Thoughts or recommendations on my potential build

[lordhutt]

Getting ready to build a new pc. Just looking for any possible thoughts or suggestions/changes.

Case: Antec 1200 (was thinking about the Thermaltake Level 10 which is just impressive as hell to look at and well built. But at 5x the price of the Antec....)

Mobo: ASUS LGA 1366 - Intel X58 (P6X58D-E)

CPU: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz

RAM: 6GB Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D

PSU: Corsair CMPSU-1000HX 1000watt.... considered the 1200 watt version but don't think I need it.

CPU cooler: Not sure yet... Cooler Master probably...RR-UV8-XBU1-GP or Hyper N520 RR-920-N520-GP

Video: EVGA 012-P3-1472-AR GeForce GTX 470 (2 of these in SLI).... was trying to weight the options if the 480's were worth the extra $200 per card.... thinking not

Misc:... not that important
HDD: Raptor 74gig for OS which will be Win7 Professional 64 bit
HDD: Samsung 1.5TB X 4
Blu Ray Recorder.... not sure which one yet....thoughts?
Monitors: Triple display... HP LP2475w 24"... this is an IPS monitor

Thought, suggestions, comments welcome!

[edDV]

What is it for?

Seems like a gaming rig.

[lordhutt]

Multiple things. Everyday use such as internet, book keeping, Word, etc.

It will also be used as a server for my HTPC and media player....hence the 6TB of HDD. So also ripping DVD and BD.

And yes, gaming.

And, if I can get my ass in gear to do it. I have many years of video that need editing. Including many gigs of HD AVCHD files.

[edDV]

Seems like you have maxed out most specs. Dual SLI cards seem overkill. I'd add disks as you need them since prices keep dropping. 2TB drives down to $99 in Fry's sales.

[lordhutt]

Well, the drives I already have including the raptor.
Everything though, will be new.

I figured the dual video would be necessary for some of the more demanding games and also for the 3 monitors......

[deadrats]

@lordhutt

that's a nice system though i'm going to tell you the same thing i tell anyone that asks a similar question: wait a couple of more months and do a new build based on "sandy bridge".

[lordhutt]

Thanks deadrats.
Well, just did some quick searching and skimming on the Sandy Bridge. Looks impressive.
I will do a lot more reading over the next couple days. There is no reason I have to have a new pc NOW.

Some links in case anyone else is interested:
http://www.anandtech.com/print/3922
http://www.anandtech.com/print/3871
http://www.tomshardware.com/search.php?s=sandy+bridge
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20002617-64.html
http://hwbot.org/article/newsflash/639_sandy_bridge_benchmark_results_leaked

[edDV]

Let us know what your machine costs out. My best Q4 machine and an Apple are in intensive care and may not survive.

Docs say need to think about organ recycle, the mobo's are questionable.

[lordhutt]

Let us know what your machine costs out. My best Q4 machine and an Apple are in intensive care and may not survive.

Docs say need to think about organ recycle, the mobo's are questionable.

Well, if I would go with what I mentioned I can tell you exactly what it would cost. I already had all the items in the shopping cart.... just didn't hit finish yet
$3725.09....but don't forget those IPS monitors. Eliminate those and you are down to 1615.15

I have no idea what the last line you wrote means.......

[redwudz]

I'd probably trade that 74GB Raptor for a 150GB model and you won't have to keep worrying about the boot drive filling up and slowing down. My present W7 32 machine has about 70GB on a 150GB Raptor and I don't have that many programs on it.

I suspect with two SLI cards you may need quite a bit of cooling. You might consider a Corsair H50 liquid cooling system for the CPU. About $70US, but very quiet and efficient.

[RabidDog]

If you're gonna shell out all that stash, you might as well go the whole hog and get yourself an 80gb SSD to boot from. That 74gb raptor is, I think bested by any number of 2tb disks, in performance terms, even the newer 150gb is neither fish nor fowl, its not a cheetah nor an elephant. If you really wanted speed go for two Small SSD's (using the SF1200 controller) in RAID, that should make your schitt really fly off that shovel. But sandy bridge is looking good, especially if you do any video transcoding,, Amd will also have to rightsize its prices to Compensate.
Better make it good , as it will be the last system you ever buy. Cloud Computing FTW!

