2 new systems choices

Hi guys.
Need to make some fast (Monday 23rd am) decisions on a pair of new systems so any hard facts, personal experience, links to good comparisons etc welcome. The reason is I have been offered a very good deal on some hardware for a project and I'm only on the net via a laptop which ain't easy for me to use physically. So here goes.....
System 1 Either:-
AMD Phenom II 2.8Ghz on an Asus M3-A78T with OCZ DDR2 1150 2x4Gb memory and an ATI 4850 1Ghz mem. OR
Intel Q6600 G0 SLACR 2.4Ghz on a Gigabyte GA-EP45C plus either of OCZ DDR2 1150 2x4Gb memory or OCZ DDR3 1600x4Gb plus the ATI again.

System 2 Either:-
I7 920 2.66Ghz plus 12Gb OCZ 1600 DDR3 or appropriate memory for the board specified of 12Gb which can be any of Asus P6T, P6T Deluxe V2, P6T WSPro.
This board combo will also have dual 4870 1Gb cards and several raid5 setups/wifi hardware access point/teamed network access to 5 separate domains via hardware 1Gb lans/ run on a high end server OS/be a PRO Workstation as well as a personal games, graphics design, network and domain controller and anything else a Pro, semi high end server could have on it or be used for. T'other system is a personal system for some gaming/DC/general home use etc.
Don't care if you wanna make silly comments or serious but this is for real world decisions and both will be specced by Monday morning 23rd, supposing it kills me in the process. And I am stuck in bed this week at least so go for it guys and have fun or be serious, all comments welcome.

System 1 I think either is just fine. I might be tempted to go with the PhenomII myself as it's faster at stock and mines been rock solid so far. Any reason not to use the Phenom 940 rather than the 920 though? Very little price difference to go to 3ghz..

System 2, well there is no choice in your post :)

Bok :thumbs:

System 2 is your only choice if you are getting *any* kind of deal, it flat beats the competition in so many ways. :rock:
It will do 3.5GHz by only adjusting the FSB to 175 :D (of course you *NEED* something other than the stock HSF)

If you had to take a step down, then System 1 Phenom should be your 2nd choice. :thumbs:

Thanks guys. Systems are not for me actually tho' I will be building them.
System 2 is mainly a board choice and I think he is expecting a bit much but there is a lot of kit to go on it for work/pro use and I'm only sourcing the extras after the basic build is complete. The deal is that if I spend £x on hardware I get a substantial discount from the distributor but those are the only choices of parts I have for the 2 complete systems.
I have no experience of the new Phenom yet but think it may beat the Intel a bit so that's the way I'm leaning. Personally, I'd wait for the DDR 3 which is available now tho' the memory performance isn't spectacularly different enough to matter. Oddly enough, on system 1, the cost comes out the same with DDR3 or DDR2 depending of course on final system spec. System 2, well the guy practically lives at work (a bit like I did for many years) and runs a quite big outfit with a very good rep and still expanding rapidly but like every business nowadays has cash limits so it is both a personal and a work machine and will be worked to death whatever I put in it.
Appreciate the help as I'm almost completely stuck, physically, this time.

Well, the I7 rig will be over $1,000 easily... something to keep in mind, but, if it's not your money /shrug :D

Thanks IB, it will need to do a lot of hard work, just glad I'm not setting it up,just the hardware. And price isn't too important but still a consideration. Probably a tax allowance for new equipment but he can't spend the money for a commercial price system, needs to stay reasonable. As usual, wants the Earth but got money for an asteroid :D but he is a very good friend and ex-colleague who has scratched my back in the past and will continue doing so. I'm leaning towards the Asus WS Pro but have no experience of memory etc for that system. I do know it will get hammered. Too many drugs just now. My brains just barely ticking over.

Any more personal or other comments from anybody? I'm ordering before Monday noon.

