Building my dream gaming rig!

[imported_Uzi69]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Gaming/Xvid to DVD Converting
2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
up to $6000
3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
Canada/USA
4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
no
6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Want liquid cooling to overclock...maybe
8. WHEN do you plan to build it?
asap

Help me please! Give me your ideas!

 

[ManBearPig]

get ready for everyone on Anandtech to tell you that you shouldn't spend so much because it is "wasted" regardless of what you have or want to spend.

 

[Aisengard]

I guess you could buy four different extreme edition Intel processors, see which one overclocks the best, and then paste the others onto your diamond-encrusted case.

 

[chinaman1472]

If you WANT to spend that much and have the system be slower than a $2000 machine next year, by all means go for it. Go to Alienware, Dell, Falcon Northwest and customize the craziest system then pick out the same parts and do it yourself.

You're better off spending $1000-2000 now, and upgrading again periodically since technology improves so fast.

 

[jmmtn4aj]

Indeed. Personally for that much I'd get a HP Blackbird or a Mac Pro + 30" Cinema, way too much money to spend without getting some sort of premium (HP and Apple both offer that with their amazing design). To spend all that money purely on parts that go outdated quickly is a waste, IMO. Switch out the card in the Mac for a 9800GX2 or something.

Alternatively you could go with a Skulltrail setup..

 

[Roguestar]

I hereby officially protest against constructively answering anyone's threads if the answer to sticky question #6 is anything other than "Yes, I've got some ideas and want feedback on these things: X Y Z".

 

[0roo0roo]

http://www.hp.com/blackbird

 

[DSF]

To be fair to the OP, there aren't many threads building this type of computer.

Uzi69, have you done any research at all? Any idea what you want?

 

[imported_Uzi69]

I'm thinking...

Intel CPU
Nvidia SLI GPU
4 GB RAM (what kind?)
2 300 GB Veloci-Raptors
Motherboard (?)
Sound Blaster Fatal1ty
Liquid Cooling (don't know)
Case/Power Supply (?)

 

[DSF]

That shouldn't cost you anywhere near $5000.

 

[TonyB]

i've been doing research on my dream system as well, and i notice since your budget is $6000, instead of getting the WD Raptors you could do something like this:

Areca ARC-1230 PCI-Express x8 SATA II Controller Card $709.99

4x Gigabyte i-RAM 2.0 Box Hard Disk Drive $180 each

16x A-DATA 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 $30 each

put 4 sticks of DDR into each i-ram box, then raid-0 the 4 -i-ram boxes using the Areca SATA controller. that'll net you a 16GB SSD drive to install your OS and maybe 1-2 games.

then buy a:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB

and set it as your storage D:\ drive to store any musics or videos you have.

this whole setup will set you back close to $2000, but since your budget is 6k you should have enough money left order to get one of these :

SONY 4X Blu-ray DVD Burner for about $600 and get a pack of blank blu-ray discs to ghost your 16GB OS drive to blu-ray. just in case your power goes out you can easily ghost back your OS.

just my 2 cents, this is a pretty hardcore exotic setup. Ffrom my experience, most people on anandtech only know value systems and thats all they will recommend.

 

[JackMDS]

As a starting point you can take a look at few of the $1000 and above threads.

Like this one, http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2176599&enterthread=y

Then see how you can bump the price on the major components.

If it is still short of $6000 Computer. Send the case for Gold plating.

Another Route to take is to find few guys like the following, and buy from them real classic stuff.

http://steampunkworkshop.com/victorian-all-one-pc

Scroll down few screens and see how a real Computer should look like.

http://steampunkworkshop.com/images/ain30-desktop.jpg

 

[chinaman1472]

Originally posted by: Uzi69
I'm thinking...

Intel CPU
Nvidia SLI GPU
4 GB RAM (what kind?)
2 300 GB Veloci-Raptors
Motherboard (?)
Sound Blaster Fatal1ty
Liquid Cooling (don't know)
Case/Power Supply (?)

Intel Q9450
790i Motherboard
4GB DDR3 Memory
2 300GB VelociRaptors
2 nVidia 9800GX2
Antec 900
Corsair HX1000W
Ditch the sound card
Start reading how to setup watercooling yourself.

 

[Fardor]

have the guy build you one of these http://www.datamancer.net/keyboards/keyboards.htm
and you'll be able to put on another 800-1k

 

[DarkRogue]

2x QX9775 + Skulltrail will set you at around 3.7k in your quest to burn money.. build the rest of the system around that. 8 cores at 4GHz+ sounds nice for a while.

Edit:
Does Skulltrail support SLI? I forget.. if it does, toss in 2x 9800 GX2's and however much RAM is physically possible, and a 2kW PSU.

 

[Urtho]

Don't forget your own personal nuclear reactor to ensure clean consistent power!

Originally posted by: Aisengard
I guess you could buy four different extreme edition Intel processors, see which one overclocks the best, and then paste the others onto your diamond-encrusted case.

LMFAO. I nearly snarfed down my can of coke on that one!

 

[DarkRogue]

Lol, I'm bored so I actually looked it up on Newegg.. that list actually does manage to break 6k.

2x Qx9775 = 3k
Skulltrail = 650
4x2GB DDR2-800 FBDIMM = 500
2x 9800 GX2 = 1220
1.3kW PSU = 350

Then throw in Velociraptor and you've broken 6k.. and still need a case and everything else lol.

 

[chinaman1472]

Meh, screw all that Skulltrail. Go buy a nice 40-50" TV and hook up a mid-high end PC to it. That'll set you back ~2-3k. And get nice 5.1 or 7.1 surround system to go with it, that should set you back another ~1.5k. And you can still build a banging system for 2k.

 

[Jschmuck2]

Put a down payment on a decent car.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450/Xeon X3350 2.66GHz, 12 MB L2 - $350
DFI Lanparty DK X48-T2RS - $224.99
G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2 1000 - $178.98 (for two kits, bringing you to a total 8GB)
EVGA Geforce 9800GX2 - $529.99
Corsair CMPSU-750TX - $129.99 (You don't need it but it's kinda cheap)

3ware 9690SA-4I-SGL SAS/SATA Controller - $319.99
4x Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB 7.2k rpm Hard Drives - $879.96
LG Super Multi Blu-ray Disc Burner & HD DVD-ROM Drive GGW-H20L - $299.99 (burns Blu-ray discs)

Optimus Maximus Keyboard - $1564.72 (for bling)
Logitech Media Black Keyboard - $14.99 (to actually get some typing done)
Logitech G5 Mouse - $49.99
Microsoft Xbox 360 Controller - $34.99 (or get the wireless for +$5)

Pick any Full Tower case you like. Cooler Master, Silverstone, Lian Li, Thermaltake - up to you. I set limit to $250. Ask someone in Case & Cooling to outline you a $300 watercooling setup. Throw in extra ~$200 if you want to watercool the GPU too. So we are up to $3563.86 (minus GPU waterblock and the obvious joke Optimus Maximus keyboard - unless you really like it).

The four 1TB RAID5 array would be overkill for someone that isn't working with HDV/XDCAM etc., you can save $100 by foregoing BD-R capability (but keeping BD and HD DVD playback). Read the stickied LCD thread in Video to find out what monitor you need.

And Paypal me $50 for my time spent writing this post.

 

[nineball9]

If you want to pay for an excellent paint job, try Falcon Northwest. Single-color painted case (generic or any automotive paint color) is around 500 USD. Prices go up from there for custom paint jobs, including their previous designs, to just about anything you can dream up.
Falcon Northwest