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nikita69
09-29-2003, 07:27 PM
I've decided to build a new high-end PC from scratch. Your input is welcome and please keep it within the guideline of the board and common sense (joking is welcome, sometimes yet not always :P: ) Some points first to keep in mind: TOTAL Price range - $2,000 - $7,000
For business and pleasure (Dual boot up)
Windows OS (for now, until I feel more comfortable w/Linux, then I'll Dual Boot)
Prefer not have built in hardware, such as sound, video and other cards
Capable of upgrading future hardware where possible and for as long as possible
Now for the do list by order of priority (Basic components first): CPU - DECIDED - Intel, Undecided on speed and dual proc.
Motherboard - Undecided, yet leaning toward ASUS
Motherboard Chipsets - DECIDED - Intel, yet Undecided on which version
Fans, Power supply & others - Undecided
RAM - Undecided
IDE Hard Drive - Considering: 2 Western Digital (250GB) WD2500BB (http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=41) for data/applications (to partition off course)
2 Western Digital (20GB) WD200BB (http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=6&Lang=1) for 2 OS boot
2 Buslink (40GB) DL-40-U2 (http://www.buslink.com/index.cgi?view_product=yes&product_sku=677891126128) for ER and other quick transfer outside LAN
RAID 0 - Undecided
CDROM/CDRW/DVD drives - DECIDED, 2 Sony’s Internal DVD±RW Drives DRU510A (http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=3riiPfok27KiEMVcsa-oNrUrEc0meDqyYXk=?CategoryName=cpu_Sony_PCAccessories_CD%2fDVDBurn_DVDBurners&ProductSKU=DRU510A&Dept=cpu)
Video Cards - Considering Digital cards, Turtle Beach TBS-3400-01XX
Display - Undecided
OS - DECIDED - Windows 2000
Case - Undecided

asmithz
09-29-2003, 08:13 PM
Hey got you PM

Check this out for your Mother Board

http://www.klboard.ath.cx/index.php?showtopic=66761

nikita69
09-29-2003, 08:25 PM
thx shadow, to maintain the High End of this PC, i'd have to get the 64bit too.

asmithz
09-29-2003, 08:35 PM
For the hard drive i'd go with 2 250gig hard drives. The more space the better.

ilw
09-29-2003, 08:47 PM
Maybe you should wait for the P4 Extreme Edition to come out (its a modded Xeon) theres benchmarks here (http://www20.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030923/athlon_64-53.html) its seems to kick ass. Tom's hardware when they did the benchmarking used the Asus P4C800-E (http://www.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/p4c800-e_d/overview.htm) (Full spec (http://www.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=P4C800-E%20Deluxe&langs=01)motherboard, and has some very nice features. The chip'll is predicted to set you back around $900 and the mobo $200.
Are you seriously considering buying 6 hard drives and 2 dvd writers? anyway what about a raid 0 setup on some of those hard drives.

nikita69
09-29-2003, 08:57 PM
@Shadow - those were the best internal i found, so far.
@ilw - the obvious option is yes to wait for P4 Extreme, i have test it, yet not as much and as thorough Tom's benchmarks. Any release dates? yes for the DVD+- and about the raid 0, i'm looking into that and added it to the to do list (thx. for the reminder).
one thought tho, motherboards in general have limited capabilities to the qty of internal HD u can put. any options to put more than 2/3?

TClite
09-29-2003, 08:58 PM
had a spec posted but you seem set on everything, i was suggesting amd based solution..

nikita69
09-29-2003, 09:04 PM
@TClite - thx for the input, i know AMD has advantages over Intel, yet overall i've tested and dealt with Intel and always got better results than AMD. As for the OS, Win 2000 is much more stable and toward what I need it to do. XP has several outstanding issues and won't be resolved until xp2 (if they fix them) and/or longhorn comes out.

ilw
09-29-2003, 09:10 PM
any options to put more than 2/3
I thought you might be buying a PCI IDE card. Maybe if you got a server motherboard it'd take more, but they generally aren't very high performance (for gamers)

I'm not sure what the Asus motherboard i posted before can take, it may be 6 devices,

nikita69
09-29-2003, 09:13 PM
@ilw - ur right, staying with PCI. thx.

jetje
09-29-2003, 09:40 PM
for that price put in a raid controller and an additional disk make it Raid 5...

