Author Topic: Another New Rig  (Read 3812 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Tyrian

  • 29
  • Dangerous When Thinking
I've got another friend of mine asking me to help him build a rig.  He wants a crusher of a gaming rig, a real God BoxTM.  The budget:  $4000.  And before you ask, yes, that number is correct.  Here's what I've come up with so far:

Case -- $119.99
Motherboard EVGA Motherboard -- $349.99
ASUS Motherboard -- $449.99
CPU -- $1020.00
RAM New RAM -- $239.99 x2 (Maxing out the system board)
GPU New GPU -- $449.99 x2 (For SLI)
HDD -- $89.99 x2 (For RAID 1)
DVD Burner -- $29.99
Monitor New Monitor -- $439.99
Power Supply New Power Supply -- $299.99
Speakers -- $19.99
Floppy Drive -- $7.99
Wireless Adapter -- $49.99
DVI to HDMI Cable -- $57.99
Thermal Compound -- $6.99
Win XP 64 Bit -- $139.99

Total:  $3742.85

First off, I know there's no keyboard or mouse listed.  I always considered them a thing bought by feel, so I'm leaving that aspect up to him.  The case and monitor are subject to change, again at his request. 

Stuff that I'm concerned about are the speakers and power supply.  As for the speakers, I'm worried about the sound quality.  Can anyone vouch for these or recommend something better?  Second, if we're going to SLI two 8800GTS cards, will that power supply be enough to drive them both?  Keeping in mind that price is nearly no object here, any suggestions?
« Last Edit: July 30, 2008, 07:16:18 pm by Tyrian »
Want to be famous?  Click here and become a playing card!!!

Bush (Verb) -- To do stupid things with confidence.

This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union Address occurred during the same week.  This is an ironic juxtaposition of events--one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication, while the other involves a groundhog.

Bumper stickers at my college:
"Republicans for Voldemort!"
"Frodo failed.  Bush got the Ring."

Resistance is futile!  (If < 1 ohm...)

"Any nation which sacrifices a little liberty for a little security deserves neither and loses both." -- Benjamin Franklin

Sig rising...

 

Offline Polpolion

  • The sizzle, it thinks!
  • 211
Good. You've got $2000 left over to spend on a Bose sound system. :nod:

 

Offline Colonol Dekker

  • HLP is my mistress
  • Moderator
  • 213
  • Aken Tigh Dekker- you've probably heard me
    • My old squad sub-domain
£25 PC-Line speakers spensd the change on whores a holiday :yes:
Campaigns I've added my distinctiveness to-
- Blue Planet: Battle Captains
-Battle of Neptune
-Between the Ashes 2
-Blue planet: Age of Aquarius
-FOTG?
-Inferno R1
-Ribos: The aftermath / -Retreat from Deneb
-Sol: A History
-TBP EACW teaser
-Earth Brakiri war
-TBP Fortune Hunters (I think?)
-TBP Relic
-Trancsend (Possibly?)
-Uncharted Territory
-Vassagos Dirge
-War Machine
(Others lost to the mists of time and no discernible audit trail)

Your friendly Orestes tactical controller.

Secret bomb God.
That one time I got permabanned and got to read who was being bitxhy about me :p....
GO GO DEKKER RANGERSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
President of the Scooby Doo Model Appreciation Society
The only good Zod is a dead Zod
NEWGROUNDS COMEDY GOLD, UPDATED DAILY
http://badges.steamprofile.com/profile/default/steam/76561198011784807.png

 

Offline Nuke

  • Ka-Boom!
  • 212
  • Mutants Worship Me
only 4 gigs, i got 8 in mine :D

i have the exact same case and hard drive :D

a fine rig, will blow mine out of the water by a small margin. but id get a bigger screen. if youre doing sli you might as well have a very large and vary high res monitor. thats where sli truly shines. also with that kind of cashflow id get ddr3 instead of 2.
« Last Edit: July 22, 2008, 06:40:36 pm by Nuke »
I can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, communist subversion, and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

Nuke's Scripting SVN

 

Offline CP5670

  • Dr. Evil
  • Global Moderator
  • 212
Well, some of those choices are questionable, but I guess that's why you created this thread. :)

Quote
Motherboard

Looks good enough, but note that the expensive motherboards don't really do anything for performance over a lot of sub-$150 ones. They have some extra features that he may or may not use.

