Main Rig Dead, Advice on new one ?

V3 said:
Heap of thanks guys. I was busy putting together backup rigs and transferring stuff to them, even if I order stuff in, it will takes a week or so for it to arrive and several days for me to put it together barring DOA parts. It's a pain with backup rigs as they are slower and I need two to split the workload.

With regard to hdds, I have eight in my main rig, one for OS and programs, another one for Internet, music and swap files, two for video editing and encoding and four for Photoshop swap space.

Ideally I want 4-6 more hard drives into the rig, which was why I was sort of looking forward to SNB-E and X79 platform, with the built in 14 SATA ports. It's freaking around the corner too. Anyone here know the actual ETA for SNB-E ?

As for SSD, how good is it with multiple read and write VS multiple hard disk read and write ?

Can I just use one SSD compare to multiple hdds I am using currently ? Also how quickly will I wear out the SSD ? I mean typical SSD is 128 GB, My Photoshop temp file is around 20+ GB on just one of the hdd. I am roughing that I typically write about 100 GB about 16 times a day.

Also the rig is 24/7 so I don't reboot Windows or even quit out of Photoshop or my other programs, encoding or other image processing can run overnight, will SSD still the way to go ? I am hoping the 24 GB of RAM will help me remove SATA from the equation altogether and Windows 7 will be smart enough to have everything I need in that memory. Am I wrong ?
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SSD is the way to go it. An Intel 510 series will smash even a large array of HDDs in terms of general performance. It's also uber reliable and will last years of heavy (ab)use.

You'll still want the HDDs for mass storage and backup obviously, but use an SSD for the system drive and whatever apps you frequently use.

I can't find a legitimate timetable for Sandy Bridge E, but there are P67/Z68 mobos out there that have boatloads of SATA ports if you need them.
 
socket 2011 motherboards for consumers are weird : only four DIMM slots! so to get more DIMMs you will have to wait for some "workstation" or "server" variant, don't know what they are planning.
there will be X79 1366 motherboards by the way.

instead of that "SNB-E for suckers" you can have a look at socket C32 too, if it's available to you. it takes a pair of cheap opteron (phenom II X4 and X6 equivalents) and an assload of memory (can build a $2000+ PC with 64GB of registered ddr 1066 memory.)

but a 2600K is easier.
you can look for controllers with 8 SATA ports, or two mini-SAS ports, they are mildly cheap (cheaper than before, which is not saying much). they can be very affordable on ebay and the like.
 
Blazkowicz said:
socket 2011 motherboards for consumers are weird : only four DIMM slots! so to get more DIMMs you will have to wait for some "workstation" or "server" variant, don't know what they are planning.
there will be X79 1366 motherboards by the way.
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Well with the quad channel memory config it makes sense.
 
almighty said:
980X - Over priced and runs to hot and gets its ass handed to it by a Sandy Bridge powered CPU.

Get a 2600K and a P68 motherboard that has an NF200 chip, Water cool it upto 4.8+Ghz and it'll smash a 980X at everything.

Get 1600Mhz memory, 1333Mhz is just too slow and won't provide a lot of bandwidth.
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It won't smash it in video editing and encoding... which is what he's doing. Plus, SB or Westmere don't have the ability to use 1600 MHZ RAM anyway unless he's overclocking, and OCing a SB wouldn't get him the encoding performance he needs. http://techreport.com/articles.x/20377

Plus, why would he need an NF200 chip anyway? This isn't a gaming system, he doesn't need SLI or billions of lanes. The lanes that a 980X motherboard supports will be enough for any audio card and SATA cards he needs.

Turn off the gaming(and billions of PCI-E lanes) mindset here. That isn't what he's trying to do.
 
hoho said:
Any decent statistics on that? Seems kind of odd stating that they are that reliable considering the newer ssd's were launched just a few months ago
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That's disingenuous. Intel has a great track record with SSDs. There are many HDDs from respected manufacturers that have only been out a few months. Would you call their reliability into question as well?
 
I.S.T. said:
It won't smash it in video editing and encoding... which is what he's doing. Plus, SB or Westmere don't have the ability to use 1600 MHZ RAM anyway unless he's overclocking, and OCing a SB wouldn't get him the encoding performance he needs. http://techreport.com/articles.x/20377

Plus, why would he need an NF200 chip anyway? This isn't a gaming system, he doesn't need SLI or billions of lanes. The lanes that a 980X motherboard supports will be enough for any audio card and SATA cards he needs.

Turn off the gaming(and billions of PCI-E lanes) mindset here. That isn't what he's trying to do.
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1. See this... 980X is a waste of space.

2. When AVX support picks up then the 2600K will make the 980X look even more stupid and over rpiced.

3. AMD/Nvidia now offer full GPU accell for certain applications, so multiple GPU's would have some use outside of gaming.
 
The 980 may be faster, but it's definitely not $250 extra faster.
Neither is the 24GB of RAM (seriously, 12 is way more than enough), the huge casing, and the Pro OS. I do mograph work at 2K res and RAM's never a problem. Just handle rendering the right way (PNG frames) and you'll never bump into any wall.

