Build me a $4500 gaming rig!

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I'd say FX60(AMD) or PentiumX 965EE(Intel)
2GB of Low latency RAM
Crossfire or SLI motherboard
Dual 7900GTXs or X1900 XTX+ X1900 Crossfire master card
Creative X-FI Xtreme music
 
If you are going with AMD (which i recommend) then you might as well wait for the AM2 socket and go with that, and i also suggest sli not crossfire, but i am sure that crossfire is not to far behind from sli.
 
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe (215)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131568
(X2) G.SKILL Extreme Series 2GB (362)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231032
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo (632)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103544
WD 150Gb Raptor HD (275)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136012
TB:Montego SC (80)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829118109
AeroCool Case (106)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811196022
XP-120 Thermalite (54)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835109118
SUNON 120mm Cooling Fan (13)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811999030
SeaSonic S12-600 600W PSU (170)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817151025
SAMSUNG 20.1" LCD Monitor (440)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001226
(x2) BFG Tech 7900GTX (1098)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143047
Total(-tax/shipping)=$3445
 
Don't get a X2, get a Opty 185.

AMD Opteron 185 Dual-Core 2.6GHz 1MB (per core) 64/32-Bit Socket 939 (Retail Box-w-Fan)


Definetly get the Opty, faster (much faster, 2.6 GHz stock and can be OC'd to around 2.9 or 3 easily), better quality (its a server processor, therefore better made), and its just AWESOME.

Of course its $1,120, but hell, you've got the money. GET IT.

Otherwise, I would pretty much agree with what you said. Though if you want this to be kick ass, you can get a much better sound card then that.

DDay
 
Here's what I would get.
Case - what you said
Hard Drives - a pair of 36 gig raptors in raid 0 for windows and programs
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Monitor - A pair of these Samsungs
MoBo - the Asus A8R32 MVP Deluxe
Video Cards - The Saphire x1900xt and the Crossfire Edition
Sound Card - Creative SOUND BLASTER X-Fi Platinum
PSU - 850PC Power & Cooling TURBO-COOL
Processor - Opty 180 Socket 939
Heatsink - Zalman CNPS9500
RAM - OCZ Titanium 2GB (2 x 1GB)

And I do believe that's it. Comes to $4,565.84 after shipping, which is slightly over budget, but you can always trim down on the Hard Drives if you want to save a little, or get a less expensive heat sink that will work just about as well. If you want SLI rather than Crossfire I would say This MSI board and a pair of these BFG 7900GTX's.


Man I wish I had your budget...
 
:twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:come on a pair of 36 GB raptor...the man can't even play with those...let him get 5x 150 GB (15 k rpm) disks...in RAID 5... :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
 
Here's what I would get.
Case - what you said
Hard Drives - a pair of 36 gig raptors in raid 0 for windows and programs
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Monitor - A pair of these Samsungs
MoBo - the Asus A8R32 MVP Deluxe
Video Cards - The Saphire x1900xt and the Crossfire Edition
Sound Card - Creative SOUND BLASTER X-Fi Platinum
PSU - 850PC Power & Cooling TURBO-COOL
Processor - Opty 180 Socket 939
Heatsink - Zalman CNPS9500
RAM - OCZ Titanium 2GB (2 x 1GB)
Click to expand...

Case: First of all, I really don't understand this case. It doesn't make logical sense to me. Mabye you can explain it to me, but I don't get it. Ok, here I go, Most cases, as you know, have there PSU at the top back of the case for easy placement and good reach of cables. The other reason, is to draw hot air that has risen past the chips and Hard Drives, out the back, AT THE TOP, where it naturally rises. Now, I understand this case has fans on the side bottoms in order to draw this air in, but this air doesn't flow past the HDD's and it is being brought in by two fans, both pushing in oposite directions, RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER. I wouldn't recommend, for these simple reasons. Which I may very well be wrong on, but mostly, that you can get a simply awesome case, that is NO WHERE NEAR AS EXPENSIVE. ITS 351 DOLLARS. WHY WASTE THAT.

MoBo: Don't go MVP, its going extinct, and soon, it will be obsolete. If you want this top performance, go with the DFI LanParty UT nF4 Ultra-D, which is an awesome board for OCing, though if you want SLi, which you may want to upgrade to in the future, as more features become available including physics processing, get the Asus A8N32-SLi Delux.

Monitor: Looks good, though personally, if I had your money I would go with the Dell 2405FPW, which though it is more expensive, and doesn't have as fast a response time, is obviously a 24 inch monitor, is wide screen, and is more feature rich. Of course, you could also get the 2007FPW.

