New rig spec check please.

[bardel]

I am currently in the market to build a gaming rig (been out of it for a while and still using a four year old Athlon which is driving me mental for my daily office chores). Can I ask you good peeps to critisise / approve my choices accordingly?

Looking forward to your responses.

Mobo - BFG BFGRNFI680iS NF680i SLI,
CPU - Intel Core2 Duo E6600 (Should I wait for E6320?)
Memory - Corsair Dominator Twin 2x2048-8500C5D (2GB)
Hard Drive - 2 x Seagate 7200.10 160GB S-ATA (in Raid 0)
GPU - BFG nVidia 8800GTX
Case - Can't decide... I want something black, smart, decent and no windows and LED's (Quite like the CM 830 Stacker but quite pricey)
PSU - Corsair HX 620W
CPU Fan - Arctic Freezer 7 + Arctic Silver 5 Paste
Keyboard - Logitech G15
Mouse - Logitech G7
Monitor - Samsung 205BW 20" Widescreen
DVD-RW - Samsung SH-W183 Sata
OS - Vista Ultimate (64 bit) with XP Pro Dual Boot (Or maybe on another HDD altogether)

**Notes** I already have a Samsung 930BF 19" TFT which I'll run alongside the new 20" Widescreen

Haven't selected a soundcard as I'll probably live with the onboard sound. Im a bit of an audiophile, but the speakers attached to my PC won't deserve an aftermarket soundcard!

Have selected 2 HDD's in Raid 0 over a single Raptor 10000rpm drive as they are sooo expensive and unless I can afford to run 2 Raptors in Raid 0 I believe the 2x cheaper HDD's in Raid 0 will perform better than the single raptor?

Also, I'm a noob when it comes to Ram speed / timings, so please if someone can verify my Ram choice is sensible? I do fancy having a play with overclocking, but I need to read up unless I can use any "optimising" utilities that will suggest settings for me!

Get bashing! Cheers

[Flewis]

Few things, the dominator 8500 RAM is a bit overkill, get some decent 6400 stuff and it will do fine.

The arctic freezer pro comes pre applied with arctic MX-1 which has been shown to be most effective with the heatsink (although in general the silver 5 is better). So dont bother unless u want to repaste the motherboard heatsinks.

Casewise i would recommend the Coolermaster cavalier 3 or thermaltake soprano for a budget choice, Or the antec P180 or akasa mirage for a bit more cash. All pretty smart looking with no windows.

One raptor will be faster than 2 drives in raid 0 for most tasks, but the price per gig is so high its not worth the extra (generally). worth it if you can afford it.

[Blitzen]

One raptor will be faster than 2 drives in raid 0 for most tasks, but the price per gig is so high its not worth the extra (generally). worth it if you can afford it.

Wrong im sorry.
Run HDTach and see the results.

2 Raid0 SATA drives are quicker than a single Raptor.

Im starting to feel guilty now as i seem to be putting the dampeners on your suggestions.

Im not doing it on purpose...sorry...just giving another perspective.

[bardel]

Thanks for the responses guys.

Ref the hard drives, I read somewhere (Tom's Hardware I think) that two Sata in Raid 0 is quicker than 1 Raptor which is why I went that way. Just can't get my head round paying such a premium on the Raptor when the speed can be achieved more cheaply. Glad to hear any further opinons on this though.

Thanks for the info about the paste, Im not planning on changing the chipset heatsinks so probably don't need the Arctic Silver.

<Overclocking Dunce Hat On>
With regards to the RAM, well actually with the whole system. What kind of overclocking can I expect to see from it reliably? Have I picked a decent enough mobo for this or do I really need something like the ASUS Striker Extreme? And lastly, is the slower RAM sufficient for overclocking? I need to find a guide that indicates how overclocking works... Im guessing you're saying I dont need RAM as fast as 8500 as my bus speeds will be too low, even when overclocked?
</Hat Off>

Also, anyone got any other sugestions on the monitor front?

Cheers

[Flewis]

In the toms hardware review of the Raptor X they get better results on the Raptor:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/2006/0...uk/page14.html

[DoomWolf]

I'm in the same situation of needing to replace an old Althon PC and have many of the same requirements and questions as bardel.

My current choices are:

Mobo - Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 (should be out this month)
CPU - Intel Core2 Duo E6600
Memory - Corsair Dominator Twin 2x2048-8500C5D (2GB)
Hard Drive - Probably just a single Wester Digital Cavier 400Gb or 500Gb (not bothered about RAID)
GPU - 8800GTX (Don't know which yet)
Sound - Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional 7.1
Case - Antec P180 Black
PSU - Corsair HX 620W
CPU Fan - Tuniq Tower
Keyboard/Mouse - Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 3200 Laser
Monitor - Dell 2407WFP 24" Widescreen
DVD-RW - NEC AD7170S SATA
OS - Vista Ultimate (34 bit)

I'm also not sure whether to save money on the RAM by going for 6400 stuff, but the idea of the Enhanced Performance Profiles (EPP) on the 680i chipset appeals.

