new system

[Danolo]

Wel, I did a bit more reading... and I paid a bit better attention...

SATA 2 runs at 3 Gb/sec
SATA 3 runs at 6 Gb/sec

Of the choices in the link in the previous post, only ONE of thenis actually SATA 3. I mis-read some of them which read as "SATA 3GB/s" which is really only SATA 2. I'd be crazy to buy a SATA 2 drive when my motherboard is nicely equipped for SATA 3.

So if I'm gonna stay with WD, it seems that this drive is the one to get.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

If you have any better suggestion, I'd be happy to hear them.

 

[Danolo]

Well, here it is... poorly formated from my spreadsheet...

Intel I7 System
CASE - Cooler Master Elite 430 Black Mid Tower Case (RC-430-KWN1) 54.99
PS - CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 129.99
MOBO - ASUS P7P55D-E LX LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard 139.99
CPU - Intel Core i7 870 Quad-Core Socket LGA1156, 2.93Ghz, 8MB L3 Cache 289.99
RAM - CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 98.99
VIDEO - GIGABYTE GV-R577SO-1GD Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit PCI Express 2.1 x16 CFX 178.99
HD - WD Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Bare 99.99
SSD - Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2MH080G2R5 2.5" 80GB 199.99
OPT - LITE-ON Black 24X N82E16827106334 24.99
MISC - Kingston FCR-HS219/1 19-in-1 USB 2.0 Card Reader 13.99
OS - Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-Pack 139.99

Sub total 1,371.89
HST 178.35
Total 1,550.24

Updated with new power supply

 

[Danolo]

So, now I have a chance to sit back and think about it all...

Do I wanna switch to a cheaper system??? NO!
Do I wanna switch to a slower system? NO!

I'm gonna bite the bullet and buy it.

That is going to seriously affect the cash I have available for hobbying for a while.... so I have to weigh it up...
$1600.00 = 6 - 8 sessions with beautiful women VS a new computer....

Hmmmm...




Sorry Ladies...

 

[WoodPeckr]

Do I wanna switch to a cheaper system??? NO!
Do I wanna switch to a slower system? NO!

LOL!

My sentiments exactly when I got my i7 last Nov and to this day have no regrets in getting it! I love the i7 performance. You will to. It screams....

 

[AnimalMagnetism]

very nice system Danolo. the only other suggestion i might offer is to dump the stock cooler than comes with the i7 and get something that will really keep it cool and allow you to overclock should you want to.

something like the Cooler Master Hyper TX3
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=8_129&item_id=024384

Only adds $22

 

[Danolo]

Thanks AM... I agree.... I've added it to my list...

 

[trod]

Also make sure you watch the temperatures of the video card, cpu and motherboard.

The Northbridge will run hotter than usual ( around 60 - 70 degrees Celsius ) when playing high end games. Thats normal. An Antec spot cool fan would be a good way to cool it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209017

Enjoy your beast

 

[Danolo]

Sounds good... but you guys are starting to worry me... 60 C is quite hot! Will the fans in the case not handle that?

I won't likely be doing much high end gaming (but you never know.. I've not been ABLE to, until now) and the most intensive program I run is one that converts video files to DVD. I am going to doing a lot of that this winter...


That spot fan is only $15.00 so I don't minbd spending that money, but do you think I'll need it? ... Hmmmm how will I know? How can I guage the temperature? Is there a thermometer built in or is there one I can buy to montior the heat?

Hmmm lemme go check Google

Well that was easy...

Here's a useful link...

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/6_tools_monitor_heat_your_system

I think I'll go the software route for now and try that and see what happens.

Thanks for the heads-up about heat, guys.

 

[Danolo]

In looking at the specs for the case I've chosen here's what the manufacturer says about cooling:

"The Cooler Master Elite 430 case features one 120mm front blue LED fan, one 120 mm rear fan, front mesh holes and side ventilation holes for exceptional cooling performance. "

And the Video card has a fan on it and so does the power supply.

Whatcha think... gonna be enough circulation to cool it down?

