Building my dream system

[pmanington]

Hi Guys,

I've come into a bit of money and decided to build my dream system so I thought i'd run the spec past you guys for some advice. My main aims are to be able to play games, record and listen to music, watch movies, and for the system to be fairly quiet I don't want a huge tower system, just something that will sit comfortably on my desk and not make a huge racket. This is the spec I have at the moment.

6800 extreme edition conroe
Scythe Mine CPU cooler
Asus P5W DH Deluxe Mobo
Antec p180b case
Xclio 750W PSU
2GB Corsair 800 cas4 memory
2* 320Gb seagate 7200.10 Hard drives in Raid 0
NEC ND-457 DVD RW
Logitech G7 Mouse
Logitech Elite keyboard
Logitech z5500 speakers
Creative Xifi Elite Pro with Console
24" 2407WFP Dell Widescreen monitor
Either a HIS ICEQ3 XT1900 or a XFX 7950 GX2

I plan to remove the fan in the lower bay of the p180 so that the PSU will fit comfortably and put that fan where the upper hard disk bay would be to cool the gfx a bit more, I also suspect i'll have to remove the upper hard disk bay completely to fit the gfx card but i'm not too worried as i'll put the hard disks in the lower bay.

I wasn't sure if the cables from the PSU would be long enough for the p180 as i've heard that the cables need to be quite long, especially with large gfx cards. I was also unsure about the gfx card, I do want to get a card that will let me play at a nice high res with all the bells and whistles but i'm aware that dx10 and vista will be out next year and i could be sitting with a really expensive card that isn't compatible, I was also wondering about the X1950 XTX that should be out soon but that isn't dx10 compatible either. Is there a midrange card that would suit me for a year or so until the new dx10 cards are readily available?

Any other problems or issues with the kit i've chosen?

[Steve B]

looks like a good setup, although i'd change the scythe for an arctic freezer 7

Also, remove the raid from the 320 gig hard drives, as then u only get 320 gigs, but you wont need the raid for all the information on the drives, so just copy files that u want backed up onto the other hard drive

[shaithis]

Or buy an Areca 1210 PCI-E RAID controller and 4 drives and do RAID 0+1 or RAID 5

Wait a week or 2 though for the X1950 (or whatever its called)

[owen1978]

Are u planning on overclocking cos the 6800 is OTT top, u better of getting a cheaper cpu and overclocking it.

[Andeh13]

may i ask what world you are taking over? People dont buy a computer that powerfull without world domination at the back of their minds.

[pmanington]

I thought with Raid 0 you got all the space so as long as the hard disks were the same size you get the full space but with no backup? I have a spare 250Gb hard disk which i plan to use to backup important stuff along with the dvd drive

I did look at the freezer 7 but it didn't get great reviews, i heard it was only slightly quieter than the stock cooler but not as good at cooling!

As for overclocking, I didn't really think i'd need to with the 6800 (or any of the conroes) but if i do it comes unlocked so it should be much easier to do if i ever bother. I might get the 6700 as it does come a lot cheaper for not much less in performance.

[pmanington]

may i ask what world you are taking over? People dont buy a computer that powerfull without world domination at the back of their minds.

Henchmen, silence the heretic!!!

[MSIC]

I cant really comment on the components as such, but it does appear to be very good and very high end. Not necessarily best value for money, but then that's not what you want to go for (i personally always consider one under the top component to be better value!).
As for the power leads / P180, my Tagan reaches my motherboard slots just fine but you can easily buy power lead extenders for a few quid, so it's not a significant problem.

As for RAID, i've never used it but in principal am not a fan for the following reasons:
1) with RAID 0, if one drive fails you lose everything. Dont keep any critical data (ie photographs, documents) on it unless you do regular backups. According to CustomPC magazine this month, this series of seagates has a 0.38% "annualised failure rate". Having 2 in RAID 0 will give (according to my maths) a 0.76% chance of failure per year. EDIT: Just read your above comment!
2) with motherboard based RAID, if the motherboard fails, a new motherboard will not necessarily be able to read the hard drives, and again you lose everything. The above sugestion of a seperate PCI RAID controller takes care of that issue however.
3) i've always been happy with the performance of moderen hard disks. The seagate 10 series is one the fastest also.

