Really need help buying new computer and Ram/64 bit/vista

zazamoth · Post by **zazamoth** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 4:08 pm

thefool wrote:1) Personally i put gigabyte motherboards in the discount class. But i've heard good stuff about them. My personal preferences are Asus and MSI.

2) why the hell wouldn't he buy 4 gig of ram? I use much more than 2 all the time. Especially some of the stuff i'm developing requires a huge amount of memory. And if you use a lot of samples and virtual instruments, it would be a stupid idea to save money on it. When i look at my joblist / memory usage i often use OVER 2 gigabytes. The more stuff you can have in the memory, the faster your ps runs.

QuadCore q6600? Thats a good advice

but from my viewpoint, i couldn't do it with 2 gigabytes of ram. And especially sincde you got such a big processor wouldn't it be stupid to limit your multitasking of heavy app's because you didn't purchase enough ram? Besides memory is cheap these days.

Hey thefool,

Hows things mate.

looking at what you've been saying, it looks like we might be in the same kind of area project wise and at least in terms of size and memory usage.

As far as the dual boot system goes, I'd mainly just be using it for the few programmes that i know NI and others wont provide support for..but i still have to give it some thought..i'm more leaning toward vista 64 as you suggested.

With Ram I would be going for the 4GB with the Q6600 and an Asus board, but what you were saying about the ram makes sense to me. I was working on a project last week using only two Plug-ins (admittedly they had a few Instrumnets and were multi out) but as soon as i hit the 25 track mark, the computer started to choke. So I thinking i'm going for bigger disk space, more Ram as well as Quad-core, that should help.

Thanks very much For all your help mate.

Hope you have a good weekend mate, keep in touch and if i do think of anything else (software wise) i'll give you a wee nudge, thanks for the offer!!

Cheers again

Gabe

thefool · Post by **thefool** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 4:30 pm

I still wouldn't recommend buying a cheap motherboard..

zazamoth · Post by **zazamoth** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 4:51 pm

Hey thefool,

No i wasn'y really thinking that, i was just going to get the best i could afford. along with the other stuff we had talked about.. i don't think it would be a good idea either buying a cheap one, given the load that is going to be placed on the CPU and such.

Cheers

darkenedsoul · Post by **darkenedsoul** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 5:05 pm

I recently put together my new system and started the ardous task of software installation. System config is:
E6850 3.0Ghz C2D
4Gb Corsair Dominator 1066 memory (XP Pro SP2 sees 3.5Gb per properties and that's ok with me, don't even want to touch Vista for awhile)
2 500Gb SATA II Maxtors set up as RAID 0 for performance (gonna get a 3rd one for having my audio files/projects on it for performance)
Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R Rev. 1.1 mobo (takes either 8Gb DDR2 up to 1066 or 4Gb DDR3 (if you can afford it!), NO firewire, plenty of USB ports, has eSATA bracket, up to 8 SATA devices (6 off Intel ICH9R 2 off Gigabyte SATA chip)
Thermaltake Armor full tower case
Thermaltake Tough Power 700W PSU
XFX 8800GTS Extreme 640MB 580mhz GPU
Zalman 9700 NT cooler (gonna overclock it a bit

)
Current cost ~$1900 with shipping. Tack on another $120 for a 3rd 500Gb SATA II Maxtor.

Got some rebates to send it for about $70-120 back.

Should be more than enough to handle audio. For my gaming too so dual function/purpose DAW/Game system. 20" Samsung 205BW widescreen LCD. Gonna hook video up via DVI to get better signal.

I almost went with the Q6600 and was gonna overclock it to at least 3.0Ghz (stock is 2.4Ghz). I'd wait till end of year when the new CPU (penryn 45nm core) comes out. This board I got has support for the new CPU's in it apparently so I could upgrade CPU/Mem next year to 9x50 series and DDR3 when it becomes a) more common and b) more cost effective. 2Gb of DDR3 1333 is >$450, 1066 is mid $300's. So pick yer poison carefully! Oh, got more of this stuff via Newegg.com too

thefool · Post by **thefool** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 8:42 pm

BEFORE I AM GOING TO SAY SOMETHING MORE:

Sorry but the 3.5 gb thing doesn't matter.

