System build review

[Mercutio]

I assure you that other drives fit just fine in that chassis.

As for the motherboard: Intel drives me nuts. I've standardized on the 946GZ for my classroom PCs, but they have been in and out of production three times since I started buying them. Intel will do a production run of them, then they'll run out. They won't be available for three or four months, and then they will. I've paid between $55 and $120 to get them. From moment to moment I'm not exactly sure what Intel is positioning as a business or a home solution (DG-boards are supposed to be "home" products, but they differ from 945/946 products only in tiny, cosmetic ways).

I probably need to read all the crap Intel sends me more closely, but right now my advice is to make your initial choice of Intel motherboard VERY CAREFULLY. They yank the "home" products out of their product line really without any regard to anything.

 

[ddrueding]

Thanks for the warning. My main concerns are compatibility with the images that I will be making. I suspect that so long as I stay with the same chipset the image should work even if I have to go to another manufacturer.

 

[Mercutio]

Intel's stuff will be there when everyone else's is long gone.
It's just that it's really hard to pick which exact boards are going to be the ones that stick around forever. The 945GC-whatever is ancient and probably won't go away for a while.

 

[time]

This is my current interpretation:

AMD Athlon X2 5200 2.7GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core - $66
GIGABYTE GA-MA78GPM-DS2H AM2+ AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX - $95
Geil 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) - $44.50
Samsung 3.5" 500GB SATA - $70
Antec NSK3480 Black/Silver 380W Power Supply - $110
Optiarc 20X DVD Burner Black SATA - $24

Comes to $409.50 at Newegg prices - which surprises me, because in Oz it's costing less than US$350. Even stranger, the worst offender is the Antec case; I can currently buy one at retail for US$80 before tax.

Incidentally, the 3480 is now the only decent mATX tower I can readily buy, but I still think the design is flawed. I upgraded an Evercase mATX today with some of the above parts, and feel it's a better package - but can no longer buy them.

Notice that I'm pouring money into the motherboard. The extra few bucks buys you the parts the Gigabyte engineers think you should have, as opposed to the accountants' versions. It also comes with just about every I/O port known to Man, including eSATA. And the ATi 3200 graphics has its own 128MB of DDR3. A very nice board indeed, and the reason for this post.

 

[Mercutio]

Newegg is very high for Antec cases. I use another US vendor, Provantage, which usually has one or other of the NSK series cases at $65 + $20 to ship instead of Newegg's $80 or $100 + $15.

I really like the 3480. I like having the hard drive mounting in the bottom of the case. I also like the utter lack of noise.

As far as motherboards go, I think Gigabyte is great for AMD. I'm less thrilled with their Intel motherboard products. They're far too picky about RAM in my experience.
I've mentioned the value I see in the AMD platform before. The Integrated video is genuinely good, and the CPU performance, if it's not as good as Intel's, is still FAR better than what most people need.

 

[Santilli]

Anyone have a link to that newegg.com power tester?

Time to get one.

Thanks
S

 

[ddrueding]

To test power supplies or to test the amount of power used?

 

[Santilli]

Hi David
It was the second. Ordered one tonight.

I'm going to open a second amendment law firm, and, I need a server, web page, etc. that consumes little power, but is plenty fast.

Can we talk?

Do you have my cell? Regular phone is changed.

Thanks
S

 

[Pradeep]

Greg, get a real host for your website. Hosting from home for a revenue generating venture is not wise

 

[ddrueding]

...unless you have FIOS

 

[timwhit]

Greg, get a real host for your website. Hosting from home for a revenue generating venture is not wise

I've had good experience with MidPhase.

 

[ddrueding]

I just built a gaming system for a friend. System specs below:


Shuttle SP45H7 (LGA775) Intel P45
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4770 512MB
Intel Core2 Duo E7500 Wolfdale 2.93GHz @ 3.5Ghz
mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800
OCZ Vertex Series 2.5" 120GB
SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner SATA

Running great so far, everything at 1600x1200 maxed without issues. Very quick machine.

 

[CougTek]

For gaming, Phenom II X3 usually beat similarly priced Intel Core 2 Duo. They also dissipate a few more watts, but since the Radeon HD 4770 is very reasonnable in that regard, any modern PSU would be enough to power up such system.

Not that what you assembled is bad. I'm simply telling you it could have been a bit better for the same price IMO.

...

I finally bought an Antec NSK3480 today. I hope I'll be able to interest a customer about it. I'm eager to hear if it is as quiet as Mercutio wrote it is. I've left the empty case on display at the store.

 

[Mercutio]

To put into perspective how quiet NSK3480s are, in a classroom full of them, powered on, with stock Intel cooling and 250GB Seagate or Samsung hard drives, the loudest thing is Pepsi vending machine that's 10m away in another room.

 

[ddrueding]

For gaming, Phenom II X3 usually beat similarly priced Intel Core 2 Duo. They also dissipate a few more watts, but since the Radeon HD 4770 is very reasonnable in that regard, any modern PSU would be enough to power up such system.

Not that what you assembled is bad. I'm simply telling you it could have been a bit better for the same price IMO.

Considering I was putting it all in a Shuttle SFF chassis, I wanted as little heat as possible. I even went so far as to slightly undervolt the CPU. I'm looking into doing the same with the GPU right now.

 

[Stereodude]

I just built a gaming system for a friend. System specs below:


Shuttle SP45H7 (LGA775) Intel P45
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4770 512MB
Intel Core2 Duo E7500 Wolfdale 2.93GHz @ 3.5Ghz
mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800
OCZ Vertex Series 2.5" 120GB
SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner SATA

Running great so far, everything at 1600x1200 maxed without issues. Very quick machine.

What, you couldn't talk him into an i7? oke:

 

[ddrueding]

What, you couldn't talk him into an i7? oke:

Looking just at games, I don't see them going massively multi-threaded anytime soon. That and going i7 in a Shuttle increases price significantly.