Any comment regarding my order?

Hi,

 

This is what I’m thinking of ordering. I will be using 3 monitors, 2 X EIZO S2411W (1920 by 1200) and 1 X EIZO S1932 (1280 by 1024). I will not be using SLI.

 

I will be using the PC mostly for Dragon Naturally Speaking (very large documents), Adobe Photoshop CS5 (a lot of photo editing) and for fun some CAD drawing.

 

Chassis Model: Digital Storm HailStorm (Black OPS Edition)

Exterior Finish: Standard Factory Finish

Trim Accent: Standard Factory Finish

Processor: Intel Core i7 Edition 980X 3.33GHZ (Hexa-Core)

Motherboard: ASUS Rampage III Extreme motherboard

System Memory: CORSAIR CMG6GX3M3A2000C7 - DOMINATOR GT, 6GB (3x2GB), 2000MHz, 7-8-7-20, with Airflow fan and CMXTRFINKITRED - Dominator Extended Fins in Red (I already have them new myself)

Power Supply: 1500W Silverstone

Expansion Bay: Dual Solid State Drive Swap Bay (I think it comes with 800D)

Hard Drive 1: 2 X 600GB Western Digital Velociraptor (One of them only for imaging/backup)

Or

2 X Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC (One of them only for imaging/backup)

Hard Drive 2: 2 X 300 GB Western Digital Velociraptor (I already have one new)

Hard Drive 3: 1 X 2TB Western Digital (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed WD2001FASS 2TB)

Optical Drive 1: Blue-Ray Writer/Reader

Optical Drive 2: No Thanks

Internet Access: High Speed Network Port

Video Cards: 2 X EVGA GeForce GTX 480 Hydro Copper FTW (I will not run it in SLI).

Add-on Card: BFG High-Performance Dedicated Ageia PhysX Card P1 (Don’t know if it will work with EVGA GeForce GTX 480)

Sound Card: Creative PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series Sound Card  

Or

ASUS Xonar Essence ST PCI Interface Audio Card

Extreme Cooling: STAGE 6 (still thinking of the back radiator)

H20: Tube Color: White Tubing

Chassis Airflow: Upgrade Chassis with Zalman Performance Fans

Internal Lighting: No Thanks

Enhancement: No Thanks

Chassis Mod’s: No Thanks

Noise Reduction: Noise Suppression Package

CPU Boost: Stage 3

Video Boost: No Thanks

Memory Boost: Yes, Overclock memory frequency (I already have fan)

OS Boost: No Thanks, Please do not tweak the service on the operating system

Window OS: Microsoft Window 7 Ultimate (64-Bit Edition)

Restore Kit: DVD Image Based

Virus Protection: No Thanks

Office Suite: No Thanks

Benchmarking: No Thanks

Game: No Thanks

Accessories: No Thanks to all

Warranty Plan: 5 year Platinum Care (As long as it’s valid oversea)

Wooden Crate

 

For hard drive, I don’t know how much boost I will get if I go Solid State since 600GB Western Digital Velociraptor is SATA 6

 

I think Solid State drives are way too temperamental for me.

 

For STAGE 6 extreme cooling, I already have a post in Hardware discussion section.

 

Please have a look and make any comment that you like.

 

DST4ME I’m specially looking for your inputs and comments although I already know what you think about my noise reduction package choice.

 

Thanks

 

Geezerhood

 

Edited by geezerhood - 25 Apr 2010 at 6:38am

Hi,

No I like NVIDIA

Regarding 980 everything is relative

160 for C drive is small for me. DNS and Photoshop like to be on C drive

I already have the CORSAIR DOMINATOR GT

The radiator outside, are you thinking of a triple one?

Originally posted by BHH.Husker No expert on this, but upgrading the chassis fans with Zalman fans is going to be a waste.  It won't make any difference in the airflow as far as I know.  It will also make the system quite a bit louder.  Get rid of the Noise Suppression Package as well I'd guess.  It won't help very much as far as I know.  If you're going with liquid cooling, the system should be very quiet anyway.

The Zalman fans are loud, don't get them. If you want, I'd say Cooler Master R4's would do the trick, low noise, high airflow, high pressure.


Ageia's useless, Creative has a good rep for bad drivers, the Xonar Essence isn't what you think it is, it's not a 3.5mm jack sound card, rather, it's a phono jack sound card. Noise suppression's pointless, RAM Boost is pointless.


Edited by ablahblah - 25 Apr 2010 at 7:36pm

my rad is in the back, click on the image in my sig to see the bigger pic.

