What's the BEST of the best???

OK... Here's the story. I have a butt-load of extra cash to blow on a new system. Not the software... not the monitor/keyboard/mouse/printer/whatever... I'm talkin' just the box. Now,... I need this box to do everything... I need it to run servers (web/ftp), I need it for gaming, I need it to run digital audio applications (i.e. Pro Tools), I need it to make my breakfast, wash my car, and take out the trash...

Therefore, I want every component in this box to be the fastest of its kind. (or pretty darn close to it :p )


So.... having said that.

I want some input on what to get.

Now,... I've been an AMD guy up until this point, but AMD has dropped the ball (at the moment). The only thing they have that even comes close to the 3.0GHz is the 2800+, and that's not even available yet. :eek: And don't even bother mentioning the Claw Hammer, seeing how that prolly won't be out until December of 2024. :p And since I can't wait around for AMD to play catchup, I'm assuming that the 3Ghz with HT is my best bet for the "fastest". (Unless anyone has any "objections" :p)


So,...

Which platform for the P4 3GHz? (What should I go with.... RDRAM? DDR? Dual DDR? Which chipset? Which mobo? etc. etc. etc.)

Which CD-RW?

Which DVD?

Which Video Card?

Which IDE HDD?

Basically, I wanna know what you guys think are the top of the line performers right now in all categories.

The most important aspect of this exercise is the platform. So the more input I get on the platform, the better. Please reference benchmarks whenever possible. Any advice or input is appreciated.



Here are my first-glance conclusions (all of which are subject to change.)


CPU: P4 3GHz
Mobo: I dunno
RAM: I dunno (determined by Mobo type)
CD-RW: Sony CRX220E1 52X24X52X
DVD: Pioneer 106S (slotload)
Video Card: Radeon 9700 Pro
IDE HDD: IBM 180GXP



Any and all suggestions/contradictions are more than welcome.


And remember... money is not a factor. I don't wanna hear aboot what the best "price/performance" ratio is on any given item... I just wanna know which one smokes the rest. :p


WATYF

This was the motherboard I should have gotten, but it wasn't out when I upgraded. ASUS P4T533-C. For ram PC1066 RDRAM.

If you want speed drop the IDE disk and go with SCSI Ultra 320 and Seagate Cheetah 15k rpm drives.

If you really want speed when multiple applications are running go with a dual Xeon 2.8 setup. Supermicro has a very nice mobo that you can purchase alone or as a system. Ya gotta love the 64bit pci-x expansion slots, the in-built U320 SCSI and gigabit Ethernet and 12GB memory. Look here

For video you can't beat 3Dlabs Wildcat 4 AGP8x video cards with either 256MB DDR or 384MB DDR video memory. I've used older Wildcat cards and they are the best.

Quote:

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OK... Here's the story. I have a butt-load of extra cash to blow on a new system.

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Mr. Gates,

I thought I heard a story on the news the other day about that $100Mil windfall you will have after you start payin’ dividends to share holders! Hehe.
:D

CPU: P4 3.06GHz with HT
Mobo: ASUS Model# P4G8X DELUXE
RAM: CORSAIR MEMORY XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series PC-3500C2 With Platinum - Silver Heat Spreader
CD-RW: Lite-On 52X24X52X
DVD: Toshiba Model SD-M1712
Video Card: Radeon 9700 Pro
IDE HDD: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9

Before you go with the 9700pro, I suggest you go over to the video card forum and read some of the GeForceFX reviews. It's not an ATI killer, but it's worth a look. :)

P4 3.06
ASUS P4G8X Deluxe
4x512mb Corsair XMS pc3500/pc3200
the burner and dvd-rom you had
Get a SCSI card and get some 15k rpm Seagates
ati radeon 9700 pro (or you can wait for the gffx and 9900 if you want)
sound blaster audigy 2 platinum (or platinum ex if you can get it)

that should be just fine

Hhhhmmm... I got some sayin' that the Intel chipset with RDRAM is the way to go, and some saying that the Intel chipset with Dual DRR is... I'm kinda goin' back and forth on that myself... not too sure at the moment which it is. Although... I heard tell that RAMBUS is goin' the way of the dodo... so maybe I'm safer going with the Dual DDR.


