Trying to rein in a friends build - spec:

JonJ678 said:
The technology is pretty hot now. The south bridge can't cope with more than 3 vertex drives, the graphs over in the hardware section are astonishing. Photoshop in ramdisk is a bad call, simply because computers *cough windows cough* crash, power fails, fuses blow etc. All data gone isn't funny. Lost an hours work once, not putting important things onto ramdisk again.

I've got XP and ubuntu running off mine. Ubuntu is ludicrous, it's just completely unnecessary to run it on a ssd. I don't use photoshop, design for me is pieces of metal rather than colours. CAD programs feel a lot nicer on the ssd than on a hard drive, Rotation and so forth is the same, but saving/loading large files is much improved. Windows boot time is rather swift too, post takes longer than windows.

It's OCZ that have released the 'trim' tool which does this, but it'll eventually make its way into windows anyway. I'm not sure better than vertex would make a difference but do not know.
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Thanks for the comprehensive reply, JonJ678.

The SSD is fast becoming a must have item for him. I think your post may prove to be the decider - you've even made me want one and i was the one that needed convincing just to place one into his spec...

That and the fact that windows 7 seems to take an age to boot.


Happy said:
Ah based on the case, the best low profile cooler is probably the Scythe Mini Ninja, in terms of the noise from the case, if you 5v the Noctua fans you won't be able to hear them over the other components.
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Thanks again Happy, i was looking at the Ninja but I hadn't made the mental jump yet to modding a Noctua fan to the case - geat tip, appreciated.
 
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Good fun. They're brilliantly reviewed in many places, the negatives are all £/gb in various forms. Which would be relevant if I needed a terabyte for an operating system.
I'll expand slightly, I have two versions of windows running. The one on the ssd is a closed system, no access to the internet, only access to one storage hard drive. No internet means no antivirus, no firewall. Windows could be nlited, but I haven't bothered yet.
Photoshop on this sort of arrangement would work well, and I doubt it would need more than 30 so can be had for 120 quid. You can then have a normal copy of windows on a hard drive with games/virus's/other rubbish on it, and it doesn't matter because everything important is done on the ssd.

This wouldn't suit many people, but as it's a strange use of the small drive I thought Id post it. Ubuntu is sitting in 4gb or so of the drive separate to windows.

Please do post back with which one/ones you settle on, I'd be curious to see what no budget + ssd results in
 
Thanks for the update JonJ678.

nLite is a great bit of software - and with the simplicity of your windows setup on the SSD it should be pretty straight forward to configure? I admire the purity of your set up - you certainly have taken any ambiguity out of the operating system on that drive, i think it would be fast without the SSD.

I think my friend will obviously be more brutal in his approach and use it as his primary OS (and probably his only OS as i don't live close enough) but only add photoshop and office on to it. I'll raid the other drives for his games, other apps and backup.

This thread has come full circle - the pressure is now on him to get one - and i suspect it will be just the one.

When he's fully commited to his choices i'll let you know - but he's got a month to mull them over. I'm just putting the feelers out so he can clarify what it is that he wants, by the time he's ready to buy it'll probably be a brute of a machine. I'm the one holding the build up as he's got to wait on me having a couple of free days to devote to it as he's 80 odd miles north of me in Sommerton.

Happy said:
When you start building it, create a build log thread! :D
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If i did it will probably be along the lines of:

  • These are the parts - nice assorted pics
  • This is the completed build - pics
  • Now these are the problems i'm having - pics of bottles of bud by BSOD.

I'll deff do a thread of some sort, if only to ask how to cable tidy successfully. I'm notoriously bad at it - through lack of patience as much as skill. I better take a trip to youtube as somebody with OCD has probably uploaded an 'idiots guide' to cable tidying. And with, potentially, 4 HDD's being fitted my limited skills will be sorely tested.

Thanks again guys.
 
Still watching this thread, looking forward to the build shots - and dribbling with envy.

Badly need to upgrade my own rig, and wish I had the money to burn on something like this one :p
 
Well he's getting ready to buy...

JonJ678, which is the best 30gig SSD - the OCZ Vertex Series 30GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive? (He's still quite keen on the idea.)

He's dropped the idea of 12 gig of memory - and decided to go for 6gig. Boringly sensible i know - but i'm happier - he can add it later. (although he does keep bringing it up)

He has also decided to get a full tower - with that in mind which black coloured tower is easy to work on and is minimilist in style - no windowed sides (not necessarily a doored front.) I was thinking of this one, Silverstone Fortress FT01B-W Tower Case with Window, as long as i can change the glass panel for a solid one?

And, lastly, which is the quietest 295 out at the moment - it turns out he's not keen on me stripping it apart if it doesn't need it - the woos!
 
I believe all the GTX295s use the same fans currently. Case wise, I think this looks nice and I have one :p

Lian Li PCA70B

CA-094-LL_400.jpg
 
Oooh, i like the look of that one - and thanks for the 295 info, that's what i was afraid of.