By default, Windows XP limits applications to 2GB of memory space

The upper limits of the Windows system cache size grow from 1GB in 32 bits to 1TB in 64 bits, a thousand-fold increase. WinXP x64 even takes advantage of the additional headroom for 32-bit apps, giving each one up to 4GB of its own space.

SO THERE IS a difference. The chance of hitting the roof is not big but IT IS THERE!

****
this Asus motherboard has easy-overclocking abilities where it controls the FSB and current i suppose. I tried with i think around 20% (2.88 ghz per core) which ran just fine with the standard(!) cpu cooler

Temperature rised a bit, i can't remember the excact number, but nothing very ill. But running at standard surely works nice.

I was testing a threaded benchmark program i wrote for finding prime numbers and the numbers in the intelligent-overclocking was actually comparable to the score (simply the time to find a certain number of primes). Running my program threaded of course gave a little overhead to thread controlling and probably also internal in the hardware level, but the result was very promising.

So it looks like, for non-extreme-overclockers like me, the intelligent overclocking in bios by Asus is quite funny to play with. I suppose it supports automatic restore in case of locking up.

My case:

(the thing on the top is kinda like an air-blowoff which leads the top-fans air backwards. Mostly for a cool-factor though)

Really cool inside. It comes with 3 speed-controllable fans, but i also got a fan at the upper hdd rack (i seperated the Raptor from the others).

The PSU is kept seperate. I admit its a bit hard to get all the wires alligned etc but when they first are there, they are quite nicely put away and such.

Its a REALLY heavy case, with front (magnetic sealed) "door" in steel, as well as the sides. Its very quiret, and an optimal airstream is taken care of. There is also holed in the back with rubber-holding for liquid cooling.

In the front inside the door, there is off-clickable air filters for the intake fans as well as drives etc. All very robust and high quality.

Personally i'm also a fan of Thermaltake though, just fell for this wonderfull antec case (which costed me 200$ without PSU)

One day i'll purchase a new more powerfull cpu cooler, just to get it a few degrees lower. Here i'm thinking stability and lifetime (and overclocking

)

zazamoth · Post by **zazamoth** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:53 pm

darkenedsoul wrote:I recently put together my new system and started the ardous task of software installation. System config is:
E6850 3.0Ghz C2D
4Gb Corsair Dominator 1066 memory (XP Pro SP2 sees 3.5Gb per properties and that's ok with me, don't even want to touch Vista for awhile)
2 500Gb SATA II Maxtors set up as RAID 0 for performance (gonna get a 3rd one for having my audio files/projects on it for performance)
Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R Rev. 1.1 mobo (takes either 8Gb DDR2 up to 1066 or 4Gb DDR3 (if you can afford it!), NO firewire, plenty of USB ports, has eSATA bracket, up to 8 SATA devices (6 off Intel ICH9R 2 off Gigabyte SATA chip)
Thermaltake Armor full tower case
Thermaltake Tough Power 700W PSU
XFX 8800GTS Extreme 640MB 580mhz GPU
Zalman 9700 NT cooler (gonna overclock it a bit )
Current cost ~$1900 with shipping. Tack on another $120 for a 3rd 500Gb SATA II Maxtor.

Got some rebates to send it for about $70-120 back.

Should be more than enough to handle audio. For my gaming too so dual function/purpose DAW/Game system. 20" Samsung 205BW widescreen LCD. Gonna hook video up via DVI to get better signal.