Quote
CPU -- $1020.00

Same as above; an overclocked $320 Q9450 will easily surpass this, and a stock speed Q9550 will be extremely close for half the price. If he has money to blow for the top model though, it certainly can't hurt.

Quote
GPU -- $199.99 x2 (For SLI)

The 8800GTS has been superceded by newer cards. A single 4870 X2 or two GTX 280s are better options. Make sure you and your friend are aware of the shortcomings of multi GPU before committing to it though.

Quote
HDD -- $89.99

A better idea is to get two of these, or a single bigger drive like a Hitachi 7K1000.

Quote
Monitor -- $179.99

That is a horrible choice for a $4k system. :p At that kind of price you should be mostly looking at the 30" 2560x1600 displays. The Dell 3007WFP-HC currently seems to be the best buy at $1200. The only reason to consider a lower resolution monitor is if you can't get a GPU configuration that provides acceptable performance in the games you play, in which case you should look at the 26" NEC 2690WUXi instead for a similar price.

As a general rule, you should try to spend at least 1/3 of the total system's price on the display. It is arguably the most important part of a computer.

Quote
Power Supply -- $49.99

That won't cut it at all for such a system. Some good choices are the PCP&C Silencer 750W or the Silverstone ST75ZF, or if you have money to spare, you could go all out and get one of 1KW models from Corsair, Silverstone or OCZ.

One thing to note: make sure you get one with the newer 8-pin PCIE connectors. The 6 to 8 pin adapters are very hard to find for individual sale. I haven't checked whether the PSUs I mentioned have them, but they probably should as many units were revised at some point to include them.

Quote
Speakers -- $19.99

I can't say much about speakers (more of a headphone person), but you can probably do a lot better than that for a $4k system. Klipsch and Logitech are supposed to have some good models around $200 or so.

 

Offline Hippo

  • Darth water-horse
  • 211
  • Grazing.
    • All Hands to War
for a system with such an absurd budget, that's pretty ****ty

start by going to a 64x os, and double your ram

lose that mobo, grab one with 3 pci express slots
(see http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188024 )

8800's are old news now, get something with 3 way sli if you're really interested in making it a gaming rig, otherwise you're pissing in the wind

$400 cpu's and $1000 cpu's have one huge difference. their price. the gain you're going to get for 150% more money is moot, because unless the games support multi threading, its going to cap at 3ghz, which a dual core can do for hundreds less

raid a pair of raptors for the os in addition to the one you have

get a dvd burner with lighscribe

enbiggen the monitor. a lot.

550w psu? :wtf: a single 8800 is going to draw about 250 watts. i dont know what you expect to run with that piece of ****. dont forget that every single thing in that case is going to draw from it, and the mobo wont have a small load either

if you're going to buy $20 speakers, you're going to get $20 sound. trust me, i did the same thing with a $30 5.1 system

and unless you're going to be using onboard sound, get a sound card. soundblasters are relatively cheap and do the job



as it stands now, that setup is aweful
VBB Survivor -- 387 Posts -- July 3 2001 - April 12 2002
VWBB Survivor -- 100 Posts -- July 10 2002 - July 10 2004

AHTW

 

Offline Ghostavo

  • 210
  • Let it be glue!
    • Skype
    • Steam
    • Twitter
Aren't Solid State Disk Drives in a position to challenge traditional HDD's with such a budget?
"Closing the Box" - a campaign in the making :nervous:

Shrike is a dirty dirty admin, he's the destroyer of souls... oh god, let it be glue...

 

Offline colecampbell666

  • I See Dead Pictures
  • 212
  • Evolution and ascension.
Yeah, but they are way more expensive. Get a small one for games.

