New Rig for the wife

johntam · Post by **johntam** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 6:13 pm

Building new rig for the wife.
Narrowed down to the following parts.
Need your advise !!!

Antec LifeStyle SONATA II case with TP450 watt ps

MSI K8NGM2-FID NVIDIA GeForce 6150 Micro ATX motherboard OR
ASUS A8N-VM CSM GeForce 6150 Micro ATX

CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) TWINX1024-3200C2PT Ram OR
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) Twinx2048-3200c2pt

AMD Opteron 148 Venus cpu OR
Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego

Scythe SCNJ-1000 Ninja heatsink OR
Scythe NCU-2005 HEATLANE Heatsink

SAMSUNG SpinPoint P80 Series SP0822N 80GB Hard Drive
NEC ND3550A DVDR

Thanks
JT

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 6:19 pm

Goodness gracious, is your wife going to be modelling the universe with that CPU?

johntam · Post by **johntam** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:00 pm

Actually she is not very demanding on CPU power,
but I will be using this rig for some 3DMax and Autocad work as well.

JT

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:08 pm

And to think I used to run AutoCAD on a Duron 750.

Nevermind me, I don't really have much to contribute since I'm out of depth when it comes to computers this powerful. I prefer old hardware.

stupid · Post by **stupid** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 6:45 am

johntam wrote:Actually she is not very demanding on CPU power,
but I will be using this rig for some 3DMax and Autocad work as well.

JT

Okay, so basically this will be "YOUR" secondary PC.

Not really familiar with 3DMax and 3D modelling in general, but the CPU should be more than enough.

If you want to cut down on noise, and save around $100 - $130 (assuming you're in the US) you can get the 3500+ and go fanless. Actually, even with 3700+ you should be able to go fanless because the are people who are running an A64 X2 3800+ with the Scythe Ninja and no fan. The more daring are running an A64 X2 4600+ fanless.

Anyway since you are doing 3D modelling shouldn't you be devoting some money towards a Quadro, FireGL, or Realizm graphics card? Those would actually reduce rendering time and provide more accruate 3D images.

I would recommend at least 2GB of RAM for 3D modelling.

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 7:03 am

stupid wrote:Anyway since you are doing 3D modelling shouldn't you be devoting some money towards a Quadro, FireGL, or Realizm graphics card? Those would actually reduce rendering time and provide more accruate 3D images.

I'd say stick with that integrated graphics for now, maybe it's good enough? It all depends on how advanced work you will do. If you want better later on, then just buy a standard graphics card and not a Quadro/FireGL just because of the price difference, which can be huge.

stupid · Post by **stupid** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 8:59 am

Mats wrote:
stupid wrote:Anyway since you are doing 3D modelling shouldn't you be devoting some money towards a Quadro, FireGL, or Realizm graphics card? Those would actually reduce rendering time and provide more accruate 3D images.
I'd say stick with that integrated graphics for now, maybe it's good enough? It all depends on how advanced work you will do. If you want better later on, then just buy a standard graphics card and not a Quadro/FireGL just because of the price difference, which can be huge.

It all depends on if 3D modelling is more of a hobby or a professional career. If it's a hobby okay use the integrated video or a game card. If it's a career then skimping on a professional video card could be the difference of being employed as opposed to unemployed.

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:33 am

stupid wrote:
Mats wrote:
stupid wrote:Anyway since you are doing 3D modelling shouldn't you be devoting some money towards a Quadro, FireGL, or Realizm graphics card? Those would actually reduce rendering time and provide more accruate 3D images.
I'd say stick with that integrated graphics for now, maybe it's good enough? It all depends on how advanced work you will do. If you want better later on, then just buy a standard graphics card and not a Quadro/FireGL just because of the price difference, which can be huge.
It all depends on if 3D modelling is more of a hobby or a professional career. If it's a hobby okay use the integrated video or a game card. If it's a career then skimping on a professional video card could be the difference of being employed as opposed to unemployed.

You're just repeating me.

It all depends on how advanced work you will do.

Remember that it's not his computer, he probably know what he needs for a computer that's primarily intended for 3D computing. I'd say it's really a bad idea to buy something before you know if you need it. He simply can't go wrong with integrated DX9 graphics, he just have to add a card later on if needed. Starting out with a professional card first can be an expensive lesson.

diver · Post by **diver** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:42 am

The 6150 chipset is very new. Some users have reported various issues, especially with the Asus board. While it is likely that issues will be resolved by maturing of the drivers, you might want to check around and make sure things are OK. This process seems to take place with each new MB chipset launch.

However, I have to admit that is a nice integrated package for the price.

derekva · Post by **derekva** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 1:03 pm

With the Opteron 144 (I have no direct experience with a 146 or 148) you can go fanless in an Antec II case with a Scythe Ninja. With my system, I'm running about 39C when playing Half-Life2 or running Folding@Home (and that's with a ASRock 939-DUAL SATA2 which has a really cruddy CPU socket location).

