Building a comp

I am building a new computer for myself, mostly for gaming... but i want something that will blow everything else away.. now i need some help!

I cant exceed around 4500 dollars... this is what i have so far

CPU - Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Kentsfield 2.66GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor

Motherboard - ASUS Striker Extreme LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX The Ultimate Gaming Motherboard

Soundcard - Soundblaster X-Fi Platinum

Graphics Card - NVidia GeForce 8800 GTX (Liquid Cooled or Not?)

Any ideas on what i should change, and what else i should get?

I already have a case / monitor / keyboard / and mouse

I need other option for the items listed above (unless you think they are perfect) and i also need ideas for things such as harddrives and disk drives and stuff like that.

Any ideas to make the perfect machine?

 

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I would wait a month or two. ATI's new R600 cards should be out in May some time and it looks like they'll blow the 8800 out of the water. They're monsters though, not only in size but the flagship of the line eats up over 230w of power.

 

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No RAM?

 

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Never never never choose ATI over Nvidia. (even though in a way they run the same chips.... ATi had to play catch up there)

 

http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/

 

At this point it's nothing more than personal preference, both lines of cards are practically the same performance wise.

 

Dont forget good speakers. A decent subwoofer is great for games.

Get a DVD writer too.

 

At least 2 X 2GB of RAM.

>750 W Power supply (I think you'll find thread here with recommendations for model)

I suggest a case with built-in cooling system (you'll need it, trust me)

Seagate HDD (choice of model and size, I'll leave to you)

 

Unfortunately by the time you wait for those, something else, something better, will be "just around the corner".

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If you're looking for stability, great graphics, etc - just buy an X-Box or PS3 - or even both!!
If you get both, with the HD-DVD / Blu-Ray players as well, you're looking at less than half your budget - which you can put toward a decent HD LCD/Plasma tv - and decent Hi-Fi.

I personally wouldn't pay more than £1,000 (so $2,000) for a PC - and that's at UK prices - which are far higher than US prices (e.g. if we pay £200 for GFx card, it will cost $300, not the expected $400).

 

No. Theyre not the same, and while it has something to do with personal preference it has more to do with functionality. I run multiple OS`s, ubuntu, freebsd and Windows. Nvidia have wonderful linux drivers for their cards. ATi has almost not suppor (there is some, but its patchy and as far as I know not from the vendor)

That aside I like the AMD chipset the Nvidia runs, I like its reliability and stability and I like the support for it. I can honestly say that I have had countless issues with ATi cards, and so have my mates.

But, since ATi has been purchased by AMD, hopefully we can see some improvements there soon.

 

Sarkus, I'm revoking your geek card. End of line.





$4500.00 budget on a top of the line gaming PC? Hell yeah!
One recommendation I have is to buy one of those Ageia physX cards in addition to your top of the line video card.

 

No the 8800GTX is a good choice - it's the only DX10 card out there and will fully work with vista(which you could get an OEM copy.)

Has any game been coded for the physx cards?

 

CPU - Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Kentsfield 2.66GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor

Motherboard - ASUS Striker Extreme LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX The Ultimate Gaming Motherboard

Soundcard - Soundblaster X-Fi Platinum

Graphics Card - NVidia GeForce 8800 GTX (Liquid Cooled or Not?)

Power Supply - 800 watt

HardDrive - Seagate 500GB

RAM - 4GB (I need to know whats compatible with my motherboard, and possibly cheap but VERY effective. Im running out of money with these choices. I WONT sacrifice speed though, so if i really need the expensive kind, ill dig up more money.)

Drives - DVD Writer/Reader (duh)

Anything Else? I think i will stick with the NVidia, considering that i've had tons of problems with the ATI stuff...

Are all of the selected items compatible?

 

I will help you too.

$4500

Asus is a good choice for mainboard (main thing here is chipset), however i think you should look at a server board for 2 cpu's, in that case SuperMicro. The easisest way to choose CPU is to look at what they are putting into hight end Mac's...of course that depends on weather your games will use both CPU's - tbh i am not really sure about this.

HDD- fastest you can get 10k rpm. SCSI\fiber is nice for sustained data rates but $$$

One thing not mention is the monitor. Get a wide screen Sony LCD biggest you can afford or if the new mac monitors work with pc's go for one of those..they rock/

Then i think you may look at just a decent\base high end graphics card to save money as long as it has all the shading capabilities 'cause the number crunching will be passed to the cpu's and you need to keep the heat down too.

Water cooling is a consideration but a well thought out fan cooled system will be fine.

If you want the PC for other things thats fine and the way to go but tbh for games i would get the new XBox when it comes out and a 42inch plasma. trying to end my long pc addiction.

 

Don't listen to any of them, you must buy your PC and not make it yourself. I would get a VoodooPC from here http://www.voodoopc.com/ or if that is to expensive I'd go for something from here http://www.viciouspc.com/ but please do not buy the components yourself. There's no reason to build it when Vista will cost you 300.... better to buy a PC, get the best warrenty, then bam damn thank you mam!

 

Make sure you get peripheral connections like Fire fox and multimedia card slots from everything from the camera and phones or MP3 players that'll need connections...

There is a standard for most...many people mistakenly believe that USB connections are all you need...but some digiatl cameras and phone are using memory cards without the USB connection because of phone size and certain camera sizes prevent the larger USB connection on the product...

Get good fast ram...DDR class 2700 3300 or DDR 400 and make sure to get as many slots as you can for expansion. When it comes to IDE connections don't be stingy...one or two will not do. You might end up getting more hard drives or players and burners in the future...If you don't get a good mother board with enough connections or capable of easy exansion to accodate those Drive spaces in the CPU then you'll just waste money buying a mother board twice or the appropriate connections for external drives.

 

I'm not really sure
Their faq says the following games are out now:
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Bet On Soldier: Blood Sport, Bet On Soldier: Blood Of Sahara, City Of Villains and CellFactor: Combat Training

I'm sure someone somewhere will try to do stuff with older games eventually

 

True, but the R600 line is ATI's answer to DX10. It's a new generation of cards that IMO are worth waiting for, especially if you want the best performance available in your machine. Whether their drivers will be up to the task when they're released is another question though...

The first ATI card I bought was a 9600 Pro years ago, since then I've had 1 card arrive dead. Other than that I've had no complaints about the cards themselves. I don't know about Linux support, XP with Litestep has always been great for me so I've never bothered switching to it. ATI's been slow on their drivers a lot though that much is true, there's been several new cards from them that weren't properly supported by drivers until several months after their release.

Voodoo makes great computers, but they're expensive as all hell. Unless you've got lots of money to throw away I wouldn't bother with them. I would keep an eye on them though, they've got access to HP's R&D labs now so I'm sure we'll see some nifty stuff from them in the near future. I live a few minutes away from their headquarters in Calgary and talking with them it seems there'll be some really nice machines being added to their lineup later this year.

 

I don't know how much cash you have left, but I'd go with:

Corsair XMS DDR2 PC2 6400 would make best use of the board's RAM slots. Cost: about $260 for 4gb with the mail in rebates.

 

wait for intels new CPU to be released