Need Help Building an Extreme Gaming $4,000-$5,000 Comp

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ATW said:
Regardless of whether you have $5000 to burn, spending it all in one shot on a PC is ludicrous. Technology gets outdated too fast for that purchase to make sense. For $3000-3500 you could have a VERY good system, and have money left to upgrade down the road to keep your rig "with the times." Hell, you could buy an E6400/E6600 now and a quad core in a year or two....and still spend less than what a QX6700 costs now.
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Although many of us including you may disagree with spending so much money on computer hardware, I would just let him do what he wants. If he wants to spend his $5000, the let him. I'm sure he will enjoy it plenty :) You can't flame him about some informational help. Hey, i probably spent over $2000 on my last build in the summer
 
How about this for my OS?
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition (64-bit) OEM
 
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No offense, but if you are as inexperienced as you sound, then you might be better off going with Velocity Micro than going thorugh the trouble of trying to get a store or a friend to build it. Or if nothing else, do some serious research on all of the components, so that you dont end up frying your whole $5000 computer when you try to build it. Just my 2 cents. :)
 
Jager673, get the non modded version. They'll charge you $30 just to cut a hole in the case.
 
alt.pured said:
No offense, but if you are as inexperienced as you sound, then you might be better off going with Velocity Micro
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:D

that pretty much is an offense hahahahaha

ANY of those "prebuilt" gaming companies will rip you off so hard that you wont even notice you got ripped. im glad this thread is not posted in "computers and gadgets" forum so i can finally rip on them.

Anyway , I would not condemn him for wanting a 5000 dollar computer. to me, it is a good investment because i spend pretty much the most time in front of my computer.
 
guys, we should just stop caring.. who cares if we wants to waste his money on a stupid case ever. Let him fry his intel CPU when he puts it in his amd motherboard.

we know buying a pre-built system is the best for the user, if he doesn't want to listen, then why should we argue over it
 
K i didnt read all the posts, but im suprised at you hardforum-ers! no ones actually put together a list of components for the built yet! shame on you!

so heres my suggestion, with full periferals and everything:

Motherboard:
Asus Striker Extreme - $420
This is the latest and greatist chipset from Nvidia, on the latest and greatest edition to the ROG line from Asus. It had some overclocking difficulties, like the rest of the 680i boards, but they've mostly been worked out, and for those that havnt, they're being worked out. Anywho, this board should overclock like mad, and it offers more features the the EVGA, BFG, and Biostar boards, unfortunatly at a considerable markup, and possibly a couple weeks wait time.
Other mobos to consider include the EVGA 680i LGA 775 board, and, more notably, the brand new like-no-other DFI ICFX3200. But, should you go with an ICFX, you will need a hold-over graphics card to wait for the release of the R600, At which time, you will be ready to stick two of those beats in your comp and run em in crossfire. This stratigy will probibly lead you to better FPS.

Graphics Cards:
2X EVGA ACS3 8800GTX - $1260
This ones a no brainer. Better cooling then stock, looks awsome, who could complain? It's the best performance on the market out there (period). EVGA offers a lifetime warentee on all items even if they are run at non-factory standards (IE overclocking). if your board busts from a high oc, they gotcha covered.
Other Graphics cards to consider, The ATI Radeon X2800 (or R600). I dont know any more then you guys, im just guessing its gonna be called the X2800, it would make more sense if marketing made it the X2700, but for some reason, graphics cards stay away from the numeral 700 (X1700? 6700? 7700? 8700?). anywho, yeah. I suspect the R600 will match or beat the G80s performance, mind you, Nvidias playing a trickey game. Im betting they have a new Driver ready for release, which they will release on the day the R600 is launched. The G80 should be offering more performance then it is now, and they havnt made any real changes to the drivers since launch day.

