Looking at a new machine - comments?

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 3/3/2006, 12:42 AM

Hey guys - last year was the year of the laptop for me, this one is hopefully the year of the desktop =).

I was pricing out stuff and think this might be where I land or there abouts (the prices are not necessarily going to be used so disregard as I may order from alternate places). Any problems or concerns you have I would GREATLY appreciate, as it has been some years since I've done anything with building a PC, and am out of the loop on some of the equipment. Sans displays, I'm looking in the 1500-1600 range or so and this is what I've come up with:

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Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3300622AS 300GB Serial ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer ***Free 2nd Day*** 1 $131.00

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3120827AS 120GB Serial ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive Refurbished w/8MB Buffer ***Free 2nd Day*** 1 $85.49

Antec Performance One P180 Advanced Super Mid Tower Case Retail 1 $119.00

LG GSA-4167BK 16X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive (Black) ***Free 2nd Day*** 1 $44.99

Tyan Tiger K8WE (S2877) Nvidia CrushK8-04 Professional Dual AMD Opteron DDR E-ATX Server Board w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA II Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** 1 $269.00

ATI Radeon X700 Pro PCI Express 256MB DDR3 Video Card w/HDTV-Out & DVI Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** 1 $149.00

AMD Opteron 165 Dual-Core 1.8GHz Processor Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** 2 $328.50

Corsair CM72SD512RLP-3200 512MB DDR400 PC3200 ECC Registered Double Data Rate Memory Retail *** Free 2nd Day *** 1 $67.00

Subtotal $1522.48
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Now I'm pretty certain that I can get myself some of this stuff cheaper than what's up here - but this just gives you an idea.

I haven't got a clue if I have any random incompatibilites, but I've gone over it with my admitedly decent, but limted knowledge of computer hardware, and don't see any glaring mistakes.

Any and all help is appreciated, shoot I'll even let you use it if you want to come over and play around ;-)

Dave

Comments

farss wrote on 3/3/2006, 4:06 AM

Seriously, take a look at the Supermicro mobos, don't know what they cost but no doubt cheaper in the USA than down here.

Also for video cards look at the NVIDIA Quadro FX 1300, no bells and whistles, probably lousy for games, built for better quality video output etc.

Bob.

TomE wrote on 3/3/2006, 4:15 AM

There seems to be an advantage to using Nvidia based video cards lately

After Effects,
Serious Magic Ultra,

Magic Bullet

All specify best results with Nvidia. (7800 is best (for the mainstream cards)

I have had some bad experiences with my Radeon based cards. Ready to move on.

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 3/3/2006, 7:29 AM

I was having a hard time finding a Dual Dual Core mobo's at all, do the Supermicros run in that category?

Any suggestions?

Dave

Coursedesign wrote on 3/3/2006, 8:18 AM

NVIDIA Quadro FX 1300, no bells and whistles, probably lousy for games, built for better quality video output

A professional VFX magazine I read recently had a review of the best gamer cards vs. the best workstation cards, testing only with the top pro applications.

The gamer cards were just as as good in all categories except one where their performance was slightly behind.

The magazine even said [the hardware on] many of these cards are the same, but on the gamer boards they tried to cripple some functionality with different drivers.

Even the crippling has been very diluted though because of competition.

Even Newtek's tech support engineers for Lightwave 8.5 recommended gamer boards rather than workstation boards.

Frenchy wrote on 3/3/2006, 10:39 AM

Dave-

I can't give any specific advice on your preliminary selections, but I just went through the same process a month or two ago. Here's the thread:

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=433175

I ended up spending about $1700, including a 19" Dell LCD and WinXPPro OS. Everything else from Newegg. I modeled it JohnnyRoy's system (http://www.johnrofrano.com/pcequipment.htm), but detuned it slightly, since I'm not a big gamer, and had a lower budget. I also used some existing components from my old PC (Sony DVD-RW), and a couple of HDD's I had purchased (but still in box) when I saw them on sale.

As far as compatibility issues, my selection process was as follows:

1) First decide on processor (I went with dual core AMD X2 4200+).
2) From AMD site, found compatible MOBO & memory recommendations.
3) Check Mobo sites (I read a lot of good things, and went with Asus board that had lots of HDD space (SATA & PATA)) and memory sites (I went with Corsair XMS mem) to verify any potential issues.
4) Highly agree & recommend to go with a PCI-Express Video card - It's definately the trend
5) Make certain that your case has an ample Power Supply and cooling. Antec appears to have good reputation. I went with Sonata II case - 450 watts.
6) I got it all from newegg, but before pressing the "Order" button, checked user reviews for any issues that seemed consistent regarding the components.

As usual advice, don't go for the latest and greatest, rather best bang for buck seems to be in upper-mid range components, and will allow good future upgradability.

There were a couple of other recent threads here last fall that had some good info as well.

Have fun and good luck

Frenchy

Coursedesign wrote on 3/3/2006, 11:13 AM

Read this Xbitlabs review conclusion for a better understanding of the pros and cons of this Opteron version.

They're suggesting that it can be overclocked by about 50% (which requires some skill and care), and that if you don't overclock you may find Athlon X2 3800+ CPUs whistling past you.

Yoyodyne wrote on 3/3/2006, 11:43 AM

hmmmm, your spending a lot of money for two slower procs - I'm wondering if performance would be better with just one x2 4800 as opposed to two of the slower guys - or just go for broke and stuff two of the fast dudes in there :) - I also second the Supermicro option.

Coursedesign wrote on 3/3/2006, 12:03 PM

I called Supermicro a few months ago to ask about AMD mobos, they were acting like these were pornographic materials. They said they had AMD mobos, for OEM use. Posted on a secret web page.

I got the feeling that they are getting marketing funding from Intel that is contingent on them not advertising AMD, but this is just a guess (OTOH, Intel got nailed really good for this behavior in Japan recently).

I hope now that even Google has officially announced they are switching to AMD Opterons for their servers, in spite of having Intel's CEO on their board, other companies will be less afraid to come out of the closet.

Estimates of when Intel might catch up with AMD range from a very optimistic 2007, to a more realistic 2009, to an overly pessimistic "never."

Added:

Who would have thought that Intel would have to release an "AMD-compatible" chip?

(Intel had to add AMD's 64-bit instruction set to their CPUs after Microsoft and other major vendors told them that they would not support Intels alternative 64-bit instructions.)

Jim H wrote on 3/3/2006, 12:13 PM

I have the P180 and my system is as quiet as a mouse, good choice just make sure you go with the Antec PSU due to the location of the PSU at the bottom you'll need the extra length you'll get in cable. I chose the Truepower2 500... heard stories about the NEO line. Both come with the 120 fans vs the smaller louder fans.

Consider the AMD X2 4800 or 4400. 4600 is not worth the extra cash over the 4400 and you lose L2 cache.

You can check out my profile for more details on my system.

Moebius~ wrote on 3/8/2006, 7:36 PM

I believe that Tyan motherboard is for Socket 940 processors and the Opteron 165 is a Socet 939 processor. So, dual dual core processors? Wow! I'd definitely go for 1024MB memory modules, though. Why a refurbished drive? I have a P180 case that I bought on sale that I haven't put anything in yet. It's big and heavy and I need to glue the side panel where it has separated from the plastic. I actually like this black version better: http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/p180.html
...but I didn't see it until afterwards. It's a bit more expensive, though. I have my eyes on a 600w Seasonic Power supply for it. I wonder how Frenchy likes his Sonata II...