High-End personal Workstation Guidance

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I promise I will do the best I can, however I don't think I'll have any time cuz as soon as I get it working I gotta ship it off to her as her current computer (high-end laptop) has crashed to the point of not being able to start in safe-mode (stupid virus). She got a SATA to USB gizmo from Best Buy and retrieved her files and is now working on school equipment, so she needs it ASAP. I'm sure you can relate.

What i WILL do though, and I'm sure it'll be a lot more valuable, I'll relay what she tells me about how it works. Then you'll have real-world perfomance info. Hopefully, the all-night rendering times will be a thing of the past, and no more need of the renering farm.

But I promise I'll let you know. Probably be about two weeks from now. maybe a little less. I don't know where exactly she is on her current project, it may not be that big yet. I know by the end of her project last year, it was so big she needed the rendering farm to do it. She's an arch. major also, so should be pretty relevant to you, I would think.

I only wish it wasn't so expensive - or - I had done it sooner. I wanted to build her a super-duper desktop a year or more ago, but she didn't want it. Had to be a laptop she insisted. Now she's so happy about getting this it has changed her whole attitude, from I'm-sick-of-this-I-don't-want-to-do-this-anymore-I just-want-to-quit, to hey, life is great. I don't know, sometimes with kids you just gotta do what you know is right and to heck with what they think.

 


Get some rest! Thanks for your research, help, and advice. I'm REALLY glad I stumbled in here.

I'll look at that case carefully when it gets here and if it seems smallish I'll order up the bigger one. Personally, I prefer the full tower cases, but am affraid she'd be a little freaked out by it. We'll see... Thanks again.
 
Yeah ... I was getting ready to replace my daughter's (hs senior) core2duo notebook with an Athlon-II 4X when my ex got an apple "all-in-one" and, now my daughter wants one ... jeesh ... she's a graphic arts major and I'll get her wheat she wants ...
... She may change her tune once she gets into heavy toolsets.

... The last time I took her clothes shopping, she asked me to stay in the car because, as she put it ... "I'd hate to have to put something I really like back on the rack, just because YOU liked it too." ... The NOYVE! ... She's perfect. I'd be worried if she dint walk her own path.

 


Everything is local (I'm in California) except the video card which is in TN. and the second monitor, which is in NJ. Everything will be shipped UPS 3-day on Monday. I should get the bulk of it on Tuesday and hopefully the rest on Wed, or maybe Thurs. I can't tell because UPS tracking takes longer than I have patience for on dial-up. Should I load up any benchmarks, or just not worry about it?
 
The whole thermal paste thing may have evolved, somewhat, from your last build ...
... There are several videos on YouTube which purport to demonstrate the correct method ...

"Blob Theory"
"Grain of Rice" Theory
"Five Tiny Dots" Theory
"X" Theory
"Spread/PB&J theory"
... My personal technique is the "Squarish Blob"

The best videos I found show ALL these techniques USING A GLASS PLATE,
*INSTEAD* of the cooler, so you can see how each of these methods actuall spread under glass ... The "Central Blob" seemed to work best, in that series, but I would spread that blob out (with a clean single-edged rasor), so there is a bit more coverages toward the corners ... (not really critical, tho) .

The main thing, as you certainly must know, is not to use too much.

Any-who ... Might want to brush up ... oh, yeah, YT no workie on Dial-Up ... drats.


WENT AND DUG OUT MY FAVORITE >>> MAYBE YOU CAN WATCH AT WORK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyXLu1Ms-q4




= Al =
 


You know, whatever else you may think of Algore, you gotta love him for inventing the internet! And you, you're starting to endear yourself to me also. You're absolutely right. I never worried about it much before. I always used the PB&J method. Now I see that's absolutely wrong. I think that could really explain a lot about why some over-clocks work so much better than others. It's not just getting lucky with a good cpu. Could be also getting lucky with the way the compound happened to spread out.

That video is great. However, the guy could have been A LOT more methodical. In these days of cheap, acurate digital scales, it would have been pretty easy to weigh the exact amount needed. He seemed to be fine with the silicone, but a little too skimpy with the Artic Silver.

I agree, the Central "Blob" seems to work best. But before I try it, I gotta go find a good CO2 fire extinguisher, JUST IN CASE!

(Puff will never get that, in a million years!)


 


RE: Your first point (quoted above) ...

Well ... If you are REALLY serious ... THEN ...

These are RANDOMLY CHOSEN vids ... searched "Lapping CPU & Heat Sink".
This is a bit TOO ANAL and I do not recommend (have never tried it).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32Wv5V-Lkhs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noO2tB7JqDk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVXuZTuoEuE

. . . A N D . . .