@geezerhood:

1. change mobo to classified.

2. go with 1250w enermax psu.

3. don't get the "Dual Solid State Drive Swap Bay", the 800d comes with 4 of them and they fit both 2.5" and 3.5".

4. with HDD1, when you say 2 x 600GB veloci (one for backup/imaging), there are a couple of problems there:

a. imaging is not as reliable as cloning, you should be cloning.

b. 2 x 600GB veloci, means the 2 drives are in raid, so you will not be able to use them separately, this goes for your HDD2 selection also.

instead it should look like this:

Here you go Ticket# 401917 --- Price: $7764 (To see this build click here) Price after current promotion $7264

Copy of Specifications:
Chassis Model: Digital Storm HailStorm (Black OPS Edition)
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 980X 3.33GHz (Hexa-Core) (Extreme Performance)
Motherboard: EVGA X58 Classified 3X SLI (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports Triple SLI or CrossFire)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 2000MHz GTX-8 Digital Storm Certified Extreme Performance (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested
Power Supply: 1250W Enermax Galaxy EVO (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) (Recommended)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (256GB Solid State (By: Corsair) (Model: CMFSSD-256GBG2D)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (1TB Seagate/Hitachi/Western Digital (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed)
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: 1x (1TB Seagate/Hitachi/Western Digital (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed)
Optical Drive 1: Blu-Ray Writer/Reader (Burn Blu-Ray discs and play them)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA EVGA GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion (Includes Front I/O) (PCI-Express Slot Based)
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 6: Sub-Zero LCS Dual Loop: CPU & Dual SLI/CrossFire Video Cards
H20 Tube Color:White Tubing with High-Performance Fluid (UV Lighting Reactive)
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (UV) (Creates Glowing Effect for H20 Tubes)
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: Stage 3: Overclock the processor between 4.2GHz to 4.4GHz (Requires i7 980X Processor)
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: Memory Fan Kit Only (Does not include memory overclocking service)
Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-Bit Edition)
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: FREE: Please include a free copy of a hot-selling game
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: FREE: Digital Storm T-Shirt - Black (Medium)
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty

use HDD3 for back of HDD1 and HDD2

Hi,

 

Ok with some changes.

 

Chassis Model: Digital Storm HailStorm (Black OPS Edition)

Exterior Finish: Standard Factory Finish

Trim Accent: Standard Factory Finish

Processor: Intel Core i7 Edition 980X 3.33GHZ (Hexa-Core)

Motherboard: ASUS Rampage III Extreme motherboard

System Memory: CORSAIR CMG6GX3M3A2000C7 - DOMINATOR GT, 6GB (3x2GB), 2000MHz, 7-8-7-20, with Airflow fan and CMXTRFINKITRED - Dominator Extended Fins in Red (I already have them new myself)

Power Supply: 1500W Silverstone

Expansion Bay: Dual Solid State Drive Swap Bay (For cloning / will put it in a safe place)

Hard Drive 1: 2 X 600GB Western Digital Velociraptor (One of them only for imaging/backup)

Or

2 X Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC (One of them only for imaging/backup)

Hard Drive 2: 2 X 300 GB Western Digital Velociraptor (I already have one new)

Hard Drive 3: 1 X 2TB Western Digital (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed WD2001FASS 2TB) ?

Optical Drive 1: Blue-Ray Writer/Reader

Optical Drive 2: No Thanks

Internet Access: High Speed Network Port

Video Cards: 2 X EVGA GeForce GTX 480 Hydro Copper FTW (I will not run it in SLI).

Add-on Card: No Thanks

Sound Card: Creative PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series Sound Card  

Extreme Cooling: STAGE 6 (With the radiator on the back)

H20: Tube Color: Red Tubing

Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans

Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (UV) (Creates Glowing Effect for H20 Tubes)

Enhancement: No Thanks

Chassis Mod’s: No Thanks

Noise Reduction: Noise Suppression Package

CPU Boost: Stage 3

Video Boost: No Thanks

Memory Boost: Yes, Overclock memory frequency (I already have fan)

OS Boost: No Thanks, Please do not tweak the service on the operating system

Window OS: Microsoft Window 7 Ultimate (64-Bit Edition)

