# Fast-Efficent build



## nocrapman (Jan 2, 2009)

Hi guys,
Intending to replace my current setup.

Uses: Internet/word processing/video editing occasionallly and CD ripping-encoding. No games whatsoever.

Features: Dual monitor support, ability to support a 24" monitor well, relatively quiet.

Case - Antec P182 (already bought)

CPU - Dont think I need quad core, prolly a dual core like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...115036&cm_sp=DailyDeal-_-19-115-036-_-Product
... open to any suggestions

MOBO - need help deciding... since I dont plan to OC, but would still like a solid MOBO

PSU - Something modular/stable. My cable management skills are bad!

RAM - 4/8 gigs

HDDs - Thinking about a RAID/non-RAID mirror drives 500gigsx2 or similar to save the 200 gigs of FLAC and 100gigs of jpegs. I have an external HDD for backup too.

GPU - Thinking about a bargain card upto $100 or do I not need one? Has to be energy efficient and relatively quiet. 

OS - windows server 2008 (Free) or should I just pay for the Vista??

Please send in your suggestions. Highly appreciate the help.
Thanks!


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## spearman914 (Jan 3, 2009)

MOBO: P5Q Pro
PSU: Corsair 520HX!
GPU: ATI Sapphire 4830
RAM: OCZ Reaper 4 x 2 GB = 8GB
CPU: E8500 is a kick ass chip.


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## nocrapman (Jan 3, 2009)

spearman914 said:


> MOBO: P5Q Pro
> PSU: Corsair 520HX!
> GPU: ATI Sapphire 4830
> RAM: OCZ Reaper 4 x 2 GB = 8GB
> CPU: E8500 is a kick ass chip.



Was looking at this MOBO - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131299
Open box saves about $50!
Thats a total of $600 roughly - not bad!
Any picks on HDD?


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## silkstone (Jan 3, 2009)

Go for the Xeon version of the E8500 - Same chip more more energy efficient. E3110 = E8400 (3.0Ghz)

Go for a SSD hard disk if you have the money - Great energy efficiency and should be good for encoding and editing video.


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## AltecV1 (Jan 3, 2009)

get your self a cheap g31(if you are not going to oc or go crossfire) and 4giga ram!with saved money you can get a better gf card


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## silkstone (Jan 3, 2009)

Well he's not playing games either so if he got a G33 he wouldn;t need to spend extra on a GFX card = G31's also have video right? put they're not as good.


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 4, 2009)

@nocrapman

IMO go with the P5Q or if you dont mind Open Box

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136047R


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## Gilletter (Jan 4, 2009)

Video editing and the sort you can get a QUAD AMD for cheaper than a Dual Intel... don't know if you're agains AMD since every post is intel... But amd is always the cheaper solution, but if you're not worried about gaming I don't see the idea of spending more...


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## kysg (Jan 4, 2009)

for video editing quad is the way to go, AMD gets the cheaper solution in this case, 4830 would be great except it is unreasonable, onboard would do most of the dirty work heck even worse case a 9600GT, or 4650 would be slightly better

Ram doesn't matter unless you absolutely want DDR3...

in ddr2 land 8 gbs will cost you 100 bucks.  at 1066 speeds.


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## Gilletter (Jan 4, 2009)

kysg said:


> for video editing quad is the way to go, AMD gets the cheaper solution in this case, 4830 would be great except it is unreasonable, onboard would do most of the dirty work heck even worse case a 9600GT, or 4650 would be slightly better
> 
> Ram doesn't matter unless you absolutely want DDR3...
> 
> in ddr2 land 8 gbs will cost you 100 bucks.  at 1066 speeds.



now I don't feel like such an AMD fanboy since someone else posted it


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## kysg (Jan 4, 2009)

Gilletter said:


> now I don't feel like such an AMD fanboy since someone else posted it



Well trying not to be a fanboy, but I do own stock in AMD lol, but seriously quads are good for video editing, rendering, heavy duty shit like that.

the 9600 is down to 116 right now...9850 is what less that 150 right now??? while the cheapest quad from intel is 190 and lol man newegg everything is auto notify lol....


