Desktop advice

[ilarion]

I want to ask your opinion about this desktop system :

Cpu : i5 760
Cpu cooler : i have several options here and very low noise is very important :
(option 1) : Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B + 1 Nexus 120mm fan
(option 2) : Thermalright HR-02 + 1 Nexus 120mm fan
(option 3) : Cooler Master Hyper 212+ + 1 Nexus 120mm fan
Mother Board : i think i should buy an Asus lga1156 with many fan connectors so that i will be able to control all the fans in the case with SpeedFan software. All MB-s support 5-6 LAN-s ? .. as i intent to have 5-6 diffent internet connections from different ISP-s
Ram : 8Gb (2x4Gb) DDR3-SDRAM of whatever Ram with small CL i can find
Hdd : i have several options and low noise is again important :
(option 1) : Samsung Spinpoint F4 HD322GJ 320GB SATA 7200RPM
(option 2) : Samsung F2 EcoGreen
(option 3) : Seagate Barracuda 500 GB,5900rpm
Psu : Seasonic X-400 Fanless or SeaSonic X-460FL 460W Fanless (and i think they are modular too). I do not know if you can tell if this 2 Psu-s have compatibility with the other components
Case : i think i should need a bottom Psu case like Fractal R3 / Fractal Design R2 with Nexus 120mm fans which will be conected to the Asus MB. I think Fractal allows me for 5-6 Lan-cards..right ?
Video card : i think any very silent 512Mb card + silent cooler (with 1 fan i guess) should be enough for my needs. Which one of this options you think its the best :
(option 1) : Radeon HD4670 512MB GDDR3 from Sapphire/Asus/Gigabyte/Msi .. around $80
(option 2) : Radeon HD4770 512MB GDDR5 from His/Msi/Asus/Gigabyte/Saphire..around $129
(option 3) : GeForce 9600 GT 512MB GDDR3 from Msi/Asus/Gigabyte/Evga/Zotac/Gainward .. around $106

I will not over-clock any component from the system and i will not play in any game that needs any very good Video card. But the pc will have several virtual machines installed and will run many hours per day and i need it very stable and also very silent. I wait for your advices. Thank's

[Tradesman]

Not really sure what you're after....760 is a very good CPU....cooler in part may depend on mobo and DRAM config.....there are a number of 1156 ASUS boards, some better than others, also unsure of what you mean about hooking in to 5-6 LANS and you say different ISPs, so what you want ethernet cards for each of these or you plan to pay 5-6 ISPs monthly and are going to run each from a modem into a switch or a router and then run them all at once through a gigabit connection???????
....on the 8 GB of RAM...go for the highest speed in your budget, and give consideration to whether 8 is even going to be enough, later you mention you'll be running several virtual machines - simply put 8 may not be enough......on the hard drive, if running several virtual machines and throughput (temp files, etc) don't think you'll be happy with a 320 or even 500 GB for a drive, notr will you be happy with a 5900 RPM or a green drive...for what you've mentioned I'd go with a two or three drive RAID 0.....for a PSU I'd suggest a minimum of a 600 as you'll probably be adding on from the looks of base specs listed.....for case, about anything with good airflow and again I'm lost here, you mention having 5-6 LAN cards (have no idea what you are talking about)......on the video cards, if you can get a 2G 4870 X2 for $117 - definitely go for it (PS and let me know where, I'll grab a few also)

[ilarion]

also unsure of what you mean about hooking in to 5-6 LANS and you say different ISPs, so what you want ethernet cards for each of these or you plan to pay 5-6 ISPs monthly and are going to run each from a modem into a switch or a router and then run them all at once through a gigabit connection???????

I will have 6 virtual machines installed and i want each one of them to have its own IP address so i thought one option can be to have 6 Ethernet Lan cards, each one coresponding to a different Isp connection. Is this option good ?

on the hard drive, if running several virtual machines and throughput (temp files, etc) don't think you'll be happy with a 320 or even 500 GB for a drive, notr will you be happy with a 5900 RPM or a green drive...for what you've mentioned I'd go with a two or three drive RAID 0

Each virtual machine will have around 10Gb disk space..so 60Gb will be enough for all of them.I will give each virtual machine 1Gb of Ram memory..so 6Gb of Ram will be enough for all of them so having 8Gb of Ram + 1hdd (even with 320Gb) should be ok ?