Video Cards: Don't get ATI, they are behind at the moment. Get one 512 MB 7900 GTX, which is, from what I've heard actually faster than connecting two 256's. Again, feel free to correct me anywhere that I am wrong.

Sound Card: Really, that looks good, in fact it looks great.

PSU: No, you do not need a 850 W PSU. That is like, the most major overkill I have seen since the guy that said because his 400 W PSU failed, he had to get a 1 KW PSU in order for his computer to work. I highly recommend you check out this link in order to figure out what your PSU should be.

CPU: Come to think about it, yeah, this is the right choice for you. The 185 isn't worth it for the cost, and you can OC this almost as much as it.

Heatsink: Zalman is always a good brand, and this one in particular I have been looking at for myself. A bit out of my own price range, but yeah, its awesome from what I've read.

RAM: Yep, Titanium is really good, though I found a really good deal on XMS the other day that had a $50 rebate on it. So keep your eye out on the two of those.

oh yeah

Hard Drive: Get a WD 150GB Raptor 10,000rpm 16 MB Cache. Also get another slower larger drive for bulk storage.

This comes to I belive lower than 4500.

Let me know.


DDay
 
The 150's aren't worth the money, especially for bulk storage, so don't even think about getting 5. A pair of 36's will be plenty of room for OS and games and programs and give great performance for it, plus cheaper then even one 150.

And I have to agree with DDay about the case. Save a hundred bucks and get the new Cooler Master CM Stacker. Pretty much one of the, if not THE best case on the market right now imo.

Not sure how the MVP is going eextinct and will be obsolete, at least no more than any other socket 939 board with AM2 on the horizon.

Actually ATI is not behind at the moment the two companies are pretty well neck and neck. Some games ATi will run better and some nvivia will run better, look at benchmarks on the cards at any tech site like this one and see what performs better on the games you will be playing most. ATI even has better video picture quality at the moment I believe. But I will admit I am an ATI fanboy as in my experience they handle dual monitors better, and I couldn't live without my second monitor.

And finally, sure the PSU is a little overkill, but with dual top o' the line GPU's and multiple HDD's it is better to overdo than underdo it. I always try to buy more than what I need in the case of PSU because it will last that much longer.
 
Abit 3200 Motherboard
Enermaz 620W Power Supply
Silverstonce case
AMD 64 FX-60 Dual core 2.8 or overclock to 3.0
2 ATI X1900 GPU in Cross Fire
OCZ 2gb 3200 memory
XFI Sound Blaster Fatality 64 Bit memory (recommended for pc gaming)
Silence Koolance water cooler
Samsung SyncMaster 997mb 19" Monitor or
(OPTONAL and reccomended)ViewSonic PerfectFlat G225fB Monitor 21"
Two 74GB raptors set to RAID 0

Motherboard.ABIT AT8 32X Motherboard $184.24
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202516546&SearchEngine=PriceGrabber&SearchTerm=202516546&Type=PE&Category=Comp&Gad=0&dcaid=17741


power supply ENERMAX Liberty ELT620AWT 620W Power Supply $168.00
http://www.directron.com/elt620awt.html

Case=SILVERSTONE SSTTJ07B Black Computer Case $406.95
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811163060

Processor- AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 Dual Core Processor - $999.50
http://www.isquaredinc.com/AMDA64FX60info.html

Video Card- ATI X1900 CrossFire Edition Video Card- $553.67
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=190682&AFFIL=pg&NR=1
ATI Radeon X1900 XT Video Card - $517.12
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814195002&ATT=14-195-002&CMP=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r

Memory-OCZ Technology 2GB PC3200 DDR DIMM Dual Channel Platinum Memory $204.48
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=85201&affiliate=pricegrabber

Sound Card-Creative XFi 70SB046600002 SOUND BLASTER XFi Fatal1ty FPS - $257.00
http://www.pcstadium.com/servlet/the-55/Creative-Sound-Blaster-X-dsh-Fi/Detail

Water Cooler- Koolance Aquian ICM-505 Internal Cooling System $234.53

Monitor-Samsung SyncMaster 997mb 19" Monitor - $190.00
http://www.ctistore.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=997MB&Category_Code=
(OPTIONAL)(recommended) ViewSonic PerfectFlat G225fB Monitor 21", 2048x1536, .2mm $453.69
http://www.thenerds.net/index.php?page=productpage&affid=2&pn=G225FB

Hard Drive-Western Digital Raptor 74GB Hard Drive $162.36
Western Digital Raptor 74GB Hard Drive $162.36
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101222&affiliate=pricegrabber


I will defineltly will go with ATI since ATI 1900 could run HDR and ANTILIASING at the same time.. while NVIDIA does not have this ability.. why pay more for an nvidia card that will show u crap. will use this card in Cross Fire- must have a cross fire certified motherboard like one below. Nvidia might be a little bit faster but does not show a better picture than ATI. Once again Nvidia does not run HDR and ANTILIASING at the same time. KEEP THAT IN MIND!

