Need advice for new system

[Lukas8]

Hi, and thanks in advance for any helpful responses

I am helping my bro buy a new system, part by part, and have come to a tentative list of parts that I hope are good. What I am looking for is any advice on the configuration I have chosen. Please tell me if you think they are good quality brands, and point out any possibly unforseen problems with compatability or performance. Also, feel free to recommend what you would do instead. This computer will be used as 3d rendering workstation (using Maya) and a little bit of gaming on the side.


Motherboard - ABIT AL8-V 945P P4/Pentium D 1066FSB LGA775 DDR2 ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA Retail
CPU - Intel Pentium 4 processor 660 3.6GHz 800MHz 2MB 775 PIN CPU OEM
Video Card - MSI Geforce 7800GTX NX7800GTX-VT2D256E (Lite) Video Card White Box - OEM (softmodded to quadro)
HD - Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB 3.5" IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive - OEM
Memory - (4 sticks) GeIL DDR 2 Series 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 667 (PC2 5300)

PS I chose pentium over AMD for cost effectiveness, I know that AMD currently has better CPUs

[Rich M]

Sata drives are so much faster, quieter and more efficient, why would you use ide hard drive? And of all the ones available, I would use Wd or Seagate, never Maxtor.

4 gig of ram is overkill for even a pro photographer using photoshop all day long ar a serioous gamer. 2 gig for the 2 I mentioned and 98% of users need only 1 gig ram.

[Lukas8]

thats very good advice, I was wondering about the hard drive. I also think 4gb of ram is overkill but that is one of the things he insisted... (maybe i can talk him out of it )

so Sata drive it is...

[Murf]

Welcome to CTH


That is a loaded question and you will get varied opinions, so do some research such as Tom's Hardware Guide HERE:

Running any kind of 3d rendering workstation software is very memory intensive and a resource hog. In my opinon:

1. ABIT is a good board, but I would go with MSI or ASUS instead

2. Before plopping down the big bucks for Geil memory please read THIS: if you decide naw then stick with either Crucial or Micron

3. HDD, Maxtor is one of the best but has had problems the last couple of years, you may want to look at the new Western Digital Raptor.

I'm not sure but I think maya is multi-threaded. which means it uses both cores of a dual-core processor. So I would be looking at Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or something in the X2 family.

[Lukas8]

thanks murf, i will check out that memory info. I believe you are right about maya being able to utilize the dual cores. I will look into this. thanks again!

[Lukas8]

Ok after doing some checking on the dual cores, I decided to go with an AMD system afterall. Here is the new configuration, please point out any problems as you did the last one

Motherboard - MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLIATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor - Retail
Memory - CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail
Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Video Card - MSI Geforce 7800GTX NX7800GTX-VT2D256E (Lite) Video Card White Box - OEM

anyone know what that "(lite)" could stand for on the video card discription?

[Murf]

Going to make a great system Corsair is excellent memory. And I love MSI running two of them now - their live update is fantastic. I use both maxtor and WD and honestly have had more problems with the maxtor then the WD, in fact my WD 7200RPM has run flawlessly for the last year, and I download, install, uninstall a lot of programs for testing.

As far as the "Lite" on the card, it's software package does not include games.

[Lukas8]

you guys have been great. One last question, is a 520W PSU enough and is Sky Hawk a trustworthy brand for that?

[Rich M]

looks like great quality Psu and 520 is sure more than enough.

[Murf]

As said Sky Hawk is a good PSU, but make sure it is a POWER ONE, you will have a lot of $$$ invested in that system, your smart not to skimp on the PSU.

Not knowing the cost of the one you looked at alternatively in the $60-$90 range consider one of these.

Aerocool's Aero 420P4
Antec True Control 550