I seek the Geek opinon on a Desktop build.

I've been emailing back and forth with several of my friends trying to spec out a new desktop to build. I'm a mac guy (I have an EONS old Powerbook G4 that is more or less a netbook that runs CS3 now, and I have a MacPro at my office) so going to a PC is not something I'm necessarily excited for, but I know I can get much more performance at a lower price point. Anyway, here's where I'm looking now

i7 930 Processor - $290
ASUS P6X58D-E LGA MOBO - $210
EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX 512mb 256-bit DDR3 Video Card - $135
Corsair Dominator 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600 RAM - $190
OCZ Agility 2 60GB SSD OS Drive - $170
2x WD Caviar Black 1.5TB 7200rpm 64mb Cache HDD - $110/each
ASUS DRW-24B1ST SATA 24X DVD Burner - $24
Thermaltake Element G VL Case w/ 850W power supply - $180
Monitor - Dell UltraSharp U2311H 23' - $320
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional OEM - $140

Total = $1,879

All prices are ballparked from Newegg searches and don't take into account rebates since I'm not sure when in the next month or two I'll actually pull the trigger.

I have two questions I'd like to ask based on this proposed build.

First: What, if any, changes would you make to either improve performance, decrease cost, or both?

Second: If you think this is a good setup for the cost, how does it compare to the 21.5" iMac Intel i5 3.6ghz 8gb ram 1TB HDD for $1900?

I'm not asking for a Mac vs. PC fanboy war, I already prefer Mac. I haven't used either a PC running Windows 7, nor any computer running the new Intel chips, so I would appreciate any educated opinions on what I could expect as pros or cons between those two systems.

I know you all see these threads daily, so I'm thankful for any input you provide.

you totally don't need

> EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX 512mb 256-bit DDR3 Video Card - $135
> Thermaltake Element G VL Case w/ 850W power supply - $180

Even the cheapest ATI 5450 or whatever equivalent in Nvidia land for $50ish would do the job (assume you don't play games).

850W is massive overkill, a 500W is already more than fine.

> Corsair Dominator 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600 RAM - $190

You can actually get 3x (2+2GB) kits = 12GB for around $230 after rebate.

HyperYagami wrote in post #10758157
you totally don't need

> EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX 512mb 256-bit DDR3 Video Card - $135
> Thermaltake Element G VL Case w/ 850W power supply - $180

Even the cheapest ATI 5450 or whatever equivalent in Nvidia land for $50ish would do the job (assume you don't play games).

850W is massive overkill, a 500W is already more than fine.

> Corsair Dominator 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600 RAM - $190

You can actually get 3x (2+2GB) kits = 12GB for around $230 after rebate.

and I think you also don't need Windows Professional. The Home version doesn't have some of the networking capabilities as the Pro version, but you most likely won't be using them at home.

And I'd get more RAM on either machine, just because you can, and because you won't have to take it apart if you want to do it later.

This is why I wanted to throw some of this around. My brother-in-law is a classic mega haxxorz nerd who thinks I need the biggest component regardless. Says it's "future-proofing". For instance:

RE: Video Card

I really want something that has dual DVI output. He suggest I get this card because it's Open GL 3.1 and I won't be looking to upgrade as soon. Any merit to this?

RE: Power Supply

Same thing, he says if I wind up running 4-6 internal drives someday I'll be happy that I have the extra juice in the power supply and that I won't be running as hot or as hard.

Win7 Home I'm fine with downgrading to. I have a buddy who is a web developer and he's always "Man I wish I had gotten Win7 Ultimate..." etc. but for me I'm sure the normal use version will be fine.

RAM is definitely my friend, and I'd be happy loading up 12GB for less than $300. Is that Corsair? What brand? Link? Much appreciated.

i7 930 Processor - $290
-- Good choice. It goes for $200 at microcenter and should clock at 4ghz with hypertheading or 4.2ghz w/o.

ASUS P6X58D-E LGA MOBO - $210
-- Good choice. I had that board at first and recently went to the Gigabyte X58A-UD3R which I am liking more.. mainly for overclocking stability.

EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX 512mb 256-bit DDR3 Video Card - $135
-- Poor choice. You can do much better for that price.

Corsair Dominator 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600 RAM - $190
-- Poor choice. If you look closely on ebay, you can grab a 12Gb kit for around 200. I recently picked up a kingston set for 170. If you need to go with a fast 6Gb kit, check out Super Talent at ewiz for DDR3 2000 8-8-8 kit at around the same price.

OCZ Agility 2 60GB SSD OS Drive - $170
-- Spend the extra 20 bux and do it right (go for the Intel Gen 2 SSD).

