Hey folks,
This is my first post here at SPCR, however I have stolen countless ideas from all of you over the years. I'm grateful for the massive amount of frustration you have saved me, and while I may be a thief, I am not a plagiarist. I have always recommended you to all of my clients, and given you full... ish credit for your ideas. I hope you can give me some advice on a RIG I am building for an important client.
The client's primary requirements for the RIG are as follows:
(I am also including info about his current PC, living conditions etc. in order to provide some context).
1. PC must be capable of playing MMOs, as well as most other non-1st P. Shooter games (strategy games, browser games, casual games etc.) at High quality (though not ultra), & high frame-rates. Client is a PC/Console Game-Designer, Producer, and he installs a huge number of small games on his PC for testing.
2. The RIG must be very quiet. The PC he has now is built around an Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 2.40 GHz, 512K Cache, 533 MHz FSB, and uses mostly passive cooling except for the power supply fan, and a single slow moving 92mm fan mounted over the CPU heat-sink via a well-dampened bracket. Hard drives (2) are of the laptop variety (5400 RPM), mounted with silicone frames. He had the PC built for him +/- 7 years ago, and it is damn quiet! It has also been outdated almost since it was built, and exists within a thoroughly dampened Mini-ATX Tower, which is under his desk. He has a short-haired dog, but is a non-smoker and relatively neat. When I have upgraded his Vid-Card, done maintenance etc., his enclosure has not been that dusty, thanks to thicker than normal filters and near non-existent air-flow. By far, the loudest component on his current PC is his DVD RW (an older Plextor), which ain't all that loud. It is worth saying that my client has been using this underpowered machine for a very long time, largely without complaint. It is only recently that he has hit a wall. His older CPU and Vid-Card just cannot run many of the games he scopes out for work.
Some additional info:
The wiring in his house is old, and the neighborhood he lives in, though on the edge of Silicone Valley, does not have the most reliable power. His sockets are grounded, but I have suggested that he hire an electrician to check his house, and make sure it isn't going to ignite when i plug the new PC into the wall. I am also including a Backup UPS on the list of components to order. I am not 100% confident that I have chosen the best model for the RIG I have planned. Any help in this area would be great!
The client is not an OCer, so everything will be running stock for now. As it gets older, he will probably want to OC the CPU and or Vid-Card which may require additional cooling.
Below is the list of components I am considering. The client wants to stick with his current monitor (a nice CRT from a few years ago), despite my advice to jump on one of the many LCD sales out there. He is currently using Win XP Pro (32), and will keep his current PC running as a backup/file-server. You guys know these parts better than most, certainly better than me, so I think it will be obvious what I'm planning to do with the additional case fans, etc. lol Any help, advice, or opinions you can offer would be of great help. Thanks for your time, and I apologize for the long post.
John
Antec P193
Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920
*Prolima Megahalems Silent CPU Cooler
ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Low Voltage Desktop Memory
OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX60G 2.5 (OS Drive)
Western Digital Caviar Green WD15EADS 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s (DATA/Backup)
POWERCOLOR SCS3 AX5750 1GBD5-S3DH Radeon HD 5750 1GB 128-bit
Pioneer Black Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Writer SATA Model BDR-205BKS
Antec CP-850 850W Continuous Power CPX
APC BR800BLK 800 VA 540 Watts UPS
$Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM
Nexus SFM-1000 Silicon Fan Mounts, 4 pieces
Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F 120mm Case Fan
Noctua NF-P14 FLX 140mm Case Fan (I assume I'll want to replace the stock fans, right?)
*I understand that I may have to remove the side-fan in order to fit the Prolima Megahalems, unless Antec has revised the case.
$Does Win 7 provide native support for SSDs? Does the Vertex still require a firmware update prior to install, or is that just for XP?
Thanks again!
Advice on a build for a big client
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
-
swivelguy2
- Posts: 404
- Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 9:18 pm
- Location: Illinois, USA
Welcome to SPCR (I won't steal the thunder from more senior members by using big colorful type, so they can still do it)! I'm glad you've come out of the shadows.
