[Down With Malware!]

Alright, so I am planing on building a PC. I am debating if I should get a completely new frame and build the system separate from my PC. Anyways, I want to get the parts together and at one time when I have all the parts and build it. I am willing to spend up to 500 dollars a part or a little more if needed. I want a very very good computer that is waaayy above average. What is the best mother board and PSU to get together? I want a very good motherboard so I can put some of the best stuff on it.

What do you guys suggest?

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All Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case
SilverStone ST1200 Watt Modular PSU
GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R Motherboard
Intel Core i7 Extreme 980X 3.33GHz
Asetek LCLC Liquid Cooling
Memory 24GB (6x4GB) 1333MHz (CAS 9) DDR3
3 x GeForce GTX 285 (1GB)
Hard Drive 1 - 256GB - SSD
Hard Drive 2 - VelociRaptor 300GB - 10KRPM
Hard Drive 3 - 2TB - 7200RPM
Hard Drive 4 - 2TB - 7200RPM
Optical Drive 1 Blu-Ray RW & DVD +/- RW
Optical Drive 2 Blu-Ray Reader & DVD +/- RW
Internal Media Reader (SM MMC MD CF MS MSDuo SD MicroSD SDHC USB2)
3 x LG W3000H-Bn 30" Monitors
Logitech Z-5500 505 Watts 5.1 Speakers
Logitech G-19 Keyboard
Logitech MX Air Wireless Mouse
Sennheiser HD600 Circumaural Headphones
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

[SpywareDr]

All Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case
SilverStone ST1200 Watt Modular PSU
GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R Motherboard
Intel Core i7 Extreme 980X 3.33GHz
Asetek LCLC Liquid Cooling
Memory 24GB (6x4GB) 1333MHz (CAS 9) DDR3
3 x GeForce GTX 285 (1GB)
Hard Drive 1 - 256GB - SSD
Hard Drive 2 - VelociRaptor 300GB - 10KRPM
Hard Drive 3 - 2TB - 7200RPM
Hard Drive 4 - 2TB - 7200RPM
Optical Drive 1 Blu-Ray RW & DVD +/- RW
Optical Drive 2 Blu-Ray Reader & DVD +/- RW
Internal Media Reader (SM MMC MD CF MS MSDuo SD MicroSD SDHC USB2)
3 x LG W3000H-Bn 30" Monitors
Logitech Z-5500 505 Watts 5.1 Speakers
Logitech G-19 Keyboard
Logitech MX Air Wireless Mouse
Sennheiser HD600 Circumaural Headphones
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

[Ferrari]

Yikes! There goes a few grand.

Usually I recommend that you buy the parts all at once, but if you really want to go one part at a time $500 per part is A TON! That will get you an extremely nice computer like SpywareDr recommended.

I think on the 256gb SSD you should either go with two of them for RAID 0 configuration, or to save costs go with two smaller gb sizes in RAID O. It'll fly like the wind my friend. OCZ new Vertex Pro 2 has a really nice controller on it by SandForce that you should look into. Writes are much better. I'm not even sure it it's out yet.

EVGA makes some pretty nice boards in the high end range as well. Like this EVGA Classified XL and Corsairs 1000watt. One downside of the EVGA board right now is it doesn't have USB 3.0 or SATA 6.0gb/s. I'm sure they will soon though, it just came out.

Depending on when you buy the video cards you may want to look at ATI Radeons 5870. Get a couple or three of them and you'll attain FPS like you wouldn't believe. They support DirectX 11 and Nvidia doesn't yet. Also, you can run Eyefinity which is awesome, so buy 3 monitors as well. (Display port adapter or supported monitor required)

I'll stop there for now and come back down to earth. I wish I could afford a system like that.

[sarahw]

All Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case
SilverStone ST1200 Watt Modular PSU
EVGA X58 Classified 4-Way SLI Motherboard
Intel Core i7 Extreme 980X 3.33GHz
Phase Change
Memory 24GB (6x4GB) 1333MHz (CAS 9) DDR3
4 x GeForce GTX 285 (1GB)
Hard Drive 1 - 256GB - SSD
Hard Drive 2 - VelociRaptor 300GB - 10KRPM
Hard Drive 3 - 2TB - 7200RPM
Hard Drive 4 - 2TB - 7200RPM
Optical Drive 1 Blu-Ray RW & DVD +/- RW
Optical Drive 2 Blu-Ray Reader & DVD +/- RW
Internal Media Reader (SM MMC MD CF MS MSDuo SD MicroSD SDHC USB2)
3 x LG W3000H-Bn 30" Monitors
Logitech Z-5500 505 Watts 5.1 Speakers
Logitech G-19 Keyboard
Logitech MX Air Wireless Mouse
Sennheiser HD600 Circumaural Headphones
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Buying this part by part is a waste of time as the first parts you buy will be old by the time you buy the last parts. Save your money then buy it.
In a few months time there will be a new series of graphics cards (and other things). At this time you'll have a fistful of dollars to spend, instead of a heavy hunk of metal.

