Bottlenecking

[amplid]

Hey guys,

I'm building a new rig for a friend of mine and have a fair budget at my disposal Here's what I've come up with:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (3166 MHz)
GPU: XFX Geforce 9800 GTX+ 512Mb 765MHz
RAM: 4Gb GeiL DDR2 1066 Black Dragon (2x2Gb)
Mobo: Asus P5N-D nforce 750i (yes I know about the PCI-e 2.0 ports standing too close together, but not going to be SLI-ing)
PSU: Pc Power & Cooling 750 Quad

Now, what do you think of the overall system? Will there be any bottlenecking? In my opinion no, but yours is off course much more professional

Cheers,

Amplid

<Edit>Small edit, there's a new(er) BIOS version of my mobo ready. If I download it and something goes wrong, a restore point wouldn't help right? I'd have to manually reset the BIOS by taking out the battery on the mobo, right? Or are there any other precautionsI could take?
Thanks <Edit>

 

[SIR VORTEX USA]

Go with a Quad Core. Thank me later.

SIR VORTEX USA (united snipers association)

 

[Day24]

As far as I know, taking the battery out does not remove the flashed bios. You will need to flash it again with an older version of the bios.

As for the system....looks great...only bottleneck might eventually be the graphics card...but I'm thinking that will be the case even if you put two of those cards in SLI....the graphics card always seems to end up being the bottleneck in my experience....

 

[bruce2]

Agreed with both post above.

I would spend a little extra for a Q9550, especially if you are overclocking. I see people easily overclock it to 4.5 GHz. Now you have 4 cores running as faster then a fast Duo; that is sweet. If you don't overclock, it is still sweet.

May be spend the extra on a GPU. It is up to you.

Have fun!

 

[sygnus21]

Hard Drive(s)??? They could also bottleneck your system.

Example: I have 4 320Gig Hard drives that aren't very efficient. If you believe in Windows Experience Index score, I get 5.9 on everything except my hard drive's disk data transfer rate, that score gives 5.6

Just something to think about

 

[SIW2]

As day24 says , it's worth having a copy of your current Bios - just in case. You can probably download it from your mobo's website.

SIW2

 

[amplid]

Ok, thanks guys, but with that config I'm already very close to the 700 euro limit (so act not such a great budget...) and I have to include a legit copy of Vista off course:D The HDD is 7200 rpm and don't have budget for a raptor so that'll be fine

Thanks again,

Cheers,


Amplid

 

[Day24]

Amplid....there's a big difference between the various available 7200 rpm's though.... do some research!

 

[sygnus21]

The HDD is 7200 rpm and don't have budget for a raptor so that'll be fine

Thanks again,

Cheers,


Amplid

Amplid....there's a big difference between the various available 7200 rpm's though.... do some research!

No need to mortgage your home for one of these

Here's an article on Western Digital's new Black series HD's - Western Digital's Caviar Black hard drive - The Tech Report - Page 1. Because, well, everyone can't afford a VelociRaptor

A lot of people like Seagate - Seagate's Barracuda 7200.11 hard drive - The Tech Report - Page 1

I'm a Western D guy myself, but that's me

 

[Day24]

sygnus....while I happen to hate Western digital because of several bad experiences...(though I do have two 500 GB WD drives right now)

Also, don't forget the samsung spinpoint F1...they're really good. And, as you're in Belgium (the OP, I mean), I know they are more readily available than seagates are. Oh, and they are not expensive at all..... (check alternate.nl for current prices - don't know any belgian sites, sorry)

 

[sygnus21]

sygnus....while I happen to hate Western digital because of several bad experiences...(though I do have two 500 GB WD drives right now)

I've never used anything but Western Digital hard drives and have never had any major problems other then normal life wear & tear. I can honestly say, I never had one completely give out. (knock on wood ). That reliability thus far have kept me with Western Digital since 1998.

We can all agree that cheap, failing HD's have no place near our systems

Just my opinion though

 

[Day24]

You are definitely right!

