Big fun build...over time?

[avatar[djedi]]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
My primary design revolves around games, games, and more games! wheee! I also use my main rig to stream downloaded content to my ps3. If I care tear myself away from entertainment, I'll also do some work from home (but it's not like Excel and Visio require a TONS of horsepower).

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
I'd like to spend between $1500-$2000 upfront, and then be willing to spend up to $1000more later for upgrades (i.e. water cool down the road, etc).

3) Where do you live?
Metro-Charlotte, NC
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
PSU, CPU, Motherboard, Ram, Video card(s), optical drive, ssd, Optional: more monitors, watercooling kit, new mouse, new ratpad, mechanical keyboard
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
I just picked up a refurbed HAF 932 case that was on sale, and I also have a nvidia GTX 260 core 216 (for potential use as a dedicated PhysX card? your thoughts?)
6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes. I'd like to hit the magic 4.0Ghz. Can I start with air cooling, and then maybe move to water cooling down the road? Or should I just do water from the start?
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
I have a 24" NEC 2490wuxi (the one with the polarizer), it runs 1920x1200. I'd like to get multiple monitors eventually but it doesn't have to be right now. I'd like the option to do NVsurround.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
I plan on buying and building late september, early october... at that point can I wait another month for xmas sales? Any new vid card/cpu/mb updates due in the next couple months?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
I'd like USB 3 and 6GB/s Sata, SLI or CF is desired. I'm a little anal about sound, so a good soundcard would be nice, but many onboard sound chips are "good enough" so I could live without discrete sound.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
I already have a legit copy of Win 7 Ultimate [edit: 64 bit version]


So as you can see, I'd like to build a pretty beefy machine. My main questions revolve around the timing of my purchase... I have no pressure to buy, but i'd really like to upgrade before 12/31/2010. So any sales or tech upgrades that happen in the remainder of this year are fair game. If there's nothing major on the horizon, I'll be fine with building in September/October.

My auxillary questions revolve around cramming in as many technical features as possible: SLI capable, USB 3, 6GB/s, NVSurround/Eyefinity, Good sound reproduction, is using my current GTX 260 as a dedicated PhysX card worth it? Should I water cool at the begining... or do it down the road?

I think the big problem will be picking a motherboard that has the features I want (all of them!) but doesn't screw up on having all the cards fit, or PCI bus bandwidth getting choked, or things like that. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated!!

 

[IRSmurf]

CASE: HAF 932 ($0)
PSU: Antec TPQ-1200 1200W Continuous Power ($250)
MOBO: ASUS Rampage III Extreme (USB 3.0, four PCI-e lanes for dual slot cards) ($360)
CPU: Intel Core i7 930 ($290)
RAM: Kingston HyperX 6GB DDR3 1600 CL7 ($180)
GPU: EVGA GTX 480 and GTX 260 for dedicated PhysX. (Add a second GTX 480 in the future) ($480 - $30 MIR)
SSD: OCZ Vertex 2 ($169 - $20 MIR)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB drive (Add more, as needed) ($75)
HSF: Corsair H50 ($70) (Buy somewhere besides NewEgg)
DVD: Generic ($20)
SOUND: ASUS Xonar (DX $80 - $20 MIR)

The total is just over $1,900.

Add additional 1TB hard drives as needed. Add additional, quiet fans as needed. Add another GTX 480 in the future. Buy two additional monitors in the future. 2D surround is very desireable. Seems how you already have a GTX 260, you might as well use it for PhyX.

 

[cbliss1000]

Prices change fast on most components - I would recommend re-posting closer to your purchase time.

 

[avatar[djedi]]

Cool, thanks guys. This gives me a few items to go read about, especially that motherboard!

I will definitely repost right before build time for a concise price/performance trade off on specific components. But this was exactly the type of general info I was looking for.

Is 6GB a good starting point, or should I go for 12GB? (Any issues with overclocking, and having that much RAM?).

Any other thoughts on building in watercooling up front vs. adding in components down the road?

 

[Dangman]

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
I plan on buying and building late september, early october... at that point can I wait another month for xmas sales? Any new vid card/cpu/mb updates due in the next couple months?

Well there's suppose to be a ATI refresh in a few months. Supposedly in October.