Regarding your 2nd Remark (Quoted Above) ...

Yeah ... CO2 for Class "B" ... "absolute" ... Or Purple "K" Powder (MESSY, tho) ... BTW ... THIS GUY DEFINITELY GETS IT !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96dWOEa4Djs

 
I agree, the Central "Blob" seems to work best. But before I try it, I gotta go find a good CO2 fire extinguisher, JUST IN CASE!

(Puff will never get that, in a million years!)[/quotemsg]


what's up here, you dont' think i caught a cpu on fire before? I've made some builds... nothing hi tech but they worked in the end. after the fire was passified.

I'm sort of bummin' now. Sandy 'whatever' is coming out soon, which is awesome cus the i7 i plan on going with, if not the xeon (i still haven't decided) will probably drop some bingos, however I sort of want to wait for bulldozer to come out, if that competes with the sandman then i'm sure everything intel will have to drop to compete with AMDs value. That means i would have to sit and research for a whole 6-9 months now. I don't buy computers but once every 5-7 years and this next built should transfer some important things over, like the video card and the case and whatever else. Should i wait? What's yalls take on the cpu thing going down right now? would you wait?
 



ha ha ha. Neither of you got it. Google "The Blob".

I'm not older than you, am I Alvin?
 


You know my opinion, right? Cuz I didn't.

If you need it now, get it now. If you don't need it now, then wait.

And that Blob thing, it's an _old_ movie. Steve McQueen. He was a really cool guy who drove around in this green Mustang in another really old movie. Ok, never mind...
 
No ... I do remember ... Did they freeze THE BLOB with CO2 ??? ... I thought they got a truckload of dynamite, from the quarry, and put a stick on the gas-peddel, and bailed ...
... And, then, there was something about Gregory Peck, and a clock, and a brick-wall ... I think it was called "It Takes a Village" ...

I'm jus' blowin' smoke ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rRJLxuJNtY

OHHH! ... YEAH ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GEJgR-bX0w

Too bad Nitrous-Oxide doesn't kill monsters !!



 
SHOULD YOU WAIT ??

Well ... If you have a Quadro FX in there ... what is the Sandy-Bridge going to add to that ???

In a power note-book ... Sandy will make a big diff ... fo' sho' ...

... They are touted to have dedicated codec transcode accelerators, built into hw, but that is more about multimedia format renders (.mp3 and AVCHD, et. al. ) ...

But that PROVES my reasonning about NOT going for a DUAL SOCKET PIG, at this juncture. I believe your DDR3 RAM investment and the Quadro, case, PSU, Drives, Cooler, etc. , Will ALL remain viable thru your next upgrd cycle ... regardless ...
... As far as the (currently spec'd) mobo and i950 CPU ?? ... Well ... Maybe in two years, if you and your work should really lean on it THAT hard ... likelyhood is somewhat dubious.

So ... sure ... READ everything you can ... on SANDY BRIDGE .... Lemme know because I just purch'd an Athlon-II X4 and I won't be shopping for another CPU 'till 18 months, from now, if Planet Earth and "Yours Truly" are both still here.

Since you WON'T be getting a DUAL Socket money hole ... You can afford a modest X58 system ... Which is easily 4x more powerful than anything your kollej Dept. had, just a few years ago. Think about it ... you can't lose, unless you invest too much, ATM.
.... An X58 mobo and an i7-950 is not a huge investment. ALL OTHER stuff can migrate forward, beyond the current core-compute platform ... which is $500 ... which, even when it finally starts to drag ... will still be GREAT for anything besides designing space-ships.
 
So ... To TOTALLY SATISFY THE ORIGINAL POST (PUFF) ... TO SUMMARIZE THIS THREAD, IN FULL ... AND TO REPEAT MY FIRST RESPONSE ...

Why ask ALVIN when you can get the good dope, straight from the horse's mouth ? ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_PZPpWTRTU

Certified

http://download.autodesk.com/us/qu [...] cs_win.pdf


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***********************

Search Google WEB AND SHOPPING on the term "CS5 Turnkey"

Look at MANY configs and look at the balance of the WHOLE system vs. price.
If the price competes with an X58 system, you MUST be getting shorted, somewhere.

There certainly are PLENTY of Xeon(x2) turnkey CS5 systems out there ...
You really are going to need to converse with other students, to see what is "enough power" and what is not. Again ... me? ... If 8 fast threads and 12GB RAM ain't enough for grad-school ... switch majors!.

