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tcody

tcody

tcody

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30 Dec 2008
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My sister got envious of my build, so I said that you guys might help spec a machine! :)
Basically she uses final cut pro, a lot... all day really...

So she needs a motherboard, capable of allowing retail OSX to be installed (Ive just done it with my gigabyte X58 UD5, and performs very well... So thinking I should probably give her the same...) Graphics cards are well supported, so shouldn't be an issue...
She has no real budget but she doesn't want to be spending any more than necessary.
She wants it to hold as many hard drives as possible. but only needs two fresh 1tb drives for storage at first, and an hd for os, documents, and such (shes not very good at organising so not an ssd - guessing a 1tb wd black caviar and two greens)..
Can you spec an appropriate graphics card for final cut studio, power supply and case...
She has a monitor (as long as apple cinema displays work with pc's), keyboard, mouse..

As always all help is appreciated!
 
Here is my suggestion:

1216i7osx.png


I'm exactly not into Mac stuff but I heard they released gtx285s for mac pros - so hopefully that one will work.
 
cmndr_andi said:
Here is my suggestion:

1216i7osx.png


I'm exactly not into Mac stuff but I heard they released gtx285s for mac pros - so hopefully that one will work.
Click to expand...

Hey thanks for the reply.. you're right about the 285's its what I have in my machine.. But thanks to nvidia, they have supplied drivers for most of the Geforce 200 series...
With that in mind, I think a 285 would be a bit heavy for her needs! Do you think a 260 would suffice?

As for the rest, it looks great, just need an extra hard drive for the OS (will a black caviar be okay, it needs to be atleast 250gb as she's crap at organising and final cut studio is 50gb.. thinking a 500gb caviar..)

The case looks great, one question though... How easy is it to convert the 5.25" to 3.5", as it has a very different way of mounting compared to my pc?

As for the fan and heatsink.. Not sure that anything more than stock is necessary, as not sure it will get overclocked by much or at all...
And I also need to consult her on the dvd drive, as she may want to burn HD, not too sure..

So thanks for the base.. I think we'll be aiming at a budget closer to 1000 though, and without the 285, should be possible..
 
Ah - good to hear. As you may suspect I only went for the 285 because I knew it would likely work. If all gt200 series cards work - then a 260 is a brilliant choice, only £125 and more than enough power for sure.

As a rule you will want your fastest drive to have the OS on. In that case its the caviar black 1TBs. If you ran them in RAID0 configuration you would get even more speed.

As for mounting the HDDs, I just had a look at this and I have to say it looks rather...awesome. Looks like mounting at least 6 HDDs shouldn't be a problem :D

The heatsink is definately rather high end (very quiet and cool) but if it will not be overclocked - then the stock one should be fine. The fan is for the HDDs, as she is planning to have a few it may be a good idea to put that in an keep them cool (plus get some more airflow through the case).
 
cmndr_andi said:
Ah - good to hear. As you may suspect I only went for the 285 because I knew it would likely work. If all gt200 series cards work - then a 260 is a brilliant choice, only £125 and more than enough power for sure.

As a rule you will want your fastest drive to have the OS on. In that case its the caviar black 1TBs. If you ran them in RAID0 configuration you would get even more speed.

As for mounting the HDDs, I just had a look at this and I have to say it looks rather...awesome. Looks like mounting at least 6 HDDs shouldn't be a problem :D

The heatsink is definately rather high end (very quiet and cool) but if it will not be overclocked - then the stock one should be fine. The fan is for the HDDs, as she is planning to have a few it may be a good idea to put that in an keep them cool (plus get some more airflow through the case).
Click to expand...

Just had a thought, there's really no point in getting i7 and not overclocking.. So I think I'll get her the heatsink and a pull fan... Is the fan you specced not for the heatsink then? For the hard drive area? I guess with so many hard drives she should have some extra cooling for them...

The case is amazing so far! the 6 trays are awesome... I just need to know if the 5.25's can be converted to 3.5's in this case.. my google searching is poor! Do you know? She only needs one optical, and I guess she'll end up having all 11 spare sata ports on the mobo full with hard drives... So a case needs to accomodate 9 hard drives and 1 optical... (two sata ports extended to the outside for plug and play sata drives using icy box)..

Thanks for the help
 
Aye, the fan was for the HDDs. The noctual CPU cooler I picked actually comes with two fans in push-pull, it is very cool but also very quiet which is likely more important.

As for HDDs, with the included kit you can only convert 1 x 5.2in bay to hold a 3.5in drive (really should be used for a floppy). However, coolermaster sell a nifty little bay that converts 3x 5.25in bays into a holder of four 3.5in HDDs + a 120mm fan. I got two of these and replaced the stock fans with the same noctua P12 fans. Really cool and quiet now - plenty of HDD space too :)
 
cmndr_andi said:
Aye, the fan was for the HDDs. The noctual CPU cooler I picked actually comes with two fans in push-pull, it is very cool but also very quiet which is likely more important.

As for HDDs, with the included kit you can only convert 1 x 5.2in bay to hold a 3.5in drive (really should be used for a floppy). However, coolermaster sell a nifty little bay that converts 3x 5.25in bays into a holder of four 3.5in HDDs + a 120mm fan. I got two of these and replaced the stock fans with the same noctua P12 fans. Really cool and quiet now - plenty of HDD space too :)
Click to expand...

Ah brilliant, Im considering push/pull for my computer at the moment.. I have a thermalright ultra 120 with one of those noctua fans... It's just my lian li the other side of the heatsink is pretty close to the exhaust fan anyway, so wasnt sure if I'd gain or lose performance... I can now test with one of hers :P

Are you sure this coolermaster can take that adapter? If so that's perfect!
To me it looks like a one piece build.. I can't imagine being able to replace three 5.25's for a cage without DIY cutting? Am I being stupid?
Each 5.25 has a blue button to eject it.. How can you remove three of those and replace it with one cage?
 
I just had a hunt around, and you definately can add the HDDs in the holder. It is called the 4 -3 device module cosmos. Each one will fit 4 HDDs and one 120mm fan (pretty bog standard LED fan, consider replacing with a noctua). With 5.25in used for the optical drive - you should be able to fit two of these modules - not sure if you want or need that much space, but its nice to have the option.
 
I appreciate your help cmndr_andi, you didn't need to go hunting, but glad you did :p!
Okay well the case is perfect then :) looks good too! She wont need the hard drives for a few months, so i'll find one of those 4-in-3's when the time comes.. Though looking on OcUK I see they have icy dock's 3-in-2's which would give her 9 hard drives, leaving two e-sata ports free (external), and one optical drive...
Perfect..
Ill post up final spec shortly, and will then consult with the sister.

Thanks for your help :)
 
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