Need some recommendations on the fastest system money can buy

[Camride]

Hey guys, I've got a friend that I'm helping build the absolute fastest system that is currently(or will be in the next 3 weeks) available. Right now I'm basically trying to get him into a x6800 Conroe(on pre-order) with 4 gigs of the best DDR2-1000/1066 RAM with the best motherboard. He does alot of rendering and graphic stuff so he basically needs the fastest thing he can get his hands on. I've been telling him about Conroe and he wants this thing as soon as he can, money is no object. The faster he can get these huge rendering's done the more work he can do.

The thing is he's got a couple of 7950 GX2 cards and would love to run quad SLI on this system but from what I've been reading none of the current Conroe motherboards support SLI right now. I think someone got SLI working on a certain motherboard but I can't remember which one it was and how he got it working? He said he'd be ok if he had to just run the one 7950 GX2 by itself but obviously it'd be better if he could do SLI. I thought about recommending Crossfire X1900XTX's but I don't think those would be quite as fast as 2 7950 GX2's.

I also wanted to get your recommendation on which is the best RAM to get? I want the lowest CAS and highest OCing potential. We will be bumping this x6800 up as high as we can get it 24/7 Prime95 stable(as he can't have the system crashing in the middle of a 12 hour rendering job). I've always had great luck with OCZ so I'm likely to recommend him their platinum line PC2-8000.

So, what do you guys recommend? He needs this system to be rock stable but also overclock pretty well. Remember, money is no object, though he doesn't want to waste it either. The rest of the system he will be getting himself but I'm in charge basically of getting the cpu, mb and ram for him.

[dissident]

buying an x6800 is wasting money. The most you'll ever need is the E6600, since chances are you won't be running these chips at 4.5+ GHZ 24/7 prime stable. They seem to be frequency limited... you can take an E6400 up the the same frequency as an X6800 if you have a motherboard that can handle the FSB.

a mere 400mhz fsb already puts an E6600 at 3.6ghz. Realistically you won't want to be doing much more then about 3.8 to 4.0 without water.

[Silver Bullet]

150GB Raptors in RAID 0 and 750GB Seagates in RAID 1 should be good for storage. I'd buy a crappy video card and wait till sept. for new DX10 Nvidia cards. X6800 ... ya waste of money .. e6700 is fine. Corsiar 8500UL seems to be doing well for ram.

[couppi]

E6600 now. Kentsfield later.

nVidia 590 sli chipset for Intel comes out at the end of August I think, but search around.

[majestik]

Get him to buy a new woodcrest workstation.

[Vric]

P5WDG2-WS Pro + E6700 + 1900XTX (no crossfire, wait for DX10 later) + 2gb Corsair 8500UL + 2x (or 3x) 150gb Raptor + 2 500gb or 750gb + Sb X-Fi.

not the most expensive, but money "well" spend.

[politenessman]

quad sli is now running on bad axe and p5w-dh.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ight=SLI+intel

you also might want to check out the g.skill hz ddr800 stix. some guys on the extreme band forum are getting like 1100-1200 mhz from them. good price, too. got mine for around $240.


very truly yours,
politenessman

[majestik]

From my experience, memory speed makes no difference in render speed. What you want is raw cpu power. All rendering apps are multi-threaded, so a woodcrest system would be the best, with like 8gb of ram. 4gb miniumum, thats for sure.

edit: SLi and Crossfire is kinda useless in CAD/CAM. Ati as a whole sucks when it comes to professional 3d, thanks to their lackluster drivers.

[Locust]

Heh, sounds like something I use everyday .
I don't really use my system for final rendering since farms are much faster and that's what client pays for, but for 3d content software the system has to be 100% stable. Here is my system that I just put together:
P5W DH (previously P5WDA-E Prem)
P4 D 950 (waiting for E6600 ) @ 4.5Ghz (266 FSB 1066 mem speed 4-4-4-1) Water(going for air with E6600)
4GB Corsair XMS2 PC8500 (4x1GB)
FireGL V7350(although V7300 is not bad either 512MB of mem instead of 1GB)
2x74GB Raptors 16MB buffer Raid 0 System and Software only.
4x600GB Barracuda's on PCI SATA2 controler raid 10, data only.
2 NEC Burners
700W Thermaltake ToughPower PSU

I use SOFTIMAGE and 3DS MAX, and found FireGL to be the best option, used them for 2 years now. It's just stability man Very good custom drivers for those apps as well.

Corsair's PC8500 sticks are very good...rock solid at 1066 bus speed.

[Camride]

Ok, first a x6800 isn't a waste of money as there are way more options as far as overclocking since you have an unlocked multiplier. He already has several 7950 GX2's so there is no point in buying a crossfire system right now, especially with DX10 coming soon. I thought about recommending a Woodcrest system but non of the motherboards have PCI-E 16x slots, they're all 8x. I don't know how that would affect the performance of the 7950 but I'm sure it wouldn't be anywhere as good as a 16x slot.

