# Building A Work Station Computer



## joeyck (Jul 15, 2010)

Okay this is the story behind this build.. my neighbor is a photographer and he got ripped of on his last build... he does around 10,000 photos a month and needs a lot of space the person who build his first computer only gave 160GB... but umm hes already used it up and his processor bottle knecks the rest so he asked me to build it for him... I have a good idea of what I want to add since he said he has a 700$ budget not including his new 28 inch monitor... antec 1200 case hard drives optical, mouse, keyboard so basically what I come to you guys for is a little help on the internal parts like GPU CPU RAM MOBO 

*THIS IS NOT A GAMING COMPUTER!!!*

This is what I have in mind : 


GPU : Recertified: EVGA 896-P3-1260-RX GeForce GTX 260 8...   (gtx260)



CPU : AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz... (1090t) 

							Or								

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz 6 x 512KB L2 ... (1055t )

							Or 

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 ... (965 Black ) 

							or 

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 ... (955 Black)


ALso for the 1090t and the 1055t it says that the integrated mem. controller speed is no higher then 1800... so that means if i buy the ram that i  have listed underneath then the CPU will not use that ram? i dont understand that...



Mobo : MSI NF750-G55 AM3 NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI HDMI ATX ...


RAM : G.SKILL PI Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM...



No matter which CPU i choose i will be close and i mean VERY close to the bugdet or i would be under the budget by a lot... so i have 700$ why not use it all right? if I chose the 1090t i will have 10 - 20+ on the budget 
which aint much...

or instead of a beast CPU should i upgrade his GPU? from a gtx260 a 285?

again he does not play any games what so ever... so would a better CPU upgrade increase his performance with photo editing? 
and rendering? or get a bttr gpu? i personally think the gtx260 is a monster and paired with  1090t that would be monsterous.

any help would be great thanks a million!!


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## mstenholm (Jul 15, 2010)

I have to agree - the GTX 260 is way overkill. You/he only needs a 210 or similar ATI card. 6 cores is future proffing. As far as I know the latest CS uses up to 4 cores. A slightly OC 1055 with a big (= quiet) after marked cooler is fine in order to reduce cost. If the PSU is from back then where people bought 160 GB HD, then buy a decent +87 rated PSU to keep things quiet, cool and safe from breaking down. No new HD? WD Black 2 TB is fast but runs warm. The green is to slow. Get a Blue if heat is a problem.


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## joeyck (Jul 15, 2010)

the HDD is not included with the budget lol hes going to be buying over 6 tera bytes of storae but the insides the components have the budget... so alright i will def. stay with the gtx260 and go with a 6 core... but will the 1600MHz ram be supported by my CPU? i no the mobo takes it.


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## newtekie1 (Jul 15, 2010)

Photoshop Benchmark: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/25
Another Photoshop Benchmark: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-desktop-cpu-charts-update-1/Adobe-Photoshop-CS-4,1387.html

Based on Anand's benchmark, even the Core i5 750 outperforms the 1090T and 1055T in Photoshop work, and the 870 definitely outperforms both.  Toms puts the 750 behind the 1090T, but ahead of the 1055T, and puts the 870 ahead of both.  That being the case, I'd recommend:

Expensive Build(Max out Budget):

CPU: Intel Core i7-875K Lynnfield 2.93GHz 8MB L3 Cache ...
MOBO: ASRock P55 PRO/USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX...
RAM: Patriot 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 1060... x4
GPU: Patriot 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 1060...
Heatsink: XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler (A heatsink of some kind IS REQUIRED because the CPU does not come with one!)

The advantages of this build are the unlocked multiplier on the CPU and the better cooling over stock.  This will allow a pretty decent overclock on the CPU, even with a "budget" board, which is by no means a slouch as ASRock boards are very good.  Plus the board has USB3.0, which might interest him in the future if he uses any type of external storage.  The unlocked multiplier means that it is extremely easy to overclock this processor a few notches without evena voltage bump, and with no tweaking of any other components.  This combination should be good for 133x24 without a single tweak on anything else, which would give an instant free clock speed bump to 3.2GHz.  And yes, graphic artists overclock, it isn't just for enthusiasts and gamers.  The only problem is that, after shipping, the total comes to $717, so just outside of the budget, but IMO stretching it $17 is worth it.  The total can be dropped below the $700 mark if you only go with 3 sticks of the RAM(giving 6GB), but doing that looses the full Dual-Channel, which would cause a minor performance hit.  This is how you had the original build set-up though, so I don't know if that is an issue for you.

