PC build suggestions

gosh1976

I have been thinking about buying a new desktop for a while now and i have just a little bit of extra money right now. I would kind of like to build my own since I haven't done this in years and I should be able to get a better deal. The choices out there are daunting. The current configuration I have is attached and it is in the price range I am looking at and any suggestions are very welcome.

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Asif Dasl

Do you want to learn VMware vSphere? Your build looks to be a nice six core one but if you wanted to do vSphere you might have issues. Just using integrated graphics?

gosh1976

Asif Dasl wrote: »

Do you want to learn VMware vSphere? Your build looks to be a nice six core one but if you wanted to do vSphere you might have issues. Just using integrated graphics?

No, I hadn't considered learning vSphere any time soon. I did some initial builds with mobo's that didn't have integrated graphics that included a few didn't graphics cards but going with the integrated graphics seem to save $100 or more. I don't really do any gaming and though I could see me buying a game or two in the future it's not really a huge consideration at this point. I want it to be able to handle a VM set up suitable for studying the certifications needed for studying certs like the 70-640, 642, and I'll probably update my MCDST to Windows 7 soon. I would like it to run SBS in a VM or dual booted which is a hog but I don't think I need to have a bunch of client vm's just to play around with SBS a bit.

My first upgrade would probably be a video card and probably a second monitor. Probably an ATI Radeon that will work with the CrossFireX technology. However, I am certainly open to Mobo & video card suggestions from the get go if it keeps me in the same price range.

Asif Dasl

The only other suggestion I would have would be to get 1 or 2 extra hard drives to run VMs on. The Samsung 320Gb or 500Gb are single platter drives with lightning fast transfer times which would help with running VMs.

earweed

SBS is a big memory hog so 8 GB is probably your min that will work reasonably well. If you plan to run it as a VM and have other clients you may want more memory. As others have said if you plan to have several VMs you may want an extra HDD, or 2, to avoid I/O issues.

Zentraedi

Not having an SSD for my main system drive would make me a sad panda.

babixg

I would definitely grab an SSD for the main OS... I just did a new build... and I can say, they are definitely amazing

I don't know how many VMs, you are planning to run but 8GB should be the minimum if you are planning for many VMs... Grab more if you can since DDR3 prices are extremely low right now..

brad-

Needs a video card. Nice tho.

Priston

That's actually a nice build. Still room to upgrade the ram and video card down the road.

Also whats the deal with the thermal compound? There will be some packaged with your processor...

gosh1976

Priston wrote: »

That's actually a nice build. Still room to upgrade the ram and video card down the road.

Also whats the deal with the thermal compound? There will be some packaged with your processor...

The compound was just a random click on the suggested products and I haven't bothered to take it off. I have heard the thermal compound that comes with the processor isn't always of the best quality but I have plenty at work if I decide not to use what comes in the box.

Thanks for all the input guys. Just trying to decide if I should spend the money before i pull the trigger.

Hypntick

gosh1976 wrote: »

The compound was just a random click on the suggested products and I haven't bothered to take it off. I have heard the thermal compound that comes with the processor isn't always of the best quality but I have plenty at work if I decide not to use what comes in the box.

Thanks for all the input guys. Just trying to decide if I should spend the money before i pull the trigger.

To be fair Arctic Silver is pretty nice and can be used for multiple applications. However, if you do get it you'll want to scrape off the old stuff first. Have seen people run pretty hot if they forget that step.

Dakinggamer87

That's a nice PC build!! I would also recommend as others have mentioned maybe adding another hard drive and a better video card. I'm also considering starting a new gaming PC build as well in the upcoming months once I get some certs finished up!!

za3bour

I would stay away from the GB motherboard, I've only had problems with them and I was never satisfied. This is not very new though so they might have changed.

I think 8GB is enough for now, just make sure you have a room for expand. I would get a dedicated Graphic Card if you can even if it's not high end one it will be better than the integrated in my opinion.

Also make sure that you have a good Power Supply, that's something worth investing in because they tend to broke all the time.

I don't think you need a seperate hard disk but it will be nice to have.

za3bour

babixg wrote: »

I would definitely grab an SSD for the main OS... I just did a new build... and I can say, they are definitely amazing

I don't know how many VMs, you are planning to run but 8GB should be the minimum if you are planning for many VMs... Grab more if you can since DDR3 prices are extremely low right now..