I think I'm gonna watch it carefully...

 

[bassnut]

60 Deg is not really hot for an intel processor or board. I never paid much atention to the specs guys tossed around for the i7's but believe they are much higher in the 70's+ when over clocked....... could be wrong there.

Don't forget about adding a couple 120mm fans to the case to help get rid of the heat ...... I believe there is room for 3 or 4 extra fans ..... 2 on top (my suggestion)and the rest kinda slips my mind right now for the case.

1 Suggestion ..... if you are going to be doing allot of downloading get yourself a seperate drive, I'll call it a working drive. Dosn't have to be big but the constant running of the drive while keeping a respectable share ration is hard on the drive ........ it really sucks when your drive crashes after a year and you have to reload your opperating system. Been there now I have a 250GB drive just for my torrents and once I have achieved my share ration on a file I just move the file off the drive. If that drive crashes then worst case is you loose a few movies and have to get them again. If you don't down load much this isn't anything you need to worry about.

 

[wollensak]

Misinformation

Sorry, don't mean to point my finger at anyone but I haven't been an AMD fan since the AMD processor caught fire on a friend's desktop a few years ago, caused a fair bit of fire damage to his room as well. Since then I`ve heard that AMD`s have been known (on occaision) to get super hot. Maybe old info, haven`t heard anything about it in a few years. But I wouldn`t take a chance.

Processors don't catch fire, power supplies do. If you think you can buy a safe power supply (new) for $20, you are inviting a fire.

The hottest-running processors for many years were Intel Socket 478 and 775 Prescott cores using Netburst architecture. These regularly run 20 degrees hotter than AMD.

Intel's new core architecture is the first time that they have outperformed AMD in 15 years.

The CPU is only one aspect of a system's performance. If you are an EXTREME gamer, then maybe you need the I7. Otherwise, you are just buying bragging rights

 

[AnimalMagnetism]

Danolo, you have enough cooling as is. you don't need more case fans etc for your needs. use a software monitoring solution for heat etc. Asus usually have one on the cd that comes with the motherboard, it monitors heat and fan rotation speed. remember that the more fans you have the louder your case will be.

 

[AnimalMagnetism]

Processors don't catch fire, power supplies do. If you think you can buy a safe power supply (new) for $20, you are inviting a fire.

The hottest-running processors for many years were Intel Socket 478 and 775 Prescott cores using Netburst architecture. These regularly run 20 degrees hotter than AMD.

Intel's new core architecture is the first time that they have outperformed AMD in 15 years.

The CPU is only one aspect of a system's performance. If you are an EXTREME gamer, then maybe you need the I7. Otherwise, you are just buying bragging rights

AMD have always made a very good CPU, i have used many over the years. but as you say the current lineup is not as good as intel. the i5 and i7 are excellent

i found an interesting video made a few years ago showing what happens to intel and amd chips without cooling.

 

[Danolo]

Well, its never over, until its over...

I've been reading some of the reviews on my selected motherboard and here's a problem:

According to some reviews there are limitations on the use of Sata3, and usb3.

Here's a C&P of the review:
===
The big limiting factor is, if you decide you want to use USB 3.0 or Sata 6.0 you have to do the IO Power Up which limits the bandwidth on the PCIe x16 slot to x8.

In addition, from the sounds of it, you can only use one of the special features. USB 3.0 or Sata 6, can't use both at the same time. Otherwise they will operate at Sata 3.0 or USB 2.0.
======

If this is correct, can you folks suggest a MB that does not have this limitation?

I've also posted this on Toms and TSF..

I didn't really want to revisit my choices, but I guess I have to...

 

[bassnut]

when you're deling with new technology, I didn't even know about Sata 6 as I ahve not been really keeping up with the new tech lately there is alwasy a buffer zone where there is limitations to your equipment. for example PCI-E 16 on my old board (GIGABYTE MA790GP-UD4H) if I run a single PCI-E 16 Video Card it will give the full bandwidth to the card. Now if I was to crossfire 2 of the same cards the board automatically drops the bandwidth to 8X for both. My MSI 780FX-GD70 I believe, i will have to check but I believe will allow me to run both cards at 16X but iff I add more will cut them down to 8X or even 4X.

