Hardware Revolution: Questions and Answers

What would your final meal be?

No experience with puttin together computers but i am starting up, been scoping newegg and have a pretty decent 2k$ build with the help of this site, toms hardware and the internet in general. Well my first question is, Should i go with two large hard drives with RAID or with a SSD? which is faster? and would it be even better to RAID two SSD’S? second Q… AMD Phenom II 955 or intel i7 3.2 ghz?

@Ski:
I dont have any experience either so correct me if Im wrong, but if you got the money (I sure as hell dont) I would get a relatively small capacity SSD or a velo-ciraptor and put OS and use it to load games, ect. Then you should also get 2 hard drives in raid on top of that for everything else. PLEASE do correct me if Im wrong;0

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161279

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121317

Is there any difference between these two cards or any 4770′s (on newegg at least) because all of their specs look exactly the same (at least to me).

A SDD is faster, but more expensive, with less capacity too. My recommendation is to get a SSD to boot Windows and your main games, with a large hard drive for storage.

RAID will increase speed further more, but with the additional cost of another SSD.

Better invest your money on other parts. Why? Your hard drive or SSDs performance won’t affect performance much, except for loading files. In games, no difference in frame rates, just faster loading levels. Sure, can be worth to get a SSD, but two for a $2000 budget is overkill in my opinion.

As for AMD Phenom II 955 or intel i7 3.2 ghz: You’re comparing a ~$255 CPU with a $1000 one. Apples to oranges here.

Value wise, at similar prices, the AMD Phenom II X4 955 will outperform the Intel Core i7 920.

Pure performance wise, at same frequency, core i7 offers higher performance. However, there’s a price to pay for high-end performance. Is it worth it? Not until you have some of the best video cards in your system, otherwise you won’t see a difference.

To be future-proof though, it would be wise to go with AMD and socket AM3.

As far as I know, Intel might not release any major updates(other than speed bumps) on the socket 1366.

Core i5 will be based on another chipset/socket and the future lineups from Intel might very well require a newer chipset, meaning that it might be socket compatible, but might not compatible with your X58 chipset. Of course, this is a theory.

Intel have a bad habit of doing that, ask any 975X motherboard owner.

Currently, all 4770 are based on AMD reference design, meaning they all look the same, all the same specs, all the same cooler.

The difference is in the bundled items and warranties. The ASUS 4770 comes with a Power Cable and S-Video on top of what HIS offers.

Thank you, that helps alot, im thinking of going with a MSI 790FX-GD70 AM3 mobo, AMD Phenom II X4 955, 2x sapphire radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB in crossfire, a 30GB OCZ Vertex in an ICY DOCK, 1TB Samsung Spinpoint for storage, OCZ Platinum 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600, Cooler master storm sniper mid case, SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner with LightScribe and SATA. Waddhya think? Was thinking about liquid cooling but i dont know if i’ll need it, dont think ill be OC’ing, never done it before. So i guess my question is, liquid or Air cooling, and if so, what would be the best product for each?

I’m pretty sure the answer to this is no but does this motherboard support crossfirex? Do nvidia motherboard chips support ati cards in general.*

*You can clearly see that I do not have the slightest clue about what I am talking about.

Motherboard Below
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131367

http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/motherboards/1871_1.html

which case would you (or anyone else) prefer?

Thermaltake ElementS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133077

COOLER MASTER Storm Scout
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196

Antec 900
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

A motherboard based on a Nvidia chipset will not support Crossfire nor CrossfireX. The reason behind it being that Nvidia is in direct competition with AMD/ATI, the company supporting crossfire.

Forget about the storm scout, so now its just the 900 vs the elementS.

Antec 900 hands down. Better cooling, look, silent fans, solid construction. Had one for over two years, loved it. Gave it to my brother in the end.

Sorry about all the questions but can you tell me which of these is the best for the money? (With the rebates and maybe even the games)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102830

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121308

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161265

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150330

never mind, but thanks anyway:)

Hello again Mathieu.
I know this will be very basic but if you buy OEM hard drives and dvd burners or players, what other components such as SATA cables do you need. Please be specific. Thnk you. Again.

Not a problem.

When it comes to my computer systems designs, everything that you need is included in my recommendations.

If you’re building your own:

For data:

Hard drives and optical drives (dvd burner for example) both use the same interfaces:

The older but still used IDE (A large flat cable)
OR
The newer SATA (A flat cable that is less wide than the IDE)

Most motherboards will include some SATA cables, as few as one and as many as six sometimes. Each hard drive or optical drive needs one of these.

If you’re using the older IDE interface, you can connect up to two devices on the cable. Remember to set MASTER and SLAVE drives with IDE though if you use it. Thus why I recommend SATA, because of future compatibility and because it’s easier to use/configure.

As for power:
Each device will need power, using either a 4-pin molex cable or a SATA power cable, which is wider than the SATA data cable. Power supplies will come with those power cables.

To resume: See how many IDE/SATA cables your motherboards comes with. Buy as many extra as required.

For power, simply make sure that you have enough connectors of the right type on your power supply. Otherwise, you can buy adapters.

Hope that helps!

Thank you. It did help after reading it over but I still need some help. Are different motherboards compatable with solely IDE or SATA? Also do you just need to buy the # of data cables that your mobo doesnt supply you because your psu comes with the power cables? I beleive the motherboard I want to get has 2 data cables. -http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131367

The psu I want to get has 8 sata power connecters so thats fine. – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

My hard drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319

and I know its alot to process but can you also recommend an optical drive.
Thank you so much AGAIN for all your help!

Also a gaming keyboard for <$60 (as low as possible) or I may just hunt ebay but I would prefer it to be the former way.
Thanks once again Mathieu.

Recent motherboards are compatible with both SATA and IDE, featuring both. However, IDE is getting phased out and will not be featured on some motherboards coming out in the close future.

That motherboard actually comes with 4 sata cables. Yes, you simply need to buy data cables that are not included with the motherboard, the power supply should take care of power cables.

Hard drives looks good to me.
For the optical drive, I’m guessing that you want a DVD Burner. This LG 22X Sata will do the job:
http://bit.ly/l55qD

As for a gaming keyboard, check out this one: http://bit.ly/ju8lA