Build your $10,000 dream machine!

[TheKub]

Ok. You have a $10,000 computer budget (I dont know how you won a beauty contest or something) what would you build.

Some may concentrate on the machine/monitor alone however it is certainly fine to do complete kit computer/monitor/ups/speakers/KB+M/printer/etc. So make it happen guys single or dual processor? AMD or Intel? Lcd or Crt? DVD-RW? SCSI or IDE? To raid or not to raid that is the question ... Lets see who has to guts to show the world what their made of??


LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

 

[ElFenix]

lets see... about $1000 on whats in the box, maybe $1200, another $800 or so on a couple of 19" vegas, and the rest toward the killed sound system.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

I'd keep the box I have and wait till I save up another $10k to buy this monitor

-Ice

*edit* small mistake removed

 

[Wolfsraider]

if you had to spend 10000.00 dollars here is my take but remember to substitute you brands or favorites instead

1 Antec SX1040B SOHO File Mid-Tower Server Case (Black)
$138.99
1 Intel(R) Pentium(R)4 Processor (Northwood) 2.2GHz, 400MHz FSB, Socket 478 (No Memory) Retail
$539.00
1 Abit TH7II-Raid i850 P4 Skt478 RDRAM ATX Motherboard w/Audio, RAID Retail
$166.75
4 Samsung Original RAMBUS 256MB 800MHz 16-Device ECC Memory
$368.00
1 Adaptec 3200S RAID KIT 2CH PCI to U160 w/ 32MB SDRAM Retail
$670.00
2 Seagate Cheetah X15 36LP ST336752LW 36.7GB 68pin 15k RPM 3.7MS Ultra160 SCSI Hard Drive
$939.98
1 Seagate Cheetah 73LP (ST373405LW) 73.4GB 68-pin 4.9ms 10K RPM SCSI Hard Drive
$670.99
1 ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 8500DV 64MB DDR Video Card w/DVI, Video in & Video out Retail
$338.95
1 Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum eX Retail
$225.00
1 Liteon LTR-40125S 40x12x48 E-IDE CD-RW Drive w/Mt. Ranier Retail
$134.50
1 Pioneer 16x DVD 40x CD, EIDE, slot load, internal, DVD-106S
$63.50
2 Sony GDMFW900 Multiscan 24in FD Trintron Display Retail
$3870.00
1 Logitech Cordless Freedom Pro Keyboard & Mouse Combo Retail
$82.25
1 Creative Labs Inspire 5.1 Digital 5700 Speaker
$244.99
1 Artec AM12S SCSI Scanner
$69.99
1 Epson Stylus Color C80 Inkjet 2880x720 20PPM USB/PAR 5 Color Printer Retail
$191.00
2 Western Digital Caviar WD1200JB (WD1200BB Special Edition) 120GB EIDE ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer
$469.98
Subtotal: $9183.87
Shipping Method Shipping Charge
UPS Ground (travel time 5-8 business days) $306.47

spend what's left over on software

you could go dualie but that's your call it would help for the scsi layout above and you could add more scsi drives raided without the restrictions of a 32 bit bus
and this is nice but not intended to be the best just a start off for your thread i would change the speakers to boston ba4800's ,get a better scanner add two more 73 gig scsi drives and get rid of ide completely but would limit the raid 0 array to two drives due to the bus even that would be overkill and i'd probably wait for the next generation r300 all-in-one wonder card from ati as you would get the latest and greatest also i included ati because i like their all around style video cards but am also looking at the gforce video cards and although the gf4 is a nice card i would wait to see what the next generation brings there too
again all this is hypothetical

hope this helps

 

[SexyK]

<< I'd keep the monitor and wait till I save up another $10k to buy this monitor

-Ice >>



The lease on that TFT is more than on most cars!:Q

Kramer

 

[bacteria]

Why buy one PC for that kind of money when you can get two kick-ass systems? Here are my picks


Dell Dimension 8200

Dimension® 8200, Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.0GHz
1GB PC800 RDRAM
Dell® Enhanced Performance USB Keyboard
19 in (19.0 in viewable) 1900FP Digital Flat Panel Display
64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500 Graphics Card with DVI and TV-Out
80GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive
3.5 in Floppy Drive
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Microsoft® Intellimouse® Explorer
3COM® PCI 10/100 Remote Wake Up Network Card
56K Telephony Modem for Windows® XP
16X Max Variable DVD-Rom Drive for Altec Lansing 995 Speakers
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz DSP Sound Card
Altec Lansing THX Certified ADA995 Surround Sound 5.1 Speaker System
Microsoft® Works Suite 2002 with Money 2002 Standard
250MB Iomega Zip Built-In Drive with One Disk
Dell Jukebox powered by MusicMatch
Dell Picture Studio Image Expert® 2000
3Yr Ltd. Warranty- 3Yrs At-Home Service + Lifetime Phone Support
6 Months of America Online Membership Included
THX® Certified System Package
Free Quicken 2002 Suite (includes Turbo Tax Deluxe)
APC SURGESTATION PRO8T2
24x/10x/40x CD-RW Drive with Roxio's Easy CD Creator®

