So, I'm looking for a new system that I plan on using as a home PC and to run multiple large VM's as well. At this point I'm looking at a i7-3770k, 12-16GB RAM, SSD boot, maybe 3 2TB drives in a RAID group.

I don't necessarily want to build my own (but would if I have to) and I don't want some cheap-O no-name company system. Looking around I was interested in the Gateway FX6880

Processor: Intel Core i7-3770 3.4GHz 3rd Generation Processor with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.9GHz
Installed Memory: 12GB DDR3 SDRAM Memory
Max Memory: 16GB
Case Type: Tower
Graphics Chip/Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition Graphics 2GB of Discrete Video memory
Chipset: Intel H67
Hard Drive: 2TB SATA 7200RPM
Optical Drive: Super-Multi DVDRW
Media Card Reader: Multi-in-one
WiFi: 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN
Audio: HD Audio Support
Ethernet Type: Gigabit 10/100/1000
No. USB Ports: (USB 2.0 x 10 / USB 3.0 x 2)
HDMI: Y
Other Ports: VGA, RJ-45, Audio, Mic
Expansion Slots: (2/3) PCI-E x1 (0/1) PCI-E x16
Input: Keyboard and Mouse included
Power Supply: 750W
Dimensions: 15.82" x 14.92" x 7.09"
Operating System: Window 7 Home Premium 64-bit

I can get one delivered as a manufacturers refurb for around 800 bux and a 90-day warranty (plenty of time to see if there is a problem). The model itself seems to be discontinued via Gateway and they don't seem to be offering another higher-end box like this. I would also have to add a SSD at a minimum for boot to this system so that would put the price around 900-950.

So, what is a competing system with similar specs I could look at or you would suggest?

I think the max memory of 16GB is a bit limiting - depending on what application you are running - particularly for a desktop system. Memory is relatively cheap nowadays, but if the motherboard is limited to 16GB, I would look at some other option perhaps.

My current Lenovo W530 laptop has an Intel 3920XM (essentially the "mobile version" of the 3770K), and it has 32GB of memory, and with a 512 GB SSD (OCZ Vertex 4) as my main drive, it is a really fast system. The memory helps me with my video editing needs at HD (at 1920x1080) resolution ... and I would not do without it!

However, and this is the big issue, the laptop cost was very high compared to similar desktop systems (although the add-on memory from Corsair was relatively inexpensive - paid $182 for 32GB).

Z

It seems like you know what you want. I don't know of any generic PC makers make PCs with cases that have the ability to fit 3+ 3.5" HDDs for raid. I would build my own. What I notice after reading the Gateway specs...

Ram for VMs should be plenty. RAM is cheap and if you plan on running multiple large VMs, why not slap on there 32GBs min.

Video Card. Extra video card memory is only useful with gaming at large resolutions. Multiple monitors benefit from more than 1GBs of RAM. Unfortunately a 7770 won't really be able to allow you to game on multiple monitors in current DX11 titles. It would be MUCH better to game on a single monitor and ramp up the details instead of turning them down in order to get decent frame rates when using multiple monitors. So what I'm saying is that a 7770 won't take advantage of the extra memory. You could probably save some money and get the 1GB version or get the higher end models that will take advantage of the memory.

Every chipset has it's own advantages and disadvantages make sure to do your research on which chipset has the best features for you.

At the end of it all, I would just build your own machine.

Z, good call on the 16GB of memory. May as well get what I can now since I'll keep the system for 4+years at least. The VM's I have want 8GB memory each and I'd be running a couple at a time while testing/playing but 95% of the time I won't have any other VM's loaded and the PC will be for web surfing, photoshop, occasion movie conversions.... and that's about it.

I'm not a gamer so as long as what I get can support multiple monitors I'm fine. If not I have a ATI 5700 series card in this system that I could move over. From a drive perspective I also would not necessarily need a RAID set but would want one additional 2TB drive (I'd pull one over that I have now).

Looking around I saw some suggested configurations like:
GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s 32GB mem USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard 179.99 newegg
i7 3770k - 329.99 newegg
32GB memory....appx 160-ish for 4x8GB
SSD drive - 100 appx for 128GB
2TB SATA = 110
good power supply = 90
CPU cooler 50-ish minimum
BD-R = 70-100
Corsair Carbide Series 400R case = 90
TOTAL is just shy of 1200.00

I think I could build similar and keep it under 1k.

Win7 versions below Pro can't address more than 16BG of RAM so anything beyond that is a waste of money.

Win8 removed the limitation, if you're willing to tolerate all the crap it got wrong. It's cheaper, too. If you're willing to tolerate all the crap it got wrong.

