Legit Reviews

I am currently in the process of building a new PC. Its been a while since i have built one and the hardware seems to have moved on leaps and bounds so any advice on my current shortlist of components would be appreciated. The PC is to be part of a home cinema hub that is to stream media around the house and maybe the odd game .

I have purchased a Thermaltake Xaser VI Case with a Thermaltake Bigwater 780e.

Components that i need advice on are as follows:

Enermax Galaxy 1000W EGX1000EWL ATX2.2 Modular PSU
Western Digital Raptor X 150GB 10000RPM SATA 16MB Cache
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g)
ArctiClean Thermal Material Remover and Surface Purifier - 60ml Kit
Pioneer BDC-202BK 5x BD-ROM + 12x12 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) - OEM
Toshiba SD-H802A 2.4x HD-DVD ROM
Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
OCZ 2GB DDR3 PC3-10666C6 1333MHz ReaperX (2x1GB) Dual Channel DDR3 (OCZ3RPX1333EB2GK)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Seagate Barracuda ES.2 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000340NS)

The item that is most difficult to choose is the motherboard as there are so many choices, am i right to say the 790i boards are fine tuned for GTX video cards and the X48 boards are fine tuned to ATI boards?

Asus Striker II Extreme nForce 790i Ultra SLi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
or
Asus P5E3 Premium/Wifi@N Intel X48 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
or
Asus Maximus Extreme Intel X38 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard

I am still researching on a applicable graphics card any recommendations?

Thanks to all who respond

i would get the Bluray drive instead of the HD because Toshiba pulled out of HD. The Western Digital Raptor would be perfect for applications that require constant read/write and also for games or if u want more storage go for the 1TB

I strongly suggest NOT getting ddr3. ddr2 is dirt cheap right now and very little performance is gained from ddr3. as for mobo and video board, if your not set on that quad, then the amd 7 series chipsets and an ati radeon 3650 is a great combo for hometheater i hear. and if your paying more for that "Pro energy effiecent quad" then its a ripoff cause almost all quads on the market are that stepping now

Although toshiba have pulled out the deals to be had on HDDVD titles is superb even with the existing catalogue of titles and at £25 you cant go wrong with a Toshiba HDDVD drive. Thanks for input.

martini161 wrote:I strongly suggest NOT getting ddr3. ddr2 is dirt cheap right now and very little performance is gained from ddr3. as for mobo and video board, if your not set on that quad, then the amd 7 series chipsets and an ati radeon 3650 is a great combo for hometheater i hear. and if your paying more for that "Pro energy effiecent quad" then its a ripoff cause almost all quads on the market are that stepping now

I have not really given amd too much thought thats a avenue that needs to be investigated. Thanks.

I have only gone by some rave reviews and opinions on the Intel quad core q6600 chipset.

Hello Manny, glad you popped by the forums for advice.

First off 1000W of power is more than you will ever need. Even extreme high end systems (like running two 9800GX2's (for quad sli) and a top of the range system to go with it barely break 500w (see here)). A really really good and recommended PSU is the Corsair 620HX.

With the density of current hard drives (as they have so much storage on such little disks) their performance is actually very close to that of Raptors, so you could actually skip on that and spend the money elsewhere in your system. But like ViPeR.Ja said, they still win for server type loads (such as heavy media streaming) so you might still want to stick with them.

I would still recommend getting the Arctic silver clean stuff, you should get Tuniq TX-2 thermal paste as it works a degree or two better than the AS5 (and every little counts )

I also agree with martini that DDR3 is too expensive for the performance gains you get beyond DD2. So maybe you should look into a board with DDR2 rather than the DDR3 one you have been looking at.

If you go with a DDR2 board, and hence DDR2 RAM which will cost less, you can put the money you will have saved from the cheaper RAM towards a Q9450 instead of the Q6600, which will perform better than the Q6600 and will do so while being (slightly) cooler running.

Dan

DMB2000uk wrote:Hello Manny, glad you popped by the forums for advice.

First off 1000W of power is more than you will ever need. Even extreme high end systems (like running two 9800GX2's (for quad sli) and a top of the range system to go with it barely break 500w (see here)). A really really good and recommended PSU is the Corsair 620HX.

With the density of current hard drives (as they have so much storage on such little disks) their performance is actually very close to that of Raptors, so you could actually skip on that and spend the money elsewhere in your system. But like ViPeR.Ja said, they still win for server type loads (such as heavy media streaming) so you might still want to stick with them.

I would still recommend getting the Arctic silver clean stuff, you should get Tuniq TX-2 thermal paste as it works a degree or two better than the AS5 (and every little counts )

I also agree with martini that DDR3 is too expensive for the performance gains you get beyond DD2. So maybe you should look into a board with DDR2 rather than the DDR3 one you have been looking at.

If you go with a DDR2 board, and hence DDR2 RAM which will cost less, you can put the money you will have saved from the cheaper RAM towards a Q9450 instead of the Q6600, which will perform better than the Q6600 and will do so while being (slightly) cooler running.

Dan

HI Dan

I mainly chose the ddr3 route as i wanted to future proof when ddr3 becomes cheaper so i didnt really want to invest in a expensive motherboard that is already old tech but i see your point. What do you think of this dilemma?

