Is my new spec any good to go? Or should I alter it?
- Thread starter jaysbarbq
- Start date
But surely for multi tasking the more cache on the CPU the better - hence the Q9450?
As for the Samsung hard drives, I agree that on paper they are fantastic and have won many awards. However, my current machine had 2 new 250GB drives that lasted circa 12 months in total. When I swapped the 2nd one I asked for another brand as I have no trust in Samsung drives over the long term. Or was I just extremly unlucky??!!
As for the DVD Re Writers, I will defo use the LG GSA-H55N, as they have won many awards, even against thge Samsung. Or to be safe, maybe 1 samsung and 1 LG.
I will certainly take a deeper look at the links you sent and really appreciate the time and effort.
So you reckon Vista over XP 64 bit? Software I'm not fussed on cost as my employer is a MS Gold Partner. So if Vista Ultimate is the best on 4GB Ram, then that will be the OS to have. That said, I have Vista Home Premium on my Samsung Q70 (T7300, 2GB Ram) and find it slow - even after a reinstall.
I think my main question here is about the GPU, CPU and board. My MSI board has been so much nicer to use than the two Asus boards I had. Nvidia cards are nice, but I think they lack a little depth of colour - something which is resolvable if they are the best cards to use.
So more views and critique welcome!
BTW - do not include the external drive or OS in your specs. £800 - £1000 (inc vat) is just for the system in a case I already have. SO blow the lot for me please and build a beast which will render my Pinnacle movies faster than Bill Gates can make another $100!
PS - we are still in 'agreance' that Intel rather than Nvidia Nforce? because that means changing my mind set form what I currently have. I was going to stick with AMD and get the Phenom until I saw the better ratings for the Intel Quad! So need the best board available for it. Looks like that would be the Asus Striker 2 Extreme - but is that crazy money really worth it?
As for the Samsung hard drives, I agree that on paper they are fantastic and have won many awards. However, my current machine had 2 new 250GB drives that lasted circa 12 months in total. When I swapped the 2nd one I asked for another brand as I have no trust in Samsung drives over the long term. Or was I just extremly unlucky??!!
As for the DVD Re Writers, I will defo use the LG GSA-H55N, as they have won many awards, even against thge Samsung. Or to be safe, maybe 1 samsung and 1 LG.
I will certainly take a deeper look at the links you sent and really appreciate the time and effort.
So you reckon Vista over XP 64 bit? Software I'm not fussed on cost as my employer is a MS Gold Partner. So if Vista Ultimate is the best on 4GB Ram, then that will be the OS to have. That said, I have Vista Home Premium on my Samsung Q70 (T7300, 2GB Ram) and find it slow - even after a reinstall.
I think my main question here is about the GPU, CPU and board. My MSI board has been so much nicer to use than the two Asus boards I had. Nvidia cards are nice, but I think they lack a little depth of colour - something which is resolvable if they are the best cards to use.
So more views and critique welcome!
BTW - do not include the external drive or OS in your specs. £800 - £1000 (inc vat) is just for the system in a case I already have. SO blow the lot for me please and build a beast which will render my Pinnacle movies faster than Bill Gates can make another $100!
PS - we are still in 'agreance' that Intel rather than Nvidia Nforce? because that means changing my mind set form what I currently have. I was going to stick with AMD and get the Phenom until I saw the better ratings for the Intel Quad! So need the best board available for it. Looks like that would be the Asus Striker 2 Extreme - but is that crazy money really worth it?
name='jaysbarbq' said:
The Q9450 will be better, but certainly not £90 better (I have said that before lol). 12MB of cache is HUGE. 8MB is not much less, so you aren't going to see a difference there really.
The Samsung drives aren't the most reliable, I would say that they are average. So, you are unlucky.
Vista, definitely now. There isn't much point in going XP. You say Vista is slow. That is on a mobile processor. This is way faster
Intel boards are still the way to go over the nVidia boards. The Striker isn't worth it.
TBH, there isn't much difference between the DVD drives. Go with LG if you feel comfortable with it.
Overall, I would say, save the extra £200, or spend it elsewhere.
Silentsnake
New member
name='jaysbarbq' said:BTW - do not include the external drive or OS in your specs. £800 - £1000 (inc vat) is just for the system in a case I already have. SO blow the lot for me please and build a beast which will render my Pinnacle movies faster than Bill Gates can make another $100!
1st of all haha!