Total: $4315


Apple G4 PowerMac

1GHz - DP PowerPC G4
1GB SDRAM - 2 DIMMs
80GB Ultra ATA drive
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX dual
Apple Studio Display (17" flat panel)
Zip 250 Drive
Apple SuperDrive
56K internal modem
Apple Pro Speakers
Apple Pro Keyboard - U.S. English
Mac OS - U.S. English

Total: $4356


These two sum up to $8671 and the rest is to spend on imaging and 3D software =)

 

[TheKub]

Good start!

but I believe Wolfsraider is pulling ahead! Lets see what else you guys can come up with!

 

[bluemax]

I'd only spend about $2000 on the computer itself - even that's pushing it.
AMD/P4, couldn't care less. Somewhere around or over 2GHz.
SILENT FANS
Nice, cool case.
Silent fans.
Large, fast, QUIET hard drive (or two) A pair of 80's or 120's shouldn't be too unreasonable.
Nice, quiet DVD-ROM and CD-RW.
Lots and lots of blank CD's
A couple 200-capacity CD binders.
A decent VIVO or AIW card- 7500 or 8500AIW. Plus a VCR on the side.
good optical mouse.
GOOD ergonomic keyboard
Nice sound card - I'm thinking TB Santa Cruz.
Almost forgot a UPS! Something to not only provide a few minutes of power in an outage, but also to REGULATE the power coming in to all this expensive stuff.

So in other words, a good computer without spending more than $2000! The rest goes towards:

For me- a PRO AUDIO card from EgoSys or MIDIMan (or similar)
SOFTWARE! (Games for some, music software for me! 3D programs for others...)
AN AWESOME DESK AND AWESOME CHAIR! (Oh to have a nice desk with a comfortable chair! Lots of workspace, lots of filing and storage space...)
AN AWESOME PRINTER! (None of this inkjet junk - colour laser for me, thank you! Unless it's a photo-quality inket for pictures and a laser for everything else. Colour laser has got to be about as good as a HP 900-series, right? Haven't checked reviews for a few years...)
AN AWESOME, HUGE MONITOR! Not just big, but awesome quality so your eyes don't hurt! As compact/light as possible without being flatscreen LCD. I have nothing against LCD, but big screen LCD = big waste of money!) :| Then radiation-proof the thing.
AWESOME SPEAKERS! None of these lil' $100-250 5.1 sets from Creative Labs and their ilk. For me, pro audio monitors - for others, theatre-quality speakers with amplifier/decoder.

Home insurance for all this stuff!

Have I missed anything?
Oh yeah.... that $10k US would be ~$16,000 Canadian.

 

[c8]

With $10,000, budget I would...

Spend additional $2,000 on PC upgrade and
Get a Sony 760C Clie PDA or iPaq (Budget around $1K)
Budget the rest for a dedicated server at a hosting company hosting domains and sites : )

 

[WarCon]

Um with $10,000, you might pull off something pretty radical. Buy a dual server case (room for hotswap hard drive bays later. Just a real nice P4 2.2A, basic refrigeration system (your now glad for the big case). This is the tricky part since I am not certain if projectors are mature enough, but build an overhead projection onto one of those high reflection curved screens. Make a custom reclining chair with swing in wireless keyboard, mouse and joystick tables. (Could be on ceiling arms for a really cool effect).

Maybe I went over a little, but it sure sounds like fun.

 

[jeffrey]

From what's available right now I'd go for an Intel P4 2.2Ghz with a gig of PC800 and two Western Digital 120gb drives with 8mb of cache in a raid array. A GeForce4 TI4600, 16X dvd rom, Yamaha 3200 24X burner, and a Intellimouse Explorer 3.0. Round that out with the necessities like os, floppy, etc and the total would be around $5k or so.

I'd spend the other 5grand on finding some way to get a fat pipe to the internet backbone.

 

[Jerboy]

<< Ok. You have a $10,000 computer budget (I dont know how you won a beauty contest or something) what would you build.

Some may concentrate on the machine/monitor alone however it is certainly fine to do complete kit computer/monitor/ups/speakers/KB+M/printer/etc. So make it happen guys single or dual processor? AMD or Intel? Lcd or Crt? DVD-RW? SCSI or IDE? To raid or not to raid that is the question ... Lets see who has to guts to show the world what their made of??


LET THE GAMES BEGIN! >>



Maybe some softwares..

I really don't need a $10,000 system. Spending $10,000 just because is a stupid thing, if anything in hardware I'll probably buy large quantities of hardwares with high resale value and auciton them off, convert it to cash and invest what I get from it.

 

[esc]

i'd buy about 8 normal pcs and set up a booth where people pay to play against each other while i watch them shoot their heads off. that way, i can earn more than 10k and get me a car.