Pretty much any X58 mobo will work and here is a good complete working system.

http://www.free-dc.org/forum/showthr...558#post133558

Cheers IB. I'm laying off the nasty drugs for a couple hours as I need to work and they fuzz the brain if not knock mine out completely.
Has to be one of the Asus (in stock and good price), has to have 12Gb, min. 8Gb (3into8 don't go) and twin 4870s already got (he's an ATI man). Can be Corsair, Gskill or I get OCZ at a better price and also like it cos it never let me down whereas both the others have. Leaning towards the WS Pro cos it will need/have pro network cards, raid 5, and other kit when I figure it out and some will come from his last workstation/server.
Just FYI, he is in control/boss of, a networked office of around 40 mixed servers and desktops plus some high end workstations but all a very mixed bunch and the company does web, graphics design and printing graphics business including high end glossy work for mags, fashion etc. and this needs tto be able to display, work on, all of the above. Also feeds 4x30 inch desktops and 16x40inwall. Pretty neat setup but he's sunk a lot of capital in and just starting to get some payback so that's why I help him occasionally. No.1 system is for somebody else and just a new build with everything needed, inside a tight budget, for a home system. And I have the offer of a good deal on specific bits as long as I spend on both at the same distributor and order by Monday a.m. Again a "you scratch my back" deal with an old friend/ex-colleague.
Dunno why I keep get mixed up in these things still. Just can't refuse anybody help I guess and keepsmy brain from vegetating.

Asus P6T Deluxe w/12GB of ram is what I use, with a GTX295 for gaming and it runs at 3.5GHz 24/7 :)
For raid, I highly suggest the Adaptec 5805
http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/product...ance/SAS-5805/
I had one with 4 300GB VelociRaptor drives and it kicks butt! I bought the battery backup to go with it, along with putting the system on a UPS...
It can handle up to 8 drives...
If you want to house the drives in a raid cage and make them hotswappable, you will need to purchase the more expensive $399 vs $299 drives as the non-commercial drive connectors do not mate up properly with hotswap backplanes :(

I will be using Adaptecs cos they are good. Always used them for scusi and sas. You've tried the rest, go for the best and that's Adaptec. Solid as rock and dependable as clockwork. Onboard will be 3x5disk raid5 via internal cards and a separate raid enclosure as well as a set of hotswap spares. External goes to SAS and fibre sans and the rack storeage on Gb Cat6 and 10Gb fibre (my crowning achievement, that fibre). Thats already mostly fixed, just need a couple cards, mebbe 2x16 port or 2x12s. They store some fairly massive projects both as saved data and collaborative work in progress including mag spreads, raw picture data and a hardware design section which I'm not allowed access to, so they have a massive amount of fast, reliable storeage which is only circa 2 years old. All the guys and gals in the office are great people with a very wide spread of talents and a good sprinkling of doctorates and they nearly all have money sunk into it which is just starting to pay off. One of my dear departed friends who worked for Silica from the early days is the father of one of them and helped set them up with graphics hardware and software and I've worked with some of them around the world so this outfit is a bit of a personal pet for me and it'snice to know I can still be respected and of some use despite my enforced retirement. Some of their gear is very very high end but a lot is a bitof a mish mash following their personal preferences and if I wantedto re-equip them all I'd have to deal with 30 individual setsof preferences and do a bit of :guntotin:. I could also retire rich but probably in jail for murder.
Anyway, I'm rambling and mebbe should take a pill and crash. One pill=12hrs. Two pills=30hrs. Nope need to order this all by around lunch time.
Cheers and beers guys, check in when I surface tomorrow for any final thoughts.

X58 mobo and ram bundle
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Specia...X58_Bundle_SPP

Shish
If you want this rig to do DC then the the Phenom II is a very poor choice.
i7 is in a different league performance wise.

