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Building my Dream Computer!

I

invalidbuffalo

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
419
So I have been saving for a while and I am finally at a point where I can buy my dream computer! Here are the components:

Mobo: EVGA 680i A1
VGA: EVGA GeForce 8800GTX KO ACS3 x2 (SLI)
CPU: QX6700
HDD's: 2x WD Raptor 150GB RAID 0, 2x Samsung spinpoint 500GB
PSU: PC Power&Cooling QUAD 750W
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800
SOUND: X-Fi Elite
CASE: Lian Li PC-V1100B Plus II (already have)
Cooling: Thermochill PA120.3 radiator, D-Tek Fuzion CPU block, EK 8800GTX GPU blocks, Swiftech MCP655 pump, 1/2" tubing (reservoir undecided)
OS: Vista Ultimate 64 bit/XP Pro

Display: Westinghouse 37" HD LCD TV

I'll get a PCI-e PPU when they come out...
 
Looks fine overall. Shoot for a PC Power and Cooling 1KW :D Seeing as how you happen to have unlimited funds, why not? More e-penis ftw!

Go watercool everything too...ram, hard drive, chipset, hell even the mofsets.

Dooo it. Build the God system!
 
750W will be plenty.

I have considered water cooling but I am having trouble coming up with a way to mount a big enough radiator in the case without doing any destructive modding. The case is beautiful and I want to keep it that way...

...Although, now that I think about it, I wonder if I could use two 120MM radiators instead of a 2x120MM rad. Mount one in the front where the hard drive cage is and one in the back.

...but then I would have to remove the hard drive cage, and the middle cage won't fit with the power supply, so I would have to mount the drives somewhere...

...hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm :confused:
 
faster? a dual core instead of quad core would be faster, since you could OC it past the quad's capability. 4Ghz E6600 on water cooling will beat a 3.6Ghz QX6700 on water cooling. Though, this is your dream, not mine, lol.

FYI, you don't need DDR2-1066 with a QX6700. DDR2-1066 would only be good if you could run a 533Mhz FSB... and if you want to do that, you'll need a better motherboard. Hm... I have yet to find a mobo that will reach 533Mhz FSB. Maybe I'm uninformed. Could someone link me? Thanks. Oh, and I brought up the ram thing because the lower speed you get, the faster its timings will be. Its a tradeoff, higher speed or lower latency.
 
No motherboard is going to officially support that, because not Northbridge at the moment officially supports that.

It's assumed that you'd be overclocking your FSB for a higher CPU speed - having RAM that's faster than your stock FSB gives you more headroom.
 
Go with the V2000B Plus II. Room won't be an issue :)

invalidbuffalo said:
750W will be plenty.

I have considered water cooling but I am having trouble coming up with a way to mount a big enough radiator in the case without doing any destructive modding. The case is beautiful and I want to keep it that way...

...Although, now that I think about it, I wonder if I could use two 120MM radiators instead of a 2x120MM rad. Mount one in the front where the hard drive cage is and one in the back.

...but then I would have to remove the hard drive cage, and the middle cage won't fit with the power supply, so I would have to mount the drives somewhere...

...hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm :confused:
Click to expand...
 
LstOfTheBrunnenG said:
No motherboard is going to officially support that, because not Northbridge at the moment officially supports that.

It's assumed that you'd be overclocking your FSB for a higher CPU speed - having RAM that's faster than your stock FSB gives you more headroom.
Click to expand...

That's right. The idea is to overclock my cpu and run my memory around its stock speed.

PoweredBySoy said:
Just a question: what game do you plan on playing that would require such hardware?
Click to expand...

For now there isn't a game that does, but in the future I'd be playing games like UT 2K7, Alan Wake, etc. Plus I do 3D work with Maya, so the quad core will help with that.
 
Couple of suggestions:

1) For the motherboard, go with the eVGA A1 model instead of the Asus. It's generally agreed upon that the eVGA A1 is the best 680i motherboard you can buy. It's based on the reference design, but the A1 revision provides great stability and better overclock support for quad cores (in general, an A1 board will overclock a quad better than the P5N32 or Striker Extreme.) eVGA also has gerat customer service and an excellent lifetime warranty that will support your overclocking efforts.

2) For a quad core and two GTX cards, consider the Silverstone Zeus range instead of the lower-end Strider brand. You'll get a better PSU running more efficiently. I have the Zeus 850Watt model for a similar system (replace the quad core with 2 power hungry RAID-0 arrays) and I've never had an issue. The PC P&C 1K model (as suggested in above posts) is also a good alternative. For more advice, consult www.jonnyguru.com for excellent PSU reviews.