I'd probably load Win7 X64 Ultimate. I have a technet ID so I can pretty much get what I need.

Nice. Cram that badboy full of 16GB DDR3 DIMMS and enjoy.

Now that I have an OS that can take advantage of more than 16GB, I think it's time to upgrade from my four 4GB sticks to at least 4 8GB sticks.

I remember the days when my 200mhz Pentium with 64MB of RAM (Plus 2MB of VRAM on the Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 Pro!) was HARD-EFFING-CORE.

Is the hyper-threading on the i7 really useful when dealing with VMs?

I say this because I see "deals" all the time that gives you discounts on motherboards when you buy an i53xxxK. Paying twice as much for i7 could make me cry.

http://i.imgur.com/0lk4B.png

I'm asking a co-worker that does PC/network configuration for small businesses on the side. I'll let you know if/what he recommends.

Still have not made up my mind what to do....Looking at the following right now:

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9500 AT Ball Bearing CPU Cooler ($31.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z68 Professional Gen3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($264.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Intel 520 Series Cherryville 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer ATX Mid Tower Case ($74.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($84.00 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($55.98 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1231.88

I can also get employee pricing on Dell so I may see what the 8500 series would run and then add the components I want (SSD, more memory, etc).

decisions decisions.

My co-worker said none of his clients have ever needed anything that "big", though he likes the idea of building something like this for "around the house".

Sorry, no helpful recommendation.

I will be running multiple VM's for testing purposes and don't want to impact anything else, thus, the desire for large processing (cpu intensive deduplication engines when running) and memory. Memory is cheap and I want this PC to last 3-4 years minimum. The VM's are based upon appliances I sell which have multiple CPU's up to 96GB of memory.

The 3770k is probably overkill since I don't really plan on overclocking but at $230 bux it's hard to NOT get that over a standard 3770. I'd also have the opportunity to overclock if needed later.

audtatious wrote:The VM's are based upon appliances I sell which have multiple CPU's

So you want emulate that on a setup with only 1 CPU? Or do you plan on simulation "CPUs" by separating cores?

I would shoot for the i7xxxxk, a mobo with a built in overclocking tool, and then grab a closed pre-built water cooling loop.
If you're using the water cooling solution with a dual 120mm rad, you can comfortably take the i7 to 4.3Ghz using the built in OCing feature on mobos.

Water Cooled Loop:

• Corsair H100i
  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835181032
  
  Swiftech had this at CES and it looks amazing.
  http://www.swiftech.com/H220.aspx

Mobo With OCing feature:

• Majority of ASUS or MSI boards carry an OCing feature.

Also not sure what your budget is but you can always go to the 2011 platform. This allows for 6-8 RAM slots on the motherboards; a total of 48GBs or RAM. Or use a 2011 server board and you can have 8 RAM slots and 2 CPU sockets.

2011 Processors

• http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... LGA%202011

2011 Mobos

• http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... LGA%202011

Disadvantages or 2011

• Nothing is cheap about this platform.
  Intel doesn't use it's normal "Tick Tock" with 2011, so it doesn't get an upgrade every 2 years.

Advantages or 2011

• Processing power.
  Even with out the upgrades every 2 years, 2011 is still by far the fastest out there.
  Intel has stated that 2011 is the only platform they plan on releasing 6+ cores on in the future.

The emulation won't be exact for obvious reasons. The VM's are probably built as single procs with 8-16GB memory. My current q6600 won't really open the damn things.

I don't see where I'll need water cooling. I will only run these for short times. All the other times the pc would only be used to surf the net, photoshop, and maybe burn a movie every once in a while. So, it will be sleeping.

I currently have a MSI MB and it has issues. Once bitten, twice shy.

For $230 I'll just stick with the 3770k. To save some bux I will dig over MB's and determine what MicroCenter has since that's where I'll get the cpu. I think 32GB will be plenty of memory for what I'll be doing so no need for more than 4 slots.

I've never run a VM before, so I don't know how much memory that normally eats up, but 32GB seems like a lot! I built my modest PC around the i5-2500k when it came out a while back and installed 8GB, knowing I could upgrade to 16. The most I've seen my system use is around 1.2GB and it normally uses a little over 500MB. That said, I don't do much with it other than surf the net and rip/watch movies. And what few games I do play are all old.

So why would these VM's suck so much memory, 8GB even?

Looneybomber wrote:The most I've seen my system use is around 1.2GB and it normally uses a little over 500MB.

WAT!?