2nd The Q9450 was designed for people like u
if you read my last post stating the following quote
SSE4 is for media applications and helps encoding/decoding such as taking a MP4 and converting it to a DivX. It will allso help with HD content and movie play back
3rd SSE4 therfore, speeds up the time it takes to render your movies,
ok been trying to find that site i was looking at the other day! its anoying me now but i came accross this, which will definantly suit your needs
im guessing that says it all a 30% increase in performance is huge!
i guess their isnt much to say on the cpu side of things lol ill just leave it to you ive fought the side of the Q9450 and lamboman and done the old Q6600 well let us know which one your thinking about
I think I need circa 2 more days to get to where I need to be with a spec for my machine (which needs ordering by Monday next week!).
Any other opinions on a motherboard? I looked at lots of user and professional reviews for the Asus P5Q Pro. They are pretty average reviews (using words such as "good, fine, not bad for the price, you get what you pay for"). So it hasn't lit my fire yet....
Also, with the boards for the Quad CPU's, will they still support my 2 extisting PCI cards? 1. TV Card, 2. USB Port card (as I currently have 10 USB devices, with an 11th on the way...".
FYI - I'm still going for the newer, slighter quicker (yet more expensive) Q9450... Sorry, but it is newer and I want to feel like I've bought the newest stuff to go that extra mile....
Any other opinions on a motherboard? I looked at lots of user and professional reviews for the Asus P5Q Pro. They are pretty average reviews (using words such as "good, fine, not bad for the price, you get what you pay for"). So it hasn't lit my fire yet....
Also, with the boards for the Quad CPU's, will they still support my 2 extisting PCI cards? 1. TV Card, 2. USB Port card (as I currently have 10 USB devices, with an 11th on the way...".
FYI - I'm still going for the newer, slighter quicker (yet more expensive) Q9450... Sorry, but it is newer and I want to feel like I've bought the newest stuff to go that extra mile....
It is still a good choice, my argument was that it was too expensive. Fact is, it is, but that doesn't mean that it will be a bad choice.
The boards will support the cards. The TV card is PCI, and there will be a PCI slot on the board. The USB port card isn't even a card, it is just a PCI slot cover with some USB ports on it, which plug into the internal USB headers.
The boards will support the cards. The TV card is PCI, and there will be a PCI slot on the board. The USB port card isn't even a card, it is just a PCI slot cover with some USB ports on it, which plug into the internal USB headers.
Folks,
I am grateful for all of your help so far...
But please can someone tell me any rock solid / overclockable / super fast / problem free motherboards? I have seen your votes for the Asus P5q Pro, but the reviews I have read are pretty ok. I want to see 9.5 out of 10 and conclusions such as "blown away, amazing"!
Remember, I edit and rendor movies, so may even consider a board with DDR3 capabilities.
I am grateful for all of your help so far...
But please can someone tell me any rock solid / overclockable / super fast / problem free motherboards? I have seen your votes for the Asus P5q Pro, but the reviews I have read are pretty ok. I want to see 9.5 out of 10 and conclusions such as "blown away, amazing"!
Remember, I edit and rendor movies, so may even consider a board with DDR3 capabilities.
DDR3 will cause you to add around 50% on to your budget (yes, up to £1500). The P45 boards are an update to the P35 boards, which have proven to be excellent overclockers, rock solid stable, well priced, with good features, and great reliability (low failure rate). I am certainly happy with my P35 board, and so far have heard nothing bad about the P45 boards. If you feel uncomfortable, go with the older P35 boards. They support PCI-E 2.0 (Intel didn't officially mention it, but they do), and are trusted.
Lamboman,
Again, I appreciate all of your help and wisdom here.
I saw OCZ 4GB DDR3 (1333mhz) RAM for £145 inc vat! But if DDR3 is not going to make a huge difference over DDR2 to my video editing, then I'll srtick with DDR2.
I will be in the UK on wednesday next week to order my parts (out in sunny spain at the mo).
I have a 1 mina question: WHat is the main difference between between the chips that start with an X (x38, x48) and the chips that start with a 7 (750i, 760i, 790i etc)? I seem to find more rave reviews about the ones that start with a 7....
Again, I appreciate all of your help and wisdom here.
I saw OCZ 4GB DDR3 (1333mhz) RAM for £145 inc vat! But if DDR3 is not going to make a huge difference over DDR2 to my video editing, then I'll srtick with DDR2.
I will be in the UK on wednesday next week to order my parts (out in sunny spain at the mo).
I have a 1 mina question: WHat is the main difference between between the chips that start with an X (x38, x48) and the chips that start with a 7 (750i, 760i, 790i etc)? I seem to find more rave reviews about the ones that start with a 7....
