Komputor Kornstruction

[AAA]

Oy, Intel and the 2011 bullshit....

Well, mine as well get a 1TB SSD with that price range.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227502

Holy Shit.

Well, there's always the 500GB option: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227474

prices...

[Warsaw]

Main Rig

• CPU and GPU Combo-Core i7 920 with ASUS Radeon HD5870 - $634
  
• GPU No. 2-ASUS Radeon HD5870 - $410
  
• Motherboard-ASUS P6X58D - $310
  
• RAM-6GB G.Skill DDR1600 (Get more later if you need it)
  - $164
  
• HDD-WD Caviar Black x2 - $100 (x2 = $200)
  
• SSD-Corsair Extreme 32GB (you'll want this)-$150
  
• Case-Antec P183 Sleek n' Sexy - $130
  
• PSU-Corsair 850W Modular - $180 ($170 after MIR)
  
• BD/DVD/CD-Burner-Pioneer Black - $220
  
• Speakers - Logitech Z-5500 5.1 - $326

Total so far: $2724

Now, what do you mean by custom cooling? Uber heatsinks, giant fans, liquid, what? Also, the only reason I picked ASUS for the second GPU was because the combo was also an ASUS. I like brand consistency throughout my build for identical parts, but if it's all the same to you, the Sapphire costs $410 too, as does the XFX. I'm also assuming you will be scavenging some parts from your current build (i.e. CD/DVD drive). I intend to add a blu-ray player as soon as I configure a server and see where the budget stands.

Server Build

AMD-specific

• Motherboard-TYAN S2927G2NR-E Thunder n3600B Dual 1207(F) NVIDIA nForce Professional 3600 ATX Dual AMD Opteron Server Motherboard - $300
  
• CPU-AMD Opteron 2427 Istanbul Six-core 2.2GHz - $500 (x2 = $1000)
  
• RAM-2x2GB Crucial DDR2 667 (x2) - $121 (x2 = $241)
  

Intel-specific

• Motherboard-ASUS Z8NA-D6 (ASMB4-IKVM) Dual LGA 1366 Intel 5500 ATX Dual Intel Xeon 5500 Series Server Motherboard - $310
  
• CPU-Intel Xeon E5520 Nehalem quad-core 2.26GHz - $385 (x2 = $770)
  
• RAM-Mushkin Proline 3x2GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333 ECC - $189 (x2 = $380)

Platform agnostic

• Video Card-Sapphire Radeon HD5750 - $130 (purely for the Eyefinity...it's cheaper than that Matrox doodad)
  
• HDD-WD Caviar Black 1TB - $100 (x2 = $200)
  
• Case-Antec Titan 650 w/ 650W PSU - $195
  
• PSU- Seasonic X750 Gold - $180 (Not a Server PSU)

AMD Total with extra PSU: $2246
AMD Total without extra PSU: $2066

Intel Total with extra PSU: $2165
Intel Total without extra PSU: $1985


E: Will continue updating as I add parts, I just don't want to lose the list.

EE: What do you intend to do with the server? This has a very significant impact on what platform I build it on. The Istanbul is best choice if you do a lot of virtualization and Decision Support Databases. The Xeon is better if you want to do webserving, rendering, etc. Thing is, the Xeons that fit into your budget are far less powerful than the X5570 that was compared to the Istanbul, which beat out all the other Xeons.

[Kornman00]

For SSD: I'm holding off on using them for generic file usage until their price ranges aren't like that. So a few more years probably.

Cooling: I guess it really depends on what parts (not to mention case) end up getting placed in it. Just a model which works well for it all while not sounding too much like a jet plane and hopefully equally disappaiting the heat so it doesn't all come out one area and such.

Server: Mostly for server programming code development. Whether that means dedi server applications, general server applications (ie, for Source Control) and some file mangement for archiving purposes (especially for my large videos which really don't get touched). Tho, I may continue to use my external teras for the time being (when I go to build the server; connect them with an eSata cable) as they're still very useful.

I don't think this one will be doing too much rendering wise.

I probably wouldn't be the only one connecting to the server later on. Possibly 3-5 more people.

