My New System Design

S

srg5150

n00b
Joined
Jun 15, 2005
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9
Here's what I've spent the last several weeks compiling. Let me know what you think and suggestions to putting it all together. I listed the best street price I could find from the last couple of days so if you know of anything cheaper send me a link. I'll be laying the smackdown on the Visa card this week.

Let the comments and flaming begin!


CASE - Chenbro Gaming Bomb II - $211.49

MOBO – DFI Lanparty nForce4 SLI-DR - $196.00

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 FX55 San Diego $834
OR
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800 Toledo - $1,139

RAM – OCZ EL Platinum DFI nF4 Special 1GB - $298.98

GPU – (x2 SLI) eVGA 6800GT PCI-Express - $345

Water Cooling –
- CPU Block = DangerDen TDX – $54.45
- GPU Block = (x2) Koolance VID-NV2-L06 – $78.20
- Chipset Block= Koolance CHC-A05 - $24
- Radiator = Black Ice Extreme II - $51.84
- Fan = (x2) Panaflo 120mm – $16.95
- Misc. = Non-Conductive fluid, blue UV dye, Tygon tubing, Fillport, Arctic Silver 5

Hard Drives – (x2 in Raid 0) Western Digital Raptor 74GB - $179

Sound Card –Audigy2 ZS Gamer - $109.00

DVD R/W - Plextor PX-716A/SW - $116

CD R/W – Plextor 52x32x52 CD - $83.25

Power Supply – PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 SLI - $239

Speakers - Logitech Z-5500 - $269.00


Approx. Total Cost = $3,725 YIKES!!



Thanks in advance for any input!

Steve
 
Are you sure that you'll need just the two Raptors for all of your stuff? I'd add a 250+GB hard drive for storage purposes. The separate hard drive doesn't have to be in the same RAID as the Raptors, and if you chose the FX55 over the X2 4800, then you could use the difference to buy yourself a 300-400GB drive. I would also get a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive instead of the standalone CD burner. That way, since you'll be using the combo drive to play games and watch movies (along with burning CDs), you will use the DVD burner less, and thus keep it around longer. You could probably find a combo drive for about the same price (if not less) than the price you have advertised for the CD burner. (Here's one from NewEgg and one from ZipZoomFly.)
 
Dude that system is bad ass, I dont wether to suggest going with the X2 or the FX-55, either would be friggin awesome...... Though if your spending all that money trying to have the hottest piece of machinery then I would go with a 7800GTX, the 6800GT will suit just fine but for the sake of having the best of everything 7800GTX is the way to go....

Are you sure that you'll need just the two Raptors for all of your stuff? I'd add a 250+GB hard drive for storage purposes.
Click to expand...
Fuck it, just go with a Terrabyte of HDD space, that would be the shit.....
 
That's what I'm contemplating for an add-on in a couple months. I know 150 gig isn't going to cut it in the long term. Guess I'll cross that bridge later.

Thanks for the ideas and links.



tiraides said:
Are you sure that you'll need just the two Raptors for all of your stuff? I'd add a 250+GB hard drive for storage purposes. The separate hard drive doesn't have to be in the same RAID as the Raptors, and if you chose the FX55 over the X2 4800, then you could use the difference to buy yourself a 300-400GB drive. I would also get a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive instead of the standalone CD burner. That way, since you'll be using the combo drive to play games and watch movies (along with burning CDs), you will use the DVD burner less, and thus keep it around longer. You could probably find a combo drive for about the same price (if not less) than the price you have advertised for the CD burner. (Here's one from NewEgg and one from ZipZoomFly.)
Click to expand...
 
Nice, although for the price you're paying for memory I personally would just get 2GB of memory at a slightly lower price.
 
Looks like that RAM has been discontinued recently anyway. Time to crawl back under my rock and do some more research. Any suggestions for a starting point?

thanks

Steve
 
Anything from Kingston, Corsair, Crucial, or Mushkin is good. (There's also Geil, OCZ, and I believe Patriot, but nearly everyone that I know will recommend one of the first four companies. I've used RAM from all four and have had no problems at all from them.) Since you obviously have money to spend, go for two 1GB sticks. If you're planning on overclocking, get RAM that is higher than the PC3500 specs (like say, PC4000 or PC4200); if not, you could get away with getting some of the value-based RAM (@ PC3200 specs) that one of the above four sells.
 
Save your money and buy my system.

