Client Needs -
The client wanted a fast, reasonably quiet system that could be turned into a high end gaming machine by toggling a few settings. He wanted fast storage, a dual core processor that could be highly over-clocked and a graphics card that would provide plenty of power and remain up to date for as long as possible.
System Specification:
Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
This processor was chosen because it is part of what is widely accepted as the best line of processors in the world. It is the cheapest model with a 4MB cache, and runs at 2.4Ghz at stock speeds. It is heavily over-clockable, able to go to speeds of 3.7Ghz in an air cooled system. Even at stock speeds, it provides excellent performance in all the most recent games, and the over-clocking headroom allows for more intensive future games.
Memory - OCZ Platinum Revision 2 Dual Channel Kit 2GB DDR2
This kit was chosen as it provided a high performance to cost ratio, suppling twice the bandwidth of single 2GB RAM sticks. It operates at 800Mhz, considered to be the ‘sweet spot’ by enthusiasts for performance and over-clocking. The 2GB is plenty RAM for the client’s needs, but can be upgraded later on for more performance. It comes from a well known supplier of RAM, noted for their high quality products, and the DDR2 standard is the highest performing on the market.
Graphics Card - NVIDIA 8800GTX
This card was selected because quite simply it was the best in the world at the time, and remained that way for 7 months - a very long time to remain at the top in the graphics market. This provided the client’s need for a card with staying power. Its compliance with DirectX10 standards would ensure that it remained fully compatible with future titles for a very long time. Its tremendous power means that this card could handle anything that was thrown at it, and was shown to be bottlenecked by the other system components, even in the best of systems. While it seemed expensive, its performance to cost ratio was by far the best of the system.
Storage - 2 80GB Western Digital Barracuda Drives in RAID 0, 1 200GB WD Barracuda Drive
The WD Barracuda Drives were chosen as they have one of the best records in the 7200-RPM drive market, both in terms of performance and reliability. 2 80GB drives were chosen as the smaller the drive, the less platters and the better the performance.
The drives were SATA 2 compliant, meaning they had twice the bandwidth of standard drives. These drives were then put in a RAID 0 array configuration for maximum performance. RAID 0 doubles performance, and turned the 2 80GB drives into 1 super-fast 150GB drive. Because of the increased drive usage of RAID 0, drives wear out faster and data loss is more likely. Because of this, a 200GB WD Barracuda drive was added for backup purposes. Because performance was not an issue, we chose a standard SATA drive to save on costs. The capacity would be plenty for the client’s backups.
Motherboard - EVGA NVIDIA 680i SLI
Although there is some debate on which is the best 680i SLI board, EVGA’s was chosen because of its excellent support and lifetime (over-clocking) included warranty. It provides very high levels of over-clocking headroom, past 4Ghz, and was compatible with a wide range of processors including quad cores and the yet to be released 1333Mhz FSB processors. It is constructed using only the best components to provide a long life. It supports NVIDIA’s SLI technology, as the client decided that although they did not need another one right now, they would like the option to upgrade later on. It has plenty expansion ports and slots as well as gigabit ethernet and built in optical audio connections and surround sound plugs, and supports up to 8GB of RAM.
Power supply - Thermaltake Toughpower 750W Modular Cable Management.
This PSU was chosen because of its reliability and good brand, as well as being able to supply plenty of power and low noise levels. Its modular cable design comes in handy when trying to optimize airflow and implement cable management. It also had cables long enough to reach our components in our case, something a lot of PSUs cannot do. Although there are more powerful PSUs on the market, such a PSU was unneeded and would be a waste of money.
Case - Antec P180
This case was chosen because of its impressive feature set and design. It was made for the gamer and the silent PC user. It was so successful at this that it was the first ever case to be branded by Silent PC Reviews because they were so impressed by it. It features suspended hard drive cages for near silent HD operation, a separate section for the power supply and hard drives to maximize cooling and support for up to 6 case fans, including 2 fans for the CPU. Its three ply design means that noise levels are kept very low, and the case has plenty of expansion bays.
We modified the default case layout slightly for this build by moving the fan controls onto the outside of the case, so that the client would not have to open the case to adjust his fan speeds. We did not use the lower bay fan or PSU cage, as the PSUs 12” fan would be sufficient. The upper HHD cage was removed to maximize airflow, and we built our own HD bay in one of the optical drive slots, so that the backup drive could be removed easily. The top fan cover was remove as this hindered airflow and the grill over it would be sufficient for preventing things getting stuck in the fan.
CPU Cooler - Thermaltake Big Typhoon
Because the client expressed a need for a quiet computer and an interest in over-clocking, the stock cooler was replaced with this model. While not being the best CPU cooler on the market, the Big Typhoon is remarkably quiet for its size and is cheaper than similar coolers too, making it excellent value for money. It has a high airflow and cooling power, and processors can be over-clocked beyond 3.4 GHz on it, which is what the client wanted.
Other components include a CD/DVD combo drive for reading CDs and DVDs, a DVD rewriter drive to read and write all type of CDs and DVDs, and a floppy disk drive for installing the occasional BIOS update.