[Warsaw]

With the Opteron 2427 being such a huge power leap over the Xeon E5520, I don't think you can go wrong with it even if the Xeon architecture is better suited to certain things; the raw power will compensate for that disadvantage. What it really boils down to is whether you want DDR3 in your server or not (and how much RAM you want).

Also, how much storage space do you want in the server? I just trimmed the original storage back from 4TB to 2TB to free up $200 for use in the main rig so I could add in some good speakers (Dell has the same set for $380 if you don't dig Amazon...this set used to be $252 back in 2006, and it hasn't gone down once). For the sake of budget and adding a sound card, I would suggest the Logitech X-540 5.1 set and your pick of sound card (HT Omega or CreAtive X-Fi).

[Kornman00]

2TB would probably be best for the server. I'd just end up using my externals for archiving so 1) they won't have to be on all the time and 2) I can format them for large file storage. One external can be setup for 1TB at RAID1, then I have two LaCie 500GB.

Also I was reading up on PCIe 3.0 which is due for finalizing in Q2 (Apr, May, Jun). It would probably be worth it in waiting for buying mother boards with support for them right? Though if the spec came out in June, I think it may be a month or two before some (decent) MOBOs come out with them, yes?

[Warsaw]

Yeah, you could do that. I don't think even today's cards saturate PCI-e 2.0 anyways, but I could be wrong. If anything, I'd say get the server now, and then wait for the main rig if you really want PCI-e 3.0. Servers don't require intense graphics performance, so it's not worth waiting for the new spec.

Still, seeing as PCI-e 2.0 cards can run on PCI-e 1.0, I don't see much benefit to waiting for PCI-e 3.0 until we start seeing a lot of video cards in that interface, especially when 2.0 has plenty of breathing room left.

[Kornman00]

UPDATE

Thanks to jcops and Dr@Home I was able to get the parts ordered for a new computer and with a few pointers from my dad I was able to build it pretty much by myself. Yay. So, now for the configuration of the Komputron8000(tm):

OS: Windows XP Pro 64-bit and Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. 1 x ($0.00)
Case: CM690 II. 1 x ($99.99)
Optical Drive: Pioneer Black BD-RE. 1 x ($199.95)
Primary Drive: Seagate 500GB Barracuda. 1 x $54.99
Secondary Drive: (2x - RAID1) Western Digital Caviar Black WD2001FASS. 2 x ($209.95)
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3. 1 x ($129.99)
CPU: Intel Core i7-860. 1 x ($199.99)
Primary Monitors: (3x) 23" Dell Monitor with DisplayPort. 3 x ($220.00)
RAM: (2x) G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB. 2 x ($119.99)
GFX Card: ASUS 5870 EYEFINITY 2GB. 1 x ($549.99)
Power Supply: XFX 750W Black Edition. 1 x ($179.99)

Cost: $2607.79 (note: hidden charges included; ie for extra cables, etc)
Plus S&H Charges: $37.87
Plus Tax Charges: $41.91
Total: $2687.57

Note: while some of those links are newegg based, not all parts were ordered from there. Other stores used: ebay, Microcenter, etc.

$2700 sure beats the $5K limit I was putting on myself at the start. This was the first time I had actually sat down and tallied up the cost of this new machine too . Images to be posted soon once I finish doing some postprocessing on the systems.

There are some other parts to the system which I'm re-using from previous setups (ie, external hdds, a 24" Apple Display, etc) but they're not core to the system and weren't recently bought so they weren't included in this list.

[Llama Juice]

You wanted at least 6 GB of RAM, you got 4. You fail.

Start over, build new machine, etc.

[Kornman00]

Read again: 2x. 2x4 = 8GB of ram. You fail.

Start over, go to school.

[Shock120]

UPDATE
Primary Monitors: (3x) 23" Dell Monitor with DisplayPort. 3 x ($220.00)
GFX Card: ASUS 5870 EYEFINITY 2GB. 1 x ($549.99)

=O
getting 2 more soon? (included your apple one, so make that 2)
what about games? you need games and OS for the software side of the Kornstruction. =D