The i7-860 might be a better choice than the 920. It has a lower TDP (95 W vs 140) and a correspondingly lower measured power consumption at idle and at full load. It also runs at a slightly higher frequency (2.8 vs 2.66 GHz) and a much higher turbo frequency (3.46 vs 2.93 GHz), which will be good as your client does not intend to overclock and many of the games he tests are likely to not be multithreaded. The downsides of the 860 are that it only has a 2-channel memory controller rather than the 920's 3-channel, and has fewer PCI-Express lanes, which could be an issue if you plan to use multiple graphics cards and/or other PCI-E x4 peripherals like RAID cards.
As for the GPU, you should be warned that PowerColor has a bad reputation for its 5xxx series cards. Some of their editions have left out important power-control elements to cut costs. While you can get a stock passive version from PowerColor, it may be a better option to start with a higher quality card overall, such as the Sapphire Vapor-X 5750 or 5770 and add your own passive (or nearly-passive) multi-slot cooler.
The P-193 and CP-850 are excellent choices, when cost and size of the system are of little concern, which seems to be the case here. My personal choice would be something from the Lian-Li Lancool series, but that's just my own personal bias against fan holes in the sides and top of tower cases.
The i7-860 might be a better choice than the 920. It has a lower TDP (95 W vs 140) and a correspondingly lower measured power consumption at idle and at full load. It also runs at a slightly higher frequency (2.8 vs 2.66 GHz) and a much higher turbo frequency (3.46 vs 2.93 GHz), which will be good as your client does not intend to overclock and many of the games he tests are likely to not be multithreaded. The downsides of the 860 are that it only has a 2-channel memory controller rather than the 920's 3-channel, and has fewer PCI-Express lanes, which could be an issue if you plan to use multiple graphics cards and/or other PCI-E x4 peripherals like RAID cards.
As for the GPU, you should be warned that PowerColor has a bad reputation for its 5xxx series cards. Some of their editions have left out important power-control elements to cut costs. While you can get a stock passive version from PowerColor, it may be a better option to start with a higher quality card overall, such as the Sapphire Vapor-X 5750 or 5770 and add your own passive (or nearly-passive) multi-slot cooler.
The P-193 and CP-850 are excellent choices, when cost and size of the system are of little concern, which seems to be the case here. My personal choice would be something from the Lian-Li Lancool series, but that's just my own personal bias against fan holes in the sides and top of tower cases.
What kind of system are you really planning?
If the UPS is a major factor you want the system with the lowest power draw.
LCDs are great for real estate, power and even colors if you pick an 8 bit panel. The CRT probably uses more power than the whole system idling which it would have to get from the UPS.
If you really want to convince him to get an LCD, why not get an iMac 27" with an i7 CPU and an ATI 4850 graphics card?
You can still upgrade to SSD and get a Firewire 800 external HDD for backup.
If you buy prebuilt you can get support through the company you bought from and not worry about it yourself.
Do you (your client) need multiple graphic cards?
Do you (your client) need RAID a controller and the drives to go with it?
For a system with multiple graphics card and a raid controller you need more PCIe lanes than the i7 8xx + P55 chipset provide (16+4@half speed). Get an i7 9xx and a X58 mainboard (16+16+4 PCIe lanes). This system will use 40-60 watts more power.
Multiple drives on a RAID controller and multiple graphic cards especially use lots of power and are not easy to quiet down.
Here is a thread on a system that qualifies as low end to your needs, but might help you decide what to pick if you want to build the system yourself:
viewtopic.php?t=56916
If the UPS is a major factor you want the system with the lowest power draw.
LCDs are great for real estate, power and even colors if you pick an 8 bit panel. The CRT probably uses more power than the whole system idling which it would have to get from the UPS.
If you really want to convince him to get an LCD, why not get an iMac 27" with an i7 CPU and an ATI 4850 graphics card?
You can still upgrade to SSD and get a Firewire 800 external HDD for backup.
If you buy prebuilt you can get support through the company you bought from and not worry about it yourself.
Do you (your client) need multiple graphic cards?
Do you (your client) need RAID a controller and the drives to go with it?
For a system with multiple graphics card and a raid controller you need more PCIe lanes than the i7 8xx + P55 chipset provide (16+4@half speed). Get an i7 9xx and a X58 mainboard (16+16+4 PCIe lanes). This system will use 40-60 watts more power.