The problem is that you would need a pretty high speed kit, which you would then need to bring back down to speed for timings, to be able to see any sort of advantage (which even then would be slight) over DDR2. The fact is, the timings on DDR3 are so bad that they make little to no performance increase whatsoever.
The X series of chipsets are Intel ones. The 7xx series are nVidia chipsets. They both get great reviews, but over the long term, they have proven to be unreliable. One of the main reasons that people will get more excited about the nVidia boards is that nVidia are always slightly quicker (and far more expensive) than the ATI counterparts, so there will be more demand for the nVidia boards, for SLI. As you aren't going to be gaming, the most stable option is still going to be a P45 board (again Intel). You are unlikely to ever need SLI/Crossfire, unless you are gaming.
The X series of chipsets are Intel ones. The 7xx series are nVidia chipsets. They both get great reviews, but over the long term, they have proven to be unreliable. One of the main reasons that people will get more excited about the nVidia boards is that nVidia are always slightly quicker (and far more expensive) than the ATI counterparts, so there will be more demand for the nVidia boards, for SLI. As you aren't going to be gaming, the most stable option is still going to be a P45 board (again Intel). You are unlikely to ever need SLI/Crossfire, unless you are gaming.
Folks,
I have this new revised spec for £905 inc VAT:
1 x Intel Quad Core 9450 retail (12MB Yorkfield Core1333 mhz)
1 x 4GB 1066mhz DDR2 Ram - comes as 2x2GB (ideally OCZ Reaper HC Edition)
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer pro 7 fan
1 x High Density thermal compound CPU paste
1 x Nvidia 9600GT 512MB DDR3
1 x Sony DRU-190s DVD ReWriter – multi bezel
1 x LG DVD ReWriter GSA H55N – multi bezel with Lightscribe
2 x Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB SATA II drives with 32MB cache (for these partitions: c:/OS 100GB, d:\pagefile 20GB, e:\MyInstalledApps 320GB
1 x Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II drive (for my install CDs which are currently 215GB) and I will mirror with existing 500GB Western Digital
1 x floppy drive (external USB)
1 x Logitech S510 keyboard and rechargeable mouse - wireless
1 x Toshiba 320GB PX1275E-1G06 external USB powered HD
1 x Waicom Bamboo graphics tablet
1 x motherboard – something like Asus Maximus Formula, Gigabyte GA-X48 DQ6, Asus P5Q Deluxe, MSI P45 Platinum
Price with Gigabyte GA-X48 DQ6 = £905 inc vat
YOUR THOUGHTS? And will this graphics card work with these motherboards?
I have this new revised spec for £905 inc VAT:
1 x Intel Quad Core 9450 retail (12MB Yorkfield Core1333 mhz)
1 x 4GB 1066mhz DDR2 Ram - comes as 2x2GB (ideally OCZ Reaper HC Edition)
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer pro 7 fan
1 x High Density thermal compound CPU paste
1 x Nvidia 9600GT 512MB DDR3
1 x Sony DRU-190s DVD ReWriter – multi bezel
1 x LG DVD ReWriter GSA H55N – multi bezel with Lightscribe
2 x Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB SATA II drives with 32MB cache (for these partitions: c:/OS 100GB, d:\pagefile 20GB, e:\MyInstalledApps 320GB
1 x Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II drive (for my install CDs which are currently 215GB) and I will mirror with existing 500GB Western Digital
1 x floppy drive (external USB)
1 x Logitech S510 keyboard and rechargeable mouse - wireless
1 x Toshiba 320GB PX1275E-1G06 external USB powered HD
1 x Waicom Bamboo graphics tablet
1 x motherboard – something like Asus Maximus Formula, Gigabyte GA-X48 DQ6, Asus P5Q Deluxe, MSI P45 Platinum
Price with Gigabyte GA-X48 DQ6 = £905 inc vat
YOUR THOUGHTS? And will this graphics card work with these motherboards?
Hi Lamboman,
I'm still not convinced by the above average reviews of the P5Q Pro boards. Hence I am looking at alternatives. I am also of the opinion that is the P5Q Pro is around £85 and other boards are circa £150, then there must be benefits to the more expensive boards?
3 x 750GB drives eh? I guess that's some sort of RAID - maybe a stripe? If so, sounds great. SO what happens if one of the drives fails??? For example, do I loose everything on all the partitions or does it all continue working with no data loss? Also is this type of RAID faster than a mirror?
Jay
I'm still not convinced by the above average reviews of the P5Q Pro boards. Hence I am looking at alternatives. I am also of the opinion that is the P5Q Pro is around £85 and other boards are circa £150, then there must be benefits to the more expensive boards?