2x WD Caviar Black 1.5TB 7200rpm 64mb Cache HDD - $110/each
-- Is this really needed? I'd do a single drive for now and upgrade later when the higher capacity drives come out. If the space is needed now, disregard.

ASUS DRW-24B1ST SATA 24X DVD Burner - $24
-- Thats fine.

Thermaltake Element G VL Case w/ 850W power supply - $180
-- Overkill and simply not needed. Check out the Corsair 500/520 ps's which are priced right.

Monitor - Dell UltraSharp U2311H 23' - $320
-- That's fine.

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional OEM - $140
-- That or spend 30 bux for Snow Leopard no point going back to windows just because you're running a "PC". It would be abit more difficult with the P6X58D-E but doable (especially if you go with the X58A-UD3R).

I think you should be looking at 600W power supplies instead of 850. Dunno if your friends told you, but pay attention to how much power goes to the 12V rail(s). That's the one that matters.

If you're really set on performance, you'll have to set up multiple drives on a RAID 0 stripe.

I would get a Vertex 2 or X25-M over an Agility.

If you pick the right parts, you could install OSX on it (with some extra hassle). I dunno if that mobo works, though, but I know the Gigabyte X58 does.

Software's starting to make use of video card acceleration, so I wouldn't go too cheap in that area. A piece of software called Fast Picture Viewer uses video ram to cache images for really fast display during culling.

The pair of drives is so you can do RAID 1?

professoryeti wrote in post #10758026
Second: If you think this is a good setup for the cost, how does it compare to the 21.5" iMac Intel i5 3.6ghz 8gb ram 1TB HDD for $1900?

First, remember this is a tower, not an all-in-one. That means you can swap out parts instead of buying a new computer. You can install multiple hard drives to use RAID for better performance, or a backup solution that prevents downtime if a drive fails, not to mention having an SSD for OS/programs/swap. How much is that worth to you?

Performance-wise, the tower will perform better overall with software that can take advantage of four cores. PS and LR3 can use 4 cores (though not more than that). I don't know what other software you use. i5 vs i7 probably means something, too, I just don't know what.

Have you considered a used or refurbished Mac Pro? '08 2.8 or 3.0GHz 8-core Mac Pros are going for around $2000 on ebay.

Hen3Ry wrote in post #10758196
and I think you also don't need Windows Professional. The Home version doesn't have some of the networking capabilities as the Pro version, but you most likely won't be using them at home.

And I'd get more RAM on either machine, just because you can, and because you won't have to take it apart if you want to do it later.

I agree with you on all of the above this time around.

tim wrote in post #10759093
Software's starting to make use of video card acceleration, so I wouldn't go too cheap in that area. A piece of software called Fast Picture Viewer uses video ram to cache images for really fast display during culling.

However, most of the $$$ in video card these days really just goes into 3D acceleration, and it's a long way for any non-3D stuff to saturate RAM/bandwidth/etc.

btw GeForce 9800 GTX is like, few generations old now? I'm more ATI, lost track of the N stuff these days.

I still have a fanless nVidia 8500GT with 512MB RAM. It works fine, but I want a bit more power and a 1GB-1.5GB RAM, for caching stuff in that program. It'll wait until I get around to building an i7 system one day, maybe later this year. My Q6600 still works fine for 12MP images, though I would like things to a bit snappier, just to save some time.

I really appreciate the responses. It's late for me on the east coast (1am) so I'm going to have to wait till tomorrow to process all of this. The idea of running a "Hackintosh" is pretty exciting, but I don't know if I'm up to all the effort, hassle, and worry. I'll definitely look into some RAM from ebay and downgrading the power supply and rethinking the video card.

Just to add I will be definitely be running LR3 and then PS CS3 and soon PS CS5 upgrade. Also, I may want to run After Effects CS3 and Premiere Pro CS3 just because I get a little work of that variety and have access to the software legitimately.

HyperYagami wrote in post #10759468
However, most of the $$$ in video card these days really just goes into 3D acceleration, and it's a long way for any non-3D stuff to saturate RAM/bandwidth/etc.

btw GeForce 9800 GTX is like, few generations old now? I'm more ATI, lost track of the N stuff these days.

Yes, it's a nice video board, but old and too expensive. I have one but I got it for about $75 out-of-box from Newegg about a year ago.

professoryeti wrote in post #10760337
The idea of running a "Hackintosh" is pretty exciting, but I don't know if I'm up to all the effort, hassle, and worry.

I've built two of them, and it wasn't that hard. I currently have a Q9500 and a Q9400 (both on Gigabyte boards), both running OS X. They're very reliable. The Q9500 can run both OS X and Windows 7 from a non-Microsoft boot-manager. Even though Windows is faster, and (in my estimation) W7 is the best and cleanest OS Microsoft has ever shipped, I still prefer to use OS X.