Configuring new build with Rebuilder/CCE focus

Discussion in 'PC hardware help' started by teflonmyk, Oct 4, 2007.

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  1. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    /me whispers so car doesn't hear me.. quite right, in fact i bought a posh SatNav for it :p ..however other than that my car is way past getting new parts, for the last couple or 4 years it gets just the bits required by each MOT, all other problems stay unfixed for good, 'tis a bit of a boneshaker, 160,000 miles on it now.... that LG dvd-rom drive i have has done almost as many miles too come to think of it
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2007
    creaky, Nov 29, 2007
    #41
  2. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    Well the new machine was eventually built, and running silently, had to see it running to believe it was in fact as silent as it was supposed to be; all going fine, then updated the BIOS (just because it was 2 versions behind). Major mistake was the understatement of the year as it would no longer boot, nothing whatsoever worked to get around it; so have had to RMA the board, and will most definitely not go near updating the replacement board; it didn't help that it had been a very long build up to that point, and in the end that was due to wierd reboots and somewhat obscure messages about 'overclocking failed' each boot time (plus it didn't help that the manual AND the BIOS errors are in pigeon English). Anyways, it turned out that there were 2 jumpers for the FSB that i'd overlooked. But the annoyance was that it all just worked, then i was stupid enough to flash the BIOS. Had done it countless times on countless bits of kit but not once had a firmware update turned something into a paperweight before but as i say, i won't make that mistake twice. Machine felt very very quick though, while it was working.

    Realised when i'd first opened the motherboard box that there was in fact no onboard video, luckily i had an old Matrox Millenium lying spare (who hasn't!); have just bought an old cheap and cheerful (Silent) Geforce 6200 as don't want this machine for games, that'll do a treat. Am looking forward to an extended bout of movie encoding when the replacement mobo turns up, got quite a movie backlog now
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2007
    creaky, Dec 5, 2007
    #42
  3. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Ouch, unlucky on that one. It wasn't a cheap board, either!
    Glad to hear it's a nice quiet PC! :)
     
    sammorris, Dec 5, 2007
    #43
  4. teflonmyk

    teflonmyk Regular member

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    Sorry guys.... Been outta the loop for a while. No, I didn't build my new rig yet. One of my laptops died (old ThinkPad T-30). So, I bought a new laptop instead. Still using my core2 rig (in sig) my Dell laptop (in sig) and my new Acer Extensa 5620. I am going to build the quad core rig at the first of the year after Intel intros its new round of chips. Maybe I can get an even better deal...
     
    teflonmyk, Dec 10, 2007
    #44
  5. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    Well the new replacement motherboard turned up, machine is all together again, haven't reinstalled much software yet, just wanted to see how DVD Rebuilder fared, a rather impressive 50mins to re-encode Pirates of the Caribbean World's End.... this thing sure flies!

    http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_jump.cfm/335628/3619796
     
    creaky, Dec 11, 2007
    #45
  6. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Sounds pretty damn fast, certainly compared to what you're used to running. Nice work!
     
    sammorris, Dec 11, 2007
    #46
  7. Pop_Smith

    Pop_Smith Regular member

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    Nice work Creaky, even without any tweaking done to the PC its still running at speeds I would kill for. ;-)

    Just imagine how blazing fast it would be if CCE used all four cores of your bad-boy.

    Peace
     
    Pop_Smith, Dec 11, 2007
    #47
  8. Pop_Smith

    Pop_Smith Regular member

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    OK I am not trying to "Highjack" the thread but its topic-related. Anyway, I was thinking of building a PC around February or March '08 for RB/CCE and some gaming, although I am mainly into older games.

    Here is a list of components I have picked out:
    Case:
    Thermaltake Lanbox $131.99 - Looking for something portable and that case seems to do OK with airflow.

    Processor:
    Q6600 - $219 via Intel's Retail Edge or, if I can't get the Q6600, an E6750 for $189.99 because the Q6700 bundle is sold out.

