Anybody know powerful performance systems?

[Wolfbane]

Hi,
Long story short, I'm trying to get the spec for a high performance pc to hopefully order it monday at the latest.I'm in N.ireland in the UK and would be buying it local
I had the specs of one priced on the alienware website (not ordering from there though) but as i looked over them i realised it wouldnt work.

Among many things, there were 4gb ddr2 667mhz ram, 8x500gb HD's linked together by RAID into 4 partitions, Liquid cooling (im looking for it to be silent) Dual 512mb 7900 SLI cards, PhysX processing, and a video optimiser.

But i just found out the PhysX wont be out till may, and AMD aint doing ddr2 till the month after that (i think?).
But i cant wait that long.

So here I am looking for help, for the full spec of a high performance system.
It'll be primarily a games machine, but i will be using it for work to edit images, edit HD video (5 cameras and about 12hrs footage from each), animate 2D then soon 3D with maya.

But in time i will be getting a mac to do all the editing on, but then i will still be using the pc to make the animations.

But the reason i am here is because I dont know what all i need....what motherboard is compatible with what, this ram works with this but not that.....will the one liquid cooling be enough, or will i need extra cooling on the HD's (definately), ram, video cards, processor, etc and what kind of cooling, cos too much water is bound to be a bad thing.....in fact id rather take the water out, but i dont want to use fans, cos im looking for a quiet pc.
Then theres the whole ATI/nVidia argument, ati good if the patch is out, nvidia overclocked in the box.....raid controller for that amount of storage space.....
i honestly aint too sure when it comes to parts, but when its on and running i can get stuff done, so any help is appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Trifid]

There is no point in the PhysX cards (yet) as there are no games that support it.

4tb's of hdd space is defiantly overkill. consider an external one, so when you move to the mac, you can transfer the work you have done: http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10351

I would get a smaller drive for the OS, apps and games that is internal.

Will you be building the PC your self? If not is there a small computer shop near you where they will build it? - if so get a quote, but don't let them persuade you into using their parts.

Where you looking at a Intel there? with the DDR2 ram?

With the 3d drawing consider a Quattro, but this will not fair up well in the games.

 

[Wolfbane]

currently, what im looking for is an entertainment system, one that would primarily be the centre piece of my living room, but also something that can handle huge files.
Im still finishing off my learning on flash and just started using maya a short time back, but i would be using huge amounts of footage for the video editing, and would rather just load it all on at once, log it, burn to dvds/external HD's for backup, edit it, burn the finished product to dvd.
then once one thing is completed it would be removed from the HD, so it wont be on it forever, but the finished items could indeed be on it for a length of time.
But the reason of the HD space is to raid them together, so i would have faster acess when working with the large files.
but space is a factor and there is no desk or safe place to leave external HD's sitting around, and the keyboard+mouse will need to be wireless, and i need a usb extending cable for the graphics tablet for it to reach where im sitting.......
but id like everything to be in the tower, and use dvd's for transporting files.

 

[Trifid]

You are speccing out quite a PC, and will be unlikley to get one like this from a mainstream place like Dell, and as you probally already have found out Alienware overcharges too much.

Do you have a budget in mind?

I will then reccomend one of these (per drive) Silentmaxx from, but not necessary: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Hard_Drive_Accessories.html

You will need a trade off, 4gb's of ram and slower game performance or 2gb's of ram and use quite a bit of page file...

