unleash your imagination!!! $4.5k extreme gaming PC!!

[nackz]

well, since my last post here isn't very popular I decided to change the topic altogether...
It's been 5 years since I build my last pc... and now with a HUGE bonus I've received last month, I think it's time to build a new machine...
So now, I humbly ask the help off all PC experts here to build me new extreme gaming pc
After roaming around dozens of forum and hundreds of post.. this is what I had in mind

■CPU : QX9650 ($1,052) or Q9450 ($370) *need expert recommendation
■Mobo : Asus Striker II Extreme ($460)
■Ram : 4 x 1gb Corsais Dominator DDR2 ($170) or 4 x 1gb Crucial Ballistix ($160) or DDR3?? *again, need opinion
■Graphic Card : 8800 GTX SLI ($900) or 9800 GX2 SLI ($1050)
■HardDisk : 2 x Seagate Barracude 7500.11 750 gb ($300)
■PSU : Enarmax Galaxy 1000W ($300) or PC Power & Cooling 1000w ($410)
■Sound Card : Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum ($200)
■Cooling System : Thermalright IFX-14 ($70) *seriously need expert opinion

Grand Total : $2770 - $3712.. plenty more to sink in...

Feel free to scrap the whole list and make your own but I want Intel and Nvidia to stay there. And I'm particularly interested for opinion and suggestion for high end RAM and Cooling System / Kit
Thank you for all your suggestion and opinion

ps: I already have a nice monitor, speaker and mice+keyboard so you guys can just scratch it off the list

 

[Truth_Triumphant]

Well, Its looking good so far - but a few questions to answer might help you make the right decision on buying parts.

1) Do you plan to do overclock, either the CPU or GPU?
2) Do you plan on running 64Bit windows? (only 3gigs is recognised in 32bit windows)
3) What monitor size do you currently have? (To determine GPU needs)

Just some notes - unless seriously deciding to overclock the ram - DDR2 is just as good in many ways as DDR3 - Read http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/ddr2_vs_ddr3/13.html
This might help you in your decision.

For HDD - I recommended at least one Raptor to speed up things a bit at least for general operations of Windows.

I can look in a little more in regards to the cooling system kit to advise what is best,

Hope that helps in someway

 

[nackz]

thank you truth, for the ddr article and HDD suggestion and for your question

1. Yes I'm planning to OC my system but not go as far as "Extreme OC" somewhere around 5%-40% increase should do fine
2. Yes I'm planning to use 64bit Vista, do you think 4 gig is enough? because I've read an article here in Tom's Hardware about 64 bit OS with 8 gig of memory
3. My monitor is 24" samsung 245BW monitor

And I still need expert opinion for my cooling system.. so anyone out there.. please help

 

[random1283]

Ok

CPU
First just get the QX9650 as it is way more overclockerable than the 9450
MB
nice choice stick with it
RAM
Grab the DDR2 as thats what the 780i chipset supports
GPU
The 9800GX2 in SLIhas shown to be a killer but you need a high end CPU to handle it. and with new nvidia drivers coming out performance will only get better.
HDD
good choice too
PSU
PC Power and Cooling one as it has better amperage and better quality
Sound card
Ok
Cooling system
The only step up from an IFX-14 is high end swiftech water cooling Which you could do but needs lots of separate parts

All in all your going to have a beast of a system

 

[focker]

heres a list to help save money

q6700 will oc to 3.9 to 4.0 ghz
evga 780i sli
ocz reaper hpc pc2 8500 4gb kit will oc to 1200 wich is faster than ddr3 1700 because of latency
2x raptor 150 gb in raid 0
sb extreme gamer fatality
1x 9800 gx2 and quad sli later when drivers get better
and for cooling the Zerotherm Nirvana NV120
antec 900 case
ANTEC TruePower Quattro 1000 watt quad rail
about 2500$ at the most and spend the rest on sex
or you could just beat off while you look at that rig your talking about
20k in 3dmark is all you need to play games for the next year and
then just stick another gx2 in there next year

 

[leo2kp]

You see, he WANTS to spend the cash, not save it. So let the imagination flow IMO

I would go with 4GB RAM at least, but why not go with 8gb?

Try Tri-SLI with 8800 Ultras perhaps (if the mobo supports it, I haven't looked)? If not, 2x GX2's should be pretty badass.

I would go with the PC Power and Cooling PSU.

I'm no expert on water-cooling so I'll leave that up to someone else.



My 2c

 

[boonality]

The only major thing I noticed that I would DEFINATELY change is dump the 1GB sticks of mem and buy 2GB sticks instead and go for 8GB in a 4 x 2GB config

 

[Truth_Triumphant]

4 Gigs of ram should suffice for now there are some issues with 8gigs of rams being installed

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/15/vista_workshop/page12.html

Did you plan on Water Cooling? If overclocking up to 40% the heat may be a bit much -
http://thermaltakeusa.com/product/Liquid/liquid_index.asp
They have some nice built-in water cooling towers as well as other cooling products

One 9800GX 2 should allow you to play at max settings on your resolution on most games (not including Crysis of course - but I'm sure this comp isn't being built just for that either).

For Example

Call of Duty 4 - on 1920x1200 AA4x + AF8x still runs at 68.2 FPS -

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/03/18/nvidia_geforce_9800_gx2_review/page8.html

Sli for 9800GX2 seems to have some glitches especially when it comes to Quad-Sli so I would hold off the second card until drivers and updates become available.

For Some Reviews though comparing 9800GTX vs 9800GX2 in Sli, Tri-Sli and Quad-Sli mode -

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1363/7/page_7_benchmarks_crysis_very_high/index.html

It gives you an idea in terms of performance increase for Sli-ing

Otherwise its looking good!

 

[Mishra100]

http://www.discountspasdirect.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=DSD&Product_Code=eclipse&Category_Code=S