PC Upgrade

[DAKSTER]

My new PC.. Obviously I have a budget to keep to, but if anyone has any suggestions to improve this thing (keeping in mind my uses for it) without breaking the budget I'd like to hear..

I've decided to face reality and design a system that more suits my needs. I'm not a big gamer, so graphics aren't high on my priorities. I do a lot of video editing though, so heavy number crunching and good disc transfer rates are the priority for me. Apart from that, its basically just a HTPC.

Since I have a friend that wants a gamer, I've done a deal with her and I am selling her a gaming computer, made partly of bits of my old machine and partly new parts. She can have the graphics cards, I just don't need them. I like to have enough grunt to actually play games, but I am not after massive frame rates or mega high resolution.

Heres the old system...
Highlighted in RED are the bits being removed. Beneath them, highlighted in BLUE, are the replacement bits I'm considering.


P6T Asus (X58 LGA1366)
Asrock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 (LGA 1155) ($145)

i7 930 quad core (LGA1366)
Intel Core i7 2600K Quad Core (LGA 1155) ($370)

12G Kingston Hyper-X DDR3-1600
16G Corsair Vengeance low profile DDR3-1600 ($150)

2x 9800GT Silent Pipe (fanless), SLi linked
Onboard Intel graphics, GPU in CPU .. I dont need great graphics, and its my understanding that this will at least play DX11 games, although not at full settings. There are DVI, VGA and HDMI connectors, so I can still use all 3 of my screens...

Leadtek DTV-1000 digital TV card
Leadtek WinFast DTV2000DS (I just want an extra digital tuner, this one has 2) ($60)

2x 160G Raptor 10,000rpm Windows Drive (striped in RAID)
2x A-RAM 60GB 2.5" SSD SATA-III ( Read 550MB/s, Write 510MB/s ) striped in RAID (2@120 = $240)

2x 1TB Samsung 7200rpm Data Drive (striped in RAID)
I've decided I just dont need these. Not replacing them, I will make a 500G partition on the PVR drive instead.

Nitano case, 30cm side fan, 12cm front fan
650W modular power supply
2TB Samsung 7200rpm PVR Drive
2TB Samsung 7200rpm Video Drive
Compro T750F analogue/digital hybrid TV card (video editing and conversion)
1x Lite-on DVD burner
1x Lite-on BluRay burner
Windows 7 Pro x64 SP1
2x24" LED screens, 1x47" TV.

Any suggestions?

[footy]

Why are u putting 2 ssds in raid? u can get 1x 128gb for <$200
Also i would suggest getting a GPU ,somthing cheap like 1GB AMD Radeon HD6850 for ~ $159
What brands the psu?
Everythin else looks fine

[DAKSTER]

Graphics aren't my priority, video processing and disk transfer rates are. I'm trading off the un-necessary extra graphics and the old i7 for the newer sandy bridge setup and some seriously fast disks. I am striping them, no redundancy. RAID0 on 500ms ssds should be pretty quick and 2x60G will still give me a 120G volume.

The power supply is a Corsair modular 650W.

[87RB30VL]

Looks pretty good to me, I wouldn't suggest changing anything from what you've highlighted as being upgraded

[FATMOE]

Don't see why you want to change your processor, that 930 performs very good well to me it does, unless your gaming freak lol

[Rufys]

Gaming freak with on board graphics? LOL!!!

[DAKSTER]

The 930 is great, permanent stable OC at 4.1GHz. The new ones are better, and since the deal is basically she wants to buy my old computer, I get the new stuff. It was a gamer more than anything, but that's not what I need. Basically I am swapping great graphics for great disk transfer speeds. As a bonus, I get to move to sandy bridge along the way.

Modern onboard graphics wont win any benchmarking competitions, but they can play the games just fine at the level I would want to play them. The last time I used the PC to play a game was NFS Underground about 2 years ago, shows you how important it is to me. My games are just collecting dust. My friend has offered a good price for the 930, the MB and those huge graphics cards. This also means I can go for a much smaller case, which suits me better. 9800GT silent pipes may not be the fastest card around but they are freaking huge.. all heatsink and no fans.

The Nitano case is great too though, I have a dual CPU xeon board lying around I might stick into it just for fun.

[dijm8]

specs seem all good to me, most importantly what brand psu are you using ?

[DAZ60L]

I would personally use the SSD for installing windows 7 & office or other big programs and set up HDD for raid....and G-skill rip jaws for memory....a gold star rated modular psu 750w.... And if you are not gaming just go the 2600 not the 2600k your not going to over clock. Save some cash..there is a new chipset out 6 core from intel the E-series but I think it's pricey and I would atleast buy video card.....(my opinion)

[DAKSTER]

yeah looking into it further, because I do intend using the onboard graphics, I am better off with a H67, so overclocking isn't going to happen anyway. I wont bother with the unlocked chip... I know its only another 30 bucks but I just don't need it.

