finally! almost ready to build, need advice

capleton · Post by **capleton** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 6:46 pm

I'm finally going to build a new PC, been wanting to for about a year, but didnt have the funds. This will be my first build. From looking at posts and reading reviews, ive narrowed it down somewhat, but i still cant decide on a few things, and need some pretty specific advice. I also wanted to see what everybody here thought of this. The system will be used for multimedia archiving, so i am going to use RAID 1 (that is the only thing that is absolutely set). anyway, here is what i was thinking:

Antec SLK-3000b case
Asus A8N-SLI premium
Athlon 3000+ Venice
Corsair Value Select (2x 512)
Seasonic S12-430
2x Seagate 160gb 7200.9 (Seagate claims they are virtually inaudible, I'll have to see) MIght switch to the 250gb version if it comes out in time.

where im having some problems, is deciding on the heatsink, the fans, and the thermal compound.

heatsink: the xp-120 because it could cool the heatsink of the motherboard and the mofsets and all that. But wouldnt it also impair airflow more, with that larger fan? How about the xp-90 with a smaller fan?

For the fans, i want to cool my hds as much as possible, i didnt know if i should put a nexus in the front, and keep the tricool out back, having less air in the case. Or if i should switch those and put the tricool in front, having more air get into the case. no matter what though, i was thinking id have a nexus on the heatsink.

thermal paste: Does ceramique have a longer life? i know it is safer on the motherboard because its not conductive or capacitive, but its performance is not as good as arctic silver 5's. which should i get? im looking for stability and longgevity and performance, in that order (hope longevity is the right word).

thanks for the help. Cant wait to listen to music and watch movies without having that background noise.

warriorpoet · Post by **warriorpoet** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 7:05 pm

Congrats on the new system!

A couple things jump out at me right away:

1. Are you going to use SLI? If you're not, I've had very good experiences with ABit's AN8 Ultra (passive heatpiped NB), might save you a few dinero. NewEgg link

2. Thermalright SI-120 is not only a more compatible than the XP-120, it's optimized for use with low airflow fans. I have one in my nachine and it works as an intake, pulling cool air from the TAC duct and blowing it onto my passive northbridge cooler

3. AS5 is the absolutely most stable long-term paste solution. However, it is slightly capacitive (overblown IMHO). In other words, be careful

4. an undervolted Nexus is fine for your HDDs, 5v will provide more than enough airflow

5. It may be just my bad experience, but my Tri-Cool undervolts miserably (motor whine), you may want to replace it with a Nexus

6. If you decide to go with the ABit instead of the Asus board, consider the P150 for an enclosure. I have a Neo HE500 hooked up to my AN8 Ultra with no problems whatsoever, and it may be cheaper than buying a PSU and a case seperately.

7. Have you considered Samsung SpinPoints? They are on the SPCR Recommended List, and a pretty reasonable. Here's a NewEgg link for the 200Gb model.

8. What video card are you considering?

Again, congratulations!

edit: I almost forgot; if you're doing heavy archiving, you may benifit from another Gb of RAM (i.e. 2x 1Gb). If you upgrade later (i.e. 4x 512Mb), your computer will be forced to use a 2T command rate for 4 modules, rather than the faster 1T for 2 modules, reducing the overall effectiveness of your upgrade.

Fat_bloater_dave · Post by **Fat_bloater_dave** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 11:41 pm

capleton wrote:heatsink: the xp-120 because it could cool the heatsink of the motherboard and the mofsets and all that. But wouldnt it also impair airflow more, with that larger fan? How about the xp-90 with a smaller fan?

If you are worryed about that you could try the Scythe SCNJ-1000 Ninja Which gives an airflow across the board instead.

warriorpoet wrote:If you upgrade later (i.e. 4x 512Mb), your computer will be forced to use a 2T command rate for 4 modules, rather than the faster 1T for 2 modules, reducing the overall effectiveness of your upgrade.

Not with the Venice core he wont

theve improved it so that its works just as fast with 4 as it does with 2, pretty need huh.

hravn · Post by **hravn** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:17 am

Fat_bloater_dave wrote: Not with the Venice core he wont theve improved it so that its works just as fast with 4 as it does with 2, pretty need huh.