Processor:
Intex Xeon 3070 - $560
Just because we're on a huge budget, doesnt mean we have to be stupid with cash. the Xeon 3070 is a highly stressed and ready-to-be-overclocked version of the E6700. The X6800 is almost twice as much, and just doesnt offer twice as many options, or twice as much performance. An unlocked multiplier. Well, as Anands review of the 680i board showed, ultimatly, when overclocking, performance differance between procs decreased. They managed an impressive 4.0Ghz on the X6800, while I personally manage 3.5Ghz on tmy E6300. so the differance between the X6800 and the E6300 goes from a stock 1100MHz to the overclocked 500Mhz. The Xeon has been stresstested will overclock highly because of it. The Xeon is meant to run 100%, 100% of the time.
Other options: QX6700, Q6600. Why not go with these suckers? little performance differance. Poor wafer design leads to just a massive ammount of heat, and as such little oc head room on even coolers such as the Tunique tower or thermalright Ultra 120. Even watercooling with a triple rad cant hold this beast down.

Memory:
Corasair DDR2 1066 Dominator - $390
Ahhh now were going extravagent arnt we? DDR1066, the 680i chipset OFFICIALLY supports this ram. Dont know if BIOS will detect and set you to an automatic 1:2, I dont know, but the unlinked mode will let you do it manually if need be.
Other options: OCZ Flex ram, Mushkin Red Line, and the higher version of Corsair dominator. The thing about Flex and the higher Dominator, is its more expensive. vastly more expensive, and theres just no need for it. I believe OCZ uses the Micron D9 chips just like corsair, so Flex might be a good idea if you want to go watercooling. Redline is cheap but hotter, less thermal dissapation. I dont know if Mushkin uses Micron chips.

Power Supply:
Edit: yeah, hes right, max load on two 8800GTX's is going to meet or exceed 600W, you need more juice. get a Silverstone Zeus 850, or a KW psu. i know nothing abouth the kilowatt powersupplies as i've never worked with one!.
Seasonic M12 700W - $210
Check out Johhn Gurus Review. This thing delievered 715W when it was asked to. It maintained 11.99V on the 12V rails. Ladies and gents, it just doesnt get much sweeter then that. as for 700W not being enough power, bahumbug to you. This thing will do fine.
Other options: If your really worried about about not enough power, you could go with a Silverstong Zeus, or a PC P&C Turbo cool. I think you'll be fine with 700W of power tho. That should even leave a modest ammount of head room.

Monitor:
Dell 30" Ultra Sharp - $1500
I know little about monitors, but this things been making waves for a while now. They seem perfectly fine.
Other options: HP L3065. This thing is apparently the best 30" on paper, but i just cant find an e-tailer anywhere! If you can hunt one down, go for one of these over the Dell.

Primary Hard drive:
Seagate Cheetah 15,000 RPM 74Gb - $390
15,000 RPM says it all.
A Raptor is another idea there cheaper, but for fastest load times, go for a Cheetah.

Secondary Hard drive:
Seagate Barricuta 7200 RPM 500Gb - $250
Storage. Lots of it. I suggest all games go on the Cheetah, and you put everything else on this drive.

Cooling:
Thermalright Ultra 120 - $55 (+$15)
I bought one of these to cool my E6300. It manages 1.55 Volts fine, asuming my load Amperage consumption is the same as an E6700, this thing will cool ALL conroe procs perfectly no matter how high the overlock. My temps consist of high 20's at idle, an maybe breaching mid 40's under Orthos load. I strapped an antec tricool at high speed setting to this one. What more can be said? you just dont get nicer temps then that.
Other options: all the scythe products are awsome, I suspect the infinaty would outperform this. But Air cooling isnt rocket science. Big fan + Big HS = low temps. If your really worried about it. Get a thermalright ultra 120 and strap a Delta fan do the sucker. watch you maintain Delta T of 5 degs C ;D.
Water cooling: GO FOR IT! I am! In the past 3 years of computer work this is my first hard core liquid cooling build. Im going with mostly Swiftech products. Mind you, im willing to mod my case. I'm gonna have a four block setup :)D), or try to. NB, SB, CPU, GPU cooling. Custom tank. gonna be sweet. I see no reason you cant do the same. Mind you, i enjoy working with computers, some dont i guess. One thing to do if you do go for a liquid cooling setup! Stay the hell away from thermaltake! at 50degs C there blocks are known to crack. thats severly not cool.

