Final Gaming rig *$4500* opinions are welcomed

[MraK]

I know that many of you *you know who you are*: have wondered and have said for me to put my topic into one area and i did. But also I have finally decided *please disregard what i wrote in the CPU section* to what i will spend my budget on and please share all of your welcomed opinions and surely they will be taken into thought and consideration.:thumbsup:

and most of all tell me what is out of balance for this gaming rig.

thanks in Advance.:sun:


Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo e8500 (try to OC it to 4.0ghz+) $280
Motherboard: XFX 780i SLI $290
Memory: 4GB mushkin (2GB x 2) DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) or if i find some better DDR2s $144
Harddrive: 150GB Raptor $170
Video Card: 2 GTX280s (for SLI) around $1000
Optical Drive: 2 Pioneer DVD burners $68
Casing: Antec 1200 full-tower $160
Power Supply: XIGMATEK NRP-HC1001 1000w $250 or if I find some better PSU
Monitor: PLANAR 26" px2611w widescreen $897 or if I find some better monitor
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit $170
Windows Office 2007 OEM $79.
Aftermarket Cooling for CPU: Tuniq $67

TOTAL: $3,535+ shipping and handling + testing fees (option at some websites) = $3650
I did not add speakers since i have some already, as well as keyboard/mouse (Im using Logitech btw.

*This spec list was recently updated btw*

 

[DSF]

With that budget why get a 150GB Raptor when you can get the newer faster 300GB version?

 

[MraK]

with all the parts Im getting for this new gaming rig, i dont have the budget for 300GB version, basically all the parts add up to $4100-$4300, thats with shipping and handling, plus testing *the sites where I'll be ordering the parts have an option if you want the items tested before shipping *reduces the chances of DOA or defective parts* you just add 5-10bucks per part, will it depends on what part that is.

 

[DSF]

Then I would take your PSU down a notch (1250W is unnecessary) to make room for the VelociRaptor. There's no reason to put an outdated hard drive in a computer like that. (Or I'd go DDR2, which I'd really recommend anyway, but I know you're past that point.)

 

[Winterpool]

It looks to be Q3 before you can buy and build. By that time the Q9550 should drop towards $300.

Dang you really are going to spend $4000, incroyable! I suspect I may have contributed in no small part towards your achievement of that goal with my recommendations for an IPS-panel monitor. If the DoubleSight DS-603N is back in stock by Q3, you may be able to save another couple of hundred bucks on your total.

Now, I see why your budget is so high: Windows Vista Ultimate x65. Bloody hell!

 

[Genx87]

No need for a 1250 watt PSU. Save yourself some cash and get one in the 500-600 watt range. Use that money to get a 300GB Raptor and 4 more GB of ram.

You could probably go with 2nd ring parts and cut the price in half. 2nd ring parts being 1 notch down from the best. But for 4K, you better have 8GB of ram imo.

 

[nerp]

Yeah no offense dude, but you're really wasting money in places you shouldn't. Scale back on the PSU and get 8GB of ram and Velociraptor instead. If you're going for super high budget, performance should be priority one.

 

[Isaac MM]

Instead of getting that raptor, why don't you get 2x Samsung f1 320gb and put them in raid-0? they will out performance the raptor, you will have 4x more space and they cost like 70$ each

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I like your case selection

Everything else, not so much

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: Isaac MM
Instead of getting that raptor, why don't you get 2x Samsung f1 320gb and put them in raid-0? they will out performance the raptor, you will have 4x more space and they cost like 70$ each

With double the failure rate as well. Not a big fan of RAID 0 on the desktop.

 

[themisfit610]

^

Thats why you don't store anything crucial on a RAID 0 array Use it for Windows and apps / scratch space.

Keep archived ISO images, music, movies, documents, pictures etc on separate (backed up) drives.

Now regarding the OP - you are really spending your money in a non-intelligent fashion.

1) DDR3 = fail
2) PSU is way overpowered. fail again.

