Folding Rig spec - what do you think? :)

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Right, after thinking long and hard about this I've decided to take the plunge and upgrade my computer situation. I was going to wait for the Q9450 but for £60 more and a couple of months waiting doesn't seem worth it.

So, I'd like your advice on the spec I've got below. The only part I currently have is the same 250Gb platter hard drive that I'm getting below, I plan on doing RAID 0 with them.

My budget is £800 :)

spec.png


EDIT: Forgot to mention I only have an 17 inch monitor at the moment, max of 1280 * 1024. My intention is in the future to upgrade monitor + gfx card, then cpu once the price comes down to a reasonable amount/ the extra instruction set get used for folding :)
 
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Without doubt the Q6600 is a great folding cpu, but does anyone know if future folding@home clients will utilise SSE4? Ive heard the new instructions can boost video encoding from 20-40%. If the same applies to folding calculations it might be worth the wait.
 
The extra cache of the Q9450 should make a difference in the short-term. But I'm pretty sure that SSE4 will be taken advantage of at some stage.
 
The Antec 900 is an awesome case, I have it. It's surprisingly quiet but I found when I turned the fan at the back up to full power it forced the fan on the cooler over the processor to spin the wrong way! No biggie though, the 20cm fan with the one on the side and 2 at the front do the job very well.
 
As I see it you have 1 major issue :) and thats that with that case you will have to take the big side fan off to fit the 120-Extreme in

I would swap the Yate for a Sharkoon Slient Eagle 2000 and you will be fine with the 520 watt corsair PSU
 
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I'd imagine that the tuniq tower would give me the same problem then? :) I was also under the impression that the case only came with 2 front fans, one rear and the big top fan. There is the option for a side fan, but I doubt I'll need it :)

correct - i have the antec 900 and 2 intakes (120mm) one exhuast 120mm at rear and 200mm on top.

No side fan but the option for one should you need it.

Otherwise nice set up - also agree get the 520W psu as it way plenty.
 
Ok, thanks for the advice. I was just looking at the "this week only" offers, and saw the corair 4Gb http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-136-CS.

Would it be worth getting this instead of the ballistix, considering I am wanting to overclock as much as possible and will be using 32bit XP? I know that it will put more pressure on the northbridge, and that I don't plan on upgrading to Vista for a long time, if ever :)

Oh, and I will be using 4 Linux SMP clients on 2 VMWare images :)
 
Ok, thanks Cob :) I now have the following spec, just need to convince my other half that we really need a new shiny computer :) When is spore coming again? :P

spec2.png
 
Do you already have the x86 XP license? Because it would be worth switching to x64 Vista for the extra memory.
 
I've already got x86 XP yes, however its a legitimate corporate edition (I was working from home for a lot of my previous job). I'm not sure it will be upgradable :/
 
hmmm......... in that case I'll stay with XP for now :) I'll still get 3.25Gb which is 1.75Gb more than I have at the moment :)
 
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