Comments on New Build Specs

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 9:50 am

Hello! I'm researching components for my next system build and wondering if there might be any comments. Not a gaming rig (no overclocking); mostly for development, hosting test VM's, writing, surfing and a little home theatre action.

These specs are mostly same as my signature, but formated for easier reading.

[Update 12/15/09]
Thanks to all for your feedback. This is my final build spec and parts have been ordered. CPU cooler comments below are referring to my original choice: Zalman CNPS9900LED. Also upgraded the graphics card, PSU and memory after additional research. You can read a history of changes in the posts below.

OS: Win 7 Pro x64
MB: Intel DP55KG
CPU: Intel i7 860
Cooler: Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B
RAM: G.SKILL (2 x 2GB) F3-12800CL7D-4GBRH
HD: Intel X25-M G2 80GB SSD x 2 (RAID-1 system)
___Samsung F3 HD103SJ 1TB x 2 (RAID-1 data/paging/temp)
PSU: SeaSonic X650 80 PLUS Gold Modular
Case: Lian Li PC-B10
Video: PowerColor AX5750 1GBD5-S3DH HD 5750 (passive cooled)
Monitor: Samsung T260HD
Optical: LG 8X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM

Wibla · Post by **Wibla** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 10:01 am

SSD RAID1 ? any special reason for this?

CPU Cooler is way wrong tho, get something else.

hybrid2d4x4 · Post by **hybrid2d4x4** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 3:21 pm

^ Agree with the cooler comment above. Zalman is neither good enough in the cooling nor the quietness departments to justify it's prices. You can do a lot better for less $. See the Cooling section reviews for a starting point.

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 9:17 pm

Wibla wrote:SSD RAID1 ? any special reason for this?
CPU Cooler is way wrong tho, get something else.

Good question on RAID1 SSD. Stability and reliability are the highest priority for this build. Noise and performance come second, but of course these factors are not even an issue with SSD.

Basically, I've used RAID1 on my system drive for years and would feel "naked" without it. Other than the inherent advantage of no moving parts, I don't feel SSD technology has reached a point where it is so unlikely to fail that RAID-1 is superfluous. A side benefit is boosting already outrageous read performance even more. A good RAID controller will almost double read performance even though write performance is a bit slower than non-RAID.

The only real issue (other than double the cost) that gives me pause is the current lack of TRIM support for RAID. Since I plan to use the integrated RAID controller, I'm hoping Intel will deliver TRIM passthrough in the near future.

Also appreciate the feedback from both of you on the Zalman cooler because I'm not familiar with them. I selected it partly because of so many reports of memory slots being blocked by the huge rectangular coolers. Haven't heard this complaint from anyone using round coolers. I'm not going to overclock and I'm not going for silence--just has to be "very quiet". I'm open to suggestions though. Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 was another choice, but several commentors reported the mem slot interference issue...

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 5:54 am

Update: Switched CPU Cooler from Zalman CNPS9900LED to Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B.

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Thu Dec 10, 2009 7:26 am

After more research, changed my graphics card choice from SPARKLE SFPX95GT512U2HP GeForce 9500 GT to XFX HD-575X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5750. Although some say this runs quiet at < 50% load, I still have to do more research on a passively cooled design to pair with some sort of quiet slot fan or replacement heat sink that allows clip on quiet fan if such a thing exists...

JamieG · Post by **JamieG** » Thu Dec 10, 2009 2:07 pm

I think Powercolor does a passive 5750. You might want to look into that.

Alternatively, check if the Accelero S1 is compatible with the XFX card.

Post by **CA_Steve** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 9:30 am

Seems like the i7/5750 are overkill for your apps. Is there an app that requires gpu acceleration? Is the i7 for compilation speed or some other reason?

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 5:41 pm

JamieG wrote:I think Powercolor does a passive 5750. You might want to look into that. Alternatively, check if the Accelero S1 is compatible with the XFX card.

Wow that Accelero S1 is one beautiful passive cooler. Unfortunately, I don't see ATI Radeon 5000 series listed on the Artic Cooling product page. As for Powercolor, the high percentage of negative customer feedback and reviews indicating use of bargain-basement components scares me. They might be perfectly fine, but I don't want to take the chance.

Meanwhile, I found an HIS 5750 model that uses Artic Cooling fan for super-quiet operation according to this review!

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 6:24 pm

CA_Steve wrote:Seems like the i7/5750 are overkill for your apps. Is there an app that requires gpu acceleration? Is the i7 for compilation speed or some other reason?

A valid point Steve. Basically I'm splurging and won't even try to tightly cost-justify the components for this build. Much of the time this rig will run cool with excess capacity on standby. However, I neglected to mention a few sim games like Flight sim or Sim-city might sneak onto this computer when I'm not looking.

Also may occasionally run several virtual machines at the same time for things like testing n-tiered apps (memory intensive). But I wanted to be clear this won't be a high-end gaming machine.

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 7:59 pm

Just when I was finally about to pull the trigger on getting a Lian Li PC-B10 case, I took a second look at PC-A71F and the older PC-V1110. Now I'm stuck again.