However, I've had 3 WD drives fail on my in various computers over the past 18 years. Besides that, I bought an external WD drive 16 months ago, it was a 1 TB dual HD drive. It was the biggest mistake ever. I could use it for about 20 minutes, and then it would overheat. It had a fan in it, but it would overheat and simply shut down for an hour. Then I could use it again for 15 minutes and it would shut down (etc). When I rang the european customer service department, they first told me that I must be doing something wrong. Second time I called they told me to install a new firmware. Third time I called they told me that the drive was meant to be used as a back up medium, not something for continuous use (WHAT???). Then when I threatened legal action, they offered to replace it. I took the offer. The replacement drive had the same issues. They replaced it again (after I called 6 times and finally had my lawyer send them a very threatening letter). Finally, after that one behaved exactly the same way, AND I found many articles on the web about the exact same drive displaying this exact problem, I decided to just rip out the two HDs and use them in my system.

Defeats the purpose of an external drive though, but well. And in my system, they've been functioning quite well.

 

[sygnus21]

Sounds to me like a bad design flaw on that particular model.

"I've had 3 WD drives fail on my in various computers over the past 18 years."

While no one would want any HD to fail, that's a pretty good success rate. Anything that's made can break, regardless of who or when it was made. Especially when mechanics are involved. Just the way it is.

I often tell the story of a friend, who like me, bought a brand new 1993 Ford Taurus, same model. His had problems the day he bought it, the real window fell out for one thing, LOL. I on the other hand never experienced any problems since owning mine, or any other Ford vehicles. Lucky, maybe, I've owned Ford's since 1983.

Bottom line - If it's made, it can break, but it’s the consistency of reliability that separates a good product, or brand name, from bad product or brand name.

Your "I've had 3 WD drives fail on my in various computers over the past 18 years." Tends to prove my point.

No, I don’t work for Western Digital, nor am I pushing them, I’m just relating my experience.

Again, my opinion

 

[Day24]

Oh, I know, which is why I didn't say that WD drives are bad perse. What I'm saying is that I won't buy them anymore myself.

What I should clarify is that during those 18 years, those 3 drives were the only failed drives. All the other drives never failed. They were either thrown out or sold on before they had a chance to fail, or they simply never failed.

Again, I am not saying that WD makes bad drives. In fact, now that those two drives which I took from the external hard drive are in my system, I love them. I have installed a hardware monitoring program though, to give me as much advance notice of a possible failing as is possible. But I would have done that anyway, whether they were WD or not. I am well aware that I might have simply been unlucky with the WD drives and very lucky with all my other drives.

As for the external drive....yes, I agree, it was definitely a design flaw. However, the behaviour of the european WD customer service department is inexcusable. Then again, that's how most european customer service departments treat you......

 

[bruce2]

Hard Drive(s)??? They could also bottleneck your system.

Example: I have 4 320Gig Hard drives that aren't very efficient. If you believe in Windows Experience Index score, I get 5.9 on everything except my hard drive's disk data transfer rate, that score gives 5.6

Just something to think about

Ok, thanks guys, but with that config I'm already very close to the 700 euro limit (so act not such a great budget...) and I have to include a legit copy of Vista off course:D The HDD is 7200 rpm and don't have budget for a raptor so that'll be fine

Thanks again,

Cheers,


Amplid

I don't mean to start any argument or anything, but I would strongly suggest you to RAID 0 a pair of HDDs. Your data transfer rate will be easily 5.9 in WEIS. To those who is concern for its reliability, I believe anyone should backup his data regularly regardless. Plus, I don't have any problem with it so far or knowing anyone who has.

 

[amplid]

Well about the RAID 0, as I'm not going to take any change of losing data/breaking something/... in a system I'm building for someone who pays me to do it, I'm not going to overclock or do any RAID. Just the basic components on stock settings... Interesting to see where the thread has gone to though:D

Thanks all

Amplid

 

[sygnus21]

Yeah, we did get off track a little.

 

[Day24]

well.......

just a tad.....

 

[kingcarcas]

Know what i would do, drop to an E7300 and upgrade to a GTX260

 

[Day24]

E7300?????
Are you completely NUTS????
It has half a GHz lower speed, it has half the cache, it has a much lower FSB....
With a GTX260, the processor would then become the bottleneck!!!!!