If yuo were gonna build a "Dream" Gaming Computer....And $$ was no object...

[Se7en01]

What components would you use? I want to know not only type of hardware but "Name Brands." If money was no object what components would you use?

Case
Mobo
CPU
Heatsink/Fan
Video card
Memory
CDRW
Sound Card
Speakers
Mouse
Operating System

Come on..Indulge me here..

 

[MrHelpful]

Are you serious? I'm going to have to bludgeon you with my long list of stuff.

 

[MrHelpful]

(2) AMD Athlon XP 2000+
(2) Alpha PAL8045 /w Nanotherm Ice thermal compound
Tyan Tiger MPX
(4) Kingston 1GB PC2100 Registered ECC DDR SDRAM

Antec SX1440B /w PC P&C Turbo-Cool 600 Sun Ultra AXmp PSU

ATi Radeon All-In-Wonder 8500DV (primary) - to CRT display and receiver
3dfx Voodoo 5 5500 64MB PCI (secondary-display)
3dfx Voodoo 5 5500 64MB PCI (tertiary-display)

IBM 60GXP 60GB (the setup hard drive) ? master on channel 1

Pioneer 16X DVD Slot-Load ? slave on channel 1
Hewlett-Packard dvd100i 2.4X DVD-RW ? master on channel 2
Plextor 24x10x40x CD-RW ? slave on channel 2

(2) Qlogic SANblade 2300 PCI, PCI-X 64-bit/66MHz Fiber-Channel Host Bus Adapter ? connects to SANArray controllers

(2) Mylex SANArray Pro FF2 Fiber-Optic controller /w 512MB cache (244 devices) ? standalone, connects to HDs

(244) BiTMICRO E-Disk 73GB Solid-State storage drives (RAID 0+1) - <48ns access time, >400MBps sustained transfer rate
(31) Trimm FR8J-500x 8-bay Fiber-Channel rack-mount drive enclosure /w built in PSU

Hercules Game Theatre XP (to pre-amplifier)

3com 3C1000-T Gigabit NIC

Logitech Cordless Freedom Keyboard with DVD control
Microsoft Intellimouse Optical
fUnc sUrface 1030 mouse pad

Sony GDM-FW900 (primary)
Sony GDM-FW900 (secondary)
Sony GDM-FW900 (tertiary)

(2) Belkin 7-port USB self-powered hub

Act Labs Force RS Wheel
Act Labs Force RS Shifter
Act Labs Performance Pedals
Logitech Wingman Strike Force 3D Joystick
Logitech Wingman RumblePad

Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional

Boulder Model 2010 Pre-Amplifier ? to amplifiers
Krell Master Reference Amplifier (up to 8000W per channel) ? to Wilson WAMM towers and Center
Avalon Acoustics Sentinel Subwoofer Amplifier 2400W/channel ? to Wilson XS Subwoofer towers

Stewart Filmscreen StudioTek 130 118?x66? Fixed Flexible Screen
Runco Reflection VX-5c DLP Projector
Pioneer Elite Pro-720HD 64" Projection TV (for games and/or TV)

Denon AVR-5800 Receiver - video to TV or projector

(4) Wilson Audio WAMM Towers
(2) Wilson Audio WATCH Center
(2) Wilson Audio XS Subwoofer Towers

Transparent Cable PowerIsolator XL Noise Reducer power filter
Transparent Cable BNC-DB15 adapter
Harmonic Tech Magic Power Cord
Harmonic Tech AC Adapter Cable
Harmonic Tech Magic Link One XLR Interconnect
Harmonic Tech Magic Tweeter/Woofer Cable
Harmonic Tech Magic Digital One Digital Cable
Harmonic Tech Crystal S-Video Silver Cable
Harmonic Tech Crystal RGB (BNC) Cable
Harmonic Tech Crystal Component-Video Cable
Harmonic Tech Coaxial Cable

La-Z-Boy Embassy Black Leather with 2 motorized massagers and heated recliner

 

[BeauJangles]

Damn... there is a new thread like this every other day...

I would buy dual Athlon MPs (high as they go)
Solid state drives
coupla 120 gig drivers in raid for storage.... etc.

 

[Hanky]

<< Harmonic Tech Magic Power Cord
Harmonic Tech AC Adapter Cable
Harmonic Tech Magic Link One XLR Interconnect
Harmonic Tech Magic Tweeter/Woofer Cable
Harmonic Tech Magic Digital One Digital Cable
Harmonic Tech Crystal S-Video Silver Cable
Harmonic Tech Crystal RGB (BNC) Cable
Harmonic Tech Crystal Component-Video Cable
Harmonic Tech Coaxial Cable >>



I wonder how much the cables alone would cost...I heard they can be quite expensive...

 

[human2k]

are you guys crazy? If i had that kinda money i would donate it to the poor or some kinda needy foundation.

 

[Hanky]

<< are you guys crazy? If i had that kinda money i would donate it to the poor or some kinda needy foundation. >>

Sure.

 

[SammyBoy]

lol...MrHelpful went kinda crazy.

Since I'll try to be somewhat realistic.

Epox 8kha+
XP 1900 (oced of course)
2x 512mb mushkin pc2400
maybe a 9gig x15 scsi drive for boot
another one for loading games and appz and such.
a whole buncha maxtor 60gig 7200rpm diamond max pluses in Raid-5
for case......gotta be that refridgerated one...forgot the name.

probably an audigy for sound hooked up to my 400w sony 5.1 reciever, with my Allisons in front and my Big ass old Klipsches in back. Need a center and Sub.

definately sony trinitron 21" CRT.....

what else what else......
optical Microsoft mouse......and MS keyboard too.
i like my intel pro100 NIC
eh...no more thinking

 

[MustPost]

IBM Power4 and lots baby.

