Ultimate PC - your recommendations

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zambussi

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My existing PC, is currently 10 years old, and although super stable, it's starting to wear out.

Here's what I have - AMD Athlon 2.4Ghz, RAID 1 ADAPTEC SCSI, ATI Saphire Card (running 2 x 42" plasma in dual screen), 3Gb Ram, Windows 2K, Fax Modem.

I am after super stability, and blinding speed for Photoshop, Coreldraw, Quickbooks etc. I need to be able to have multiple apps open at the same time without the machine falling over (at present, I can have 10 - 12 apps open with no issues - including Coreldraw, Outlook Express & Photoshop - which eat memory and resources).

I want the multi-threading capability of SAS drives (Not SATA) which need PCI Express 8x slots for the controller, but also need need PCI express 16x Slot for the graphics card. I thought about dual xenons etc, but none of my apps would take advantage of such a config.
I don't need large drives - right now I use 75Gb drives, and keep my work files on a SAS NAS drive on the Network.
The PC will stay on 24/7, 365 days / year (as my existing one does).

Money is no object - I want a PC which will last me another 10 years.

What would you recommend ? (Motherboard / Drives / Adaptec Controller / etc)
 
Hmm....

*INTEL® "Extreme Series" "Smack Over" X58 - Socket LGA1366 @ QPI Up To 6.GT/s - For Intel Core™ i7 Processors Only - R2299
* Intel® Boxed Core™ i7 Extreme 975 Processor - 3.33GHz Quad Core, Socket 1366, 8MB L3, 6.4GT/s QPI, 45nm, x64 Support, 3 Year - R8799
* 4 x Transcend® aXeRam™ DDR2-1066 4GB Gaming RAM Kit - Matched Pair Of 2x 2GB Modules - Aluminium Heat Spreader - R1299 each
* GIGABYTE® ODIN PRO 1200W Modular Power Supply - R2500
* GIGABYTE® 3D Galaxy II Liquid Cooler - Liquid Cooling Solution - R1499
* Intel® X25-E Series - 64GB Solid State 2.5" SATA II Plus Drive - SLC Based - High Performance Drive - FOR THE OS - R8457
* 3 x Seagate® Cheetah™ 15k.5 Series - 450GB Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) - 16MB Cache @ 15000RPM - R3799 each
* 2 x Leadtek® NVIDIA® GeForce GTX295, 1796MB 896Bit GDDR3, CUDA, PCI-E 2.0, Dual DVI, HDMI, DX10/OpenGL, Quad-SLI, Vista Premium - IN SLI - R4999 each

All excl VAT.

And you could pick from any of the new Coolermaster Case ranges, i prefer the Storm, Sniper edition
The Operating system of choice would have to be Windows 7 Enterprise.
The SSD would give you lightning quick speeds on your OS, and the 3x1.5TB would be for storage...

This should be a good starting point...
 
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If i was you i would look getting that intel ssd and putting 2 in sli. :eek:

Those specs look except for the ddr 2 memory, i would get 12gb ddr 3 1600 axeman as ddr 2 does not work with i7
 
Please do not get an Intel motherboard. Go for Asus, MSI, or EVGA. MSI and I think Asus alos have SATA 3 on their motherboards which will give better performance from a SSD.
Not really sold on the idea of an i7 975. But it does have marginally better performance than 965/950.
You will also need at least 6Gb of RAM, since its meant to operate as triple channel memory. So you need dimms in multiples of 3, not 2.
And also, GTX275? Please no. Get ATI 5870 (one should be enough for your purposes), or wait until the new nVidias (which alas are rumoured to be hot and power hungry).
Finally, that PSU is powerful, but overkill if you are going to stick with one GPU. And since you are running the pc 24/7, you will want at least bronze efficiency, preferable silver to lower power cunsumption. Cant find one now, but I'd definately go for the most efficient PSU you can afford.
Do agree on the case though :D The sniper storm is nice and big, easily to install everything, and plenty of airflow while still being quiet.
 
Nice spec on that machine, but I think you overlooked something... how do you quote a SAS drive for use on something without a SAS controller?

Have a look at these controllers:

http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?product_id=195

Asbis does the Promise product range. Alot of RAID controllers define JBOD support as make one contiguous disk from many, but Promise controller allows this to be just be individual drives. That might come in handy. Cost is maybe R5K, I think.
 
This is not a gaming PC so graphics cards shouldn't be the first consideration imo. It's a workhorse.

I think 975 is kind of a waste of money tbh. It does give better performance but not relative to its cost. If you can hold on i9 is nearly here and it should justify the exorbitant cost overhead. Also agree on 6gb in 3x2gb 1333mhz dimms. i7 makes considerable use of triple channel.

SSDs are an absolute must in your case - possibly 2x256gb Raid0 striped array.
Then 3 or 4 1-1.5tbSAS drives additional in a Raid5 perhaps for some redundancy.
 
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Money no object ?

I know some one who built a 100k PC so never say money is no object.

I would say you are looking at R25k before you start wasting your money.
 
Also, there's nothing wrong with an Intel motherboard. Sounds like this machine needs stability and all the Intel boards I've installed in server grade machines are still running several years down the line. They might not pack the punk and tweakability of a desktop gaming board, but one hardly wants that in something that is built for stability.
 
Yes, if its server grade then fine. But anything thats server grade is going to be very reliable. But as plain desktop components, I would not go for an intel mobo
 
TheRift said:
Nice spec on that machine, but I think you overlooked something... how do you quote a SAS drive for use on something without a SAS controller?

Have a look at these controllers:

http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?product_id=195

Asbis does the Promise product range. Alot of RAID controllers define JBOD support as make one contiguous disk from many, but Promise controller allows this to be just be individual drives. That might come in handy. Cost is maybe R5K, I think.
Click to expand...

HMM...forgot about that...
 
ben dover said:
I see a GTX295....
Click to expand...

My bad, typo! Still dont think its right though. If you want it to last, you will want the latest hardware, which means DX11. And for a workstation, the new ATI cards can output to 3 screens on their own without crossfire (or sli for nvidia). And a 5870 is just about equal to a GTX295, but runs cooler and uses less power. My vote 5870, 5970, or wait for new nVidia cards and hope the rumours are highly exaggerated.
 
From his description of what he does I think a workstation would be more to his needs

this is just a general description so long I'll look up exact parts later
Server grade board with sata 3
hexacore intel xeon cpu
3x4gb server grade memory
intel ssd in raid 0
sas drives however many you feel you need
sas controller
nvidia quadrofx workstation graphics or the ati equivalent can't remember what its called
1KW pc power and cooling server grade psu
E-ATX case to house it all

*edit Engrish*
 
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If you go the i7 way buy tripple channel kits (something like 3x2GB kit). Thats one of the i7's strong points.
 
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