Gaming/Development PC for 4500 EUR

[maxwell_jr]

Hi,

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: next two weeks

BUDGET RANGE: 4500 EUR / 4000 GPB (incl. tax)

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, Development

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: No preferred ones, local country dealers

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Austria

OVERCLOCKING: Yes, CROSSFIRE: Yes, in the future

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1600x1200 (future 1920x1200)

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: water cooling


So I've lots of money to through at my next system. I'm located in Europe and I guess 4500 EUR roughly translates to 4000 GPB (afaik, if not, it's Googles fault

I'm planning to do water cooling, here's my current hardware list:


2 x Intel X25-M G2 Postville 160GB, 2.5", SATA II

Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition, 6x 3.33GHz, boxed

OCZ Platinum Low-Voltage DIMM Kit 12GB PC3-10667U CL7-7-7-20

Gigabyte Radeon HD 5970, 2x 1024MB GDDR5, 2x DVI, mini

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7, X58 (triple PC3-10667U DDR3)

Plextor PX-B940SA, SATA

Cooler Master HAF932 schwarz

be quiet Dark Power Pro P8 1000W ATX 2.3

Microsoft: Windows 7 Professional 64Bit, DSP/SB, 1er Pack

Various water cooling equipment


The system should be "open" to hold a possible second 5970 in the future.

I've read the March system builder marathon and many other sources to stick this thing together. Here are some information why I choose certain components:

- hard disks: I'll just use them as two 160GB drives, 320GB in sum. I do not need more local storage, I've a server at home for the terabyte stuff

- ram: 12GB is future proof for me, as I'm working a lot with virtual machines (I even have a private VMWare license) and do simulating application server network environments

- motherboard: actually, I had the UD3R selected before, but I've no clue why I would choose the UD7; I did so because of the system builder reference

- water cooling: I've no detailed components about the water cooling stuff. I've a local store where I'll grab all the stuff I need (some set I guess, cooling mount for the 5970, etc.)

Consulting my local price aggregator, I'm currently somewhere at 3800 EUR or 3350 GPB. So there's still room to possibly insanely improve certain things.

I'll want to do overclocking, but it's also important the system is reliable and, most importantly, the components I've chosen will actually work together. I hope I haven't made some oversight error.

Thanks for any advices/pointers!

 

[snorojr]

If you actually work alot with server stuff you should more look at some home server rig. That mean instead of a way too much overpriced 980x you can get something like that:

Evga sr-2 motherboard why? because its a server motherboard that you can overclock !! isnt that nice ?Cost ? around 600$ will be there around the beginning of the summer.
2x xeon x5630 why? 32nm server quad core cpu and they only cost 600$ each, not too bad and they come with a nice enough 19x multi for overclocking.

As for hard drive and memory, it all depends on your needs, the motherboard if i remember well accept quite all kind of memory. So just buy what you need exactly.

Also go check if any of your server application use cuda core, because if they do, you better get a gtx480 or even 2 cause that will be very helpfull in those apps that can use cuda.

If you dont like my 2xcou build , you can go also for 1xcpu build.

This time because we only have 1 cou, the 980x could be worth its price.

Mobo would be one of the three mobo from Asus supercomputer lineup for lga1366.

If you need pcix, then you need the P6T ws professional, if not then the P6T6 Ws revolution would be my choice because The P6T7 Have 2 nf200 chip and they produce alot of unecessary heat.

The rest is the same thing as the 2xcpu build.

As for liquid cooling, case choice and cooling need are needed to help you choose the right watercooling stuff.

 

[megamanx00]

You could go for some 5870 eyefinity cards instead if you were interested in 6-monitor eyefinity. Anyway, I don't know about the PSU. I would be looking at an Antec, Corsair, FSP, Silverstone, Seasonic X-Series, or PC Power & Cooling unit. For a dev build you should have a high quality reliable unit. Anyway, if you're going to be doing development all day I would suggest you set up a subversion server. The subversion server doesn't need to be too speedy, just have a good amount of storage and high reliability. Even if you're not working with anyone else it's good to keep track of changes when working on a large project like a video game.

 

[maxwell_jr]

Hi,

@snorojr: I've been eying with the XEON stuff, however there are two things I'm missing: currently there's no board which supports USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 (the Gigabyte does support both), which I specifically looked into for the future. I'd love to have a board ready for dual CPU, but there's currently none feature the two things above (e.g. the Intel Skulltrail D5400XS).

@megamanx00: 6-monitor is not interesting for me, I'll leave it at one for now, maximum of three (if ever), and then I'd use a second 5970 if I get performance problems (but that would be "future", or more specific "far future", anyway)

thanks for the feedback so far.