I also noticed this one - the Silverstone Temjin TJ04B Aluminium Tower Case:

ca053sv400.jpg


I just need to search out and see if it's got the same user friendly insides as the Silverstone Fortress FT01B-W Tower Case.
 
Thank god he forgot about the 12GBs what a waste!

SSD? What exactly does he do in photoshop? If hes a hardcore "shopper" then yeah perhaps but if he edits a few pics here and there the SSD wont be worth it. I personally think SSD is a little too new right now and there are a few issues that need sorting out before we all get one. Theres nothing stopping him getting one later on. He will need to reinstall his OS in 6 months to a year anyway when its clogged full of junk and slow so a perfect time to slip it in then.

To keep him on his leash you can remind him that the entire rig will be out of date within a year( hell the new GPUs and CPUs will be out in a few months) so he might as well spend a conservative amount now (>£2000?) and have a nice new rig again in a year instead blowing it all in one go on stuff he wont fully use.

The 295 will be nice a noisy in fact most of the high spec cards are. Without water cooling your best bet is that acoustic dampening foam stuff for the case.

Id personally get 2 4980s in x fire it isnt hard to set up, faster and cheaper than a 295.

You are lucky he isn’t into overclocking (Yet) he would be after water cooling or phase change

</rant>
 
The SSD will be more of a novelty item rather than having any real serious application. Obviously, things will run faster but he's a gamer who dabbles in Photoshop - so the reality is that it's a toy more than an essential functioning piece of hardware. But, speed is fun and that’s what he is building it for – well buying it for. He'll only install xp and windows 7 on it - plus photoshop and maybe office - all his other software will be on his other drives.

Shame about the noise levels on the 295's - I’ll need to source an EVGA version so that i can perhaps persuade him to change the cooler to that of a third party.

Hey! Shhh, don’t mention water cooling; I know next to nothing about the subject as I have never ventured down that wet avenue - I would hate to have to learn that particular skill on a £2000 plus rig which isn’t mine! Talk about a baptism-of-fire!!! ;)

Thanks for your input, appreciated.
 
Plec said:
so the reality is that it's a toy more than an essential functioning piece of hardware.
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In that case let him go crazy :) at least that way he will be supporting the industry by paying top £ for the lastest hardware. In fact if we can get more people like him spenidng so much the manufacturers might start giving lower spec hardware to us for free because they have too much money!

What i meant to say was that water cooling leaks on every other system and fries the entire rig thats why not many people use them. :D
 
The drip, drip effect seems to have worked on my friend in the last few post - and i'm must say i'm gutted - even though i was dead set against the SSD at the start of this thread.

Ok, he's being a bit more pragmatic about his approach now - especially after the last few posts.

He's now opted against the SSD, for now, (i'm actually gutted) as he would rather wait till they've dropped in price and get a larger one in the future - which, lets face it, for his purposes is sensible. He's decided on 2 xWestern Digital Caviar Black 1TB (He has a lot of music and films).

However, he's definitely going for a 24" monitor and, as he's decided on such a large vdu, he's decided to throw in a blue-ray dvd into the mix.

So the spec so far looks likes this - fee l free to dissect away, if you feel there is anything else to pick over: (The Gfx will be an EVGA - but will have to be sourced else where.)

Note: if someone knows whether you can get a opaque side panel to replace the windowed panel on the Silver Fortress it would be great to know - as that is my favoured case and i would love to work on one.

13742188.jpg
 
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You can get a windowless version of the Silverstone Fortress but your friend would have to get it from a competitor. Just type in SST-FT01B for the black version or SST-FT01S for the silver version, into google.
 
Great - thanks Jon20.

I'm sure OC's wont mind losing a case, they don't stock, as they'll be getting the rest of the build ordered through them.

I had decided against the Silverston Temjin as it's internals were very basic.
 
I would def suggest the Antec P183 as a case.
My friend has one, it looks awsome. The front pannel is realy nice. Its realy cool and my mate doesnt have any fans or coolers that claim to be quiet and you cant hear a peep out of it.
Also the cable management system in it is realy good, and it has all the screwless bits inside for installing hdd and drive etc.
The psu is also seperated from the main case making it cooler and quieter.
 
Thanks, despotofmidnor i will take a closer look - it looks very sleek.

How solid is the front panel? (My only concern is that some are easily damaged which is why i was trying to avoid cases with this design.)
 
Its very sturdy. It closes on a magnet so it has a good feel to it and you can lock the front up too. The door also opens all the way round so it sits flat against the side, which is nice, i know a few cases where it has to stick out because of the hinge.
All the pannels are realy thick too because they have i think 3 layers of sound proofing, but its all black brushed aluminium outer, looks v'nice. Has a little vent box on the top with a big fan too. Its bottom mounted psu. The psu and hdd are in like a seperate case at the bottom and then the top houses the main components and drive bays making for better air flow and cooling.
 
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