Computer advice needed
 

I have finally decided to build a new stationary computer for gaming and work usage. In truth, I haven't really bothered staying up-to-date in the past two years as far as new computer components go, so I figure I will find your hypothetical advice of significant avail. Here are the components that I'm considering to invest in:

• Thermaltake M9, Black Midi tower (No PSU)
• Corsair Power supply, 550W Bulk, black, ATX/EPS, 120 mm fan, 4xSATA, SLI
• Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L, P45, Socket-775, ATX, GbLAN, DDR2, PCI-Ex(2.0)x16
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz, Socket 775, 6MB, 1333MHz, Boxed with Fan
• Corsair Dominator TWIN2X8500C5D 2048MB, DDR2, 2x1GB(KIT),DHX,E.P.P, CL5-5-5-15-2T
• HIS Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3, PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI/HDMI/HDCP
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB, SATA-300, 32MB, 7200RPM
• Scythe Mugen CPU Cooler, 120mm Fan, Socket 478/775/754/939/940/AM2
• Samsung DVD-recorder SH-S223Q/BEBN

The price tag for all components is an equivalent of 1152 USD (£781). I am considering to switch the Radeon for a GeForce 9800GT 1G instead, but I am uncertain.

Thoughts?

eveything looks good from here and go with the GeForce 9800GT 1G and if you want more space try the
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM you get more space and if you shop newegg great prices but its your choise

Last time I tried to order something of equivalent size from the U.S., they wanted to charge me more than $500 for freight shipping.

I revised the system a bit, and cut the costs by more than 25% to $856.

• Ace Heroes Miditower 480W
• Asus P5QL PRO P43
• Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16 GHz)
• ATI Radeon HD4850, 512MB, GDDR3, PCI-Express
• DIMM DDR2 667 MHz, 4 GB
• Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 500GB S-ATA/300
• Samsung DVD±RW 22x Dual Layer
• Logitech S-120 speakers 2.0 (part of a bundle offer)
• Microsoft Wired Slim 500, black
• Logitech Optical Wheel Mouse, black

I really wanted a quad CPU at first, but realized I'm more likely to use the system for gaming rather than film editing. The E8500 duo CPU can easily be overclocked to 4 GHz (or closer to 4.5 GHz, but that's a bit risky), which I think should be fine. I'm still not sure about the Radeon HD 4850 GPU, but from what I've read about it, it seems to handle Crysis well.

What would you change, if anything?

You're gonna want DDR2 1066 (rather than 667) for that motherboard.

As a personal opinion I'd get a Full tower and either the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 or the 4870 X2 (most powerful graphic card to this day). They are both more expensive but are also more powerful than the 4850 model. It would be an all around multitasking system that way. As far as the CPU goes, whatever floats your boat on power. I overclocked the AMD Phenom 9950 to 3.0GHz. It's freakin' epic in power. Especially for programs/games/etc that take advantage of the cores. Handbrake video converter, for instance, takes great advantage of this.

Yeah, I've decided to go for a Crossfire-capable and OC-friendly motherboard instead, and a single Radeon HD 4870 (1 GB) for now. I'll probably bridge the 4870 with another one assuming I don't break my system when building/OCing it. I've also included 2x2 GB of 1066 MHz RAM. Here's the latest revision:

• Antec Sonata III 500 Silent ATX 500W
• Asus P5Q PRO P45, Socket 775
• Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz 1333MHz
• PowerColor ATI HD4870 PCS+ 1GB
• Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) XMS-2 8500C5
• 500GB Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 SATA-II
• Samsung SH-S223F 22X DVD±RW DL SATA Black

The price tag is $907 with tax deduction included. (The price tag for the last system I listed was for 2 GB of RAM rather than 4 GB. My mistake.)

On another note, was the Phenom easy to overclock?