Inexpensive Build(some of the budget left over):

CPU: Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache L...
MOBO: ASRock P55 PRO/USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX...
RAM: Patriot 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 1060... x4
GPU: Patriot 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 1060...

Basically the same build as the above, but with a i5 750 instead.  Because the CPU comes with a heatsink, no extra heatsink is required.  Obviously overclocking will probably not be happening on this build due to the stock heatsinks, but performance should still be better than the 1090T in photoshop work even at stock.  The total here comes to $545, which is handily under your budget.


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## CJCerny (Jul 15, 2010)

I think I would go for an Athlon X4 635 and a 785G motherboard. Use the onboard video. Load it up with as much hard drive space and RAM as you can afford to for your budget. When it comes to editing large photos, 8gb or more of RAM is probably better than 4gb and RAM is pricey at the moment.


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## joeyck (Jul 15, 2010)

he uses dual monitors... its a 700$ budget *NOT INCLUDING HARD DRIVES OPTICAL DRIVES EXTRA FANS OR MONITOR!!!*

and i want to build him a AMD based system...


so should instead get 2 x2GB? since the 6 core processor doesn't allow for 3 moduals of ram?


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## Deleted member 74752 (Jul 15, 2010)

AMD wants....Intel needs.


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## joeyck (Jul 15, 2010)

how can i get more then 4 GB into a 6 core amd? 

it says it only takes dual channel? or should i just stick with the 2 x2GB of 1333? 

and the intel CPUs r pretty expensive for quad core or more... and i want a future proof it since he doesn't want to upgrade any more... i aint going buy a 980X and the AMD CPUs r extremely cheep.


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## Deleted member 74752 (Jul 15, 2010)

Have you investigated the performance of Intel i3 using the on chip graphics instead of a video card?

Give me a link to a benchmark and I will run it for you using theIntel i5 670...


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## yogurt_21 (Jul 15, 2010)

well if we're talking workstation none of that hardware is workstation grade. 

desktop componenets are designed for 8 hour a day operation and last 3 years aka 8760 hours of operation (yes I know and have plenty of desktop hardware can last longer at longer operation times but a prefessional cannot take a gamble, especially if he's already been burned once.)

he's likely going to want his rig to last longer than one year of continuous operation so recerts are definetly off the list.

ASUS P7F-X LGA 1156 Intel 3420 ATX Intel Xeon 3400...
asus lga 1156 server/workstation grade -170

Intel Xeon X3430 Lynnfield 2.4GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA...
xeon x3430 -210

Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbu...
4gb ddr3 1333 (can go to 8 if necessary) -115



495 for cpu/mobo/mem

leaves 205 for the gpu. and that's where I'll leave it to you. You can get a lowend firegl or a quadro

ATI 100-505505 FireGL V7700 512MB PCI Express 2.0 ...
essentially a 3870 but workstation grade -170$

PNY VCQFX570-PCIE-PB Quadro FX 570 256MB 128-bit G...
dunno a compatible geforce -170$

both will handle the task easily enough and are suited for any suites the photographer uses. 

please note that these are designed for rendering, not for gaming so don't judge them on gaming performance.


that said, some members of tpu have normal edition cards they've wrapped or flashed to firegl/quadro. this is not soemthgin I'd do for a client as it is asking for trouble and ten thousand phone calls from the client complaining something's not working but there it is. 


imo the budget is way too low for a professional and you're not going to make a profit on this build unless you set him up to fail like the last guy did. In which case I'd say choose now, either do it right and save your reputation while not makign any money, or tell the client that no decent workstation comes under 1500$ (2500$ is more realistic for a photographer).



edit: just an fyi this is what I do for a living, alot of tpu'ers are going to recomend desktop parts and claim it's fine, none of them have gone through what I have or are licensed to do it.


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## GENTLEMEN (Jul 15, 2010)

I suggest going for a board with more sata ports for storage (unless external). And why a 3x2GB kit? 2 sets of 2x2GB would be better (especially for photoshop). Get the 1055t and use the savings to get more ram.



joeyck said:


> how can i get more then 4 GB into a 6 core amd?



You can put as much ram as the board (and OS) can handle (using a 1055t now).