So you make it a pretty safe system seeing you gonna use it for work as well!
also the raid controller gives you back the ide ports which you can use for other things now... (or more disks!).

nikita69
09-29-2003, 09:44 PM
@jetje - thx for the tip, that's what i'll do.

nikita69
09-29-2003, 10:01 PM
Every couple of days or so, I'll be posting an update to the DECIDED only parts. Once I'm done with the basic components, then I'll continue on the assembling processing, after that follows the testing of hardware and installing windows. 2 steps closer to finish and I'll be working the best possible tweaking for everything in that PC and last but not least install KL++ and share the almost 8K+ files i've been collecting.
each finished process will include some pix (as small as possible) and guide. Hopefully the next person around thinks of something similar, will have a guide to follow or consider.

clocker
09-29-2003, 10:06 PM
You haven't mentioned what you're going to house all these goodies in...

May I recommend LianLi (http://www.mikhailtech.com/articles/cases/pc6089a/)

nikita69
09-29-2003, 10:29 PM
@Cloker - thx for the reminder, a naked PC would be like a buffet line for hackerz :lol:
added to the to do list.

MUSLEMAN
09-29-2003, 10:36 PM
i know you are getting a much better one but just puting my 2cents in :lol:
don't mind me i'm tierd as hell (http://reviews.cnet.com/4521-6531_7-5021476-3.html) :lol:
and ofcourse sony baby (http://www.geocities.com/fshaitoon/pfm42b1.pdf)

ilw
09-29-2003, 10:43 PM
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/thermaltake_v1000a.jpg

The Thermaltake Xaser III V1000A Super Tower is an exciting new design packed with features in a very solid package. Fitted with no less than 7 80x80x25mm Silent Fans the Xaser III provides all the cooling you could ever want. It features innovative built-in multi-function display provides has 4 adjustable fan speed controls with temperature monitoring and an adjustable alarm function. A handy flap on the top of the case conceals 2 x USB2.0 and 2 x Firewire ports plus microphone and speaker connections. Note - not supplied with PSU.

- Windowed sidepanel
- 7 fans 80mm silent fans - 2 x front w/air filter, 2 x rear w/fan holder, 2 x side w/air filter, 1 x top w/fan holder
- 12 drive bays - External 4 x 5.25", 2 x 3.25" - Internal - 6 x 3.5"
- Record & adjust Temp. pre-set
- Temp. Alarm Function
- °C / °F display switch
- 4 channel adjustable fan speed knob
- Thermaltake elegant E-LED blue light in front panel
- All aluminum front panel
- Two way lock in front panel
- 2 x USB2.0, 2 x IEEE 1394 Firewire ports, 1 x Mic & 1 x Speaker socket
- Dimensions 20.9" X 8.1" X 20.5"

$120 roughly + $90 TruePower psu

nikita69
09-29-2003, 10:44 PM
@MM - why am i not suprised w/ur input :P and btw, ur 2cents cost thousands of dollars, why do that when i can pay $80 a month for one year? :lol: :lol: :lol:
@all - sony is sending me a plasma HDTV to test for 6 months and have the choice to either return it or keep it with the above terms (obviosly u know the answer) and wish I can create a hash to share with all of u. :D

nikita69
09-29-2003, 10:46 PM
@ilw - WOW that's to my taste, thx and looks like this one maybe the winner. :)

asmithz
09-30-2003, 07:25 AM
Originally posted by nikita69@29 September 2003 - 14:46
@ilw - WOW that's to my taste, thx and looks like this one maybe the winner. :)
Yeah it does look good.