A video card isn't out of the question but seriously the most demanding thing I will ever do on it is play BluRay. I am interested to see just how good the modern onboard graphics are, they certainly get good reviews, and although I know it will never going to compare to a proper video card I am fairly confident it will do the job for me. If it doesn't, or I get bored one afternoon and get the urge to spend money, I'll buy a video card. I'm probably going to go for as small a case as I can get away with too, so I will be limited anyway in that respect. That's another reason I plan on losing a couple of HDDs. I'd considered going itx for awhile, but the lack of any expansion slots was a loser for me.

I'm thinking I might keep the 1TB drives and RAID them too. The 2TB drives are a little slower I think, and I just don't need quite that much space, so I will charge her a bit extra and sell her the 2TB drives too . I'll pick up a 2TB USB drive for storage though, we watch movies in more than one house on more than one computer..

The power supply is a Corsair 650W HX-650 modular.. sorry I said coolermaster earlier, I've edited that now.

Any specific reason for ripjaws compared to other RAM?

[B-roca]

That's a pretty nice setup. However, there would be 2 things that I would Question.

1) Onboard Graphics

From what VE heard the onboard Sandybridge graphics are more of a gimmick, I would recommend at least a cheap D11 card I.e. Ati 5 series.

2) Cooling

i7's already run very hot and if you do plan on over clocking I would definetly recommend an aftermarket cooler.

Just my 2c

[DAZ60L]

Bang for buck...... Ripjaws..... Google search Ripjaws v corsair or YouTube a channel called newegg tv pretty good for reviews

[DAKSTER]

That's a pretty nice setup. However, there would be 2 things that I would Question.

1) Onboard Graphics

From what VE heard the onboard Sandybridge graphics are more of a gimmick, I would recommend at least a cheap D11 card I.e. Ati 5 series.

2) Cooling

i7's already run very hot and if you do plan on over clocking I would definetly recommend an aftermarket cooler.

Just my 2c

I've always taken the view that unless you are overclocking in a big way, the stock cooler is designed to do the job. I wont be, its a H67 setup so overclocking is pretty much not an option.

If you think an i7 runs hot, you should check out the old Pentium D.. a dual core on P4 architecture, they REALLY ran hot lol

I get that everyone thinks a video card is necessary I have an open mind, I will try the onboard first. If I need one, I'll get one, but I would be surprised. Guys, I am NOT a gamer lol

I'll check out the ripjaws

[DAKSTER]

Just an update. Thanks for the opinions guys

I went Z68 .. Asus P8Z68-V-LX and 16G ripjaws. I also picked up a GT450, what the hell. Still dont think I needed it but there was change to be spent..

i7-2600K .. I figured since I went for a Z68 I might as well get an unlocked chip too, just in case I get bored one day.

I went for the striped 60G SSDs for Windows, and striped the two 1TB drives for data. Got a 2TB external for overflow.

Kept the DVD burner, added a BluRay burner. Switched the old single tuner DTV1000s for a new dual tuner DTV2000s. Kept the Compro too of course, so now 3 digital and 1 analog tuner.

I've had all 8 threads going at 70% at stock clock speed for a couple hours and not seen the temp go over 55C, so I am going to consider that cool enough for now. I dont think I need a better cooler. Its all back in the Nitano case though, which is a very well cooled box, so that probably helps.

All works well and does exactly what I need it to, very quickly. Noticably faster than the i7-930 did.

[Full Spectrum]

Glad you went ASUS MB over the ASrock. Formerly ASUS offside not anymore but ive never been one to trust them as many ive had dont last.

Speaking of heat, im running the stock AMD phenomII X4 3.4Ghz and the fan is shit. My old setup XP-M O/C with aftermarket $90 fan ran cooler. And that thing was nuts @ 2.6ghz M/B was something like 460mhz.

And talk on ram. I've allways used Kingston ram for o/c and never killed a single stick. Others , once i had a Samsung stick of ram and 5mhz killed it.

[DAKSTER]

My 930 was on a permanent stable 4.1Ghz overclock. Had a stock fan and never got hot at all, no matter how hard I worked it.

I think a lot of people dont give case cooling enough credit. Get a case with a nice 250mm on the side, and it spins slow and quiet, and gets masses of air in there.

Even with those two huge 9800GT silent pipes (no fans) in there, the stock cooler always did well enough, because the case has great airflow. Also, because of the fanless graphics and the big case fan, it was easily the quietest computer I have ever owned.

[Full Spectrum]

That's true people see the case as the cheap part. My personal case has options for 7 fans from 80-140mm. I didn't mess about i got them all and some pretty good quality silent fans. Tossed a few led fans in for colour.

I regret not getting a case with the option of 250mm side fan now.

[DAKSTER]

yeah its all good having 7 fans, nice and cool but what a racket.. I have made that mistake too.

You can barely hear the big fan, its running at like 600rpm.. in a full size case, only way to go IMO. The only other fan in the case is the stock CPU fan and cooler.

The case has had a few different computers inside it, all with stock coolers, but I dont think any of them have ever reached much more than 60-65C CPU temps, even when being worked hard.

[Full Spectrum]

This one is very quiet. My old bugger had a Thermaltake fan and it was loud!. I'm talking smoking hot rotary engine lol.