Restore Kit: DVD Image Based

Virus Protection: No Thanks

Office Suite: No Thanks

Benchmarking: No Thanks

Game: No Thanks

Benchmarking: - No Thanks

Install/Test Game: FREE: Please include a free copy of a hot-selling game

Display: - No Thanks

Surge Shield: - No Thanks

Speakers: - No Thanks

Keyboard: - No Thanks

Mouse: - No Thanks

External Storage: - No Thanks

Exclusive T-Shirt: FREE: Digital Storm T-Shirt - Black (Large)

Priority Build: - Ship Within Four Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed (If they can get it to me by first week of June then No Thanks)

Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty

Accessories: No Thanks to all

Wooden Crate

 

Still cannot decide on SSD or 600GB Western Digital Velociraptor

 

Thanks

 

Geezerhood

2. there is no point of having a 1500w for 2 x 480, 1000w can do it, 1250w will leave you head room, 1500w is pure waste.

also what is the point of getting hydro copper when you are getting stage 6 LC and it comes with WB for the GPUs, so you want to pay for 2 WB and just use one?

also ftw editions tend to go bad sooner then the rest and the regular 480 will oc better then the ftw edition.

3. there is no mobo that has true sata 3.0 and usb 3.0 right now, to use the sata 3.0 on that board you will gimp the speed of the pci lanes. any mobo including the classified can do the same exact thing with a sata3.0/usb3.0 card, but its stupid since it gimps the pci lanes.

4. I don't think with the LC stage 6 and bluray drive and fron I/O you ware gonna have any open space for the swap bay.

also if you clone, if the cloned drive has an os that was cloned then it can't be in the system when the source drive boots.

6. yes I got that but I just put that there to fill the space.

7. when did I say you should use sli?

8. ok

9. the fass seems to be a great drive, but its fairly new to the market so we don't have a long enough track record yet.

10. cotroller crucial uses is not the best/most reliable one, that is why we don't recommend it. also again refer to my comment about how the sata 3.0 will gimp the pci lanes, since there is no true sata 3.0.

11. my config was a base, you can change the size of shirt and that stuff by just clicking on the config I provided.

12. priority build is a bad idea, you can pay extra and still endup waiting if some of the parts are not in stock, all you have to do is order 3 weeks before june.


13. sorry I didn't see you pick the 5 year warranty that is a good idea, go with 5.

hope that info helps.

14. again when you pick 2 x 600GB veloci, they are in raid, you can't use them separately, in other words you can't use one for backup, cause you can't separate them, since they will be in raid.

Edited by DST4ME - 26 Apr 2010 at 4:57am

Originally posted by geezerhood Still cannot decide on SSD or 600GB Western Digital Velociraptor

I find this amusing considering how much you're prepared to spend on this computer in other areas, especially since you want the 6Gbps SATA motherboard so badly. With a larger cashe size and and higher platter density than the first generation of Velociraptors, and being a 10k RPM drive, the 600GB WD Velociraptor is as far as I know the fastest HDD currently available. However, the sad fact is that they are barely quicker than a standard 1TB 7.2k RPM drive, while also being much louder, hotter, and consuming more wattage. They are, like every HDD, many magnitudes slower than SSDs.

Average seek time:
WD Caviar Black 1TB (7200 RPMs) - 4.2 ms
WD Velociraptor 600GB (10k RPMs) - 3.6 ms
Crucial RealSSD 256GB - .1 ms

4KB Random read speeds:
WD Caviar Black 1TB - 0.4 MB/s
WD Velociraptor 600GB - 0.68 MB/s
Crucial RealSSD 256GB - 83.3 MB/s (on 6Gbps SATA)

4KB Random write speeds:
WD Caviar Black 1TB - 1.3 MB/s
WD Velociraptor 600GB - 1.9 MB/s
Crucial RealSSD 256GB - 180.5 MB/s (on 6Gbps SATA)

2MB Sequential read speeds:
WD Caviar Black 1TB - 132.4 MB/s
WD Velociraptor 600GB - 145.3 MB/s
Crucial RealSSD 256GB - 343.2 MB/s (on 6Gbps SATA)

2MB Sequential write speeds:
WD Caviar Black 1TB - 132.3 MB/s
WD Velociraptor 600GB - 143.9 MB/s
Crucial RealSSD 256GB - 215 MB/s

Reading and writing large 2MB or bigger files are the only things mechanical HDDs are even remotely respectable at. Unfortunately 90% of the time OS and applications are dealing with (hundreds/thousands of) tiny 4KB style files, and this is where SSDs access time and ability to read/write many things in parallel really shine. As a bonus, SSDs are also completely silent. 10k RPM drives on the other hand, are very loud. At a 1" distance idle/load noise levels for the Caviar Black 1TB are 47.7/49.7 dB(A), the Velociraptor's are 51.2/61 dB(A).