Multiple drives on a RAID controller and multiple graphic cards especially use lots of power and are not easy to quiet down.
Here is a thread on a system that qualifies as low end to your needs, but might help you decide what to pick if you want to build the system yourself:
viewtopic.php?t=56916
you don't want to plug the crt in the ups, it's way too big of a power draw.
the p193 is going to be noisier than a p183, and the cpu cooler height will be restricted... nothing you outlined requires the use of a p193.
i would get the fanless powercolor, but be prepared to zip-tie a 120mm fan to it, if necessary, and maybe replace it for a more powerful model later.
the p193 is going to be noisier than a p183, and the cpu cooler height will be restricted... nothing you outlined requires the use of a p193.
i would get the fanless powercolor, but be prepared to zip-tie a 120mm fan to it, if necessary, and maybe replace it for a more powerful model later.
Thank you all so much for the thoughtful replies!
swivelguy2: I had been going back and forth between the 920 and the 860 for some of the reasons you offered, as well as saving a few bucks. I was thinking more in terms of the future when I settled on the 920, but your right. I think I will go with the 860. I hadn't heard about PC having problems with their passively cooled cards, thanks for the warning! Can you suggest another GPU of comparable capabilities, which is also either passively cooled, or at least really damn quiet? If not, I suppose I will follow your suggestion and MOD a more reliable model.
boost: Thank you, as well! My client is not really the intense Power-User he believes himself to be. He is very, very good at what he does, but what he does simply does not require bleeding-edge, high-powered hardware. He does not require two GPUs, nor does he really need a RAID array. I have already built a Fileserver for him, in any case. It will live in another room, so the small amount of noise it produces won't be a problem. I think that your points dove-tail nicely with those of swivelguy2. My client's requirements can be satisfied by an 860 system. I also think that I have convinced him to replace his monitor with an LCD. I simply brought one to his house, and ran down the list of advantages to switching. I think he was actually convinced by the fact that an LCD has such a small footprint, and just looks better on his desk, rather than any of my arguments lol! Great link BTW, thank you!
danimal: One of the reasons I was leaning toward the 193 over the 183, was the complaints in various threads around the net about the cheap frond door on the 183, and some problems with the front air intakes. Is it not as bad as some have claimed?
Thanks again, guys!
swivelguy2: I had been going back and forth between the 920 and the 860 for some of the reasons you offered, as well as saving a few bucks. I was thinking more in terms of the future when I settled on the 920, but your right. I think I will go with the 860. I hadn't heard about PC having problems with their passively cooled cards, thanks for the warning! Can you suggest another GPU of comparable capabilities, which is also either passively cooled, or at least really damn quiet? If not, I suppose I will follow your suggestion and MOD a more reliable model.
boost: Thank you, as well! My client is not really the intense Power-User he believes himself to be. He is very, very good at what he does, but what he does simply does not require bleeding-edge, high-powered hardware. He does not require two GPUs, nor does he really need a RAID array. I have already built a Fileserver for him, in any case. It will live in another room, so the small amount of noise it produces won't be a problem. I think that your points dove-tail nicely with those of swivelguy2. My client's requirements can be satisfied by an 860 system. I also think that I have convinced him to replace his monitor with an LCD. I simply brought one to his house, and ran down the list of advantages to switching. I think he was actually convinced by the fact that an LCD has such a small footprint, and just looks better on his desk, rather than any of my arguments lol! Great link BTW, thank you!
danimal: One of the reasons I was leaning toward the 193 over the 183, was the complaints in various threads around the net about the cheap frond door on the 183, and some problems with the front air intakes. Is it not as bad as some have claimed?
Thanks again, guys!
guess what, plugging the crt into the ups won't save your files if the computer crashes or locks upxan_user wrote:Not all programs like to auto save... I dunno about the rest of you, but I sure have a hard time saving files during a blackout with no power to the monitor.danimal wrote:you don't want to plug the crt in the ups, it's way too big of a power draw.
you protect your work by turning on the automatic backup function in the software you are using.
i like the door on my p183, it folds all the back around to the side of the computer, if i need that... i clipped out most of the metal front grills behind the screens, and i'm probably going to clip out some of the plastic that's in front of the screens... the only maintenance you have to do with the screens is run a vacuum cleaner over 'em when they get clogged up.