I almost went with the Q6600 and was gonna overclock it to at least 3.0Ghz (stock is 2.4Ghz). I'd wait till end of year when the new CPU (penryn 45nm core) comes out. This board I got has support for the new CPU's in it apparently so I could upgrade CPU/Mem next year to 9x50 series and DDR3 when it becomes a) more common and b) more cost effective. 2Gb of DDR3 1333 is >$450, 1066 is mid $300's. So pick yer poison carefully! Oh, got more of this stuff via Newegg.com too

Hey darkenedsoul
(sorry for the late reply couldn't get on the net till today)

It's funny you should mention waiting untill the end of the year, Someone said that to me yesterday, and again regarding DDR3, two people are just after telling me the same thing.. it's weird everytime i go to buy something new..8 new things are just round the corner.

your set up looks Funky..i'm going to have to read through a lot of stuff again, as it seems there are a whole new batch of CPU's including tri-core and a whole new set of AMDs as well as you mentioned DDR3.

As far as OS goes..I know what you mean, I am moving toward Vista 64 but I still get a shudder, thinking that some of my gear might not work..on the other hand I was reading something the other day saying that it was no were near as bad as people made out ..infact some were saying there were less starting bugs than Microsofts last two OS's. but it looks like i would be upgrading to that anyway..so i'm thinking just go for it but i'm still a little unsure.

Thanks for advice man

Gabe

zazamoth · Post by **zazamoth** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 5:57 pm

Hey thefool,

I have to say the whole overclocking thing is a little over my head at the moment but i am looking into that as well. but thanks for all the info i'll take it all on board.

As far as cases go, at the moment i'm still thinking about some of the other stuff i need.. but that case looks kick ass. I have seen some nice cases of late but i think my budjet is going to stop me to get the kind of case i want just now.

Again mate thanks for all your time and help..

Cheers gabe

darkenedsoul · Post by **darkenedsoul** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 2:56 am

zazamoth wrote:
darkenedsoul wrote:I recently put together my new system and started the ardous task of software installation. System config is:
E6850 3.0Ghz C2D
4Gb Corsair Dominator 1066 memory (XP Pro SP2 sees 3.5Gb per properties and that's ok with me, don't even want to touch Vista for awhile)
2 500Gb SATA II Maxtors set up as RAID 0 for performance (gonna get a 3rd one for having my audio files/projects on it for performance)
Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R Rev. 1.1 mobo (takes either 8Gb DDR2 up to 1066 or 4Gb DDR3 (if you can afford it!), NO firewire, plenty of USB ports, has eSATA bracket, up to 8 SATA devices (6 off Intel ICH9R 2 off Gigabyte SATA chip)
Thermaltake Armor full tower case
Thermaltake Tough Power 700W PSU
XFX 8800GTS Extreme 640MB 580mhz GPU
Zalman 9700 NT cooler (gonna overclock it a bit )
Current cost ~$1900 with shipping. Tack on another $120 for a 3rd 500Gb SATA II Maxtor.

Got some rebates to send it for about $70-120 back.

Should be more than enough to handle audio. For my gaming too so dual function/purpose DAW/Game system. 20" Samsung 205BW widescreen LCD. Gonna hook video up via DVI to get better signal.

I almost went with the Q6600 and was gonna overclock it to at least 3.0Ghz (stock is 2.4Ghz). I'd wait till end of year when the new CPU (penryn 45nm core) comes out. This board I got has support for the new CPU's in it apparently so I could upgrade CPU/Mem next year to 9x50 series and DDR3 when it becomes a) more common and b) more cost effective. 2Gb of DDR3 1333 is >$450, 1066 is mid $300's. So pick yer poison carefully! Oh, got more of this stuff via Newegg.com too
Hey darkenedsoul
(sorry for the late reply couldn't get on the net till today)

It's funny you should mention waiting untill the end of the year, Someone said that to me yesterday, and again regarding DDR3, two people are just after telling me the same thing.. it's weird everytime i go to buy something new..8 new things are just round the corner.

your set up looks Funky..i'm going to have to read through a lot of stuff again, as it seems there are a whole new batch of CPU's including tri-core and a whole new set of AMDs as well as you mentioned DDR3.

