Building a Computer...

[tamoneya]

For what it's worth...

I don't know if it's worth it to swap out the OEM heatsink/fan. The heatsink/fan was designed specifically by Intel to work with this particular processor.

-teet

It is about 12 degrees cooler (celsius). This will extend the lifetime of the processor a fair amount. But the other nice thing is that it is quieter than the stock heatsink. Also the way that it pushes air through the case is better. The freezer 7 cooler will push it out the back of the case while the stock cooler results in more turbulence in the case and results in poorer cooling of other components

source: http://www.pureoverclock.com/article642-4.html

[teet]

It is about 12 degrees cooler (celsius). This will extend the lifetime of the processor a fair amount. But the other nice thing is that it is quieter than the stock heatsink. Also the way that it pushes air through the case is better. The freezer 7 cooler will push it out the back of the case while the stock cooler results in more turbulence in the case and results in poorer cooling of other components

source: http://www.pureoverclock.com/article642-4.html

Well sign me up. If these are so much clearly better, why doesn't intel change their design? [note: I'm not being sarcastic...I'm serious] Must be a money thing.

-teet

[tamoneya]

im not really sure why intel doesnt invest some into heatsink development but my guess is that they dont really care and they would rather work on making a better processor. Especially since they know that most serious people are going to replace them anyways. Also they try to make the processors as cheap as possible. Using the Q6600 as an example just because it is so common. The OEM (no heatsink included) is $10 cheaper than the retail (heatsink included). This heatsink is $36 retail.

[kvk]

I read this thread with interest (plus some other computer-bulding threads), as I'm going to try and build a few boxes too.

I'm going to use the Shuttle barebones systems from Newegg. The processor is an Athlon 64 X2 5000, with 4 gb RAM and a moderate drive size. I don't need any fancy graphics, so the integrated mobo function is sufficient.

My question is power supply. These are going to be used for fairly processor-intensive numbers crunching (ecosystem models), but all the barebones systems at Newegg have only 250 - 300 watt power supplies, which seem a bit low to me for this kind of activity. What would you folks suggest?

I was also wondering about all the "standard extras" that come without thinking about it in a pre-build system: wifi and so on. If I have the mobo, the cooling system (I'm ordering an extra fan), RAM, hard drive, processor, and media drive, am I missing anything major? Everything I've read so far says that just about covers it, but I want to double check before I go and spend a lot of money!

Thanks!

[tamoneya]

kvk: as long as your motherboard has on board graphics then yes you have covered all of the bases. If this is not the case then you need to buy yourself a graphics card.

As for power consumption: There is a maximum rated power draw from the CPU which can be looked up. No matter how intense the number crunching is the CPU will not draw more power than that.

Since you seem to be new to judging power comsumption the best way for you to get a good estimate is with the newegg wattage calculator: http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html. Put in all of your components and it will tell you what your max wattage needs to be. I then add on a little bit since I want to make sure that it will be fully stable since I like to overclock. Chances are you will find the 250 W PSU built into the shuttle case a little inadequet but maybe not.

[kvk]

Most excellent! Thanks for the link to the calculator!

I called Shuttle, and the max. they will put in is 300 Watts. The calculator produced an estimate of 279 Watts with the Athlon 64 X2 (65 nm), so I guess I'd be okay with the 300.

[unelemented]

If you want raid later on buy a motherboard that supports raid out of the box
These will be with SATA (ATA-7) HDD's make sure theyre SATA 300 ones aswell theyll be alot faster

If your using two HDDs (identical ones) for RAID you can ether use RAID 0 or RAID 1
RAID 0 is used for speed but if one drive fails you loose all your data
RAID 1 is used for back up both drives have the same data on them the catch is if you have 2 x 750GB HDDs you only have 750 GB storage

If your using more then 2 HDDs RAID 5 is the best option
It destributes the data and parity evenly over all the drives so if you loss one just put another one in its spot you need to replace the drive quickly though to make sure that your data doesnt have any unneccasary risk
With RAID 5 if you have 3 x 750GB HDDs you have 1.5TB of storage if you have 4 x 750GB HDDs you have 2.25TB of storage
General rule is all hard drives are used but you loose the space of one of those for the parity

[gali98]

If you want raid later on buy a motherboard that supports raid out of the box
These will be with SATA (ATA-7) HDD's make sure theyre SATA 300 ones aswell theyll be alot faster

If your using two HDDs (identical ones) for RAID you can ether use RAID 0 or RAID 1
RAID 0 is used for speed but if one drive fails you loose all your data
RAID 1 is used for back up both drives have the same data on them the catch is if you have 2 x 750GB HDDs you only have 750 GB storage

If your using more then 2 HDDs RAID 5 is the best option
It destributes the data and parity evenly over all the drives so if you loss one just put another one in its spot you need to replace the drive quickly though to make sure that your data doesnt have any unneccasary risk
With RAID 5 if you have 3 x 750GB HDDs you have 1.5TB of storage if you have 4 x 750GB HDDs you have 2.25TB of storage
General rule is all hard drives are used but you loose the space of one of those for the parity

Thanks for the explanation..
Kory

[mips]

Wow thanks man... This is EXACTLY what I was looking for.

I would seriously recommend going for more ram on that list, say 3-4GB instead of 1GB.

[gali98]

I would seriously recommend going for more ram on that list, say 3-4GB instead of 1GB.

Did you read my first post?
I want to start out spending most of my money on unupgradeable things, i.e. processor, motherboard, graphics card. (yes I know you could upgrade all of these, but not without spending about 100 bucks or more.) So I will upgrade to more RAM as my cash flow allows.
Kory