HELP WITH A NEW $8k BUILD

[Shadow703793]

Ok. Im building a PC for one of my friends he has a $8k budget, so price is no objective. I need help in selecting the best parts(top of the line) available on Newegg.com. The CPU must be a Intel Quad Core. The rest is what I really need the help in. here are my questions:

1. Should I put CrossFire or SLI?
2. 8800GTX or wait for R600?(Can wait until June/July)
3.Motherboard?
4. RAM brand, speed, size,etc?
5. Hard Drive Size? Should I put in 120 GB Raptor and two 750GB Seagates? RAID?
6. OS? XP vs VISTA?


Ok, That is all the questions I have for now. Any help will be appreciated.

 

[yay]

Woa, im from australia so i cant help with newegg but, I recommend waiting for r600 with that budget, also as for motherboard, anything that can support a quad core is good. The ram, i reccomend at least 4gb ddr800 or higher anything slower than 800 will hold that pc back, Also for storage you will need a pair 120 rapters in raid 0, and a pair 750's for storage. But remember, if they are gonna be a heavy gamer, 2 120's wont be enough, you will need a pair of 320's for OS and games.

Also for OS i recommend Xp until SP1, then buy ultimate or home ultimate.

 

[alcattle]

Wow, you could build 2 monster rigs for 8K.

1. SLI if you use the 8800. If you wait for video cards, then wait on this also.
2. I think you should wait and see what happens.
3. There are many high end MB, Bad Axe and Striker come to mind, but still you need to decide on the Vid card.
4. I might want to use good 2 gb sticks 2x2gb to start, with a plan to go 8 gb soon as you use Vista.
5. No limit would go two Raptors, and two baracudas. Definatly RAID!
6. Is the user very experienced? You can always Dual boot. Vista has a few teething problems, like SLI and over 4 gb memory is iffy.

I would plan on a big Monitor, 30" is nice if you have desk/room space. Awesome sound card and speakers.

 

[Heyyou27]

If you're waiting until June, there will be new videocards out then. If you were going to buy right now, I'd say get two 8800GTXs and a Dell 3007WFP.

 

[Synthetickiller]

Ok. Im building a PC for one of my friends he has a $8k budget, so price is no objective. I need help in selecting the best parts(top of the line) available on Newegg.com. The CPU must be a Intel Quad Core. The rest is what I really need the help in. here are my questions:

1. Should I put CrossFire or SLI?
2. 8800GTX or wait for R600?(Can wait until June/July)
3.Motherboard?
4. RAM brand, speed, size,etc?
5. Hard Drive Size? Should I put in 120 GB Raptor and two 750GB Seagates? RAID?
6. OS? XP vs VISTA?


Ok, That is all the questions I have for now. Any help will be appreciated.

A few things to consider.

I could easily build you a computer that would eat up 8k, but thats not the point.

What is he using it for?
How much hdd space does he need?
Again, what is he using it for?

If he's doing video editing and such, then i'd say go for sever w/ 771 socket with 2 quadcores and at least 8 gigs ram.

e5355 (2.66 ghz) x2 = 1215x2 or $2430
server board: 5000x ( you want PCIe 16x) 300-500 bucks
2 to 4 SAS (serial attached scsi), 74 gig fujitsu $285x2-4 (raid 0 for speed)
SAS raid - 200-700 (depending what you want to do)

that can be up to 5k right there.

Throw in an 8800gtx $550
Case: 100-300 (depends on what you want)
dell 30" - $1300

About 7K right there.

Take into consideration, with all that money spent, you have NO RAM, NO back up HDD, NO audio card, NO speakers, NO PSU.

Just explaining how you can blow 7-8 k on a computer and not even have the damn thing able to power up.

So, can you explain what your friend is using this for again?

 

[SinisterMessiah]

If he is going to wait for anything, it should be for the 89** cards, not the r600.

In the meantime he should just get two 8800GTX's and SLI them, and then use eVGA's step up program and get a single 89** card and sell one of the GTX's or something along those lines.

