A new build

[Rikash89]

Hey,

I'm an experienced system builder and wanted a 2nd (or many) pairs of eyes to see if I missed anything. My budget probably maxes out around $1000 (excluding SSD and CPU). I've got an Antec Nine Hundred from my last build that I'm planning on reusing as well as optical drives. Here's what I was thinking:


ASRock Z68 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 ATX Intel Motherboard

HIS Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 Video Card in Crossfire

CORSAIR Professional Series Gold 750W ATX12V Power Supply

Intel i7 2600k CPU
I'm aware there's little to recommend it above the i5. On the other hand, I'm getting a fantastic deal on it and an Intel 510 series SSD together.

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) RAM

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
As mentioned above I'm getting a great deal on this.

I appreciate any C&C you may have. Aside from general comments, the only questions I have pertain to the SSD. The Z68 chipset supports caching, but is there any additional steps I need to be taking during OS installation? How about further steps once I've got the system built and OS running smoothly? Obviously I'll want to use the HDD for storage of mass data; but is there anything further I should be doing?

Ok, I lied, a few more questions. I don't anticipate problems but has anyone built a system with a pair of video cards in crossfire inside an Antec Nine Hundred (the original)? Was heat a problem? How is the stock Intel fan?

Thanks for your assistance.

[jdeb]

I am not a fan of AS Rock boards at all. I would stick with Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and Biostar in that order.

I would beef that Power supply up if your going to be running 2 6850's in crossfire. I know it is a gold series but you are asking for trouble... in my opinion.

CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-1000HX
Newegg.com - CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-1000HX 1000W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

[Khalil]

I would beef that Power supply up if your going to be running 2 6850's in crossfire.

Agreed, I recomend this Power Supply for what you want to do.
AsRock is Asus's refuse, for this kind of money I would make sure and get an Asus

[glc]

The AX750 is certified by AMD for two 6870's, so it will handle a pair of 6850's with no problem.

Do you want to use the SSD in caching, or as a standalone OS/apps drive? There's no point in using a 120gb SATA III SSD as a cache, it can only use 64gb of it for that. When you use caching, it works sort of like RAID, the SSD and hard drive combo appears as a single drive.

[Khalil]

Originally Posted by glc The AX750 is certified by AMD for two 6870's, so it will handle a pair of 6850's with no problem. Do you want to use the SSD in caching, or as a standalone OS/apps drive? There's no point in using a 120gb SATA III SSD as a cache, it can only use 64gb of it for that. When you use caching, it works sort of like RAID, the SSD and hard drive combo appears as a single drive.

It is certified George but I have used them before and they over heat like crazy. The 900W is a better bet for those cards!

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by Khalil It is certified George but I have used them before and they over heat like crazy. The 900W is a better bet for those cards!

I like the price but I have never used one of those, add it to my list. Don't get a huge call for it but good to know.

[Rikash89]

Originally Posted by glc Do you want to use the SSD in caching, or as a standalone OS/apps drive? There's no point in using a 120gb SATA III SSD as a cache, it can only use 64gb of it for that. When you use caching, it works sort of like RAID, the SSD and hard drive combo appears as a single drive.

Originally Posted by Anandtech With the Z68 SATA controllers set to RAID (SRT won't work in AHCI or IDE modes) just install Windows 7 on your hard drive like you normally would. With Intel's RST 10.5 drivers and a spare SSD installed (from any manufacturer) you can choose to use up to 64GB of the SSD as a cache for all accesses to the hard drive. Any space above 64GB is left untouched for you to use as a separate drive letter.

So am I misunderstanding this article? My understanding was that I should be able to use a portion of the drive (120 GB - XX GB up to 64GB cache) for caching and put major apps and my OS on the rest. It seems like the best of both worlds. Is there a disadvantage/problem to this that I'm not seeing?

What I'm trying to achieve is mostly quicker load times on my main apps and at boot. I figured that by explicitly including the things I want to launch faster in addition to what the Intel software picks up I'd end up with better overall performance.

Originally Posted by jdeb Agreed, I recomend this Power Supply for what you want to do. AsRock is Asus's refuse, for this kind of money I would make sure and get an Asus

I'm on board with you on the Asus vs AsRock change. I misread part of an online review and thought the Asus board would be underpowered in Crossfire when this isn't the case. Woops

I'm looking at this motherboard instead:
ASUS P8Z68-V PRO Intel Motherboard

As for the power supply, I'm not necessarily averse to Antec but I haven't personally used them and that makes me a bit leery. How does their quality compare to similar Corsair products?

Anyone have any comments about the stock Intel fan? When I started overclocking after my warranty expired (one of their Wolfdale chips), the stock fan didn't cut it. Have they improved the quality of their fans since then?

Thanks for your responses thus far.

[jdeb]

That board is great.

If Khalil recommended it, I would do it without thinking twice because he has built thousands of PC's. I have used a lot of Antecs and they are great but I have not installed that particular one. I primarily use Seasonic and occasionally Corsair because I get good buys on them and I stock up. I use Antec for all the low power and budget systems.

You can use a smaller SSD for caching with the larger drives. You can go with the smaller SSD (cheaper) and cache up to 64gb and use the large drive with similar performance of an SSD drive. I have not read the article very close but the best performance scenario is a large SSD for OS and Apps and a spin drive for data.

[glc]

The Antec HCG power supplies are getting good reviews, it appears that they are being built by Delta, which is a high quality OEM.

[Khalil]

Yea I used one of those 900s for a client to drive 2 580s in SLI against my advice, he insisted on the Foxconn Katana Inferno motherboard, again against my advice but that is what he wanted