Building a Gaming Beast

[Talcite]

If you're that worried about a few hours lost rendering time, look into workstation graphics cards. They'll blow your budget pretty fast though. check the nvidia quadroFX series.

also look into the woodcrest/fb-dimms/server mobos. We can't help you with those though, I don't think there's 10 people on this forum with experience with them.

And look into the mac pro.

 

[cmdrdredd]

This topic pops up so often...just copy what someone else built and go bigger (more HD, more memory, bigger videocard, bigger monitor).

 

[Kaldire]

Call asus and nvidia. If you have the 32 board you can run 2 7950GX2 in sli. If you want you can run just 1 WITHOUT SLI. You do not need sli to run this card. Hope that helps. But if i were you I would get dual 7900gtx's as they get far better scores in 3dmark. I have one 7950gx2 and I get horrid fps playing most games ( X3- Oblivion) all under 20 fps with this card. I read its because most games dont see the SLI part making it really one 7900GT which is only worth like 200$. Just food for thought. Anyone know of other boards like this I can seek help on? Mabye less critical ones?

 

[wiredvibes]

Kalidire I was looking online and most games do support the SLI, Fear Quake 4 etc.. and they all have a major boost in FPS compared to just one 7900GT. so maybe its not ure card.. maybe its something else... but getting a frame rate of under 20 in oblivion is kind of wierd because im running 2 gigs of ram with a P4 extreme 3.6 and a ATI mobility 9800 (256) and i still get arnd 25 ... but get back to me abt oblivion ..coz i stopped playing it becoz i was getting a crappy frame rate ... and if my newer machine gets the same rates.... ill cry....

Talcite yeah i was thinking abt a MAC but... not really im way toooo used to windows and well i need windows for my gaming and programming classes coz u cant run half these engines without a windows based system. Linux has enuf trouble already.

and as it turns out all i need is a mobo with 2 PCI16x's and SLI ccertified and i can link them up. so i think the ASUS P5N32 SLI Deluxe mobo shud be good for me.

 

[Kaldire]

Yea most new games are starting to support sli but here is a few that are not supported and I know there is a list floating around somewhere

NFSU2 NO SLI
The chronicles of Riddick NO SLI
Vampire bloodlines NO SLI
Madden NFL 2005 NO SLI
Star Wars Battlefront NO SLI

These are just a few I found on sites, but trust me there are way more games that dont see sli than do. But all new ones will see it, usually lol. Yea as for oblivion I get the same FPS as I did on my 6600GT TOP only the settings are set higher with the new card same low fps though. CSS, Americas Army, BF2, DOD, all these games seem to run like crap on it (shrug)
Im sending the card back for a 7900GTX screw dis halfarsed sli card. BTW my best friend has 2 7800gtx stock in sli and he gets FAR better scores in 3dmark06 than I do, and we have the same cpu and board lol. yea idk either. Lemme know on the oblivion and mabye X3 reunion. Thats another game my fps didnt change on. Plays smoother now though. Also now when I alt tab out of some games I get a TV fuzz but colored SMEAR and it stays on the screen for about 30 seconds. I cant do anything but move the mouse. Then I hit alt tab again poof its gone. Very odd indeed. Good luck to ya !

 

[robkas]

$150k for a college with a major in game design? Hmm...i must have skimmed over that one.

What you will need to do to suit your needs is build a seperate workstation PC and a seperate gaming pc.

THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED

as you can see, if you go with that and build two different pcs' (one for gaming and one for using maya, and 3dmax) you won't have very much left over on your gaming PC



thats my opinion anyways

 

[wiredvibes]

But SLI or not... the card is still atleast 512mb right ... even a single one and both the ram and the new processor it should be a major boost. I could play Q4 fine with my laptop right now.. but I want to play it on high or ultra when i upgrade... and alot of games are coming out with patches that are starting to support SLI .. and i know oblivion's next patch will make it SLI enabled. Also it sounds to me as ure card might be busted... or over heating or something. you should not get thosee wierd things when u cahnge resolutions so fast. might want to send it for a replacement. I play CSS fine on my laptop so im assuming that it will improve when i build this machine. Vampire MAsquerade Bloodlines does not need SLI!!! ahaha i have never seen that game go glitchy even on my sisters celeron with a 64mb card. but thanks for all the input Kaldire... ure a major help .. keep it coming. Im confirming with a buddy of mine whoose running oblivion on his 7950 .. hes gonna get back to me.. ill PM u abt it ...

robkas... man that thing looks like its a beast ... but i dont think i need that much to render... ill be rendering my animations on a network render with my laptop and this desktop and my friends machine... ill be using this to get test renders while working. right now i haveto wait 1hr to render a frame with lights shadows and well high detail modelling . .. i havent even put in textures yet and i dont think i can.. i think my laptop will catch on fire...

anywho .. thanks keep it coming

 

[Talcite]

Oblivion is one of the most graphically intensive games out there. your 9800 can't handle anywhere close to that amount of work.