 

[Shadow703793]

Ok, thanks for all the reply. Yes this PC is intended Hardcore gaming and vid editing. I think i will wait and see how R600 dose before any thing is buit. I am also open for other CPU types( along the AMD route) if you think AMD will live up to its name. Tacos, your list really helped but i need a good tutorial explaining how to set up a water cooled rig as i have not done it before.

 

[enforcerfx]

Actually, this is the best Powersupply on the market now:


http://www.xoxide.com/koolance-psu-1200atx-12s.html


Its out of this world I think.

 

[enforcerfx]

My bad

 

[Wonderwill]

Alright, since he has the money, I'd wait on the 8900gtx or see how well the r600 performs, and assuming this is for gaming, I'd go for the x6800, but since it must be an intel quad (why not amd? k8l is supposed to pwn), I'd go for the qx6700, and some top speed memory, I'll compose a list to make it simple
4gis of this memory, more than fast enough
Gpu
cpu
mobo for sli
mobo for xfire
main hdd for software and games ONLY
hdd for as much other crap as you can fill it with, one is enough, no raid
case
I'd say the best psu money can buy, this thing can probably even power three gtx's in sli if that becomes possible
sound card, of some of the highest quality
speakers, these combined with a nice sound card make you feel in the game
mouse, excellent for gaming
keyboard, excellent for gaming
mouse pad, I know, kinda overkill, but it adds a nice touch
monitor

And that is the jist of it for the parts (actually, more detailed than originally intended), then for cooling, you want this to be silent and efficient, now considering th qx6700 is behind the 6700 in gaming, you may want to overclock it, so I'll design the cooling for that purpose
cpu cooler, a very good cooler, but you have to insulate well if you ever want to install this, not recommended if you aren't experienced
This is if you don't want phase change
This is if you don't want phase change
cpu block if you don't want phase change
This is for the cpu water block
water pump
resivoir
Radiator
gpu blocks
gpu peltiers
tubing
coolant

There, that about wraps it up, and I would run xp until vista sp1 comes out like the other dude says, then upgrade to ultimate (home premium doesn't detect more than 2 cores, while ultimate and business recognize up to 128 or something like that), anyways, take a look at this and see what you do and don't like, and see if my effort was worth it

Sorry to sound picky but that dell 30" has an 11ms GTG response time...

 

[Marell]

Heh this RAM is better has tighter timings:

Corsair Dominator DDR2 1111 (PC2 8888) 4-4-4-12

This is the stuff to get 4 gig's off (there might be better stuff by June especialy with Bearlake coming out)

Rest is simple... depending on the GPU u r picking up.

For PS make sure you give Silverstone a good look see. Their OP model's are good like the OP1000, and they come with the new 2 x 8-pin PCI-E connector's. By the time you buy they may also have a higher model...


Marell

 

[proof]

Ok. Im building a PC for one of my friends he has a $8k budget, so price is no objective. I need help in selecting the best parts(top of the line) available on Newegg.com. The CPU must be a Intel Quad Core. The rest is what I really need the help in. here are my questions:

1. Should I put CrossFire or SLI?
2. 8800GTX or wait for R600?(Can wait until June/July)
3.Motherboard?
4. RAM brand, speed, size,etc?
5. Hard Drive Size? Should I put in 120 GB Raptor and two 750GB Seagates? RAID?
6. OS? XP vs VISTA?

Crossfire is SLi. SLi means Scan Line Interface. It is a generic term. Crossfire is just ATi's way of making it sound special. The best gaming setup now would be a 680i chipset and two 8800GTXs in SLi.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad.
Motherboard: ASUS Striker Extreme.
RAM: Corsair XMS 2 Dominator DDR2 800.
HDD: 4 Western Digital Raptor X 150.
PSU: PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool 100kW.
VGA: 2 eVGA 8800GTX.
Case Fans: 2 Noctua 120mm fans.
Case: CoolerMaster Stacker 830.

While you are at it why don't you pick up a phase-change cooler?
If you get the time take a look into some 15k SAS drives...