Looking for some thoughts and ideas on a new system
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Thread: Looking for some thoughts and ideas on a new system

  1. #1
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    Looking for some thoughts and ideas on a new system

    Hi all , first off thanks in advance to anyone replying to my thread here. The time is drawing near to hang up my day job ( automotive technition ) , buy a motorhome and retire to no fixed address. And I want to put together my last desktop system.

    Since my first pc33 prebuilt with windows 95 from computers for kids , i have out grown the you can't fix it if it's not broke , so lets break it mode and have put together my last 5 systems ........ consider myself pretty good in the practical area but a total rookie when it comes to the technical jargon , but have managed to repair my kids and a few friends computers.

    At present I have a AMD6600 dual core processor , msi nero ultra ms-7376 socket 2+ motherboard 3 gigs of kingston pc800 ddr2 , onboard audio and a evga geeforce 8600 GTI pci express graphics card. running windows XP Pro with all the latest updates and drivers.

    Although everything works ok , I find it to be a little slow in all areas.

    Now on to my new project , I am not really on a budget but I don't want to have to morgage off the motorhome either.

    I will be using it for multi purpose , RPG gaming ( not on line games )

    Website design with coffee cup and marcromedia ( I have my own domain for future suppliment my pension income ).

    Audio and video with Divx Author and other various editing programs.

    3D animation with Poser 7 and Cararra Pro 8

    I just picked up the AMD PHENOM II X6 , 1075T 3.0GHZ AM3 and will be installing it on a ( not yet purchesd ) Corsair Extreme MLC Solid State Drive - 32GB - Serial ATA/300 - Serial ATA - Internal for the operating system and I have a half dozen sata hard drives for storage and program files.

    So I would be interested in some thoughts and ideas for motherboard , ram and grafics cards.

    In the past I have developed a preferance for MSI and Nivida ...... but I am open for other options.

    I have also decided on Windows 7 Professional but would also like your thoughts on do i go with the 32 bit or 64 bit

    Thanks again .... surfacerider

  2. #2
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    Corsair Extreme MLC Solid State Drive - 32GB

    Go for a bigger drive as you may not even be able to install Win 7 on it. To small.

    Definitely Win 7 64 bit is what you want.

    4 GB ram minimum, 8 may be better.

  3. #3
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    TomsHardware.com > System Builder Marathon, Sept. 2010: $2000 Performance PC
    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...a-pc,2700.html

  4. #4
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    I installed Win 7 on a 30GB SSD on my home theatre computer, but that was where I knew that I would be installing very little additional software. I agree with Train, for normal use 32 gigs is too small.

    Definitely go for 64-bit Windows, it would be a shame to spoil things by having too little RAM, and there is no real downside to 64-bit now that drivers are readily available.

    My favourite brand of motherboard is Gigabyte, with Asus a close second.
    Nick.

  5. #5
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    Check out NewEgg for reviews of the various motherboards.

    Two possible options:
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131646
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130223

  6. #6
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    As for mobos, I'm partial to Asus or Gigabyte...can't go wrong with either one really.

    Audio: sounds like you are a bit more serious about it to settle for onboard sound. Recommend a Soundblaster Titanium card or a mid-to-high level Turtle Beach card.

    Video: also sounds like you will want a little bit of horsepower....recommend the Nvidia-based GTX 400 series. I use two GTX 460's and am very happy with them (no need for you to get two though...I'm just crazy, that's all).

    Ditto the other guys for the OS...64-bit Win 7 is the only way to go.

    Six GB triple-channel RAM should be OK.

    Again ditto on the SSD size...minimum should be at least 64 GB really. Win 7 64-bit will take up 20 GB of drive space....not much would be left on a 32GB drive.
    Desktop: Intel i7 960 CPU @ 4.0GHz, EVGA Classified 4-Way SLI mobo, 12GB Corsair Dominator-GT 2000 DDR3 RAM, Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB Solid State Drive, Two WD 2TB SATA drives, 2x EVGA GTX 570 Superclocked graphics cards in SLI, Coolermaster HAF X full tower case, OCZ ZX 1250w PSU, Corsair H100 CPU Cooler
    Laptop: MSI GT60-004US, 2x Seagate Momentus XT 750GB SSD Hybrid drives in RAID 0, 16GB DDR3 1600 RAM, GeForce 670M 3GB graphics card, Networks 'Killer' N-1103 WLAN card

  7. #7
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    Thanks for the input really is appreciated

    I liked msi's live update ..... for updating the bios but I'm not to fussy on their boards now , but I was checking around and seemed to like the GA-880GMA-UD2H mobo from Gigabyte , so I'll go with it.

    Back to my 20 questions .............

    I agree a 32 gig hard drive is small , but I was thinking on using it just for the operating system and installing all my programs onto my 2 terabyte sata hard drive. or would that affect performance too much or get the ssd full of user files.

