Sense check my £2k+ purchase please

Amit

Amit

Amit

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Joined
20 Oct 2010
Posts
35
Guys,

I am embarking on my first PC build since loosing touch with self build in the days of Cartridge CPUs.

I was planning to buy a MacPro, but decided I can get more for my money from a PC. I already have a 27" Apple monitor on order so need a GPU with a "Mini DisplayPort" (not the same as standard display port) connector on it.

Below is what I have picked out.

Priorities for me are
Needs to be quiet.
Fast IO. I hate waiting for copying etc.
Will be used as a Media server to stream HD content.
MS Web Dev (using visual studio 2010)
Mild Photo and Video editing from HD Vid Cam and DSLR
Gaming -(but in reality probably only for a short period of time if a killer game comes out. Not a hard core gamer at all)

You may think that this machine is overkill if I dont play games often, but I dont buy/upgrade my machines very often. My current PC is 5 years old. I buy high spec and make it last.

Also, I am not going to OC it to within an nM (see what i did there ;) ) of its life, but happy to OC it a little to make it work for its money

Krypton Intel Core i7 970 3.20GHz @ 4.00GHz Overclocked Bundle - £1004.63
Corsair Hydro H70 High-Performance CPU WaterCooler - £83.99
HIS ATI Radeon HD 5870 2048MB "Eyefinity 6 Edition" GDDR5 PCI-Express - £352.49
Intel X25-M Mainstream 80GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State x 2 in RAID -£315.98
Coolermaster RC-1000 Cosmos Silent Full Tower Case - Black - £156.99
Corsair TX 750W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply - £89.99
LG BH10LS30 10x BluRay-RW / 16 x DVD±RW Drive - Black (OEM) - £89.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM - £51.99
LG GH24NS50 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - Retail -£17.99


The Krypton bundle includes
- CPU: Intel Core i7 970 3.20GHz @ 4.00GHz
- Motherboard: Asus P6X58D-E (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard
- RAM: Corsair XMS3 (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Triple Channel

This lot comes in at £2164 which is slightly over my initial budget of £2k

What would you change in this setup and why?

Within the same budget, would it be possible to increase ram, and SSD storage space? maybe by reducing the cost of the GPU? Are there any cheaper GPUs with mini display port connectors?

What is the difference between the 970 and 980 ?

Thanks for your help
 
Corsair Hydro H70 High-Performance CPU WaterCooler - £83.99

Thermalright HR-02 CPU cooler ~£50 + quiet fan(s) £15 each

HIS ATI Radeon HD 5870 2048MB "Eyefinity 6 Edition" GDDR5 PCI-Express - £352.49
See what AMD release tomorrow.

Intel X25-M Mainstream 80GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State x 2 in RAID -£315.98

Is raid worth it for SSD?
 
Thanks for the reply.

What are AMD doing tomorrow? New line up of GPUs?

Re the SSD, what do you mean?

Is Raid not recommend with SSDs? Its been a while since I looked into RAID.

My logic was a single 160gb volume and double the perf?

Amit
 
How many monitors do you need?

That HD5870 looks overpriced when you can get an overclocked GTX470 for £100 less, and the HD6xxx series are very close.

Also on the SSD front, your board has SATA 3, so I would look at A cruicial C300 128G or 256G if your budget will stretch. Alternatively if you really want RAID, a pair of 90G vertex 2e bigfoots, which have better performance and garbage collection than those intels. (SSDs normally need trim to stay "fit", in RAID, TRIM is NOT supported, so a drive with decent background garbage collection is a must).
 
I only need one monitor, but the 5870 is the only card I could find with the mini displayport connector.

So the intel SSD are a definate no no in raid? If that is the case, What will give me the best IO perf for £350 ish with a min size of 150GB?

I guess I should hold out a few days and wait for the 6xxx series. They may have a lower spec card with mini dp.
 
Ok having had a quick look,

I am thinking of getting two 120GB OCZ Vertex 2E SSD drives at £180 each and will still raid them.

Any reason not to go for this config?