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## Dent1 (Jul 15, 2010)

joeyck, if the workstation is just for photoshop, rendering and encoding I wouldnt be too fussed about the video card. I would stick in a cheap 5770, 5770 or 5670, your client isnt going to care about the video processing performance. If he uses software like Maya for 3D Animation he might be a little interested in a decent video card, but if the majority of his time is spent editing photos will he care?



newtekie1 said:


> Photoshop Benchmark: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/25
> 
> Based ont that, even the Core i5 750 outperforms the 1090T and 1055T in Photoshop work, and the 870 definitely outperforms both.  That being the case, I'd recommend:




newtekie1, to my knowledge Photoshop isnt multi-threaded, with the exception of Adobe Premier. We'd need an extensive list of his appications to decide whether he will benefit from those additional cores or threads. The i7 750 only beats the 1090T by 0.6 seconds which is within the margin for error, would that 0.6 second lead occurred in a multi-threaded environment, who knows.


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## Deleted member 74752 (Jul 15, 2010)

If someone could provide a free and suitable benchmark we could test different combo's to see what was worth the money.


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## joeyck (Jul 15, 2010)

he doesn't own a bussiness lol he does this for fun his current job is a site suppuvisor of a building complex... he just likes to takes pictures he is no professional of any sorts far from it... but he just has a passion for this kinda of stuff... his currect desktop works fine but has barely any space and not so powerful...

I guess i named it wrong.. it really isn't a workstation its just for fun  to be honest he does it for the hell of it and does not make money off of it what so ever.


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## Deleted member 74752 (Jul 15, 2010)

Come up with a suitable test and we can see what the best alternative is...no lack of hardware on this forum.   I even have the Thuban to compare against.


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## Dent1 (Jul 15, 2010)

joeyck. I think you need to come back with a list of software packages which he will be using on a daily basis otherwise this is like shooting in the dark.

But right off the bat I can say your main focus is processing power, ram and storage. He has filled up 160 GBs already so he is working with large files, I would buy him like 1.5TBx5 Spin Point hard disk drives and atleast 8GBs of ram.

Sell off the components in his old rig to allow for a budget increase.


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## newtekie1 (Jul 15, 2010)

joeyck said:


> and i want to build him a AMD based system...



Wait, I don't get it.

You want to build him a new machine because his old machine was CPU bottlenecked..._but_ you want to CPU bottleneck the new machine because you want to build an AMD system...

_That_ is stupid.



Dent1 said:


> newtekie1, to my knowledge Photoshop isnt multi-threaded, with the exception of Adobe Premier. We'd need an extensive list of his appications to decide whether he will benefit from those additional cores or threads. The i7 750 only beats the 1090T by 0.6 seconds which is within the margin for error, would that 0.6 second lead occurred in a multi-threaded environment, who knows.



He manipulates 10,000 photos a month, you think he is using GIMP or anything other than the industry standard Photoshop to do it?  Are there any better software suites out there for manipulating photos that they use, and are _they_ multi-threaded?


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## joeyck (Jul 15, 2010)

look here newtekie... AMD CPUs r great a 940BE (the one i have is absolutly great) a x6 AMD or a 965 / 955 will do just as good... stop spamming my thread plz and go troll some were else this is not a AMD vs intel thread so please F off...

back to talking to some who wants to help... Dent he uses Photoshop, and lightroom like every day... light room requires u to save all ur pics there (lightroom will take a 2 terabyte HDD) the others will use the other 2 TB HDD and maybe another 2TB HDD...


He also never deleted any photos so yea... another thing to remember ANYTHING!!! will own his current build his build takes like 5 mins to load light room and 6 to load photo shop a 1055t / 1090T would own his system and would make him happy... i could down grade the GPU since he only needs it for dual monitors. so i could get a cheap 9800GT or somehting like that and get him 8 GIgs of ram instead.


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## newtekie1 (Jul 15, 2010)

joeyck said:


> look here newtekie... AMD CPUs r great a 940BE (the one i have is absolutly great) a x6 AMD or a 965 / 955 will do just as good... stop spamming my thread plz and go troll some were else this is not a AMD vs intel thread so please F off...
> 
> back to talking to some who wants to help... Dent he uses Photoshop, and lightroom like every day... light room requires u to save all ur pics there (lightroom will take a 2 terabyte HDD) the others will use the other 2 TB HDD and maybe another 2TB HDD...



I AM trying to help him, while you are letting your need for AMD get in the way of building him a better rig for the same money.  I'm in no way spamming your thread, just because you don't like the suggestions doesn't mean I'm spamming your thread.  Sorry, but my builds with Intel processors are just better for the tasks he intends to use them for, I've shown that with actual benchmarks.