ABIT AT8 32X Motherboard - with this motherboard this ati card will run at TRUE16x

2 raptors hard drive. Dont forget to set them to RAID 0 for optimum performance

AMD FX-60- the best and fastest DUAL CORE processor out to date.do more in less time.. best cpu for gaming... Overclockable.. runs stable 2.8 with fan and 3.0 with water cooler. Dont get fool with Intel high clock speeds. Intel hasnt found the way to beat AMD fx-60. seehow well your games perform at mazimum resolution.
to overclock to 2.8 do this: Enter Motherboard BIOS > Raised .. "Processor Frequency Multiplier" to 14x and Raised... "Processor Voltage" to 1.400 v
to over clock to 3.0 do this: Enter Motherboard BIOS > Raised .. "Processor Frequency Multiplier" to 15x and Raised... "Processor Voltage" from 1.400 v to 1.4625 v..... MUST USE WATER COOLER TO OC TO 3.0

I Hgihly recomment CRT Monitors. CRT are best for gaming. has higher screen refresh rates and .2mm dot pixel. LCD are not at this level yet, by the way games looks blurry and looks like crap. CRT lookes much better than the most expensive LCD monitor.
I recommend uto go with a 21" CRT monitor to play at the highest resolution 2048x1536.SEE Your Video Card Full Potential.

experience High Fidelity at 24 bit. Run much smoother at higher resolution with XFI souncd card since it has its own CPU.
Saves system cpu usage.

This is the best, fastest, and cheapiest price . from all the PC Configuration from the other configuration above. ill say this the best configuration on the planet to Date.
go with my configuraton. You wont regret.Reasonable price for what it has including a water cooler. and a XFI SOUNCARD with 64bit memory. I also configure this rig with almost no NOISE. A very silence Rig.and with a silence Power Supply. GOOD LUCK!

TOTAL With Tax and Shipping. Price may vary.. this how much will be.. ship to CA, LOS Angeles. once ready to buy hardware go to bottomdollar.com and compare tax, shipping, and hardware prices to be ship to your home.

Total:$4,040.21 with Samsung 19" monitor w/ water cooler
Total: $4,303.9 with View Sonic 21" monitor w/ water cooler

Total: $3,805.68 with Samsung 19" monitor with/ no water cooler
Total: $4069.37 with View Sonic 21" monitor w/ no water cooler
 
"I'd say FX60(AMD) or PentiumX 965EE(Intel)
"

Indeed, the extra 1-2 frames per second in high res gaming that an FX60 achieves over an X2/4200+ makes it easily worth the extra ....$550!!! 🙂

A $4500 budget would demand a 30" Dell (at $2300) be included, for those maniacal enough to spend that much on a computer...; to support adequate framerates at 2560x1600.....finally, a reason for SLI or Crossfire! 🙂
 
Did sum1 call me crazey???!!! 😀

Well i will be buying this rig early next year in england. it works out to 2500 pounds so yeah i can't wait! :wink:

I do prefer AMD and nVidia. That just had 2 be said 😛

Does any1 have a similar spec system to the ones stated above?
if any1 does then how much faster is it compared to my current rig:

amd athlon XP 2800+
9600XT 128mb
512gig ram DDR400
Gigabyte GA7NNXP mobo
:?
???

Can't wait 4 next year!!!!!!!! :twisted:
 
Hold on a sec..... extreme gaming.... what are you playing VR games? What makes it extreme. What can you do with a Dual Core cpu(in games) that you can't do with say a Venice 3500? What can you do with that $350 case, that you can't do with a $100 Lian Li case or Antec case? And if you are going to buy Dual Core.... why get anything higher than an X2 3800 or the Opteron 165 or 170.... I would recommend the Opty. There is no benefit in "Extreme Gaming"..... Just get one of the BEST video cards, one fast harddrive, and a mid range single core cpu(3500) or a low end dual core(the 165-170 or X2 3800) and at high resolutions you will get the same FPS as building a $4500 system.... The only thing you can do above that is buy two cards and X-Fire/SLI them..... You don't need a 32X mobo, there is not performance difference. You don't need to Raid 0 your harddrives, 2 raptors in real world, perform about the same as one on level load times.... You don't need the fatality sound card, just get the extreme music, or something like that. A good 500W psu will be MORE than enough even for an SLI overclocking setup. You don't need water cooling, in about 90-95% of the cases it will not increase your OC, just lower the temps a little bit, and what is the difference between a CPU than only lasts 10 years instead of 15? Who will ever have one that long anyway? And in my opinion, LCD's are much easier on your eyes than CRT's, and I don't notice mine being blurry in comparison to CRT's.... games look great on my 20.1 Dell monitor. And as far as motherboards are concerned.... I have owned 2 DFI's, one UltraD and one was the SLI DR, and I have also owned 2 Asus boards, the A8NSLI Premium(passive chipset cooler) and the A8N5X.... I do not recommend the 5X, but..... I have achieved the EXACT same STABLE and MAX OC on the Asus A8NSLI Premium board and both of the DFI boards..... using the same hardware only difference was the board..... but if you do want DFI and don't need 8 Sata ports, the Ultra D can be modded easily for SLI by jumpering some pins on the Northbridge/Southbridge.... whichever it is called.... by using a pencil....

