New computer time: Final Specs included!

[emad]

Updated August 28:
My PC is officially dead. I pulled the plug and hid the cable to discourage myself from attempting to boot it any more lest I risk my hard drive data.

I finally placed the order and the parts arrive next week (hopefully). I went over my original $1100 budget - $1400 after shipping and taxes, but I think the expense was justified.

This beast was set up with silence in mind - silent, high quality components took priority over performance.

• Q6600, cooled by a Thermalright Ultra Extreme with a 1200rpm Scythe S-Flex
• Gigabyte EP45 Extreme - the monster northbridge cooler will be interesting
• Visiontek HD4850 cooled by an Arctic Cooling Accelero S2 with fans
• Antec P182 case - all fans swapped for a bunch of 1200rpm Scythe S-Flex connected to a speed controller.
• Enermax Modu82+ 625 watts - the quietest psu tested by the folks at silentpcreview to date.
• Western Digital SE16 625g hard drive - quietest drive on the market based on independent testing. Very cheap as well.
• G.Skill 2x2gb PC28000 memory

I'll post some updates when it all comes in. I'm expecting beastly performance.

Original post:
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So... my desktop is on the fritz and probably has no more than 2-3 months left before it's fully dead. As a result, I need a new computer. I'd totally buy a mac desktop make my switch complete, but that's not going to happen.

Mac Pro's are simply too expensive, iMacs come with an integrated Monitor which I don't need, and the Mac Mini is a piece of junk for performance vs cost. This isn't a Macs suck thread - it's simply the fact that Apple doesn't make anything that effectively meets my performance needs within my budget. Maybe I can build a clone? The specs below are what have been recommended to me by a hardcore PC user and don't necessarily reflect what a mac clone would need. I still need suggestions on just what to get though

Budget - $1100

Requirements: A bit about what I do - i'm not really a hardcore user. Nothing at all like I used to be. I barely know anything about the hardware market any more - so I come to you folks for help.

• I play the occasional 3d game, but not often. I want an up-to-date video card so I'm thinking of getting the HD4850.
• I'd like a quad core processor to supplement my needs in Photoshop/Lightroom and because I occasionally use my PC to re-encode video to an Xbox compatible format and stream it to my xbox. Is the phenom good? Intels tend to perform better at the moment, right? I stopped following PC hardware over a year ago. I'm guessing the Q6600 is still the way to go?
• Ram - 4 gigs Corsair/Mushkin DDR2 - economy stuff or a step above.
• Hard Drive(s) - I should get a 500gb or 1tb seagate just because my current pair of 250g drives in Raid0 are pretty damn old now.
• Motherboard - I was thinking of getting a P35/P45 board... Anything really, so long as it supports CrossfireX. I don't know WHICH board to get though.
• Soundcard? Do I even need one? I'm not totally satisfied with the onboard card I have now.
• Burner - i'll just grab a cheap Pioneer or LG or something
• PSU - must be a good brand and two key words - extremely quiet.
• Chassis - I might keep my current one or spend the $200 on a good Cooler Master Stacker... I like full towers, but maybe I'll get the Antec Sonata III and be done with it just because of how quiet those bad boys are.

Oh, and _any_ information on how to set up a proper and functional "Mac Clone" with this - ie, no hacking needed to install the OS - something like the Psystar computers would be phenominal.

 

[Gabkicks]

newegg is coming to canada soon. You ordering from NCIX? http://www.newegg.ca/
Nehalem is coming out soon, But I don't know if you'd be able to build a i7 system for 1k anytime soon. I'm very happy with my e8400. q6600's go for a bit more, but e8400 is newer tech.
http://techgage.com/article/intel_core_2_duo_e8400_30ghz_-_wolfdale_arrives/9

the 4850's great. I'm very happy with that. you may want more power if you want to play games like Crysis at 1900x1200 on very high settings. Asus P5Q Deluxe P45 motherboards seems popular. I just have a p43 single pcie 2.0 16x motherboard.

 

[emad]

newegg is coming to canada soon. You ordering from NCIX? http://www.newegg.ca/
Nehalem is coming out soon, But I don't know if you'd be able to build a i7 system for 1k anytime soon. I'm very happy with my e8400. q6600's go for a bit more, but e8400 is newer tech.
http://techgage.com/article/intel_core_2_duo_e8400_30ghz_-_wolfdale_arrives/9

the 4850's great. I'm very happy with that. you may want more power if you want to play games like Crysis at 1900x1200 on very high settings. Asus P5Q Deluxe P45 motherboards seems popular. I just have a p43 single pcie 2.0 16x motherboard.