Only the home rig MAY run DC, not sure what he's actually doing with it and cost is a consideration whereas the other is a work rig and will get hammered but cost isn't so much of a consideration. May get DC on both but it will be subject to switch off if it causes any problems.
Damn space bar on this laptop is a pain and the touch pad.Keep drooping wrist over it so I gotta spellcheck everything......need to think about a newone if I'm gonna be laid up more often.
I'm also using this project to teach the younger son about putting hardware together as I'm more likelyto be laid up now.
Anyhoo, all ordered and done now and parts ended up near half price so everybody's happy and I make afew bucks towards my new 2nd rig.
Thanks for the info tho' PCZ. Didn'tget toknowmuch about how the new PhenomII was doing in DC. Did know the Intels were good but they are, forme, double the cash even with a good deal from the distributor.
So it's a PhenomII and Asus for the home rig plus 4Gb of Corsair 1150 DDR2 and a few extra cards such as tv/freesat card and the dual Sapphire 1Gb 4850...want to try F@H on thoselittle beauts :D. Might just sneak it on to seewhat happens when he's gamingon the big screen :crazy:
T'other is the Asus P6T WS Pro. Basically, it has PCI-X so I can use existing cards and SAS for external connection plus a teamed Gig e-net.He uses and must have access to massive storeage and the only other alternative was a pure server setup which is no good (for me) as I want to indulge in some mild overclocking :D. He'svery happy and intrigued by the idea of oc'ing as he'salways used server type kit. Starting with twin 1Gb ATI 4870 from Sapphire but they are subject to change if they don't work for him and oc'ing will be aided by 12Gb of Corsair 1800 which ain't easy to get hold of so that's coming direct. He says my price has saved him more than half what he was expecting for an upgrade to his current setup so he's very happy. Just got to proveit works now, doing it this way, instead of an IBM or similar and if it does I may be able to persuade him to go fibre channel for some other upgrades alongside the mostly experimental 10Gb multimode fibre.
Decisions, decisions, decisions and some :catfight: :D

Parts have arrived in several large boxes so looks like a busy weekend for me and the boy (he hates me calling him that cos he's 30 now :D).
Appreciate the suggestions and comments guys and any real world info you want to pass on would be helpful especially oc'ing Phenom II on ddr2 and ddr3 as I think I may get a few more queries from pals 'n so on for cheaper systems while Intel is still dear or until I can get a better deal from distributor on x48/x58 setups. Also curious for real world performance for video streaming/serving (I've tried various streaming, even Windoze Mediocre Player) on internal network via 11n and 24Ghz wideband, and I still run a pair of old Xeons on 2 servers for recording and serving video as well as converting some large files where it's "go get a meal and couple pints" kind of timescale for a DVD and shortly BlueRay size files. So it may be time to splash out as both the servers are getting old and tired and still run at more or less 100% 24/7/365. Thinking I'd like a pair of 4 cores and 32Gb memory, type of setup times 2, for future proofing cos more gets added to their workload by the week instead of things quieting down. And I may have a lump of pension cash to get rid of this year before the tax man gets it or more likely 'ER INDOORS' :rolleyes:.
So cheers and beers guys and gals, back to the grindstone for me and appreciate any future info as above. :cheers:

Yeah I bet he hates being called "boy", "young man" as well...
I fixed the spaces for you Shish :)

Lying on my side, half propped up and typing one handed. Ain't life wunnerful ? Certainly ain't easy.:rolleyes:
Tah much mate, can't always hit spacebar hard enuff to work. may de-generate into tex-englis but nobody would understand Geordie txt dialect. Mind, this lappie IS 6? year old or thereaboot an' had some hammer. Killed t'other one and IBM/Leniovio ain't released it yet as the tech probably had to walk to China to get it replaced/fixed whatever and I've probably lost all my network setups and stuff which it was used for. Both daughter and grandaughter pound the keys on this old 'un and while they WERE ONCE "soft touch", they serpently ain't noo.:D. Anybody reading should translate literally as in the way they teach kids to "Talk-Read" English if they can't understand the previous :D
Ribs are gone hence lying on 1 side, breathing VERY CAREFULLY, after a muscle spasm kinked the ribs and took me right out. Waiting for nurse to put me down wiv BIG needle.... C U all laters people and thanks fer all the consideration...jus don't make me laff cos you've probs heard the expression "Die laughing" ?????? IT WORKS FOR ME ;)