Edited by sarahw, 20 March 2010 - 08:26 AM.

[Ferrari]

Phase Change

Holy Moly.

[happyrock]

Buying this part by part is a waste of time as the first parts you buy will be old by the time you buy the last parts. Save your money then buy it.
In a few months time there will be a new series of graphics cards (and other things). At this time you'll have a fistful of dollars to spend, instead of a heavy hunk of metal.

sarahw is giving you sound advice...
save your money until you have the total amount you want to spend...then get the latest and greatest parts you can at that time...hardware is advancing at a astounding pace...a 3 month wait could mean that you get parts that will do more, faster and cheaper

[Down With Malware!]

Great looking suggestions, if you really do suggest buying it all at once maybe I was a bit on the extreme side..If we are talking about all at once then my budget would be close to 1K. Unless, some of the parts wait roughly a little over half of a year then I can go to 2K. I also did not know you could put in more then one video cards at the same time, I knew that to be true with hard drives but wow.

I will try and look up a more realistic price of we are talking about all at once.

Do your really suggest to still build a new computer from that new budget? or just save up for an alien ware?

[happyrock]

good specs here at the techreport building guide....its only a month or so old guide and its already outdated...the video card they recommend for that build should be updated to use either the ATI 5858 or 5870...
go here for a video on how to actually assemble the pc...

[Ferrari]

Do your really suggest to still build a new computer from that new budget? or just save up for an alien ware?

IMHO, I think you'd enjoy a complete custom computer built by yourself than an Alienware. Alienware has some pretty nice computers, but just the fact that you can build a computer completely customized to your own needs, tastes, and budget is better. Knowing that you built it is a nice feeling and something to look back on if you've never done such a thing.

[Down With Malware!]

Well, I love that mother board and the processor is reasonably priced. I have a question though is there a huge difference in these graphic cards? Because I am not a hard core PC gamer (although with the stuff I am looking at its a real possibility) Also that 24 GB memory is awfully expensive, might get a 4 gig memory stick. I just have to remember just because I have a mother bored that can hold monstrous hardware doesn't mean I should get them.

I kind of really hoping I can pull off a awesome computer for under 1000 dollars. That graphic card is great and all but is there some alternative one maybe if you're not a hard core gamer? Also is the Windows 7 ultimate really needed unless I had a business?

I am just think of this reasonably. Also whats with all those hard drives?

Edited by Down With Malware!, 20 March 2010 - 02:43 PM.

[happyrock]

only look at the specs for The Sweeter Spot...Indulgence without excess...it has 4GB of ram

Component Item Price

Processor Intel Core i7-860 $289.99
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P $184.99
Memory Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 $104.99
Graphics Gigabyte Radeon HD 5850 $309.99
not much of a gamer... get a Radeon 5750 for $140

Storage Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB (6Gbps) $119.99
Samsung SH-S223L $26.99
Lite-On iHOS104-08 Blu-ray reader $69.99
Audio Asus Xonar DX $89.99
Power supply Corsair TX650W $99.99
Enclosure Antec P183 $149.99

you could drop the audio and use the onboard sound...get the 5757 video card and a cheaper case and get it all for about a grand

[Ferrari]

Agreed, that will be a nice system for you and you'll be very happy with it. Especially offering USB 3.0 and SATA 6gb/s.

Just to be clear, the reason there is such a difference in what was first recommended and what happyrock is now recommending is the budget was $500 per component, now it's $1000 for the entire system. That is a big difference. The original recommendations are way over the top extreme systems that most people only dream about. Heck, even the last recommendation is better than what most have.

You can change the computer case to about whatever you want, just so you know.

Edited by Ferrari, 20 March 2010 - 06:15 PM.

[Down With Malware!]

Thank you both, and I was asking about the difference between the latest video cards from a year ago and them now, not the budget difference. Thank you. I will differently use that list to make my dream system. Also how do you feel about about cluttering PCs? Does it depend on the PCs? Doe sit really make any difference in preference? I heard if you get a number of the right computers together you can have a mini-super computer system in your house.

[happyrock]

you mean cluster...they are used in applications that require super computing powers. For instance, weather modeling, calculation and prediction, geophysics data processing, and seismic data processing. It is especially appropriate for research, education, military, and aerospace projects. It can also be used in chemical, medical, and graphics industries...

Cluster PC is made By linking multiple personal computers together via high-speed network adapters to function as a single system.
Typically it includes 8, 16, 32, 64, or 128 PCs. Each PC may have two or four microprocessors for maximum computing power.
Linux is normally used in a cluster PC
I don't think you need to try to do this until you have a truck full of money and want to hire some people to help set it up...you may also want to buy some stock in your local electric company

Edited by happyrock, 21 March 2010 - 06:19 AM.

[SpywareDr]

Yikes! There goes a few grand.
...
I'll stop there for now and come back down to earth. I wish I could afford a system like that.

Shouldn't be more than roughly 10-12k.

He did say he wanted "a very very good computer that is waaayy above average".

Edited by SpywareDr, 21 March 2010 - 01:45 PM.