AFAIK you _do_ need to run 2T with 4 memory modules. The only boards that can handle 4 DIMMS @ 1T is the the new DFI boards (Expert and RDX200-DR) and then only with certain types and max DDR400.

capleton · Post by **capleton** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:46 am

Awesome! thanks for all the help,

so here is what ive got it to:

Antec SLK-3000b case
Asus A8N-SLI premium
Athlon 3000+ Venice
Corsair Value Select (2x 1GB)
Seasonic S12-430
2x Samsung SpinPoint P 200GB
SI-120 with Arctic Silver 5

I figure the SI-120, since it doesnt have fins that extend to the base, may allow better air circulation than the xp-90 or xp-120, there is less stuff in the way of the air. and i could use it as an intake like you said too. Anybody who's smarter than me know if this could be true?

im still going to stick with the A8n-SLI premium. not going to use the SLI, but i want to have some of the other features on the board. No video card yet because i dont have my monitor, its going to be a Syntax Olevia 26inch. I thought that i would just use the onboard video untill then. anybody know what the quality would be like?

couple more things:

One of the people on newegg who reviewed the spinpoint said that it doesnt work as SATA-II with the nforce 4 chip, it needs to be jumpered back to standard SATA. is that true?

Will my money be better spent in the upgrade to 2gigs of ram, or would it be better spent maybe getting a venice 3200, or even a 3500?

capleton · Post by **capleton** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 11:29 am

...crickets...

Fat_bloater_dave · Post by **Fat_bloater_dave** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 11:52 am

capleton wrote:Will my money be better spent in the upgrade to 2gigs of ram, or would it be better spent maybe getting a venice 3200, or even a 3500?

Personaly i would say that neather is needed it will work compleatly fine with a venice 3000+ and 1GB, but it depends on how much you are willing to spend the more you get the "better" it will be

sgent · Post by **sgent** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:54 pm

I don't think that mboard comes with onboard video -- you might want to double check.

warriorpoet · Post by **warriorpoet** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:56 pm

As far as the Spinpoint is concerned, I think it depends on the motherboard. If you read further, you'll notice the majority of people have had success. I wonder if that poor fellow might have a vanilla NF4 board, which does not support SATA II like the SLi and Ultra chipsets.

The lack of fins extending to the bottom of the SI-120 results in less backpressure, hence similar cooling performance with less airflow, ideal for the quiet freak.

Your gaming performance will be slightly better with an upgrade to a 3500+, but since you mentioned archiving as your primary focus the 2Gb of RAM will, most likely, serve you better when you're compressing the mess... Also, the 3000+ E3 stepping proc. generally overclocks very easily, with negligable temperature increse to about 2.4GHz (the same speed as a 3800+). Anything higher and you have to start feeding it some pretty high voltage.

You do know that the ASUS board doesn't have on-board video, right?

If you need a cheap VGA card that's silent and adequate for general computing and light-duty gaming, why not check here.

capleton · Post by **capleton** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 1:57 pm

Thanks for all the input!

Alright, so when i was looking at the pictures of the MB, I saw this blue connector on one of the accesory backplates, turns out that its a "COM port". i guess this is my noobie side talking, but what the *&)(*^ is a COM port?

anyway, thanks for that link, warriorpoet, but i think at this point im either going to go low-end, and wait awhile before i get a nice card, or just go really high-end right now, and get something that will hopefully work with my upcoming monitor (something that is 1366x768 compatible). so here's what i got,
Asus 6200TC or
Asus 6600GT
The 6600GT is compatable at the resolution i will need, but i dont know if that heatsink is going to be able to fit above the SI-120. Anybody know this? Also, getting the 6600GT would mean I wouldnt be able to get 2gigs of ram. Would the extra video power be worth loosing the ram? (i could get the 6200 without sacrificing the ram) any thoughts?

here's how it looks so far:

Antec SLK-3000b case
Asus A8N-SLI premium
Athlon 3200+ Venice (marginally more pricey than 3000+)
Corsair Value Select (2x 1GB) [edit: going to have to change this, turns out 2 sticks of valueram at 1gig a piece is not compatible with the MB]
Seasonic S12-430
2x Samsung SpinPoint P 200GB
SI-120 with Arctic Silver 5

oh, and warriorpoet, do you know if that card you mentioned is compatable at that resolution? I couldnt find any info on that, but it does say that it isnt hdtv compatible. any thoughts?

stromgald · Post by **stromgald** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 2:25 pm

If the XP-120 fits your motherboard, I would recommend getting that over the SI-120. Its ~25mm shorter so it will be easier for the ASUS 6600GT to fit.

