Sanity check spec

edgedemon · 5 Dec 2011 at 22:14

OK - a quick sanity check

Quite frightening how much everything is now, I went into this thinking a grand would cut it - no chance :eek:

Additional things to add
Antec CP850 PSU - I dont think I have ever re-used a PSU, so not bothered about the proprietry format
Cooling - like the idea of one of the OC watercooling kits, but that will be 200 quid + which is a lot for something that Im not sure I will get any real benefit from. The room it will be in is naturally very warm, so Im presuming a high ambient temp will reduce the effectiveness of a w/c loop? I know it works for fans as well, but fans are cheaper so don't mind if there is a hit from room temperature.

GPU, Im gonna re-use a 470 for now and upgrade that later.

mobo - could be convinced to go sabertooth as I like that one as well..

Will use 1 x 1TB drive as temporary storage until I can by more drives and raid 10 them..

I want 6 cores and 32Gb of RAM as I will run a fair few VM's on this as well as GNS3 which gobbles RAM up as the network grows.

Primary use will be study/photoshop and gaming once I upgrade the gfx nest year

I have dvd drive, so that is £15 saved

Randomface74 · 5 Dec 2011 at 22:21

edgedemon said:
Quite frightening how much everything is now, I went into this thinking a grand would cut it - no chance

You picked all the most expensive stuff! Prolly overkill on the CPU, and why two SSDs?

Reaper 392 · 5 Dec 2011 at 22:22

if your planning on RAID0ing the SSDs then i wouldnt bother. you can get one of these which will be much faster than raided SSDs and save an incredible 99p
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-085-OC&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=2198

also, im no expert on the motherboard, but this could ease your wallet a bit: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-495-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2174

theres more than enough PCIe lanes to go round on that motherboard for two graphics cards in SLI, the PCIe SSD and a bunch of other stuff

edgedemon · 6 Dec 2011 at 06:00

I was planning mirroring the 2 SSD's for redundancy - just in case?

Nice idea on the PCI-E SSD, hadn't really looked at them - that is another decision to make now - blisteringly fast SSD or redundancy of Data

Originally I rejected that mobo as I want more SATA3 ports, but if I go down the PCI-E route.....
Im trying to keep in mind that I want to buy more drives and RAID 10 my slower storage drives...
Pretty much any mobo will support 2 x gfx, Im sorted for gfx at the moment as I have so many running in various set rigs that I can borrow some until the next gen are out..

As for the six cores and expensive choices - my last machine is from 2006, so Im working on this one lasting as well and want the cores/RAM for the uses described above..