The new PC sitting on my wishlist

[Tripredacus]

Alright, I've gotten feedback on this cfg before from a couple different sites, but I want to get the following out of the way:

Intel BOXDX38BT LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX DDR3 - Retail

Sapphire 100225L Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Crossfire Supported

Thermaltake Purepower RX W0144RU ATX12V/EPS12V 600W Power Supply - Retail

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail

G.SKILL 2GB (2x1GB) 240-pin DDR3 SDRAM 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-2GBNQ - Retail

Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Vista and DX10+

I started out with this idea because I am at the limit of upgrades (monetary concerns) with my current computer. I also wanted to be able to make use of DirectX 10. And since I wanted to use DX10, I needed to use Vista. I have looked into a couple different options. I have already vLited a copy of Vista Business 32bit, but then I started to think of using more RAM...

Memory

I wasn't too keen on being limited to 3.2GB of RAM on my new computer, and would rather be able to use the max that the board supported. This meant using 64bit Vista. I am also not sure about RAM timings. With my current computer, I was an early adopter and there was only one type of RAM available. No multiple timings or tons of different bus speeds. It was easier to handle. The RAM I chose was based purely on price and bus speed rating of the chip. I am also not sold on the particular brand either, I just need something that lasts.

Q1: Am I going to run into any compatibility issues if I use 64bit instead of 32bit?

Q2: What can you tell me about the memory I chose?

Motherboard

I chose the motherboard based on a couple reasons. I wanted to use an Intel board again since that is what I am using now. I also wanted the ability to have more than one video card, and support a quad-core CPU. At the time, there was only two available, the X38 and a 975. This was before the G33 was updated to support it. At the time people said the 975 wasn't a good choice, but the X38 wasn't for sale yet. I also looked at the fact that DDR3 was out, new and really expensive, but by the time the X38 was being sold, the prices had dropped a lot.

Video Cards

It is not only fortunate that the X38 supported ATI Crossfire, but also that ATI's Vista drivers and support seems to be a lot better than nVidia's at the moment. The video card I chose will be a single card purchase, and when I go through stage 2 of building, I may either buy a second card of that type, or 2 cards of a higher end model.

Drives

My original idea was to have a 160GB C Drive and add Data drives later. I also don't have a DVD or CD Drive in my config because I already have those drives in my old computer. I may end up getting a Phillips or Matsus***a SATA DVD drive at some point in the future but we will see. I am also wondering if RAID on the storage drives (not the C) would be a good idea or not. I am not too sure about the actual long-time benefits of RAID.

Q3: What HDD configuration do you recommend?

Sound Card

While the X38 comes with built in sound, I would still wish to use a Creative card that supports EAX. I don't know if EAX is still big or not, but I currently use it. I also know that Creative cards support in Vista is pretty shoddy, but I am not sure of alternatives. The last (or only) non-Creative card I bought was a Guillemont 128bit PCI back in the day. My major concern is that I already have a Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound system, and want a card that would work well with that. The system is the second model Creative Inspire (5300?) if that helps.

Q4: What sound card is best or should this be a wait and see what the future brings type of decision?

If you have any other comments, let me know. This CFG price dropped about $600 in the past two months so I am thinking of getting it very soon.

I didn't list the case because I didn't think it was important. I also already have a monitor, keyboard (Apple Pro USB) and a mouse.

[nmX.Memnoch]

Memory

I wasn't too keen on being limited to 3.2GB of RAM on my new computer, and would rather be able to use the max that the board supported. This meant using 64bit Vista. I am also not sure about RAM timings. With my current computer, I was an early adopter and there was only one type of RAM available. No multiple timings or tons of different bus speeds. It was easier to handle. The RAM I chose was based purely on price and bus speed rating of the chip. I am also not sold on the particular brand either, I just need something that lasts.

You won't be limited to 3.2GB of RAM. If you have 4GB of RAM in the system, some will be reserved for addressing of peripheral cards (NIC, sound card, video card, etc). A 64-bit OS won't fix this.

Q1: Am I going to run into any compatibility issues if I use 64bit instead of 32bit?

It's possible...it depends on what you do with your PC. If you game, some older games may refuse to run, or may not run properly. Most 32-bit applications will, however, work without any problems.

Q2: What can you tell me about the memory I chose?

I'm not too familiar with G.SKILL myself but I know a lot of people use them without any problems.

Motherboard

I chose the motherboard based on a couple reasons. I wanted to use an Intel board again since that is what I am using now. I also wanted the ability to have more than one video card, and support a quad-core CPU. At the time, there was only two available, the X38 and a 975. This was before the G33 was updated to support it. At the time people said the 975 wasn't a good choice, but the X38 wasn't for sale yet. I also looked at the fact that DDR3 was out, new and really expensive, but by the time the X38 was being sold, the prices had dropped a lot.