I don't like macs, but they can run windows as well just so you know. The mac book pro is dual boot, the mac pro should be aswell.

The one robkas pointed out isn't even a "beast" There's workstation graphics cards out there that will set you back twice as much. What do you mean you'll be network rendering? If you really need $4500, then you should get the workstation cards, otherwise it's just not worth it. You shouldn't rely on gaming graphics cards for rendering. Some CAD programs just don't support gaming graphics cards. I'd say spend the money for the reason you're spending it. School.

Plus it'd really suck to spend 4500 for a system that is obsolete in 6 months, plus won't give you the performance you were expecting in the first place.

Workstation cards are generally much more expensive than gaming cards. There's a host of reasons out there, but you should realize a $1200 card won't render CAD as well as a $500 gaming card games. Look into the quadro FX4500 X2. Of course you have to ensure you're using a gpu oriented rendering program... I've seen the nvidia gelato one. Looks pretty cool. This is the regular FX4500: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814133162

 

[wiredvibes]

Talcite .. if you can link up more than one computer in a LAN then you can do a network render . What the software does is utilize all available computers on the specified network to render, hence speeding the process up. This software is given free to us from the university.. although maya has one that is inbuilt but does not work that well. The only reason im spending money on a GPU which isnt primarily for rendering is because I use this machine for more that school... I game alot... I will only be using the GPU while I work to check if my model looks fine, and the ram makes more a difference for IPR renders than the GPU.I dont use alot of the technical design softwares which are the ones that dont support the gaming GPU's I use MAYA MAX PHOTOSHOP AFTER EFFECTS COMBUSTION SOUNDFORGE FINALCUT PRO PREMIER FLASH ILLUSTRATOR CORELDRAW and QUARKexpress and amongst all these only maya and max are heavy on the GPU and for what i need, this computer it is ok. I use macs all the time in the school labs, and i hate them.. its just a personal choice. Just lost alot of work on the G5's becoz something crashed or something isnt responding and the damn rainbow coloured circle is spinning there mocking me -.- but thanks for the idea. I was initially thinking abt building one for rendering and stuff but then i realized i wont be able to game or even test the games that i make on the machine. (I use exising game engines to make mods at a company - Plan of Attack by agorastudios is something i was apart of, It uses the HL2 engine and that needs a gaming card to test). So i decided I could figure this network rendering thingy out and build myself a gaming rig powerful enuf for rendering. thanks for the input

 

[robkas]

it would be foolish to build a PC with a gaming GPU that is needed for rendering

 

[Talcite]

ahh then if you're not going to render hard core on that system, you shouldn't be spending $4500. It's a waste. A $2000 machine would be capable of doing what you just described.

 

[Blain]

I've got a buzillion dollar budget (CAD)...
* I want to beat anyone at the latest games. Quad cards are fine.
* I need to be able to give Pixar a run for their money when it comes to video animation and production.
* I need blazing fast and redundant HDs, 2TB minimum.
* The system must be silent and fit into a SFF case no larger than an Aria.
Beyond those specs, I'm pretty open.

BTW, I'd also need at least 3 30" monitors for my buzillion dollars. A wireless keyboard would be nice also if I can squeeze it in.

 

[wiredvibes]

ok .. for all concerned with a gaming GPU i can game and render, granted the rendering wont be blazing fast, but with a rendering GPU i can render really fast but i wont be able play games at anything above 1024 x 768. and with rendering its just a time crutch its not as though my frame rates drop so much that i cant work. I only need to render a few frames on this thing a week that recquire major power. I need 4Gigs of RAM and I need close to a terabyte for Raw data. I need a 5.1 sound card for audio editing during post production becoz i work in 5 channels. I also need decent speakers to test this audio, I need atleast a 24 inch monitor and its not a buzillion dollars. all this will cost me arnd 4k the specs i posted initially wudve cost me arnd 4K. and 4K is a long way from a buzillion dollars. I dont want even 1 30 inch and i def dont need 2TB of HDD space. hell the only reason i picked the G15 was becoz im getting it for 50 bucks from a friends shop, im not willing to pay 100 bucks for a keyboard. the G5 is what i use on my laptop and i wanted to keep it same on both machines so i dont get all messed up with different weights and dpi. I need a mobo that i can upgrade on in the future and i need only 4 gigs right now, If i need to upgrade in even 1 year i dont wont to buy a whole new mobo and 8 gigs of ram. Id rather buy 2 sticks of 2 gigs now and 2 more of the same when i upgrade. im buying the 7950 becoz it uses only a single card. the E6600 and the E6700 are pretty similar but i figured for an extra 100 why not?? u tell me if ican get all this in 2000

 

[Talcite]

for 2000 USD? you'd be damn close.