3) I agree with enginurd that overclocked RAM is useless for a quad core. You don't need it, as you won't reach a 533Mhz bus speed on any 680i board. 800mhz or even 667mhz DDR2 RAM will work just as well.

4) With four gigs of RAM, be prepared to run a 64-bit OS in order to use it all. 32-Bit Windows (both XP and Vista) will only be able to utilize around 2.5 Gigabytes of RAM if you go with a GTX SLI setup (w/o GTX SLI, the most 32-bit Windows will be able to see and utilize is 3.2 GIgs of RAM.)

Good luck with the build and enjoy :)

Mark.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm changing my config accordingly...

Well, in two weeks I will have the money secured to buy this beast and a dell 27" display! :D :D :D :D :D
 
WOW, me want! :D

That is a shit-ton of hardrive space why do you need 800 gigs?
 
enginurd said:
But for $70 more you could get a 30" instead?
Click to expand...

Excellent point. The 30 inch monitor has a big advantage over the 27 in that it jumps the resolution to a whopping 2560 x 1600. The 27 incher has the same resolution as the 24 inch model (1920x1200) which means that for three extra inches, you don't get any more desktop space. (I'm talking about the Windows desktop here.) Now when I step up in monitor size, I'm always looking for more pixels over larger ones, as more desktop space is always a wonderful thing to have.

Unless you find 1920x1200 desktops too small to stare at on 24 inch monitors, I would think the added resolution is well worth $70. Given that you're getting two 8800 GTX cards in SLI, you won't have a problem with game performance.

Good luck,

Mark.
 
enginurd said:
do you really have to ask?!? you must not be a guy... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

OUCH, I wasn't expecting that answer...I just don't know what you fill 800gigs w/...OH, you don't mean... ;) Gotcha loud and clear!

And yes I am a guy, that just didn't occur to me!
 
Markyip1 said:
Excellent point. The 30 inch monitor has a big advantage over the 27 in that it jumps the resolution to a whopping 2560 x 1600. The 27 incher has the same resolution as the 24 inch model (1920x1200) which means that for three extra inches, you don't get any more desktop space. (I'm talking about the Windows desktop here.) Now when I step up in monitor size, I'm always looking for more pixels over larger ones, as more desktop space is always a wonderful thing to have.

Unless you find 1920x1200 desktops too small to stare at on 24 inch monitors, I would think the added resolution is well worth $70. Given that you're getting two 8800 GTX cards in SLI, you won't have a problem with game performance.

Good luck,

Mark.
Click to expand...

Right now sli 8800gtx's have no trouble driving high resolutions in games but in the future as more demanding games come out the lower resolution will help. I think the 2707 has the best mix of large size and 'driveable' resolution. Plus I think the 2707 has better overall gaming performance.



...of course I won't be under any financial constraints, so I will have absolutely trouble getting a 3007 AND a 2707! :p
 
I'm not convinced that the added resolution of the 30 inch monitor, when compared to a 1920x1200 24 inch or 27 inch montior, will have any effect on your expected gaming performance in the foreseeable future. Keep in mind that with 1920x1200 gaming, the second card in SLI is just only beginning to show it's worth. Benchmarks show you actually need a 30 incher to drive both cards to the limit.

Of course, if you're absolutely set on 1920x1200, then that's fine. In that case, however, I would go with the 24 inch. You get the same amount of pixels and the same or better video characteristics at a much cheaper price. Plus, the Dell 2407 is a proven design. I have one and I love it. I find 27 inch monitors to be odd, in that they increase the physical size of the display w/o increasing resolution. That's a no win in my book, as it's added bulk w/o the beauty.

Mark.
 
Saving you money here :), why not just get a q6600? Its $535 and to me I just see the qx6700 is just a rip off. Paying $400 more just to get 200mhz faster? Someone change my mind please.

forgot to add, how about get a 8600gt now then wait for the ati 2900 to come out to see if it kicks the 8800gtx's in sli ass. If not you can go buy the 8800gtx's in sli and it will be cheaper then now.
 
nvidiapwnsati said:
forgot to add, how about get a 8600gt now then wait for the ati 2900 to come out to see if it kicks the 8800gtx's in sli ass. If not you can go buy the 8800gtx's in sli and it will be cheaper then now.
Click to expand...

Every released benchmark has shown that the 2900XT is barely grasping at 8800 GTS performance, and even ATI has, for all intensive purposes, admitted that the fabled 2900 XTX doesn't exist and won't for six months (if ever,) in which by then a new generation of graphic cards will be out.

Furthermore, the 8600 line has shown to offer poor performance when compared at its price point, and even against last generation cards. I say get 8800 GTX SLI now since you're already set on a big monitor. If you want cheaper prices, then wait a couple of weeks until ATI's 2900XT cards are out in the open and see what they do to 8800 GTX prices. Unfortunately, if they turn out to be the duds people are predicting, it may not bode well for a cheaper 8800 GTX.

