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Does the Community Leik my Setup?

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Hitbox

Hitbox

Member
​
Joined
Jun 25, 2008
Location
Miami, FL
Case:
Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel

Motherboard:
ASUS P5Q P45

CPU:
Core 2 Duo E8400

Memory:
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066

Video Card:
XFX 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB PCIe2.0

Power:
Corsair 520W

HDD:
2 x WD 500GB SATA2 in RAID0

Drive:
LITE-ON 20X DVD Burner SATA

Fan:
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler

I haven't bought this yet but I'm going to in a couple of weeks. I've been through hundreds of pages of Newegg and this is perfect in my mind for now; everything I need and little I don't. What do you think?
 
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If you're going to wait a few weeks before buying it, and the price on the 9800GTX doesn't drop, save some money and get a Radeon 4850, or spend a bit more for a 4870. A 4850 performs pretty much the same as a 9800GTX, and 4870 performs quite a bit better.
 
Your power supply is far too powerful. Unless you want to go SLI in the future go with 550W. The Corsair is pretty nice, but there are lots of other good ones out there as well.
 
With the 4850's being the same price and perform about the same, I would go with one of them.(depends on the game or benchmark you look at) Later down the road if you want to go crossfire, you'll have the option. If not you haven't given up a thing.

The power supply is a bit overkill for your system and I don't trust thermaltake at all. A Corsair 650W would be nice for cheap or a 620 if you want modular cabling. Even if you add a second 4850 and moved to a quad you would still have power to spare.

You may also want to consider the Western Digital 640GB drives. They cost a little more($10 if you catch them on sale) but give you larger capacity and faster speeds. That is assuming you were going to get 7200.11's. 7200.10's are to cheap to argue the performance difference.
 
The thing about the video card, is that I'm just more comfortable with nvidia's driver support for linux. Have I missed the big jump where ATI cards/drivers are just as linux compatible as nVidia cards/drivers?

I spent two weeks trying every solution for getting 3D effects working on my x1600PRO. It took me about 4 minutes to get a perfect setup with an 8600GT. So if ATI has that worked out, I have no problem making the switch.
 
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The HD 4850 performs a fair bit better than the 9800GTX, and it will only get better with new drivers.
The power supply is a bit overkill for your system and I don't trust thermaltake at all.
Click to expand...
I agree with the first bit but the Thermaltake Toughpower series is manufactured by Channel Well. I agree their old stuff was a bit iffy, but things have improved a lot.
 
Hitbox said:
The thing about the video card, is that I'm just more comfortable with nvidia's driver support for linux. Have I missed the big jump where ATI cards/drivers are just as linux compatible as nVidia cards/drivers?

I spent two weeks trying every solution for getting 3D effects working on my x1600PRO. It took me about 4 minutes to get a perfect setup with an 8600GT. So if ATI has that worked out, I have no problem making the switch.
Click to expand...

Ah... for Linux. I haven't set mine up for that yet, which distro are you using? AMD/ATi have been doing much better recently with Linux support, and the latest drivers do support 4850/4870. If your distro uses a 2.6.24 or earlier kernel, you should be fine.
If it uses 2.6.25 you may have to wait a bit for AMD/ATi to update fglrx to the new kernel license flags. The current driver can be installed on 2.6.25 with some source changes to the kernel, and I've seen no reported problems, but you may want to wait for an official fix.

And refer to above posts about the power supply :) I've been running Crossfire 3870s, three hard drives, several case fans, and quad-core CPUs on my Corsair 520 for months with no problems :) A good brand known for quality will, 99% of the time, be better than a cheap brand with inflated wattage numbers. http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp tells me you need 327 watts. A Corsair 620HX http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139002 is about the same price after rebate as the Thermaltake you listed, and should last you for years, and has plenty of spare power for future upgrades.
 
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I've changed the PSU to a CORSAIR 520W. I had left that power supply from an earlier revision of my next computer.

And I plan on running Ubuntu Hardy Heron. I just want to avoid the weeks of frustration that comes with crappy [ATI] drivers for linux.

What about cooling? Would you suggest that I remove the stock cooler on it with a better one (I've seen people use 8800 cooling blocks). I'm ocd about cooling.
 
Cooling for what? CPU? GPU (if so, are you going to go with the 9800 or a 4850/70)? Case fans?

Accelero S1 "rev 2" for video if you don't mind dual-slot. Or just put better thermal paste on and reuse the stock cooler. I've seen posts in other forums where people have simply redone the thermal paste on a 4850 and re-used the stock cooler and dropped idle temps by 30-40C.

For CPU, I have an Ultra 120 Extreme, but http://jab-tech.com/Scythe-NINJA-Co...U-Cooler-5th-anniversary-edition-pr-4065.html looks better (and includes a fan), just was out of stock when I got my Ultra :cry:

For case fans, replace whatever comes with the case with some low speed Yate Loons. They're much quieter than "tri-cool" fans (even when the tri-cool is on the lowest setting).
 
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I was talking about the GPU. I've read on these forums that the 4850's are naturally hot cards. Since I like things running cooler than stock, is it worth it to get a double slot cooler? Or should I just get the slightly different 9800gtx?
 
The 4850s seems to be "hot" cards mainly because of poor thermal paste. As soon as I get some new thermal paste I'll redo mine. It's idling at 80C right now.
 
I thought my E8400 had "bad thermal paste" when it was loading at 230º but that all changed when I swapped out the stock cooler for the Arctic Pro 7. Now my loads are around 125º.

Secondly, all that heat for a single slot cooler will have to be taken care of by the case, rather than just having a double slot cooler which pulls cold air into the case and shoots the hot air right out.

Side note: This ATI fanboyism is kinda wierd. For a second I thought everyone was nvidia... which if it can convice the ocforums, it's reason for me even considering the 4850. But if my core temps will go up for a card that's slightly better than a cooler 9800gtx, I'll just stick with 'cool runnings'.
 
Thermal paste won't make your temps shoot up that high, mounting incorrectly does that.

Also I'd go with a 550 or 650 Corsair for the same price as that 520 if the modular cables aren't a big deal.
 
From the "black mesa" thread
HEAT IS AN ISSUE IF YOU OVERCLOCK.

these idle at 80, and go up to 90. and guess what is just above these heaters...YOUR CPU.

unless you have a ridiculous way to cool these bad boys, know your internal temps will rise like crazy.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I want to avoid. I don't plan on future proofing this rig. I just want something for about a few months, them I'm going to sell it and get my heavy hitter with water cooling. But this is supposed to hold me out untill christmas, spring the latest.

So I've decided on getting the 9600GTX. Thanks for the help guys, I will consider the ATI setup for my next computer (unless of course, they aren't hip again).
 
Why would you build a computer only until Christmas :S

If your gonna build something why not make it last a year or two.
 
You're going to lose alot of money if you build a computer for the next 6 months, then sell it off. That config up there should be good for much longer than 6 months.

If you just want something to "get you by" for the next 6 months, spend less. Much less.
 
If I find someone who cares nothing about specs, just games, to sell this computer to,
considering rebates, sales, and price drops,
and I sell it at today's price, how am I possibly loosing money?

But who knows. Maybe when I get it, I'll fall in love, and give it a name, and run off to Key West where we can be free and escape the judging eyes of society. Then later on in life we can find a nice cottage in Sweden and spend the lazy afternoons, running a 50MB+ torrent server...

Just maybe...
 
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