Lets see.. for 2000 CDN I got:

-a palm TX
-a palm wireless keyboard
-an e6300
-a D975XBX mobo
-an APC line interactive 900VA UPS
-a maxtor maxline III 250g server harddrive
-a 17" LCD NEC 70GX2 monitor
-a gig of PC6400 ram
-a seasonic S12 430w psu.
-a scythe ninja
-a P180
-and a gigabyte 7600gt silent pipe II.

If i can do that... for Canadian dollars... from canadian retailers (!!!) then you'd be really close. I had to add an extra 300 to my system because I couldn't buy from US retailers. You'd have no idea how different the prices are. And the $2000 was tax included with shipping.

Granted, I did some creative shopping and I looked REAL damn hard.

Now.. about your system. There's no way you can expect to avoid upgrading everything 2 years from now. Do you know what we were using 2 years ago? intel socket 478 processors, with ddr400 ram. and 320 gigs was insane. oh and AGP was the king of the world. and sata was a fly on the wall. I'd say your $4500 system is going to be worth $900 in 2 years.

$4500 on the other hand, will still be worth $4500 2 years from now. (more if you invest)

You know what you could do? Split your budget in 1/2, ditch the high end, save the cash, and upgrade when it gets slow. That way, you'll end up with a faster system 2 years from now AND spend the same amount of cash. You know why large corporations or governments are so damn inefficient? because they have cash coming out of their ass crack. They can spend it on whatever the damn they want, and they can't seem to make an intelligent compromise.

It's your call. You already have the $4500 budget. I'll give you a quick build that would fit $2500

-seasonic S12-430w $100

-CM Stacker T01 $115

-Seagate 7200.10 320gig $95
You'll want a couple. Take 4. $380

-benQ 16x DVD-RW $27.25

-OCZ gold 2x1g pc6400 $157 Take 2. $314

-Gigabyte DS3 $150

-Core 2 duo e6600 $459

-Creative X-fi $122

-X1900XT $313

Total: $1980.25 before tax and shipping

Isn't it remarkable what a little corner cutting can do? This system would smoke ANYTHING you own right now, and probably anything anybody on your block owns for the next year. Plus it has your 1.2 tb required HDD space, and 4 gigs of ram.

With the left over money, you could buy any monitor and any speakers you want.

These arn't even final prices. Newegg is expensive, and things could be gotten for cheaper.

$4500 probably would have gotten you a marginally better system. now instead... 4500-1980.25 = $2519.75. You have $2519.75 to spend on your next system. Probably more because you can reuse the case and possibly psu.

It's your call, and your money.

 

[DasFox]

Yes what LOUISSSSS says is SPOT on! $4500 to spend on a gaming rig is insane. $3000 is mad enough, LOL, that's about what my GameRig goes for.

 

[wiredvibes]

ok . ... your machine is decent but speakers 250bucks, montior arnd 800 so thats a 1000 bucks right there which comes up to arnd 3000. currently im only spending 1000 more. It isnt as INSANE!!! as you think it is. and my machine will be more than marginally better. ..my prices arent final either . all the prices I got were from newegg as well. so mine cud even go for arnd 3500. currntly its 4000 from newegg. an some parts from a friends store.

when i haveto upgrade even if i buy 2 new GPU's and 4 more sticks of ram, a new mobo its only 2000 for an overhaul. Ill still be using the same input devices, same case, same PSU, same sound card, monitor, speakers, UPS. the only thing is the processor. may haveto change that may not haveto. but again thats a total of 2500. and thats with room ... sooo I think im fine with what im building.

the only thing im changing from my original plan is the RAM (Corsair) , the mobo (ASUS P5NE32 SLI SE DELUXE), HDD's (probably get 2 500's Segates or WD's SATA's). People have said that the case is bad.. but i think it is very good specially all the cooling and one of my friends just bought one and we tested it, the noise is minimal. hell my laptop makes more noise than that. PSU is the only thing im still looking for. some people are saying that the thermaltake is horrible some are saying it is awesome, but the seasonic is only 600W's which means ill haveto buy a new PSU in 2 years. and nVidia has certified it, whereas the seasonic hasnt. may just be money under the table, but nVidia wont certify something that does not work.

4500 is something I DONT WANT TO EXCEED, its not something I haveto spend.

 

[DJCrunkMix]

this is retarded... i would NOT spend 4500 $ on a rig... for 2000 $ you can get an AWESOME pc. save the rest for college.