Will be NCIX or CanadaComputers.com - Tigerdirect.ca is also an option

 

[Turbo Lag]

With my little PC knowledge, you can build something like mine with the Radeon gfx card, and the Q6600 for the price you're looking for.

 

[opendriver]

I have the Sonata III. Its quite quiet and looks nice too. Not to mention the earthwats 500 PSU. Its enough to run an 8800GT, E7200 a DVD drive and a hard drive. You can build a hell of a machine for 1100 CAD. Does this price include the OS? XP? Vista?

For the video card, Nvidia and ATI are closely matched with the 9800GTX+ and the 4850, but id go with a 4850, but get one with a good cooler (they tend too run a little warm).

 

[Tornado]

The 4850 is generally cheaper than the 9800 as well, with the 4850s that have cost parity usually being ones with crazy overclocks. They are also better multimedia cards on top of that.

For the sound card you could get one of those cheapo ones unless the mobo has good onboard sound.

 

[emad]

Some modifications to the spec:
I managed to do $1200 for a setup with a Q9450 and an HD 4870 - using the price match feature on NCIX, I could bring this down to 1100... then again, the q6600 + 4850 combo would be under $1000.

SO HARD TO CHOOSE! I might go the cheaper route though. In either case, I managed to squeeze some extra life out of this current desktop by underclocking it a bit. It's been rock stable for the last 48 hours and running nonstop - definitely a good sign.

 

[Aero-R]

I'm building myself a clone one those days, I'm on a similar situation too and I was much into the PC world years ago but I've been a bit out since 2004, so now for the building of my new one I've been reading a lot and so on... if you don't mind, I would like to give you a few tips if it's not too late. (I'll post pics of the PC I'm building on the next months, it's nearly finished but the last parts... LCDs, hot swapping HDDs, etc will come on November or so, now I'm only building it with the "things to work").

On what I can help you (all except the graphic card since I'm not much into games, I just bought a ASUS 7600GT because I found it cheap on one store lol):

• I'd like a quad core processor to supplement my needs in Photoshop/Lightroom and because I occasionally use my PC to re-encode video to an Xbox compatible format and stream it to my xbox. Is the phenom good? Intels tend to perform better at the moment, right? I stopped following PC hardware over a year ago. I'm guessing the Q6600 is still the way to go?
• Ram - 4 gigs Corsair/Mushkin DDR2 - economy stuff or a step above.
• Hard Drive(s) - I should get a 500gb or 1tb seagate just because my current pair of 250g drives in Raid0 are pretty damn old now.
• Motherboard - I was thinking of getting a P35/P45 board... Anything really, so long as it supports CrossfireX. I don't know WHICH board to get though.
• Soundcard? Do I even need one? I'm not totally satisfied with the onboard card I have now.
• Burner - i'll just grab a cheap Pioneer or LG or something
• PSU - must be a good brand and two key words - extremely quiet.
• Chassis - I might keep my current one or spend the $200 on a good Cooler Master Stacker... I like full towers, but maybe I'll get the Antec Sonata III and be done with it just because of how quiet those bad boys are.

