new build, hardware experts rejoice :)

[Knytestorme]

Ok, heading into tax time here in aus and looking to build a system up asap to take into account tax benefits.

PC will be used primarily for games development and video/DAW work, along with multiboxing WoW (5 instances) and a file/sql server...ie, it will be my general goto pc in most instances for work or play related functions.

Motherboard eVGA nForce 780i SLI 775 A1: 1333MHz FSB, 4xDDR2/800(2x), 1xATA/133, 6xSATA/300, 3xSLIx16xPCI-E, 2xGigaLAN, 7.1 Sound, Firewire, ATX

CPU Intel Core 2 Quad 'Q9450' CPU - LGA775, 4x2.66GHz, 2x6Mb, 1333MHz

RAM 2 x Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4Gb 800MHz CAS 4-4-4-12 DDR2 Memory Kit - 2 x 2Gb, LEDs

Hard Drives 6 x 1000Gb Western Digital Caviar GP 7200rpm Hard Drive - S/ATA-II, 16Mb - 3Y

Floppy Drive Sony 1.44Mb Floppy Drive - Black

DVD Writer LG GSA-H55NBBK Internal DVD Writer - P/ATA, Drive + Software - Black

Video Card 2 x eVGA GeForce 9800 GX2 1Gb 16xPCI-E Video Card - 600MHz/2.0GHz - 2xDVI, HDMI Out

Video Capture FusionHDTV DVB-T Dual Digital 4 TV Tuner - 1xPCI-E

Case Antec Twelve Hundred ATX Case w/ *NO PSU* - Black

Power Supply SilverStone ST1000 1000w ATX 2.2 Power Supply - 135mm Fan, 4xPCI-E6, 2xPCI-E8 - Black

My main concerns here are:

* Should I look at going with an asus 780 that will support 1066MHz ram and the appropriate ram (will I see much of an increase over the 800) or if I should bite the bullet and go with a 790 and DDR3 (decided against this as I can see by the time I need to upgrade there will be new cpu arch and pin layout anyway)

* Will the PSU be up to the task or should I look at one of the modular 1200w Silverstones?

* Will the 2 GX2's run 4 monitors without a drop in fps when not in SLI?

Overall I think this build meets my needs and has a decent tradeoff between price and power (eg the Q9550 is an extra $300 but don't think I'd see enough increase to make that worth it) but I am open to suggestions and advice so have at it.

Budget for the build is about $6k AUS (including 4 BenQ 22" monitors @ $300 each) so there is about $4800Aus for the actual PC.

[spannah]

Wow.

That is quite the system. I am not sure what DAW means, or what kind of game dev you will be doing, but it certainly is overkill for 5-man WoW - but I am sure you know that

I am not sure about running a SQL and file server out of a gaming machine, that is likely to have an impact on performance - unless you planing to stop the servers when you play.

Also, have you considered 4 inexpensive boxes for your clones instead of such a beefy main computer?

Otherwise looks solid!

[Knytestorme]

DAW = Digital Audio Workstation....basically running Sonar & Reason + the apps for my guitar and keyboards to do musical work. It needs beefiness + lots of file storage, as will tv ripping for when I'm not home.

Basically this will only be getting impacted as an sql server while I am doing dev work, and file serving will be while streaming video or audio at night or while friends are round and want to watch something (a way to save me having to worry about my dvd collection getting damaged or having to watch tv shows at a time that doesn't suit me).

And yeah, it's likely overkill for multiboxing but for what else I need to do, or playing Flight Sim X, it should be a decent option until the next round of pin changes The main concern for me is with the subsystems I have never bothered to worry about too much, such as the difference between DDR2 and 3 or CAS timings etc and so was hoping some people here would be more knowledgable in that area to help me make a more informed choice.

As for 4 cheaper boxes, I don't really ever like that as an option just for the fact I will often just go bush for a few weeks at a time away from my main place so I can get away from meetings and people, and just work. Having one powerhouse box means I just need to pack it + monitors and I'm good to go for any situation (and no, I have one laptop but I hate trying to do anything but write word documents on it, I love my G15 + a decent size screen ) so having to worry about moving 4 boxes would just not be feasible.

[Negative1]

Floppy Drive Sony 1.44Mb Floppy Drive - Black

LOL...seriously?!?!

[daviddoran]

Nice system. You might also want to get a combo Blu-Ray/HD-DVD drive in there. HD-DVDs are soon to be in the <$10 bin in wal-mart, so its a cheap way to enjoy HD Movies

Also, given the cost, did you look into the dual quad intel board? I bet 4 more cores would help your DAW out immensely, and give even more headroom for 5boxing wow (one core per instance, and 3 for sound )

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813121330

The FB-Dimms will kill you even more on cost, but if you are already looking at dual 9800gx2s, it doesn't seem like a few hundred dollars scare you. You could even just put a single quad in there and see how it goes, then add another later, or upgrade both when the 6-8 core cpus come out.

[Knytestorme]

Yeah, I have modified it a little after I found a LiteOn blu-ray burner for around $380Aus....will drop one of the hard drives and put it in in place. I currently have 2 hd-dvd drives from MS, one is on the 360 and the other is a spare in case the first one dies, will then rip all my hd's to the pc and reburn them as blu-ray so the LiteOn being about $600 less than I expected can fit in nicely.

Haven't looked at a dual-quad, could have it's place but think I should be ok...I might actually use my current multibox machine for the DAW, neither Line6 or Digitech have 64-bit drivers yet for the guitar and keyboard workstations I use so there is no point to using them on the new machine...think I'll stick with the single quad at this stage. I'm also going to stick with DDR2 for the moment given how cheap it is, and the next cpu cycle from Intel is going to be a new pin layout so that means a new mb anyway and will get DDR3 then once it's down in price....don't mind paying for things, but like to get value still

[Ðeceased]

*wants £3000 pc budget too*

man that's insane hope the build goes well and let us know how it handles btw just out of curiosity.. what fans are you putting on that baby :P

[s]as for your concern on power usage.. I dunno I've seen some people running 2x GX2s with beefy quadcores and still only get up to around 450W on full load.. which would suggest 1k is enough. but I'm not an expert :S and with that many HDDs anything could happen :P[/s]

hmm acctually just looked up yer GX2s

[Havelcek]

I just built a very similar machine except I used an Asus Rampage Formula since I prefer Intel chipsets, and a Q6600 and 9800GTX. It easily runs 5 clients across 2 LCDs including Ogrimmar. I'm extremely happy...you will love it.

[spannah]

DDR3, cas timings and so on:

http://www.breakitdownblog.com/ddr2-...-speed-matter/

http://www.digit-life.com/articles3/...ddr3-1333.html

[Wilbur]

Hard Drives 6 x 1000Gb Western Digital Caviar GP 7200rpm Hard Drive - S/ATA-II, 16Mb - 3Y


^^ BASTARD.