3 x 750GB drives eh? I guess that's some sort of RAID - maybe a stripe? If so, sounds great. SO what happens if one of the drives fails??? For example, do I loose everything on all the partitions or does it all continue working with no data loss? Also is this type of RAID faster than a mirror?
Jay
The more expensive boards, in essence, have the capability to run a Crossfire at full 16x PCI-E per card, a feature you won't need for your setup. I don't quite understand how you cannot be convinced by the reviews of the P5Q Pro. They all say it is a great board. These are probbably the most reliable boards around, and are the only choice if you are looking for a single card setup.
The hard drive setup I was thinking of was RAID 5. The Wikipedia article here does it very well. You have three drives, and 1.5TB of storage. If one drive fails, you simply replace it, with no data loss. This seems important for you with your usage.
The hard drive setup I was thinking of was RAID 5. The Wikipedia article here does it very well. You have three drives, and 1.5TB of storage. If one drive fails, you simply replace it, with no data loss. This seems important for you with your usage.
Let's say that someone posts the following question on this post, how would you reply?
"I want to buy the best motherboard on the market for a Intel Quad Core CPU. My budget for the board is £200 inc vat. I will use it for some gaming, video editing, virtual machines, overclocking, photo editing etc. However I do not want an Asus P5Q-Pro"
Can you suggest 3 boards please?
"I want to buy the best motherboard on the market for a Intel Quad Core CPU. My budget for the board is £200 inc vat. I will use it for some gaming, video editing, virtual machines, overclocking, photo editing etc. However I do not want an Asus P5Q-Pro"
Can you suggest 3 boards please?
I would still recommend that board, but if you insist (this really is wasting your money)...
The DFI LT X48-T2R is a very good board, with a lot of tweaking options (of course, being a DFI board) when it comes to overclocking. A great choice if you are a hardcore enthusiast.
The Rampage Formula is a great board, very expensive, but another great overclocker. The heatsinks are large on this one, but you shouldn't run into any problems.
The DFI LT X48-T2R is a very good board, with a lot of tweaking options (of course, being a DFI board) when it comes to overclocking. A great choice if you are a hardcore enthusiast.
The Rampage Formula is a great board, very expensive, but another great overclocker. The heatsinks are large on this one, but you shouldn't run into any problems.
Now this is what I like to hear! I looked up both boards you suggested. The DFI has mixed reviews. But the Asus Rampage Formula has this on the Anandtech site:
"As we expected, the full attention with this motherboard was on overclocking possibilities. You can read more about this in a separate section of this review. Overclockers and hardcore gamers will certainly use full potentials of this model and most importantly – they will be 100% satisfied. Our impression of this motherboard is more than positive, so ASUS this time left us with nothing to do but to grant InsideHW Choice award to ASUS Rampage Formula. "
Is this a newish board???? I guess that in part explains the price tag! A friend of mines has the Maximus with a Q6600 and he said it "flies" on his games at his res.
It's £183 inc vat on ebuyer. ANd in total, I'm still on budget at £977 inc vat and that's with 8GB OCZ Ram! So still have £23 to toy with!
Lamboman, you have been very helpful and I ask 1 more bit of advice from you. Willl the items below all fit together? I.e will the ram, fan, cpu and graphics with on the Asus Rampage Formula?
Sony DRU-190S 20X DVD±RW DL & DVD-RAM Serial ATA - Retail Multi Bezel & Nero 142274 296 in stock £16.95 £14.42 £16.95 £14.42
LG GSA-H55NBAL 20x DVD±RW/DL/RAM IDE Black Bare Drive - OEM 132560 136 in stock £14.99 £12.75 £14.99 £12.75
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz 1333FSB Socket 775 12MB L2 Cache (2x6MB) Retail Boxed Processor 144953 24 in stock £200.64 £170.75 £200.64 £170.75
Inno3D 9600GT OC 512MB DDR3 Overclocked Edition Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card 141670 16 in stock £89.99 £76.58 £89.99 £76.58
2 x OCZ 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Reaper Memory HPC Edition Dual Channel 141930 5 in stock £68.21 £58.05 £136.42 £116.10
Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM 124228 162 in stock £47.97 £40.82 £47.97 £40.82
2 x Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM 130826 290 in stock £47.79 £40.67 £95.58 £81.34
Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler 105994 311 in stock £15.49 £13.18 £15.49 £13.18
Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Thermal paste 3.5gram 126410 383 in stock £4.70 £4.00 £4.70 £4.00
Freecom USB2.0 Floppy Disk Drive Black 097462 20 in stock £17.20 £14.63 £17.20 £14.63
Toshiba 320GB Portable Hard Drive USB2.0 - Retail 140656 12 in stock £69.91 £59.49 £69.91 £59.49
Logitech Cordless Desktop S 510 - USB/PS2 094458 4 in stock £34.35 £29.23 £34.35 £29.23
Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet 128284 8 in stock £49.99 £42.54 £49.99 £42.54
ASUS Rampage Formula Republic of Gamers Series iX48 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard
Now that I have something to think about (the above) all that remains I guess is to pick a case and power supply. I'm guessing that will cost circa £100? I want black, high-gloss, slick and quiet... Suggestions would be welcome!
