A config for a designer/gamer that's had it!!Post Date: 2008-12-28 |
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Gringo 
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Joined: 28 Dec 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 130 |
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 Topic: A config for a designer/gamer that's had it!!Posted: 28 Dec 2008 at 2:18pm |
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Hello,
Well, I'm a designer/illustrator/gamer from Quito, Ecuador, and I'm planning to purchase a PC for work and play... but mainly for work. I need to replace a 4-5 year old Pentium4 machine, which has served me well, but has been showing it's age for about 2 years now. As some of you may be aware, the industry "standard" for designers/artists types, has been Apple's offerings, specially the Mac Pro line. It's a nice looking system, with some upgradeability and really powerful. So I have been toying with the idea of buying one of those, but, it will cost me at least 3239 dollars, without shipping: an Eight Core Xeon Processor (2.8 ghz), 320gb, 1 tb HD's, 8 gigs DDR2, keyboard mouse, and a Radeon 3870 512mb video card. It's expansible allright, but those Xeons are kinda overkill for the price (and most of my apps (and games for the matter) don't use 4 cores, let alone 8). This is the cheapest I could find by buying in different online stores... buying in apple stores would have elevated the cost at least to 4000-5000 bucks. And I know that this is far from a gaming-capable mac, which is a huge drawback for me. Now why am I telling you this? I'm searching for a similar and capable PC, but that can handle gaming. I also want the PC to be silent, and expansible... like the Mac Pro is, but with out the 8 physical cores. I read somewhere that the new Corei7's equaled the past 8 core xeons, so going that way interests me alot! I'd also like to upgrade parts later on: possibly add another X2 in a couple of years, 6 additional gigs of DDR3, more hard drives, maybe even upgrade the CPU (to the lastest the motherboard can withstand) I'd rather not liquid cool the system, as if something goes wrong with the system, I'd rather try and troubleshoot it myself, as liquid cooling knowing technicians in Ecuador are rather hard to come by. Also liquid cooling isn't in the Mac Pro, and it's pretty silent as it is. I think the parts I picked are pretty good for the job, and will handle newer applications for about 3-4 years (maybe even more!) Now those would be my "Professional" requirements. I'm a pretty enthusiastic PC gamer, but since a couple of years ago, I couldn't handle the latest games without significant drawbacks. I have been used to sucky looking games for a long time, and I think it's time I treat myself with a capable & strong PC (but not overkill). I don't want Sli or crossfire for the moment, but if interests me, I'd like to have the possibilty to do it later on. About the audio, I like my games and music to sound good, but I'm not too picky about it. I would have loved to choose the Creative XtremeGamer, but I couldn't find it in the list, so that's why I chose onboard audio. Right now my pentium 4 is equipped with a nice Creative XtremeGamer card that's the same age as my PC, so I'd like to have a good update to my sound, without paying above 100 dollars for it. I would also love the internal card reader to come with CF support, since my DSLR has that format, and maybe even support for E-SATA (for my external 1tb HD i currently possess). In the end, I would like this computer to have a long life: maybe as same what I have now, which has been 4-5 years. So what do you think? What would you recommend? Thanks for reading! TICKET LINK Specifications: Chassis Model: Cooler Master HAF 932 Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish Interior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (Quad Core) Motherboard: ASUS P6T Deluxe (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports Dual SLI or CrossFire) System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1333MHz Corsair Dominator DHX (High-Performance) Power Supply: 650W Corsair TX (Dual SLI Compatible) Card Reader: Internal Digital Media Card Reader (Black) Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 150GB Western Digital VelociRaptor (10K RPM) (16MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed) Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x) Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Video Card: 1x ATI Radeon HD 4870X2 2GB Add-on Card: - No Thanks Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 1: Cooler Master GeminII S (Compatible With i7 Processors) Liquid Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a H20: Stage 3 Cooling System Selected Chassis Airflow: Upgrade Chassis With Zalman Performance Fans Internal Lighting: - No Thanks Enhancements: - No Thanks Chassis Mods: - No Thanks Boost Processor: Yes, Overclock the processor as much as possible with complete stability Boost Video Card: Yes, Overclock the video card(s) as much as possible with complete stability Boost Memory: Yes, Overclock memory frequency (Includes Memory Fan Kit Installed) Tweak Windows: Yes, Disable and tweak all of the non-crucial services on the operating system Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based) Virus Protection: - No Thanks Office: - No Thanks Benchmarking: - No Thanks Install/Test Game: - No Thanks LCD Display: - No Thanks Surge Shield: - No Thanks Speakers: - No Thanks Keyboard: - No Thanks Mouse: - No Thanks External Storage: - No Thanks Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks Priority Build: Please Prioritize: Ship Within Four Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty PS: Also one more question I forgot to ask? I know that OCing is way cheaper than buying the more expensive options, but is it worth it with parts as delicate as memory? I wouldn't like the pc to hang in the middle of intensive work (The Adobe Suites of apps that I use for work are particulary very memory, processor, and with CS4, even GPU! intensive)... that would be disastrous! Thanks for the help! Edited by Gringo - 28 Dec 2008 at 2:25pm |
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DST4ME
DS ELITE 
Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758 |
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Posted: 28 Dec 2008 at 2:29pm |
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OK but listen, no LC means noise, even LC has some noise, so if you want quiet, the closest to it would be LC, but I will just touch up your own config.