This has nothing to do with Intel vs. AMD, except maybe in your own mind.  I'm not saying AMD CPUs are not good, however Intel CPUs are better suited for *his* needs.  Now that we know he uses Photoshop and Lightbox, I know for a fact they are better suited for his needs, even Dent should agree now.  It is completely idiotic to be building _*him*_ a new machine because *his* old machine is CPU bottlenecked, and then build a machine that is CPU bottlenecked because *you* prefer AMD.  It isn't about what you want, it is about giving him the best machine *his* money can buy.

And, no, I've shown you that an x6 or a 965/955 will NOT do just as good, just look at the two benchmarks I've posted on the exact subject from two very respected sites.  The i5 750 build will perform the same as the x6 1090T build, and better than the 1055T build, AND be cheaper.  And it will completely destroy the 965/955, the i5 661 matches the 955 in Photoshop and is insanely cheap compared to the 955.


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## Deleted member 74752 (Jul 15, 2010)

I was going to run him a bench with the i5 670, but it appears you must have PhotoShop installed to run it.


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## Kreij (Jul 15, 2010)

Let's keep it civil people. If joeyck wants to build an AMD system that is his call, regardless.
Play nice.


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## [Ion] (Jul 15, 2010)

No need for a GTX260, you could shave off quite a bit by going for a GT240.  AMD or Intel is your choice entirely, my i7 860 is awesome, but so are the PhII X6 1055T and 1090T


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## Dent1 (Jul 15, 2010)

I can feel this thread is going to get locked soon, I will post back in a few hours with a clear head.


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## yogurt_21 (Jul 15, 2010)

joeyck said:


> he doesn't own a bussiness lol he does this for fun his current job is a site suppuvisor of a building complex... he just likes to takes pictures he is no professional of any sorts far from it... but he just has a passion for this kinda of stuff... his currect desktop works fine but has barely any space and not so powerful...
> 
> I guess i named it wrong.. it really isn't a workstation its just for fun  to be honest he does it for the hell of it and does not make money off of it what so ever.



ah well then that's completely different lol.

in that case you could consider a gt240 as suggested for video and it should do fine, unless you find a deal on a gts250 or better.  

as for the cpu/mem setup 4gb should do just fine for most anything except those expensive programs found on professional workstations you cna go to 8gb (4x2gb) if you like, but it's not needed for his uses.

mobo, just make sure that it has decent upgradability that means i7/i5/am3 because alot of these programs can chew up even the best of cpu's so upgradability is nice.

for cpu go for the best you can get for 200$ more than that isn't worth the premium.



Dent1 said:


> to my knowledge Photoshop isnt multi-threaded



not to rehash anything but I though this needed clearing

to my knowledge it is and the benchmarks support it note this is cs4, if you're on cs2 or earlier it isn't multithreaded.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-desktop-cpu-charts-update-1/Adobe-Photoshop-CS-4,1387.html

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (Wolfdale 2c) 3.0 GHz, DDR3-1333, 6 MB L2 ---------241s
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 (Yorkfield 4c) 3.0 GHz, DDR3-1333, 12 MB L2 ---------126s

otherwise the op could put a dual core in there and be fine. as it is, I'd say a quad is needed for intel or 6 core for amd


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## niko084 (Jul 15, 2010)

Seriously the graphics card is useless unless he is running heavy filters supported by CUDA under CS4 or newer on 100mb+ images. Look into Photoshop a bit more and see how much of it DOESN'T support CUDA.

AMD vs Intel the choice is clear, Intel wins, you ask for help and then play fanboy. You are building a machine "FOR" someone, not yourself, so your desire to build an AMD system is doing nothing but cutting your "customer" short.

Palit NEAT2400FHD01 GeForce GT 240 1GB 128-bit DDR...
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333...
ASUS P7H55-M PRO LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI Micro ATX...
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache L...
XIGMATEK BALDER SD1283 120mm Long Life CPU Cooler

That board will bring that chip to 3.2ghz without a hiccup and most likely higher.
There is NO way he will need even half the power that computer would have and it would save him money. The only reason I would even use the GT240 is because of the monitor size to make sure when he drags something it doesn't hold up on the re-draw depending on how large of images he is working with, which I highly doubt are any bigger than 10-15mp.

I should note that I build system for a company that does professional air photography with 50MP digital cameras and they run CS4, systems like this handle their needs extremely well and do all their processing quickly. They also work with raw images, not compressed, a 500mb image is moderately small.


