6 Drives/ Gaming / AMD on a budget

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Nakamori

Gawd
Joined
Jun 11, 2005
Messages
530
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc.
Transcoding my BR collection to stream to my 360, web design, some light 3D software development (.NET and web apps, mostly), redundant storage for my music, photographs and ripped videos. casual 1080p gaming (BF3, Skyrim, SC2, specifically. I play for leisure, so >40fps on high settings is enough for me.) but I think I have this requirement squared because my GTX460 is still getting the job done.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
After everything I would like to be under $1000. The more the better!

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
San Diego, not willing to drive to Microcenter though!

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case, PSU, CPU, Mobo, Memory, Mechanical Hard Drives, 2 SSD's (OS can be 60/90gigs), Blu-Ray Drive

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
1080p monitor, GTX 460, Corsair H100, 2.5" card reader, pci WIFI card, A 40gb Linux Drive that i'll be moving over. Keyboard and Mouse.

6) Will you be overclocking?
Eventually, to stave off the upgrade bug.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1920x1080. 27"

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
before the end of January

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
RAID5, 8 SATA ports with at least 2 SATA6gb/s. No need for dual graphics

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
64 bit Windows 8 pro :)

11) Other comments/requirements
IMPORTANT! I'd like to go AMD - the most taxing thing my CPU will be doing is transcoding blu-rays, and if sandy/ivy bridge has much better encoding performance for the ~fx8320 price point, let me know. I would like my case to house at least six drives (OS, software install, Linux, 3 storage drives for RAID5 capability). I'm fine starting with RAID1 with the option to upgrade to RAID5. Case needs to have a 3.5" bay for my card reader.

I know this is kind of complicated so many thanks for those of you who have some input. I'll be sure to answer any questions you have.
 
Can you narrow down that time frame any further? Our recommendations will be different when January comes around due to availability and pricing.

As for RAID, are you absolutely sure about RAID 5? Do you already have a form of backup in place in case that RAID 5 array fails? Is that 40GB Linux drive IDE or SATA?
 
Well, I am going to pull the trigger as soon as I figure out a build I am comfortable with, so I guess items as they are priced and available now is the way to go.

I want an upgrade path for RAID5 because of the redundancy for single hard drive failure and better storage value over RAID1, though I'm fine with starting out with RAID1. I just want to be able to add another HD and gain all of its storage capacity when I do, while maintaining redundancy. From my understanding RAID5 configurations irreversibly fail only when the second drive dies before being replaced.

the Linux drive is SATA.
 
Nakamori said:
Well, I am going to pull the trigger as soon as I figure out a build I am comfortable with, so I guess items as they are priced and available now is the way to go.
Click to expand...
All righty then. You don't mind the higher power usage and heat generation of the FX CPUs do you? And when you said, "mechanical drives" and RAID 1, you basically want two HDDs as part of this build, correct?

And no chance of you overclocking right away?
Nakamori said:
I want an upgrade path for RAID5 because of the redundancy for single hard drive failure and better storage value over RAID1, though I'm fine with starting out with RAID1. I just want to be able to add another HD and gain all of its storage capacity when I do, while maintaining redundancy. From my understanding RAID5 configurations irreversibly fail only when the second drive dies before being replaced.
Click to expand...

Actually a RAID 5 array can fail in quite a number of ways:
1) the storage controller dies
2) The storage controller corrupts the data
3) If using the onboard RAID, possible corrution of data with defective memory
4) Sudden power loss or restarts
5) During the rebuilding of the array with a new drive, the RAID array as well as the drives themselves could become randomly corrupted or defective due to the stress of rebuilding the RAID array

Thus why I asked if you have a backup. RAID by itself is not a backup.
 
Danny Bui said:
All righty then. You don't mind the higher power usage and heat generation of the FX CPUs do you? And when you said, "mechanical drives" and RAID 1, you basically want two HDDs as part of this build, correct?

And no chance of you overclocking right away?
Click to expand...

Correct.

I'm working under the assumption that a motherboard that has the features I specified in the OP paired with my H100 would be able to handle a mild OC without too much of an issue so I guess I'm not against it. I'd say that I'm not looking to put $$ in for specific OC capabilities, how about that.