[lordhutt]

@redwudz ... I am using the Raptor now nowhere near filling it up... although I just did a clean install recently and don't have many things installed... As far as the liquid cooling is concerned, I never fooled with any of that. Don't know if I want to get into it at the moment. The Antec case has a shitload of fans... supposed to be able to handle the job from what I've read...

@RabidDog ... I've thought about SSD's... never had one. The reason I was going with the HDD's mentioned is that I already have them but it can always be an option for later. True the Sandy Bridge is looking good... but there will always be something new... gotta think about it more.

[redwudz]

A SSD will make the PC boot faster and some programs load faster, but not much difference in encoding, editing or most common video operations that don't much use the boot drive. No idea if it will speed up gaming any.

Two advantages of liquid cooling are low temps and low noise. If you don't mind a lot of fan noise, no problem. I overclock my six core CPU to 3.5Ghz and the PC is virtually silent, with full load temps of 39C and idle temps of 26C. Those would be hard to do on air.

[lordhutt]

Well, like I said, I don't really know anything about liquid cooling. Any thoughts on which components to use? How much would this add to the build? Safe to assume that this is not something super challenging?

Back to the Sandy Bridge thing.... Didn't really get to go through it in depth yet but I will read up on it. But my question is this... is there something exceptionally super-mega amazingly revolutionary about this chip that should make me wait?.... What I am getting at is there is always new technology coming out.... In 15 months there will be something better than Sandy Bridge....

[deadrats]

Back to the Sandy Bridge thing.... Didn't really get to go through it in depth yet but I will read up on it. But my question is this... is there something exceptionally super-mega amazingly revolutionary about this chip that should make me wait?.... What I am getting at is there is always new technology coming out.... In 15 months there will be something better than Sandy Bridge....

on average you will see a 20% greater ipc capability for any given clock speed, lower power usage, a new 256 bit simd instruction set (with many instructions specifically meant for multimedia), integrated gpu and a highly anticipated video transcoding engine with both fixed function hardware decode/encode for high performance and fully programmable hardware decode/encode for high quality and it's rumored to cost less than the models it's replacing.

building a new pc now is kind of like finding out that the car you want to buy will in two months feature a new engine, that uses less fuel, has more horsepower and torque, across a broader rpm range, runs quieter and cleaner, will lower the price of the car by $1000 AND still deciding to buy the current model.

it's your money, buy whatever you want, but as far as i'm concerned building a new system now, unless you absolutely have to because your current system crapped out, is a waste of cash.

[redwudz]

Well, like I said, I don't really know anything about liquid cooling. Any thoughts on which components to use? How much would this add to the build? Safe to assume that this is not something super challenging?

I used the following setup. Regular water cooling can get a bit complex with water blocks and hoses, pumps, reservoirs, etc., and it can also get expensive. The H50 is not the most efficient method of water cooling, but it is easy to install and very low maintenance. (Mostly cleaning air filters)

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/270162-AMD-six-core-CPU-and-Corsair-H50-water-cooling-setup?

[lordhutt]

Well, I decided to go for it for now. Everything was ordered yesterday. Mostly from Amazon but NewEgg as well.
I figure this way... if the Sandy Bridge is all that when it comes out then I can always upgrade the mobo and chip without that much of a loss. There are many things I want to start doing now that I am not going to do with my current rig.

Gonna hold off on the water cooling at the moment simply because I don't want to get into something totally foreign to me at the moment.

Did make a couple changes. Upgraded the Raptor from the 74gig to the 600 gig.
Got the newer style monitor from HP..... HP ZR24w 24" S-IPS. These were actually $160 cheaper each.
As for the BDR I went with the Pioneer BDR-205BKS
Some packages already arrived including the 3 monitors. Everything will be here by Thursday.

I'll document the build and post some pics.

Thanks for the replies and advice.