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## joeyck (Jul 15, 2010)

So your saying a 1090t gets beat by a i5-750? 

also since his budget is $700 you dont suggest on getting a stronger intel CPU? or to stick with the i5? and when it comes to OC'ing I will do it... c what that gets me also on the GPU i found a 9800GT for less $? since the 240 and the 9800 r the same should i just go for that?

and one more thing i'm really stuck on the RAM this guy does not want to upgrade shit for like 4 - 5 years... r u guys SURE!! that this system is future proof? ( the system niko put forth)


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## niko084 (Jul 15, 2010)

If you want you can add another 4gb of ram, but lets be honest if he isn't a pro photographer the images are not going to be that big, they just aren't.

GT240 actually has slightly more power than the 9800GT in Cuda application, also uses less power and produces much less heat.

As for the chip, the i5 will be fine for 4-5 years easily, we also have to consider that being he isn't a pro, spending money on new versions every year would be a HUGE waste, most pro's don't even do that, so he will be using the same basic image sizes, doing the same work on the same version.

It's solid, no sense really spending all the extra cash when it's not needed either, save him the money and make him happy, then he just might come back to you and maybe even send people to you later. It's not always about building the best to budget, but the best to what someone needs and staying under budget always makes people happy.


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## joeyck (Jul 15, 2010)

I will take what you sent and talk to him about it... in the end though it will be up to him... if you say this will hold up then alright also if he ever needs more RAM we will get him more thats a reasonable upgrade imo... but with this guy I know 100% he will want a quad and something ridiculous but none the less I will come back and tell you guys what happens 

and now to the most important thing (for this client) he needs *A LOT!!!! * of hard drive space and I mean enough for 10,000 photos a month...

I'm going to be buying him these HDD's 

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4846365&Sku=TSD-2000AS2

one of these HDDs will be for *just one program called lightroom*

the other he wants for photoshop and all the other software (also including the photos as well) 

and he said he wanted another 2 TB's as well for even more pics 

( I said to only get 2 2TB HDD's but he wants 3)


we also spoke of adding a solid state drive for boot ups... (OS installation) any one want to add any insight to that?

I was thinking of something like this : 
Kingston SSDNow V Series SNV125-S2/30GB 2.5" 30GB ...

something cheap.. 

but i heard SSD's dont last long and  i dont want to buy him something that will die out fast any want to add there inputs?


and for the CPU cooler i'll get this hyper+ 212 for 29.99

http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...oduct_info&cPath=46_557_777&products_id=25876


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## niko084 (Jul 15, 2010)

Those are pretty good drives, but be prepared to RMA 1... They tend to have a high failure rate out of the bag... Not sure why, I have to return probably 30% of them fresh out of the bag, the ones that work have been in DVR's running 24/7 for surveillance systems for months now.


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## joeyck (Jul 15, 2010)

even tho there 5900RPM drives for the price and storage it cant be beat ya know?


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## niko084 (Jul 15, 2010)

joeyck said:


> even tho there 5900RPM drives for the price and storage it cant be beat ya know?



Don't let the 5900RPM trick you, there are a few guys on here that wouldn't trade them for Raptors


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## phanbuey (Jul 15, 2010)

get western digital caviar greens... theyre even cheaper

EDIT: just saw 2tb

yeah those drives are fast on the outer rings.  The first 300GB will beat the pants off a raptor in transfer rates


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## joeyck (Jul 15, 2010)

no i no those HDDs r good also what do you guys think of the SSD?


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## erocker (Jul 15, 2010)

I'm not certain on this but I don't think you can use 2TB drives as boot drives due to a Windows limitation. I think a 60gb+ SSD for just the O/S is a good idea in this case.


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## joeyck (Jul 15, 2010)

Thats why I am getting the SSD 

Kingston SSDNow V Series SNV125-S2/30GB 2.5" 30GB ...

30 gigs for windows 7


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## erocker (Jul 15, 2010)

joeyck said:


> Thats why I am getting the SSD
> 
> Kingston SSDNow V Series SNV125-S2/30GB 2.5" 30GB ...
> 
> 30 gigs for windows 7



No no no! You do not want just a 30gb for Windows 7. Unless the guy your building this for wants to do continuous maintenence to keep it from filling up and to keep the write times from going to crap. I know this from experience. If it's out of your budget to get something larger, get a VelociRaptor 150gb. Imo, the only SSD to get right now is something with a Sandforce in it.


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## joeyck (Jul 15, 2010)

what kind of maintenence?


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## erocker (Jul 15, 2010)

joeyck said:


> what kind of maintenence?