Thanks for advice man

Gabe

How does my setup look funky? 1333/1066 FSB mobo with 1333 FSB CPU (E6850) with DDR2 1066 memory (should have gone 800 and saved >$100 at least) running around 820Mhz but CPU is running at ~3.717Ghz pretty solid and the video card is amazing, what takes like 10 secs on my AMD XP3k w/3Gb DDR 400 memory takes "blink your eyes" to go from full screen to shrunk down and vice versa. If I build another to replace this box (AMD) I will look at the 8800GT 512Mb card that is close to the GTX performance-wise from what I've read about it and for about $300. Wait a bit till supply is up as they are premium priced now. Love my 8800GTS though! 640Mb version.

zazamoth · Post by **zazamoth** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 3:24 pm

Hey Darkenedsoul,

I was just meaning that your Comp looks good, and when you place it beside my desktop it makes mine look prehistoric..lol.

I still haven't decided what i'm going to get. I'm looking at a quad core system with 4gb ram and a kick ass graphics card but it will have to wait till after christmas now. wish I could build them like your good self but I think I just lack the confidence to do it, plus I'm the unluckyest S.O.B you'll ever meet..I walk past computers and the blow up.

and thanks for the advice man.

darkenedsoul · Post by **darkenedsoul** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 8:08 pm

zazamoth wrote:Hey Darkenedsoul,

I was just meaning that your Comp looks good, and when you place it beside my desktop it makes mine look prehistoric..lol.

I still haven't decided what i'm going to get. I'm looking at a quad core system with 4gb ram and a kick ass graphics card but it will have to wait till after christmas now. wish I could build them like your good self but I think I just lack the confidence to do it, plus I'm the unluckyest S.O.B you'll ever meet..I walk past computers and the blow up.

and thanks for the advice man.

LOL, and I didn't even post a picture of the beast...I should take one from a side view so you can see the pretty lights off the fans...haha. I would suggest you wait a little bit due to the Penryn CPU's coming out soon. Only one I've seen at NewEgg is the Extreme Quad which is like $1300 or so... The C2D's will be starting to show up I think in January. If you've got the money look at the DDR3 memory ($250+ for 2Gb and up, you'll be looking at more like $360 for DDR3 PC3-10600 so you have matched FSB 1333Mhz speed for 1:1 ratio). I may build yet a 2nd new PC or gut my old one and re-use the case (old one, 2x80cm front fans and 2x80cm rear fans only + PSU exhaust fan in case (An old Antec I've had for some time now). Cost is still looking at >$1100 for guts or +$1xx for guts + new case...you can always buy a pre-built one that's pretty good for ~$1500 at Bestbuy (CyberPower PC gamer box). Good video card now that competes with 8800GTX is the new 8800GT 512mb versions ~$300 depending on clock speed ($270 and up for 600Mhz and faster). I'll stop here so we don't bore folks!

and building them is just patience. Have someone who's done a lot to help out. Biggest area of concern is the heatsink/fan (HSF - high speed fan) onto the CPu and putting proper amount of thermal paste on it/them.

foxgonz · Post by **foxgonz** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 1:39 pm

you're setup looks really good, quite inline with what I have in mind too.

I'm just waiting for that penryn cpu to get out, & then I plan on buying the 2.8ghz version.
On the motherboard I like the ASUS P5KC which is pretty much the same as that Gigabyte mb you're talking about, also accepct DDR2&3 in the same amounts.

I had view on the 8800 with 512 RAM, should be fine with that I guess

just on the DDR2or3, I read lots of benchmarks and the improvements is maybe 2-3%, which is nothing and not worth the price

damn, can't wait to get my new beast :p

darkenedsoul · Post by **darkenedsoul** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 5:13 pm

I'd not go for DDR3 just yet. Prices are still up there and performance gains (as you and I have apparently read about at tomshardware or anandtech) don't justify the cost unless you got the bucks to blow on it. I spent roughly what I was planning on spending which is fine by me. Try to get the 1:1 ratio, meaning DDR2 800 and 1333 CPU and ramp up the freq. of the CPU. I have mine at 413 x 9 vs 333 x 9. and memory is running slower than rated but it's slightly over 1:1 ration (~820) and it's been stable playing guild wars for hours and messing around with Live for a bit.