Build me the Ultimate Core 2 Extreme PC

[jmy350z]

I would like to build a new PC. After all the reviews,I wanty to use the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor. I use my compter for work,internet,gaming,dvd,music,and photography. My main use is for work,graphs,reports and things like that.Graphics are extremely inportant. If you were building a system using this processor,what else would you buy? I want utimate graphics,sound,I need tons of storage space,what cases would you use? I am in no hurry,so if there are better graphics or sound cards coming out soon,let me know.I have the money to spend.Thanks for your help

 

[garnin]

Do you plan to overclock or do you just want to have a beastly stock computer?

 

[jmy350z]

Overclock

 

[surelock]

for graphics right now the 7950 GX2 is the fastest card out there, but if you wait until vista...haha you can get a directx 10 card solution.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150160

for sound the creative X-FI platinum or elite is the best sound card out right now and it sounds great!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102191

the hard drive you'll want is the seagate 750
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148134

 

[Dante_Jose_Cuervo]

Yeah, like SureLock said you can wait for a DirectX10 card like the 8800GTX or the 9800GTX or GX2. If I were you I'd wait and go quad with the 8XXX or 9XXX series. That Core 2 Extreme is a beast and if you OC... well that goes without saying. As for the HDD you can get the Seagate 750 gig or if you get your HDD when you get your GPU Hitachi has 2 new HDDs coming out. One is 1TB and the other is 1.5TB.

 

[crewxp]

What about a cooling system. What's the best liquid cooling out that'll work for conroe? I'm looking at something quiet (if possible too)

 

[Doughbuy]

Koolance Exos for external based solution. $300

Swiftech Aqua H20-220 for internal $220

but if money was no concern... HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE

http://www.systemcooling.com/vapochill_ls-01.html

I'd want that =). 0 degree celcius CPU... think how far of an OC you can get with that =)

 

[Dante_Jose_Cuervo]

Have you thought about a Koolance solution? Koolance has Lian-Li cases that have integrated water cooling systems. Also if you want to put multiple HDDs in there Lian-Li's full towers support up to 12HDDs or 10 if you water-cool them.

 

[Lamy]

top end liquid cooling and conroe extreme ... oh... em... gee...

 

[Dante_Jose_Cuervo]

OMG! Yeah and Vapochill lightspeed just wouldn't be worth the money I mean look at how the Core 2 Extreme OC's just on liquid cooling.

 

[Underneath_it_all]

Ultimate pc....

Case: Kandalf LCS http://www.thermaltake.com/product/Chassis/fulltower/Kandalf_lcs/vd4000bws.asp

CPU: Core 2 Duo Extreme http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2341239&CatId=2399

GPU: 2x nvidia 7950 GX2 (XFX XXX versions) http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2240945&Tab=2&NoMapp=0

PSU: PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817703003

Hard Drive: 3TB of storage 4x 750GB Seagate Barracuda http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148134

MB: ASUS P5N32-SLI SE http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131564

Sound Card: X-Fi Fatal1ty http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102189

only about $5000

oh and some CORSAIR XMS2 2GB PC6400C3 ram

 

[Doughbuy]

You get the vapochill just to rub into someones face... well, your cpu under load is 46 degrees... MINE IS 0... HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA...

Of course, you get a Ferrari for the same reason...

 

[tmac]

Ultimate pc....

Case: Kandalf LCS http://www.thermaltake.com/product/Chassis/fulltower/Kandalf_lcs/vd4000bws.asp

CPU: Core 2 Duo Extreme http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2341239&CatId=2399

GPU: 2x nvidia 7950 GX2 (XFX XXX versions) http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2240945&Tab=2&NoMapp=0

PSU: PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817703003

Hard Drive: 3TB of storage 4x 750GB Seagate Barracuda http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148134

MB: ASUS P5N32-SLI SE http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131564

Sound Card: X-Fi Fatal1ty http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102189

only about $5000

oh and some CORSAIR XMS2 2GB PC6400C3 ram

For the ultimate PC - I would wait to see what the new motherboards
were like - I was waiting for DFI board with ATI' SD600 chipset.
I'm not sure what to think about that with the AMD/ATI merger
going on. Isn't NVIDIA putting out a new MB.
The new motherboards I thought were going to be released soon.

My kind of PC. I have around a 5K budget - but waiting for the dust to
settle -

Plus for the ultimate machine - I would wait on the DX10 cards -
get something cheap in the meantime - that's what I'm doing.

 

[biohazard420420]

That looks like a pretty bad ass set up but only 2GB of ram hell go with 4GB or 8GB of cas3 or lower latency. I mean if your going to max out everything else you mine as wel max out the ram too. And I have to add man I wish I knew where you guys were getting your money from I would go nuts with a 5,000 dollar budget. Im building a new one but not even close to that kind of budget. Either yall got some rich partents or some really good jobs.

