Splak.net

I'm officialy in the market to build a computer. However, I do have a spending limit. I'd like to use the new 45nm proc's that are out. Aswell as the antec p180 series case. So.. Cole.. 900-1100 is the area I'm shootin' for.. GO!

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[IMG]http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z38/Pengxor/10.png[/IMG]

8800GT (SLi if possible) + Asus Striker Extreme mobo (don't know if it supports Penyrn though).

What I would shoot for.

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Don't plan on doing SLi, heard the performance boost to price was totally not worth it yet, and I'd rather wait until G100 comes out So I'll probably go with a end 7 series card, or the 8800gt..

Aswell, probably going to go with a Gigabyte mobo.

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[IMG]http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z38/Pengxor/10.png[/IMG]

Only 1 chip (non extreme) is out, do you want to wait for the quad, or go for fast ass dual core?

Here is what I did, I subscribed to the newegg newsletter, and every week they have deals. Look for a deal on the case, and a deal on any name branded 500+ watt, good reviewed PSU. I got my p192 case for 85, and my 550w coolermaster PSU for 10bucks. That saved me 60-100 bucks on the total cost. If you wait till quad cores come out, ram,motherboard, and video card prices should drop some, the quad 2.66 is going to be ~300 bucks, and you can also get a 8800gt vs the gts I posted, they are the same card, except the gts has higher clocks, a better cooler, and more pipelines opened, you can also get a 256 version of the gt (which I may do), but that will only save you about 70 bucks (and about 35 bucks for the 512gt). If you find a 8800gt 256 on sale, for like 170ish, then it would be worth it.

Also, that quote is with 2 hard drives, so remove 80 bucks from the total if you want to run a non-raid. If you are going to run a RAID you WILL need a floppy drive, for xp install (raid drivers), but I always borrow one off a old computer for the xp install, then remove it, I dont even mount it, just have it hang out of the computer till xp is installed.

Ram can be had for cheaper (ddr2-800 is in the 40 bucks range), but that WILL limit your overclock of a 3.0 chip to 3.6ghz (3000/333=9x multi, 9x400=3600), and the quad 2.66 to 3.2ghz. DDR2-1066 will max out the 3.0 at 4.8, and the 2.66 at 4.265

I am planning on getting the 2.66 and running it in the 4.0-4.2 range, depending on heat. If you wait to but the exact same setup (board, ram, cpu) as I do, I can overclock mine, do all the work, and then you can just do the same thing to yours.


LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache IDE 20X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM
$25.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827106228

Antec Performance One P180 Silver cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
$114.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811129154

2x
HITACHI Deskstar P7K500 HDP725032GLA360 (0A35411) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
$79.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822145213

MSI NX8800GTS-T2D512E GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
($289.00 after $20.00 Mail-In Rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814127323

COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RP-550-PCAR ATX from factor 12V V2.01 550W Power Supply 110-115V/ 220-230V Nemko, TUV, cUL, CE, BSM, FCC, CCC - Retail
Price after rebate(s):$24.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817171016

Kingston HyperX 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Desktop Memory - Retail
($69.99 after $10.00 Mail-In Rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820134586

GIGABYTE GA-X38-DS4 LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
$199.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128080

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
$219.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115037

ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - Retail
$59.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835118019

Grand Total: ~$1,200

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-- .:Splak|StackableNut --

Nice. I'll probably wait to see how yours turns out. I plan on using two harddrives, one as a back up, no RAID. I'm not sure if I want to do dual, or quad yet.. As you stated, depends on heat really. I'll probably end up doing the same thing you do, with a few variations.

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[IMG]http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z38/Pengxor/10.png[/IMG]

RAID 0 FTW... 2x faster load times on almost everything, but does take a little extra bit of work to set up correctly.

I have migrated all my important data to a server that we have in our house, that has 3 250gb drives, and a 80. If I lose a C drive, oh well, windows runs best if re-installed yearly anyway.

I currently am using a single raptor 140gb drive, and am going to buy a 2nd one for RAID for the new computer.

But dollar / performance you cant beat the 320gb Hitachi drives in a RAID 0.

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-- .:Splak|StackableNut --

In that case.. RAID for the win! I'll just pruchase an external or something as back up for data.

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[IMG]http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z38/Pengxor/10.png[/IMG]

Cole and I both have 3 hard drives in our computers, we both run 2 in Raid 0 and one as a back up, which is where i personally keep my music files etc. it is MUCH faster than an external.


just my 2 cents.

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Ahh.. Very true. I forgot that the new case has enough room for ATLEAST 4 harddrives.. So I'll probably do 2 raid, and 1 as a back up for everything. Thanks for that little tid-bit, Chris

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[IMG]http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z38/Pengxor/10.png[/IMG]

Nah Chris, sounds like your external harddrive is using USB.

Plug it in an eSATA port, and it's just as fast as a regular hdd.

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can i see pics of your home server? I have a little ubuntu/fedora box I dont really use that much anymore, just wanna see what yours looks like if you dont mind

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.:Splak|VMAN

Indeed, but its safe in the case, an external cost more, and can be dropped.

Vman, its just a regular old dell, a P4 2.8 I think, running xp pro, with all its drives shared, nothing great about it.

Looks just like this, no cd rom, all 4 ide are used on hard drives:
http://www.carlmfischer.com/server/smoothie.jpg

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-- .:Splak|StackableNut --

oo kewl

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.:Splak|VMAN

just like my pc, i have 2 hdd one SATA the other IDE. I used to have 3 but had to give it away for the other pc. My pc is the media server and all movies, songs, and pictures get streamed to the other laptops and xbox 360. Hopefully ill get a new pc and use this pc for full media stuff.

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.:Splak|Cornholio / Administrator



"He just kept talking in one long incredibly unbroken sentence moving from topic to topic so that no one had a chance to interrupt, it was really quite hypnotic..."

After I'm gone your Earth will be free to live out its miserable span of existence as one of my satellites, and that's how it's going to be...

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(ಠ_ృ)

Yeah, I'm planning to build my own server. Nothing extreme, but a lot of hard drive space in a RAID 1. Probably going to dual boot it with Windows Home Server and Vista (or XP Media edition) to act as a DVR.

That way it's easier for me to backup all my computers over the network to it and stuff.

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