Also most of the noise will come from your GPUs fan. here you go Ticket# 221246 --- Price: $2973 (To see this build click here) Copy of Specifications: Chassis Model: Cooler Master HAF 932 Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish Interior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (Quad Core) Motherboard: ASUS P6T Deluxe (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports Dual SLI or CrossFire) System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1333MHz Corsair Dominator DHX (High-Performance) Power Supply: 750W Corsair TX (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition) Card Reader: Internal Digital Media Card Reader (Black) Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 150GB Western Digital VelociRaptor (10K RPM) (16MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed) Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x) Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Video Card: 1x ATI Radeon HD 4870X2 2GB Add-on Card: - No Thanks Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 2: Cooler Master V8 (Compatible With i7 Processors) Liquid Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a H20: Stage 3 Cooling System Selected Chassis Airflow: Upgrade Chassis With Zalman Performance Fans Internal Lighting: - No Thanks Enhancements: - No Thanks Chassis Mods: - No Thanks Boost Processor: Yes, Overclock the processor as much as possible with complete stability Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s) Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory Tweak Windows: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) (For Enthusiasts) Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based) Virus Protection: - No Thanks Office: - No Thanks Benchmarking: - No Thanks Install/Test Game: - No Thanks LCD Display: - No Thanks Surge Shield: - No Thanks Speakers: - No Thanks Keyboard: - No Thanks Mouse: - No Thanks External Storage: - No Thanks Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks Priority Build: Please Prioritize: Ship Within Four Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty you sure a 150GB HDD will cover everything you need? like to advise a veloci for HDD1 and a 500GB for HDD2 for storage of personal/work/media files. you can alway at anytime enable or disable your OC from the bios. OC is just settings in the bios. when you get your PC back and its oced, go to bios and write down the OC settings (you call DS and have them walk you thru which ones the first time  ).
once you have your OC settings then you can go to bios and choose to set bios back to default, in one shot this will remove all OC settings. when ever you want to try the OC back, you just go back into bios and put the settings back to what you had written down Edited by DST4ME - 28 Dec 2008 at 2:32pm |
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jtspectra2
Senior Member 
Joined: 07 Oct 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 840 |
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Posted: 28 Dec 2008 at 2:34pm |
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no need to OC your ram or GPU's. and yes OCing the CPU will provide a huge upgrade for no price. you will be able to run no matter what you want with that config.
only thing i suggest is maybe a bigger PSU incase you feel like upgrading , and the 300gb Velociraptor, as you will fill that 150 faster then you think nowadays. May want to consider a better CPU cooler if you want to OC your CPU. stage 3 air would work nicely. Get rid of the windows tweak, you can do that yourself. Other then that, looks good man . Edited by jtspectra2 - 28 Dec 2008 at 2:35pm |
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Q9650 @ 4.2Ghz( Liquid Cooled), 4GB 1600Mhz DDR3, GTX280 SLI, VRaptor,HAF 932
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DST4ME
DS ELITE
Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758 |
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Posted: 28 Dec 2008 at 2:35pm |
we dont' have stage 3 air anymore, other then that, lol where you in my head when I was doing his config?   Edited by DST4ME - 28 Dec 2008 at 2:37pm |
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jtspectra2
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Joined: 07 Oct 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 840 |
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Posted: 28 Dec 2008 at 2:37pm |
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Q9650 @ 4.2Ghz( Liquid Cooled), 4GB 1600Mhz DDR3, GTX280 SLI, VRaptor,HAF 932
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Gringo
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Joined: 28 Dec 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 130 |
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Posted: 28 Dec 2008 at 4:59pm |
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Hey, thanks for the quick replies. Now I'm wondering... can you guys give me an estimate in decibels or something about the intensity of the noise?
