Building Sick Machine... Help make it live!!

[Altumax]

I have built the computer below for a total of $2580 which I know is kind of high and I know I could build it for cheaper, but before I really got into it, I wanted to get some very valuable feedback from you guys. Here is the mission... if you find these parts cheap, or you have ideas for upgrading, then please post and let me know where the upgrades need to be made. My budget is about $2500, but I will spend up to $3000 for this PC if I NEED to!

Here is what I'm looking to get out of this computer - I want a machine that is extremely hardcore and will be able to handle games like Crysis nearly maxed out if possible (I'm not sure how doable that is with the price). Anyways, if some of these specs are erroneous or unneeded and we could drop the cost to $2000, that wouldn't hurt my feelings either ;-). Just let me know guys, and I can't wait to see what you have to offer me... thanks!!


NZXT Zero Aluminum Full Tower 420W Case
Intel® Core™ i7-920 2.66 GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366
LG GGW-H20L 6X INTERNAL SUPER MULTI BLUE BLU-RAY DISC REWRITER & HD DVD-ROM DRIVE
LG GGC-H20L BLU-RAY/HD-DVD Reader / DVD±R/±RW Writer
Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System
1.5TB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (times 2)
Logitech Deluxe 250 USB Keyboard
XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse
Asus P6T Intel X58 Chipset
12GB (2GBx6) DDR3/1600MHz Triple Channel Memory Module Corsair or Major Brand
Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium w/ Service Pack 1 (64-bit Edition)
Xion SuperNova XON-1000R14HE 1,000 Watts Power Supply
Creative Labs SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio 24-BIT PCI Sound Card
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ 1GB 16X PCI Express (EVGA Powered by NVIDIA) (times 3)


Oh... and PS, I already have a beautiful 24" monitor and would love to hook it up with HDMI cables... thanks!

 

[hikaricloud]

That PSU is overkill, and a tri-sli 9800GTX setup is kinda worthless. You'd be better off getting dual 260 c216s, or one 295. 12gb is overkill as well, grab a 6gb kit.

 

[Altumax]

Well... My hopes are that this machine will not have to be majorly upgraded for a good 2 or 3 years at least as well... so please keep that in mind :-D

 

[tastegw]

That PSU is overkill, and a tri-sli 9800GTX setup is kinda worthless. You'd be better off getting dual 260 c216s, or one 295. 12gb is overkill as well, grab a 6gb kit.

that is 100% correct

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Well... My hopes are that this machine will not have to be majorly upgraded for a good 2 or 3 years at least as well... so please keep that in mind :-D

yet, still no need for the 12 gigs of ram, and if your looking to be current, get atleast 1 gtx 200 series card.
2 260's or better would be ideal,
2x 295's would definatly be enough to keep you good for 1-2 years or more.
3x 9800's isnt.

 

[Altumax]

Thank you both very much for the suggestions thus far... So far I've got that 12 gigs will never be used (6 will be perfect), Power supply is too much, and video cards are crap...

So here are my questions then

1. would it be beneficial to upgrade the ram from 12 gb at 1600 mhz to 6 gb at 1800 mhz... or stick with the 1600?

2. Would an 800W PSU be good to go, if not, what size do I need?

3. Any suggestions on a great looking, and amazing working case to put this whole thing in?

Thanks to everyone thus far and I am very much looking forward to additional feedback!

 

[tastegw]

to be 100% honest,

im using vista 64 bit, and i cannot tell the difference when im running 2 gigs or 4 gigs.

they both run my system the same.

so even with 6 gb's thats way plenty.

if you want the good stuff, grab the 1800 or even possibly the 2000+ if you can find some. (these would need to be overclocked to reach these speeds, so keep that in mind)

as for video cards and psu,

the video cards you get should determine what psu you get, not the otherway around.

the newest cards out right now are the ati 4800 series and nvidia's gtx 200 series.

nvidia has the lead in performance right now, so if you want the best you can get,
gtx 295 is the best single card out right now.
get 2 of these and your set for one amazing machine.
or just get one and still have amazing performance.

another suggestion is to just get 1x gtx 260 core 216 55nm card, and wait till july or so for the gtx 300 cards to come out, then upgrade. the gtx 300 leaks that i have seen, are the introduction of gddr5 to nvidia's cards.
altho this isnt official, the gtx 300 will still be much better than even the gtx 200 line.

as far as case goes, antec 1200 is good bang for the buck. its a nice full tower case.

as far as psu goes, dont go cheap here, get a high quality brand, (refer to the sticky in this section) 750w+ for 1 or 2x260's/1 or 2x285's/1x 295
if you go with 2 x 295's, grab something larger.
just remember, price alone doesnt always means it better.
look for amp's on the 12v rail's, the more the better.
for one gtx card, you will want 40+ amps, for 2, you want more of course.
70+ to be on the safe side when sli'ing 2 gtx series cards.

 

[philbar71]

this build smells like a prebuilt. where are you getting it from.

you are better off building it on your own.

 

[Altumax]

Yeah... this is a prebuilt at CyberpowerPC. The reason I built it there is like I said at the beginning, I just wanted to get a feel for what it would cost. I know that I will save a significant amount of money by building my own and that is what I plan to do. This was just a decent mockup of what I would like it to have. Any helpful advice is extremely welcome as I am here to learn as much as possible and hopefully do so without having to learn the hardway (from experience). So thanks again everyone and I guess the next thing I have a question about is how I should go about the water cooling system since the graphics cards will be putting out intense heat.

 

[tastegw]

Yeah... this is a prebuilt at CyberpowerPC. The reason I built it there is like I said at the beginning, I just wanted to get a feel for what it would cost. I know that I will save a significant amount of money by building my own and that is what I plan to do. This was just a decent mockup of what I would like it to have. Any helpful advice is extremely welcome as I am here to learn as much as possible and hopefully do so without having to learn the hardway (from experience). So thanks again everyone and I guess the next thing I have a question about is how I should go about the water cooling system since the graphics cards will be putting out intense heat.

i dont think you will need water cooling, but if you really want it, wait for aspire to respond.

my gtx 280 rarely see's anything above 60C under load

water cooling does decrease the temps, and the life of your hardware.
but you have to ask the question, how long do you want it to last?.

also water cooling allows for higher overclocks in most cases. but this is for the advanced user, one who knows how to get the most out of overclocking.

just simply by getting a good airflow case, a good aftermarket cpu cooler/heatsink, and reaplying the TIM (thermal paste on the gpu) with some high quality stuff, and adding in a few high cfm quality case fans can net the average-above average user some good cooling power for decent overclocking.

i do not have water cooling, nor have i had water cooling, so i really cant say much more about it. just the basics.

 

[Altumax]

Ok, so based on the suggestions I have received my configuration is as follows for a total of $2400 even. This is without a cooling system for the CPU and includes all shipping costs. Please let me know if there is anything else anyone would suggest to change. Thanks!!

GTX285 1GB DDR3 - $335 x 2 = $670
Antec 1200 - $202
i7 920 - $269
1.5 TB HDD 7200 RPM, 32MB Cache - $130 x 2 = $260
Asus P6T Intel X58 Chipset - $235
6GB Kingston HyperX PC16000 DDR3/2000MHz RAM - $246
Thermaltake 750W PSU - $145
Creative Labs SB X-Fi 24-BIT PCI Sound Card - $56
LG GGW-H20L 6X BLU-RAY DISC REWRITER - $210
LG GGC-H20L BLU-RAY/HD-DVD Reader - $107