The Tuniq TX-2 paste i am going to investigate thanks big plus.
The PSU that i chose was a overkill thanks

The trouble with trying to futureproof with DDR3 is that its a bad time to get into DDR3.

Let me break it down

- With the high prices of DDR3 at the minute, to avoid paying ridiculous amounts of money for a kit, you have to go with an 'entry level' DDR3 kit (as you have noticed).
- The 'entry level' DDR3 kits don't show any real performance improvements over mainstream DDR2 (800Mhz or faster) when you consider how much more money you had to spend on the DDR3 kits, but just for the sake of getting into DDR3 it could be worth putting up with (if you won't miss the money that is).
- Sure when DDR3 prices have come down, you can then buy a better DDR3 kit and get a bit more performance from your the RAM (and PC in general).
But the performance gains will be minimal, compared to say upgrading to the latest processor. There in lies the snag, after the current Q9XXX series of processors, Intel are rumoured to be changing the socket type (from LGA775 to something new) when they release their new CPUs (which will be late 2008/early 2009). Which will mean that when you get round to upgrading your system the board you buy now will need to be replaced to support the new CPUs. Which is even more money to spend.

Granted that most of this is based on speculation/rumour about stuff that isn't out yet, and doesn't take into account when you are actually likely to upgrade. But if I was buying a new system today, I would stick with DDR2 and put the money saved into something that would give me a more noticeable performance increase (or just save the money full stop).

(I just noticed something; if you had already budgeted for the Galaxy 1000w PSU, the 620HX saves you £100 from that, which means you can go from the Q6600 to the Q9450 anyway without having to change your RAM choice )

But it's your choice and the bottom line is essentially; will you miss the money you will be (essentially) sinking into expensive DDR3, when you could get cheap (but still fast) DDR2 and go DDR3 when it is at a more sane price.

Dan

PS. I've tried to make this clear, but I think I was rambling, hopefully you'll get my drift enough to see what I am trying to get at.

DMB2000uk wrote:The trouble with trying to futureproof with DDR3 is that its a bad time to get into DDR3.

Let me break it down

- With the high prices of DDR3 at the minute, to avoid paying ridiculous amounts of money for a kit, you have to go with an 'entry level' DDR3 kit (as you have noticed).
- The 'entry level' DDR3 kits don't show any real performance improvements over mainstream DDR2 (800Mhz or faster) when you consider how much more money you had to spend on the DDR3 kits, but just for the sake of getting into DDR3 it could be worth putting up with (if you won't miss the money that is).
- Sure when DDR3 prices have come down, you can then buy a better DDR3 kit and get a bit more performance from your the RAM (and PC in general).
But the performance gains will be minimal, compared to say upgrading to the latest processor. There in lies the snag, after the current Q9XXX series of processors, Intel are rumoured to be changing the socket type (from LGA775 to something new) when they release their new CPUs (which will be late 2008/early 2009). Which will mean that when you get round to upgrading your system the board you buy now will need to be replaced to support the new CPUs. Which is even more money to spend.

Granted that most of this is based on speculation/rumour about stuff that isn't out yet, and doesn't take into account when you are actually likely to upgrade. But if I was buying a new system today, I would stick with DDR2 and put the money saved into something that would give me a more noticeable performance increase (or just save the money full stop).

(I just noticed something; if you had already budgeted for the Galaxy 1000w PSU, the 620HX saves you £100 from that, which means you can go from the Q6600 to the Q9450 anyway without having to change your RAM choice )

But it's your choice and the bottom line is essentially; will you miss the money you will be (essentially) sinking into expensive DDR3, when you could get cheap (but still fast) DDR2 and go DDR3 when it is at a more sane price.

Dan

PS. I've tried to make this clear, but I think I was rambling, hopefully you'll get my drift enough to see what I am trying to get at.

Dan

Thanks thats quite clear.

Since i last posted i have purchased a Toshiba HD DVD drive and a Enermax Galaxy EGA1000EWL 1000W Power Supply. I am in no hurry so i am being very selective on components. Furthermore i have started by purchasing everthing other than my motherboard, CPU, Graphics card, which i can leave to the end so then maybe i can make a more educated decision i see your point on the intel 9450 CPU nice piece of kit.

What operating system would you recommend based on a 64bit chipset i was thinking windows Vista ultimate 64bit but i dont know haw many problems people are having getting drivers or software to work can you advise?

Thanks

I do believe that if you get the 64bit ultimate version of vista, you get a 32bit version too.

64bit gives you the most performance, but not using it I can't comment on the driver situation.

Dan

mannyjarnail wrote:What operating system would you recommend based on a 64bit chipset i was thinking windows Vista ultimate 64bit but i dont know haw many problems people are having getting drivers or software to work can you advise?

I've been running Vista Ultimate 64bit for about a month now and I haven't encountered any driver or software issues!

Zertz wrote:

mannyjarnail wrote:What operating system would you recommend based on a 64bit chipset i was thinking windows Vista ultimate 64bit but i dont know haw many problems people are having getting drivers or software to work can you advise?

I've been running Vista Ultimate 64bit for about a month now and I haven't encountered any driver or software issues!

thanks for the info

DMB2000uk wrote:I do believe that if you get the 64bit ultimate version of vista, you get a 32bit version too.

64bit gives you the most performance, but not using it I can't comment on the driver situation.

Dan

Thanks Dan