    The next size up from the 32 at local my computer shop is 64 gigs , but it's up just under 200.00 bucks and 300.00 for the 80 gig.

    bistro , you mentioned " Six GB triple-channel RAM should be OK. " what do you mean by triple channel ...... this is how I read it on the computer shops website , 1333MHz PC3-10666 ( Kingston 6GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz 240-pin DIMM )

    So once I get the ram confusion figured out , that should be enough to get it up and running ...... I can use the onboard video till i decide what video card ( s ) to get.

    surfacerider

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by surfacerider View Post
    ... but I was thinking on using it just for the operating system and installing all my programs onto my 2 terabyte sata hard drive...
    Usual configuration is to have the OS and programs in one partition/hard drive.
    Cheers.

  9. #9
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    You can install programs on a different drive, but you'll then get a fast loading OS but apps loading at normal speed. Also, some programs will insist on putting large chunks of themselves on the Windows drive, so a small SSD may still fill up anyway.

    On socket 1366 systems, then memory banks are arranged so that they can use three RAM modules simultaneously, thus improving memory throughput. To take advantage of triple-channel you need a kit with 3 RAM modules. That 6gig kit sounds like the correct kit, it will have 3 x 2gig modules.
    Nick.

  10. #10
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    Really appreciate everyones input ..... making my project a lot easier.

    So far here is what i have decided on .....

    Windows 7 Professional , installed with 64 bit

    AMD PH-II X6 1090T 3.2G 9MB BX 125W BLACK AM3

    GA-890FXA-UD5 ( http://www.giga-byte.com/products/pr...px?pid=3519#ov )

    Kingston 6GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz 240-pin DIMM

    Untill the ssd gets to a reasonal price or I win the lottery , I'll use my segate 550 gig ide to install everything on.

    *****************************************

    So now on to my next and last 2 questions ...................

    First I'll use my evga geforce 8600 gts to get started ..... to run it in the crossfire mode , do I have to use the same make and model video card like another evga geforce 8600 gts.

    If yes ........ and i go looking for a pair of video cards .... since all the numbers and technacle stuff is confusing ... what should I be looking for as most important.

    Finally ... sata , everything I have now is sata , I am using the msi K9A-2 platinum mother board that has 6 sata connections and 2 sata2 connections. No matter what I plug into the sata2 connectors it will not detect them and show them when windows loads up.

    Since the new board has all sata6 ..... will this be a problem or will I have to use the raid thing I keep hearing about , but know absolutly.

    thanks again everyone , surfacerider

  11. #11
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    You don't want a 6 gig memory kit for an AMD CPU, only socket 1366 Intels use triple-channel memory. You need either a 4gig (2x2GB) or 8 gig (4x2GB) kit. Other than that those are good choices.

    For the SATA issue, if you look in the BIOS Setup you will probably find that there are two SATA controllers, and that one of them is disabled.
    Nick.

  12. #12
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    Ok folks got it all finished off ...... and i would like to give my thanks and appreciation to every one that replied , it sure help'd , so here is what i have ................

    mobo ............. MSI 890GXM-G65
    cpu ............... AMD PH-II X6 1100T 3.3G 9MB BX125W BLACK AM3
    video ............. EAH5770 CUCore/2DI/1GD5 ( X , 2 in crossfire mode )
    ram ............... Kingston HyperX 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 ( X , 4 Total 16 gigs )
    Power supply .. Coolermaster Silent Pro 1000W Modular Power Supply
    Running XP Pro on a Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 7200 rpm 16MB IDE/EIDE , with a couple sata backup hard drives.

    So far I'm pretty happy with the way things worked out , it's the first time I ever had XP pro , re-boot up and running in under 30 seconds ( before I installed all my software , now with everything in there 45 to 60 seconds).

    A little earlier today I bumped things up and played around a bit nothing too extreem or did any bench marks but it ran smooth , checked my bios and according to it it was running at 3.97 gig .... but a little warm , rebooted with everything back to default.

    So later on , I'll install Windows 7 64 bit , but not untill I can afford some new software that isn't compatable and if the SD hard drives come down to a reasonal price one of those since by the looks of it I'm gonna need at least 150 gig , rite now I have 95 gig used.

    surfacerider

  13. #13
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    If you have, or get, Win7 Pro or Ultimate, you could install Win 7 now and use the free XP Mode for your legacy software

    Windows XP Mode

    Set up & use XP Mode in Windows 7

    XP Mode: what it is, how it works, who it's for
    Nick.

  14. #14
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    Thanks , for the point to on the sites , very imformative and seay to understand , but on the " XP Mode: what it is , how it works, who it's for " link it says that the XP mode does not support hardware accelleration , wich kinda defeats the reason I built my system for in the first place. It seems windows downloadable virtual was developed for the corporate world in mind.

    It did mention something about sun's VirtualBox. 3D having support for software acceleration , so I'll check into that.

    One more question before I go , would I in theory be able to download a virtual ( i think everyone refers it to drive or space ) and install say windows 98 so I could play some of my old favorite dos based games.

    Thanks again you guy's - gal's are great , surfacerider

  15. #15
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    Yes you can install Win98 as a VM. You can do it using the same Virtual PC installation as is used for XP Mode if you want.

    I have been using virtual machines for years, and I can't say I've ever been bothered by, or even noticed, any lack of hardware acceleration. It probably would matter for games, but virtual machines are not well suited for gaming. VMs work just fine for the majority of apps though.
    Nick.

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