• Forget about Quad, it's only for renders and even the renders soft are not always using the 4 cores. I'm not saying that Quad cores are bad... I'm just telling you that the software is not done yet in the proper way to aproach it (same goes for the x64 architecture, but a bit less). So, my suggestion is the next one: you should better spent your money on a superior 2 cores than on a medium 4 cores. I suggest you to go to a E8400 or higher. I've a E8400, and the E8500 for example is going on 3'16 Ghz on each core with 1333 on the FSB and 6 MBs of cache. That's better than a Quad core with less frequency on each core due to the software done today. Unless you're going to render a LOT of video on a professional way, this is my suggestion. Take a look at some comparative reviews if you want more data.
• Go CORSAIR for the ram, DDR2 or DDR3 depends on the money.
• Forget about SEAGATE, go for WESTERN DIGITAL. I'm a lover of the security on my data. I own four WESTERN DIGITAL hard disk and two ones more are coming, believe when I tell you that your choice should be a WESTERN DIGITAL one. Of course, not the cheapest one becaue they also do some "normal" hdds, go for a AAKS model, or a AAYS (RAID 24/7) model, or if you're interested so much on video take a look at their site for the HDD for video.
• For the motherboard.. just get an ASUS. Their 775 Socket one are so good motherboards. Pretty similar between them with some differences on the gaming side or the connections. But a ASUS of 100$ is a pretty good motherboard.
• Well.. you maybe would need a sound card yes, if you're going to work with audio in your video I'll suggest you to pay for one instead of use the integrated audio of the motherboard. My suggestion is: X-FI Fatal1ty Professional Serires (it's the version without the 5'25" RACK, so it's cheaper).
• About the burner you can't go wrong with Pioneer or LG. They are not Plextor, but they will work as the first day.
• If you want an extremely quiet one.. you could choice a Silent PSU, but you'll need a pretty cool chassis to keep it safe. So my suggestion is to go for a CORSAIR. I own one and It's silent as hell, it's in fact on the reviews one of the most quiet PSU.
• And finally my suggestions about the chassis is just don't spend 200$ on one unless it's a aluminium LIAN LI chassis. Be sure they are the best, so don't spend money on chassis if it's not a LIAN LI haah, aluminium means cool.

I've suggested specially the things & brands I used to buy now for the building of my PC, so I'm almost being so much subjetive and suggested you the thing I personally love, but that's my point of view

 

[Shannon]

Some modifications to the spec:
I managed to do $1200 for a setup with a Q9450 and an HD 4870 - using the price match feature on NCIX, I could bring this down to 1100... then again, the q6600 + 4850 combo would be under $1000.

SO HARD TO CHOOSE! I might go the cheaper route though. In either case, I managed to squeeze some extra life out of this current desktop by underclocking it a bit. It's been rock stable for the last 48 hours and running nonstop - definitely a good sign.

At 16 x 10 (which I assume you're running at if you still have that 22"), the HD4850 will eat up any game you through at it. It's only when you start getting into 19 x 12 or higher that the HD4870 will make a noticable difference. Just make sure you get an aftermarket cooler though, because they run like an oven. And unless you're going to be OC'ing to the hills, the difference between the Q9450 and Q6600 is negligible.

• Well.. you maybe would need a sound card yes, if you're going to work with audio in your video I'll suggest you to pay for one instead of use the integrated audio of the motherboard. My suggestion is: X-FI Fatal1ty Professional Serires (it's the version without the 5'25" RACK, so it's cheaper).

...only if you want the most horrible driver support known to man. The P35/P45 and pretty much any other Intel chipset in the last few years has Intel HD Audio anyway, which supports something like 192kHZ/32bit audio and 8 channels. Pretty much defeats the purpose of a third-party soundcard, unless you're doing studio work and need ultra high SNR and low latencies.

 

[emad]

Current specs that i'm considering:

q6600
4gb ram - Corsair or OCZ most likely
640gb WD hard drives (quietest available)
BFG HD 4850 ICEQ4 (quietest stock card available)
Enermax Modu82+ 640w psu (quietest available and well reviewed)
Tagan Black Pearl case (fans swapped for Yate Loon or Scythe F series)

Pricing is about $1200 with shipping on the parts

 

[Dazzla]

Have you thought about building a hackintosh?

 

[emad]

I did, and I'm considering giving it a test on this PC. It seems unlikely to be easy since ive got my eyes set on using an ATI video card. Besides that - I have planned for an Intel chipset and cpu. Both of which have been reported as hackintoshable. We'll see what happens.

Mac Pro refresh is due soon - price won't drop but they'll be a viable option for anyone looking for a high end pc again.

 

[Aero-R]

...only if you want the most horrible driver support known to man. The P35/P45 and pretty much any other Intel chipset in the last few years has Intel HD Audio anyway, which supports something like 192kHZ/32bit audio and 8 channels. Pretty much defeats the purpose of a third-party soundcard, unless you're doing studio work and need ultra high SNR and low latencies.

They say 192 Khz/32 bits yeah, but I doubt it pretty much. In fact, some of great sound cards that claims 24 bits have not all their DAC on 24 bits, some are on 16 yet. Anyway yeah I'm with you on that point, extra audio is not needed on normal use case with the recently audio integrated on the good motherboards. I just suggested him the sound card because he talked about audio edition.. but I honestly don't know if it's with professional focus or not.

