Gaming Machine Help

Virtually no games will gain any advantage from multiple processors.

That's a HUGE budget. but if you're buying Xeons it won't last too long....

Personally, with that budget I'd have a Compressor-cooled CPU, and at least watercooling for everything Video card and chipset, and then I'd overclock the crap out of everything. Then I'd volt-mod the graphics card & overclock it some more!   ..

In all seriousness, I would build an Athlon 64 system. Either an overclocked 3200+ or 3500+ (with a lot of cash sunk into cooling it with either Water or Vapo), or if not into overclocking then a FX-55 or 4000+.

Graphics will be either 2 6800Ultras in SLI (bad bang/buck ratio really, but you have a high budget), or an Ati X850-based solution. I believe ATI will soon have their own SLI-equivalent solution, but I haven't really read up on it yet.

RAM? 2Gb I guess... 1Gb is plenty these days, but if you're after the ultimate, then what the hell.

That's a HUGE budget, but make sure you get a really nice monitor, and some really nice digital surround speakers for a good gaming experience...

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"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen

Personally, I'd build a rig for around $4000, and party like a madman with the rest.... :wink: the Difference in the Rig's power would be minimal, but the short-term fun index would be exponentially higher  

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"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen

Skip the dual Xeon. Go dual Opteron or something fun.

And don't forget to use SCSI for your hard drives. A three disk 15K RPM RAID5 array should do you.  

<pre>Antec Sonata 2x120mm
P4C 2.6
Asus P4P800Dlx
2x512MB CorsairXMS3200C2
Leadtek A6600GT TDH
RAID1 2xHitachi 60GB
BENQ 16X DVD+/-RW
Altec Lansing 251
NEC FE990 19"CRT</pre><p>

Couldn't he do an 8 disk 0+1 array?

Oh, of course he shouldn't forget a build-in cigarette lighter and a jet propulsion system.

xeon wont be that effective in gaming as ChipDeath mentioned before. IMO $5000 r A LOT for a gaming rig, but anyway if i were u i'd go for an AMD64 FX-55 with a 2.6Ghz operating frequency, a radeon x800XT ,2GB OCZ memory(Enhanced Latency Series) (1024x2) with Cas Latency: 2-2-3-6, a good 19' LCD monitor with response time less than or equal 12ms, a creative labs sound blaster Audigy2, creative gigaworks 7.1 sound system or equivalent JBL with a sony preamp. and dont forget to get a good Antec PSU 520Watt.
would add a water cooling for the whole system

I too would choose the FX55 if budget were unlimited. There is just something about the completely unlocked multiplier that makes me happy.

Anyway, no need to spend $5000 all at once, he should get a X850XTpe now and save enough of that money toward upgrading to a R520 or whatever NV comes out with next. $I'd think $3000-$4000 tops should cover it for now, and please to A64 or FX.


<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3400555" target="_new"> My</A> <A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8268935" target="_new">Gamer</A>

Why go RAID0+1/01/10/whatever when you can do RAID5? You just end up wasting more disk space when RAID1ing a RAID0 array. Personally I don't even understand why people bother doing it that way. If you're going to go RAID0 you might as well just get a large single drive to back up your RAID0 array dayly/weekly/whenever. That or go RAID5 and have the best of both worlds with much less wasted drive space.


And a programmable front panel LCD connected VIA USB so that you can know what MP3 files you're playing.  

That reminds me, I still have to mod my short range FM transmitter to run off of an AC adapter instead of batteries and pick up a cheap used AC powered 20GB MP3 player so that I can have a 24/7 in-home commercial-free radio station.  

<pre>Antec Sonata 2x120mm
P4C 2.6
Asus P4P800Dlx
2x512MB CorsairXMS3200C2
Leadtek A6600GT TDH
RAID1 2xHitachi 60GB
BENQ 16X DVD+/-RW
Altec Lansing 251
NEC FE990 19"CRT</pre><p>

I wasn't thinking wasting disk space, I was thinking of a way to spend 5000.... RAID5 is way too cheap for that. Could a RAMdrive help?