    Processor Cooler:
    Blue Orb II - $45.99

    Motherboard
    ASUS P5K-VM - $119.99

    I'm really torn on the RAM, I am thinking of overclocking the processor to ~3.2GHz with a 1:1 RAM:FSB ratio. I really want this OCZ RAM but its been out of stock for a while. :-(
    If that RAM is out of the question then I would probably go with this Crucial RAM. - $98 for the Crucial or ~$82 if the other RAM ever gets in-stock.

    Hard Drives:
    1x - Raptor X - $181.13 and 1x - Western Digital 500GB WD5000AAJS - $100

    I am just going to get a 9 series card (or heck maybe even an 8 series depending on prices) but I am not which one. Thinking ~$300 for the graphics card but not entirely sure.

    Power Supply:
    Corsair's CMPSU-620HX - $146.10

    DVD Burner - Either the Pioneer DVR-212DBK - $37.83 or the Lite-On LH-20A1L-05 - $32.99.

    Finally some Arctic Silver 5 - $11 (w. shipping(!))
     
    Pop_Smith, Dec 12, 2007
    #48
  9. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    Absolutely, though Hank's encoder is able to utilise all 4 cores but haven't had chance to try it on the new machine yet.

    P.S. if you do get the Q6600, like the other guys advised, make sure to get the G0 revision of the CPU
     
    creaky, Dec 12, 2007
    #49
  10. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    The Blue orb 2 is a bit of a naff CPU cooler, a Q6600 would get quite hot using one of those. If you need a low profile cooler get a Zalman CNPS8700 or something like that. If you're going for a large graphics card, make sure it'll fit in your small case!
     
    sammorris, Dec 12, 2007
    #50
  11. Pop_Smith

    Pop_Smith Regular member

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    @sammorris, thanks for the feedback on the cooler. :)

    That Zalman looks awesome and its actually 20mm smaller, while being only 1mm taller, than the Blue Orb II.

    A review I saw here used the Blue Orb and it fit ok except you had to install the RAM first. He used a 8800GTS in the review and it fit OK.

    Peace
     
    Pop_Smith, Dec 12, 2007
    #51
  12. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Zalman coolers are much better than the Blue orb, you won't regret it!
     
    sammorris, Dec 12, 2007
    #52
  13. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    I can certainly vouch for that; left machine on overnight moving many hundred GB around various disks and it greeted me this morn at 25C, nice (though the room was a tad frosty too)
     
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2007
    creaky, Dec 12, 2007
    #53
  14. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    Santa popped by early and noticed my PC Case had a few spare spaces so PC is now fully kitted out as follows -

    CPU: Core 2 Quad Q6600 (G0 edition) @2.40GHz ie no Overclocking (yet)
    CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS 9700 LED Cooler (with fan in silent mode)
    PC Case: Antec 900 (with all fans in silent mode)
    PSU: Corsair HX Series 620W Modular
    Motherboard: MSI P35 Platinum
    Memory: 4GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 PC2-8500 1066MHz
    Sound: Onboard 5.1 audio
    Speakers: Logitech X-530 5.1 system
    HDD's: 6 Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA-II drives (couldn't fit any more in) :cool:
    Optical Drives: 2 LG GSA-H66NBAL 18x SATA DVD-RW's, Benq DW1650 IDE DVD-RW
    Graphics Card: cheap nVidia GeForce 6200LE (Silent Edition)
    Monitor: Acer AL1916WAS
    O/S: Just good old XP (as don't want Vista on there, stealing resources)

    Used to swear by CCE as my favourite encoder but now prefer to use Hank's Encoder (version 0.22) http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_jump.cfm/335628/3628341

    ..as it properly utilises all 4 Cores [​IMG].

    edited a little- as have added a couple more bits and pieces since the original build...