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## Gilletter (Jan 4, 2009)

kysg said:


> Well trying not to be a fanboy, but I do own stock in AMD lol, but seriously quads are good for video editing, rendering, heavy duty shit like that.
> 
> the 9600 is down to 116 right now...9850 is what less that 150 right now??? while the cheapest quad from intel is 190 and lol man newegg everything is auto notify lol....



can get the 9850BE from the egg for $147.99 hell the 9950BE is like $160 I think


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## nocrapman (Jan 4, 2009)

Gilletter said:


> Video editing and the sort you can get a QUAD AMD for cheaper than a Dual Intel... don't know if you're agains AMD since every post is intel... But amd is always the cheaper solution, but if you're not worried about gaming I don't see the idea of spending more...



I am not against AMD at all. My last 2 builds have been AMD with no problems till date. But the power consumption seems like quite a difference. 

AMD quads - 125-140 Watts
Intel Duals - 65 watts
Intel quads - 95 watts

Considering that my machine ends up being on most of the time - I would like to save power if I can. That said, I did a build for my Dad 2 months ago with a Phenom X3 chip and a 780G board with no graphics card - and this machine runs like a dream thru video editing/multitaking... of course no gaming! So I did save on $$/noise and power by going with on-board graphics. I wonder if I can get away with a similar combination here with a AMD quad and good on-board graphics??


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## nocrapman (Jan 4, 2009)

silkstone said:


> Go for the Xeon version of the E8500 - Same chip more more energy efficient. E3110 = E8400 (3.0Ghz)
> 
> Go for a SSD hard disk if you have the money - Great energy efficiency and should be good for encoding and editing video.



How is it more energy efficient? They seem to have the same power ratings?
Any other benefits of going with the Xeon version of the chip?

Definitely cant afford the SSDs at the current prices!!


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## alexp999 (Jan 4, 2009)

I'd go for something like this:
CPU: Intel Q8200
Mobo: Asus P5Q Pro
RAM: 8GB 800Mhz
HDD: WD 640GB AAKS , (SSD's arent always more energy effecient than HDD's  i.e. HDD's use less power under load than SSD's, iirc, or might be visa versa, will get back to you on that)
PSU: Corsair HX450
GPU: Nvidia 9600GT
OS: If you have 64bit Server 2008 and it can do everythig you want it to do, use that!


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## spearman914 (Jan 4, 2009)

If u want an effiecient build then don't buy open boxes. Since the NB heatsink might probably fall off while shipping. lol


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## Gilletter (Jan 4, 2009)

spearman914 said:


> If u want an effiecient build then don't buy open boxes. Since the NB heatsink might probably fall off while shipping. lol



I'm assuming that happened to you... and on topic... Power consumption is a minimal difference... If you want they have lower wattage Phenoms but that puts you back up into the price range of the intels, and to me 95w vs 125 w really doesn't matter... I run my computers 24/7 and I don't really notice a big difference in my electricity bill... maybe $10 a month


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## nocrapman (Jan 4, 2009)

Gilletter said:


> I'm assuming that happened to you... and on topic... Power consumption is a minimal difference... If you want they have lower wattage Phenoms but that puts you back up into the price range of the intels, and to me 95w vs 125 w really doesn't matter... I run my computers 24/7 and I don't really notice a big difference in my electricity bill... maybe $10 a month



Have other people had problems with open box items from newegg? They would RMA promptly in case of an issue. There is the inconvenience factor though! OTOH the same problem can happen to any NIB retail unit...

I agree 95 vs 125 isnt that big of a difference but 65 vs 140 (or125) is !!

For a non-gamer, what does having more cores like in a quad chip mean in reality?
For people who have made the jump form dual core to quad, what is your experience - please chime in.