Dell XPS 4

3.8ghz P4
4gb Ram
2x74gb Raptors In Raid 0
250 gb Harddrive
BFG 6800 256mb GTO videocard
DVD+RW Black
CD-RW Black
SB Audigy 2 ZS
Sony StylePro Series SDM-S204/B 20.1-inch Black Flat Panel LCD Display
Logitech MX500 6 Button Mouse
Logitech Racing Momo Racing Wheel(The New one)
Saitek Joystick(The newest one I forgot the name)
Windows XP Pro

You will save about 1,500 buying my system.
$2,000 shipped everything there. Let me know.
 
srg5150 said:
Here's what I've spent the last several weeks compiling. Let me know what you think and suggestions to putting it all together. I listed the best street price I could find from the last couple of days so if you know of anything cheaper send me a link. I'll be laying the smackdown on the Visa card this week.

Let the comments and flaming begin!


CASE - Chenbro Gaming Bomb II - $211.49

MOBO – DFI Lanparty nForce4 SLI-DR - $196.00

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 FX55 San Diego $834
OR
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800 Toledo - $1,139

RAM – OCZ EL Platinum DFI nF4 Special 1GB - $298.98

GPU – (x2 SLI) eVGA 6800GT PCI-Express - $345

Go ahead get a single 7800GTX, faster than 2 6800 Ultras

Water Cooling –
- CPU Block = DangerDen TDX – $54.45
- GPU Block = (x2) Koolance VID-NV2-L06 – $78.20
- Chipset Block= Koolance CHC-A05 - $24
- Radiator = Black Ice Extreme II - $51.84
- Fan = (x2) Panaflo 120mm – $16.95
- Misc. = Non-Conductive fluid, blue UV dye, Tygon tubing, Fillport, Arctic Silver 5

Hard Drives – (x2 in Raid 0) Western Digital Raptor 74GB - $179

For gaming and normal use Raid 0 has proved unreliable and almost pointless. Get a single raptor for your OS and games and get a larger second drive for storage. No point in RAIDing when the performance gains are less than 2 to 3%. There is a nice Anandtech articel to read on it

Sound Card –Audigy2 ZS Gamer - $109.00

DVD R/W - Plextor PX-716A/SW - $116

CD R/W – Plextor 52x32x52 CD - $83.25

Is this needed since the 716 does a very good job of CD burning and is just as fast the 52x, I would save my money and buy just a standard DVD drive if you really need 2 drives

Power Supply – PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 SLI - $239

While PC P&C make the best power supply it is not always neccessary, and if you are getting a 7800GTX instead, you do not need such a beefy powersupply. Now I am not saying this is a bad powersupply, it is the best. IT is just overly expensive, when you can get a Zippy/Emac or a Enermax for much less. Check out the Power Supply forums FAQ for good info on PSUS.

Speakers - Logitech Z-5500 - $269.00

This is just a prefernce for me, but the Logitech speakers are known to have over saturated, boomy bass. If you like that then you are in great shape, if no and are looking for better mids and highs I would look elsewhere

Steve
Click to expand...

Here is my suggestions
 
UltimaParadox , 2 6800 Ultras in SLI would be faster than a 7800GTX in most games. Its already been proven in benchmarks.

Anyway buy me system and be done with it :) use the extra money to upgrade the videocard if you want :)
 
akademik_7 said:
UltimaParadox , 2 6800 Ultras in SLI would be faster than a 7800GTX in most games. Its already been proven in benchmarks.

Anyway buy me system and be done with it :) use the extra money to upgrade the videocard if you want :)
Click to expand...

In some, most seem to lean that the 7800GTX though outperforms though thanks to transparent AA which increase IQ.

STill though a 7800GTX is a much better buy than two 6800GTs and would still be cheaper. With the option of buying another 7800GTX if he wants to.
 
I think I will end up getting the 7800GTX instead of the dual 6800's for now. Since they didn't get released before I originally posted this I didn't know much about them. I guess my crystal ball was broken. My only issue is trying to watercool a 7800 - I may have to OEM fan it until someone makes a block.

The Raptors are just to get me by for the short term. I'll definitely be going the half-terabyte route sooner or later. I've had very good luck with Raid'ing WD drives in the past.

As far as buying the Dell system.... I'll pass but thanks for the offer. It sounds nice - especially with the gaming accesories and monitor. Most of my enthusiasm is actually about putting all the pieces and parts together myself. This is my third build and by far the most complicated so I'm really looking forward to it.

Thanks for the replies guys, keep em coming.

Steve
 
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