday. Though due to work I may have to wait until Thursday or Friday to build it!

 

[miniyazz]

Nice, let us know how it gets on

 

[Happy]

Should be a great spec!

 

[SiriusB]

I am looking forward to it!

Have been looking at OCing guides for the i7 since they are somewhat different to the Core 2 stuff. Seems the i7s can quite happily take some voltage boosts which is always nice to know . Hopefully I should get a very respectable OC out of it.