CP-127-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM)
£279.95 £279.95
MB-131-AS Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-131-AS)
£109.95 £109.95
MY-057-OC OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum Series EL-DDR CAS2 (OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K) (MY-057-OC)
£139.95 £139.95
GX-028-GW Gainward BLISS Geforce 7900 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-028-GW)
£204.95 £204.95
HD-049-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 NCQ 500GB ST3500641AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-049-SE)
£199.95 £799.80
CD-075-SA Samsung SH-W162L 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer Lightscribe DVD ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-075-SA)
£25.95 £25.95
CA-039-AN Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Silver) (CA-039-AN)
£69.95 £69.95
CA-006-HP Hiper HPU-4B580 Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Blue (CA-006-HP)
£52.95 £52.95
Subtotal £1,683.45
VAT £294.61
Total £1,978.06

 

[Wolfbane]

well, i was looking at it knowing id be needing a minimum of £5k.
I'll be ordering it all locally off a guy I know, and therefore discount, as well as trade prices.
so in all honesty, do your worst, and if possible please list the items, ie-
Mobo-
Ram-
HD's-
etc

cos once you start getting into the pc parts, im stumped.
and the ddr2 is a must, so amd is out the window.
and why is everyone telling me 2gb ram? would 4gb not work better?

 

[Trifid]

4gb's slows the PC down, as it is too much for XP to allocate (it is the max it supports, so for now you would be better off with the 2 1gb sticks.)

DDR2 is not required though. I'm not saying that you should not go with a Intel, but don't go for Intel because 'it supports DDRII memory.' This isn't an advantage as AMD's onboard memory controller means that you get upto 6.4gb/s of bandwidth in dual channel.

I couldn't find a benchtest with DDR and DDR2 on.

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2700&p=9

 

[Wolfbane]

-AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 with HyperTransport and Dual Core Technology
-600Watt ATX 2.0 Power Supply (May need 700-750 Watt)
-Thermaltake Tai-Chi VB5001SNA Black Aluminium ATX Full Tower Computer Case with liquid cooling system
-nVidia nForce 4 SLI x16 MotherBoard
-Dual 512mb Pci-Express x16 nVidia Ge-Force 7900 GTX (in SLI Configuration)
-Ageia PhysX Physics Processing Unit with 128mb GDDR3
-Video Performance Optimizer
-4x 1gb DDR2 667Mhz PC4200
-4x (Raid 1Tb) 2x500Gb Serial ATA 3gb/s 7200rpm with 16mb cache
-16x DVD-Rom Drive with Software DVD Decoder
-16xDual Layer DVD+_R/W Drive with LightScribe Technology
-Integrated High-Performance 7.1 Surround Sound with S/PDIF and coaxial digital outputs
(if the motherboard changes and there is another PCI slot, then upgrade to a 7.1 Creative sound card)
-Digital 7.1 Speaker System with Wireless Technology
-Samsung SyncMaster 242mp 24" HDCP Ready Wide LCD TV/Monitor with Desktop Stand
-Intergrated High Performance GigaBit Ethernet

That was what i was going for, but i only found out afterwards that amd isnt ddr2.....
but i am trying to get as best performance outa the pc as possible, to avoid going straight to mac.
my old pc came into a lil accident, and currently my only acess to one is via work.
but could you please run me up the specs of what id like to call a 'beast'?

 

[Trifid]

It isn't really to do with watts, it is the amps and 'the badge to go with it.' 550w or so will be fine.

As said the Ageia PhysX card is pointless until games support it.


If you wanted to go with the Intel, than the 955 is the one to go. Have a look through these tests, they are all high performance CPU's. http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2668&p=3

 

[Wolfbane]

yeah, the more i look, the more i see il prob be staying ddr till the am2 comes out.....
the fx-60 is the mutts nutts, and amd have always had a good rep for gamer stations.....
right......
so the fx-60 stays.
nVidia or ATI?
nvidia=stable, but OC'd in the box.
ATI=waiting on the latest patch.....plus ive heard bout their lack of 3d......
but again, its all just wot i heard....
i traded a 128mb nvidia for a 256mb ati, and the only difference was that it played a lil smoother (ie less lag), but then again i did add some ram too......
*sigh*
nvidia i think.....any ideas?

 

[Trifid]

I really like the X1900, but when it comes to the drivers it really puts me off.

ATI has developped the ability to do 2x AA 2x AF and HDR in one cycle oposed to 3 for nvidia, but nvidia has more brute power and better drivers... Your choice.