As other people have said, use 8GB of DDR2 (show me one real-world scenario where DDR3 beats DDR2 by more than a reasonable margin of error!!!), drop down the PSU to something sane and appropriate, and get a VelociRaptor!

Don't waste money... if you're going to spend $4k on a computer, then do it right!!!

I like how you're spending a lot of money on your LCD. That's very often skimped on. I LOL at ppl with an 8800GTX or other high end card playing games at 1280x1204 on a 19" LCD. It's kind of silly.

I would encourage you to get a good set of headphones (www.head-fi.org can help) and a nice little amplifier like the E-Mu 0202, and enter into the realm of production-quality audio. It really adds to the user experience!

Interface really is everything

~MiSfit

 

[Jax Omen]

I say either get the WD Caviar 640GB HDD, it compares VERY close to the 150GB Raptor for $100, or get the Velociraptor.

I still say get a less expensive mobo and go for DDR2. There's just no advantages to DDR3 for the foreseeable future. DDR2 would let you get 8GB and still spend less money on your memory.

Unlike the others, I say go for it on the PSU. PSU is the one area I *never* skimp on. better to overspend and have too much PSU than to put everything together and find out you cut things a bit too close. Plus a powerful PSU leaves you more upgrade room later.

 

[Martimus]

I would set a more modest goal for your overclock with that processor.

 

[themisfit610]

Unlike the others, I say go for it on the PSU

But dude.... 1200W is just dumb. He would be more than ok with 800 - 1000w. 1200w is exotic territory and would only really be needed for tri-SLI setups, Skulltrail, or other equally stupid things.

~MiSfit

 

[MarcVenice]

Spending 4k is one thing, something I used to frown upon, but if you've got 4k to spend, why not. But if you do, spend it wisely. Telling people, look, I spend 4k on this and that, showing them outdated hardware and 'not so smart' choices will only make them laugh... Also, since you're not spending it just yet, this thread barely has any merit, wait for the parts you want to come out, before deciding on anything. You might like a HD4870 in crossfire better then a GT280, who knows ? DDR3 is silly too, only when Nehalem arrives would ddr3 be worth it, and even then I kind of doubt it, but it should be cheaper when Nehalem pops up.

 

[MraK]

DSF,

The reason for a PSU is because just in case the GTX280 is a huge success i might as well get another GTX280 and put them in SLI, and i have read that it will use at least 238WATT of power so it safe to be at least above 1000w, for the coming future. Hmmm as for the 300GB version, the places where i order my parts, i still haven't seen that version thats why i went for 150GB. Regarding memory, the new Gigabtye motherboard is suspected to use both DDR2 and DDR3, so my options are still open to decide when i finally shell out $4000+

Winterpool,

yea Im actually waiting for mid July to get all this stuff, for three reasons: 1)enough time to see the reviews on the new GTX280, since it was written that it will be out this month, so getting it in July instead of the time of it release is plausible. 2) the new Gigabyte GA-790SLI-DQ6 motherboard will be out on the first week of July (i have trusted Gigabyte in the past and i have high hopes for this board since i already gigabyte SLI board *my sig*. 3) As the nehalem is getting closer, assuming thats the reason, there will be a price cut in July and getting the Q9550 wouldnt be so much of an expensive deal in my book. As for IPS-panel monitor, isnt the monitor I'm getting from PLANAR an IPS monitor?

Genx87,

As it was stated for DSF, i just wanted to be on the safe side since if the new GTX280 becomes a success its better to have a little more than enough, than to be right on the money, and not sure but since im getting a big monitor *sorry for the noob question* don't they use up alot of watts too? And the sites where i order my parts from still doesn't have the 300GB version, reason for just getting the 150GB version instead. Hmmmmm alot of people have said that 8GB of ram is overkill, and 1600mhz DDR2 ram is already expensive yet the main reason for that memory is to help my quad cpu to reach 4.0ghz. Stupid i know, but i was looking a the technical aspect of achieving 4.0ghz on a quad.

nerp,

PSU - look at the reasons on what i wrote above, same goes for memory and harddrive. But i agree with you on performance, i guess my gaming rig is still out of balance i see. thanks for the recommended configuration.