basically, if you are building a system for gaming, I can build one for half the price that will get the same frame rates as your budget would allow, just saying don't waste your money, and don't let people talk you into it. And if you really want the FX60, just get an Opty 165--170 and OC it, and you don't even need the ultra expensive memory, you will get the same performance, just use the divider and keep it around 400-450(memory speed)...... just my opinion..... take it with a grain of salt.
 
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe (215)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131568
(X2) G.SKILL Extreme Series 2GB (362)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231032
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo (632)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103544
WD 150Gb Raptor HD (275)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136012
TB:Montego SC (80)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829118109
AeroCool Case (106)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811196022
XP-120 Thermalite (54)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835109118
SUNON 120mm Cooling Fan (13)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811999030
SeaSonic S12-600 600W PSU (170)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817151025
SAMSUNG 20.1" LCD Monitor (440)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001226
(x2) BFG Tech 7900GTX (1098)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143047
Total(-tax/shipping)=$3445
Click to expand...


Panth3r, I'v replaced all 5 of my CRT's with the Samsung 204B LCD, I highly recommend it!

The WD 150gb Raptor outperforms 2 74gb Raptor's in Raid 0.

Everything I listed above I spent 2 months researching, many have been tested on TH.

I dropped Creative after having serious issues with their last 3 soundcard models (one trip to their support forums will give you an idea), I switched to Turtlebeach cards. I have used the Santa Cruz, Riviera, and Montego with no issues in any games from WOW, Oblivion, BF2, HL2, ect...........

The Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe support true X16 SLI unlike %99 of the other SLI mobo's on the market.

You could go with the FX60 instead of the X2 4800 but I don't see the performance vs price as being worth it IMHO.

As far as cooling the Aerocool case is topnotch, they did have an issue with it in regards to mounting holes but that has since been fixed. The Thermalight XP-120 is an outstanding HS, setup with the Sunon 120mm fan it has kept my Prescotts very cool (idle in the upper 30's).

Other than that you have to go with what works for you, the above system is what I am currently building for myself.
 
just fyi.... I would recommend the SI-120, it is much easier to work with, and I have seen no difference in temps on any of my setups between the two HS's.
 
With that much money to spend, it would be worth seriously considering a wait until socket AM2 chipsets come out, or even Conroe. That way, you'll get the most bleeding edge system, plus the option to upgrade at least once down the road.

Otherwise, if I had that much money, here is what I'd spend it on:

DFI Lanparty UT CFX3200-DR Socket 939 ATI CrossFire Radeon XPRESS 3200 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $230

AMD Athlon 64 FX60 Toledo 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core - $1012

Corsair 2Gb PC4000, DDR500 (2x 1Gb) - $193

2x 150Gb 10k Raptor for RAID 0 configuration - $550

1x 74Gb 10k Raptor for WinXP/Vista install - $150

2x Radeon X1900XTX for Crossfire Config - approx $1100

Creative X-Fi Fatality Edition - $283

PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW EPS12V 1000W PSU (for geek bragging rights, that's a KILOWATT) - $469

Zalman 9500 Copper Windtunnel HSF - $60

***OK, I got it to $4047, but left the case up to you because of personal taste and aesthetics. Alternately, a setup with 98% of this performance could be had for less than 3k, but its up to you. If you want the changes to bring it down to that point, I can do it, and you would have enough left over to get yourself a nice new 37" LCD TV that would look great playing games.
 
You should own that Conroe selling on Ebay and around the web. That or if you want a good one then wait for Conroe to hit the shelves. But if you cant wait then FX-60, 2x7900GTX,2x1Gb XMS DDR600, Asus SLI mobo,600watt psu, water cool it with Swiftech ultra and you should be good to go. Granted you could do the rest, that should be a $4000 rig right there.
 
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