I like the additional space, fans and airflow in the A71F. Then again it's huge (full tower) and unlikely I'll ever have more than 4 hard drives. A year or two from now it's more likely I'll be installing a PCIe SSD in there than another mechanical disk or SATA SSD...

Update: The Lian Li PC-V1110is now out ahead of the others. Very nice case. Perfect size for my needs. Don't know why it never received much attention. I had to translate a German website to read a review!

danimal · Post by **danimal** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 5:20 pm

steppinwolf wrote:As for Powercolor, the high percentage of negative customer feedback and reviews indicating use of bargain-basement components scares me.

links?

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 6:54 pm

I'll see if I can retrace my steps and find the PowerColor comments that gave me concern. But I'm researching a lot of components right now and saving only about 1 out of every 4 links.

If these were informal customer comments they're a crap shoot anyway, so scratch my earlier comment for now. If anyone can cite personal experiences or authoritative reviews I'm all ears because things have changed in the last few days. The newly released passively cooled POWERCOLOR HD 5750 is now competing with Sapphire Vapor-X 5750, XFX HD-5750 and the Artic Cooling enhanced HIS iCooler 5750 on my draft build list. Here's a thread I'm following with more comprehensive 5750 info.

ThaArtist · Post by **ThaArtist** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 10:48 pm

I don't think I would ever use a Zalman CPU Cooler again. The first one didn't work out too well for me and like others said, there's just better products out there for less money.

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:29 pm

Agreed. I updated my original post to reflect the final build specs. Thanks again to all for your input!

calt · Post by **calt** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 10:37 am

steppinwolf wrote:...This is my final build spec and parts have been ordered....Lian Li PC-B10

Can you comment on the noise of the case a little bit? Did you swap any fans or do mods?

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Wed Jan 20, 2010 3:32 pm

calt wrote:Can you comment on the noise of the case a little bit? Did you swap any fans or do mods?

Sorry for the delayed response. Working on my new PC and starting 2010 projects at work left me no time to for email and forums!

I'm happy with the Lian Li PC-B10 noise levels. During the build project, I've had the PC sitting on the dining room table two feet from my head. In the wee hours of night with nothing else running in the house, I can hear the faint hum of case fans. I am sensitive to noises, but this is not enough to bother me. During the daytime with normal noises in and around the house I have to really strain or sometimes even put my ear right next to the case to tell that it's on.

I ended up with an LG 8X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM optical drive. Of course noise levels spike when it spins up, but that's infrequent and not obnoxiously loud. Sorry I don't have any equipment to measure decibels.

For the Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B, I wanted a Noiseblocker NB-Multiframe M12-S2, but it was sold out at FrozenCPU, so I just grabbed a 120mm Cooler Master fan from Micro Center. Rating is 19 dB-A at 2000 RPM. The B10 case itself is running with stock fans at stock voltage and no speed control yet. As you can see there's plenty of room for impovement, but it's already quiet enough for me. Once this PC is down at the side of my desk on the carpeted floor, it will be even harder to hear anything.

BTW, my B10 was manufactured before August 09, so it didn't come with dust filters for the intake fans. I wrote to Lian Li and they sent some filters free of charge. If adding filters or any other tweaks make a big difference, I'll update.

NT · Post by NT » Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:58 am

Haven't looked into this for 6mth+...
Last I checked the Megahalems were arguably the best s775 HS on the market.
Are they still the best for S1156?

NT · Post by NT » Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:36 pm

Anyone? Thanks!

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Sun Jan 31, 2010 2:14 am

Someone else may be able to comment on whether Megahalems is still the best. I'm happy with it, but it's cooling capacity will rarely be taxed on my system (no overclocking or 3D games). I haven't even tested tempuratures under load yet, but my i7 860 cores are averaging around 30 degrees celsius at/near idle.

NT · Post by NT » Sun Jan 31, 2010 5:03 am

Thanks, I'm prolly gunna go for the H50 or a cousin...
http://www.overclock.net/water-cooling/ ... wners.html
Very affordable/reliable for WC, & depending on the mods it equals/surpasses the best air coolers, whilst using far less space.

All the best.

steppinwolf · Post by **steppinwolf** » Sun Jan 31, 2010 10:31 am

Wow, that H50 is a nice cooler. Using less space is a real advantage.

Size is the one thing I don't like about these towers and "V8" coolers. They block access to other components--especially the 4th memory slot. Megahalems is no exception. Technically it's not the cooler blocking that slot, but the clip-on fan in a push configuration. If I go from 4 to 8 GB, the bottom of the fan will have to be modified to make room for G.SKILL RAM heat spreaders. Also the DP55KG post code LED is buried under the cooler, but I can just barely make it out from an angle.

Despite these two issues, 99.9% of the time all I care about is my CPU stays very cool for greater stability/longevity. AND the Megahalems cools so effectively that even if the fan dies I won't have to stop working immediately and rush to the store.

NT · Post by NT » Sun Jan 31, 2010 11:07 am

Yeah it's this or a cousin, or the CoolIT Eco...
No reviews of the latter one yet though, I can't wait for much longer

GoodNight.

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