Isaac MM,

I'm still nervous on the Raid 0 idea, but thanks for the advice.

GuitarDaddy,

Thanks for agreeing on me in the case department lol, i just love how the design looks and the fact that its all black in and out, and that it has a shit load of fans is just WOW. As for everything else, could you please elaborate on what doesn't match??

themisfit610,

1) DDR3 = fail - why? the only way i could get a Quad CPU to reach the 4.0ghz+ level is if i have fast ram currect?
2) PSU is way overpowered. fail again - why? when i eventually go to SLI, which i will most probably will, i know for sure i will need at least 1000w PSU, especially with the new GTX280 thats coming out (presumes to use at least 238watts, imagine 2 and bam! you got close to 500watt of power coming from the cards alone.)

As for Harddrive, see reasons above (what i wrote for the other guys). Thanks for the tip on getting headphones since i love playing games with the volumes set to high, the other people in my house tend to get mad, so getting a good set of headphones is a plus for me, thanks again.

Jax Omen,

The new Gigabyte GA-790SLI-DQ6 is suspected to use both DDR2 and DDR3 sill my options are still open to what memory I'll get, its just the reason for the 1600mhz DDR3s is because i assume reaching 4.0ghz on a Quad CPU, u would need the fastest memory, so instead of 2000mhz i was thinking of 1600mhz because i believe i could reach that high without getting the insanely priced 2000mhz. And thanks for agreeing on the PSU wattage because as we all head into the future of PC gaming, high wattage is a must and is safer too i believe.

Martimus,

please, elaborate on your statement, seems that you know more on how to overclock to that goal i have intended, with a small expenditure.





All in all thank you all so much for you opinions for i will look into them with much appreciation and good minded thought. I also could see that all of you disagree on my budget and what parts I will spend my budget on, but now, at least you all have read my reasons for getting such parts. But please share with me on what other configurations are best with a $4000+ budget

Hope to hear from all of you soon, thanks again!

 

[Razorfist]

To anyone in this thread or reading this thread or who read this thread and currently thinks RAID-0 outperforms Western Digital Raptor drives...

I believe you are sorely misinformed.

RAID-0 at the moment is FTL.

http://www.anandtech.com/stora...howdoc.aspx?i=2101&p=1

This is an excerpt from the conclusion of the above link:

"If you haven't gotten the hint by now, we'll spell it out for you: there is no place, and no need for a RAID-0 array on a desktop computer. The real world performance increases are negligible at best and the reduction in reliability, thanks to a halving of the mean time between failure, makes RAID-0 far from worth it on the desktop.

There are some exceptions, especially if you are running a particular application that itself benefits considerably from a striped array, and obviously, our comments do not apply to server-class IO of any sort. But for the vast majority of desktop users and gamers alike, save your money and stay away from RAID-0. "

 

[MraK]

Razorfist,

RAID-0 is out of the picture, you can count on me with that statement. Never really thought it would mean much to have it, since i am currently ok with my raptor drive on my current rig, so getting another one for my new one would be just as good. Thanks for your info Razor.

 

[PolymerTim]

Originally posted by: MrAK
themisfit610,

1) DDR3 = fail - why? the only way i could get a Quad CPU to reach the 4.0ghz+ level is if i have fast ram currect?

I won't pretend to know much about overclocking quads, but in general, when people say you need fast RAM to overclock, they just mean that it has to be able to keep up with the FSB you are using to overclock. I just checked out the specs on the Q9550 to see what you need. It looks like the Q9550 runs at an 8.5 multi and you want to OC to 4.0 GHz so you would need a FSB of about 470MHz. I'll let others discuss whether you can achieve the FSB on this quad (I have no idea, but it sounds a bit high to me), but you would need RAM that can run 2*470 = 940MHz. For this, you do not need DDR3. There is plenty of DDR2-1000 that should do this quite easily.