 

[tkim]

northwood oc'd to 4 gig via liguid nitrogen....

 

[Zugzwang152]

Did I miss something? Wolfsraider has Creative Labs speakers over KLIPSCH, when price is not an issue?!..............
Excuse me while I go have a heart attack!

 

[HouRman]

Since I won a beauty contest I wouldn't know how to operate a computer so I would use the money to start pushing my career in acting.

Actually if money wasn't an object, I would build a couple of my gaming computers but I don't think 10 grand will cover it. I think 10 grand will cover the speaker wire and door to my home theater, hehe.

And if the computer components don't match.. I'll just toss them and buy some that do.. hehe

My Gaming Computer

 

[HouRman]

For those who don't click on link:

Intel Dual liquid cooled Xeon with 512KB L2 cache and Execution Trace L1 2200MHz @ 3000MHz
Motherboard: TYAN Thunder i860
Memory: 4096 MB of Mushkin PC800 Rambus
Video Card: Gainward (Geforce4 Ti4600 DVI)
Hard Drive: Quad Seagate Cheetah X15-36LP 36.0 GB @ 15000 RPMS
Additional Hard Drives: Seagate Cheetah X15-36LP RAID
8 Seagate ST1181677LWV 180GB

Monitor: Duel IBM T221 22.2IN active matrix LCD 22.2V BL W/CD
CDROM Manufacturer & Model: Kenwood Multibeam true 72X
DVD Manufacturer & Model: Pioneer 305S SCSI Slot feed
CDR/CDRW Manufacturer & Model: Sanyo BP5 24x SCSI, Plextor 40X12X40
Storage Interface: IDE
IDE-RAID
Ultra 160 SCSI

Sound Card: CL Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum EX
Internet Provider: Verizon
Internet Connection Type: xDSL

Operating System: Quad Boot
Other Components: Case: Lian-Li PC-78 Aluminium File Server

Vidicron Epoch D-2200 projector
Lexicon MC-12B prepro
Duel SVS CS-Ultra subs powered by Crown K-2 amplifiers.
Rane PE-17 parametric Equilizers
7 Aerial 20T speakers
5 Parasound HCA-3500 Amps
Solid Silver Speaker cables
Custom Auralex home theater design

Netgear GA622T Gigabit Fiber ethernet NIC
Netgear GS516T 10/100/1000

Krell KAV-300i Integrated Amp
Sennheiser HD600
Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 & Logitech Duel Optic
Natural Keyboard with USB ports
Everglide Giganta w/ Bungie

btw, I think my sound system might sound better than a Klipsch system. hehe

 

[LikeLinus]

HouRman - show me where you can get that setup for 10k and i'll buy it immediately, in cash.

Read the post....10k dream machine.

To be honest i've just about built my dream machine, and i'm always upgrading it. About the only thing i might try is a Northwood and RDRAM. But i'm happy with the SCSI HD's and the Dual 21" FD Trinitrons (flat and freaking beautiful). Got Klipsch and it's really all i need, no point in dropping 10k.


Rig Name: BlackHawk
CPU: AMD XP 1800+ @ 2000+ 1533MHz @ 1667MHz
Motherboard: EpoX 8KHA+
Memory: 512 MB of Crucial PC2100
Video Card: ATI Radeon 8500 (R200)
Hard Drive: Seagate Cheetah Ultra 160 LVD 18.2 GB @ 10000 RPMS
Additional Hard Drives: Quantum Atlas II Ultra 160 LVD 36.4GB - Storage
Monitor: Dual Monitor - IBM Trinitron FD 21 & Dell 21" Trinitron
DVD Manufacturer & Model: Lite-On 16x48 (Black)
CDR/CDRW Manufacturer & Model: Lite-On 24x10x40 (Black)
Storage Interface: SCSI

Sound Card: Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live!
Internet Provider: Comcast
Internet Connection Type: Cable

Internet Connection Speed: 1.5+/128
Operating System: Windows 2000 & Win98 Dual boot
Other Components: Adaptec 29160 U160 Controller
Klipsch Pro Media 4.1 Speakers
Thermatake SK6 Heatsink w/ Delta Fan
Antec SX1030B (Black) Case
Panasonic Floppy Drive (Black)
Netgear 10/100 NIC
Microsoft Natural Pro Keyboard
Microsoft Explorer Mouse
HP scanjet 5470cse
Kodak Dx3700 Digital Camera (3.1 MP cheap camera)

Notes: All black system. Case has 4 fans. Two front fans (one in front, one in HD cage) and 2 back fans.

 

[NeoMadHatter]

i like my system. i'd upgrade my processor, motherboard, videocard, mouse and keyboard. that's about it.

amd 2000+ xp processor
abit kg7-raid or tyan thunder k7
ati radeon 8500dv all in wonder
intellimouse wireless/or not wireless explorer
officexp keyboard.