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I just want to focus on the CDRW and DVDROM. If your getting a high end system, drop both of those all together and simply grab a DVD-RW drive. :)
Granted it's a bit slower than 52X CD-R burning... but I have no idea why you'd want a 52X anyways. In my experience burning over 32X is dangerous, often times I get errors in the media playback or it just doesn't even work on certain CD drives.
I would recommed the Pioneer A04 and A05 drives, as they can be had for $140-200 bucks pretty easily.
i would defiantely consider the dual 2.8 xeons
and if you say your going to be doing things like pro tools then dont buy any "media" sound cards, get a professional one with more features that your interested in like this one
which ive heard performs well, or maybe even this one id your willing to pay enough.
Well if he is going SCSI then there is no point in going with a Granite Bay mobo. I mean the PCI bus tops at what 33Mbps which is like on par with a sustained transfer rate for IDE.
If you are going SCSI you need a bus that can handle it, and while you are workin on SCSI you might as well run straight to a dualie. With ungodly gobs of memory.
EDIT: and if you are getting HDD that are SCSI, then all your opticals might as well be SCSI too...fully utilize that bus mastering capability, could burn those CDs REAL fast.
geez... this is the input I needed... :p
OK. First off... I'm only looking at necessity, so I can focus on getting the best for what I really need.
So here's some more details.
I don't need a DVD burner. Only because I... well... have absolutely no need to burn DVD's. I have never been in a situation yet where I've though, "gee... I sure could use a DVD burner". I just don't watch movies much or do any video editing (etc.) at all.
Second,.. I have the pioneer now, and I'm quite happy with it. I had no problems with it whatsoever once did a firmware update. And I dig the slotload... I have no desire to go back to a tray. If I could find a slotload CD-RW, I'd get that too... (so if anyone knows of one, let me know).
SCSI is sounding more and more like what I'm gonna go for, but I dunno about doing a full blown RAID config... this may sound stupid, but I'm kinda lazy about getting into RAID. :p If I can get a controller and one fast SCSI (i.e. Cheetah) then I'm sure I'd be just fine. (I really don't need all that much space) But I agree that I need to focus on that a bit more since it's such a bottleneck.
As for audio, I already have that end covered.. I wouldn't touch a consumer grade audio card... (i.e. Audigy, etc.) I have a digi001, so I'm good there.
I wasn't really lookin' at the Granite Bay, primarily because THG did a review on it, and it didn't really come out looking all that impressive. The PC1066 pretty much had it beat the whole time... but then again... I'm not too hip on doing RAMBUS, so who knows. On the other hand, the 845 chipsets are just behind the 850E (just like the GB is) so if I don't wanna go with RAMBUS, then I'm right back to having to choose between one of those two. (In which case, which is the better option... the 845(GE or whatever) or the GB?) I think which platform to go with is the biggest "question" right now.
I'd like to look into the Dual 2.8's a little more. If anyone has any links to reviews that I could check out, that would be appreciated.
Oh yeah... one more thing... I need this thing to be pretty freaking quiet. (obviously) So input on cooling options would help too. I have been looking at watercooling options, but haven't researched it all that much yet.
I was already leaning towards the 9700 Pro, because the GF FX requires so much cooling (since it's clocked so high). I'd like to stay away from anything that requires excessive amounts of cooling, because silence is an important factor for me.
As for a ballpark idea... I don't wanna go crazy "high end" and get some kind of freaked out commercial workstation or anything. I'm just talking a couple grand or so. So far, the components I'm looking at are well under the general idea of what I was expecting to pay.
Keep it coming though... this is really helping. I'm gonna go check out SCSI options. (Although, it appears that the general concensus is the Cheetah)
Btw,... Isezumi brings up an good point. I don't wanna end up being stung by an unexpected bottleneck. So I gotta keep BUS speeds (and what not) in mind, so I don't end up shooting myself in the foot.
WATYF
If you want to be able to oh say record high quality audio and stream it to the hard drive, you will be best off with a dual or triple pci bus system. I would highly recommend an i7505 based motherboard (big brother to the i7205 Granite Bay). It has 3 PCI buses, PCI-X for your gigabit ethernet and U320 SCSI needs, can handle 2 2.8 GHz (or faster) Xeons, already has a u320 SCSI controller built in on many mobo's - in general, it rocks. Just don't get the Tyan variant. I have had trouble with Tyan workstation boards.
O.K. I'll check those out. I just need to know that I'm gonna get my money's worth when it comes to getting a Dualie. I mean... I may have extra cash, but I'm not stupid. :p In the past, I've read too many reviews that basically say that Dualie isn't worth the cost because the performance isn't that much better for most applications. (except for those that are optimized for Dual CPU's). Is a Dual 2.8 really going to toast the 3.06, or just kinda creep past is. Cause if I go Dualie, I gotta spend even more on EEC memory, and the PSU, and the mobo, etc. etc. etc... so I gotta know that I'm really gonna get some kick @ss performance for all the extra dough that I would have to spend.
WATYF
I wouldn't bother with a dual 2.8 xeon. Isn't the reason for getting the 3.06Ghz P4 for the Hyperthreading, which simulates 2 procs? You don't really need duals, and if you play games you will have better performance on the P4 3.06GHz.