Grab a nice SSD (or two or three) for OS/apps/games, grab some 1TB HDDs for storage, and don't bother worrying about anything inbetween.

Hi Dragoonseal,

Yes, apparently ASUS Rampage III Extreme is the real thing. I did as much as I had time researching it and it got good reviews.

It's not so much the speed that I'm concerned about its the fact that SSD are a little bit temperamental for me.

I have been using different Velociraptor for long time now and I find it very solid.

Do you have any recommendation for a 256 SDD?

Hi Dragoonseal,

Thanks for taking your time to explain the SSD. I appreciate that.

I don't want RAID because I clone my C drive and then things will get complicated for me. Now you can call me crazy.

For me price wise I think more than likely I will go with WD Velociraptor 600GB since I need two. One for C drive and for to clone my C drive. I know it doesn't make sense but that's how I feel comfortable.

No the second GTX 480  is not only for my third monitor. When I do heavy duty Photoshop I run it in SLI on my two EIZO S2411W (1920 by 1200).

Thanks again,

geezerhood

@geezerhood

1. 980x for cs5 is not at all waste, its a waste for gaming but for other tasks it makes a good difference.

2. ok I see what you are doing with hotswap, however choosing the option "HDD1: 2 x 600GB" or any "HDD1: 2 x any drive" means they are in raid. to correctly choose the drives so that they are not in raid, you have to choose like this:

HDD1: 600GB veloci
HDD2: 600GB veloci

the above is not in raid but the below is

HDD1: 2 x 600GB veloci.

3. as far as keeping the mobo for 4 years, what does it have to do with the fact that its not true sata 3.0? you paying for a mobo that you will gimp (slow down) what is the point of that?

4. in the config its listed as 2 x 480gtx sli, however during order you just let them know that you don't want it in sli, all sli is, is a bridge you remove from cards and then in nvidia cp you disable sli.

5. crucial ssd again has a bad controller, the problem with newegg reviews is that they are all new, how many reviews did you see that are 2 years old or so? cause many problems don't come till after 6month or so. I love crucial ram, I have nothing against crucial, its just that their controller is not the best and will drive you crazy, otherwise crucial would have been added to the list of other ssds I told you about.

6. the mobo, guys please don't contradict me unless you are sure, so lets have a look shall we:

I'm gonna keep this very general for new members that don't get the technical stuff, true sata 3.0 needs a new sounthbrigde on the mobo, this south bridge is ICHr11, now go look at the asus mobo and if it has that south bridge then its true sata and usb 3.0, if not and it has the old/current ICH10R south bridge, then it does not matter when it comes out, its not ture sata 3.0 mobo, it will gimp the mobo if you use the sata 3.0.

now for those of you that think this asus is real sata 3.0 mobo, I'm willing to be a million dollars that its not, you know why? cause the south bridge needed is not out yet and will not be out till some point 2011 we hope, so no mattter how many new mobos come out and when they come out, if they don't have the mentioned south bridge they are not real sata 3.0.

on top of that asus customers svc sucks, they are not what they used to be, so stay away.

so please don't contradict me unless you are sure, its a pain to repeat the same thing over and over again, greatly apprecitate it

@geezerhood, if you can do with 256GB ssd then go with corsair, it has much better speeds then the veloci, ssds have much much better seektime and 4k files speeds that are the most important, not to mention better read and write speeds all the way around.

most of your stuff with cs5 is done with cpu, the gpu is not as important from what I understand, so a 980x with one 480 should give you want you want I think as far as cs goes, but I'm sure about this one, so you can correct me if I'm wrong.

at the end I like to point out that raid only helps large file speeds, and not seektime or 4k file size speeds, which are the most important speeds.

also if the raid itself fails, you will lose all data.

Edited by DST4ME - 26 Apr 2010 at 4:41pm

Thanks for the personal attacks, but no matter what you say or asus does, real sata 3.0 can't be offered till you have ICHr11. I understand how plx has a work around but its still not ICHr11 which will give you all sata 3.0 and raid, also from what I understand marvel does not support trim either, real sata 3.0 support is more then just having 6GB/s, you have to have raid/trim options also, but if I'm wrong then point out where I'm wrong you don't need to be rude about it.



as for raid, were is the increase in your read in 4K? are you taking about the 1.82MB/s increase? cause that is not much at all, also I was taking about HDD not ssd, my comment was more in reguards to 600GB veloci vs a good ssd and how the ssd will have much better 4k read speeds then the 2 x 600GB veloci in raid.


as far as I understand if the array fails in raid 1 you lose all data as for as OS goes (aka not bootable). explain to me how you would go about restoring a raid 1 that has os on it and the array broke.




