New build - Phenom II 955

[rkostudio]

I switched to a mac about 6 months ago, specifically a 24" imac with the 3.06 and 4GB's of ram, and absolutely love the system. I use it for photo editing (CS4) and it has been a real pleasure. I haven't been into gaming for a few years but I recently got the itch again and I am dying to build a new pc.

I decided on the phenom II 955 BE for the CPU. Here is a quick list of everything else:

XClio full tower link

PSU - Corsair 850W

4GB of G.Skill DDR3 1333 (8-8-8-21)

750GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 (32MB cache)

ASUS Crosshair III Formula AM3 790FX link

Sapphire 4870 X2

Thoughts on this setup anyone?

 

[Aberration]

PSU is overkill, you could do with the corsair 650W. Instead of the barracuda go for the WD black 750GB, because it is faster (supposedly faster/as fast as a 74gb raptor). Cooler for your CPU too.

http://support.asus.com/PowerSupplyCalculator/PSCalculator.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

Um, if you put what he has into the ASUS calculator, it says 750Watts MINIMUM.

I made the assumption of 1HD, and 1 DVD/CD RW Combo.

 

[GrimX9]

Deleted post, did not account for anything else.

 

[cdawall]

if your new to oc'ing and plan to oc i would get another board the crosshair III is PITA right now new BIOS's will fix that but for now its hard to get a good ram clock

 

[GrimX9]

http://support.asus.com/PowerSupplyCalculator/PSCalculator.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

Um, if you put what he has into the ASUS calculator, it says 750Watts MINIMUM.

I made the assumption of 1HD, and 1 DVD/CD RW Combo.

Wait, when I put in what he has I get 600 watts MINIMUM.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

Wait, when I put in what he has I get 600 watts MINIMUM.

Deleted post, did not account for anything else.

http://support.asus.com/PowerSupplyCalculator/PSCalculator.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

Um, if you put what he has into the ASUS calculator, it says 750Watts MINIMUM.

I made the assumption of 1HD, and 1 DVD/CD RW Combo.

Regardless, an 850watt will last him a nice long time.

I think it is a good build, just take into account what cadawall said.

 

[rkostudio]

Thank you for the input guys. I failed to mention the two dvd/cd rw combo drives. Not that big of a deal, but I did calculate around an 800 watt minimum for a PSU.

Any other recommendations on a hard drive choice?

And I don't plan on oc'ing for a couple of months - and yes I am new to oc'ing

 

[ChanceCoats123]

Hmmm. Obviously if you have the money go for a Raid setup, or run two drives: A faster, but smaller drive for your operating system and then a larger, also slower drive for storage. I would probably say you would only need one these for OS, and then a 500gb (or larger) drive for storage. If you don't have the dough, I would say keep the drive some what small. If you have your OS, and storage on a very large drive, you will see longer boot times due to the lower read/write speeds of more platters/heads. I think that my 320gb was a good go between. I get out of a single 7.2k seagate barracuda. (note: these were taken with my previous processor)

 

[Mjolnir]

+1 ChanceCoats123

I run 2 320's for lack of better funds, and a cheap mobo with only 4 sata ports.. XD. One is my cuda 7200.12 which runs similar results to the image above, though I recall a slightly higher CPU usage, but with a better access/burst rate (was like 16/200 respectively).

I personally think unless it's really needed, there's not a need for RAID; a single installation drive and a larger storage drive makes the most sense to me!

 

[rkostudio]

Hmmm. Obviously if you have the money go for a Raid setup[/IMG]

I'm assuming you're talking about a Raid-0 setup? And thanks again for helping out a noob

One more question - Does Vista 64 Ultimate have a decent enough raid controller or would a hardware controller be recommended?

 

[Mjolnir]

I reckon, get an SSD to use as a base for photoshop . Specifically for photoshop only =D. For a scratch disk, working disk, whatevs, partition it, blah blah. I'm well aware how large some files can get.. Some so much that you have to use large document format . 2gb photoshop file = fail. Lol. Dunno if they fixed that in CS4, I'm using CS3 myself. So ya.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

+1 ChanceCoats123

I run 2 320's for lack of better funds, and a cheap mobo with only 4 sata ports.. XD. One is my cuda 7200.12 which runs similar results to the image above, though I recall a slightly higher CPU usage, but with a better access/burst rate (was like 16/200 respectively).

