New computer parts

[CVMichael]

I want to get a new computer.

Do the parts (see pic attached) match ? any suggestions ? improvements ? (as long as the price does not go up too much...)

What do you think ?

[edit] CD-ROM + 1TB Hard Drive, I will take them from my old computer cuz it has 2 of each.

[Edit 2] Also I am not sure what case to get ? (I don't think that matters too much anyways)

[stlaural]

Pretty sure you'll get a CPU cooler with the cpu so you could use it instead of the Zalman you are planning to buy. Well as long as you don't plan to overclock

I know absolutely nothing about the RevoDrive Il looks pretty amazing tho.

For the case, it depends on what you want, silence, ventilation etc...

[CVMichael]

GA-X58A-UD3R motherboard supports triple channel, I am not sure why they put that in the description.

Here is a link to it:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...px?pid=3449#sp

It says "Dual/3 channel memory architecture"

About the RevoDrive, I want to have it as my C drive (I hope I can do that)

About the CPU cooler, yea, I will do some overclocking, but I don't like to push it too much, probably 5-10%

[stlaural]

Yeah I edited my answer after looking the specs of the MB on the Web.

For the RevoDrive, I just never saw a SSD with a PCI-Express Interface, I usually see SSD with SATA interface as the ones Kingston builds and most of the new cases now have space specially for SSDs.

Looks like a good PC, you'll have some fun with that :P

For the cases, I don't know much, mine is the Element S from Thermaltake, it does the job, Its a bit noisy so I'll just buy some silent fans someday.

Kinda like the Antec Lanboy too, but again with a case like that the fans need to be really silent, and I don't want to change my case anyway

[CVMichael]

stlaural thanks for your replies, frankly I was expecting more people to express their opinion on my choices for my new computer.

I put an order for the RevoDrive, they did not have it in stock (with down-payment), so it's too late to change my mind now...

In the mean time I found out more things about the hardware I picked. One of the things that got me worried is that RevoDrive does not have the TRIM option (I just learned what that is...) and it seems it makes a big difference on the drive's speed in time. The thing is that not many SSD drives have this TRIM option unfortunately.

So anyone planning on getting an SSD, do EXTENSIVE research before you make your choice !!!
Another requirement for TRIM option is that you can't have SSDs in a RAID, and also, it works only in Windows 7.

Anyways, once I get the RevoDrive I will buy the rest of the parts. I CAN'T WAIT !!!

[stlaural]

Anytime!

I'm surprised too, usually a lot of people, with much more knowledge than me on the subject would join such a discussion.

Even without the TRIM option you should get much more speed than on a regular hard drive. Let me know how amazing it is! I might add a SSD to my system someday too.

[CVMichael]

I am still waiting for the RevoDrive. In the mean time I made some changes, I think this is my final setup.

More RAM, changed the CPU cooling, changed motherboard, added case.

[stlaural]

Nice gear!

I've only got 6gb of ram and I could never use it all! pretty sure 12gb will be enough :P

[Lord Orwell]

fyi i scanned the customer reviews of this board and there were a lot of DOAs.

[CVMichael]

What's a DOA ? (When I google it I get Dead or Alive )

[stlaural]

Defective On Arrival

[Lord Orwell]

i was going for dead on arrival, but means the same.

[stlaural]

haha, yeah I almost posted that too but I thought that It applied better for hospitals

[Lord Orwell]

basically, if you are eyeing a purchase online, read the reviews. They can tell you a lot.

[NickThissen]

Are you planning on playing games with this setup at all or not? I'm just wondering why you choose the HD6850. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the HD6850 the 'budget' version of the 68xx series? I mean it's fine if you go for a budget card, but the rest of your hardware is nowhere near budget (dude, 12 GB?! ) so that seemed to stand out a bit to me. I could be wrong about the card being the budget version though... But I think the HD6870 is much better (think as in: I thought that was how their naming scheme went, not as in: I tried it and it was better).

[CVMichael]

@Lord Orwell - By "this board" I assume you are talking about the motherboard ?

Originally I wanted to get a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R, but the technician at the computer store said that the Asus P6X58D-E is much better at overclocking, and the other features are the same (or better), and I don't need floppy drive or IDE drive.

