Building a new monster rig

[Bobthelost]

That PSU is a waste of money, you don't need more than 400W if you're not going SLI, even if you might do it someday you won't need more than 500W.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817151024

$30 cheaper and probably a better PSU in the first place.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817194003

$50 cheaper and still a top notch PSU.

Otherwise it's excelent.

 

[OSX]

If you have an unlimited budget, why not just go for a PC Power & Cooling?

 

[Kryhs]

Just because I have money to burn doesn't mean I'll pay a ridiculous price for something when there is a slightly inferior/MUCH cheaper alternative (the monitor). I also want to build it myself.

 

[OSX]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813129136

This seems to be a very powerful dual Opterion- 940 motherboard. Quite a few PCI-e and -x slots, for SATA/SCSI RAID. If you'd like to go Opterion, this will suit you well. Of course, it's really expensive, but if you have an unlimited budget, not really an issue.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: Kryhs
Here's a tentative list so far:

CPU + thermal paste

Heatsink and fan

Mobo

RAM

Video card

Sound card

DVD & floppy drive

PSU

HD

Case

Speakers

Mouse

Keyboard

Monitor


TOTAL $2928


I'm still debating about getting a larger monitor, and I'm still not sure about Sapphire as the video card brand.

Edit: What I don't like is how the 24" version of the Samsung is over twice as much at $1390. Unlimited funds or not that is just crazy.

Nice choices. Bit cheaper than what your budget is, which is good.
Far more price/performance friendly.

For video card brand, go with Powercolor.
They just upped their warranty on the X1900s to lifetime.

That Asus motherboard is notorious for fan issues.
Aside from the A8N32-SLI Deluxe, i can't recommend any of the Asus nF4 boards.

Honestly, why not just go with the Asus A8R-MVP?

It's a great value board - so cheap , & since you're going ATi anyway, if some crazy reason you did decide to go Crossfire later, you have the ability.

Nice choice on the monitor too.
Nice high 1600x1200 rez, yet good price point.

 

[Kryhs]

The RAM was another thing I wanted to make sure was a good choice, it looks great to me.

 

[Bobthelost]

It's good middle of the road RAM, but with your budget you can go for something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227225

Or this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146034

 

[orion23]

It's all about personal choice.

A 600W PSU is not a waste of money even if you are not using SLI. You are better prepared for any future upgrades this way.

For the X1900 XTX, go with Powercolor or Visiontek since they offer a lifetime warranty. Or you could go with Asus which offers 3 years.

The RAM. You could even use value ram. Not much of a difference for the price you'd pay for premium ram. Make sure you get 2X1GB sticks.

The motherboard is OK. But you should consider the A8N-SLI Premium (8 SATA ports and Heatpipe cooling) or the A8N-32 (5 SATA ports and heatpipe cooling)

The case is a very personal choice. For myself, I like big cases that allow easy installations and offer lots of space for anything in the future (another PSU, fan controllers, many hard drives)

 

[Kryhs]

Yeah, this PC has a huge case, but I don't see myself ever needing more than 2 drive bays so I figured I'd go for a mid tower this time.

Edit: One thing that I've never changed on this PC is the RAM timings, will I want to on the new one?

 

[Kryhs]

Do ATI cards and Xpress "work together" better than ATI cards and nForce?

Edit: I'm reading the reviews for the A8R MVP, the A8N Premium, and A8N Deluxe and lots of people seem to have problems with the BIOS and the whole board dying after a few months. One guy even claims his deluxe "caught fire."


Post, edit, post, edit...

 

[themusgrat]

Originally posted by: Kryhs
Do ATI cards and Xpress "work together" better than ATI cards and nForce?

Not really.

 

[orion23]

The a8n deluxe had problems with the north bridge fan dying.
The a8n premium has a voltage problem (not so good for overclocking, for some)

Most people say that there is no perfect Nforce 4 AMD motherboard.
I chose the A8N Premium because of the heatpipe cooling, brand, looks (don't like DFI's colors) and the bundle software / hardware.

 

[Kryhs]

So if I'm NOT going to overclock the premium is fine?

 

[orion23]

Check out the motherboard section here at anandtech and you'll see reviews on the best nforce 4 motherboards.
You need to choose the one that fits your needs based on looks, performance, layout. Whatever is appealing to you.

The DFI NF4 SLI-DR Expert seems to be the fastest and more overclockable, followed by the Asus A8N32-SLI and then the Premium. I don't like DFI because of the flashy colors and the A8n32's layout and 3 SATA ports less than the premium are not good for me.

Since you have the money, why not go with the X2 4800+?

 

[Kryhs]

Originally posted by: Kryhs
Just because I have money to burn doesn't mean I'll pay a ridiculous price for something when there is a slightly inferior/MUCH cheaper alternative.

~200 mhz isn't worth $200 regardless of funds.

 

[Kryhs]

Do OEM video cards have the same warranties?

 

[Bobthelost]

Not always, the warranty tends to vary massivly from 1 year to lifetime.

The premium is a nice board, go for it.

 

[Malladine]

Ok, 90 posts, not reading that.

I assume however that you have the following already in mind:

dual FX60s
sli/xfire 512 gtx/x1900xt
4gb ram
1tb in raid 0 raptors
30" widescreen 8ms response lcd monitor (or high end projector setup)

 

[Kryhs]

I'm gonna place the order tomorrow, got free 2 day shipping on a lot of stuff and normal 2 day shipping on the rest.

 

[LiquidImpulse]

Originally posted by: n7
MSI K8N Diamond SLI - $214.99
A64 X2 4400+ - $461
TT Big Typhoon - $48.99
Mushkin 2x1 GB 3-3-2 DDR500 - $330
Powercolor X1900XTX 512 MB - $609.00 - 20MIR or dual eVGA 7800GTX if you want to go SLI
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty - $265
2x BenQ DW1650 - $46.50
WD Raptor 150 GB - $286.00
Seagate 400 GB 16 MB SATA II - $270
Seasonic 600W - $153.99
Dell 2405FPW - $879.20
Case - personal preference
Speakers - up to you too

$3611.17 + S/H & the case & speakers, etc.

There's a rather nice one for ya

I had a lot of fun picking out that stuff

than you must be happy quite often when it comes to replying "I'm Building a New Computer and I need Help" kind of threads

 

[orion23]

1 more thing about buying a new monitor, you should read this article here regarding Windows Vista and HDCP support

http://firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_nvidia_hdcp_support/

 

[Kryhs]

Yea I saw that and how none of the current video cards really support it either. Isn't it just for HD video watching?

 

[Bobthelost]

Yeah, it's not really something you need to worry about, first you'll need a new DVD reader, then you'll need a new graphics card, then you'll need a new monitor, then you'll need vista....

 

[Kryhs]

Yea I plan to game on the pc with minor school work in there too. Absolutely no movie watching. I never watch let alone buy movies to begin with.

 

[Kryhs]

In all the commotion I forgot to ask which version of Windows XP I want Is the 64bit version stable now?

Half my order comes today (go newegg!) and half comes tomorrow (zipzoomfly isn't as speedy)