I am also considering spending an extra £200 and going for the 980 with the Asus Rage III mobo over the 970 P6X58D combo and hopefully will be able to get a cheaper GPU when the 6000 series come out.

Amit
 
With respect to GPU,

I have found an XFX HD 5770 Graphics Card 1GB with mini DisplayPort for £125

What are the real term perf diffs of the 5770 and the 5870. Bare in mind I will be running at 2560 x 1440 res. Is it only in gaming where I could see a diff? or would media encoding / streaming/playback etc also be effected? That £200 drop in price can let me go to 12gb ram :)

Amit
 
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I don't think anyone here will recommend the Asus board for your needs. I think its complete overkill.

With regards to the Video Card, could you not just get an adapter?
 
Both boards are asus.. I like the sound of the rage III board for more expansion slots and its claimed greater stability due to better voltage regulation.

As I am building a machine to keep me going for 5 years plus, dont want to limit my future options.

Also, just in case I get into all this OC, tweaking stuff, it may come in handy.. knowing me, I will want to start fiddling at some point lol.

For the graphics card, I cant find a display port/DVI adapter to female mini display port adapter that will support the resolution.

Amit
 
NZXT, sorry about that.

Where do you see I am wasting money? Thats why I am asking here. And why do you say its a waste?

Amit
 
HIS AMD HD 6850 two mini-displayport, HDMI, and two DVI, making for a truly monster number of display options.

trusted reviews
 
It's a lot of wasted money because it's totally OTT for your uses. You could spend half and not notice any tangible drop in performance. You could then upgrade more regularly which is a much better and cheaper way of keeping your rig up-to-date. If you really want to make a rig that lasts you could consider waiting for the new Intel or AMD platforms which are just around the corner, rather than choosing EOL platforms.
 
Krypton Intel Core i7 970 3.20GHz @ 4.00GHz Overclocked Bundle - £1004.63

> get a 930 or 950 // 970 makes no financial sense
> plus get C7 XMP memory instead of C9 for a real 25% or more performance boost

Intel X25-M Mainstream 80GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State x 2 in RAID -£315.98

> there is no way to RAID ssh at the moment without losing TRIM
> which means serious performance loss
> better to get a single large ssd at the moment
> plan which driver and chipset combination will work best for you

Corsair TX 750W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply - £89.99

> why not get an AX 850

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM - £51.99

> check out samsung equivalents - very good

> make sure you buy Windows 7 Retail - not OEM
 
I see what you mean. I am not worried about OTT because I have a budget that I need to spend, and I wont get that budget on an on going basis.

I am not paying for this rig from my pocket so to speak, so I need to get as much as possible to see me through a good few years now.

I havent got the time to wait for latest platforms and there is always something new coming out so I would end up waiting for ages.

With that in mind, what could I change to get even more performance?

Amit
 
Fire shadow,

If I wanted 12GB of ram, which kit should I get? Got a link?

If I get two 120GB OCZ Vertex 2E SSD, will I get a perf gain by applying raid to those? or would I be better of using them both individually?

Will look into the PSU.

Also out of interest, whats the diff between retail and Oem win 7? I have an MSDN subscription anyway so will just get Win 7 ultimate.

Amit
 
FireShadow said:
> get a 930 or 950 // 970 makes no financial sense
Click to expand...

Except that it's a six-core. Did you really mean the 975 quad-core? Now that is a CPU that makes no financial sense (unless you're fatally allergic to overclocking, but even then...). Stupid overlapping intel CPU naming.

Amit said:
I see what you mean. I am not worried about OTT because I have a budget that I need to spend, and I wont get that budget on an on going basis.

I am not paying for this rig from my pocket so to speak, so I need to get as much as possible to see me through a good few years now.

I havent got the time to wait for latest platforms and there is always something new coming out so I would end up waiting for ages.

With that in mind, what could I change to get even more performance?

Amit
Click to expand...

Fair enough then - let the specs commence :)
 
Can any one give me a link to the C7 memory 3x4gb (12gb kit)

In what terms would they be faster? Can be over clocked more? or just like for like?

Amit
 
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