My new build

[buzz]

Ok guys the reason i visited this website is im planning on buying a pc TODAY and im searching for some last minute info..

I am not planning on doing major overclocking or anything like that (although i might do some "safe and stable" overclocking in the future.. my goal is to build a superfast system to run games mostly.

Here is what i plan on buying and the questions i have to ask...



Motherboard: Asus rampage formula 775 x48 ddr2

Question: You also have the Asus rampage ddr3 board extreme.. does it pay off to get the ddr 3 version of the board or not? What are the advantages you get for the extra pricetag?

Processor: Intel Quad Core Q9550 s775,2.83GHz,1333MHz,12MB,BOX,


Ram: Corsair 4096MB,XMS2-8500,DDR2,1066MHz, Dominator (2 x 2GB) x2 (8gb total)


Videocard: Asus EAH4870 X2 HTDI 2G ADDR5 HDTV 2xDVI HDMI PCIe

Question: I might get a second one over time.. does it even fit on this board?


Hard disk: Samsung 1TB SATA II 7200rpm 32MB x5

Question: I want to put 5 of these in a raid 5 format. Do i need any external cards to get this going or does the motherboard support such a setup?

Also what would be faster.. this raid 5 setup or 1 or maybe 2 WD velociraptor disks (maybe in a raid 0 format)?


Casing: Im in doubt between Antec 1200 and the cooler master cosmos type S


powersupply: Corsair PSU HX ATX 1000W 24P 12cm Fan V2.91 Modulair


OS: Vista premium 64 bit

Any tips or sugestions would be welcome... but make it fast coz im leaving in about 2 hours to buy it :D

Greetz,

Buzz

[Eagle Eye]

Welcome to the forums buzz

Quickly how much thought have you given this and whats your experience with building new computers?

[buzz]

well i been thinking about this build for a week now.
i have build quite a few pc's but never really went into the whole performance area...

This time im looking to make a very fast pc

[Eagle Eye]

My suggestions:

Motherboard: Rampage formula for "safe and stable" is a little overkill generally the ROG boards are built for extreme overclocking my suggestion for the motherboard would be Asus P5Q Deluxe 775 P45 DDR2 | FORCOM webshop

CPU: Quads are cool but most games and apps don't utilize all 4 cores completely my suggestion Intel Core2 Duo E8600 3.33GHz 6MB Boxed | FORCOM webshop or Intel Core2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz 6MB Boxed | FORCOM webshop these cpus will easily clock 4ghz safely

CPU Cooling: Ultimate CPU Cooling Solutions! USA and a good fan say Noctua.at - sound-optimised premium components "Designed in Austria"! or OCZ Technology | Products | Cooling Products | OCZ Vendetta 2 CPU Cooler

Memory: 8GB personally is overkill Ascent XP2-8500 DDR2 - Mushkin Enhanced Can't go wrong not sure of availability since you don't seem to be from Canada

VideoCard: Thats about right Asus has a better warranty than most.

Harddrives: This is pretty interesting Raid 5 would be pretty quick its also has redundancy although its very expensive, however personally I would go with a 1 large drive for my OS say 1TB and 2 velociraptors in raid for games.

Powersupply: Excellent choice can't go wrong with Corsair, as far as quadfire is concerned you'll need 1200w or greater to be on the safe side.

Case: Cosmos would be my choice over the Antec 1200 although you should check out Lian Li and SilverStone and always leave a little extra $$ for case fans.

Monitor: Didn't see one if you're driving this computer with a 4870x2 hopefully you have a 24"-30" display already you shouldn't be gaming at anything less than 1920x1200.

OS: Thats fine hopefully its nice to you during the installation and doesn't cause to many headaches.

These are just suggestion and the intent is too offer some savings personally this is probably the setup I would be running if I were to upgrade from previous setup and again welcome to forums hope you stick around.



P.S. From Belgium I take it

[miggs78]

^^ Proper suggestions, I second it. Unless you do some heavy application usage, and photo editing, media encoding stuff like that, a Quad is a waste of money..

[Prof. Dr. Silver]

Originally Posted by Eagle Eye

P.S. From Belgium I take it

Haha! Een echte Belg op een Canadees Forum. Welkom Manneke! Zijn er geen goedkopere winkels in Belgie?

Sorry guys...just had too. I just welcomed him and asked him if there weren't any cheaper shops in Belgium since those prices are rather high! (God, don't miss those prices at all!)

[Xilikon]

The only advantage of going with the DDR3 Rampage Extreme is futureproofing your purchase for Core i7 but the kicker is that if you plan to go with i7 later, you need 3 DDR3 sticks while the Rampage Extreme take 2. In the end, it become wiser to stay with the DDR2 (it's so cheap and still serve you very well in terms of performance). The ROG series is really overkill excepted for the real power overclockers so I second Eagle Eye's recommendation for a P5Q Deluxe which is still well loaded with features, missing just some key features from the ROG like temperature sensors plugs, better Crossfire support and more ROG perks.

For the rest, it's a fine choice of components ;)

[buzz]

Thanks for the info guys! Indeed im from Belgium and i ended up buying the components in a shop in Breda (holland). Anyway this is what i got :

Intel Quad core Q9550 S775 2.83 ghz
A huge cooler wich i think i can use in my car if the radiator ever dies :D
Ocz 4 x 2GB 1066 DDR2 ram
Saphire 4870x2 PCIe videocard
5 x Samsung 1tb harddisk
cooler master cosmos type S case
Corsair PSU HX ATX 1000w powersupply
Vista premium 64 bit

Me and my brother put all the components together yesterday evening.. all went well except for the raid setup. THe driver needed was not on the cd that came with the motherboard and on the internet all drivers we found where zip files that wanted to extract it to a floppy drive.. So i had to search my whole house for a floppy drive :s I luckely still had one lying arround in a box from an old motherboard. I honestly dont understand why big company's like asus stick to floppy drives :( Eventually we got on with it, but found out that you can only utilize 2TB max for a boot partition. So we ended up making 1 hd boot drive and putting 4 hd's in raid 5. We'll probably swap the 1tb samsung boot drive for a WD velociraptor 150gb.

So now that i have the system i wanted its on to a bit of overclocking :D

Greetz,

Buzz

[Xilikon]

And what would be the motherboard ?

[buzz]

totally forgot about it.. i got the asus rampage formula :-)