 

[Demonicon]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

 

[jose]

emachine from office depot .

 

[Shalmanese]

Well, Id phone up the guys who made ASCI White and say design me a computer

 

[jteef]

helpful did go quite crazy on the audio stuff and the hard drives. there wont ever be 17 terabytes worth of video games.

The hercules game theater brings the sound quality of all of that stuff to a useless level. with unlimited money i'd hire nelson pass or dan d'agostino to design me a suitable sound card.

For 15 grand, here is what I'd build

Skeleton:
Antec SX1480B $600
Dual 2ghz PIV xeon procs 2x$750
Tyan Thunder i860 $700
4x512MB ECC RDRAM 4x$478

$4712

Storage:
Adaptec 3410S Quad channel scsi raid controller 64bit/66mhz $1000
4x Seagate cheetah X15-36LP 36GB Drives 3 in raid 0, one on onboard scsi controller for important files. 4x$540
Sanyo CRD BP5 24x10x40 SCSI CD-RW $189
Pioneer 305s slot load 10X DVD-ROM w/ SCSI interface $100

$3450

Network:
Netgear GA622T gigabit ethernet nic $120
Netgear FS509T 8 port switch $230

$350

Video:
nvidia gf3 ti500 $330
Sony GDM-FW900 $1800

$2130

Sound:
Hercules gaming theater XP $100 or Echo Audio Mia $180 (2ch only)
Sennheiser HD600 Headphones $350
Chu Moy pocket headphone amplifier $50

B&W DM 602 S2 $500 (main)
B&W DM 601 S2 $350 (surround)
B&W CC3 Center $300 (center)
SVSubwoofers 25-31PC 12" powered subwoofer $650
Denon AVR-3300 $750

$3050

Misc.
Herman Miller Aeron Chair
$700

Total: 14,392

Leaving 700 bucks left over for mouse, kb, software, cables.

Might be able to bring it down a few grand if AMD chips and DDR ram are used, who wants that though?

jt

 

[fs5]

you guys really have a lot of time on your hands

and mr helpful, why 3dfx?

 

[kreno]

Lian Li PC60
SenFu watercooling setup with 100W Peltier
550W Enermax EG651P-VE

Athlon XP 1900+ -> O/C'ed to hell
EPoX 8KHA+
1GB TwinMOS PC2700 DDR SDRAM

Leadtek Winfast GeForce3 Ti500
Sony GDM-FW900 24" Trinitron (1920x1200 @ 85Hz) *spooge*

Plextor 24/10/40 CDRW
Kenwood 72X TrueX CDROM

Dual Promise FastTrak 100's
8X Western Digital 100GB Special Editions in RAID 0 *spooge again*

Philips Acoustic Edge 5.1
Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 Surround Sound

Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0
Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro

Windows XP Professional

Sound Deadening Material all over the areas of the case.

Badass and virtually silent... that's the way to go

 

[ChrisIsBored]

IDE? ewww.. if you have the money go SCSI RAID... forget the huge hd's... the whatever is the smallest size of the model's platter(nothing smaller) and go RAID 0...

Registered ECC RAM would be a waste...

You're not building a file server, or a database...

Really guys, think logical...

 

[MrHelpful]

fivespeed5 - 3dfx makes a PCI video card with excellent 2D quality.

Hanky - Don't ask.

SammyBoy - the Audigy has been proved to have inferior sound in terms of clarity, especially in the front channels. Are you trying to remember Kryotech?

jteef - there's actually roughly 8.5TB, since it's in RAID 0+1 (mirrored, then striped). I also applaud your efforts to calculate it all.
The Hercules GTXP was chosen because
1) One of the original requirements of the list was that it be already on or approaching the market
2) I wanted to use the Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96, but it didn't support DirectSound so it would be pretty much useless for games, however much I liked the supreme audible bliss
3) Comparable quality to the rest of the sound cards
4) It was advantageous in its own right - it now supports 6.1, and the breakout box is really convenient

BTW, I don't think Dan D'Agostino would have a lot of free time on his hands. Who's Nelson Pass?

chrisisbored - what's wrong with huge HDs? What if you wanted a copy of every game in existence installed? That would be a part of MY 'dream' gaming system.

Registered memory is not a waste. Do you know what it does? Let's see you try and run a system with 2 gigs of unregistered memory installed. And ECC is worth a lot if you want as few errors as possible.

 

[SWScorch]

Lian Li PC71 aluminum black anodized full tower case
whatever the best dual AMD mobo there is
2x Athlon MP 2000+
2x Alpha PAL8045 w/ Delta 68cfm fan
1024MB PC2700 SDRAM (just to say I have it)
Hercules GeForce3 Ti 500 ( no radeon for me)
4x IBM 60GXP 60GB hdds in RAID 0
Sound Blaster Audigy
Intel 10/100Mbps NIC
Asus 56X Cd_ROM
Plextor 24xwhateverx40 CD-RW
Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer
My current no-name keyboard
Microsoft Force Feedback 2 stick
Microsoft Force Feedback Racing Wheel
Windows XP
Samsung 900NF monitor
Klipsch Promedia 4.1s OR Boston Acoustics BA4800s
8x 92mm blowholes at specified spots, large plexiglass window, red and blacklight cold cathodes, black rounded cables

mmmm.... I think I just soiled myself...