... I suppose my philosphy differs, in that, I am seeing this investment as VERY TEMPORARY ... and expect you will have MUCH better (per dollar) core-compute options, *within* the next few years ...

 



Good point. It's not like buying a Ferrari. It's not going to get more valuable with time.
 
And ...

There are "product-cycles" (every 18 months, or so) ... And, there are "Major Platform Cycles".

We have been living with the AM3 (an evolution of AM2/AM2+) and sockets 1156/1366, for some years, now. USB2 and SATA-II are starting to make way for USB3/SATA3/Light-Peak ... SSD drives have (rather painfully) muddled thru their first couple of glitchy/buggy product "waves" and mechanical HDDs are looking pretty flakey, now, in comparison.

It is gonna take most of a whole year before most-all of the new kit becomes available, before those first bugs get worked out, ... before prices are fair and systems are fully stable ... and before the SW APPS can even utilize (adress/use/leverage) all those new language instructions and extended command sets. ... Before CS5 catches up to the hardware ... Before most games even can SEE a 3rd core!

But the older stuff is starting to get cheap ... it has been hammered on ... mobos ore on rev3 and bios are well evolved, thru "organic response".

Apps are just starting to leverage 64 bit procs, fer cryin' out loud !

So ... shop for (and get) the best, most cost efficient, popular, tried-n-true stuff, from the most recent wave ... In two years time? ... Get an 8 Core Sandy Bridge and a 500GB Fractal-RAIDED SSD (made that up).

.... PS ... in my fantasy vision ... SSDs are internally raided in a branching tree structure ... like a top-down view of an architectural "TREE SYMBOL" (loos like a circle with branches growing from center) ... never mind.

 
Most of the stuff has arrived. Everything but the GPU, memory, and the (not really needed second monitor).

OK, first, you were right. The case IS too small. Or, I could say the CPU cooler is too big, but I won't cuz somethings are just better bigger.

But second, I am AMAZED at the quality of some of this stuff! That power supply, Alvin, they could have saved $40 just in packaging! Literally, I'm not kidding. The MB is beautiful. The CPU cooler is amazing.!

But the case is just too darn small. Or not tall enough, I should say. So, I don't know what to do now.... Well, I know what to do, I just don't want to do it. But I will, so it's OK I guess....
 
Are you SURE it wont all fit in the 922? ... I'd-uh-thunk you could squeeze it in ...

... Better look at the reviews on THAT cooler and see what owners are saying about "FIT", in their various cases and mobos.

Cooler looks like a GE Jet Turbine, eh? HUGE !



 
One reviewer's hw setup ... quoted from newegg.


Other Thoughts: Rig Setup
HAF 932 Case
i7 930 stock speed and untouched
Gigabyte X58A-UD3R with default bios setting other than XMP Enabled
Corsair XMS3 DDR3 3x2gig 8-8-8-8-24 1066MHz
PowerColer 5870 1gig
Raidmax 630 PSU

 
Pros: Six massive heatpipes and a very smooth base deliver heat to two quiet fans. Sums this beast up. It's big, it's bad, it wants to cool and it does is great. 930 @ 3.8GHz and 1.35v gets 69-70c on LinX. Brilliant stuff for air cooling. The NH-D14 is the epitome of air cooling, and it can actually be improved if you replace the stock fans. You should read more on that/fan choices elsewhere.

Cons: -It's a gigantic pain to install. I recommend applying it and hold the heatsink down level with one hand while you turn each screw one turn at a time with the other.

-It's huge. Watch your NB heatsinks, VRM's and RAM heatsinks carefully as you put this monolith in your case

-Size seems useless, 2x smaller coolers get within 5-6c of it on load. I guess quantity and quality over quality and compatibility?

Other Thoughts: Comes with NT-H1 paste, not applied, but in the tube. Comes with an alen phillips screw driver combo, amd and intel install kills, the works. I recommend using MX-2 or OCZ Freeze or TX-2 over the NT-H1 stuff since it dries like crazy, but thats just my experience!


 


Sure, it will definitely fit. I had it in there. But it's not right, if you know what I mean. I hate being a perfectionist, but for that much money, it needs to be right.

The CPU cooler is nothing short of amazing, as is the PS. They are really, really impressive. And of a rarely seen anymore quality. I'm so glad I listened to you. (I only wish I had listened about the case.) And yes, that cooler is HUGE. Astoundingly huge. If you like overkill, well, let's say that's how Wikipedia should define the word. Just show a picture of the thing. It's big. Very big.

The MB is truly beautiful. They spent WAY too much time making it pretty. How much did that cost?

The GPU is not supposed to be here until Thursday.