2X 4870X2 GPUs

Q9450

WAAAAAY Better monitor. (someone point him to AnandTech)

8 GB RAM (DDR3 if you can)
Gettin' back to dodgin' lasers.

 

Offline CP5670

  • Dr. Evil
  • Global Moderator
  • 212
Quote
550w psu? :wtf: a single 8800 is going to draw about 250 watts. i dont know what you expect to run with that piece of ****. dont forget that every single thing in that case is going to draw from it, and the mobo wont have a small load either

Well, the power usage is not quite that high, but your point stands. (especially since I doubt that a $35 550W unit can actually output its rated load continuously; the midrange Cooler Master PSUs are decent but not comparable to the top tier)

Quote
2X 4870X2 GPUs

4 GPU CF scaling is currently pretty bad and such a setup performs worse than a single one in many situations. I would wait to see if that improves any by the time the 4870 X2 is actually out.

 

Offline Hippo

  • Darth water-horse
  • 211
  • Grazing.
    • All Hands to War
when you're looking at 130w for the cpu, and at least 150 for each 8800 (probably much more), thats 430 right there, plus the mobo and hard/optical drives
VBB Survivor -- 387 Posts -- July 3 2001 - April 12 2002
VWBB Survivor -- 100 Posts -- July 10 2002 - July 10 2004

AHTW

 

Offline Stealth

  • Braiiins...
  • 211
take it from me, i build servers every day, and i've built more personal, gaming computers than most everyone here.  a few things you want to consider:
1) monitor - you can pay $50.00 more and get a 22" widescreen, if size is all you're concerned with
2) power supply - that won't cut it at all.  at least go with a better name, like Antec, and do your research on what the power draw is going to be across each rail... buy your power supply accordingly.  a 2000watt power supply means nothing if it's all on the 12v rails, and you need 5v, etc. etc. etc.
quad-core is the future, it really is.  in some of my tests, a single quad core performed MORE than TWICE as fast as 2x dual cores.  it's got to do with caching, but anyway, good pick... keep in mind that the processor alone will draw 175watts easily AT IDLE.  

you think THAT'S bad - the graphics cards will draw probably a good 300watts between the two of them.  under load, expect to see 400-500watts.

that means that graphics cards and CPU alone, you're going to need a power supply capable of supporting 700watts RMS (continuous).  factor in fans, lights, motherboard, hard drives, optical drives, etc... and that number gets dangerously close to 1000Watts.
3) hard drive - get two of them.  a computer that powerful, you ought to have RAID, if only for bragging rights :)  and if not, then you want a backup drive anyway
4) floppy drive - for what?  computers haven't come with floppy drives in years.  you don't need them.
5)

 

Offline Stealth

  • Braiiins...
  • 211
Quote
550w psu? :wtf: a single 8800 is going to draw about 250 watts.

Well, the power usage is not quite that high,

not really man.  those things draw a lot.  two of them?  that's a hell of a lot :)

 

Offline CP5670

  • Dr. Evil
  • Global Moderator
  • 212
when you're looking at 130w for the cpu, and at least 150 for each 8800 (probably much more), thats 430 right there, plus the mobo and hard/optical drives

If he actually gets 8800GTSs (which are a bad choice for such a rig), they're fairly power efficient, like 100W or so at typical loads. The Intel motherboards don't use that much power either. The only other major source of power usage would be a large number (5+) of hard drives.

My system, for example, uses a fairly low 290W by the actual components, as I described in the other thread down the page. The computer he's looking to build will require more than that, but one of the high quality 700W+ models will easily cover it.

Quote
he wasn't exaggerating.
a single 8800 draws, if i'm remembering correctly, WELL OVER 300 watts under load.  and about 200 watts at idle

You're probably looking at a reading taken from the total system draw (which often also needs to be adjusted for the PSU's efficiency), as your numbers are way off.

 

Offline Hippo

  • Darth water-horse
  • 211
  • Grazing.
    • All Hands to War
wikipedia says 145
VBB Survivor -- 387 Posts -- July 3 2001 - April 12 2002
VWBB Survivor -- 100 Posts -- July 10 2002 - July 10 2004

AHTW

 

Offline CP5670

  • Dr. Evil
  • Global Moderator
  • 212
wikipedia says 145

That is the official maximum TDP given by Nvidia, but it doesn't reach that under any real world situation. Most sites have shown it to be less than that in practice.

