New System Questions

[Stingers]

Hi All,
I am configuring a new system for business use, database development mostly. I probably dont need a screaming system, but i want one:)

I am fairly certain that I am goping to go with an Ephex intel/Nvidia system (ephex for low noise and water cooling on the GPU and CPU) but have a few questions regarding components, any help is appreciated.

1. processor E6850 Core 2 (3.0GHz x 2) or Q6600 Core 2 Quad (2.4GHz x 4): will i really see any advantage of the 2 additional cores, or the higher clock and bus speed?

2. Vista or XP; I have had some bad experiences with vista, is it worth the try or should i stick with the stable XP?

3. Ram 2 or 4 gb?

Thanks in advance

[theDreamer]

:welcome:

1) This fully depends on your program use and future use of your system. A program that uses <4 cores will benefit from a better clocked dual core than a lower clocked quad core. Then again, programs are slowly trickling out with X core types where they can read multiple cores instead of the normal 1/2/4, so having more cores almost becomes like having more ram, the more the better. ;)

Though it will still be awhile, year or more, before this truly becomes mainstream and even then the first uses will be your upper end applications (photo/video type), and then it will slowly flood down the others.

2 & 3) XP if you feel more stable with it, but number 3 of your questions needs to be brought up here. You can get a 64bit XP, but truly I feel at this point it is a waste, if you want to go with 4gbs of ram. Then again if you settle on 2gb XP might be the better choice until you feel more stable under Vista or feel it has reached the potential that you need it to be at to work.

Also, just to clarify you will need the 64 bit OS to use the full 4gbs of ram, but to continue from my last statement you could always go with a 64 bit Vista, and dual boot with XP and run under Vista unless you encounter problems then run with XP for awhile.

Dual booting can be nice, but also a pain since you must reboot the use the other OS, so if you just wish to pick one that is on you how you feel about Vista. Personally it has evolved (recent update/speed increase has done very good), but that does not mean for what you personally need it for it will work.

Hope this helps.

[adriaan]

i came across these comparisons between processor performance of the latest CPUs.

Chart
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/07/16/cpu_charts_2007/page31.html

Extreme vs Duo
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/08/08/extreme_fsb_2/page11.html

I find myself torn. The e6850 (duo 3.0) is great for gaming but the q6600 (quad 2.4) is great for multithread applications, like 3d and sound editing. I want a machine that is scalable, so if in a few years from now I have difficulty running common(?) multithreaded apps it would be more convenient for me to purchase the quad. The hassle of upgrading a CPU in the near future can be worse than the $100 spent today.

On the other hand. The FSB speed of the e6850 is 1333mhz while that of the q6600 is 1066mhz. I don't know what effect this has on my system, but my assumption would be that the faster the bus speed the more information is transfered per time. The difference seems marginal, but maybe I'm wrong.

night
adriaan

[ginfan]

Those are some nice comparison charts adriaan. Personally, I went with the E6850 instead of the Q6600 because maximum pc told me to :-) I had pushed about $400 over my orginal budget so a 1333 quad was out of the question, but I did use the $75 savings on the duo to justify an upgrade from an 8800 XTS to an 8800 Ultra :lol:

[Stingers]

thanks for the info. does anyone have an ephex with or without watercooling that can attest to the sound level?

[ginfan]

I will in a week :D

[theDreamer]

thanks for the info. does anyone have an ephex with or without watercooling that can attest to the sound level?

Yeah, I would wait a few weeks because there are been a few orders and they should be coming to an end (meaning being delivered here soon).

[blindem]

Yep. I'm hoping my water-cooled Ephex will ship by tomorrow (as it's the 20-day mark).

As far as the dual v. quad, I did the opposite of ginfan and went with the quad because 1) MG rep told me to when I described what I wanted, and 2) I do a lot of audio/music editing and applications that works better on the quad. I am also a gamer, and I'm hoping that, as Dreamer pointed out, more applications in the future will make better use of the quad.

[Stingers]

figure i cant go wrong with the WC so i just ordered:


Exterior Automotive Color: Silver Brushed Aluminum Finish
Power Supply: 1000W Enermax Galaxy Power Supply
Motherboard: NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
Processor: E6850 Core 2 (3.0GHz x 2)
CPU Cooling: Maingear Arctic 120mm CPU Water Cooling System
Memory: 2GB Corsair XMS2-8500 DDR2-1066
Do you want us to Redline™ your CPU?: YES
Hard Drive One: Western Digital Raptor Enterprise 150GB 10K RPM 16MB Cache - SATA
Hard Drive Two: Western Digital Raptor Enterprise 150GB 10K RPM 16MB Cache - SATA
Hard Drive Three: Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache - SATA II
RAID (Requires Identical 1st & 2nd Hard Drives): RAID 0
Optical Drive One: 20X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive w/ LightScribe Technology - black
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB PCIe
Video Cooling: Maingear Arctic Liquid GPU Cooler
Do you want us to Redline™ your GPU?: YES
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi™ XtremeGamer
Network Card: Dual Gigabit LAN
Game: FREE! Guild Wars: Factions PC Game
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition
Warranty: 3 Year Maingear Warranty

[theDreamer]

Great choices you have made.
You seem to one of the first to have stayed with XP, I like that, I think Vista is moving along great and many should/need to get it, but I still think XP will be the majority for another two years.

Also, is a 160gb data drive large enough for you? I lasted four years with only 120gbs and did fine, but just making sure since people seem to store so much stuff now that the more the better.

[Stingers]

thanks for the nice words. yes 160gb is plenty as i am using it as a local storage for work in progress... i am connected to a work lan and have terrabytes available. I also just purchased a buffalo 2tb NAS....which is pretty cool.

I have a two pc's with vista; 1 works fine, its basically just a monitoring station, one at home for the kids, which is terrible (gateway box). I also purchased a lenovo notebook and returned it due to the frequent vista crashes...bought an apple (i cant believe it either) and dual boot to xp. Runs perfectly.

I agreevista has soem time to go until its stable enough for me to have on my primary pc.

[blindem]

Nice system.

[RottynDawg]

Welcome Stingers...looks like a nice system! Can't wait to see some pics ;)