Now like I said he has several server set-ups, dual.dual Xeon's and Opteron's. I don't know what exactly he'll be using this system for but he wants the fastest of everything that he can get, which means a x6800, SLI 7950 GX2's, Corsair 8500UL on a Asus P5W DH. After that I don't know exactly what he'll be using for the rest of the system(HD's, audio, etc) but I will be helping him get the mosty out of the OC as he hasn't OC'ed anything in years.

Anyway, thanks for the recommendations on the ram and motherboard. Looks like I know what to get for him, now it's just getting everything as quickly as possible.

[Shpoon]

There's always something around the corner, so buy whatever's best now, he can always upgrade

[Phosphate]

I have a question regarding overclocking a 4 x 1 GB memory. On the athlons I know this affects OC (compared to 2 sticks). How does 4 sticks affect OC on intels?

[Shpoon]

I have a question regarding overclocking a 4 x 1 GB memory. On the athlons I know this affects OC (compared to 2 sticks). How does 4 sticks affect OC on intels?

4 sticks arn't needed unless you're doing really heavy work like rendering, editing, etc.

[menlatin]

4 sticks arn't needed unless you're doing really heavy work like rendering, editing, etc.

... He does alot of rendering and graphic stuff so he basically needs the fastest thing he can get his hands on...

???

[Shpoon]

???

Read my post...look who I quoted...

[s e t h]

hunt down a kentsfield.
it will be almost twice as fast as x6800 in rendering.

[LowRun]

Read my post...look who I quoted...

I guess he knows why he wants 4 sticks so your answer is pretty useless.

[AlbanianOC]

Since you are doing rendering, wouldnt a mac pro or anything with two woodcrests with two 3.0GHZ 1333fsb woodcrests be more useful ?

[Weedsqueezer]

I thought about recommending a Woodcrest system but non of the motherboards have PCI-E 16x slots, they're all 8x. I don't know how that would affect the performance of the 7950 but I'm sure it wouldn't be anywhere as good as a 16x slot.

a few minute search revealed 3 boards that support the big woodcrest cpus... AND PCI-E 16
X7DA8
X7DAE
X7DAL-E

[Tonucci]

Since you are doing rendering, wouldnt a mac pro or anything with two woodcrests with two 3.0GHZ 1333fsb woodcrests be more useful ?

QFT... if he needs the fastest, thats 2x woodcrest 3.0Ghz 133fsb and 4Gb ram. But i dont think it can be OCed tho...

[Mikesnav]

Woodcrest

[lawrywild]

quad sli is now running on bad axe and p5w-dh.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ight=SLI+intel

you also might want to check out the g.skill hz ddr800 stix. some guys on the extreme band forum are getting like 1100-1200 mhz from them. good price, too. got mine for around $240.


very truly yours,
politenessman

lol dude we never got those drivers to work..

[Teratism]

For true graphical power
http://www.nvidia.com/page/quadroplex.html
$17k for the starter.

You could also pick him up a Boxx
http://www.boxxtech.com/products/8300.asp

I would suggest your Ram or the G.skill mentioned. A kentsfield upgrade after the x6800 if he can't wait.

[andyisc00l]

Ok, first a x6800 isn't a waste of money as there are way more options as far as overclocking since you have an unlocked multiplier. He already has several 7950 GX2's so there is no point in buying a crossfire system right now, especially with DX10 coming soon. I thought about recommending a Woodcrest system but non of the motherboards have PCI-E 16x slots, they're all 8x. I don't know how that would affect the performance of the 7950 but I'm sure it wouldn't be anywhere as good as a 16x slot.

Now like I said he has several server set-ups, dual.dual Xeon's and Opteron's. I don't know what exactly he'll be using this system for but he wants the fastest of everything that he can get, which means a x6800, SLI 7950 GX2's, Corsair 8500UL on a Asus P5W DH. After that I don't know exactly what he'll be using for the rest of the system(HD's, audio, etc) but I will be helping him get the mosty out of the OC as he hasn't OC'ed anything in years.

Anyway, thanks for the recommendations on the ram and motherboard. Looks like I know what to get for him, now it's just getting everything as quickly as possible.

Just because its the most expensive doesn't mean its the best...you don't need to spend $800 for a multiplier...thats obserd, your not using phase cooling, so get a e6600, most boards can hit a 400fsb, plus, even if you were using the x6800, lets say its max is 3.7ghz, your still gonna wanna use the 9x multiplier, better having a 1600fsb as opposed to a smaller one...don't waste his money...also like the guy above said, most of the $240-$250 ram overclocks about the same as $500 ram, so 4 gigs of g.skill ddr2-800 gbhz and a e6600 you can save $500 + $800 for a total of $1300 and it will be literally the EXACT same speed, its not hey I have more options, its literally the exact same computer..(g.skill ram can hit past ddr2-1100 cas4)

[grimREEFER]

e6300 now, kentsfield 6800 later!