I personally think unless it's really needed, there's not a need for RAID; a single installation drive and a larger storage drive makes the most sense to me!

Agree.

I'm assuming you're talking about a Raid-0 setup? And thanks again for helping out a noob

One more question - Does Vista 64 Ultimate have a decent enough raid controller or would a hardware controller be recommended?

I have no idea about Raid setups... But I do know that raid is more expensive and it would also be more beneficial to run a raptor and barracuda instead due the fact that raid either cuts your total space, or is susceptible to data loss.

As mentioned in red, I would stick with a raptor (74gb is PLENTY) And a 500gb seagate barracuda or *WD black for storage. Then you avoid the whole raid setup all together.



*Don't get a green drive. Much slower read / write.

 

[rkostudio]

Ok, here is what I have decided on for the final build, with a question at the end of the list:

Phenom II x4 955 BE

Asus Crosshair III AM3 790FX mobo link

XCLIO A380BK case link

Corsair 850tx PSU

2 - HIS 1GB 4870's link

1 - 150GB WD Velociraptor

1 - 500GB Seagate Barracuda

4GB mushkin 1333 DDR3 link

2 - Samsung DVD burners link

I believe this will be a pretty friggin' nice build and should handle gaming needs for quite some time. Anyone see issues here? Does anyone think I will need additional cooling at this point? Thanks again.

 

[QuietIce]

If this is a complete new build I would change to OCZ low-voltage RAM.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227448 OR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227447

Also, if you plan on OC'ing I would suggest adding a Sunbeam 120 cooler.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835207004


Other than that it looks like you've got a great rig started there.


Edit:
Have you seen the XClio A380PLUS-BK? It's got a bigger side-panel fan (360mm v 250mm) for an extra $5.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811103014
But both look to be great cases ...

 

[ChanceCoats123]

Also, if you plan on OC'ing I would suggest adding a Sunbeam 120 cooler.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835207004

+1. Nice looking build. But question, do you have any interest in running 4890's instead of 4870's? The newer cards are supposed to blow away basically everything.

 

[Mjolnir]

Clearly money isn't a huge issue here? If you wanna get back into gaming, grab a pair of HD4890's or, just grab one for now, and another later when you feel like some extra boost in performance .

 

[rkostudio]

Ok......I am making making two substitutions now after reviewing the suggestions.

1. I'm going with two HIS 4890's instead of 70's.

2. I'm going with 4GB's of OCZ platinum DDR3 1600

I'll add a cooler when I decide to play with oc'ing. I'm anticipating a very high performance machine right now. I'm pretty pumped.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

Ok......I am making making two substitutions now after reviewing the suggestions.

1. I'm going with two HIS 4890's instead of 70's.

2. I'm going with 4GB's of OCZ platinum DDR3 1600

I'll add a cooler when I decide to play with oc'ing. I'm anticipating a very high performance machine right now. I'm pretty pumped.

Shweet. Nice choices on the parts. (with out help of course ) Look forward to seeing the final result (post pics and such in here).

 

[madgamer2]

I'm assuming you're talking about a Raid-0 setup? And thanks again for helping out a noob

One more question - Does Vista 64 Ultimate have a decent enough raid controller or would a hardware controller be recommended?

RAID? been there done that. In the bad old days of slow drives a RAID 0 was nice. These days I would recommend no raid as they can be a pain. A good SATA II direct to the Mobo is just about as fast and much safter. I had three HDD melt downs with various RAID setups using fast SATA drives so nix the RAID

Madgamer2

 

[Mjolnir]

RAID? been there done that. In the bad old days of slow drives a RAID 0 was nice. These days I would recommend no raid as they can be a pain. A good SATA II direct to the Mobo is just about as fast and much safter. I had three HDD melt downs with various RAID setups using fast SATA drives so nix the RAID

Madgamer2

+1. If you want some decent speed on drives and such, get a Velociraptor, or an SSD for a boot drive, RAID can be good sometimes.. But bad others, depends really. But as madgamer said these days the drives are fairly fast as they are.. I load a Map on Left 4 Dead running a partition of Windows 7 at THE END of my drive (So its in the last 100gb for the install), and I still load up faster than most others. =). And I'm only using a basic Seagate Cuda 7200.12 320g :\.