    HDD's: 4 Western Digital WD5000AAKB 500GB drives in USB2.0 enclosures; also moved the 6th internal WD5000AAKS into an eSTATA/USB2.0 enclosure; also added a spare WD2500JB 250GB drive (previously used in one of my xboxes) into yet another USB2.0 enclosure as a spare work drive.
    This brings the total of hard drives to 11. [​IMG].
    Optical Drives: added an LG 4167B drive internally (for ripping duties), also added 3 Benq DW1650 writers in USB2.0 enclosures
    Misc.: a couple of USB2.0 leads with backplates to fully utilise the 2 unused onboard USB connectors
     
    Last edited: Mar 18, 2008
    creaky, Dec 21, 2007
    #54
  15. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    That's a fine silent encoding machine there, nice one!
     
    sammorris, Dec 21, 2007
    #55
  16. greensman

    greensman Regular member

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    creaks,
    How do you like the Q6600?? I'm sure (if memory serves) you're running so fast now you don't even know what to do. :p

    Oh and LG's?? You like those pretty well?? How are they treating your TY's and RICOH's??

    As sam said it seems you have a VERY quiet puter even with the Antec 900 and all those fans. You changed the fans right? Can't remember which ones you went with. Do you mind sharing? tia... ;)

    Good luck to you creaky and may you encode fast and many times. :D

    Oh and YEAH for Santa. He dropped by early for me too. lol. Got an unexpected BONUS from work for Christmas..... whooo-hoooo!!!!!

    ...gm
     
    greensman, Dec 21, 2007
    #56
  17. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    If I'm honest, you don't really need to change the case fans included in the 900, just run them at a silly low speed, the PC will still be cooled adequately.
     
    sammorris, Dec 21, 2007
    #57
  18. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    Exactly, they're the original Antec fans so they're staying, they're set to the lowest setting, nice and silent; as to the LG drives, i'm not a big fan of LG burners anymore, my 3 or so 4167B's have always been a bit flaky, the new new LG SATA's i only bought as (from what little i could find on the internet said that) apparently they are quite quiet; all i ever read about SATA optical drives is that they're all noisy and these are hopefully quiet. It's not that i want everything completely silent, it's just that there's no excuse in this day and age for noisy optical drives; remember back when 40x and 52x cdrom drives came out, a lot of them were stupidly loud, it seems SATA opticals are like that; if the LG's are too loud i might send them back. I haven't been at home much to do any actual burning, i have a backlog of about 70+ movies to do :)

    The Quad runs very well, so much so that it's now frustrating using other PC's, ie my older ones and any crappy work machines
     
    creaky, Dec 22, 2007
    #58
  19. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Haha, I see your silentPC interest doesn't go as far as mine. Them all on low equates to 'a bit noisy' in my terms. Even with 4 hard drives at the front and the fans set to the minimum speed such that they will start moving by themselves, I have no heat issues in my 900, so I leave it like that. Nice and quite except for the fact that the WD2500JS makes an annoying high pitched whine, and I have two of them. It's not at all loud, but prominent.
    The two LG drives I've had have been a normal 48x16 DVD-ROM and a GSA-4163BA which I had no issues with at all.
    I also see you've caught the fast PC bug, fast becomes normal, and normal becomes "how did I ever put up with this?"
     
    sammorris, Dec 22, 2007
    #59
  20. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    One thing i cannot stand is whining hard drives. Some of the drives i have are donkey's years old, they get recycled thru all the older PC's every now and then, but any that whine go in parent's pc's (as their ears are a little less sharp!), but at work we have to use old crap pc's long past their sell-by date; for instance they are too stingy to give us new pc's for linux use but my main one is ok as it's a P4 2.4 (and it's quiet!), though my other 2 pc's are slower, the other linux pc is an old P3 800 with a high-pitched whining drive (headphones are worn often) and the XP pc is a P4 2.66 i think but it runs like crap (but at least it's quiet). There's always whining hard drives around the office but we get used to it over the years as long as it's not too close by. Our 100s of call centre agents have brand new pc's (dual core Exx0 series) and they just use Internet Explorer and MS Office, so we've complained and we've been promised new ones soon; at least that means we can keep the faster of our current machines and use for linux and ditch the really old ones (or take them home). But yes, i've always got by with old machines, when you get spoilt by new stuff it's very frustrating going back to the old; (but of course that only really applies in Windows, any of my linux pc's are generally ok grunt-wise, it's only Windows that lets the side down!)
     
    creaky, Dec 22, 2007
    #60
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