What system would be better to build of these 2?

[shambones]

Hello,

I am trying to build a system for my Dad who will not be playing games but wants a good solid fast computer for word processing, watching videos, and storage of lots of work. I am not sure what I should do since I am not an expert builder but have a good understanding of it.

Here are the two systems with the first part being the same. They are with and i5 or i7 processor. Please tell me what you think? He does not need a new monitor and the monitor he does have is not High Def. He is not into OVerclocking or anything fancy with the MB or Video cards.

The part that would be the same for both.

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204


Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042

2 Drives to make a RAID to back up all of his work.
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016

Logitech MK520 USB RF Wireless Ergonomic Desktop
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126192

Rosewill RCR-IC001 40-in-1 USB 2.0 3.5" Internal Card Reader w/ USB Port / Extra Silver Face Plate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820223103

ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131730


Now The rest of the build for the i5.

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148448

Will buy 4 of these for a total of 16GB.
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9S-4GBRL
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231313


The Rest of the build for the i7

Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070

Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148441

Will buy 2 of these for a total of 8GB.
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9S-4GBRL
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231313

GIGABYTE GV-R567D3-1GI Radeon HD 5670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125360


So hopefully that is not too much info. The main difference besides the processors is the i5 has 16 GB of RAM, 120GB SSD card (which is faster read/write) and no video card. (I heard the Video card on the i5 is pretty good as long as you are not playing graphic intensive games).
The i7 has 8 GB RAM, 60GB SSD card, and a cheap video card.

I was reading that I may just need a H67 motherboard for the i5 which will drop the price a little but I can get this MB for $170. It seems like everyone is recommending the Z68 Boards and so I went with that one.

Right now the prices after MIR's and discounts for the i5 that has more RAM and bigger SSD is $999.87.
Right now the prices after MIR's and discounts for the i7 that has less RAM and smaller/slower SSD is $995.88.


Anyway, I would appreciate any and all or your suggestions and comments on what to do with these two builds. I would like to get started on these builds very soon.

 

[Sky03]

I'm not an expert but those builds look overkill for your intended purpose.

 

[shambones]

You are probably correct. The main thing I want for him is the RAID to back up all that he does. He cant lose any data and I thought a SSD card to make things fast would be really nice. I havent researched cheaper CPU's but I can get the i5 for $180 plus tax so I dont think an extra $50 or so to have a faster computer is a big deal. I may be wrong.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[danraies]

The i5-2500K is the processor you should use. It might be a little bit of overkill for your build but it's definitely worth the price and it will be very fast. The clock speeds and the cache upgrades in the i7-2600K are very small and the biggest difference is Hyperthreading which is only useful on highly threaded apps like FEA or audio/video encoding so it's really no difference for the extra $100.

For your use you probably don't need a video card - the onboard video should be fine. Also asus makes a board that is cheaper and much more appropriate for your purposes - the ASUS P8Z68-V LE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131773
You don't need the extra PCIe 2.0 x16 slots in the PRO and the only other difference is two ata ports and more usb ports. The sata ports won't be used in this type of build and the LE has six usb which should be plenty. you can always buy cheap adapters or hubs if you need more.

RAID is a good idea but some people have been having trouble with Western Digital drives in RAID. The Seagate Barracuda and Samsung Spinpoint F3 are cheaper and more reliable in raid
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

RAID1 gets pretty slow so an SSD is a good idea but you can probably get by with a 60GB or 64GB to save some money. I have a 60GB SSD with Windows 7, several office and programming applications, and a few games and I've only used about half of the drive. One thing, though, as soon as you install Windows 7 it will take up 5GB plus twice the size of your RAM (so ~37GB with 16GB RAM) but that will go down to just 5GB when you disable pagefile and hibernation.

You will NEVER use 16GB of RAM for those applications. RAM is cheap these days so it's not a huge waste of money but 8GB will be more than enough. Also if you're using a 32-bit OS you can't use over 4GB RAM anyway.

If you're not using a video card 550W is probably overkill. Something around 400W will be plenty.

 

[RetiredChief]

- The I7 only makes since if doing a lot of video encoding.
- The 16 gigs of ram is overkill, again unless he is using a video encoding program that will benifit from extra ram, doughtfull.
- My take I "safty of data. I much prefer an external drive to back up system as opposed to Raid 1. Raid 1 ONLY protects against a single drive failure. Does not protect against (a) voltage spike from PSU wipping out both HDDs, (b) a MB failure that either requires a replacement of MB (And Problem between raid Volume and You MB chipset) or the MB corrups the boot partition.

My recommendation would be I5-2500 with the H67 MB, or (My preference) I5-2500k with Z68 MB. 8 gigs of Ram (2 x 4 which would allow upgrade to 16 if needed), 90->128 gig SSD, and a mid-level end video card (My choice would be the 6770) NOTE, the HD3000 IGP of the I5-2500k may suit his needs.