The rest of the components I leave to your choice, mainly cuz im to lazy to search for them, but also my imput on sound, printers, routers, keyboards, mice and what have you is as good as the next guys, so pick whatever you like.
The Case is something i did leave out. I bought an Antec P180B, but i plan to mod it to put in a side window, i've got the time and knowladge to do that, do you? Lian li, and antec are good names to go with. But the Lanboys are so expensive! My antec P180B was (only
:rolleyes:) $140. Some Lian Lis go for $300!
 
check your PM inbox
to user above. I sent him a list of components already via PM.
Also, I agree with the selected parts you selected except for the PSU and CPU. I think he should go with a Kentsfield Extreme CPU and for CPU, I suggested 1000watts
I believe 8800GTX sli requires 600watts+ to run
 
I didnt know you could put an xeon cpu into an 680i motherboard, will it work with ds3p from gigabyte?

REason i can get these at a discount.. :D
 
I want to be set and ready for the future. With Quadcores and SLI Ready Memory, Motherboards, GPU's, and everything thing else.
 
Jager673 said:
I want to be set and ready for the future. With Quadcores and SLI Ready Memory, Motherboards, GPU's, and everything thing else.
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5 grand doesnt mean its future proof. A pc that costs 5 grand will last a year if you own a large monitor and want to play at max settings and resolution. You will be paying more money in a year. If you spent 2 grand and didnt go with a overpriced brand, it would last a year with 3 grand for you to spend on upgrades.
 
Just link to the monitor, not your cart.

A 30in monitor requires the best video cards to run, so a 5 grand computer will be useless in a year without upgrading it.
 
evga offers a step up program, where you can upgrade 90 days after you get your product, your supposed to only pay the difference in cost. So that could keep you current with minimum cost for 3 months. When your dropping 1200 bones on vid cards, its a big deal.
 
For $5000 I would spend $2500 on the computer and send my parents on a vacation with the rest...
 
5 grand? Damn... If someone were to blow 5 grand on a system that isn't cooled by dinosaur eggs, I would want to know, WHAT THE FUCK, they could spend that much money on, to fit into one little box. They could buy half of a Honda Element, which in technicality is like, 1/92nd of a car. But hey, the PC for 5 grand could RENDER, a car?

I built my gaming PC for 1.3k.
Sure, it isn't god, but for maybe, a few hundred I could have made it better?

I don't see why you would have to spend over 3 grand?
And, quad core? Don't the benchmarks prove that, as of now, quad core delivers, lower performance in games?

I would say:
eVGA nForce 680i Board
2x eVGA 8800GTX's
2GB of Corsair DDR2-800 RAM
Core 2 Duo X6800
Water cooling
150GB Raptor (If you really like to waste paper bills, two, running in RAID0)
X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound card

That should add up to, 2.5k? Go spend the other 2.5k on... a home theater system, a new televison, and a few ice creams?
 
ShiningHolden said:
5 grand? Damn... If someone were to blow 5 grand on a system that isn't cooled by dinosaur eggs, I would want to know, WHAT THE FUCK, they could spend that much money on, to fit into one little box. They could buy half of a Honda Element, which in technicality is like, 1/92nd of a car. But hey, the PC for 5 grand could RENDER, a car?

I built my gaming PC for 1.3k.
Sure, it isn't god, but for maybe, a few hundred I could have made it better?

I don't see why you would have to spend over 3 grand?
And, quad core? Don't the benchmarks prove that, as of now, quad core delivers, lower performance in games?

I would say:
eVGA nForce 680i Board
2x eVGA 8800GTX's
2GB of Corsair DDR2-800 RAM
Core 2 Duo X6800
Water cooling
150GB Raptor (If you really like to waste paper bills, two, running in RAID0)
X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound card

That should add up to, 2.5k? Go spend the other 2.5k on... a home theater system, a new televison, and a few ice creams?
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Well you go ahead and tell him to get a 2.5k system with 2xSLI 880GTX's, with no case, PSU, optical drive, mouse, keyboard, monitor, speakers, or operating system. With that system it is silly to go for anything less than a 30" monitor, so that's another 1.5k straight away. Add in the parts you missed and you just came up with the 4.5-5k system you couldn't believe people needed.