Also, I read some reviews (I did not bookmark them) about the Gigabyte that it does not detect the RAM at full speed, and I did not see any problems with RAM for the Asus board.

@NickThissen - Nice observation! Your right, I am not that much into gaming. The lower video card (but still above average) and high RAM is because I will want to play around with virtual PCs using VMWare Server. So together with the RevoDrive, all VMs should be running blindingly fast I will also have dual screen setup. Price was also a factor, if you add up all that it becomes very expensive.
By the way, assuming that this benchmark is relatively accurate: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html, It still looks like it's a pretty good video card, there are not many above it... the HD6870 is right above it, but it's $60 more expensive than the HD6850

Even now I play around with VMs with my current PC (P4 dual core 3.2GHz, 4 GB RAM but only 3.12GB in use because of Win 7 32 bit). I can only run one VM at the time.

[Lord Orwell]

i've had both asus and gigabyte boards, and managed to ruin an asus board with a bad bios flash, even though it was supposed to be able to recover from a bad flash from a usb stick. Other than that, i've had good luck with both. I had an abit board that had defective capacitors but there was an rme on it if i chose to take it.

[CVMichael]

Now that you mentioned it, Gigabyte has Dual BIOS, Asus does not. But I don't think I will do a flash anyways...

I did a flash before, and the bios went bad. I ended up buying another board, then I did a "hot swap" and fixed the bad one also. I still have the board after 5 years, and it was used only a few hours lol...

But after all this, it's still a tough choice between those boards...

[Edit]
Ohh... make it 4 years http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=430728

[Lord Orwell]

Now that you mentioned it, Gigabyte has Dual BIOS, Asus does not. But I don't think I will do a flash anyways...

I did a flash before, and the bios went bad. I ended up buying another board, then I did a "hot swap" and fixed the bad one also. I still have the board after 5 years, and it was used only a few hours lol...

But after all this, it's still a tough choice between those boards...

[Edit]
Ohh... make it 4 years http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=430728

a local shop told me they had a tool to fix a bad flash. I just needed to bring them a bios file and they could flash it for $20

[CVMichael]

Yea, I know, I should have tried more shops before... back then flashing bios was new to me, I tried it, had bad results, and panicked

This time I am buying from a much bigger store, and they have technicians. If something goes wrong you can bring the computer back and they fix it (free if it's not my fault).

[surda]

did u buy it already or not yet? i do have some suggestions if u didn't.

[CVMichael]

Hi surda,

Actually, yes, I did buy everything, except for the RevoDrive. The computer store said they will give me the 240GB one cheaper because of all the waiting they put me through. They said I will get the 240GB one tomorrow.

It cost me a little over $2000 CAD (Including TAX)

So this is my final setup: (CD-ROM plus 2*1TB hard drives as RAID1 come from my existing computer)

[baja_yu]

It looks like it eats little kids instead of using electricity ... a beast!

[CVMichael]

I've never heard that expression before, so I am not sure how to react to it. But I'm sure you meant it as a compliment, so... "Thanks !!"

after a few seconds
Owwwwwww.... I get it..... little kids because they have so much energy..... hahaha

Yea, I feel like doing the dance like Vector from Despicable Me movie; Oh Yeah!! Oh Yeah!!

[Edit]
After I get my RevoDrive, and I install Windows 7 on it, I will post some benchmarks, what do you think ?

[stlaural]

Yeah, I'd like to see 3DMark's results too, especially as you have that RevoDrive, I'm curious.

[baja_yu]

Definitely a compliment!

That's the first thing I would do. Be sure to run 3DMark: http://www.futuremark.com/ and a game with high requirements if you have any.

Can't wait (as I assume you can't either) for the results. Seems that Christmas is coming early at your place

[CVMichael]

They still did not get the RevoDrive for me, they blamed it on the delivery ppl.... Now they said Monday or Tuesday... we'll see...

In the mean time, I took an old 300GB SATA hard drive (ATTO benchmark says 60MB / sec transfer rate), and installed Win 7 Pro, just to play around.

3DMark11 score: http://3dmark.com/3dm11/211976

Is that good ? I don't even know how to read it (what to compare it too...)

The CPU is not overclocked, I think I will need some help with that. Maybe I will start another thread for that, and also check some on-line sources...