It's a good choice on the motherboard. Just realize that Intel's motherboards don't typically have a lot of the tweaking options that other manufacturers such as ASUS and Gigabyte have. Also keep in mind that the X48 based boards should be hitting the market soon. The main difference between the X38 and X48 is official support for the 1600MHz FSB settings (not a big deal unless you're going with the very highest in Core 2 Xtreme CPU). It's also said that the X48 fixes a few minor problems with the X38. I have an X38/DDR2 based motherboard (Asus P5E)...and I can tell you from my experiences that the extra price for DDR3 seems to be worth it (the X38/48 doesn't officially support DDR2 and people have run into difficulties getting X38/DDR2 based boards stable).

Video Cards

It is not only fortunate that the X38 supported ATI Crossfire, but also that ATI's Vista drivers and support seems to be a lot better than nVidia's at the moment. The video card I chose will be a single card purchase, and when I go through stage 2 of building, I may either buy a second card of that type, or 2 cards of a higher end model.

I can't really comment here as I personally prefer NVIDIA cards even though their drivers have hit a rough patch (no pun intended).

Drives

My original idea was to have a 160GB C Drive and add Data drives later. I also don't have a DVD or CD Drive in my config because I already have those drives in my old computer. I may end up getting a Phillips or Matsus***a SATA DVD drive at some point in the future but we will see. I am also wondering if RAID on the storage drives (not the C) would be a good idea or not. I am not too sure about the actual long-time benefits of RAID.

If this is your primary data storage machine I would recommend going with either a RAID1 or RAID10 configuration for your data drives. RAID1 requires 2 drives and 2 drives only. RAID10 requires at least 4 drives (which is your limitation on arrays using ICH5/6/7/8/9 anyway). Both will give you data redundancy (if a single drive fails you won't lose any data). RAID10 gives you both redundancy and speed, and potentially greater redunandcy (2 drives can fail without losing any data, depending on which two drives it is). Absolutely do not go with RAID5 using any onboard solution. Performance won't be what you expect.

Q3: What HDD configuration do you recommend?

Personally, I use RAID0 for my OS drives and RAID1 for my data drives. The OS drives get the operating system (obviously) and all applications. If a drive fails you lose everything, but that would be the case if you went with a single drive anyway. I use RAID0 for the added speed/space benefit.

Sound Card

While the X38 comes with built in sound, I would still wish to use a Creative card that supports EAX. I don't know if EAX is still big or not, but I currently use it. I also know that Creative cards support in Vista is pretty shoddy, but I am not sure of alternatives. The last (or only) non-Creative card I bought was a Guillemont 128bit PCI back in the day. My major concern is that I already have a Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound system, and want a card that would work well with that. The system is the second model Creative Inspire (5300?) if that helps.

I think you're taking a HUGE chance going with a Creative product at this point. Even their "works with Vista" X-Fi products don't work with vista due to non-existant driver support. You can probably find daniel_k's modified drivers floating around, but having to rely on someone to "hack" the drivers for their flagship product doesn't give me a warm fuzzy.

Q4: What sound card is best or should this be a wait and see what the future brings type of decision?

Asus' Xonar seems to be picking up a lot of support. I have read about potential problems with their PCIe bridge chip though. Everybody is also kinda waiting to see if Creative is finally going to pop their heads from where the sun don't shine...but I'm not hedging any bets there.

[cluberti]

Sound Card

While the X38 comes with built in sound, I would still wish to use a Creative card that supports EAX. I don't know if EAX is still big or not, but I currently use it. I also know that Creative cards support in Vista is pretty shoddy, but I am not sure of alternatives. The last (or only) non-Creative card I bought was a Guillemont 128bit PCI back in the day. My major concern is that I already have a Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound system, and want a card that would work well with that. The system is the second model Creative Inspire (5300?) if that helps.

I think you're taking a HUGE chance going with a Creative product at this point. Even their "works with Vista" X-Fi products don't work with vista due to non-existant driver support. You can probably find daniel_k's modified drivers floating around, but having to rely on someone to "hack" the drivers for their flagship product doesn't give me a warm fuzzy.

Not only that, but onboard sound at this point is just as good as discreet sound cards (EAX doesn't work well in Vista without hacked drivers, so no thanks for me), and the CPU hit you take with onboard sound when running a dual or quad core processor is less than negligible. Go with a motherboard with 5.1 or 7.1 onboard sound, and I doubt you'll be dissapointed.

