Hi all, l need some help, my brother has sent me a request to build a system for a friend of his, and he has given a few things he wants, the main thing which l want to get sorted out first is the CPU and montherboard, as to me they are the main parts. he want a 8 core CPU, but from memory and research there isn't any without a large cost, see am going to give him a quote for a 6-core Core™ i7-980X, the problem is l don't really know what board will be best for it as he also wants 12GB RAM. so what board would you recommend for this little babie and even what RAM would go with it. he hasn't given me a limit on his spending which will try and get really soon. thank you in advance
Is there a specific reason he needs an octo-core? Most applications can't even take advantage of more than dual core.... If he needs an octo-core, he needs to buy a server board and get an octo-core Xeon server CPU. There isn't any consumer octo-cores out at the moment. What's the budget and use for this machine? What's being asked is definite overkill for most people. deltatux
Yeh this is a bit overkill, as l got sent a email with what he is after and for the CPU he has put "minimum 8-core 3.0Ghz (better if possible, but not vital). intel preferred" l just loved that line, so at the moment am going to give a quote for a Core™ i7-980X he is going to use this for video and audio, and HD audio recording and mixing sessions. and at the end he has put "hence, the specifications are, for the most part, as low as l would want them to go" l don't think he knows much about computers. so any ideas for motherboards as that is my weak spot on chosing. also for budget, none set at the moment.
Without a budget we cannot continue to quote a computer, especially if your friend is computer illiterate. You're just going to deliberately waste his money if you go with his absurd request since a Core i7 980X costs within the neighbourhood of US$1000. deltatux
l have asked my brother for a budget and he has said to just make the quote, so say his budget is $3000, what motherboard would you recommend.
To efficiently use that cash for a gamer's rig: Intel Core i7 2600K 3.3 GHz (about $330) ASUS P8P67 Pro (about $220) eVGA SuperClocked GeForce 580 ($529) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130590 COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Blue RC-932-KKN3-GP ($159.98) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119213 G.Skill Ripjaws X 4 x 4 GB DDR3-1866 F3-14900CL9Q-16GBXL ($299.99) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231456 CORSAIR Professional Series AX850 850W ($189.99) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139015 OCZ RevoDrive OCZSSDPX-1RVD0120 PCI-E x4 120GB PCI Express MLC SSD ($309.99) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227578 Western Digital Caviar Black WD2001FASS 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive ($169.99) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136456 LG WH10LS30 10X Blu-ray Burner - LightScribe Support ($98.99) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136181 Subtotal (approx.): $2307.94 All prices from NewEgg.com in US Dollars and current as of February 8, 2011. All applicable taxes and shipping extra. Prices subject to change without notice. Do note that all Sandy Bridge have been recalled due to a chipset problem and will return in stock hopefully by late February/early March but the wait is definitely worth it. Normally I never quote something this expensive as I find it very very wasteful of hard earned cash, but he has the money, then hell, it's a field day for me in terms of quoting a rig. deltatux
If you need 8/12 cores EVGA SR2 is your best bet, pointless for the most part and wont fit in $3000..
I fail to see why someone who's only gaming needs so many cores and also inflict the overhead dual CPUs incur. deltatux
That does not include gaming ? How about something like this: Double slot LGA1366 mobo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131374 Two of these Intel Xeon E5507 Nehalem-EP 2.26GHz's (Quad) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117237 And two 3*2gb ECC Kits: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139074
Oh, I missed that ... then I guess he will need a double slot LGA1366 mobo then. What's listed there looks good, though, really ECC kits? don't think that's needed. He's not running a server farm, ECC isn't required. Normally ECC capable boards can accept regular RAM. The OP won't have enough electrical components that will cause bits to be flipped via interference. deltatux
About RAM support of that board. Supermicro might have some better mobos than that, didnt look that much into it.
Thank you all for the great help, mainly this is what he is wanting it for and what he is somewhat after. but also l am holding off at the moment as l have sent him some questions before l go any further at the moment so we are able to sort out mainly what his budget is, and if he really needs something so powerfull as he is only using it for "running video and audio, and holding up under HD audio recording and mixing sessions". we can cut some of the things down as for HDD he is after a 80GB drive, hoping l can still get one that small, and then 2x1TB drives. also he is after 12GB of RAM, l think that is a bit too much. no idea on soundcard or other cards, GPU l have recommend is a a decent one so it doesn't bottleneck on him. he is also after which l don't know if there are any boards out there with that much for a high end board l am hoping l will hear back from him soon, and even talk to him in person to work this out fully, once then l will post here. thank you all again for your help and will post soon.
http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=270-WS-W555-A2&family=Motherboard There is a mobo which has 2*LGA1366 sockets and few PCI-E slots. The bad thing is that it doesnt have any PCI or PCI-E x1 slots which soundcards seem to use (M-Audio, Digigram, Lynx). I know very little about those and nothing about USB/Firewire ones. But, 4 or 3 GPU's ? Meh. He has 3 of 1920*1200 monitors ? 12GB of RAM, for video editing it's ok I suppose.
your friend realy needs to be more specific. and if he has no freakin clue he needs to just stfu and give us a budget. with his crappy budget he is definetly not going to see a highend dualsocket setup with 8cores+. and since he has no clues about computers to begin with, could u ask him, who put that idea into his head? i mean who told him that he needs 8cores minimum and so on.
+1 ... Seeing he can make good use of newegg, I'd probably go ahead and venture a guess that what deltatux linked will most definitely fit the bill very nicely. I'm sure he'll be pretty surprised at how solid it will run - and what Chock said is pretty true, although no need to be that insensible about it hehe If he's not too knowledgeable about the available components and what different technologies mean, I would personally just suggest him to provide the maximum amount of money he'll be comfortable spending and go forward from there.
The thing is that he wants good PC for audio & video editing/recording so on. Makes it easy to justify double CPU PC, if it's some hardcore stuff. If only thing he wants to do is put credits to 720p video with Windows Movie Maker, then he surely dont need all that power. Ask about what programs he is going to use, if he needs and can use Adobe After Efects and Sony Vegas Pro, then sure, go for it.
