Alien area 51 ALX new purchase, need help

[gypsy jay]

Hi. I neep help in choosing the correct configuration of hardware for a top-end gaming-only pc (no work, or dvd burning etc, purely gaming) . As I am buying from alienware, the choices are few.

I am trying to avoid bottlenecks and problems with delays (lag) and incompatible components

Money is no object but I don't want to waste money unnecessarily. I would like to future proof my pc for at least 2 to 3 years playing the latest games such as company of heroes, crisis 1 and 2 etc.

I have no technical knowledge and would appreciate any and all help from the community.


Processor : Intel® Core™ i7-980X Processor Overclock from 3.33GHz to 3.73GHz, 12MB


Operating system: Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate 64bit (English) Alienware Recommended ; or

Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate with XP Mode


RAM: 12GB (3X4GB) DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz Memory [Included in Price]; or

12GB (3X4GB) DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz Memory


Hard Drive: Solid State Drive (Single Drive)
128GB High Performance SATA Solid State Drive ; or

+ Raid 0 Performance
2TB (1TBx2) SATA RAID 0 (Data Striping) [Included in Price]; or

+ Solid State Drive (Raid 0 Performance)
512GB (256GBx2) SATA Solid State RAID 0 (Data Striping)


Additional Hard Drive: + Single Drive (Do I even need one of these?)

640GB SATA 3.0Gb/s Additional Hard Drive with Native Command Queuing; or

1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Additional Hard Drive with Native Command Queuing;or

1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Additional Hard Drive with Native Command Queuing;or

+ WD Velociraptor (Single Drive)
300GB Western Digital Velociraptor SATA 3.0Gb/s (10000RPM) Additional Hard Drive; or

+ Solid State Drive (Single Drive)
256GB High Performance SATA Additional Solid State Drive; or


512GB (256GBx2) SATA Solid State RAID 0 (Data Striping)


Optical Drive:

16X DVD+/-RW with Dual Layer Write Capability [Included in Price]; or

Blu-ray Disc Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD w/dual layer capability) ; or

8x Dual Layer Blu-ray Disc™ Burner (BD-RE, DVD±RW, CD-RW) + Dual Drive ; or

Dual Drives: 16x DVD+/-RW + BD and DVD/CD-RW Combo (BD reader and DVD/CD burner); or

Dual Drives: 16x DVD+/-RW + Blu-ray Disc Drive Burner (BD/DVD/CD burner)


Graphics Card: Dual 2GB DDR5 ATI Radeon™ HD 5970; or

Dual NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX480 1.5GB DDR5 - SLI


Power supply: 1100 watt modular PSU


Motherboard: Not on the Dell website as an option, but hopefully comparable to other top of the line motherboards?

I would also be interested in the Dell ISP 3008 WFP 30 inch monitor, as I would like to play games at their highest resolution, 2560x 1600. I notice that they have a high response rate of 8ms. Will this create any type of slow-down either in single player or online? Does anyone have this monitor or any other 30 inch monitor they could recommend that does not lag or ghost?

Thank you

 

[Mr Pizza]

Ok, you are making a big big mistake. Never go with alien ware first of all, build your own.

You say this will be for gaming only, i7 980x is for rendering and such, an i5 750 will do charms,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215&cm_re=i5_750-_-19-115-215-_-Product

OS, windows ultimate won't help you in gaming,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754&cm_re=windows_7_64_bit-_-32-116-754-_-Product

Hard Drive, you are throwing away money (I would have used caps.. thats how bad it is)
Get this hard drive, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185&cm_re=spinpoint_f3-_-22-152-185-_-Product
And this SSD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231377&Tpk=60gb%20pheonix%20pro

You do not need blu ray for gaming, all you need is this,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Graphics Card
Go with a gtx 470 in SLI... add another later if you need it (DONT ASSUME YOU NEED IT NOW)

Power Supply.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139014&Tpk=AX1200
(this PSU is TOP OF THE LINE)

Motherboard,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130259&cm_re=p55-_-13-130-259-_-Product
This motherboard has the new hydra chip, meaning you can SLI or crossfire and in some cases but an nvidia with an ATi

Get a normal 1920x1080 monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001389&cm_re=1920x1080-_-24-001-389-_-Product
Theses are great because if you ever want to do nvidia surround, the bezels are thin so you get a nice experience

 

[Mr Pizza]

Oh and you need a case,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119225&cm_re=haf_x-_-11-119-225-_-Product

 

[sp12]

Basically that, I would personally get an i7-950+X58 board in this price range.

For the monitor, I would consider a triple monitor setup like 3*Dell u2311h or something.

 

[Mr Pizza]

You do not need an i7 9XX for gaming, the hyper threading has no effect on games, if he wants to play Battlefield: Bad Company 2 or Grand Theft Auto IV then he should consider the Phenom II x6's because these games use 4 or more cores. Note: You said, "I have no technical knowledge" so i assume that you won't be editing video/audio anytime soon. Although if you are interested in doing that, then go get an i7 or a Phenom II x6

Yes, consider 3D vision gaming or NVIDIA surround.

 

[sp12]

Well, the 9XX allows him to use 3 GPUs, which is something you mentioned as an upgrade path.

I agree, the 980X makes no sense, but a 950 isn't that crazy for this price range.

 

[Mr Pizza]

Yes, but IDK.. this board doesn't do 3WAY? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130259&cm_re=p55-_-13-130-259-_-Product

And it has the new hydra chip, also the crosshair iv extreme

 

[brennon7]

Build this....

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=18160308

Learn how to put it together here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CStOC0hET8 part 1

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=newegg#p/search/8/3buj5cIh2Bs Part 2


other tips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7wOl7XS4ps&feature=channel

Good luck...

 

[Mr Pizza]

Oh yeah, YOU DON'T NEED 12GB OF RAM

Just making that clear