I had up to 5 VMs running on 4GB machine so I think 8GB is good and he can always exapnd if he wants since he's on a limited budget,

tiersten

Unless you're trying to overclock or you live in a sauna with no ventilation then any minor gains by using a "premium" thermal compound are pointless. Sure, it'll reduce your CPU temperature by 1-2 degrees but its not going to make any difference to your system unless you're on the bleeding edge for overclocking. If you're doing daft stuff like that then your system is going to be incredibly unstable anyway just to push that last bit of performance.

Even the crap thermal pad that sometimes come preapplied to certain heatsinks is good enough for the rated speed of the processor. Just remember to remove any protective film before installing it :P

I've got a GigaByte i7 motherboard (EX58-UD5) and I've not had any problems with it at all. Its been stable and I've not had any unusual issues with it since I installed it.

I'm kinda ehhh about Seagate drives currently. I've got some of them and whilst they've been fine (after firmware update), the performance isn't particularly great. If I was buying new HDs then I'd get Western Digital or Samsung.

za3bour

tiersten wrote: »

I've got a GigaByte i7 motherboard (EX58-UD5) and I've not had any problems with it at all. Its been stable and I've not had any unusual issues with it since I installed it.

I'm kinda ehhh about Seagate drives currently. I've got some of them and whilst they've been fine (after firmware update), the performance isn't particularly great. If I was buying new HDs then I'd get Western Digital or Samsung.

I've I said earlier this is from old experience with them, for me I'm an ASUS guy I always buy their mobo and newly I've also got some from MSI which were good as well.

I would look at people reviews about the mobo before you decide(if you havn't already).

I agree about the hard disk, I used to get Western Digital most of the time, seagate are good as well but i think WD is better.

SephStorm

za3bour wrote: »

I had up to 5 VMs running on 4GB machine so I think 8GB is good and he can always exapnd if he wants since he's on a limited budget,

I would tend to agree, though I am not familiar with this SBS program.

earweed

SephStorm wrote: »

I would tend to agree, though I am not familiar with this SBS program.

I haven't run SBS as a VM just on a dedicated Server but a friend did and it was kind of slow due to being a memory hog with his 8 GB machine. My Server only had 8 GB when I started but ran fine.

Zentraedi

If you do get WD HDs, avoid the 2 TB Green Drives. I've had to RMA at least 20 of those already. They drop like flies.

Cisco Inferno

i have that motherboard too. its a very very good motherboard. maybe the best matx board out there. it is my second gigabyte amd motherboard. I've recently rma'd an asus too. great bios and overclocking settings not to mention more copper in the pcb that helps with durability and heat dissipation. also has an 8pin 12v socket compared to many mAtx boards using 4pin only (more stable power to the cpu). The only thing the board lacks is mosfet(voltage regulator) cooling. Though youre not gonna find many matx boards with it. you wont need to do this but i figured what the heck, I cut up an old stock cooler into tiny heatsinks, insulated the leads and surrounding area of the motherboard with clear nail polish(since the epoxy is capacative) and stuck them on with a combination of 30% AS5 and 70% Arctic silver epoxy for a semipermanent hold). Doing that let me overclock much much higher than i was previously able to due to reducing voltage spikes to the cpu and allowing more stable power.

I have my x2 560 running at 3.9ghz and 4 cores fully unlocked. I'd say replace the as5 with Arctic Cooling mx-4 (its newer and better by a few degrees or purchase your as5 off ebay like i did for 5-6 bucks shipped).
Newegg.com - ARCTIC COOLING Arctic Cooling MX-4 AC-MX4 All-Around Thermal Compound

Also, get a nice heatsink for your cpu. It's a beast of a cpu and you should protect it well. stock coolers are garbage and the paste on it sucks as well. For 30 or so dollars id suggest the Xigmatek 1283 or Coolermaster Hyper 212+. i have the xigmatek.
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7
Newegg.com - XIGMATEK Intel Core i7 compatible Dark Knight-S1283V REV.W with ACK-I5361 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler I7 i5 775 1155 and AMD compatible
Newegg.com - XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler I5 775 AMD compatible