 

[MraK]

PolymerTim,

Then again you have a point there Poly. Thats why I hope the new Gigabyte board that i will be getting will support both DDR2 and DDR3 so that when i finally move up to DDR3 i wont have to change my motheroboard. Since we're on the subject of memory, since i have all this cash to blow, do you think, if i get DDR2, get the best DDR2 out there, like memory that could be water cooled? Thanks in Advance!

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: MrAK
PolymerTim,

Then again you have a point there Poly. Thats why I hope the new Gigabyte board that i will be getting will support both DDR2 and DDR3 so that when i finally move up to DDR3 i wont have to change my motheroboard. Since we're on the subject of memory, since i have all this cash to blow, do you think, if i get DDR2, get the best DDR2 out there, like memory that could be water cooled? Thanks in Advance!

There isn't any reason to move over to DDR3 unless you're also buying a new CPU and motherboard. Stick with DDR2, and go with a motherboard that takes DDR2 only. Combination boards support lower quantities of RAM, and the amount of RAM is much more important than the speed.

To sum that up, changing from DDR2 to DDR3 will have essentially zero performance impact.

As far as the PSU question, 800W would run dual GTX280s just fine. If you want to be on the safe side, I could understand 1000W. 1250 is just flushing money away for no performance gain. Put that money towards the 300GB Raptor. (And your monitor has nothing to do with your PC power supply. The days of plugging your monitor into the back of your PC for power are gone.)

 

[themisfit610]

Ding. Everyone's giving the OP pure scripture on DDR2 vs DDR3. Good deal.

800W would run dual GTX280s just fine. If you want to be on the safe side, I could understand 1000W. 1250 is just flushing money away for no performance gain.

QFTMFT. Well said indeed.

Now, for headphones, I can steer your towards Sennheiser

The HD-580 is a FANTASTIC set of cans. It needs power, and a clean source. For that, the E-Mu 0202 or its big brother the 0404 are great places to go!

I have all this gear, and its nothing but constant, overwhelming win. I can't tell you how good this setup sounds compared to my old un-amplified Koss headphones, and to be perfectly honest, any other speaker system I have, including my home theater, my ProMedia 5.1s, or my cars.

~MiSfit

 

[Winterpool]

As for IPS-panel monitor, isnt the monitor I'm getting from PLANAR an IPS monitor?

Yep, the Planar is IPS. I was just mentioning (as you probably know already) that the DoubleSight is basically a budget version of the Planar, and that if you're waiting until Q3 to build, you might have a chance for the DoubleSight to come back into stock. Either one will be a fine display.

The one thing about buying higher-end DDR3 memory: there might be a chance you could reuse the same sticks in a future Nehalem system. I didn't know the Gigabyte 790 board was supposed to support both DDR2 and DDR3. Somehow, I don't think that's terribly likely -- aren't all 790 boards going to be DDR3?

Realistically, even to reach 4 GHz (which is going to be a major stretch on most Yorkfield quadcores short of the 'Extremes') you don't actually need memory faster than DDR2 1066.

Most power usage estimates are considerably overexaggerated. Unless you're only going to use this system for gaming, much of the time (eg web browsing) you'll probably be using less than 25 per cent of a kilowatt+ power supply. So make sure that whatever power supply you choose has been tested at below 25 per cent capacity (Silent PC Review often runs such tests) and maintains at least 70 per cent efficiency at such low usage.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: Winterpool
The one thing about buying higher-end DDR3 memory: there might be a chance you could reuse the same sticks in a future Nehalem system.

However, by the time he builds a Nehalem system DDR3 should have come down quite a bit in price.

So much so that I expect the present price of DDR2 plus the future price of DDR3 to be less than the present price of DDR3. (For that to happen the price of DDR3 would only have to come down about $20-25/GB, roughly the current cost of DDR2.)

 

[themisfit610]

^

Another ding.

DDR3 is fail for anyone but the most cracked-out overclockers!

~MiSfit