New system

[arobbert]

I'm looking at a new system and thinking about overclocking a 2600. I'm going with a low end graphics card because I'm not interested in RT. I'm putting the OS and main software on the solid state drive. I would appreciate any feedback. Especially where overclocking and cooling are concerned.

intel Core i7-2600 Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz Quad Core 8000K
Coolermaster V6, 6 Copper Heat Pipes, Dual Cooler CPU fan
ASUS P8P67 EVO( Rev 3.0), P67, X-fire & SLI, SATA3, USB3.0, GB LAN, iEEE,Bluetooth
16GB (4x4GB) PC10600 DDR3 1333 Dual Channel
GeForce GT 240 1GB PCI EXpress 16X dual head, HDMI
128.0GB Crucial C300 Series Solid State Drive, SATA3 6.0Gb/s, 350MBs
500.0GB Hitachi 7200RPM SATA2, UDMA 300 8m cache
LG 22x DVD Recorder Dual Layer +R/RW -R/RW
Realtek HD digital audio (onboard)
Ethernet network adapter (onboard)
Thermaltake V3 black edition, front USB
Dual Case Fans 120 mm Extra Quiet DC fan (two fans)
Logisys 400W ATX Power Supply
Microsoft Windows 7 Pro 64bit DVD

[Morne]

All seems good. But you'll need a more powerfull power supply. Don't go below 650W, especially if you're thinking of overclocking
Also, there is a hardware section on the forum for this sort of stuff.

[arobbert]

All seems good. But you'll need a more powerfull power supply. Don't go below 650W, especially if you're thinking of overclocking
Also, there is a hardware section on the forum for this sort of stuff.

Thanks for your reply. Good point. I know about the hardware section but it doesn't seem like it's used much.

[arobbert]

An alternative for a bit more $$

Intel Core i7 970, 3.2GHz (Six Core) 12000K
Antec KUHLER H2O 620 extra quiet Liquid Cooling System
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R X58, DDR3, SATA3, SLI & X Fire, GB LAN, USB 3.0,iEEE
12GB (6x2GB) PC3 12800 DDR3 1600 Triple Channel
GeForce GT 240 1GB PCI EXpress 16X dual head, HDMI
128.0GB Crucial C300 Series Solid State Drive, SATA3 6.0Gb/s, 350MBs
500.0GB Hitachi 7200RPM SATA2, UDMA 300 8m cache
LG 22x DVD Recorder Dual Layer +R/RW -R/RW
Realtek HD digital audio (onboard)
Ethernet network adapter (onboard)
Thermaltake V3 black edition, front USB
Case Fan 120 mm Extra Quiet DC fan
Thermaltake TR2 650W ultra quiet ATX Power Supply, SLI & X-fire ready
Microsoft Windows 7 Pro 64bit DVD

Price $1918

[cheerioboy]

Personally don't like the 128 GB ssd as the boot drive. Sure its fast but I'm at a studio right now that bought a similar setup (ssd and secondary hd) and its quickly filled up and I've had to spend time finding ways to channel data to the other drive. Max likes to dump lots of data into a temp folder. Just something to be aware of. If you plan to keep the system's software minimal or exclusive to 3d work then you might be able to pull it off...

[Morne]

also, I'd go with the i7 2600K CPU instead of the i7970. It's like half the price and even though its only 4core, it will render about the same as the 970 apparently

[Six8]

I agree with the 650W PS recommendation. You may decide someday to plug in a bigger GPU, in which case you'll very likely need that extra capacity.

[arobbert]

also, I'd go with the i7 2600K CPU instead of the i7970. It's like half the price and even though its only 4core, it will render about the same as the 970 apparently

I guess that's one of the issues I'm concidering. It does seem very close and will likley OC much easier from what I see. It's also much more up to date.

I just wonder if the estra cores will speed things up a bit.

[arobbert]

Right now the difference between the 970 and 2600K based systems is only $178. With the 970 system I get triple channel RAM which I guess is an improvement.

[Neilg]

Max likes to dump lots of data into a temp folder.

Does it?
At my last place we had 60gb drives that hovered around 20 free at all times, if it hadnt been for podcasts i'd never have got close to filling it up. Photoshop and outlook were the only things that made large temp files.
128 seems fine, I could go for half that as my only drive assuming i'm working off a network.

[cheerioboy]

Does it?
At my last place we had 60gb drives that hovered around 20 free at all times, if it hadnt been for podcasts i'd never have got close to filling it up. Photoshop and outlook were the only things that made large temp files.
128 seems fine, I could go for half that as my only drive assuming i'm working off a network.

Might be the project I'm working on, huge city model that's 300mb + gigs of textures. I've only got 15gb free on the ssd. Sigh. But agree that it helps having as much as possible on the network.

[arobbert]

Do you guys have any extra cooling on those drives? Do they run hot?

[Morne]

theres no moveable parts, so they dont run hot at all, like a usb stick.

[arobbert]

theres no moveable parts, so they dont run hot at all, like a usb stick.

Cool, Thanks!

[arobbert]

I decided to upgrade this a bit (maybe a little more than a bit). Went with an overclocked 990X, Got a board that supports 3 graphics cards for if and when I go RT, a big power supply for the graphics cards and 1800MHz ram. I can't wait to run the benchmark. Cyberpower will factory overclock their systems and warrants the overclocked system. This seemed like a good idea for $50 since I really don't know much about overclocking. I went cheap on the graphics card. I'll add a nice card or 2 for RT in the future and use this one for the display.

CASE: Thermaltake V3 Black Mid-Tower Case

CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive

CPU: Intel(R) Core™ i7-990X Extreme Edition 3.46 GHz 12M Intel Smart Cache

FAN: Asetek 550LC Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Advanced Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)(Single Enermax Enlobal Silent High Performance 120MM Fan)

FREEBIE_CU:PCI Wireless IEEE 802.11b/g/n 300Mbps PCI Wireless Adapter

HDD: 128 GB A-Data S501 V2 SATA III 6.0G/s Gaming MLC Solid State Disk

HDD2: 500GB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD

MEMORY: 12GB (2GBx6) DDR3/1800MHz Triple Channel Memory Module (Kingston Hyper-X)

MOTHERBOARD: * (3-Way SLI Support) GigaByte GA-X58A-UD5 Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Ultra Durable™3 DDR3/1600 ATX Mainboard w/7.1 Dolby Audio,eSATA,Dual GbLAN, USB3.0, 2 x SATA-III RAID,IEEE1394a,4 Gen2 PCIe,2 PCIe X1 &1 PCI

OS: Microsoft(R) Windows(R) 7 Professional (64-bit Edition)

OVERCLOCK: Extreme OC (Extreme Overclock 20% or more)

POWERSUPPLY: * 1,200 Watts - CoolerMaster Silent Pro 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (80 Plus Gold)

SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT

VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 SE 1GB 16X PCIe Video Card

PRICE: $2690