I just built an i5-35xxK Windows7 machine for a buddy. It's a fresh install and on boot-up it loads the normal stuff and it uses about 1GB of ram. By the time I get chrome open it goes to about 1.3GBs for normal light usage scenarios. How the heck do you manage to run an OS on 500MBs? I'm not the average user but the most RAM I've ever used was about 7.5GBs and on average I run at about 4GBs - 5.5GBs.

I'll have to take a screen shot for ya. I did a clean install of Win7 home and use AVG. On initial boot it takes up somewhere around 1-1.2GB, I'll have to look, but it settles into the low 500's in no time. If I use it strickly as a home theater PC and take off anti-virus and other things, It'll hover in the upper 300's to lower 400 MB range.

Also, I have a 650w power supply and hover around the 50w usage range. Even back when I had a phenom 9950, multiple HDDs, and Radeon 4870 it was extrememly hard for me to use more than 250w.

Looneybomber wrote:So why would these VM's suck so much memory, 8GB even?

The VM's I'm going to be messing with are images of deduplication appliances which can be aggressive with memory and processing...When messing/testing with them I may have 2-3 of these running. I've had others try and run one these on 8GB machines and while they will run it takes forever and they are slow. So, I'm simply hedging my bets and going overkill to make damn sure i don't have any issues and wished I had gotten a bigger box or more memory.

So, finally bought 90% of my computer the other day and I started putting it together last night...

i7-3770k processor
ASROCK Z77 Pro4 motherboard
32GB Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3-1600
Corsair Hydro Series H60
SanDisk 120GB SSD Extreme
2TB Seagate SATA
LG DVR+R
Corsair Carbide 300R case
Corsair cx 600w power supply

The above was all slightly above 900 not including a couple mail-in rebates. I will be using the ATI 5700-series video card from my current system which should work just fine for my needs. Additionally I'm going to order at least 3 more 2TB drives. For an OS I'll be running Win7 Ultimate (free).

I should have it booting later today and in full use next week.

Wow that's a heck of a system. It sounds like you do some fun stuff on your computer, where-as mine is used for homework, movies, surfing, etc... Nothing too exciting.

I plan on doing a lot with it...time will tell

Great hardware!

The only issue I see is the H60. The physics behind water cooling dictates that the best benefit to closed water cooling loops comes from 180mm sized reservoirs. The H60 will essentially cool as well as premium air-cooled heatsink. But you already dropped $60 which costs as much as a premium air-cooled setup. I would have went with a 180mm res solution. This way because of laws of diminishing returns you get great watercooling performance that allows you to overclock your i7 while keeping it nice and cool.

Either way, I'm jealous of your toys.

For the most part the cooling system should be fine. The highest I've seen is 31C. If I end up needing something better I'll get it and then put the H60 on my HTPC when I build it

Umm hello, brains one quick question, i have a optiplex tower,ati card with the extra slot, had it for years but now i fear i have been out moded,cant run sto,skyrim,nsf,diablo 3,at the new fps rates, can yall come up a buget system,in the 200-300ish range, flame if u most but i love my old opti

Honestly, nothing. At the very least you're going to need to double your budget. Even then, for say $500 you would HAVE to build it yourself to get the performance you want. Really any pre-built system for under $500 probably won't run Skyrim on lowest settings. For $500, if you build it yourself, you might get medium/high settings, but that's if you can catch all the right parts on sale. Bump your budget up to $600 and then you can buy something off-the-shelf that would be playable.

CyberpowerPC Gamer Ultra 2098
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• AMD FX-Series FX-4300 (3.80GHz) 64 bit Quad-Core Processor
• 8GB DDR3 1333
• 500GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s 7200RPM HDD Capacity
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
• AMD Radeon R7 240 2GB

Pretty box, but I don't really like out the box rigs,however I need a new system seen new egg site but a+was a long time ago .thx for the help

jbracy7 wrote:Pretty box, but I don't really like out the box rigs,however I need a new system seen new egg site but a+was a long time ago .thx for the help

But you've got a Dell Optiplex?

Just out of curiosity, what are the specs on your rig? Maybe you could just upgrade video card.

Dell optiplex gx 2.8ghz,2 ddr2 duel channel ram runing photom 2gb in each slot,gforce 840pgs 1gb why, two cards, sata hd, oem optical drive, no name card reader,dell 2.4 ghz router,buget build form 5-7yrs back, loved it during star wars online,wow before they nerfed it,and sto runs but at lowest setting, nsf run no go,skyrim kills my rig on lowest setting, i know peaple say dell sucks,alienware doesn't suck and its all dell

As I type this my rig just lost all its guts yellow light,cpu fan screeming I hate my luck

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