Critique My Build

This is a Malibal Build I have made. Planning on ordering very soon.


Satori P170HM - $1,734.00 (after $100 off promotion)


Customizations:

Display: 17.3" 1920 x 1080 FHD LED AUO B173HW01 V.5 72% NTSC Matte Display
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM, 6MB L3 Cache, 2.2-3.1GHz
Memory: (8GB) 8192MB, PC3-10660/1333MHz DDR3 - 2 SO-DIMM
Graphics Card: AMD® Radeon HD 6990M 2GB GDDR5
Hard Drive: 750GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300
Optical Drive Bay: 8X Multi DVD+/-R/RW RAM Dual-Layer Drive
Operating System: None
Wireless: Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1102 802.11A/B/G/N LAN Card
Cooling: IC Diamond 7 Thermal Compound, CPU & GPU


Should I think about adding something else? Specifically, should I increase the RAM to 12gb of 1333mhz or perhaps 8gb 1600mhz? I've been told it won't make much difference to my primary use - gaming, and streaming games. I don't do much video/photo editing but might dabble if I get interested enough. Should I add more RAM in case my interests in the future might demand more?

 

It looks like a good build, I don't have any suggestions other than possibly considering an SSD or hybrid drive in place of the primary HDD. That's the slowest part in your build right now, and you'd notice a big performance jump.

As for the RAM, I'd hold off and add more later if you need it. Gaming right now won't make use of more than 8GB except in extreme circumstances. Since you only have 2x4GB sticks in that config, you'll have two empty slots to add more RAM down the road anyway. As for 1600Mhz, it only equals about a 4% increase in synthetic benchmarks compared to 1333Mhz RAM.

 

In-game performance gain from faster RAM is even more negligible than the gain in benchmarks. These charts show a gain of much less than one FPS in-game going from 1333Mhz RAM to 1866Mhz RAM.

AnandTech - Sandy Bridge Memory Scaling: Choosing the Best DDR3

 

To Malibal NBR Forum Representative #2:

By hybrid drives are you referring to these?

- 500GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300 Hybrid w/ 4GB NAND Flash
- 750GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300 Hybrid w/ 8GB NAND Flash


If so, can you explain to me what is NAND Flash? This is some new technology I haven't heard of yet.

Thank you for your fast input.

 

Hello Pride-

Figured I'd offer my two cents. Those Hybrid Drives are actually incredibly cool. They offer the luxury of Solid State Drives with the storage of a mechanical drive. With the 500GB version, you are getting 4GB of SLC NAND Flash that acts as the drive's SSD. This essentially moves frequently used information into flash memory for faster access and faster boot times- up to 40 percent faster than a traditional 7200RPM drive.

I highly suggest either the 500GB (4GB SSD), or the 750GB (8GB of SSD).

Something else I noticed on your build, the Big Foot Wireless Network does not come with Bluetooth in combination. If that is not a big deal for you, then no worries. Intel's 6230 does however come with that technology. But, the Bigfoot 1102 offers way better performance and distance for sure.

Smokin' build no doubt.

Cheers!

 

As far as I know, the P170HM supports SATA III (correct if wrong).

So I might add something like the Crucial M4 in due time, or the Intel 320 series.

But I am trying to not spend too much at once. Ha Ha.

 

The hard drive bays are SATA III while the optical bay would be SATA II.

The Crucial M4 is SATA III like you said, but the Intel 320 is only SATA II. Intel's SATA III SSD is the Intel 510.

 

In theory the M4 should outperform the Intel 320, or am I wrong?

I have heard and read good things regarding both of them.

Any recommendations? I've always liked Mushkin RAM and hardware components for desktop applications. Do they make good SSDs as well?

Just writing out my thoughts.

 

Absolutely the M4 will beat the Intel 320. As gwilled said the reason is the M4 is a SATA III drives vs the Intel 320 is a SATA II. To compare some speeds the Crucial M4 128GB is Read up to 415MB/s Write up to 175MB/s and the Intel 320 120GB is Read Up to 270 MB/s Write: Up to 130 MB/s.

It's better to compare the Crucial to the Intel 510 series which is SATA III. The 120GB drive is Read: Up to 450 MB/s Write: Up to 210 MB/s

 

I'm not familiar with that brand myself, but most retailers here generally recommend Intel drives for reliability and performance reasons. That said, there's no reason why you can't use basically any SSD. Just look for what you can afford and for what has good reviews.

If you're planning to get an SSD in the future, then the hybrid drive probably isn't worth the cost. It doesn't give you much benefit as a secondary drive compared to a regular drive.

 

Hello.

Another question regarding the NAND Flash.

If there is only 8 GB of storage, would it not be maxed out very quickly? Or does the algorithm allow the HDD to intelligently switch what programs it loads unto that amount of storage? What if the files are larger than 4 or 8 GB? For example, someone claimed that the OS will load faster, but we all know Windows 7 is much larger than 8 GB.

Your expertise is much appreciated.

 

It's automatic. The algorithm on the drive automatically moves files in and out of the flash memory based on usage. Windows boot files and commonly used applications tend to be cached quickly and stay there a fairly long time. Yes, Windows 7 is larger than 8GB- but you aren't loading every file in Windows every time you boot up. For example, when was the last time you ran Media Center? How about the administrative tools? The core Windows files aren't actually that big and honestly, most are almost never used

Files that are larger than the SSD cache either won't be loaded or will be loaded partially, but it's not really meant to be used for loading up big video files. Realistically, applications and Windows boot files will make up the vast majority of the cached data.

 

That makes sense. Thanks for the explanation & clarification.

 

I would personally choose a 500GB harddisk or the hybrid as stated, not too expensive and when you do buy the SSD later on, you can always move the current stable main drive to the slave spot