This is a little beside the point though. Obviously, his existing PSU choice would have been insufficient in any case.

 

Offline Tyrian

  • 29
  • Dangerous When Thinking
I'm now in the process of reselecting some of the parts.  A few of the items (monitor, speakers) were in there as placeholders.
Want to be famous?  Click here and become a playing card!!!

Bush (Verb) -- To do stupid things with confidence.

This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union Address occurred during the same week.  This is an ironic juxtaposition of events--one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication, while the other involves a groundhog.

Bumper stickers at my college:
"Republicans for Voldemort!"
"Frodo failed.  Bush got the Ring."

Resistance is futile!  (If < 1 ohm...)

"Any nation which sacrifices a little liberty for a little security deserves neither and loses both." -- Benjamin Franklin

Sig rising...

 

Offline Bob-san

  • Wishes he was cool
  • 210
  • It's 5 minutes to midnight.
Q9450
Biostar TForce I45
Radeon HD4870
Corsair HX1000
2x2GB DDR2 1000
I'd say two 64GB SSDs in RAID0 for OS, followed by two 1TB HDDs in RAID1 for storage
WinVista Ultimate 64-bit
Decent sound system ($250)
Logitech G15 keyboard (the new one, where the LCD is fixed)
Logitech G_ mouse (depends on preference... I'd personally go G3 since I like the style much more and it's not crying because it has a dozen buttons)
Dell 24" LCD
Petra's Tech CoolKit Elite
NGTM-1R: Currently considering spending the rest of the day in bed cuddling.
GTSVA: With who...?
Nuke: chewbacca?
Bob-san: The Rancor.

 

Offline Tyrian

  • 29
  • Dangerous When Thinking
I've updated the specs for the rig, and I'm running a little close on money, but it turns out that my friend already has a set of speakers and a mouse. 

I still have a question, though.  Should he consider running a 64-bit version of XP or a 64-bit version of Vista?  I've had nothing but bad experiences with Vista, but XP doesn't support DX10.
Want to be famous?  Click here and become a playing card!!!

Bush (Verb) -- To do stupid things with confidence.

This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union Address occurred during the same week.  This is an ironic juxtaposition of events--one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication, while the other involves a groundhog.

Bumper stickers at my college:
"Republicans for Voldemort!"
"Frodo failed.  Bush got the Ring."

Resistance is futile!  (If < 1 ohm...)

"Any nation which sacrifices a little liberty for a little security deserves neither and loses both." -- Benjamin Franklin

Sig rising...

 

Offline Colonol Dekker

  • HLP is my mistress
  • Moderator
  • 213
  • Aken Tigh Dekker- you've probably heard me
    • My old squad sub-domain
Depends whether you like Vista more than XP as you say dx10 will play a part when it eventually becomes the minimum requirement too. What are the main differences between 32 and 64 bit? My rig can definitely handle it but why should i upgrade?
Campaigns I've added my distinctiveness to-
- Blue Planet: Battle Captains
-Battle of Neptune
-Between the Ashes 2
-Blue planet: Age of Aquarius
-FOTG?
-Inferno R1
-Ribos: The aftermath / -Retreat from Deneb
-Sol: A History
-TBP EACW teaser
-Earth Brakiri war
-TBP Fortune Hunters (I think?)
-TBP Relic
-Trancsend (Possibly?)
-Uncharted Territory
-Vassagos Dirge
-War Machine
(Others lost to the mists of time and no discernible audit trail)

Your friendly Orestes tactical controller.

Secret bomb God.
That one time I got permabanned and got to read who was being bitxhy about me :p....
GO GO DEKKER RANGERSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
President of the Scooby Doo Model Appreciation Society
The only good Zod is a dead Zod
NEWGROUNDS COMEDY GOLD, UPDATED DAILY
http://badges.steamprofile.com/profile/default/steam/76561198011784807.png

 

Offline colecampbell666

  • I See Dead Pictures
  • 212
  • Evolution and ascension.
64 allows basically unlimited RAM, although it has some driver issues. (very few now, as it's slowly becoming the norm)
Gettin' back to dodgin' lasers.