General Input for a New Build

[randomtask]

Hi there,

I'm currently deciding on components for my new PC.

It's going to be primarily a performance gaming PC, but it will be in the living room so I want to get it as quiet as possible as well for watching movies etc.

Current thoughts on the main components are:

CPU: Core i7 920/940
MOBO: Asus P6T6
GFX: 2xGTX 260 OCX Maxcores, and a 8800GT as well (triple monitor setup)
Case: Antec P190 + 1200UK

I won't bother listing the rest as they're not critical.

What I would like to know is:

1) What harddrive would you recommend? I can stretch to a 60ishGB SSD for the main Windows partition but am conscious of the performance hit (currently I have 2x75GB Raptors in RAID 0 which are FAST) can anyone recommend a good one? I will need some storage drives as well, which 1/2Tb drives are the quietest? Would it be beneficial to consider an external enclosure (a Drobo for instance) if they are more acoustically insulated?

2) What about case cooling? The P190 comes with some fans, are these quiet, or should I look at getting some replacements? If so, which? Think I should get a totally different case? Let me know...

3) What about these NeoPower PSU's the P190 comes with? Are they quiet? I had some experience with an external fanless Noctua(?) power supply, but it kept breaking, so would rather just stick with an internal one if possible.

4) What about aftermarket CPU coolers? Can you recommend a good one?

Any other thoughts or comments you can give to a newbie, let me know

Thanks, Ed.

[judge56988]

Just a suggestion (because it's what I'd do)
Turn off the noisy gaming monster and watch your movies on a PVR/DVD box. They are purpose built for the job.
Sometimes it's a case of Jack of all trades, master of none.

[randomtask]

I'd thought of it, but I'll be using one of my monitors as the TV aswell (I want the functionaliy of being able to do other stuff with it besides solely watching TV on it) and most of the movies etc. I have are on my PC as well, so it seems more fitting to just use the PC for everything...

[stromgald]

What's your justification for going with the P190? It's an awfully big case, and unless you're going to be having 6+ HDDs or using 3+ optical drive bays, I don't see the reason for it. The larger fans are nice, but I don't think it should be the driving factor. A P182 or SOLO/P150 would be more economical options.

Secondly, why do you think there will be a performance hit going from SSD to Raptors? SSD's should be faster than the Raptor, and much, much quieter as well. Raptors are down-right noisy. The only other option is maybe a Velociraptor (2.5" 10k rpm drive), which still lacks the performance of SSD. If you want good storage drives, check out SPCR's storage section. I think your best options will be WD Caviar Blue or Green drives. Blue will get you the best capacity/cost and Green is more energy efficient. I think both are relatively quiet.

For your requirements, I don't think a passive PSU is worth it. A quiet one is certainly possible. I think Seasonic, Corsair, and the Enermax Modu82 series are all good and have PSUs around 600-750W range, which should be sufficient for your performance build.

The trickiest part to quiet down IMO is those graphics cards.

[randomtask]

Yeah, that main reason is to take my current 6 HDDS and 2 DVD drives, hence the big big case.

I'm of the impression that two raptors in RAID 0 (striping) have better performance than one SSD, albeit being much much noisier, correct me if I'm wrong...

Thanks for the info on storage drives/PSUs.

[stromgald]

RAID 0 offers little to no performance boost. Theoretically, it could provide close to 2x performance, but that's only if it's always reading from the two disks simultaneously for a given operation. From many threads discussing this online, this is rarely the case. Here's one on anandtech and one from arstechnica. Basically you're getting anywhere between 0 and 10% boost in performance using RAID 0.

SSD's offer much higher real-world performance, as evidenced in these tests: http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdo ... =3403&p=14 , where it showed 20-30% reductions in load time. However, the biggest issue with both 10k rpm HDDs and SSDs is the controller. A bad controller can completely ruin a drive's speed. Another anandtech article (because I'm too lazy to look elsewhere and anandtech is generally pretty thorough) http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdo ... =3531&p=29 shows the velociraptor beating some of the older SSD's with poor controller chips.

The bottom line is that SSD's are an order of magnitude faster in theory. Getting that kind of boost in real life performance has eluded manufacturers so far, but they're making progress.

[randomtask]

Thanks for those links.

I must say it goes against what I've noticed, but I was by no means running a proper test and will go with the experts I merely noticed that when I switched to RAID 0 raptors instead of a single 7200rpm SATA drive that windows loads literally 3 times faster. I guess that much just be down to higher platter speeds/better controllers rather than the RAID setup.