After working with the hardware Asus sent me for their design contest, I would totally recommend an LGA1156 system setup. Alot of people were hitting 3.8-4.0ghz overclocks with the stock cooler; I know you said your client will not be overclocking but this shows that even a cheap passive cooler should be enough to cool the cpu.
The the one thing i would liek to point out is the psu you plan to use is overkill for the build. You should be able to get away with something between 550-650w for the build you are suggesting. The other thing is, if you are looking at dampening the sound of the psu, I have been very successful at swapping psu fans with higher efficiency, lower noise fans. My favorite fans are the Scythe Slip stream fans, the 800rpm fan will be completely silent unless you have your ear against it.
Windows 7 has the best ssd support. What will really help is getting an ssd with "TRIM" support. Be careful as some cheaper modeled ssd's will not support TRIM. If you do not have TRIM support on your ssd, you will find after the hard drive is filled past 75% of its capacity, that it's performance will begin to drop... when I had less 15gb free on my 128gb ssd (which does not have TRIM), my system began to slow down to almost not being usable... with that being said, I would prepare to find an ssd that is 128gb or larger, as Windows 7 64bit takes up 20gb on a vanilla install, and games like world of war craft can eat up 15-20gb on its own.
The Antec P193 I agree is very nice and very silent case. The only suggestion i can make, is for a similar price you can get an aluminum Lian Li PC-7FNWB with or without a side windows for a similar price. I have used both cases, and they are both very nice to work with, and both equally well built and silent. What sets the Lian Li apart from the Antec case, is that it is aluminum. It weights about a 1/4-1/3 the weight of the Antec. The only thing is you will lose the front cover door, but gain a nice blue front color led fan. The stock fan on the lian li makes almost no noise...
Again, I would try to convince your client to ditch the crt monitor. They are hard on the eyes compared to lcd, and lcd monitors will use a lot less power.
The the one thing i would liek to point out is the psu you plan to use is overkill for the build. You should be able to get away with something between 550-650w for the build you are suggesting. The other thing is, if you are looking at dampening the sound of the psu, I have been very successful at swapping psu fans with higher efficiency, lower noise fans. My favorite fans are the Scythe Slip stream fans, the 800rpm fan will be completely silent unless you have your ear against it.
Windows 7 has the best ssd support. What will really help is getting an ssd with "TRIM" support. Be careful as some cheaper modeled ssd's will not support TRIM. If you do not have TRIM support on your ssd, you will find after the hard drive is filled past 75% of its capacity, that it's performance will begin to drop... when I had less 15gb free on my 128gb ssd (which does not have TRIM), my system began to slow down to almost not being usable... with that being said, I would prepare to find an ssd that is 128gb or larger, as Windows 7 64bit takes up 20gb on a vanilla install, and games like world of war craft can eat up 15-20gb on its own.
The Antec P193 I agree is very nice and very silent case. The only suggestion i can make, is for a similar price you can get an aluminum Lian Li PC-7FNWB with or without a side windows for a similar price. I have used both cases, and they are both very nice to work with, and both equally well built and silent. What sets the Lian Li apart from the Antec case, is that it is aluminum. It weights about a 1/4-1/3 the weight of the Antec. The only thing is you will lose the front cover door, but gain a nice blue front color led fan. The stock fan on the lian li makes almost no noise...
Again, I would try to convince your client to ditch the crt monitor. They are hard on the eyes compared to lcd, and lcd monitors will use a lot less power.
+1 on using a socket 1156 solution. Much lower power consumption, less heat, less noise, similar performance. Great turbo mode for single/dual core apps.
memory: no need to get ddr3-2000. Reasonable latency ddr3-1333 is nearly the same performance in real apps as anything faster. Find something reasonably priced rather than crazy priced.
PSU - this system will idle @ less than 100W AC and use maybe 150W to 200W AC at load, depending on the processor and gpu selected. Consider the Nexus 5000.
Monitor: Unless he is doing color matching/photoshop work and his CRT is color matched for his apps, consider an LED backlit LCD monitor. For low power, I really like my two Dell G2410's. <<1W sleep mode and 15W in use ea. Or, if he needs high gamut/color matching, look at a more costly S-IPS LCD display.