Yeah it was. The 3.0GHz overclock wasn't even that much compared to these records.

http://www.ripping.org/database.php?cpuid=827

If you plan to overclock an AMD CPU, I suggest either a really strong fan or a good water cooling system. It's possible to get up around 3.5GHz on those two alone. If you choose the weaker systems you'll end up with smoky the CPU because the AMD's have a tendency to smoke when they're not cool enough.

Also, the Phenom II is coming soon. This was a neat article I found where they managed to overclock it to 5.0GHz with Liquid Nitrogen. http://www.legitreviews.com/article/836/1/
I looked around a little bit more and found out its been overclocked to 6.3GHz while still being stable. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the size of the CPU is 45nm instead of the big bulky ones they had before.

Mind if I just pop in and say that the E8500 is, by all accounts, easier to overclock than the Phenom? With the stock cooler, the E8500 can easily reach 4.2ghz, and maybe even as high as 4.5ghz if you've got one of the 'golden chips'.

In general, the Penryn line of Intel processors are designed with overclocking in mind - they are able to take a lot strain, and can overclock higher. To do the same with an AMD processor, you need some serious cooling (liquid nitrogen, f'rinstance) to get the same results. I don't know if the same is true with new Nehalem, but the top of the range Penryn processors can take a lot of juice.

In terms of overclocks, the E8500 (which was the daddy of the Wolfdale line before the E8600 came into being) has been up to 5.8ghz: http://www.ripping.org/benchmarks.ph...ores&cpuid=639.

I'm personally thinking of OCing an E5200, it seems pretty easy to do and is inexpensive.

Stable while the liquid helium lasted? :p

On another note, I upgraded my system a bit! I'll probably purchase it tomorrow, unless you protest.

Antec Nine Hundred (Black/Transparent) (Miditower)
Asus P5Q Pro (Moderboard (Intel Socket 775))
Corsair CMPSU-650TXEU 650W (PSU - ATX)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2,4GHz Box (CPU (Intel Socket 775))
Sapphire Radeon HD4870 Silent Efficiency Dual-DVI 1GB (PCI-Express)
Kingston ValueRAM DDR2 PC6400/800MHz CL5 2x2GB (DDR2)
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 16MB 640GB (3,5" S-ATA)
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme (CPU-heatsink)
Noctua NF-S12-1200 120mm (Fan (for the Ultra-120))
Samsung SH-S223F (DVD Burner)

Total cost: $1 170 (This was after finding the components in five of the cheapest stores in Sweden. The cheapest single source for the components charges $1 292 for them.)

Good Work! Now, when your done building it you can go ahead and mail it this way. I'll be nice and pay for S&H. :D

(thats a sweet machine, i'm running on a dell that i found in a foreclosure house. (Father is a real estate agent :P))

I'll be nice enough to not let you financially devastate yourself with the electric bills that this monster elicits. :p

I overclocked it to 3.4 GHz on air cooling, which, you guessed it, required me to mount a steel alloy version of something out of Metropolis inside it:

http://www.zelaron.com/gear/Picture%20177.jpg

(For a while, I was confident that the heat sink wouldn't even fit, but as it turned out, it barely even scraped the plexiglass of the Antec Nine Hundred case.)

The 800 MHz RAM is perfect for a 3.6 GHz overclock, but CoreTemp is indicative of temperatures around 65ºC after running Prime95 for a few hours. Thus, I think I'll remain at 3.4 GHz for a while, especially governing that I'm able to play new games on ultra high settings in 1920x1200 with a good to excellent frame rate.

http://www.zelaron.com/gear/cpuz.gif


Sadly, it doesn't handle Dwarf Fortress as well as I had hoped it would. It's unfortunate governing that it was one of the main reasons for me to procure a new PC. Here's what the game looks like in action (obviating that it's paused):

http://www.transbuddha.com/images/up...soldiering.jpg

It may look trivial, but it will eat your system alive after your dwarf population reaches numbers of 100-150. Also, if you decide to play it, be warned that it's one of the most innovative, awesome and time-consuming games released in the past few years.