I would replace your ram with Gskill 1600. ddr3 is all about bandwidth!
its my favorite ram company and! is the best deal out there on ddr3-1600!
not to mention has the best customer service!
its what i have and has passed numerous memtests! also a noticible difference compared to 1333.
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL

I would stay away from seagate as much as possible. Go with Samsung's F3 series or settle with Western Digital as second. (but stay away from WD's 2tb drive. Its dual platter meaning higher seek time and they just suck in general)

The integrated ATI hd4200 graphics of the amd 880 chipset is actually not that bad at all. perfect for 1080 videos and gaming on lowered settings. The newer 890 chipset(w/ hd4290) is just the same chipset with overclocked graphics. within your bios you can bump it from 560mhz to 700~ish. mines clocked at 735. (almost every hd4200 can overclock that high).

Lastly, i give you props for choosing Antec and not skimping on a psu. Though the psu you picked may be a bit overkill for what you have set up. Maybe you're future proofing for a high graphics card in the future. I would suggest their 520w or 620w Neo Eco models. you'll have plenty of juice on a Fat single 12v rail.
Newegg.com - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
Newegg.com - Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

long post sorry, but good luck with the build.

Dont be afraid to ask me any questions.

sources- Extreme overclocker and systems builder with a couple stickies on a top overclocking forum.

gosh1976

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I will tweak the order tomorrow and go ahead with it after making a few changes. I did originally have the Gskill 1600 ram selected I think I'll change it back. I have a couple different kinds of thermal compound to choose from at work and I'll decide on a nice heatsink.

I did indeed go with that PSU to not only make sure it didn't die and take my motherboard with it but also to make sure it could handle the future upgrades and additions. Your PSU suggestions are timely as the one I selected just sold out.

Cisco Inferno

cool. lemme know how things go! i think radio shacks even stock as5 if you ever do need it in emergency situations.

badboyeee

let us know what you come up with, then ill add my 2 cents

gosh1976

Basically I changed the hard drives to Samsung f3's and added a heat sink. Took the memory off completely because we have some of the G.Skill Ripjaws at work that I can buy. Hopefully I have everything by the weekend to do the build!

Cisco Inferno

gosh1976 wrote: »

added a heat sink. Took the memory off completely because we have some of the G.Skill Ripjaws at work that I can buy. Hopefully I have everything by the weekend to do the build!

what heatsink? and how are you getting the ram from work? crazy.

gosh1976

Cisco Inferno wrote: »

what heatsink? and how are you getting the ram from work? crazy.

I went with the XIGMATEK HDT-S1283. I work for a small managed IT services type company and we do a lot of upgrades and pc repairs etc for home and small businesses... The boss just happened to have a couple sticks of that memory on hand and he said he would sell them to me. Still new in the box and it'll save me a few bucks.

Cisco Inferno

good choice. there are special instructions that i would follow for applying thermal paste to a heatpipe heatsink like that. i swear by it.

Benchmark Reviews: Performance Computer Hardware Tests

gosh1976

The build went smoothly despite finishing it up on friday night when I had consumed a few adult beverages. The result being some very random and odd partition sizes! The cpu cores are running cool. I've got most of the software I want installed on it. My bookmarks from the other box have been transferred over. The only issue I had was when I tried to install Ubuntu but that's no big deal. I'll install Ubuntu next weekend and create a couple virtual lab environments.

I may have spoke to soon about not doing any gaming though! I had to go out and buy Call of Duty and Fifa 2011! The game play is fine for me with the on board graphics. It actually seems great to me but I don't really have much to compare it to.

Cisco Inferno

good to hear! did you apply thermal paste the way described on the bottom of the link? its like day and night in terms of temp diff and cpu coverage.
and if you want, you could clean off the northbridge and its heatsink and apply a tiny dab of as5.

zerglings

I am too late to give my suggestion but I'll post it anyway for people who are looking to build one. If you are currently looking at AMD build then buy it from Microcenter. They offer free boards (three choices) on select AMD CPUs. I bought AMD X6 1090T with ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 for $285.xx with tax and $10 rebate from ASUS. This is also "compatible" with vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi 4.1) by downgrading the BIOS to 1106. I am actually rebuilding my home server now with this build and I can confirm that 1106 works with ESXi 4.1.