Danny Bui said:
Actually a RAID 5 array can fail in quite a number of ways:
1) the storage controller dies
2) The storage controller corrupts the data
3) If using the onboard RAID, possible corrution of data with defective memory
4) Sudden power loss or restarts
5) During the rebuilding of the array with a new drive, the RAID array as well as the drives themselves could become randomly corrupted or defective due to the stress of rebuilding the RAID array

Thus why I asked if you have a backup. RAID by itself is not a backup.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the clairification. If the risks you stated are greater with a RAID5 configuration than RAID1, I'll definitely consider that. I'm just looking for a way to store my media with some form of insurance, and I thought RAID would be a neat way of doing that since I've never done it before. For example right now my photos are on an external hd copied from a bunch of filled SD cards, and I have my movie collection in physical discs. I just want a better way to manage that.

My more precious documents and code are in cloud storage or with my web host so the really vital stuff is safe :)
 
Again: You don't mind the higher power usage and heat generation of the FX CPUs do you?

Also, how much storage are you looking for?
 
power consumption doesnt bother me. I'm currently on a qx6700 and I don't have any problems with its usage.

I would like at least 1tb for exclusive storage(separate from os, software, etc.)
 
Looking at the benchmarks for encoding, a 2500K is comparable to the FX8150 granted the later puts out more heat and uses more power. If you are willing to overclock the 2500K to 4.5Ghz (easy) you will see even greater performance when compared to overclocking the FX8150.

Oddly enough HT doesn't seem to affect the encoding much, as the 2600K doesn't show significant gains over the 2500K.

*used AnandTech Bench to compare
 
K1tty does have a point: if you overclock right away, that Core i5 3570K will outperform the FX-8350 while using significantly less power and generating less heat. However, at stock, the FX-8250 does edge out the Core i5 3570K at stock in video encoding performance and such. Even if you OC either the FX-8250 or FX-8350, an OC'd 3570K would still outperform either AMD CPUs.

So OP, what do you think? AMD at stock or an overclocked Intel?
 
thanks for the responses. I'd have to go with stock AMD- like I said I don't want to invest in oc capabilities and if I go the 3560 route knowing myself I would have to worry about memory speed, the ib TIM issue, and all that.

since the pd is faster at stock it seems like the hassle with all of the above to maximize oc benefit isn't enough to offset my personal preference for AMD .
 
$180 - AMD FX-8320 CPU
$130 - Asus M5A99X EVO AM3+ AMD 990X ATX Motherboard
$61 - Corsair CMV16GX3M2A1333C9 2 x 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$220 - 2 x Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SSD
$130 - 2 x Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$25 - LITE-ON Black 4X BD-ROM Drive
$75 - Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W PSU
----
Total: $821 plus tax

Choose your own case. I recommend any of these cases:
$50 - Corsair Carbide Series 200R ATX Case
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite Black ATX Case
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite White with Black Front Trim ATX Case
$65 - Corsair Carbide Series 300R ATX Case
$80 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - Antec 1100 ATX Case
$110 - Antec P280 ATX Case
$120 - Corsair Carbide Series 500R ATX Case
$120 - Lian Li PC-7HX Black Aluminum ATX Case
$120 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-002GR Black Finish w/Green Trim Full Tower ATX Case
$120 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White ATX Case
$126 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black ATX Case
$123 - Corsair Vengeance Series C70 Gunmetal Black ATX Case
$125 - Fractal Design Define R4 Arctic White ATX Case
$135 - Fractal Design Define R4 with Window Black Pearl ATX Case
$135 - Fractal Design Define R4 with Window Arctic White ATX Case
$135 - Fractal Design Define R4 with Window Titanium Grey ATX Case
$120 - Corsair Obsidian Series 550D ATX Case
 
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Thanks for the build, especially the case selection.

One question, is 16gb really necessary for encoding? I wasn't anticipating needing any more than 8gb.
 
Depends on your method of encoding. But RAM is really cheap now so I would take advantage of the low prices.
 
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