The drive is too small. Write times will degrade. It's not a good choice. Maintenence as in having to clean/move files off of the drive and stuff like that. It's nothing but a headache, and that particular SSD is rather slow.

Don't get anything less than this: OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD2-2AGTE60G 2.5" 60GB SATA II M...

...if you want to go SSD, which is not really necessary for this build to begin with.


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## joeyck (Jul 15, 2010)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST380815AS 80GB 7200 RPM...

there we go... cheap 80GB HDD 7200RPM Sata lol hows this?


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## erocker (Jul 15, 2010)

Well it's cheap and it'll work, but might as well spend the extra twenty bucks and get a 500gb. Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 R...

I have those drives in all 8 of my work computers and they are solid.


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## joeyck (Jul 15, 2010)

lol dam thats... 4500GB or 6500GB of storage XD this ight then 500GB will do then  thanks. 

now.. to format each of these dam drives all i gotta do in windows 7 is just hit the format and thats it right? lol i never really have had this much storage lol


Alright well this is what I got going so far : 

GPU : Palit NEAT2400FHD01 GeForce GT 240 1GB 128-bit DDR... 

RAM :  G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333... 

Mobo : ASUS P7H55-M PRO LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI Micro ATX...

CPU : Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache L... 

CoolerMaster 212+ : http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...oduct_info&cPath=46_557_777&products_id=25876 

2TB HDDs : http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4846365&Sku=TSD-2000AS2

500GB HDDs : Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 R...


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## erocker (Jul 15, 2010)

joeyck said:


> lol dam thats... 4500GB or 6500GB of storage XD this ight then 500GB will do then  thanks.
> 
> now.. to format each of these dam drives all i gotta do in windows 7 is just hit the format and thats it right? lol i never really have had this much storage lol



When setting it up, all you will need to do is have the 500gb setup as the boot drive in the bios. Install Windows 7 to it. Once 7 is installed, just go into the Device Manager-->Disk management and then setup your other disks.

Here's a couple really good guides on installing Windows 7 and setting up Win 7

Install guide: http://www.blackviper.com/Articles/OS/Install_7/install_7a.htm

Setup/tweak guide: http://www.blackviper.com/Windows_7/supertweaks.htm


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## Deleted member 74752 (Jul 15, 2010)

I use this on the 24/7/gamer... http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/29176-silverstone-hddboost-review.html... works well for me.


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## joeyck (Jul 15, 2010)

OS installation is extremely easy fun actually  got paied $75 for a reformat


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## Dent1 (Jul 15, 2010)

joeyck said:


> So your saying a 1090t gets beat by a i5-750?



No, we are saying that it depends on the applications you are running. Some applications will favour the 1090T, some will favour the i5-750, it is not a cut and dry answer. For this reason I asked for a comprehensive list of applications that will be used.





joeyck said:


> and one more thing i'm really stuck on the RAM this guy does not want to upgrade shit for like 4 - 5 years... r u guys SURE!! that this system is future proof? ( the system niko put forth)



If he is not upgrading for 5 years it seems only common sense  to get 8 GBs of ram, personally I would get the 1090T even if it means losing performance now, if it means that in 2+ years the tide will swing. 5 years is a long time to keep components! 


@yogurt_21 and newtekie1,

You guys are correct CS4 is multi-threaded, from what little I can find about this subject online I found an extract saying that CS4s implementation of multi-threading is poor and bearly utilises all four cores, this can explain the slightly lower performance with the X6 if the two additional cores are being neglected.




> Photoshop’s CS4 CPU utilization is modest here; while multi-threaded, CS4 makes only fractional use of available computing power. CS4 rarely uses more than 3-4 CPU cores effectively and usually only for a short while.


http://macperformanceguide.com/Reviews-MacProNehalem-Tests-Photoshop.html


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## joeyck (Jul 15, 2010)

well ima go with the i5 on this build... its a cheaper but also just as good maybe even bttr? solution to the problem... and with the money i saved from the x6 i could buy 8 gigs but for now since a lot of people seem to agree with the i5 solution i'll stick with it...

Hopefully in 3 - 4 years this guy wont want a new upgrade and this rig will still be ownage in his world.


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## Dent1 (Jul 15, 2010)

joeyck said:


> well ima go with the i5 on this build... its a cheaper but also just as good maybe even bttr? solution to the problem... and with the money i saved from the x6 i could buy 8 gigs but for now since a lot of people seem to agree with the i5 solution i'll stick with it...
> 
> Hopefully in 3 - 4 years this guy wont want a new upgrade and this rig will still be ownage in his world.