For example, can I hear it if I'm hearing music with headphones on (on medium volume)? My current comp is VERY loud (it's in my room, and when I left it on during the night for downloads to complete, i couldn't sleep, or I would have to cover myself up with pillows and whatnot to minimize the noise. The comp is about 15 feet away from my bed as well!, behind a wall). If it sounds a bit more than a normal laptop, then it's awesome.... About the HD, I only intend to use it to install the apps and currenty working files, So I added a 1 terabyte HD, to put my music and other stuff: http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=221281. Also thanks for being so honest about unnecesary overclocks :) |
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DST4ME
DS ELITE
Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758 |
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Posted: 28 Dec 2008 at 5:22pm |
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1TB is too big and hard to manage, it takes a long time to scan, backup or anything, go with a 500GB if you need more room you can get another 500GB, you case holds 5 HDDs and 6 opticals.
noise is a matter of perception, I can tell you that the loudest thing is gonna be your GPU's fan. and you are very welcome Edited by DST4ME - 28 Dec 2008 at 5:24pm |
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JamesAstro
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Joined: 28 Nov 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 624 |
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Posted: 28 Dec 2008 at 8:05pm |
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Howdy Gringo,
If you want a quiet computer, absolutely nothing comes close to the Mac Pro. Mine is so quiet that there are times when I don't realize it's turned on. Heck, the external hard drive attached to my PC is louder than my Mac Pro. I love my DS computer, but it's easily 5 times louder than my Mac Pro. You also don't need to spend $5000 on the Mac Pro. A machine with the specs below would cost $2450: Quad core 2.8 GHz Xeon 2 GB ram 320 GB drive Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT 16x SuperDrive Then you can add another 4 GB of memory for about $140 by purchasing it from a third party. Finally, if you want to do Windows gaming, you'll need to purchase Windows. I'm not sure what that costs. Maybe $250? Anyway, that would put your total cost at about $2840. James |
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Velox, Intel Core i9 11900K, ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Hero
32GB RAM, 1TB Samsung 980 Pro NVME RTX 4090, 38" Ultrawide LG-38GL950G Noctua NH-D15S cooler and NF-A14 fans, Corsair AX1600i PSU |
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Gringo
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Joined: 28 Dec 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 130 |
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Posted: 29 Dec 2008 at 2:34am |
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DST4ME - Thanks for the suggestion about the drive size. I'll consider it, since your right about the scanning time. Data can always be backedup to DVD's, and then stored in a box somewhere anyway.
JamesAstro - Yeah your probably right about the silence. But still I don't want to jump on the mac bandwagon because the system is far from being a good gaming machine... and I know I want mine to be good. The system you put looks robust, but for gaming, I think it won't be that good... I was checking out review and articles about different computers noise levels, and I saw that the MacPro had a noise level of a normal laptop (less then 40 dBa), which is basically what people would consider a normal quiet room, or how a library would sound. A system equipped with a Radeon X2 is about 48.8-50.0 dBa, which is noticeable, but VERY bearable. According to this site, it's like a normal conversation. Anyways I'll be 80% if the time with music & headphones... so I guess it wont make much of a difference... I hope :D Thanks for the help everybody! |
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DST4ME
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Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758 |
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Posted: 29 Dec 2008 at 1:05pm |
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My pleasure, good luck
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Gringo
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Joined: 28 Dec 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 130 |
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 4:07pm |
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Hey DS fanatics, I just wanted to give a little update:: I already ordered this machine, which is basically the same of the last one, with the added bonus of the Asus Xonar DX2. I wanted spectacular sound afterall... (I deserve it)I ordered about two days ago (through some relatives that live in the states), and It's already in Stage 5!! Hope all goes well... Probably by next Friday my cousin in Miami will have it... Order number 8287 (at least that's what the email I have been recieveing says).
Edited by Gringo - 16 Jan 2009 at 4:22pm |
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DST4ME
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Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758 |
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 4:17pm |
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look great, don't forget the pics
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Gringo
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Joined: 28 Dec 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 130 |
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Posted: 16 Jan 2009 at 4:23pm |
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of course :D
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