I challenge you to go small (MicroATX or even ITX if you go Sandy Bridge) and cheap (cheap RAM, cheap mobo etc). Spend the rest on a nice couch ;)

edit: Just read about the 5 drives. If those are data drives, I'd still go for Small and get the drives in a RAID enclosure passed through USB3/FW800.
 
but there are cards, too.
BTW the motherboard for 980X does have billions lanes, it just doesn't need an additional chip for that.

what's a Pro OS? a twenty-year-old Unix, or windows NT 4.0?
what microsoft calls "home premium" is artificially limited to 16GB, which is a new "ought to be enough for everybody", but a real one this time.

external storage isn't cheap, so you'd be putting cost there, instead.
why not build your own iscsi SAN. then you end up with two PC, one with a compact full ATX case and a big tower with a micro ATX board in it.

an Asrock Z68 extreme 4 would be pretty good, lots of slots including three PCIe 16x at 16x, 8x and 4x. good to plug the controller card in. you get 12 SATA or 16 SATA depending on the card.

also have a look at the fractal design XL, this one takes a crazy amount of drives :LOL:.
 
Thanks for the input guys. Alright I think I am gonna go with the i7 2600 (I don't think I need the k-version since I'm not going to OC) for now and upgrade to SNB-E when that thing is finally out.

I've look at Fractal Design XL, that thing looks neat and bigger. I'm going to go with it instead of the Define R3.

As for SSD, the Intel 510 Series is like $600 for 250 GB. That's really expensive. So can it can sustain the read and write at once or does performance drop when you read and write on the same drive ? Any good review ? I am still skeptical that I need it, because image and video processing is still mostly CPU bound.

Also the mobo which chipset should I choose ? Z68 or P67 ? What's the difference ?

I am going to drop the GT520 and use the build in GPU on the i7 2600 instead. I think it should be sufficient. Going to place the order early next week.
 
P67 has no video output.
an h67 is fine as there will be no o/c, much of the need for a high end mobo evaporate too. but only six sata so you'd have to get a cheap PCIe 1x sata controller or two. (unbranded lowest end is probably fine as it's what you get on a high end mobo)
 
V3 said:
Thanks for the input guys. Alright I think I am gonna go with the i7 2600 (I don't think I need the k-version since I'm not going to OC) for now and upgrade to SNB-E when that thing is finally out.

I've look at Fractal Design XL, that thing looks neat and bigger. I'm going to go with it instead of the Define R3.

As for SSD, the Intel 510 Series is like $600 for 250 GB. That's really expensive. So can it can sustain the read and write at once or does performance drop when you read and write on the same drive ? Any good review ? I am still skeptical that I need it, because image and video processing is still mostly CPU bound.

Also the mobo which chipset should I choose ? Z68 or P67 ? What's the difference ?

I am going to drop the GT520 and use the build in GPU on the i7 2600 instead. I think it should be sufficient. Going to place the order early next week.
Click to expand...

If you want to use the IGP then P67 is not an option.

SSD is way faster than HDD when doing lots of stuff (reads/writes) at once. I don't think you'll need 250GB for your OS and apps, and the 120GB drive is a lot cheaper.
 
Can I just use one SSD compare to multiple hdds I am using currently ? Also how quickly will I wear out the SSD ? I mean typical SSD is 128 GB, My Photoshop temp file is around 20+ GB on just one of the hdd. I am roughing that I typically write about 100 GB about 16 times a day.
Click to expand...

Wow you will be writing approx 1.6TB a day?
I don't know enough about SSD write limits but that sure is a heck of a lot of data!
 
homerdog said:
SSD is way faster than HDD when doing lots of stuff (reads/writes) at once.
Click to expand...

yes, that's the thing measured with IOPS or KIOPS.
SSD gets insane rates ; databases are run on a big raid 10 of 15000 rpm HDDs, using only a portion of their platters. that still nets them inferior IOPS by one order of magnitude or many more.

so funnily, an ultra-expensive ssd saves a huge lot of money in some applications.
 
If you want to minimize write amplification and hence SSD wear, get the Sandforce based (OCZ Vertex 3, Corsair Force GT, HyperX) drives instead. The 510/320 will do great on consumer apps, but here I guess you'd really want every bit of longevity provided.
 
Not to knock the Sandforce drives, but I'd be seriously surprised if a Vertex 3 outlasts an Intel 510. Guess we won't really know for a few years but reliability seems to be Intel's #1 priority, and they have unlimited money to make it so. (yes I'm aware of the recent 320 series issues, but that seems to be an exception to their otherwise exceptional record with reliability)
 
homerdog said:
That's disingenuous. Intel has a great track record with SSDs
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Past performance doesn't always predict the future. With SSD's it's probably even worse as every time you go down to next production node you'll be getting a whole lot of new problems that have to be found and solved
homerdog said:
There are many HDDs from respected manufacturers that have only been out a few months. Would you call their reliability into question as well?
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Yes, I never buy HDDs that haven't been on market for at least a year so that I can get some idea of their reliability
 
That's one way to do it :).

I'd rather take my chances with a newer drive and keep my important stuff backed up than buy something obsolete. But I don't have that much important data any more, except my Mass Effect and Witcher save files :p
 
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