The frequency for the graphics card seems wrong, and also the RAM is supposed to be 1600MHz

I attached a screen shot of the Windows Experience Index, and also of the Hardware Monitor while Prime95 was running. Thanks to the H70 (with resistors attached to the push/pull fans), the CPU temperature is pretty low...

[CVMichael]

I managed to overclock it to 4GHz (with no resistors on the H70 push/pull fans)

Here's the 3DMarks: http://3dmark.com/3dm11/232714

The CPUID Hardware Monitor shows temperatures while Prime95 is running...

[Lord Orwell]

i wish i could tell you how my system compares to that one, but i can't get 3dmark 11 to run completely. The physx tests lock it up and it eventually crashes to desktop. I don't even know what the physx test looks like because the screen overlay never appears.

[Nightwalker83]

@ CVMichael,

I see you are uploading screen shots of your system, why not just upload a report created using software such as Sandra, etc?

[Lord Orwell]

ok i managed to get 3dmark to run, by updating my graphics driver to 10.12 which was released 3 days ago.
http://3dmark.com/3dm11/233107
I think the scores are respectable considering:
1. It is an ati card and the 3dmark score leans heavily on physics support.
2. my processor is due for an upgrade.

note: ignore the graphics card specs. ati cards underclock themselves when not being used to 400mhz. Mine actually runs at 920.

[CVMichael]

@ CVMichael,

I see you are uploading screen shots of your system, why not just upload a report created using software such as Sandra, etc?

I never heard of this app before... I downloaded & installed, but i have no idea what test to run...

I did a "Multi-Core Efficiency" test, and I got this:

Rank 68:

SiSoftware Sandra

Benchmark Results
Inter-Core Bandwidth : 25.23GB/s
Results Interpretation : Higher scores are better.
Inter-Core Latency : 37.0ns
Results Interpretation : Lower scores are better.

Windows Experience Index
Current Processor(s) : 7.5
Results Interpretation : Higher scores are better.

Performance vs. Speed
Inter-Core Bandwidth : 6.18MB/s/MHz
Results Interpretation : Higher scores are better.
Inter-Core Latency : 0.09ns/MHz
Results Interpretation : Lower scores are better.

Performance vs. Power
Processor(s) Power : 130.00W
Inter-Core Bandwidth : 198.77MB/s/W
Results Interpretation : Higher scores are better.
Inter-Core Latency : 2.85ns/W
Results Interpretation : Lower scores are better.

Capacity vs. Power
Total Cache Size : 0.00kB/W
Results Interpretation : Higher scores are better.

Detailed Benchmark Results
Processor Affinity : CPU0-CPU1 CPU2-CPU3 CPU4-CPU5 CPU6-CPU7 
1x64bytes Blocks Bandwidth : 6.83GB/s
4x64bytes Blocks Bandwidth : 7.5GB/s
4x256bytes Blocks Bandwidth : 32.51GB/s
4x1kB Blocks Bandwidth : 90.82GB/s
4x4kB Blocks Bandwidth : 131.82GB/s
16x4kB Blocks Bandwidth : 99.15GB/s
4x64kB Blocks Bandwidth : 77GB/s
16x64kB Blocks Bandwidth : 31.17GB/s
4x1MB Blocks Bandwidth : 11.68GB/s
8x1MB Blocks Bandwidth : 11.56GB/s
16x1MB Blocks Bandwidth : 11.72GB/s
8x4MB Blocks Bandwidth : 8.86GB/s

Performance Test Status
Result ID : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU         950  @ 3.07GHz (4C, 8T, 4.18GHz 25% OC, Turbo, 3.5GHz IMC, 4x 256kB L2, 8MB L3)
Platform Compliance : x64
Buffering Used : No
NUMA Support : No
SMP (Multi-Processor) Benchmark : Yes
Total Test Threads : 8
Multi-Core Test : Yes
Cores per Processor : 4
System Timer : 3.75MHz
Page Size : 4kB
Use Large Memory Pages : No

Processor
Model : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU         950  @ 3.07GHz
Speed : 4.18GHz
OverClock Factor : 25%
Peak Processing Performance (PPP) : 64GFLOPS
Adjusted Peak Performance (APP) : 19.22WG
Cores per Processor : 4 Unit(s)
Type : Quad-Core
Integrated Data Cache : 4x 32kB, Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L2 On-board Cache : 4x 256kB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L3 On-board Cache : 8MB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 16-way, Exclusive, 64 byte line size, 8 threads sharing