Talking about Creative... it's not about the drivers.. they are not so bad in my opinion, I've an X-FI FATAL1TY CHAMPION SERIES on a P35 chipset motherboard, ASUS P5K PREMIUM and it's running without problems. The problem with Creative is their horrible customer support (the X-Fi that gave problems was the FPS edition I think). Auzentech is going to win some market maybe.

 

[emad]

They say 192 Khz/32 bits yeah, but I doubt it pretty much. In fact, some of great sound cards that claims 24 bits have not all their DAC on 24 bits, some are on 16 yet. Anyway yeah I'm with you on that point, extra audio is not needed on normal use case with the recently audio integrated on the good motherboards. I just suggested him the sound card because he talked about audio edition.. but I honestly don't know if it's with professional focus or not.

Talking about Creative... it's not about the drivers.. they are not so bad in my opinion, I've an X-FI FATAL1TY CHAMPION SERIES on a P35 chipset motherboard, ASUS P5K PREMIUM and it's running without problems. The problem with Creative is their horrible customer support (the X-Fi that gave problems was the FPS edition I think). Auzentech is going to win some market maybe.

Is that on Vista or XP? Vista X64 drivers are notoriously bad with Creative. Besides that, after doing my research, i may wind up with an Asus Sound Card or sticking with onboard and buying a USB Audio Interface from a company like M-Audio. The Asus is pretty darn good, though it costs a bit more than the Creative.


In either case. I placed my order two days ago. I'm expecting the packages to arrive early to middle of next week.

 

[Aero-R]

Is that on Vista or XP? Vista X64 drivers are notoriously bad with Creative. Besides that, after doing my research, i may wind up with an Asus Sound Card or sticking with onboard and buying a USB Audio Interface from a company like M-Audio. The Asus is pretty darn good, though it costs a bit more than the Creative.


In either case. I placed my order two days ago. I'm expecting the packages to arrive early to middle of next week.

I'm running on XP x86 and XP x86-x64. Vista is the worst thing I've ever seen.

If you're going to pay for that Asus Xonar D2, think twice. On the reviews I've seen with their results, the things goes like "Auzentech 7.1 Prelude" > "Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty" > "Asus Xonar D2". I don't know if it cost a bit more than the creative because the one I bought was the Champion Edition with the external 5.25" bay, but maybe the Fatal1ty without the 5.25" without the bay is long way cheaper, don't know. In that case, if you don't need the connections and you want quality, go for the X-Fi Fatal1ty without the 5'25" bay (the problems with Vista were with the Fatal1ty FPS & the Platinum model I think, that included a hardware decoder for the Optical In and Vista doesn't support it, but the actual models doesn't include that decoder and has better drivers and those models are no longer on the shops as I know), and if you want to spend money and get best quality, go for the Auzentech 7.1 Prelude (I did't bought that one because I needed the 5'25" bay on a sound card and because it wasn't available here, but it's one of the best if not the best one at all). Anyway, consider to keep on the motherboard integrated one if your motherboard is a good one. I suggested you a PCI sound card if you were going to do some professional focused video edit, but if you like the sound of your motherboard maybe you would enjoy that money of the sound card a bit more on other component. It's just all about the importance of audio for you.

Good luck with those components mate, enjoy it all !

 

[emad]

Thanks dude!

Oh, and vista is just fine under the following conditions:
1) you actually have a legal copy. Hacked versions fudge with kernel files - that's uncool and causes instability
2) your hardware is designed for it. An older PC should not be running vista. 4 gigs ram, dual core or better, and a directx 10 video card. DX9 cards take a performance hit by Vista's aero features. DX 10 cards, not so much... i'll still have them shut off.

 

[Aero-R]

Thanks dude!

Oh, and vista is just fine under the following conditions:
1) you actually have a legal copy. Hacked versions fudge with kernel files - that's uncool and causes instability
2) your hardware is designed for it. An older PC should not be running vista. 4 gigs ram, dual core or better, and a directx 10 video card. DX9 cards take a performance hit by Vista's aero features. DX 10 cards, not so much... i'll still have them shut off.

I was talking about a powerful PC that came with an original copy of Vista, and yes it was designed for it, it comes with the logo too. I've seen a lot of laptop and desktops running slower with Vista (they came with that S.O. installed) and then running faster with XP after a format of the computer to change the S.O.

 

[emad]

Sadly, there's a huge difference between MS's requirements for that "works with Vista" sticker and the actual system requirements to run Vista. You need a beefy setup and a dx10 card is almost a must.