I also looked at the Geforce FX, but I don't know if that will be out in time. But... if it's going to be soon enough, then I may be willing to wait. And if the 9900 is gonna hit soon too, maybe I should wait for both and compare 'em.

And if anyone has good leads on new stuff that's coming out, then please let me know... I don't wanna buy the 3GHz right now if they're aboot to put out the next step, or anything like that. (And if the 2800+ really is gonna hit in Q1, then I can wait for that, because the cost of 3GHz's might come down)


And thanks for the tip on the SCSI. I've always stayed away from SCSI just because I never felt like getting into it. But I think I may look into it for this system.

WATYF

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Originally posted by WATYF
Hhhhmmm... I got some sayin' that the Intel chipset with RDRAM is the way to go, and some saying that the Intel chipset with Dual DRR is... I'm kinda goin' back and forth on that myself... not too sure at the moment which it is. Although... I heard tell that RAMBUS is goin' the way of the dodo... so maybe I'm safer going with the Dual DDR.


I also looked at the Geforce FX, but I don't know if that will be out in time. But... if it's going to be soon enough, then I may be willing to wait. And if the 9900 is gonna hit soon too, maybe I should wait for both and compare 'em.

And if anyone has good leads on new stuff that's coming out, then please let me know... I don't wanna buy the 3GHz right now if they're aboot to put out the next step, or anything like that. (And if the 2800+ really is gonna hit in Q1, then I can wait for that, because the cost of 3GHz's might come down)


And thanks for the tip on the SCSI. I've always stayed away from SCSI just because I never felt like getting into it. But I think I may look into it for this system.

WATYF

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The granite bay (i7205) is neck and neck with pc-1066 rdram. Neither is the clear winner in performance. I'd go with the GB just because I would expect it to live longer.

For graphics, I'd still suggest the 9700 pro over the FX - look at anadtechs review where they compare at equal IQ levels - the FX usually gets killed, sad to say. I was really hoping it would do better..:( Also, at the end of that review, it says R350 should be here ~1 month after the FX, which puts it in April.

Intel is supposed to be staying put at 3.06 for a bit, then releasing 800 MHz FSB P4's, possibly on the prescott core. Not likely to happen before 2h '03. AMD has Barton samples out now, but who knows how they will really stack up until we see some real benches. Also, the 2800 is available from newegg right now - you just have to buy a mobo with it. It's still slower than the 3.06 though.

Last, for speed, go SCSI. Better yet, go 4x Cheetah X15's in a RAID 0+1 array. Nothing will touch that for speed for quite some time. (unless you start looking at HP XP512 arrays, etc, but I think money really would be an object there! :D ) I had a setup like that - only RAID 0 though, I just wanted fast sustained writes. It would sustain almost 100/MB sec continuous write speed. Note that you really need a dual/triple PCI bus system and PCI 64/66 or PCI-X to handle that.

How high end are you really interested in getting?

i say:

3.06
Asus Granite Bay
All In Wonder 9700pro
2x512 Corsair pc3500
2x37gig 15k Cheetahs
and misc. cables and what not

ok a lot fo this stuff is up in the air, not to mention no dvd burner was mentioned, but lets give this guy some info that wont change in a while.

whats the best intel heatsink? should he go water? what case should he get? how many case fans? what size power supply?

the guy has to give us all a general ball park first, but once he does i think he needs to give attention to a very important part of the system.

I would go Dual P4 2.8 Xeons - easily the best choice as they have HT built in and the dual setup will let you run server process and other apps while still being able to game.

I would definitely go with a Seagate U320 X15.3 . My system speed improved dramatically once I upgraded to SCSI.

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Originally posted by WATYF
And remember... money is not a factor.

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Man, the day I can say that without laughing... :(

I would focus on hard drive speed, if money really isn't an object. It's a huge bottleneck in overall system performance. I like s1203372's idea :)

what is the r350?

I advise against the pioneer. I have heard of many people being very dissatisfied with their optical drives(not specifically that model however). I think the problem was with them being very noisy-clicking and clunking, etc. Good luck.