Finalizing Uber-Rig. Your Opinions

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Bop

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I'm about to get the best damn PC in my life without paying a dime and I'm finalizing all the parts I'm going to use. The system is in my sig although I'm unsure on some components. This system will eat small children. I'd like to hear your opinions, like if I should change a component or two. I'm somewhat stuck on the fence about Crossfire vs. SLi but it appears SLi just has better gains with two cards.(although XTX is definitely a better single card solution IMO)

Here it is:

Athlon 64 FX-60 w/ Scythe Ninja
K8N Diamond Plus
OCZ 2GB DDR400 Platinum XTC RAM
2x(SLi) BFG GeForce 7900GTX OC
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro.
2x WD 150GB Raptors
PC Power & Cooling 1kW
Coolermaster Stacker 810(the one with 2 120mm exhaust fans)

EDIT: motherboard changed, eVGA superclocked cards changed to BFG
 
The PC Power & Cooling 1KW is gross overkill for that system.

Are you running dual processors? no. (dual cores use less power than dual processors)
Are you running several hdds? no.

Your most power hungry task is powering those 7900GTXs, which should take less power than the 7800GTXs.

The 510Watt will run that just fine. Of course, since you're not paying for it, you probably don't care. Personally, I'd save that money and bump the RAM to 4GB.

You don't need the 1KW until you get into systems that eat large children.



(spoken as a man with the 1KW and a system that can and will eat large children, and an appetite that will only grow)
 
Unless it's strictly for gaming, why not throw a 300-500 GB drive in there as well?
 
Well my last rig was very similar, a 4400+ @ 2.7ghz, A8N32, and two 7800GTXs and with my PCP&C 510 the system would shut down during intense load. I could go with a an 850 but I figure why not go with a 1kW if its only 30-40 bucks more.

I'm aiming for a 2.9-3ghz OC so I'll need some extra power :)

More RAM sounds nice but filling all four banks will limit my OC.

I have 2 80GB hard drives on my other PC and I havn't even filled 40GB on both HDs, I don't use alot of space. Going for pure speed here :D
 
if it's on somebody elses $$$ and you can truely build a bad ass rig
go with this board here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813151008

get 4 Model 885 Opteron's and 2 gigs of ram for each processor..

You can STILL run SLI with this setup.. ditch the OC and go with a total of 8 logical processors (4 dual cores) mhz/ghz doesn't mean as much as it did 3 years ago.

then get a good SCSI controller card and get 2 super fast u320 15K drives stripe em and it cannot be beat.
 
FreedomFGHTR said:
if it's on somebody elses $$$ and you can truely build a bad ass rig
go with this board here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813151008

get 4 opty's and 2 gigs of ram for each processor.. hey maybe go with 4 gigs (2 gigs for each core. And then you can STILL run SLI

then get a good SCSI controller card and get 2 super fast u320 15K drives stripe em and it cannot be beat.
Click to expand...
This is what happens when you put together all you know about high-end hardware into a single post. Sadly for you, gaming performance for now is still better on high clocked, single core processors by a few neglible % according to some fun lil' benchmarks.
 
Good choice on the case. I have one, and I love it. Might want to consider the SilverStone TJ07 to.

Dont forget your Dell 30" Widescreen LCD!!! Or 2........ :eek:


Might also want to consider water cooling if you are going to oc.
 
movax said:
This is what happens when you put together all you know about high-end hardware into a single post. Sadly for you, gaming performance for now is still better on high clocked, single core processors by a few neglible % according to some fun lil' benchmarks.
Click to expand...

One persons definition of an uber-rig is different than anothers. Just posting what mine would be. Because I multitask like a mofo and like to run my own information servers. And also I do a lot of video editing. I just think it's nice to be able to do ANYTHING on one system and do it all at once. Sure you can get a few extra FPS in (insert fav game here) w/a killer single core system (hey my gaming rig is still single core (sadly it needs a new vid card) but it's even better to be able to do that while transferring over a 10 gig file and running your own ftp, mail, and webservers.

Just as one persons dream car is a Carerra Gt while anothers is a Buggati Veyron, and yet another will say a Murcilago is the best, while another would prefer some damn SUV beast and someone else might love a hybrid,...opinions are what they are.. just opinions.
 
I have a limit of around $4000 for the pc itself. I can't get a totally ludicrous rig but definitely an uber rig. The X-Fi stays, nothing out there can compete when it comes to pure gaming.