....for a PSU I'd suggest a minimum of a 600 as you'll probably be adding on from the looks of base specs listed.....for case, about anything with good airflow and again I'm lost here, you mention having 5-6 LAN cards (have no idea what you are talking about)......on the video cards, if you can get a 2G 4870 X2 for $117 - definitely go for it (PS and let me know where, I'll grab a few also)

Tha Lan cards are the Ethernet Lan cards and i wondered if Fractal R3 / Fractal Design R2 cases let me install 6 of them. The romanian website where i saw that price for the Saphire Radeon was not recently updated so that offer is not available anymore. Sorry if i gave you false hopes

[Tradesman]

Depending on what your through-put needs are going to be might want to to give thought to using a combination of LAN (ethernet) cards and USB wired ethernet adapters (i.e. see

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...px?Submit=ENE&
N=100010064%20600013871%20600016288&IsNodeId=1&nam e=USB to cut down on the number of cards needed. Depending on the case you chose you'll probably have USB ports available front and back minimum and possibly on top. Can also install a 2 or 4 port add in card or attach a multi-port USB hub

[ilarion]

Depending on what your through-put needs are going to be might want to to give thought to using a combination of LAN (ethernet) cards and USB wired ethernet adapters

Each one of the 6 virtual machines i'll install has to have a different Ip and a different Ethernet Mac address from all the others. Using Usb ethernet adaptors instead of 6 actual ethernet cards will provide me different Ip+Mac addresses ?

[Tradesman]

Each individual card or USB adaptor can be assigned a static IP either by you or by the ISP

[ilarion]

Each individual card or USB adaptor can be assigned a static IP either by you or by the ISP

If, for example, i have 1 ethernet card + 1 Usb adaptor. I have 2 Isp-s that provide me 2 ethernet cables. Can i use 2 virtual machines running at the same time..one using the ethernet card and the other the Usb adaptor for internet connection? If yes the Mac address shown on the internet of the virtual machine using the Usb adaptor will be the Mac address of the ethernet card? Sorry if this is too confusing

[Tradesman]

Setting it up may take a bit of time but yes they can be run on separate IPs through separate ISPs

[ilarion]

Here are some updates :

Cpu : Because i will use the pc mostly for running 6 virtual machines maybe i should change my choice from i5 760 (around $244) to one of this 2 :
Intel i7-950 with FCLGA1366 socket supported (around $360) and suports maximum ddr3 1066 Ram
Intel i7-870 with LGA1156 socket supported (around $349) and suports maximum ddr3 1333 Ram
Which one of the 2 i7 Cpu-s you think is better (maybe motherboard compatibility is important here too ?..and i do not intend to overclock it) The difference in dealing with (6 virtual machines + main operating system) between the i5 and any of the i7 justify this price differences of $105 and $116 ?

Cpu cooler : Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B + Thermal Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-2 4g
Is ok this thermal paste ?

Mother Board : a FLGA 1366 or LGA1156 with at least 2 Pci slots (for my Nics)

Ram : i want 8Gb ddr3-sdram and it will be better to have 2x4Gb or 4x2Gb ?

Hdd : i want a hard disk of at least 7200rpm and because the pc wil run many hours/day it will be a good idea to buy a SAS and not a SATA hdd ? ( http://www.intel.com/support/motherb.../CS-031831.htm ) Some options :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148631
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-536-_-Product

Psu : i think 650W should be more than enough. Options : SeaSonic x-650 / Antec TP-650 / Corsair HX650

Case : Fractal Design Define R3 Titanium Grey. It can have 7 total fans. Do you think it will be overkill if i put 6 fans ? (i will let just 1 top 140mm fan and not 2). This way i guess i will have 3 in-take fans and 3 exhaust fans although i am not sure if the side-panel fan is for exhaust. The case comes also with a Fan controller for 3 fans

Fan controller : Scythe Kaze Server. The fan controller is a must-have ? .. the Fractal case comese with a fan controller for 3 fans

Video card : Asus Radeon HD6850 1024MB DDR5 DirectCU or maybe i should look for a Gpu that exhaust the hot air out of the case and not inside ?

Thank's

[Tradesman]

The 950 is a killer CPU if it will fit in your budget, and OCs well for additional needed power, AS has great thermal compound been using them (various types of theirs for years), mobo will depend on CPU you decide on, DRAM i'd go the 2x4GB that way you have 8 and can add more - if you go 1366 tri-channel same would apply start with 3x4GB (12GB) to allow for expansion and use the tri-channel since available,, 650 prob enough, but may want to look at 7-850, don't really think any amount of fans is overkill, the more airflow the better ( I like in from front and bottom if possible out through back and top, with a combo on the side if available), with the airflow you'll have most any GPU that meets your needs power wise.