FuNkY CaPrIcOrN
09-30-2003, 08:28 AM
Originally posted by nikita69@29 September 2003 - 14:27
TOTAL Price range - $2,000 - $7,000

:P Go put that Money down on a Harley Davidson.Hell you could get a bottom of the Line Harley for $7000.And it will last longer then that PC will. :P

lynx
09-30-2003, 11:58 AM
Originally posted by FuNkY CaPrIcOrN+30 September 2003 - 08:28--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (FuNkY CaPrIcOrN @ 30 September 2003 - 08:28)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-nikita69@29 September 2003 - 14:27
TOTAL Price range - &#036;2,000 - &#036;7,000

:P Go put that Money down on a Harley Davidson.Hell you could get a bottom of the Line Harley for &#036;7000.And it will last longer then that PC will. :P [/b][/quote]
What sort of cooling would you use on that? I know the second &#39;processor&#39; used to get a bit hot, is that still the case? :blink: :lol:

ilw
09-30-2003, 01:58 PM
Surprised no ones mentioned it, but the mach 38 that someone posted in the "if you had all the money in theworld", the top end version goes for &#036;7,800, i don&#39;t think you get a monitor though :( and you&#39;d have to wait till November, but other than that it looks errrm above average i&#39;d say.
http://www.go-l.com/store/hardware/machl38.htm

Somebody1234
09-30-2003, 02:09 PM
I have a question. Why 2 DVD burners?

Livy
09-30-2003, 02:12 PM
money to burn, why else?

nikita69
10-09-2003, 07:22 PM
This project is on hold until the new board/cpu is released in a month or two.
@Somebody1234 - twice the fun :D

NOTE TO MYSELF:




For the amount of cash you&#39;re willing to spend, you should look into scsi drives. 7200&#39;s are over rated in most cases. I&#39;ve found little difference in performance between 5400 and 7200 aside from the cache. The 7200&#39;s just take too long to spin up when you&#39;re using them on and off. They only really have an advantage when or if you do a lot of video encoding or things like that. Long intensive operations.

With the scsi drives you&#39;d then want to check out the scsi motherboards.

For the OS, you might like win2k advanced server a lot better than win2k pro desktop. If you can&#39;t locate a copy easily, I can hook you up with an adminitrators copy. No keys required, CAL&#39;s included.
With win2k advanced server, you can use true asynchronous multi processing - dual processors - for a major performance gain.
Don&#39;t cheap out on the power supply either. Lot of people will say this or that is good enough. Basically, it&#39;s never too much but it&#39;s easy to use up an under rated supply. I&#39;ve seen some&nbsp; 520 watt dual fan supplies priced pretty reasonably. If you&#39;re going to go dual Processor, consider dual power supply as well. 2 x 450 maybe.
ur knowldge about several topics always entices me to learn more.
I do agree with u on the scsi HD, however i&#39;ll be doing some encoding and for scsi motherboard, frankly i haven&#39;t touched that tech in a while and was considering to take ur advice and get the scsi MB with 1 scsi HD for encoding. so the clostest i got in research is SuperMicros (http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/SUPERServer/SuperServer7043L-8R.htm), didn&#39;t find out for ASUS. Now, are u suggesting that scsi is better? also keep in mind that i need to have the option of next gen cpu.

Also, ilw suggested the extreme version http://www.go-l.com/store/hardware/machl38.htm .

ur right about the power supply & OS, i wont be cheap about it and will get the 2x450 or higher if avail.
I like that extreme version&#33; especially the option to add 72 additional PCI slots. That&#39;s something I&#39;ve always been short of. I&#39;ve got 5 slots now and my ethernet adaptors take up 3 of them. Not much room for tv cards, modems, ATA/IDE controllers, etc.
Scsi drives are definitely better but even if you can&#39;t go full scsi system, make sure it has the ability to use the controllers. I think you might be able to rig something up with a pci interface/controller. I have one old 8gig 5400 rpm scsi drive that outperforms all of my newer drives everytime. I&#39;ve run basic systems on that one at times as well as served files fom it and it&#39;s noticeably faster.
I really haven&#39;t played with all the latest ram but I should soon, I get problems with a lot of stuff because I have standard ram and ECC is the recommended choice for a server. Might be something to look into.

The scsi link you gave is a bit extreme in some areas but weak in others. You don&#39;t need a triple redundant power supply, it&#39;s so unlikely the first and second would ever fail together. A piggyback system with separate drive power is a better choice. Or just a larger supply in the first place.
Looks like you&#39;ll have to do a fine balancing act between server/office/desktop. It&#39;s not easy ;)

Jay
10-10-2003, 02:53 AM
Originally posted by Somebody1234@30 September 2003 - 15:09
I have a question. Why 2 DVD burners?
that is good question