Edited by DST4ME - 27 Apr 2010 at 5:53am

Originally posted by geezerhood Is it better to have 2 X 1TB Western Digital Or 1 X 2TB Western Digital WD2001FASS 2TB

I think it mostly falls down to price and how many SATA ports you are going to have available. Two 1TB drives together will be cheaper than a single 2TB drive, but they would also take up twice as many SATA ports.

Originally posted by DST4ME Thanks for the personal attacks, but no matter what you say or asus does, real sata 3.0 can't be offered till you have ICHr11. I understand how plx has a work around but its still not ICHr11 which will give you all sata 3.0 and raid, also from what I understand marvel does not support trim either, real sata 3.0 support is more then just having 6GB/s, you have to have raid/trim options also, but if I'm wrong then point out where I'm wrong you don't need to be rude about it.

<Shrug> You make a rude comment and talk down to someone, especially when you end up being wrong about the subject, and you can usually expect the other to be rude right back. Assuming makes an ass out of you and me, as they say.

Real SATA 3.0 or not, the ASUS board offers extra functionality over other boards without sacrificing performance elsewhere, and is a very solid motherboard in general, so if someone is willing to pay the premium for a top end style motherboard it remains a very valid option.

Originally posted by DST4ME as for raid, were is the increase in your read in 4K? are you taking about the 1.82MB/s increase? cause that is not much at all, also I was taking about HDD not ssd, my comment was more in reguards to 600GB veloci vs a good ssd and how the ssd will have much better 4k read speeds then the 2 x 600GB veloci in raid.

I probably should of included benchmarks of a single Intel 80GB SSD for reference. Here's what a single 80GB G2 looks like (same Intel RST driver):




The 4k scores here of 22.93 MB/s and 21.04 MB/s are 4kb random reads at a queue depth of 1. You can not get a queue depth of 1 in actual desktop usage or with any program, it's almost impossible, about the only things possible of doing it are synthetic benchmarks like this that are designed to read a single 4kb file while doing nothing else, before moving on to another 4kb file, and then another and another, sequentially. The only thing this is representative of is a SSD's access or seek time. The 4k QD32 (queue depth of 32) score of 116.1 MB/s and 4k QD64 score of 155.14 MB/s listed above are where the benchmarks tell the SSD to access many 4kb files all at once and let the SSD go to town as quickly as it is able, more or less. Making use of NCQ and its own inherent ability to read and process much of its data in parallel the SSD is able to access all the data much faster than when it is told to access a single file one at a time sequentially.

You'll note that the QD32 and QD64 4kb random read scores are much higher in my RAID0 array than a single Intel SSD can manage on its own. Not as perfectly scaled as the large file sequential reads are, but much faster none the less. You'll also note that the write speeds of all file sizes are much faster on my RAID0 array, regardless of the queue depth. So anyway, yes, RAID helps 4kb random read speeds, but the extent to which it helps depends on how much you are reading at once, and 4kb writes are always helped by RAID0.

Originally posted by DST4ME as far as I understand if the array fails in raid 1 you lose all data as for as OS goes (aka not bootable). explain to me how you would go about restoring a raid 1 that has os on it and the array broke.

With what kind of RAID solution? As far as I've ever read if one drive fails in a RAID1 array the computer just keeps on operating from the remaining drive(s) in the array and notifies you of the drive that has failed. In fact in a lot of server environments RAID1 is the desired setup for the OS, which the larger, faster, and more elaborate RAID5 and RAID0+1 (10) setups are used for the file systems. The better RAID1 solutions (I'm not acquainted on whether ICH10R has this functionality) let you replace the failed drive and it will rebuild the array, even continuing to run off of the good drive(s) while it does so.

geezerhood if you go with the asus board you can't do raid and your ssd will not support trim and you gonna want trim, consider all of that before you get your mobo, a ssd that uses trim and does not get it, will lose performance.

justin is telling you the same thing I am, if you want a mobo with real sata support you need the new south bridge otherwise as mentioned there are gonna be functionalities missing.

and again I warned you but asus has horrible support now



Edited by DST4ME - 27 Apr 2010 at 1:31pm

RAID cards are real RAID, on board is software RAID, or fake RAID.

justin.kerr