FWIW: when I overclocked the 144 from 1.8GHz to 2.0GHz, the processor heat only went up to ~ 42C.

The Opteron 146 is a 67W CPU like the 144. The 148 is an 85.3W CPU. Seems like the 146 at 2.0GHz is the sweet spot and could probably be passively cooled as well.

I'd wait a month or so on the 6150 chipset as others have mentioned. Seems as if there is a little bit of first-generation roughness that needs to be hammered out.

-Derek

stupid · Post by **stupid** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 1:30 pm

stupid wrote:If you want to cut down on noise, and save around $100 - $130 (assuming you're in the US) you can get the 3500+ and go fanless.

Sorry, the price of the 3700+ is actually only around $25 more than the 3500+. So the saving would only be around $35 - $50 depending on the fan's namebrand. I was thinking about the the 3800+.

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 1:57 pm

derekva wrote:The Opteron 146 is a 67W CPU like the 144. The 148 is an 85.3W CPU. Seems like the 146 at 2.0GHz is the sweet spot and could probably be passively cooled as well.

You're forgetting that those Opterons use individual TDP's. It's unlikely (but still possible) that you'll get a 148 with max TDP.

My old 146 could get undervolted to 1.0 V. Max speed at 1.4 V was 2850 MHz and max speed was 3000 MHz.

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 3:16 pm

Opteron will do a lot. 148 is rather beefcake.

I think the on board graphics will be PLENTY of power and speed. It can run doom3. CAD isnt doom3. Yes, on low settings it can run doom3, but it still can. So, that is a nice passive and quiet solution for his money.

2x1 gig sticks of ram. Cad and windows love ram. you will not need to upgrade if you have 2x1 gigs of ram for a couple of years. (i mean the whole system)

2x1 runs nicely at 1T command rates. This is nice to have I feel.

Your wife sounds pretty l33t.

johntam · Post by **johntam** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 3:20 pm

Thanks for all the responses,

The 3D and Cad is mostly for personal research and development work .
I let the professionals do the real thing.

I am concerned with the 6150 motherboard, mostly stablilty wise.
It is suppose to be better than 6100,S3 and others akile.
I will wait for more feedback from other users.

I think the Opterons will become harder to find down the road.
The 146 is already gone.
I will order the 148 CPU and the Ninja while they are still in stock.

What do you all feel about the CORSAIR XMS Ram ?

Thanks
JT

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 3:28 pm

OCZ is much better. why? because 2 out of 5 sticks I purchased and 1 out of 2 sticks my friend purchased were defective but still allowed things to boot up.

OCZ is just about the same price and never seems to have an issue (except with boards that are buggy with certain modules)

Otherwise I would go Patriot ram. It has super good reviews on anandtech forums and in general is considered top notch yet quite cheap.

down with corsair. I once believed in them. blech.

gamejunkie · Post by **gamejunkie** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 7:48 pm

~El~Jefe~ wrote:OCZ is much better. why? because 2 out of 5 sticks I purchased and 1 out of 2 sticks my friend purchased were defective but still allowed things to boot up.

OCZ is just about the same price and never seems to have an issue (except with boards that are buggy with certain modules)

Otherwise I would go Patriot ram. It has super good reviews on anandtech forums and in general is considered top notch yet quite cheap.

down with corsair. I once believed in them. blech.

So, having a defective ratio of 3/7 is a good thing? I'm sorry but that doesn't make any sense... Why would you trust a company who's product is defective 43% of the time in your personal experience?

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:24 pm

i was refering to the corsair being untested ram.

not ocz.

I never have seen a mention or anyone I know say a bad thing about ocz ram in several years. There was some board I forget last year that had a problem with it, but in and of itself it normally is flawless.

3/7 was the corsair. it should be 1/1000 is bad. Doesnt this stuff get tested??? that's like 50% of the reason people buy good ram.

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 4:07 am

The NCU 2005 Heatlane is not as often seen or mentioned (Directron has it) but I recall awhile back Scythe's site implied its especially strong the less airflow you have. For anyone needing to attach a fan,the Ninja for sure. For a total passive setup,probably the 2005. For many of us,we are right in between.

I'd probably also consider the boards with onboard Radeon. The drivers are a little more mature right now,at least for some.

johntam · Post by **johntam** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 8:02 am

Update on the project.
Just finished setting up her new puter.

This is what she end up with :

Case : Antec LifeStyle SONATA II
CPU : AMD Opteron 148 Venus
HSF : Stock
Ram : Patriot 2x512 XBL DC
H.D. : SAMSUNG SpinPoint P Series SP2504C 250GB
DVD : NEC ND3550A

It is one sweet quite box.
The only thing my old ears can hear is a low rumble during harddrive seek.
Unless I put my ears right up to the case, I can't hear the fans at all.
Everything works right out of the box, can't ask for a easier built.
With the stock HSF, the Opteron idles at 33, Prime95 max out at 42.

Thanks for all the suggestions and help.

JT

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 9:45 pm

hm interesting. the stock heat sink is quiet.

hm.

good luck. nice chip