Memory Controller
Integrated in Processor : Yes
Speed : 3.5GHz

Performance Enhancing Tips
Notice 5008 : To change benchmarks, click Options.
Notice 5004 : Synthetic benchmark. May not tally with 'real-life' performance.
Notice 5006 : Only compare the results with ones obtained using the same version!
Tip 11 : Use the tab to switch between Detailed and Combined charts.
Warning 5010 : Cannot use Large Memory Pages due to lack of privileges.
Warning 222 : CPU speed higher than rated speed! Reduce CPU speed.
Warning 242 : Dynamic OverClocking/Turbo engaged. Performance will not be consistent!
Tip 2 : Double-click tip or press Enter while a tip is selected for more information about the tip.

If this is not what you were asking, can you let me know what test to run?


[Edit] More tests:

Memory Bandwith: Rank 215

SiSoftware Sandra

Benchmark Results
Aggregate Memory Performance : 26.9GB/s
Integer B/F iSSE2 Memory Bandwidth : 26.88GB/s
Float B/F iSSE2 Memory Bandwidth : 27GB/s (26.13GB/s - 27GB/s)
Results Interpretation : Higher scores are better.

Windows Experience Index
Current Chipset/Memory : 7.8
Results Interpretation : Higher scores are better.

Performance vs. Speed
Aggregate Memory Performance : 16.49MB/s/MHz
Integer B/F iSSE2 Memory Bandwidth : 16.48MB/s/MHz
Float B/F iSSE2 Memory Bandwidth : 16.50MB/s/MHz
Results Interpretation : Higher scores are better.

Performance vs. Power
Chipset(s)/Memory Power : 35.97W
Aggregate Memory Performance : 765.58MB/s/W
Integer B/F iSSE2 Memory Bandwidth : 765.19MB/s/W
Float B/F iSSE2 Memory Bandwidth : 765.97MB/s/W
Results Interpretation : Higher scores are better.

Capacity vs. Power
Memory Capacity : 342MB/W
Results Interpretation : Higher scores are better.

Integer B/F iSSE2 Memory Bandwidth
Assignment : 26.9GB/s
Scaling : 27GB/s
Addition : 26.7GB/s
Triad : 27GB/s
Data Item Size : 16bytes
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 67.77%

Float B/F iSSE2 Memory Bandwidth
Assignment : 27GB/s
Scaling : 27GB/s
Addition : 26.82GB/s
Triad : 26.8GB/s
Data Item Size : 16bytes
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 68.05%

Performance Test Status
Result ID : Intel X58 I/O Hub; 3x 4GB G.Skill F3-12800CL9-4GBRL DIMM DDR3 (1.67GHz, 4% OC) PC3-12800 (9-9-9-24 5-33-14-8)
Platform Compliance : x64
Total Memory : 12GB
Memory Used by Test : 6GB
NUMA Support : No
SMP (Multi-Processor) Benchmark : No
Total Test Threads : 4
Multi-Core Test : Yes
SMT (Multi-Threaded) Benchmark : Yes
Processor Affinity : P0C0T0 P0C1T0 P0C2T0 P0C3T0 
System Timer : 3.75MHz
Page Size : 4kB
Use Large Memory Pages : No

Features
SSE Technology : Yes
SSE2 Technology : Yes
SSE3 Technology : Yes
Supplemental SSE3 Technology : Yes
SSE4.1 Technology : Yes
SSE4.2 Technology : Yes
AVX - Advanced Vector eXtensions : No
FMA - Fused Multiply/Add eXtensions : No
SSE4A Technology : No
FMA4 - 4 Operands Fused Multiply/Add eXtensions : No
HTT - Hyper-Threading Technology : Yes

Chipset
Model : ASUS X58 I/O Hub
OEM Device Name : Intel X58 I/O Hub
Revision : B4
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 3GHz (6GHz)
Width : 20-bit / 20-bit
Maximum Bus Bandwidth : 23.48GB/s

