Hi Im going to be getting a new computer mostly used for gaming, watching movies, music, editing videos (sometimes), internet a bit of everything really. I was going to wait for the new Gulftown but i believe hardly anything uses the 4 cores so nothing will use 6 for ages .... or am i wrong? Here is my proposed rig and im hoping that it is future proof with only minor upgrades needed for years to come. Intel® Core™i7 Processor Extreme Edition i7-975 (3.33GHz) 6.4GTs/8MB Cache 6GB DOMINATOR GT TRI-DDR3 1866MHz (7-8-7-20) ASUS® P6T DELUXE V2: DDR3, 2-Way SLI & CrossFireX on Demand Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence 2x 80GB Intel® X25-M (34nm) HIGH PERFORMANCE 2.5" SSD (upto 250MB/sR | 70MB/sW) 8x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW 2GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5970 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11 ASUS XONAR HDAV1.3 - Enjoy 100% Blu-Ray Quality Audio INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) COOLERMASTER HAF 932 FULL TOWER BLACK GAMING PC CASE 1010W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan COOLERMASTER V8 EXTREME CPU COOLER Ok Now is this a good set up? is there anything that is bottlenecking it? I was going to get the ASUS RAMPAGE II EXTREME: DDR3 and the 6GB DOMINATOR GT TRI-DDR3 2000MHz (8-8-8-24) but I thought that was a bit of an overkill as I wouldnt be over clocking it I dont think. also I picked 2x 80GB Intel® X25-M SSD drives and I take it they are better than 2x 150GB Veloceraptors 10,000rpm? I was gonna use one for installing windows 7/and storage and the other for games and apps i would be using, is that the best way to make sure everything runs fast? or would just one larger capacity SSD be just as good? any sugestions would be great. thanks
Drop the ASUS mobo, bad reliability. Get a MSI,Gigabyte,or Biostar. Personally I think its down right insane spending $200+ on a sound card. Instead I would get a RAID Controller for your SSDs. Actually, Im not sure weather to recommend doing a RAID0 SSD set up or not. I have 2 of the same drives in RAID0 on my PC and there fast, but in theorey(and hopefully Sam or KB will correct me if I am wrong) I should be looking at read speeds of around 400-500 MB/s, but instead the reads are around 200. Now I have mine on a software RAID, so putting them on a hardware raid could change things, so you might consider a single SSD. Furthermore, is 160GB really going to be enough storage space? Why not throw a 1 TB Caviar Green in there for under $100 for additional storage. You havent told us what the use of the PC is for exactly. Are we talking high end gaming?
Sorry for the double post, I missed some details yesterday: "I was going to wait for the new Gulftown but i believe hardly anything uses the 4 cores so nothing will use 6 for ages .... or am i wrong? " More and more applications are becoming multithreaded, but that doesnt mean your system wont ever utilize the extra cores. Just realized your getting the 975. The 975 seems over kill, and you could always go with the 920, and then when the Core i9/Gulftown is released, you can swap out the CPU and go sell your 920 on Ebay.
Hey Xplorer - did you ever get a chance to test out your SSDs for non-RAID speed? Dragon23 - -Asus makes terrible boards, I recomend Gigabyte or Evga...but there are many brands that are better than Asus. -You might be happier with an overclocked I5...they often go past 4GB stable, and cost only a fraction of the cost, plus their mainboards are more affordable. -Make sure the Intell SSDs are the "G2" versions, not the "G1" version. Do not try to use these with software RAID...so unless you are going to get a hardware RAID card, you don't need two. If you are going to get a hardware RAID card, then you can go ahead and get a SAS card for the same price as a SATA card...and once you have a SAS card, you are better off with a couple of 15K SAS drives than these SSDs (note - 15K drives make more noise) -The 5970 is awesome...and it is new enough that Asus has not had a chance to break the reference design. Still, you should go with almost any other brand if it is available. -What brand bluray burner? I recomend the LG. -The Xoner is overkill, but it still isn't a great card. HT Omega makes better cards for half the price. -Most card readers are total junk. Without a brand name, I would assume this is a bad reader. -Most power supply brands are junk. I have never seen a 1010W power supply from a good brand like Corsair...so I assume this is the cheapest junk around. Regardless, 1000W is overkill for this system. -That cooler is junk...not even as powerfull as the stock cooler for the i7-975.
The only 1010W PSU I'm familiar with is the OCZ GameXStream, which failed the load test at around 650W total output. They're terrible units.
