Please Rate - Ultimate Gaming System -

[MuntaroTheGreat1]

I have been doing a lot of work on designing my system i will be building in august of this year. If you could please rate my setup 1 - 10 . reasons/suggestions appreciated.

I would also like to add i will most likely be sticking to this exact layout with very few changes if any at all, i have designed this system for the ability to upgrade in the future and be the best bang for my buck gaming system i can make.

Case - Cooler Master ATC 201-B $169.00
+ 4 Fans ( Blue LED )

Power Supply - Enermax 550w $149.00

Motherboard - ABIT Ic7-G $228.00 note: i know it didn't perform well in original testing, however after reviews on many pages, i feel it can be OC to par with other boards and offers many upgrades for future expansions , more so then my other option of the Asus Deluxe.

CPU- p4 3.0mhz 800 $350

RAM - Corsair 1 gig (512 x 2) XMS 3500 $270

Monitor - Hitachi 19" cm 772 $300

Video Card - ATI Radeon 9800 pro 256 mb $400 .. this may change to nvidia, however atm i feel ATI would be the better solution, of course the price is also going to be quite lower by the time i get the system.

Sound Card - SB Audigy 2 $112.00

Hard Drives- Main OS/Games - Western Digital Raptor $146
Storage - WD spec Edition WD800JB 80GB $89.00

.. in future i may go with a RAID, however i don't have knowledge and time for it atm, so i will go with a main drive with a slave storage. hopefully these drives will give me the speed i desire in this setup.

DVD/CD - Pioneer slot load $50

CPU Cooler - Vantec Aeroflow VP4-C7040 $33

Speakers - Logitech THX Z560 4.1 dolby $140

Keyboard - Logitech Black Elite $36

Mouse - Logitech Mx500 $46 (not cordless of course)

EST Total $2500.00 US

....
The way i figure it by august most of this stuff will have dropped and shave off about $500 dollars, that will go towards software and other add-on's, but as this system stands, what do you guys think.

Thanks,
Muntaro

 

[Prof133]

Very powerful system. High quality components. Looks to be quite the success!

 

[Rob423]

Looking Good...

RIG
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
80gb Maxtor
Lian-Li PC-60
Lite-On 52X
AMD XP2800+
LeadTek GeForce 4 Ti4200 w/vivo 128mb 8x
Hitachi CML174
1 GB Corsair XMS PC3200 Cas2

 

[MuntaroTheGreat1]

Some things on other boards that have come to my attention, is mushkin ram better? Someone says Zalman CPU coolers are awesome.. ?

 

[Prof133]

* Stay with the Corsair.

* I'm not familiar with the Zalman.

 

[Ryan_Plus_One]

With 10 being the most badass kick ass system evAr, I give you an 8.

Get logitech Z680's, RAID an maybe dual monitor action and you will be a true player.

Also, don't make any hard drives as slaves. Make sure they are the masters on separate channels. Unless you're talking SATA, then i'll shut up.

 

[HardWareBoss]

System looks awesume. You will be ab;e to upgrade for the next couple of years. Ram stay with Corsair XMS PC 3500.

 

[icy_oblivion]

Looks great, the only thing I might do differently is maybe go with Klipsch's 4.1 system since it doesn't have the absolutely overwhelming sub. But that depends on your sound tastes.

<b>Just because I like AMD or Intel more at a time because of one product compared to another, does not make me a fan boy, it makes me a person who is able to make a decision for myself.</b>

 

[Twitch]

I agree with the others that it will be a kick-ass system. Since you're planning on buying two hard-drives anyway, why not build a RAID 0? That would virtually eliminate the one potential bottleneck in your system.

I agree the choice of speakers could be better. On the other hand, maybe you don't want to spend $300-plus for speakers. I like the Megaworks 6.1 THX system myself.

Other than that, looking good...


<font color=green>The Netherlands is where you go when you're too good for heaven.</font color=green> :tongue:

 

[endyen]

Why not get two of the raptors now as the board has sata raid.Then the only bottleneck you will have will keep your beer from spilling.

 

[AMD_me]

I actually reccomend the Abit board. It uses high quality capacitors, and with new BIOS, it is on par with the Asus. It has one of the best layouts I have ever seen on a P4 board. I would get 2x80GB WD800JBs, the raptor is small, expensive, and not much faster than the WDs. I would reccomend this case <A HREF="http://www.frozencpu.com/cgi-bin/frozencpu/cas-01.html" target="_new">http://www.frozencpu.com/cgi-bin/frozencpu/cas-01.html</A>, I use one myself and it is a pretty quiet, high quality tooless case with A+ cooling and a mobo tray. I would also buy a Prescott since they will be out by then. If not, I would stay with the 3.0 GHz processor since it will have come down in price and is overclockable.

eBay, kick ass!

My 3DMark2001 Score: <A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6442995" target="_new">http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6442995</A>
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I bought from Best Buy once. Once.

 

[Prof133]

I don't know AMD_me. I'll have to respectfully disagree. From the reviews that i've read, it appears that the raptor would significantly outperform the Western Digital Special edition hard drives. Here's one of the <A HREF="http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=wdraptor&page=1" target="_new">articles</A> I've read. Your thoughts?

I remember reading that the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 SATA hard drive is a top notch performer also.

<b><font color=blue>I agree with that solution ... because it is a logical one.</font color=blue></b>