Cheaper? Bear in mind the X6 comes in two flavours, there is the 1055T which is priced closer to the i5. 

Either way your mate will love the i5, they are offer great bang for your buck with tons of performance. Good luck.


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## joeyck (Jul 16, 2010)

i hope he will he going on vacation when he comes back i'ma get the tower ready and the PSU then he will purchase what yall told me 2 day.


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## newtekie1 (Jul 16, 2010)

Wow...gone from telling me to F off for suggesting Intel to actually going with Intel.  Man, if only you had actually read the benchmarks I posted showing the i5 was better, you wouldn't have had to asked if the i5 is better half a page later...  Guess you aren't such hot shit now, meh...

Anyway, yes the 5900RPM drives are great.  However, with this much data, I would suggest a RAID5 setup using the drives, even if that means adding one extra drive. I've currently got 6TB of hard drive space, and I know I would freak if a drive died and took out 1.5TB of data.  Of course I've got it all backed up too.


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## Deleted member 74752 (Jul 16, 2010)

The best thing about the i5 choice is that with a good air cooler you will be able to overclock it stable 4.5GHz easily if you desire.

Here is the gamer with a i5 670...


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## yogurt_21 (Jul 16, 2010)

newtekie1 said:


> However, with this much data, I would suggest a RAID5 setup using the drives, even if that means adding one extra drive. I've currently got 6TB of hard drive space, and I know I would freak if a drive died and took out 1.5TB of data.  Of course I've got it all backed up too.



agree, raid 5 minimum, that way you can survive a drive failure. It would seriosuly suck to have to explain why a drive failure on a raid stripe killed all of his data.


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## joeyck (Jul 16, 2010)

how would i go about doing this? and does that mobo support it?


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## newtekie1 (Jul 16, 2010)

joeyck said:


> how would i go about doing this? and does that mobo support it?



Unfortunately no H55 board will natively support RAID, the H55 chipset doesn't support RAID.  You need a P55 board to do RAID.

EVGA P55V 120-LF-E651-TR LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ...

That is a good board.  Though I would actually put the data drives on a dedicated RAID card.


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## joeyck (Jul 16, 2010)

ugh -_- lol does any one else have anything to say bout the mobo? how does it OC? i am planning on OCing the i5..

also the mobo that they suggested supports raid 0 / 1 / 5 /   and it is a p55 :S i think u read it wrong lol


Edit : sorry i read the wrong thing my bad lol...

i'll use the p55... but i still dont nderstand raid to be honest lol


also for a PSU would this do me good?

XFX P1-650X-CAG9 650W ATX12V 2.2 / ESP12V 2.91 SLI...


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## newtekie1 (Jul 16, 2010)

Yes, that XFX PSU is good.


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## joeyck (Jul 17, 2010)

okay good good... even tho his GPU doesn't take much W. his HDD's will need some and i want him to have ample amount of room to upgrade also with the internal components the total cost is 458$ which is great  but in total his build will be around a good $900 with case PSU side fan and all the freakin HDDs XD but this is what he wants and need so i aint going to take it away (for me anything over 1TB is insane lmao)


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## niko084 (Jul 17, 2010)

RAID is NOT a backup, thus it should not be treated as such for data that is required for a business. In that case, there is absolutely no need for a raid setup, a backup yes, a raid no, this is not a server a few hours of downtime will not hurt anything.


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## joeyck (Jul 17, 2010)

niko084 said:


> RAID is NOT a backup, thus it should not be treated as such for data that is required for a business. In that case, there is absolutely no need for a raid setup, a backup yes, a raid no, this is not a server a few hours of downtime will not hurt anything.




but will going with the p55 board that was posted up there be a good move?


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## niko084 (Jul 17, 2010)

joeyck said:


> but will going with the p55 board that was posted up there be a good move?



It's a solid board without a doubt, a raid isn't really a "bad" idea however I highly recommend a real form of backup as well, and let him know that RAID is NOT a backup.

I deal with pissed off customers because they rely on their raid setup in their servers too much, then a few drives go and zoop all gone.... I just roll my eyes and laugh *told ya so*.


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## niko084 (Jul 17, 2010)

rickss69 said:


> The best thing about the i5 choice is that with a good air cooler you will be able to overclock it stable 4.5GHz easily if you desire.
> 
> Here is the gamer with a i5 670...