I'm building a system for a friend with a limited budget and found the same thing. It's easy to get carried away with the core components and forget how much things like a monitor, accessories and software eat into the budget of someone who is starting from scratch.
 
My current PC cost £2000 = $4000 to build, and it wasn't quite top-of-the-line (Opteron 170, A8R32-MVP Deluxe, 2GB Corsair RAM, 2 x X1900XTs, 300GB SATA-II, Audigy 2ZS, LG super-multi DVD burner, VP2030b LCD, built March 2006).

If I'd thrown in a 30'' screen, 4GB of DDR2, a couple of Raptors, X-Fi and a high-end AM2 chip it'd have come to well over $5000, probably very near $6000.
 
e6700
OCZ 2 x 2GB=4 GB
2 x 750 GB HDD=1.5 TB
2 x 150 GB Raptors
SLI 8800 GTX's
Evga 680i
Watercooled
Dell 3007/Westinghouse 37w3
Coolermaster Stacker
DVD Drive/CD Drive/CD + DVD Burner
Nice surrond sound
nice headphones/headset
Logitech G15
really good mouse.
 
Easykill1978 said:
I didnt know you could put an xeon cpu into an 680i motherboard, will it work with ds3p from gigabyte?

REason i can get these at a discount.. :D
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you can stick a xeon thats LGA 775 in an LGA 775 motherobard. lol. usually anyways. But i know this works cuz there both conroes. The Xeons are just run a little harder. theres absolutly zero differance other then that. The xeon 3070 is an E6700.. the Xeon 3030 is an E6300. that simple.
 
Well here is my input:

Case: w/e u want... i like anything from Silverstone and Lian Li
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR 1000W
Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASUS Striker Extreme
Memory: Corsair XMS2 Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF 2GB
Hard Drives: (2) Western Digital Raptor X 150GB and (2) Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB
Video Card: (2) eVGA Nvidia GeForce 8800GTX
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro
Optical: Sony DRU-830A 18X DVD Burner and Sony BWU-100A Blueray Burner

Monitor: Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC 30" Widescreen Flat Panel LCD
Keyboard: Logitech G15
Mouse: Logitech G7 Carbon Black Laser Cordless
Speakers: Klipsch Alienware ALX 5.1 Speaker
Headphone: Beyerdynamic DT-770 PRO

Watercooling: Dangerden and Swiftech blocks.

No CLUE how much this costs.
 
iownyou14 said:
Well here is my input:

Case: w/e u want... i like anything from Silverstone and Lian Li
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR 1000W
Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASUS Striker Extreme
Memory: Corsair XMS2 Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF 2GB
Hard Drives: (2) Western Digital Raptor X 150GB and (2) Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB
Video Card: (2) eVGA Nvidia GeForce 8800GTX
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro
Optical: Sony DRU-830A 18X DVD Burner and Sony BWU-100A Blueray Burner

Monitor: Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC 30" Widescreen Flat Panel LCD
Keyboard: Logitech G15
Mouse: Logitech G7 Carbon Black Laser Cordless
Speakers: Klipsch Alienware ALX 5.1 Speaker
Headphone: Beyerdynamic DT-770 PRO

Watercooling: Dangerden and Swiftech blocks.

No CLUE how much this costs.
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WoW I couldnt agree more :cool: But is that $5,000 only ?

Print this list out right now......order it......install it......reply to this post on it......and close the thread
 
ive not really seen anything different at all for these recommendations lol
so idk how the OP is getting help, but theres not much else to add.

soo to the above poster

BUY ALREADY
 
iownyou14 said:
Well here is my input:

Case: w/e u want... i like anything from Silverstone and Lian Li
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR 1000W
Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASUS Striker Extreme
Memory: Corsair XMS2 Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF 2GB
Hard Drives: (2) Western Digital Raptor X 150GB and (2) Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB
Video Card: (2) eVGA Nvidia GeForce 8800GTX
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro
Optical: Sony DRU-830A 18X DVD Burner and Sony BWU-100A Blueray Burner

Monitor: Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC 30" Widescreen Flat Panel LCD
Keyboard: Logitech G15
Mouse: Logitech G7 Carbon Black Laser Cordless
Speakers: Klipsch Alienware ALX 5.1 Speaker
Headphone: Beyerdynamic DT-770 PRO

Watercooling: Dangerden and Swiftech blocks.

