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Thought I'd drop an update.
Current Status of parts acquired so far:
I think I might pass on the SSD for a short time. Capacities and speeds are increasing rapidly right now, and prices are dropping fast. But, the real Deal Changer was finding the 750 GB WD Caviar Black for $50. It's a full 6 Gb/sec SATA III model ... so I think I'm gonna stick with that while I assemble the system and burn it in. I'll gather all the performance stats using that drive and then (hopefully) will obtain an SSD within a month or so and migrate the stable build over to it, and get a very nice performance comparison.
As far as SDs, the
Mushkin name brand has caught my eye ... but they remain SATA II devices that are still a bit small for the price. However, their performance & reliability might be worth it, especially if SATA III versions come available &/or I can grab their 80 GB edition for under $100 somehow.
Additionally, the Western Digital Shell Shocker that happened last week demonstrates that more players are entering the field ... so, mid-August or ~01 Sept may be a better time to pull the trigger on an SSD.
So, apart from that, I am down to a final 2 two big items: the mobo and the video card. I'm lusting very hard over this mobo:
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GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD5I just passed on it for $184 delivered, and now it's back up to $198 ... but it's a bit too much for budget. It was going for $145 about 10 or 12 weeks back, so I'm hoping that deal will come around again & I'll jump on it then. I'm not married to this board, but I definitely want one with very similar configuration, and the price ceiling is $150 with hopes for something closer to ~$130-ish.
The video card will wait until the mobo is settled since surplus funds will determine the category of GPU I can target. It seems I may be able to go as high as $120 or $130, but that is not assured yet.
I saved the cooling block for last. bAsically, I settled on this one:
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XIGMATEK BALDER SD1283 120mm ACK-I5361 for $44.
It's right near my price range (wanted <$40 but was willing to go $50). However, it has what looks like a solid rebate process to bring it down to $24, so that's a closed deal now; absolutely unbeatable. It will have vastly excess cooling capacity; it will support a x6 core Thuban running at 4+ GHz if I get an opportunity to upgrade someday, and even then it has capacity for even a good bit more performance. Ran across an overclocker who claims he's got an AMD 1100 running at 4.4 GHz with this block ...
And, it's a HUGE block, but the case I acquired has copious room inside, so not an issue for me. More importantly, it's a relatively quiet cooling block, at maximum 28 dB when running full out. Other blocks I looked at run ~20 or 23-25 dB, with some around 20. But 28 dB is still well quiet, especially from inside a large steel case ... so, the trade-off for performance and price is worth a slight bit of increased noise.
But, then I ran across this new bit of tech just hitting the market:
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XIGMATEK Prime SD1484 (CAC-SYHH4-U01) 140mm Sleeve Bearing (with copper axle)And, glorious pictures/full specs on this artwork:
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Prime SD1848 at manufacturer's websiteCanNOT justify $68 for this. But, if it should happen to go on special, or become eligible under their rebate, plus free shipping ... oh man I'll be all over that but fast!
[
oh yeah, EDIT: forgot to mention the 18 dB max. noise on this model. That's the kind'a quiet I'm talkin' about! ]
With all that, I have expectations of running my Deneb 965 x4 core up around 4 GHz as the steady/stable configuration, with a decent shot of getting it up to 4.2 GHz if I feel a real need for that extra bit. In addition, the RAM should lope along at least at 1800 MHz, if not around 2000 MHz. With a decent, mid-range GPU this should be more than 50% over-powered for nearly anything I'll seriously want to run for at least a year. If I can top it off with an SSD, I should be good to go for four to five years (including a few upgrades, as needed) before my next build.
We Shall See.