Chipset
Model : Intel Core Desktop (Bloomfield) UnCore
OEM Device Name : Intel Core Desktop (Bloomfield) UnCore
Revision : A6
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 3GHz (6GHz)
Width : 20-bit / 20-bit
Maximum Bus Bandwidth : 23.48GB/s

Logical/Chipset Memory Banks
Bank 0 : 4GB DIMM DDR3 9-9-9-24 5-33-14-8 1T
Bank 3 : 4GB DIMM DDR3 10-9-9-24 5-33-14-8 1T
Bank 6 : 4GB DIMM DDR3 10-9-9-24 5-33-14-8 1T
Channels : 3
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 835MHz (1.67GHz)
Multiplier : 5x
Width : 64-bit
Integrated in Processor : Yes
Maximum Memory Bus Bandwidth : 39.14GB/s

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : G.Skill F3-12800CL9-4GBRL 4GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : G.Skill F3-12800CL9-4GBRL 4GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : G.Skill F3-12800CL9-4GBRL 4GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)

Performance Enhancing Tips
Notice 5008 : To change benchmarks, click Options.
Notice 5004 : Synthetic benchmark. May not tally with 'real-life' performance.
Notice 5006 : Only compare the results with ones obtained using the same version!
Warning 5010 : Cannot use Large Memory Pages due to lack of privileges.
Tip 2 : Double-click tip or press Enter while a tip is selected for more information about the tip.

[TheBigB]

the RAM is supposed to be 1600MHz

1600 is the data rate, which is actually expressed in MT/s.
The memory clock speed is around 800MHz.

[CVMichael]

The computer store called me today, they have my RevoDrive (the 240GB one) YEEEEYYYY....

Can't wait to finish work and go pick it up

Man... it will be had to concentrate at work now

[CVMichael]

I must say, I did go through some frustration...

While installing Win 7, after loading the RevoDrive drivers, I got this error message: "Windows is unable to install to the selected location. Error: 0x80300001"

After like an hour of trying many different things, I finally did the "last resort", I updated the BIOS from version 0303 to version 0405. After that windows installed OK...

From what I've read, windows should detect that i'm using an SSD and it should disable the defrag, but it did not... so now i'm wondering if everything went OK ?

Anyways, I attached a screen shot of the ATTO Benchmark; awesome results

Almost everything I do is instant... for example when I installed Firefox, I did not even see the progress bar

I still have to install so many things, I'll post more stuff later...

[CVMichael]

LOL, the RevoDrive did not make any difference for 3D Marks:
http://3dmark.com/3dm11/251785

When I had the 60MB/s sata drive, I got this result:
http://3dmark.com/3dm11/232714

Almost identical results... it seems that the hard drive does not make any difference on the 3D Marks points

At least my windows index is higher

[stlaural]

Do YOU see a difference with the RevoDrive? Starting and Restarting your PC should be faster I guess and Games you install on the RevoDrive should run pretty clean too as the access to the data is much faster.

I wanted to compare with your score with my >1 year old PC but I can't run 3DMark11 as my video card is not DX11 compatible. I've got nothing to complain about yet so its not a big deal anyway.

[CVMichael]

Ow, yea, there is a big difference.

If I remove the time for the BIOS screens, and typing the log-in, it probably takes like 10-15 seconds to load windows... I can give you a more precise number when I get back home...

Yesterday I spent a lot of time to install drivers, downloading apps, Anti Virus, Firewall, SQL Server, Visual Studio, VMware, etc... and I'm still not done.

I don't really play games, but for the purpose of testing speed: Are there any free games that I can download so I can post timings & frame rate?

[stlaural]

I don't know any free game that's worth the try, but anyway, I'm pretty sure that your RevoDrive would do a difference.

Enjoy your new monster ! :-D

[Lord Orwell]

Ow, yea, there is a big difference.

If I remove the time for the BIOS screens, and typing the log-in, it probably takes like 10-15 seconds to load windows... I can give you a more precise number when I get back home...

Yesterday I spent a lot of time to install drivers, downloading apps, Anti Virus, Firewall, SQL Server, Visual Studio, VMware, etc... and I'm still not done.

I don't really play games, but for the purpose of testing speed: Are there any free games that I can download so I can post timings & frame rate?

there's a few games on nvidia's webpage.
http://www.nvidia.com/content/graphi...s/download.asp
scroll down to see the whole list.