UPS - stay away from the BRXXX. The fan on the UPS will drown out your PC. Look at the fanless ES series. I have the 650 and it's worked well through numerous brownout/blackouts due to PG&E and Santa Cruz mountain road tree falls, high winds, etc.
GPU: After you've decided on the monitor resolution, find out what games he likes and then take a look at some of the review sites and framerates vs resolution/quality levels. Tom's Hardware has a small set of games you can compare vs a lot of gpus. PC Games Hardware is a great site to look for a specific game. Then, you can choose a gpu best suited for him. I like the HD5xxx for their low idle/load power and dx11 compatibility.
memory: no need to get ddr3-2000. Reasonable latency ddr3-1333 is nearly the same performance in real apps as anything faster. Find something reasonably priced rather than crazy priced.
PSU - this system will idle @ less than 100W AC and use maybe 150W to 200W AC at load, depending on the processor and gpu selected. Consider the Nexus 5000.
Monitor: Unless he is doing color matching/photoshop work and his CRT is color matched for his apps, consider an LED backlit LCD monitor. For low power, I really like my two Dell G2410's. <<1W sleep mode and 15W in use ea. Or, if he needs high gamut/color matching, look at a more costly S-IPS LCD display.
UPS - stay away from the BRXXX. The fan on the UPS will drown out your PC. Look at the fanless ES series. I have the 650 and it's worked well through numerous brownout/blackouts due to PG&E and Santa Cruz mountain road tree falls, high winds, etc.
GPU: After you've decided on the monitor resolution, find out what games he likes and then take a look at some of the review sites and framerates vs resolution/quality levels. Tom's Hardware has a small set of games you can compare vs a lot of gpus. PC Games Hardware is a great site to look for a specific game. Then, you can choose a gpu best suited for him. I like the HD5xxx for their low idle/load power and dx11 compatibility.
You guys are terrific! I really appreciate all of the help.
My client is now completely converted to the LCD! What is funny, is that this realization that he was perhaps not 100% right about the monitor does not seem to have shaken his stubbornness... ahem, I mean confidence, in any of his other firmly held opinions about various aspects of his new RIG. lol! Ah well, it is his money, after all.
danimal: I think that I will go with the 183, and thank you for telling me about the front grills. I am at the point of giving my client a final delivery date, and the time it takes for little things like clipping grills adds up very quickly.
fpsrandy: Great suggestions! I am going with the Antec PSU and Case at the request of my client, though I did advise him of the fact that the PSU was more than he would need. He just has some specific preferences which he insists upon. This is fine of course, as he is the paying client. In those cases which I honestly feel that he is doing harm to the build in some way, I do what I have to do to convince him that I know a better way. However, the only harm being done with the purchase of the Antec PSU is to my client's pocket-book so... I'm grateful for the warning about SSDs. My knowledge of SSDs is far more academic at this point, than practical. I will need to check the OCZ site and try to determine if their Vertex line has TRIM. I too have run into the problem of having discovered too late that a PSU fan had a less than standard depth lol! In fact, I think I still have a couple of fans I bought to replace PSU stock fans, but couldn't use. Thanks!
CA_Steve: I really appreciate your recommendations about the RAM, and especially about the UPS! I don't know why it didn't occur to me to check on the noise levels of the UPS models I checked out. I used to work with some truly obnoxious UPS units at the companies for whom I did IT. You helped me dodge a bit of a bullet there! I've seen Tom's GPU charts before, but the PC Games Hardware Overview is great! Thank you for the links.
Thanks again, everybody! I will order the components today, but if anyone has any last minute advice, or thinks of any pitfalls associated with the kind of build I'm doing, please post 'em! If I run into any problems, I may ask for your help again. Otherwise, I will be sure to post when I am finished, and let you all know how it went. Maybe I will post some pics, in case anyone is interested. You have all been very kind!