 

[tmac]

One more thing - as far as LCD - leaning towards samsung 204B
1600x1200 resolution - 5ms response time
or the samsung 244T
1920x1200 - 6ms repsponse

- 30" dell would be nice - but you need QUAD GPUs then -

 

[Dante_Jose_Cuervo]

Well it depends on what OS he's running it because don't forget that most versions of Windows won't support more than 3 Gigs of RAM. That and 64-bit versions have a lot of legacy hardware and software problems. Well at least as far as XP Pro x64 goes.

 

[IcY18]

think the future, think vista, think 16gb of ram supported :lol:

unless he plans to spend on 5K within the next year or year and a half he will most likely upgrade to vista, therefore supporting his 4 gigs of ram, and if you can get more than two 2gb, why settle at 2gb with this budget

 

[clue69less]

Ultimate pc....

Case: Kandalf LCS

GPU: 2x nvidia 7950 GX2 (XFX XXX versions)

Hard Drive: 3TB of storage 4x 750GB Seagate Barracuda

oh and some CORSAIR XMS2 2GB PC6400C3 ram

As much as I like TT Cases (I own two if you need proof) I would go with a Lian Li or Kolance-modded Lian Li as a commercially available case for the Ultimate PC. An even better option if you really want the Ultimate PC is to have a custom made case.

I'd go with two 1900XTs or wait a bit and get 1950XTs in XFire rather than the 7950s. I'd also consider getting a good RAID controller and set up a RAID10 array with four WD500GB HDs. Another possibility would be to get eight 150GB Raptors and set them up in RAID10. That would be fast... Then you could run the OS on a separate mobo-controlled two times 150GB Raptor RAID0. If you need more storage than that then just toss toegther a nice little server.

Corsair won't do for the Ultimate PC. Call up mushkin and order some special DDR2 from them...

 

[mulciber]

Almost every one of these posts are incredibly stupid.

Lets clarify things a bit here.
First you can't have two 7950. There is currently only support for one 7950 in a setup, and it will probably stay that way for the next 6 months. And at $550us the price is steep especially when you consider that one of the bottom rung cards in the next generation will probably outperform that 7950 you buy right now.

Second, if you wait for the new gen of graphics cards, then you might as well wait for Kentsfield. Its really stupid to try to build an expensive machine right now with the objective of having an "extreme top of the line" machine. Simply put? You might have it top of the line for 10 or 12 months, but when the new graphics cards come out it will need the upgrade. When Kentsfield comes out it will need that upgrade too. You may need a new motherboard with Kentsfield, a better psu, and probably better ram.

My advice is to think about your upgrades in the future and to buy accordingly. Maybe a 7300GT will hold you over until the next gen comes. Maybe rather than an e6800 you buy an e6600, and upgrade later to kentsfield in 2007.

 

[clue69less]

Almost every one of these posts are incredibly stupid.

Almost as stupid as you replying the above to me when I recommended ATI GPUs over nvidia?

 

[Artmic]

I'm building my "Ultimate PC" right now,

Core 2 Duo X6800
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C3 2GB
XFX GeForce 7950 GX2
2 X Raptor 150GB
PC P & C Turbo Cool 1KW
TR SI-128
CM Stacker 830

I'm not going with any superior cooling, just air for now.

 

[mulciber]

I clicked reply to post because you were at the bottom. The post doesnt apply to you so dont get your panties in a twist junior.

Also atomic, thats one hot monster... 2 raptors? egh.

 

[Artmic]

I clicked reply to post because you were at the bottom. The post doesnt apply to you so dont get your panties in a twist junior.

Also atomic, thats one hot monster... 2 raptors? egh.

Yeah my first build after a long long break from building any PC's, most of the tech i'm working with for the first time. haven't dealt with Sata, nor PCI-Express, nor even the DDR2 memory before lol Everything in my system i scooped from reading what other posters said works and does not work well together, so lets hope my build will work also.

Yup, 2 raptors, although not a raid setup, i don't want to stick 10 drives into the case would trully get too hot, one raptor will do the WinSys and app duties, while the 2nd raptor does data. If i run out of room, i will purchase another raptor, hopefully they will make a 300 Gig version soon. lol

I figure the stacker and some kick ass Panaflo fans will do the trick in cooling this case, i just need to cork my ears. J/k. i think the case and its fans provide enough cooling, and the fans in front will push the air from the drives to the exhaust fans perfectly.

 

[ryder_22]

does anyone know approx. when DirectX10 cards will first come out? will prices be similar to 7900GT? will there be like 8900GT and will directX10 by how much better?
this R800, what is this? should i wait till sept for it? i'm waiting for nvidia 570sli boards. i guess getting 2 7900gt's is pointless.
How much better will directX10 be? is everything at this point just speculation?

 

[mulciber]

Well, if you are feeling adventurous you could always try your hand at custom watercooling. I recently finished a setup for a friend with a 1977 bonneville heater core, of course this stuff is a little bit too much diy for a lot of thd forum members I think... but I doubt you could buy a better cooling solution.

I hope you can get decent airflow, because with two raptors you are looking at serious heat and sound.

If I were you I'd just buy one raptor for programs, etc. and one perp 500gb drive to take data... I think I saw one for 169$usd. If you want I will post a link to it.