9 replies to this topic

[Pav:3d]

FINALLY.

I need your guy's wisdom to help me out a little.

Here is what im planning to get (from computerplanet.co.uk)

Quote

CPU:
Intel Core i7 950 (4 x 3.06GHz) 8 MB

CPU Heatsink:
Corsair Hydro Series H50 V2 (Advanced Liquid Cooling)

Memory:
Corsair 12GB (6x2GB) XMS3 1333MHz - Lifetime Warranty (DDR3)

Graphics Card:
ATI Radeon HD 6950 - 2 GB - DVI/DP/HDMI (XFX)

Motherboard:
Asus P6X58D-E/USB3 (Intel X58)

Sound Card:
Creative Audigy SE 7.1 (PCI)

Networking:
Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)

Power Supply:
Cooler Master 1000W Pro Modular - Silent

Hard Drive:
1.5 TB (1500 GB) SATA-II HDD UDMA 300 5400 32MB

Operating System:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 BIT

Is that a decent enough set-up? Is there any horrible mistake Ive overlooked?
Cheeerss

[Alias]

Main issue that I can see is your HDD, 5400rpm is disgusting and in this day and age you're probably better off running two 1tb discs (7200rpm, please) instead so that if you do experience a HDD failure you don't lose all of your data, and so you can use RAID.

Hard drive #1:
1 TB (1000 GB) SATA-II HDD UDMA 300 7200 32MB

Hard drive #2:
1 TB (1000 GB) SATA-II HDD UDMA 300 7200 32MB

And set it to RAID 0, if you're really concerned about data you could set it to RAID 1.

[ΓΛPTΘΓ]

Creative Audigy SE is horribly outdated and most likely matched by your onboard sound card already. HD6950 is awesome choice, a simple BIOS flash will get you a 6970 for the same price. Seeing its most likely a high budget rig, I suggest you get a better sound card and/or a better PSU. Corsair AX850, or Antec CP-850 if you are on a Antec case accepting this power supply. 1000W is mostly overkill for a single CPU, single GPU system with one HDD.

Dropping the Audigy SE is a good idea, or you could go for a better one.

[Pav:3d]

Thanks for your advice guys. I knew Id made some stupid mistakes

Updated with your recommendations:

Quote

CPU:
Intel Core i7 950 (4 x 3.06GHz) 8 MB

CPU Heatsink:
Corsair Hydro Series H50 V2 (Advanced Liquid Cooling)

Memory:
Corsair 12GB (6x2GB) XMS3 1333MHz - Lifetime Warranty (DDR3)

Graphics Card:
ATI Radeon HD 6950 - 2 GB - DVI/DP/HDMI (XFX)

Motherboard:
Asus P6X58D-E/USB3 (Intel X58)

Sound Card:
Motherboard Integrated 7.1 Sound

Networking:
Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)

Power Supply:
Corsair 850W (CMPSU-850TXUK)

Hard Drive's:
1 TB (1000 GB) SATA-II HDD UDMA 300 7200 32MB
1 TB (1000 GB) SATA-II HDD UDMA 300 7200 32MB

Operating System:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 BIT

This should be the final setup hopefully?

[Alias]

One more thing, in the config, under Hard drive #2, there should be a little bar that says RAID, click on it and then select either:

RAID 0: increases performance, you get 2tb of storage space (2x1tb)
RAID 1: increases performance more than RA and provides a 1:1 backup, you only get 1tb of storage because it is stored on both discs identically so you are protected against HDD failure (to an extent, of course)

This'll just save you having to do the fiddling later, but I'd recommend you do it. It's probably best just to go with RAID 0 as any important data you'd want to backup externally anyway. It's an extra six quid, but I don't think you should be too worried about that. RAID 0 does increase performance compared to just having two discs so I would suggest it.

Edited by Alias, 05 January 2011 - 12:36.

[Pav:3d]

Nice, cheers Alias, I shall invest in it

[ΓΛPTΘΓ]

That is a TX850 on the list if I am correct, a good PSU but a bit outdated. If you can't find a better one, sticking with it is fine too.

[BeefJeRKy]

Imo, save money on the liquid cooling and get an SSD for lightning fast booting. At least that's what I'm planning soon.

[Pav:3d]

Whats bought is bought

I was going to get an SSD, but having to shell out quite a bit for just 60 gigs would be stretching my already very stretched budget

[BeefJeRKy]

I would have gotten the newly announced Vertex 3 SSDs but I don't have SATA-III so that should hopefully bring the price of the 90GB Vertex II SSD to about $130

Edited by Scope, 07 January 2011 - 00:28.