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## Woody112 (Jan 4, 2009)

nocrapman said:


> Have other people had problems with open box items from newegg? They would RMA promptly in case of an issue. There is the inconvenience factor though! OTOH the same problem can happen to any NIB retail unit...
> 
> I agree 95 vs 125 isnt that big of a difference but 65 vs 140 (or125) is !!
> 
> ...



For me the biggest difference between dual and quad core is encoding. When it comes to games quad is a waist of money, period. I would never go back to encoding on a dual core chip.


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## Snipermonkey2 (Jan 5, 2009)

nocrapman said:


> Have other people had problems with open box items from newegg? They would RMA promptly in case of an issue. There is the inconvenience factor though! OTOH the same problem can happen to any NIB retail unit...
> 
> I agree 95 vs 125 isnt that big of a difference but 65 vs 140 (or125) is !!
> 
> ...



Quad cores don't give you any real boost in gaming. Duel cores are still a better solution for gaming because it saves you money so you can put more into a better graphics card.

If he planing to do just light video editing and nothing amazing then a duel core should be plenty. 

DDR2 Vs DDR3 mah pick what ever your budget can handle.
Video card - 8800GTS / 3870x2 / 4850
PSU - anything from Mushkin really.


Edit: I have ordered a few things open box from newegg and I have never had a issue.


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## Katanai (Jan 5, 2009)

If you really don't plan on gaming do get this motherboard and forget about any video card whatsoever: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131348&Tpk=asus 9300

I got it for a HTPC build and is rock solid thus far...


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## nocrapman (Jan 5, 2009)

Katanai said:


> If you really don't plan on gaming do get this motherboard and forget about any video card whatsoever: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131348&Tpk=asus 9300
> 
> I got it for a HTPC build and is rock solid thus far...



I was hoping for a full ATX MOBO... Do you have any links to ur build specs?


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## nocrapman (Jan 5, 2009)

Snipermonkey2 said:


> Quad cores don't give you any real boost in gaming. Duel cores are still a better solution for gaming because it saves you money so you can put more into a better graphics card.
> 
> If he planing to do just light video editing and nothing amazing then a duel core should be plenty.
> 
> ...



Crossfire with 3870 and 4850 seems like overkill to me for a non-gaming build.
The 8800GTS might be at a good price/performance point for me.
I plan to stick with DDR2...


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## Snipermonkey2 (Jan 5, 2009)

nocrapman said:


> Crossfire with 3870 and 4850 seems like overkill to me for a non-gaming build.
> The 8800GTS might be at a good price/performance point for me.
> I plan to stick with DDR2...



well I mean the 3870x2 which is a single card with duel GPU's which the price isn't to bad on them. But the 8800GTS is a solid card I just bought a used one which works great.


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## silkstone (Jan 5, 2009)

nocrapman said:


> How is it more energy efficient? They seem to have the same power ratings?
> Any other benefits of going with the Xeon version of the chip?
> 
> Definitely cant afford the SSDs at the current prices!!



Well it's only rated at 1.225v compared with 1.3625 of the e8400 so less voltage is less power. Internal design is identical to the E8500 so the resistance should be the same.


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## nocrapman (Jan 12, 2009)

So after going back and forth and much research, I have decided to once more stick it out with AMD. And the good reviews Phenom II has recieved has helped.

So here's what I have narrowed down to:

CPU -  Phenom 9950 and it comes with a $100 gas card... effective price $60!!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103291

PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703009
Any other choices are welcome.

Now I need help pick out a good MOBO with either good onboard graphics or an outboard GPU in addition. Remember I am not gaming or Ocing - only video editing occasionally...

Thanks folks! I am all excited...


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## cdawall (Jan 13, 2009)

nocrapman said:


> I am not against AMD at all. My last 2 builds have been AMD with no problems till date. But the power consumption seems like quite a difference.
> 
> AMD quads - 125-140 Watts
> Intel Duals - 65 watts
> ...



this is very very wrong the companies use a different rating scheme for wattage on a cpu.


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 13, 2009)

Since your going to stick with AMD might as well make it worthwhile nocrapman.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128360

Fits every single aspect of what your searching for plus has quite a bit of upgradeability.


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