New System

[Dooms]

Well in the next few weeks im hopefully selling my car (now i live in london there isnt any point owning it) so im getting some money! and ive decided to spend out on a new fancy pc!! yey!! anyway just going to run past it you guys and see what you think...

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM 182.07
Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200PT TwinX (2x1GB) 340.69
- now i would prefere some decent Patriot XBLK Extreme or OCZ EL Platinum but i cant seem to find either of them as 2x1gb dual kits???
x800xt PE -or- 6800 Ultra - both of them are around the 300 mark, not sure which one to go for... i prefere ATI overall but i dont know how these two compair to each other
Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM x2 - 72.79 each - will be running Raid0
Shuttle XPC SN95G5V2 Aluminium Barebones System - AMD 64 (Socket 939) - 233.82

Ill be using my Pioneer 106 out of my machine atm and a Dell p991 19" monitor.

Any ideas people? The prices are just dragged off Overclockers but i would prob be ordering from aria or komplett when it actualy order.

[ytrebil]

Looks good mate, but I'm definately not selling my car to buy a mint PC lol.

I'm going the way of the Shuttle too. What I've been told to be careful of (other thread) is the newer cards are bulky, so check compatibility with the GPU's you're after and the Shuttle mate.

[skb3]

Sounds like a great system, I am not sure why you are going for 2gb of ram, there is a massive performance boost between 512 and a 1gb but from 1gb to 2gb then I wouldn't be too sure.

I would go Nvidia as well, I have owned both at some stage and now returned to nvidia. Its persoanl preference really. You could save on Ram and get a x850 instead? There are so many choices/combinations. I would also prefer 2 72gb raptors in raid 0.

[Dooms]

Well i thought **** it and thats why im going for 2gb ram (but might end up going for 1gb depending on money)

How much are the x850's? i mean i could prob stretch to 350 for a gfx card but i couldnt see 850's on any of the sites i was looking on so i didnt know about price?

Also with the hdd's - im going to have a 200gig external for storage anyway so 36x 2 would be enough space for me to install all apps / games anyway


edit: ok looks like the x850 are pci-e only? so that rules it out for me.

[ytrebil]

I'd like to go for a high spec, can afford it but don't see the point. I want to set myself a decent budget.

I can't justify spending 350+ on a gfx card which 2 months down the line is worth £200 etc.

I'd rather spend half that on a card which could run the current games really well. Then in a few months/year upgrade when needed.

You should go with 1 gig of ram. 2 gig is overkill and well when you have a need for 2 gig it will be cheaper!

Anyone remember about 3 years ago when ram was DIRT cheap. Those were the days!

[Dooms]

heh only problem with going for 1gig and getting 2gig down the line is having to buy a whole new 2gig (since only 2slots in the shuttle i would have to scrap the 1gig to get 2gig overall!) - I know its abit of an overkill but this is essensialy 'spare' money and not coming out of wage or anything and i need a new pc... so why not! heh

[ytrebil]

Fair play mate!

However, buy 1 stick of 1GB then buy another if you need!

I'd like to get a window for the shuttle, many people doing this? just over the GFX card would look cool IMO.

Got couple of blue cold cathodes banging around actually may aswell make the most of them.

Love the Shuttle design! No more big ugly bulky case!

[RDL]

Get 2gb's. I have it in one of my systems, and it is very good, nothing takes anytime at all on that pc.

You should get yourself 1 74gb Raptor over two 36gb ones. The 74gb is slightly faster, and has a better density rate IIRC. RAID 0 on those two 36's won't offer much more than a 74gb anyways.

[Dooms]

ah but buying 1stick of ram instead of 2 would be silly as it wouldnt be dual channel! hehe so i really do have to decided if i want 1 or 2 but i think at the end of the day it all depends how much my car sells for.

About the 1 74 over 2x 36 i may do that - also the fact that i can 'upgrade' to 2x 74 in RAID0 at a later date.

[RDL]

Yep, that is a good idea. I just received the parts for my new system today, and I got 2x200gb Seagate Barracudas, and 1x74gb Raptor. I am going to use the Raptor for my OS , page file, and any particular backups I may do, and then the 200gb drives in RAID 0.

[Allen]

Buy 2x512MB sticks, and when/if the need arises, sell them when buying 2x1GB sticks.

Also, as said above, you'll probably be better off getting a single 74GB Raptor as two 36GB Raptors in Raid0 won't offer much of a performance enhancement. Also, dunno if that'll cause a heat issue in the Shuttle, especially with an X800XT or 6800U in there aswell!

[Allen]

Yep, that is a good idea. I just received the parts for my new system today, and I got 2x200gb Seagate Barracudas, and 1x74gb Raptor. I am going to use the Raptor for my OS , page file, and any particular backups I may do, and then the 200gb drives in RAID 0.

Performance wise, it's better to put your page file on a seperate drive to your OS files if you can, and with 3 HDD's, you can.

[RDL]

Yes I know - I'm still deciding whether I will actually need to run a pagefile. Maybe a 512mb one, we shall see.

I'm just trying to think of things to fill the Raptor with, to put it to use

The heat should be OK on most shuttles, just do your research.