John
My client is now completely converted to the LCD! What is funny, is that this realization that he was perhaps not 100% right about the monitor does not seem to have shaken his stubbornness... ahem, I mean confidence, in any of his other firmly held opinions about various aspects of his new RIG. lol! Ah well, it is his money, after all.
danimal: I think that I will go with the 183, and thank you for telling me about the front grills. I am at the point of giving my client a final delivery date, and the time it takes for little things like clipping grills adds up very quickly.
fpsrandy: Great suggestions! I am going with the Antec PSU and Case at the request of my client, though I did advise him of the fact that the PSU was more than he would need. He just has some specific preferences which he insists upon. This is fine of course, as he is the paying client. In those cases which I honestly feel that he is doing harm to the build in some way, I do what I have to do to convince him that I know a better way. However, the only harm being done with the purchase of the Antec PSU is to my client's pocket-book so... I'm grateful for the warning about SSDs. My knowledge of SSDs is far more academic at this point, than practical. I will need to check the OCZ site and try to determine if their Vertex line has TRIM. I too have run into the problem of having discovered too late that a PSU fan had a less than standard depth lol! In fact, I think I still have a couple of fans I bought to replace PSU stock fans, but couldn't use. Thanks!
CA_Steve: I really appreciate your recommendations about the RAM, and especially about the UPS! I don't know why it didn't occur to me to check on the noise levels of the UPS models I checked out. I used to work with some truly obnoxious UPS units at the companies for whom I did IT. You helped me dodge a bit of a bullet there! I've seen Tom's GPU charts before, but the PC Games Hardware Overview is great! Thank you for the links.
Thanks again, everybody! I will order the components today, but if anyone has any last minute advice, or thinks of any pitfalls associated with the kind of build I'm doing, please post 'em! If I run into any problems, I may ask for your help again. Otherwise, I will be sure to post when I am finished, and let you all know how it went. Maybe I will post some pics, in case anyone is interested. You have all been very kind!
John
SSDs with trim are among others:
Intel X25-M G2 http://www.intel.com/support/ssdc/hpssd/x25m/index.htm
OCZ Vertex http://www.ocztechnology.com/ssd_tools/ ... ries_SSDs/
Corsair P Series http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=83708
I would recommend them in the order posted, though differences on the new drives are small.
Intel X25-M G2 http://www.intel.com/support/ssdc/hpssd/x25m/index.htm
OCZ Vertex http://www.ocztechnology.com/ssd_tools/ ... ries_SSDs/
Corsair P Series http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=83708
I would recommend them in the order posted, though differences on the new drives are small.
your client was smart to request the cp-850, it's been tested at 83% efficiency ~200 watts, and tested to meet bronze standards as well(johnnyguru)... there isn't much better bang for the buck out there, see the spcr review.
what people don't understand about power supplies is that big gives you more longevity and better ac input filtration... big caps rock!
when i was an electronics tech, i replaced over 7,000 caps in power supplies, so my opinion might be slightly tilted, lol
i would speculate that the thing with the stamped metal grilles in the case is that they may serve to baffle radio frequencies from leaving the case(??), but i don't know much about that... i think that mike c and others have mentioned it in the past?? if it's true, the environment that the case is in could be a factor, so maybe let the client make the decision.
what people don't understand about power supplies is that big gives you more longevity and better ac input filtration... big caps rock!
when i was an electronics tech, i replaced over 7,000 caps in power supplies, so my opinion might be slightly tilted, lol
i would speculate that the thing with the stamped metal grilles in the case is that they may serve to baffle radio frequencies from leaving the case(??), but i don't know much about that... i think that mike c and others have mentioned it in the past?? if it's true, the environment that the case is in could be a factor, so maybe let the client make the decision.
danimal: I agree 100%. But I felt that he should be informed that the system he wanted built would not require quite that much power, and I knew he was looking at an expensive setup. Anyway, I am quite sure that he will be happy with the PSU for a very long time!
boost: I went with the Vertex 120 GB. Thank you for the list, it did reassure me that I got an SSD with trim.
So the order is in, and now I just have to hit the local Fry's to re-stock my supply of Arctic silver and whatnot. I will post again when the parts arrive and the fun begins. You guys made this a lot easier than it otherwise would have been, thank you!
John
boost: I went with the Vertex 120 GB. Thank you for the list, it did reassure me that I got an SSD with trim.
So the order is in, and now I just have to hit the local Fry's to re-stock my supply of Arctic silver and whatnot. I will post again when the parts arrive and the fun begins. You guys made this a lot easier than it otherwise would have been, thank you!
John