Jay
"As we expected, the full attention with this motherboard was on overclocking possibilities. You can read more about this in a separate section of this review. Overclockers and hardcore gamers will certainly use full potentials of this model and most importantly – they will be 100% satisfied. Our impression of this motherboard is more than positive, so ASUS this time left us with nothing to do but to grant InsideHW Choice award to ASUS Rampage Formula. "
Is this a newish board???? I guess that in part explains the price tag! A friend of mines has the Maximus with a Q6600 and he said it "flies" on his games at his res.
It's £183 inc vat on ebuyer. ANd in total, I'm still on budget at £977 inc vat and that's with 8GB OCZ Ram! So still have £23 to toy with!
Lamboman, you have been very helpful and I ask 1 more bit of advice from you. Willl the items below all fit together? I.e will the ram, fan, cpu and graphics with on the Asus Rampage Formula?
Sony DRU-190S 20X DVD±RW DL & DVD-RAM Serial ATA - Retail Multi Bezel & Nero 142274 296 in stock £16.95 £14.42 £16.95 £14.42
LG GSA-H55NBAL 20x DVD±RW/DL/RAM IDE Black Bare Drive - OEM 132560 136 in stock £14.99 £12.75 £14.99 £12.75
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz 1333FSB Socket 775 12MB L2 Cache (2x6MB) Retail Boxed Processor 144953 24 in stock £200.64 £170.75 £200.64 £170.75
Inno3D 9600GT OC 512MB DDR3 Overclocked Edition Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card 141670 16 in stock £89.99 £76.58 £89.99 £76.58
2 x OCZ 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Reaper Memory HPC Edition Dual Channel 141930 5 in stock £68.21 £58.05 £136.42 £116.10
Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM 124228 162 in stock £47.97 £40.82 £47.97 £40.82
2 x Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM 130826 290 in stock £47.79 £40.67 £95.58 £81.34
Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler 105994 311 in stock £15.49 £13.18 £15.49 £13.18
Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Thermal paste 3.5gram 126410 383 in stock £4.70 £4.00 £4.70 £4.00
Freecom USB2.0 Floppy Disk Drive Black 097462 20 in stock £17.20 £14.63 £17.20 £14.63
Toshiba 320GB Portable Hard Drive USB2.0 - Retail 140656 12 in stock £69.91 £59.49 £69.91 £59.49
Logitech Cordless Desktop S 510 - USB/PS2 094458 4 in stock £34.35 £29.23 £34.35 £29.23
Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet 128284 8 in stock £49.99 £42.54 £49.99 £42.54
ASUS Rampage Formula Republic of Gamers Series iX48 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard
Now that I have something to think about (the above) all that remains I guess is to pick a case and power supply. I'm guessing that will cost circa £100? I want black, high-gloss, slick and quiet... Suggestions would be welcome!
Jay
Sorry to keep this lingering on, but you really should change the cooler, and buy three Seagates rather than the WD. Note that the Seagates will be noisy. MX-2 thermal paste performs slightly better than the Arctic Silver stuff, and is roughly the same price.
Now, for the case and power supply. I hope that the £100 limit is for both of them together. An Antec 1200 is a good choice (slightly over budget, but worth it). If you want something a bit quieter, an Antec P182 is a good buy. You won't find something high gloss...
Finally, the power supply. A brilliant choice is the Corsair TX750. Quiet, efficient, and the well priced.
Now, for the case and power supply. I hope that the £100 limit is for both of them together. An Antec 1200 is a good choice (slightly over budget, but worth it). If you want something a bit quieter, an Antec P182 is a good buy. You won't find something high gloss...
Finally, the power supply. A brilliant choice is the Corsair TX750. Quiet, efficient, and the well priced.
Silentsnake
New member
you wont be needing 8gb or ram unless you will be running 64bit vista mate! i would get 4gb ram and update either cpu or GPU with the extra bit of cash 