 

[danraies]

My take I "safty of data. I much prefer an external drive to back up system as opposed to Raid 1. Raid 1 ONLY protects against a single drive failure. Does not protect against (a) voltage spike from PSU wipping out bouth HDDs, (b) a MB failure that either requires a replacement of MB (And Problem between raid Volume and You MB chipset) or the MB corrups the boot partition.

External backup is definitely better except that most people forget to do it regularly and 3rd party backup software is often unreliable or difficult. Also people often leave their external hard drives plugged in all the time which makes it vulnerable to a lot of the same things. External backup is better when it's done regularly and reliably but RAID1 is better when you don't want to ever have to think about it and single drive failure is probably the biggest hard drive worry of a well-running system - I know it's my biggest worry.

...and a lmid-level end video card (My choice would be the 6770) NOTE, the HD3000 IGP of the I5-2500k may suit his needs.

I would say anything more than a 5670 is overkill in this type of non-gaming situation and I would still go with the integrated graphics. If it turns out not to be enough, adding on a card later is simple.

 

[RetiredChief]

^ You are correct on probable overkill w/6770. But not sure just what his needs are present and future. Would rather spend the extra rather than upgrade downstream.

 

[shambones]

Thanks for all the info guys. I like what you said and it is always good to get some feedback.

danraies - As far as the mother board goes, I think I will just stick with the one I have. Not because I dont like what you picked out but because Microcenter is selling this MOBO for $170 right now and the $40 difference I am not sure about. Anyway, if they sold the MOBO you talked about I would definately get it as it would be $100. They are offering $40 off on all MOBO with a second Gen processor purchase.

I think I will take your guys advice and buy only 8GB of RAM. Can always add more at a later time.

I was wondering if you guys can give me an opinion on the following SSD drives. I was kind of set on the Crucial but now I see these others seem to be really good and pretty good reviews. Specifically the OCZ and the the Plextor. Also, what are the real differences between the 2 Crucials and the the 2 OCZ's.

Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442

Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148448

OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706

OCZ Solid 3 SLD3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227729

Plextor PX-M2 Series PX-128M2S 2.5" 128GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820249010

My Dad does have an external back-up but he always forgets to do it so I thought an automatic back-up with RAID would be good.

 

[danraies]

OCZ basically has three lines of SSD: Agility, Vertex, and Solid. The difference between Agility and Vertex is the type of nand ram that they use. Benchmarks have mixed results but it seems that one is a tiny bit better in a couple areas and the other is a tiny bit better in a couple other areas so essentially they're the same thing. The difference between the Solid and the Vertex is the sandforce controller that they use. The newer controller (on the Vertex) supports twice as many flash chips meaning the Vertex has a 240GB model where the Solid doesn't but it doesn't make a difference in 120GB models. (I think the Agility uses the older controller, but I don't remember.) Bottom line is that for 120GB models the benchmarks might be slightly different but the drives are basically the same so get whatever is cheapest. I suspect that the difference between the Crucial drives is similarly trivial but I have no evidence to that.

In terms of which brand you should buy, it's a lot of conjecture at this point, but you won't be disappointed with the Crucial drives - they have a good reputation. OCZ drives take a lot of heat but I own an Agility and it's performed well so far. If you're happy with your choice of Crucial drive, don't get intimidated by the competition - Crucial drives are top of the line.

 

[RetiredChief]

Here is a good review
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4421/the-2011-midrange-ssd-roundup/6

-You will notice that in PC vantage test, Which come closer to real life performance, Not a Noticable difference. Pecentages where diff is <10 you will not notice.

-Don't not pay much attention to high Sea read/writes, Most quoted, least important when it comes to a boot/program drive. As a "work" disk and working with large files then Seq's become important.

-Look at rewiews on newegg. Look at a given drive (with 40 or more reviews) for example the Agility III has the worst track record for customer satisfaction. Bought two One worked, one did not (Not DOA, just not compatable with NEW SB laptop).
My current recommendations are with the Marvel based controler SSD III, Intel, M4, Plextor.

 

[Guest]

Agreed with the above, I would go for the first one (although it has no video card) he doesn't need one. And That SSD Is good for programs and very fast start up. And i would REALLY recommend the CM 690 ii CASE since it looks veeeery nice. But let him choose the Case since it'll be next to him for a while hehe. And he's older so he might not like the gaming style cases (like my dad hates the gaming ones lol)

 

[shambones]

Thanks for all the info. I guess I will still go with the Crucial and see how it goes. It got really good reviews and the main thing my Dad wants is to have it work, period. No DOA, etc. I will let you know if I have any problems.

Thanks again.

 

[shambones]

Best answer selected by shambones.