First of all we are talking about an i5-750* QUAD*


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## newtekie1 (Jul 17, 2010)

niko084 said:


> RAID is NOT a backup, thus it should not be treated as such for data that is required for a business. In that case, there is absolutely no need for a raid setup, a backup yes, a raid no, this is not a server a few hours of downtime will not hurt anything.



Correct, it is not a replacement for a backup, but with 6TB+ of space it is usually the only option due to cost restraints.


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## Deleted member 74752 (Jul 17, 2010)

niko084 said:


> First of all we are talking about an i5-750* QUAD*



And I am talking about an i5 670.


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## Delta6326 (Jul 17, 2010)

just saying for a few more bucks you could get this faster ram G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 ...
and maybe this board im not 100% sure but on the pic it looks like that evga has 3 sata ports i can't tell if it has 2 side ones


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## joeyck (Jul 17, 2010)

yeaa... i'm getting 1600MHz ripjaws series for only $98 since the new p55 mobo i am going to get supports 1600Mhz...

okay so my question...

*WHAT IS RAID ?? AND WHY SHOULD I / SHOULDN'T I USE IT??? 
*
also i will tell him that he still needs another form of back up thats an obvious.

and the i5 - 750 is just beautiful idk bout gaming but i'm 99% sure that could reck a lot of my games i play (COD4) i read on a review if OC'ed its like a i7 lol


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## Melvis (Jul 17, 2010)

My third system in my specs < IS a workstation computer basically (The Phenom II X6) I just also use it for Trans-coding Movies on as well, hence i got the X6.


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## joeyck (Jul 17, 2010)

Good shit nice builds I would be proud to own all those comps and have built them myself  but I'll stick with my comp. (it is freakin insanely awesome for ME!!)

also windows 7 for some reason (idk y nor do i care) increased my gaming performance i barely ever get any hickups lol

also I want to get him this PSU : 

XFX P1-650X-CAH9 650W ATX12V v2.2 / ESP12V v2.91 S...

its 21 LBS which has to mean that its fuckin awesome


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## newtekie1 (Jul 17, 2010)

Delta6326 said:


> just saying for a few more bucks you could get this faster ram G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 ...
> and maybe this board im not 100% sure but on the pic it looks like that evga has 3 sata ports i can't tell if it has 2 side ones
> http://img.techpowerup.org/100717/Capture042.jpg



It has 5, with 2 on the edge, it says that in the specs of the board.



joeyck said:


> yeaa... i'm getting 1600MHz ripjaws series for only $98 since the new p55 mobo i am going to get supports 1600Mhz...
> 
> okay so my question...
> 
> ...



RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive(or Independant) Disks.

The short explanation is that it protects the data in the event a hard drive fails.

A longer explanation can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels

I suggest RAID 5 because if offers a good level of protection(one drive can completely fail with no data loss at all), while only requiring one extra drive.

And the great thing about the i5-750 is that it _is_ an i7, it just has Hyper-Threading disabled.


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## joeyck (Jul 17, 2010)

is there anyway to activate the hyper threading?


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## newtekie1 (Jul 17, 2010)

joeyck said:


> is there anyway to activate the hyper threading?



Saddly no, Intel does too good of a job locking their processors down.  They aren't like AMD where they just artificially lock down the processor using software, Intel physically disables the features at a hardware level on the CPU core.


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## joeyck (Jul 17, 2010)

that fuckin sucks -_-


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## newtekie1 (Jul 17, 2010)

joeyck said:


> that fuckin sucks -_-



It isn't all bad, the i5-750 is still a kick ass CPU, and not having Hyper-Threading makes it run a little cooler.


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## erocker (Jul 17, 2010)

joeyck said:


> that fuckin sucks -_-



Hey bud, let's keep the foul language to a minimum.  Don't fret, you'll love the 750.


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## joeyck (Jul 18, 2010)

oh i'm very sorry 

will this PSU : http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3276567&Sku=ULT-LSP750


power a 

EVGA 768-P3-1362-TR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) Superc...

and sustain a OC'd i5 - 750 ?

or this PSU : CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready...

i need a PSU with 2 x 6 pin connectors and room to upgrade and such... 

also plz the budget for the PSU is no more then $90 i could get a corsair or the LSP750 for cheap as well...


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## newtekie1 (Jul 18, 2010)

The Corsair will be much better choice.


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## joeyck (Jul 18, 2010)

lol okay good thank u


i'ma get COOLER MASTER GX Series RS750-ACAAE3-US 750W ATX12...

this is nice and i can SLI the gtx460's lol 4 x PCIe


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