I am not familiar with the i7 chipsets but the p55 chipset is a lower end chipset that was introduced to compete price wise with the AMD PII line...... if someone knows more about it I am sure they will speak up ....... I am sure if you kicked your system up to a 1366 MB and processor you might get away from these limitations but that is a guess and if you think you are over budget now ...... add about another 200 - 300 if not more. A i7 930 .... $310 and i7 950 ...... $340, Motherboards are a bit more as well as Tripple Channel ram.


It's easy to get caught up with all the new stuff but how much computer do you need. I got caught up in it all last year and after being sliughtly diaspointed in my first system I built (AMD PII 940) I built a second AMD PII 965 Sytem which I love, but I spent about 4000 last year on parts alone. Thankfully I could claim half that on income tax and gave the rest of the reciepts to a friend for her income tax. If you mind is et that you want the newest stuff look to the top end board from Asus or GIGABYTE and check some reviews. A good source for infor ..... mostly over clocking but they do allot of talk about the hardware , pros and cons on motherboards, ram and processors is ..... http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=591256

Asus MAXIMUS III EXTREME Intel Motherboard *W3
ASUS Maximus III Formula LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard ASUS Maximus III GENE LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD7 SKT 1156 INTEL P55 DDR3 ATX

 

[Danolo]

Thanks bassnut...

Well, I think what you say is correct...

I got an interesting response from the hardware Mod at Tech Support Forum:

========

Hello

you are spinning your wheels for nothing

first off; the techinal observation you have pasted above is true; HOWEVER its only try "if" sata 6.0 speeds and USB 3,0 speeds are both achieved at the same time

right now sata 6.0 is nothing more than marketing hype there is no hard drive ever going to even come close to hitting 6.0 theoritical speed!

stick with standard sata 3.0 drives and "hope" USB 3.0 really does mature and amount to something besides a dream


exceeding USB 2.0 speed is something we can achieve right now today, but kind of just barely beyond to hit this bottleneck we will need to use much faster USB devices and SSD drives
========

And he also writes:


=======

how many people will be involved in a red hot gaming excercise at the same time they are transfering data with BOTH high speed SSD drive and USB 3.0 device ?

the "bottleneck" so to speak does not happen the second you connect a usb 3.0 device and high speed data drive

no need for concern whatsoever the board you have choosen is a very good performer
=========

He also points to an interesting link:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/usb-3.0-sata-6gb,2583-2.html

=======

I've used the Tech Support Forum for years and without fail they have helped me and given me clear, fast advice....

So, I think I',m gonna stay with the motherboard I have chosen...

The only concern I have is the infamous poor tech support from ASUS. And for that, I will rely on the guy who'd gonna build this beast for me.

Thanks for your input bassnut... I'll keep you all informed here as thing progress.

 

[Danolo]

The CPU is only one aspect of a system's performance. If you are an EXTREME gamer, then maybe you need the I7. Otherwise, you are just buying bragging rights

Ok, I'll be bragging..

 

[basketcase]

Ok, I'll be bragging..

I would have justified the cost by saying I'll be using the system for years (even though I know I won't).

 

[Cassini]

Intel I7 System
PS - CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 129.99
VIDEO - GIGABYTE GV-R577SO-1GD Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit PCI Express 2.1 x16 CFX 178.99

I'm not clear what your intended application is. My suspicion is gaming.

For a system with an 850W power supply, you are going really light in video card performance. If you are a gamer, you need to go with the 5850 or 5870 cards, or wait until the end of October and purchase an AMD 6000 series card.

 

[AnimalMagnetism]

I'm not clear what your intended application is. My suspicion is gaming.

For a system with an 850W power supply, you are going really light in video card performance. If you are a gamer, you need to go with the 5850 or 5870 cards, or wait until the end of October and purchase an AMD 6000 series card.

the larger power supply future proofs the system for additional upgrades.