Good luck,

Mark.
 
If you have the cash for both 30" and 27" LCD monitors, then you have the cash to upgrade those 8800GTX's to 8900GTXs if you must (if the 30" LCD's res is too high for future games). But, you most likely won't need to upgrade them until the 9800GTX's come out :p (or whatever the hell they decide to call them, lol)
 
If i'm lucky, the 8900's (or whatever) will come out within 90 days of my purchase and I can use the evga step up program with an upgrade...






im going to eat some ice cream now.
 
invalidbuffalo said:
If i'm lucky, the 8900's (or whatever) will come out within 90 days of my purchase and I can use the evga step up program with an upgrade...
Click to expand...

Well if history has shown us anything, it has a way of repeating itself. The 7900GT was released approx 9 months after the 7800GTX was launched. So if history repeats itself like it does from time to time, we may be getting the 8900s in July since the 8800GTX was launched November 8, 2006.
 
mmm that was good ice cream! :)

Good observation. I guess there's no way to be certain when but I really REALLY do need an upgrade...
 
Danny Bui said:
Well if history has shown us anything, it has a way of repeating itself. The 7900GT was released approx 9 months after the 7800GTX was launched. So if history repeats itself like it does from time to time, we may be getting the 8900s in July since the 8800GTX was launched November 8, 2006.
Click to expand...

Hm... I thought they were 6 months apart since NVIDIA called it the "6 month refresh," but I guess I was wrong (I was thinking the original launch was in NOV). According to wikipedia:

7800GTX 256MB: JUN-22-2005... 4 months later...
7800GTX 512MB: NOV-14-2005... 5 months later (9 total)...
7900GTX 512MB: MAR-09-2006

7800GT: AUG-11-2005... 8 months later...
7900GT: MAR-09-2006... 7 months later...
7950GT: SEP-14-2006
 
extra things to buy:

1. hdd cooler
2. external harddrive backup
...
...
lol
 
i thought it would be like any other IR gadget, but word is that it does what it says, and very smoothly also. Aparently it supports many games, and there is a community that is constantly adding scripts to make it work in other games. Most games these days have freelook anyways, but no one ever uses it. games like ARMA or flying games/racing games would be mega sweet.
and for what? $179USD, thats not bad for a fancy gadget like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AO0F5sLdVM
 
enginurd said:
Hm... I thought they were 6 months apart since NVIDIA called it the "6 month refresh," but I guess I was wrong (I was thinking the original launch was in NOV). According to wikipedia:

7800GTX 256MB: JUN-22-2005... 4 months later...
7800GTX 512MB: NOV-14-2005... 5 months later (9 total)...
7900GTX 512MB: MAR-09-2006

7800GT: AUG-11-2005... 8 months later...
7900GT: MAR-09-2006... 7 months later...
7950GT: SEP-14-2006
Click to expand...

Yeah that was what I thought too until I checked Wikipedia. Ahh Wikipedia, the college sutdent's best friend.
 
Alright I made some decisions on the sound card and memory. My hope is that X-Fi Vista drivers will get better.

Also changed the Dell 27" to a Westie 37".

I expect to have the money to do this by the end of next week.
 
So I got the big check today! Tonight I will order:
eVGA 680i SLI A1
QX6700
4x1GB Corsair Dominator DDR2 1066
2x Raptor 150GB
2x Samsung spinpoint 500GB
X-Fi elite
PC P&C 750W
Westinghouse 37"
Logitech G15

I already have one 8800GTX and the other one will come today, and I already have the case and optical drives.

For now I will wait on water cooling until things come back in stock at Jab Tech.
Eventually I want to get a thermochill PA120.3, a pair of EK full coverage 8800GTX blocks (delrin top), a D-Tek Fuzion CPU block, MCP655 pump, 1/2" tubing, and a swiftech micro-res.

Any last thoughts or advice before I go through with my purchase?
 
Yah, the CPU and RAM are a waste of money, but you already know that, unless you didnt read the other posts in this thread.
 
enginurd said:
Yah, the CPU and RAM are a waste of money, but you already know that, unless you didnt read the other posts in this thread.
Click to expand...

I figured buying a 4GB kit would have a better chance of working than if I were to buy two 2GB dual channel kits separately. Besides, I could just run the RAM at 800MHz. If you have any other suggestions for going 4GB let me know.

The processor stays. I use a lot of multithreaded applications so the quad core is practical for me.
 
your system is WOW! just WOW! if i were you i would get SLI also. i am getting a 2nd gts for system near future. also if u are getting 4gb why not get 2 sticks of 2gb each, that way u could upgrade to 8gb later.
 
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