Feedback for a software development machine

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cogline

New Member
This is the first round.. after researching all afternoon on this site and some other ones, I put this together on newegg. It's been several years since I've built a system, but please be harsh. I will be using this primarily for software development, which can be very IO intensive. This is the reason for the 10k storage disks and the separate OS disk. I will be using the two 600 gigs in RAID 1.

A big sticking point for me is the bottom vs top mounted PSU case. After reading so much rhetoric, I came to the conclusion that letting the PSU work in cooler air (at the bottom) and using its fan for itself instead of everything else would be better for its lifespan. The case comes with three other fans and room for more. I'm not terribly worried about picking up dust. It's going to pick up dust anyway.

On that note, I haven't picked out a PSU yet, but was going for around 650W, modular, active, with multiple 12V rails. Are the rails a big advantage?

AMD Phenom II X4 965
G.SKILL 4GB 240 pin DDR3 1333 (x2 for 8GB)
OCZ Vertex 2 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC SSD (OS disk)
Western Digital VelociRaptor 600GB 10000 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" (storage disks in RAID 1)
GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX
COOLER MASTER RC-692-KKN2 CM690 II Advanced Black Steel ATX Mid Tower

Thanks!
 
cogline said:
1) On that note, I haven't picked out a PSU yet, but was going for around 650W, modular, active, with multiple 12V rails. Are the rails a big advantage?
2) AMD Phenom II X4 965
3) G.SKILL 4GB 240 pin DDR3 1333 (x2 for 8GB)
4) GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI
Click to expand...
Welcome to Computerforum :good:
I think it looks real good. Nice picks.

A little input for ya.
1) You're ok with dual rail or single. Just make sure it's reputable maker. If it's dual just spread the v's around so not too much is on 1 rail. Some prefer 1 strong rail. It may be a matter of what 2 power suplies (1 dual/1 single) were being compared. 650w is a lot w/o a GPU. About all I know on the rail subject. More info: Power Supply (PSU) Tech Guide
2) The 955 may be a better choice since it can easily reach the same clock speed. The real move up from a 955 imo is the 1090T, but no need for that.
3) Get 1600. Costs about the same. 2x4gb is better (and costs less).
4) That's quite the MB. I like the choice, and that IGP will probly do fine unless you play games or anything graphically intense. And if you do, you're ready.
Consider a 3rd party HS. CM Hyper 212 or XIGMATEK Dark Knight come to mind for the price range they're in. + Artic Silver thermal paste.
 
Glad to be here.

Went back to the 955. Thanks for the tip.

I did read some bad reviews on the stock HS/fan with the X4, so I was actually going to kick it up to a big fancy $80 Zalman.. the thing weighs about 3/4 kg with all the copper. I'm tempted to go with the Hyper 212 for price and practicality, but I'm concerned about aluminum vs. copper and some of the X4 reviewers definitely had some heat problems. And I'm definitely going to OC it after I found this:

http://blogs.amd.com/play/2009/04/2...amd-phenom-ii-x4-955-black-edition-processor/

where they got a 955 up to 4.2GHz without a problem. So I'm wondering if it'll pay off to spend 4x the cash on a nice cooler.

About the memory, I found 2x4GB 1600 for $17 more. Worth the price? My concern with this (and even the 1333) is the FSB / frequency matching.

Here are my specs now:

mobo: FSB = 2600MHz Hyper Transport (5200 MT/s), supports DDR3 1866 (OC)/1333/ 1066
CPU: HT = 4000MHz
RAM: DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

If 1:1 is important, I don't think I have it. I've never OC'd a system really knowing what I was doing, but I'm guessing the numbers will fluctuate anyway and as long as it passes benchmark tests am I missing out on anything?

New lineup (most likely):


COOLER MASTER RC-692-KKN2 CM690 II Advanced Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
COOLER MASTER Silent Pro M700 RS-700-AMBA-D3 700W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active
GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD
G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
Western Digital VelociRaptor WD6000HLHX 600GB 10000 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTX80G 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC
ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner
 
I don't know much about oc'ing, just a couple things i've read and learned here.
For a more extreme oc (955 on air) the results may depend on the chip and accompanying HW. Namely the chip and MB. Results will vary. I would consider 3.9 or more as extreme. Two members here (diff MB's), one couldn't get to 4.0, and another has 4.4 on the Dark Knight. I've seem a couple articles oc'ing that same cpu whilst checking out 2 diff mb's., Gigabyte-Asus both 890G's and the Asus may have the better power phase since it won,,4+1 vs 8+2? I'm not sure without looking into it. May be how it's calculated because I can't see the Gig with that low of a phase. I don't know that for sure, but if an extreme oc id what you want, I't may be worth a look. I'm sure either would do nicely, with whatever 955 chip, for 3.4-3.8.
Not sure what 1:1 means.
I agree with you on the cooler, whichever one will provide optimum cooling.
There are many here that have used/know about diff coolers and could comment on that better than I.
Whats the 700w's for? :eek: :) Must be planning a gpu or 2?

edit: about the RAM, It's worth it imo + its easier on the cpu's controller to have 2 sticks instead of 4. It will run at the default of 1333 unless/untill you change it, which is easy. NP there.
 
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haha.. well.. the 700W is room to grow I suppose. If I ever wanted to put a couple more drives in and do a RAID 10 or 01. And I will eventually be looking at moving up to four monitors.. so that's two GPU's, right? The motherboard and case were picked with the same goal.

By the 1:1, I meant the frequency of the FSB matching the RAM and the CPU. My understanding is that the system is more stable when everything is running at the same frequency, so my worry stems from all these numbers mashing together.

The motherboard support skipping from 1333 to 1866 OC'd.. where does the 1600 RAM fit in? Can the RAM be OC'd to to 1866 with everything else? And the CPU just sits at 4GHz on the FSB, so to match, would it have to be OC'd to 7464GHz? (4000 x 4) Seems weird to me.

Anyway, I could post all this in a more specific forum for overclocking. I'm feeling like the rig is coming together, so thanks for the input.
 
Several monitors can be ran from one card. The EGG has single cards that run 4-5 & 6 monitors.

I think you'll find that getting 1600 to run with the rest of your oc, won't be an issue.
A prominent member on that subject:
The memory controller just defaults the 1333 because thats the highest JEDEC standard right now. If it was a big deal to AMD they would not allow the controllers X to be changed.
Click to expand...
1600 would run at 1600 or higherdependingon manuf & product line. 1866 is the stated oc ceiling for the mb.
 
Benny Boy said:
Several monitors can be ran from one card. The EGG has single cards that run 4-5 & 6 monitors.

I think you'll find that getting 1600 to run with the rest of your oc, won't be an issue.
A prominent member on that subject:
1600 would run at 1600 or higherdependingon manuf & product line. 1866 is the stated oc ceiling for the mb.
Click to expand...

I'd grab some 1866 or 2000 RAM anyway, that ay you can lower the timings and clock them down, then overclock them again when you overclock the CPU. Good to have headroom.
 
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