My other general opinion is that it's worth spending extra time and thought on issues such as case, monitor, keyboard and mouse etc. You seem to have done this - very nice monitor, be sure to check out www.widscreengamingforum.com.

[pmanington]

I totally agree, normally i wouldn't spec it this high but i came into some money so i figured what the hell

I might pick up a power lead extender too then just in case, thanks for the tip.

I didn't realise about motherboard based raid and not being able to read them if the mobo fails, i guess i could just go for ordinary none raid disks. To be honest i'm not even sure i'd notice the difference, i just specced the pc out with a mad grin on my face and went for the high end option

[MSIC]

Lucky person. I wish I had your opportunity.
Of course, computers as such are useless without good stuff to do with them... Do you need any gaming suggestions or do you have that covered?
The other thing I forgot to point out is that, given your original request for not a huge tower, the P180 is a fairly large tower! The NSK 4400 might be a suitable alternative? I do like my P180 however...

Edit: See this forum thread, if you havent already:
http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=82372

[pmanington]

Yeah that case is an option, i was under the impression that the p180 was better for a quiet system though? I think i'd choose a quieter system over a smaller one although i'm not sure.

That's a great saving on the Dell, I won't actually have the money for a few weeks though so I doubt the offer would still be on then... *looks at credit card longingly*

As for gaming I already have a few decent games lying around. I never finished fear as my current rig couldn't quite handle it and i just picked up titan quest and rise of legends.

[Alvin.Sue]

[QUOTE=Steve B]looks like a good setup, although i'd change the scythe for an arctic freezer 7
QUOTE]

scythe mine is absolutely better the artic freezer 7...
it's default fan is nearly silent while provide decent cooling

and if you wanna play overclocking you just need to change the fan

[Rack]

Case - Silverstone TJ07
Don't like the P180 - too much plastic, it looks cheap, feels cheap. It's doesn't touch the TJ07 for room and looks. If you're after silence though... not much competition.
Look at the hexus review... I'd be worried about space too, with the X1900 gfx and multiple HDDS:
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6012&page=5

What about the Dell 30" screen? And 2 X1900XT's for x-fire? Wouldn't be a 'dream' system otherwise... :-)


Best cooler I've ever used is the Tuniq Tower120. I've tried a lot too.

[pmanington]

I did look around for a Tuniq tower and i couldn't find one in the UK and i heard it was quite noisy so i stopped looking.

I also thought about crossfire but i figured i'd get a reasonable card for now and then possibly upgrade in about a year when dx10 games start to appear. I've also heard bad things about crossfire saying that it isn't as stable as sli etc. I don't think i'll need anything more than an xt anyway as that should run everything at reasonable framerates in high res.

For space and the gfx card, i don't plan on using the top hard disk enclosure at all so I should be ok as i can remove it and just fit a fan at the front. the hexus review said it would fit but you wouldn't be able to use all the bays at the top.

I don't have enough room for a 30" screen unfortunately.

EDIT: the tj07 does look nice, it also looks huge though! I think i'd really prefer something that's quiet over anything else too so I don't see many other options other than the antec cases. I don't think i can be bothered messing around with sound proofing.

[Hidden Hippo]

Well, if you're wanting a silent case, Zalmann supposedly do a fanless case. Totally silent, save the PSU fan, and most likely to be very good build quality. Downside is that they're about £300, but you must have some evil mega-corporation backing you for that rig.

[pmanington]

Zalman do a fanless case but you can't put high end equipment in it from what i understand. I'm not after total silence, just something that's reasonably quiet.