I'm sticking with my CRT, I just hate LCDs. I'm a 100% CRT guy. (this is a pure gaming rig afterall). These parts only include the actual PC itself, for everything else I'm using what I have.
 
you could still try to get a board that also has PCI-X get a SCSI controller card and run a couple of 15K SCSI drives to take it up another notch.
 
FreedomFGHTR said:
One persons definition of an uber-rig is different than anothers. Just posting what mine would be. Because I multitask like a mofo and like to run my own information servers. And also I do a lot of video editing. I just think it's nice to be able to do ANYTHING on one system and do it all at once. Sure you can get a few extra FPS in (insert fav game here) w/a killer single core system (hey my gaming rig is still single core (sadly it needs a new vid card) but it's even better to be able to do that while transferring over a 10 gig file and running your own ftp, mail, and webservers.

Just as one persons dream car is a Carerra Gt while anothers is a Buggati Veyron, and yet another will say a Murcilago is the best, while another would prefer some damn SUV beast and someone else might love a hybrid,...opinions are what they are.. just opinions.
Click to expand...

Mine dream car is a 1997 Ford Aerostar and I own one. It only has 31,000 miles on it and I bought it in Florida.
 
hey man, I nearly have that exact system and let me tell you my PC P&C 510 SLI is more than enough to get my FX-60 to 3GHz+....don't waste the money on the 1KW now, if anything wait for the price to drop.
 
Bop said:
SCSI controllers cause problems with the X-Fi :(
Click to expand...

is it every SCSI controller or just a specific one... I'd actually like to know because I plan on putting up a SCSI array in my next build.

From what I read about them the same issues (the crackling noises) isn't just related to SCSI users it happens to a lot of people on different forums, but the one consistent thing I've noticed is nvidia chipsets...
 
Check out the multiprocessing forum. If you've got 4000 to spend I would go dual dual core. AMD cut prices on 200 series opterons big time. You can get them for 1/2 what they cost last month. I would also get some 15k scsi drives.
 
2x dual core CPU won't do jack for games. Can't go with SCSI either.

FreedomFGHTR, I think it happens with any controller that shares the PCI bus with the sound card.
 
On server boards, the PCI and PCI-X buses are separated if it's a dual chipset board, it'll run some lanes over one chipset, and the other on the other.


When you have nearly 4000 to spend, seems pointless to shoot yourself in the foot with a single dual core proc. Even the processor choice...FX-60, you can hit that level of performance with an overclocked Opteron 170 and save some money. Only thing I conclude is an ineffective use of budget on the computer.
 
Drop the ASUS a8n32 and get MSI diamond plus, spacing for 2 dual slot GPU is horrible on the ASUS. GL with your build.
 
troisanh said:
Drop the ASUS a8n32 and get MSI diamond plus, spacing for 2 dual slot GPU is horrible on the ASUS. GL with your build.
Click to expand...

he's right , with the massive dual slot coolers from the 7900GTXs u wont be able to fit the x-fi card in. maby go with an lanparty xpert? or since money is no object, xpert venus?
 
It will definitely fit on the A8N32-SLi, but tightly. There are pictures on these forums of it. However there appears to be some issues with the A8N32 boards and 7900GTXs freezing, so I'll change that to the K8N Diamond Plus. Better airflow, no freezing :)

What would be the point of having 2 dual cores? This rig is 100% only for gaming. That will be its sole purpose, total gaming bliss. I have other PCs for my work. There won't be quad core optimized games for probably 1-2 years and I upgrade every 7-9 months.

Sure I could easily hit 2.6ghz with a Opty 170... my last CPU was a 4400+ @ 2.7. Thing is it applies both ways; with an FX-60 I could go even higher, especially on air. I'm going for a 2.9-3.0ghz OC on this thing.

DFI expert boards have a tendency to kill CPUs, big threads about this on xtremesystems.org :(

Conroe is ~4 months away and I can't wait that long not playing any PC games. Also nVidia Intel motherboards aren't that great(did they even announce plans for a Conroe board?). I would be limited to Crossfire.

eVGA seems to be doing a poor job of speed binning their chips and I had an unpleasant experience with my XFX 7800GTX OC cards. (there was a TON of electronic noise coming from the cards under load) I think I'll get some BFG 7900 GTX cards now.
 
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