I don't think you need SCSI either. If you are just going to run 1 hard drive, you might as well save money and just get an IDE RAID board and two Maxtor or WD 8MB cache drives. It will take you about 1 minute to RAID your drives in the RAID controller BIOS. The reason I am suggesting that is because if you do go SCSI you will have to get a SCSI board or a motherboard that supports PCI-X or 66Mhz PCI.
Sure you can spend more money, but it'd be wasted. Also.. you won't be generating as much heat (no SCSI, only 1 Processor) so you can guarantee yourself a quiet system. It won't get cluttered either inside.
Just use the Intel retail heatsink and get an Enermax or Antec quiet power supply. Add a super quiet case fan to the rear of the case, and you'll have enough airflow while producing hardly any noise. I've got my Athlon XP system like that - it's nearly silent.
Quote:
Originally posted by s1203372
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.
NO!
Don't do it. RAID 1+0 AKA RAID 10 SUCKS in performance. I have 8 80gb UW3LVD IBM 15000 RPM drives on 4 PERC3DL controlers in a RAID 10 and the performance is abysmal. RAID 10 under Windows 2K (assumably XP as well) FORCES verify after write since it's designed for fault tolerance not speed.
For the speed and security just stick with RAID 5, it's WAY faster and yeilds double the usable disk space.
I'm trapped due to a committment of zero failure absolute fault tolerance (loose 2 with RAID 5 you're hosed, with RAID 10 you can loose 3 and continue along.)
Just the advice of a lurking MCSE whose "been there, done that!"
Always did want a vid card with a fan that sounds like a vacuum cleaner heh hehQuote:
Originally posted by imayoda
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. :)
The 2.8 xeons ALSO have hyperthreading, which really simulates 4 procs. And how would you have better performance on the 3.06??Quote:
Originally posted by gotmonopoly?
I wouldn't bother with a dual 2.8 xeon. Isn't the reason for getting the 3.06Ghz P4 for the Hyperthreading, which simulates 2 procs? You don't really need duals, and if you play games you will have better performance on the P4 3.06GHz.
ok there is some crazy multi thousand ideas here. all this guys wants is something that will be awsome, not something to photoshop or make movies on.
get an intel gb board (stable and fast) corsair pc 3500 ram, 512 or 768 whatever you think that you need (dont really need a gb for anything that you will do)
get when they come out finialy the seagate baracudda V serial ata hdds and or one of the wd 8mb cache drives in. dont mess with RAID unless you are doing raid 0 and then the risk of failure makes it kind of unattractive.
get the 9700 for the video card. yeah the fx is maybe faster but even if it was a ton faster the 50+db level from the fan inside is not worth it to me and prolly not you either.
i would get a sony dru500a (i think) dvd burner. it does all formats and cd's also. you can use it for backups as well as mp3/music cd's if dvd-rw is not what you want at all, get the plextor 48x cd/rw. some people will recco the lite-on but that only has a 2mb buffer and the plextor has a 4mb. IMO they make a better product.
that about covers it, any other questions?
You asked for the BEST of the BEST and a couple of grand isn't going to cover that much...Quote:
Originally posted by WATYF
As for a ballpark idea... I don't wanna go crazy "high end" and get some kind of freaked out commercial workstation or anything. I'm just talking a couple grand or so. So far, the components I'm looking at are well under the general idea of what I was expecting to pay.
WATYF
In any event, if you go with a Dual 2.8 Xeon, you can get BOTH chips for around $800 vs the $600 that the 3.06 alone will cost. So, for ~200 more you get an extra processor that is only 200mhz slower. In addition, Granite Bay boards are not cheap, but neither are E7205 solutions (or is it E7505.. darn. its late!) A good Dual Xeon board with built in scsi is giong to cost you around $400, which is not too bad if you figure a GB + a scsi card will not be all that cheap either. So, for a complete dual setup, you're really only talking $300 to $350 more than a single 3.06 will cost you if you go the way of SCSI with it.
The Seagate X15.3 is THE drive to get - the thing is very quiet, amazingly quick. Combine it with a cheap Western Digital special edition drive to store your big files on and you'll be all set. Oh yes... about heat... there is no heat coming from my x15.3. This drive is amazing.... that's all I can say about it. If you combine this with the dual board, you will get 64bit/66mhz PCI slots which will help alleviate bottlenecks.
Anyway.. good luck!
So far, including the Dual 2.8 and SCSI options we've discussed, I still haven't exceeded what I have, or am willing, to spend on this particular system, so we're still fine there.
But what you're saying is that I should get a SCSI and an IDE and then RAID them? Is that correct?
Let me ask a more specific question, since I'm getting a lot of different options here...
Let's say that I don't think the performance boost/noise increase/price increase of Dualie is worth it, and I just go with, say, an E7205 mobo with the 3.06GHz. Should I still get a Cheetah X15? The prices I'm looking at really aren't that bad, so if it's gonna give me a noticeable speed increase over even the fastest IDE, then I'm all for it.
WATYF
WOAH, you cant RAID IDE and scsi
what he was talking about was this.
scsi drives are expensive storage compared to ide. put your o/s and games whatever programs on the scsi drive. store mp3's and movies etc on the ide. that way you will have a fast system, but enough storage for all of your files on the ide drive.
yes scsi is a noticable increase quite a large increase actually:)
i would not get the dualie setup, programs are not set up to use it. so the better option is the single 3.06 w/ ht. that way the program sees one processor, but the cpu is acting like to..get it? :)
Quote:
Originally posted by ua549
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.
:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
What kind of a 3DMark2001 score will that system score???