No CLUE how much this costs.
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Looks good, thats probably what I would get if I got a 5K computer right now, of course I will probably never be able to bring myself to spend that much on a computer unless I become very rich.
 
if you need to know how to build an sli-setup refer to this http://tools.corsairmemory.com/systembuild/report.aspx?report_id=12472 .its a alittle outdated but i found it very helpful when building my first rig.

screw the extra hard drives if all you do is game, if your gonna have a couple hundred gigabytes of space doing nothing i see no point in having it. get a 74gb 1krpm raptor for games and 100+gb hard drive for everything else. i would wait on the quad core, seems like 1grand on one piece of hardware is a bit much, specially since it doenst effect gaming that much at the moment, and probly not for a while. get a 6600 and oc the hell out of it $600 difference for sumthing that performs equally as well after an overclock. like others have previously said, i'd wait on the watercooling, and don't pay sum1 to do it for you, you will have other things to mess around with on this computer, water cooling isnt essential. doesnt hurt to research either.
 
I'm looking at pretty much about the same as you build wise, i wanted to do a major one before i'm a starving college student again. I was looking at around 4ish here is what i'm getting or already ordered.

evga 8800gtx x2
silverstone modular 750 powersupply with short cable kit (very cool)
mountainmods twice 7 case, (it's a 14x14 cube case) I used to have the ufo, it was ginormous!!!
zalman 9500 until i feel like dealing with liquid cooling again.
i already have optical drives and a monitor
sound card? razer barracuda or keep my audigy 2?
good set of head phones
evga 680i,
4 gigs of corsair xms pro
haven't decided on a cpu yet still researching my options, i read about the xeon thing tonight...
high end systems run up fast, 5 grand isn't really that bad, go to any premium computer builder, and this same rig and the ones people are suggesting will retail well over 10-15 or more depending on what you want, 600 dollars for a paint job? I'm sure your local paint shop will look at you funny and be more than happy to do it for less and you'll have it a few weeks quicker as well. The nice thing about computers, you don't have to do it all at once, until you can't hold on any longer, then upgrading is a major financial commitment. i would like to know what your going to choose for a case?
 
i have an idea... get a xbox360, a wii, and a ps3. then buy their entire libraries, a 50" tv, a sweet recliner, and a 12pack of corona.

cheers.
 
Jager673 said:
I basicially need help finding what some of the BEST is... Now this is my first SERIOUS gaming computer that i really want to make extreme with some of the best stuff of the market. I need some insight on weather to wait for an upcoming vid card, motherboard, soundcard etc... I am looking to build a computer that is ready for the future stuff... like DX10 quadcores and so on. Also im looking to overclock this thing to with extreme water cooling as well. I hope you guys will respond to this and tell me some good options to take.

Thanks Alot!
Click to expand...

CM Stacker RC-832 or 830 is ideal for your setup. This case is huge and ideal for water cooling also. It dwarfs other cases in size!

http://www.coolermaster-europe.com/...nguage_s=2&url_place=product_list&p_class=614


Everything from what this guy mentioned I agree. They are top notch! I like the Coolermaster cases cause its huge and clean looking. I have one also.

Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW-SR 1000W
Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASUS Striker Extreme
Memory: Corsair XMS2 Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF 2GB
Hard Drives: (2) Western Digital Raptor X 150GB and (2) Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB
Video Card: (2) eVGA Nvidia GeForce 8800GTX
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro
Optical: Sony DRU-830A 18X DVD Burner and Sony BWU-100A Blueray Burner

Monitor: Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC 30" Widescreen Flat Panel LCD
Keyboard: Logitech G15
Mouse: Logitech G7 Carbon Black Laser Cordless
Speakers: Klipsch Alienware ALX 5.1 Speaker
Headphone: Beyerdynamic DT-770 PRO
 
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