So as you can see, I'd like to build a pretty beefy machine. My main questions revolve around the timing of my purchase... I have no pressure to buy, but i'd really like to upgrade before 12/31/2010. So any sales or tech upgrades that happen in the remainder of this year are fair game. If there's nothing major on the horizon, I'll be fine with building in September/October.

I'm a bit confused here: What do you mean by upgrading before 12/31/2010? Did you mean that you wanted to build the PC before 12/31/2010?

My auxillary questions revolve around cramming in as many technical features as possible: SLI capable, USB 3, 6GB/s, NVSurround/Eyefinity, Good sound reproduction, is using my current GTX 260 as a dedicated PhysX card worth it? Should I water cool at the begining... or do it down the road?

Definitely worth using the GTX 260 as a PhysX card

I will definitely repost right before build time for a concise price/performance trade off on specific components. But this was exactly the type of general info I was looking for.

Good idea.

Is 6GB a good starting point, or should I go for 12GB? (Any issues with overclocking, and having that much RAM?).

6GB of RAM is a good starting point. Yes there's a higher chance of a lower OC with 6 sticks of RAM over 3 sticks of RAM.

Any other thoughts on building in watercooling up front vs. adding in components down the road?

Down the road. You want to make sure that the build is stable first before adding a major wrench in the system like a water cooling setup. This'll give you a baseline for what the system should be acting like should you run into issues with WCing

 

[Syphon Filter]

What sort of gains would you see by using a GTX260 as a dedicated physics processor?

If you were building a new top-end system would they be enough to warrant buying a 260 specifically for physics (i.e. if you didn't already have a card knocking around the place)?

Also, is it possible to use a 260 or whatever as dedicated physics if you're using ATI cards for GPU?

Sorry for all the (stupid) questions, I've been out of the loop a long time.

 

[cbliss1000]

What sort of gains would you see by using a GTX260 as a dedicated physics processor?

If you were building a new top-end system would they be enough to warrant buying a 260 specifically for physics (i.e. if you didn't already have a card knocking around the place)?

Also, is it possible to use a 260 or whatever as dedicated physics if you're using ATI cards for GPU?

Sorry for all the (stupid) questions, I've been out of the loop a long time.

1. In games that support PhysX you should see significantly increased performance.

2. Not for most people (the exception would be if you really, really loved a certain physx title).

3. No. Nvidia only - there are hacked drivers but I wouldn't recommend them.

 

[Dangman]

What sort of gains would you see by using a GTX260 as a dedicated physics processor?

If you were building a new top-end system would they be enough to warrant buying a 260 specifically for physics (i.e. if you didn't already have a card knocking around the place)?

Also, is it possible to use a 260 or whatever as dedicated physics if you're using ATI cards for GPU?

Sorry for all the (stupid) questions, I've been out of the loop a long time.

well if the game fully supports PhysX and takes full advantage of it, you'll either see increased FPS or more physics applied to objects in the game. However not many games actually support PhysX or if they do, take full advantage of it.

If you don't have a card on hand already, not worth buying a card soley for PhysX. The gains are simply not worth the costs.

Supposedly you can use PhysX with ATI cards installed using a hack or somesuch but it appears to be a hit or a miss kind of thing.

 

[Syphon Filter]

Cheers for the info Danny.

IIRC Dedicated PhysX cards (not GPUs) came to market around the same time that my last machine died, it seems it never really took off all that much? I suppose developers didn't want to leave people out in the cold if they didn't have a discrete card?

At least it's not something I need to worry about too much when spec'ing/getting around to building my new machie.

Cheers.

 

[Dangman]

IIRC Dedicated PhysX cards (not GPUs) came to market around the same time that my last machine died, it seems it never really took off all that much? I suppose developers didn't want to leave people out in the cold if they didn't have a discrete card?

Yeah they never really took off. Most of them aren't even supported these days.

 

[avatar[djedi]]

I'm a bit confused here: What do you mean by upgrading before 12/31/2010? Did you mean that you wanted to build the PC before 12/31/2010?

Oops, sorry for the confusion. Yes, I meant that I would like to -build- a new system by the end of the year.

Thanks for the additional information, it really helps a lot.