Any comments gratefully received

[bardel]

In the toms hardware review of the Raptor X they get better results on the Raptor:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/2006/0...uk/page14.html

Well spotted, thought I'd seen it on THG, but obviously I remembered it incorrectly!

I guess as the review says, throughput on two Raid 0 is greater, but there are other factors to consider.

[bardel]

I'm in the same situation of needing to replace an old Althon PC and have many of the same requirements and questions as bardel.

My current choices are:

Mobo - Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 (should be out this month)
CPU - Intel Core2 Duo E6600
Memory - Corsair Dominator Twin 2x2048-8500C5D (2GB)
Hard Drive - Probably just a single Wester Digital Cavier 400Gb or 500Gb (not bothered about RAID)
GPU - 8800GTX (Don't know which yet)
Sound - Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional 7.1
Case - Antec P180 Black
PSU - Corsair HX 620W
CPU Fan - Tuniq Tower
Keyboard/Mouse - Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 3200 Laser
Monitor - Dell 2407WFP 24" Widescreen
DVD-RW - NEC AD7170S SATA
OS - Vista Ultimate (34 bit)

I'm also not sure whether to save money on the RAM by going for 6400 stuff, but the idea of the Enhanced Performance Profiles (EPP) on the 680i chipset appeals.

Any comments gratefully received

Hi DoomWolf, do you have any links to info on the Gigabyte mobo?
Will check out the Dell screen, but I've seen posts on here with complaints about poor backlight and bleeding??

I was kinda banking on the EPP with regards to memory / overclocking since I'm a noob to it, so would probably want some ram with that.

Does anyone have any further info on what enhancements the new processors are going to have, I'm getting close to ordering soon, but will be annoyed if the next gen is "that" much better or the price of my newly purchase CPU will drop through the floor.

PS: Is Ultimate (34 bit) a combination of 32 and 64?

[Splash]

Get 2 Raptors and RAID 1 them? That way you have both speed AND data redundancy.

[Splash]

I was kinda banking on the EPP with regards to memory / overclocking since I'm a noob to it, so would probably want some ram with that.

Not sure what you mean here...

As for the motherboard the Asus P5B Deluxe is very highly rated at the mo - they've been out a while and are damn stable. The 680i boards on the other hand have been plagued with issues.

EDIT also @Doomwolf - you do know how good the Creative drivers aren't in Vista, don't you?

EDIT 2 - Ok, off to do some reading on EPP on the 680i's. I'd still recommend a P5B Delxue though.

[bardel]

Get 2 Raptors and RAID 1 them? That way you have both speed AND data redundancy.

Well, I picked 2 x SATA over a single Raptor, because you can get twice the storage (2 x 160GB) for about half the price of a Raptor.

Im sure 2 x Raptors in Raid 0 would be awesome, not sure if Raid 1 (Mirror) is faster than Raid 0 (Striping), but I'm not worried about data redundancy, all my data is on my server on Raid 5 arrays.

But I'm still considering the Raptor....

[bardel]

Not sure what you mean here...

As for the motherboard the Asus P5B Deluxe is very highly rated at the mo - they've been out a while and are damn stable. The 680i boards on the other hand have been plagued with issues.

EDIT also @Doomwolf - you do know how good the Creative drivers aren't in Vista, don't you?

EDIT 2 - Ok, off to do some reading on EPP on the 680i's. I'd still recommend a P5B Delxue though.

Lemme know how you get on, would be useful if someone who knows what they're looking at could give me some clues. As I understand it, the EPP thingy allows the chipset to interogate the RAM as to it's speed / timing capability and assists in allowing overclocking without overcooking? Could be totally wrong here, if you find a useful link that'd be appreciated... Along with a mobo / memory recommendation

[bardel]

Also, regarding the Raptors, I've found two models on Scan.

WD1500ADFD Raptor Enterprise &#163;125.24 - In Stock
WD1500AHFD Raptor X &#163;132.98 - No Stock

Is the Raptor X the "faster" one and the Enterprise one the more "durable"?

[moogle]

Well spotted, thought I'd seen it on THG, but obviously I remembered it incorrectly!

I guess as the review says, throughput on two Raid 0 is greater, but there are other factors to consider.

depend's on which drives you raid 0, check the toms hardware hard drive list when you choose, the sp2504 samsung ones are pretty fast and cheap, two of those in a raid 0 would be pretty quick.

[doddsy]

Raptors are great but they're loud! I run 2 in a raid0 setup and it's ridiculously quick. 2 Nomal Sata drives in raid0 will be quicker than a single raptor though, raptors are only for people who can't accept fast and want supid fast, and for stupid fast you really need 2 or more raptors. Just my 2 pence.

As for your other choices, I personally think the 680i mobos are overkill unless you're set on going sli. And dominators are really overkill, like was said before a good set of PC6400 will do you fine.

As for case, I'd go with the P180, looks smart and is a good case.

Edit: The only difference between the raptor and raptor x is that the raptor x has a window on it.
Also I used to run 2 samsung spinpoints in Raid0 and they were pretty quick too, and a hell of a lot quieter.

[bardel]

Gigabyte Mobo details are here.