[Tripredacus]

I couldn't see myself to stop using my current (XP) computer as my main storage computer just because of how I have everything organised. Unfortunately, it is an accident waiting to happen. It has 3 HDDs in it. 20GB for OS and a 120GB partitioned into two parts for file storage are both on their first format and from 2001. I have an additional 40GB drive that is the storage drive from my Windows 98 computer, and it was purchased in 1999. The newer ones are ATA133 and the older one is a ATA100. I'll probably go for the 2 drive data storage on the new computer, but it isn't a priority right now. If all else fails, I can always burn data off to DVD if I need to if I run out of space.

I will be primarily use the new computer for games, but I am not foolish enough to try to get games that aren't supported in Vista to work unless I want to MAKE it work for whatever reason. I plan on keeping the XP computer around for development purposes because it has everything on it I need as far as productivity software goes. It would take way too long to get all that onto the Vista PC, not counting finding compatible versions, etc.

But as far as the memory goes, I'd rather not be limited by the OS for the amount of memory, which was why I considered using a 64bit version instead.

[suryad]

Yeah I would go with the x64 version mate. I have heard people saying its actually more stable than the 32 bit version and what with Microsoft saying they are going to push big time for x64 as the next evo in OS, I dont see why not. I am not using vista because I dont like it but I am using xp x64 and it works like a charm. Main worry is drivers but for Vista since that is the de facto OS now that should not be a problem. Your vlite image may get pretty huge though with x64.

[Ludwig Von Cookie Koopa]

My best advice is that your computer sounds good the way it is and there is no need for upgrade. I really can't see the use for Vista at all but being the ultimate GUI computer where high graphics is pumping out 24/7 . I like the way it is now where I can have my games running while using a browser that has the same graphics as them. The hypo graphics OS is uneeded and Vista is there for those who have no idea of what to do with there money.

[puntoMX]

The hypo graphics OS is uneeded and Vista is there for those who have no idea of what to do with there money.

Linux text based?

Vista and DX10+

I started out with this idea because I am at the limit of upgrades (monetary concerns) with my current computer. I also wanted to be able to make use of DirectX 10. And since I wanted to use DX10, I needed to use Vista. I have looked into a couple different options. I have already vLited a copy of Vista Business 32bit, but then I started to think of using more RAM...

The man already said it...

...and I can tell you from my experiences that the extra price for DDR3 seems to be worth it (the X38/48 doesn't officially support DDR2 and people have run into difficulties getting X38/DDR2 based boards stable).

But to get DDR3 to get a stable system... and just 2x 1GB. I would look further and get a stable combo of RAM and motherboard and put in some 4GB RAM and good timings at a normal 1.8 working voltage.

I thought that the P45/ICH10 was going to use DDR2, but even that chipset will natively support DDR3.

As a side note, I didn´t play much with DDR3 as its 5! to 6! times the price of DDR2 here in Mexico *sigh*...

[nmX.Memnoch]

I thought that the P45/ICH10 was going to use DDR2, but even that chipset will natively support DDR3.

If I'm not mistaken, G43/P45/X48 will still use ICH9. As far as I know P45 officially supports both DDR2 and DDR3, just like the P35. However, the X38/X48 only officially support DDR3. DDR2 works, but it's not officially supported by Intel.

Some X38/DDR2 motherboards (specifically the P5E) have been known to kill enthusiast DDR2 RAM sticks (those that require higher than spec voltage). Crucial actually de-qualified their DDR2 Ballistix modules on the X38 chipset for a while because there were so many failures. They've re-qualified them again, but I suspect it took some reengineering on their part.

[puntoMX]

I double checked it; they should be releasing the ICH10 Southbridge soon in combination with any of the 3 north bridges you spoke of.

[Tripredacus]

My best advice is that your computer sounds good the way it is and there is no need for upgrade.

I don't have this computer yet. My computer right now runs XP on a system I can't upgrade the CPU on. The ram would cost nearly the price of the system I outlined above if I were to go to 2GB. Here are my current specs:

Intel D850MV (3rd rev)

512MB (2x256) 168-pin RAMBUS (first gen) @800MHz (Samsung)

Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz CPU (max supported by rev, no hyper-threading support)

ATI Radeon 9600XT 256MB AGP 4x (card is 4x8x but board is 2x4x)

It is still possible to upgrade the video card, but paying $900 to get 2 sticks of 1GB PC800 RDRAM...

But to get DDR3 to get a stable system... and just 2x 1GB. I would look further and get a stable combo of RAM and motherboard and put in some 4GB RAM and good timings at a normal 1.8 working voltage.

I thought that the P45/ICH10 was going to use DDR2, but even that chipset will natively support DDR3.

As a side note, I didn´t play much with DDR3 as its 5! to 6! times the price of DDR2 here in Mexico *sigh*...

I'll start with 2GB just to get started, and increase later up to 8GB, as well as add the second video card.

Now I'm just waiting for that Economic Incentive check to come in... and I gotta prepare me a Vista Business x64 install with vLite.