A COM (or Seiral) port used to be used for modems I think, and IIRC some old joysticks used the connection. It was the old 'USB' port that was never really used all that much. The COM/Serial and the LPT/Parallel ports are generally called 'legacy' ports and are disappearing from some ABIT boards.

capleton · Post by **capleton** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 2:48 pm

If the XP-120 fits your motherboard, I would recommend getting that over the SI-120. Its ~25mm shorter so it will be easier for the ASUS 6600GT to fit.

might have been a good idea; unfortunately i already ordered the SI-120 and the nexus fans from Jab-tech. I think i might be stuck with the SI-120 for now. The nexus is 25mm thick, and the SI-120 is 90mm tall, what i cant figure out, is whether or not the card's heatsink comes 115mm from the board. theres gotta be some site out there with that listed.

A COM (or Seiral) port used to be used for modems I think, and IIRC some old joysticks used the connection. It was the old 'USB' port that was never really used all that much. The COM/Serial and the LPT/Parallel ports are generally called 'legacy' ports and are disappearing from some ABIT boards.

Thanks stromgald, I was always wondering what 'legacy' was. Too bad now i know it doesnt really do me any good.

stromgald · Post by **stromgald** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 2:59 pm

X-Bit labs quotes ASUS as recommending that the height of the CPU HSF be no more than 11cm (110mm) tall.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ ... cer_4.html

You don't have to turn the radiator above the CPU fan. You could leave it in the horizontal position and hope the intake fan will give it enough cooling. If the temps get too high, you could add a fan somewhere or return the SI-120 for an XP-120.

capleton · Post by **capleton** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:11 pm

5 cm, seems like a pretty close call. would the cooling be good if it were rotated? oh, and jab-tech no longer sells the xp-120. eitherway, would this card still be more beneficial than the added gig of ram?

stromgald · Post by **stromgald** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 4:28 pm

Actually its 5mm, or 0.5 cm. Too close to call IMO. You could probably get some small clips and tie them together for added support

. The 6600GT is an excellent card and will outperform the 6200TC you listed by a large margin. The 6600 that warriorpoet mentioned might be a good option if it supports the resolution you want. The extra speed in the graphics card will help more than the extra GB of RAM in games, but I think the RAM will help more in archiving.

warriorpoet · Post by **warriorpoet** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 4:43 pm

I just posted the 6600 link because you were so concerned about your budget, I didn't want to stretch it too far...

1Gb of RAM should be fine, but if you're going to spend that much on a card, you can get better (just not quieter). You will gain a lot of performance by going for a card like this. The 6800GS performs on par with the 6800GT, a significantly more expensive card, and is an excellent overclocker. Unfortunately, you'll have to add aftermarket (quiet) cooling to keep the noise within reason, but that's the price you pay for double the eyecandy performance at the same price...

A review of the GS at anandtech, and a brief excerpt:

"Today sees the introduction of a part that performs just as well as the 6800 GT but costs about $70 to $80 less. The 6800 GS looks like it hits the sweet spot between price and performance this holiday season. Aside from cutting the cost of the 6800 GT, the 6800 GS doesn't cost that much more than a vanilla 6800 with 256MB of RAM. As the vanilla 6800 performs just slightly better than the 6600 GT, we can say with confidence that the 6800 GS has taken over the 6800 line and is the only real option left of the bunch.

Note that the linked XFX 6800GS has a 60 Mhz core OC, and a 100MHz memory OC; testing was performed at reference speeds...

As for whether or not a faster video card will affect performance more than another Gb of RAM, it depends on what you're using it for. If you want to use it for gaming, a better video card is easily the best choice, if, however, all you're doing is archiving or encoding, an extra Gig of RAM will significantly reduce your compression times, something a faster video card will not help with.

Also, nearly every video card on the market today will drive desktop resolutions higher than what you've specified. The question is really what you'll be doing at those resolutions.

Again, enjoy your system.