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$3000-4800 Gaming Computer

Post Date: 2010-09-15
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unDies View Drop Down
Newbie
Newbie


Joined: 15 Sep 2010
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2 		  Quote unDies Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Topic: $3000-4800 Gaming Computer
    Posted: 15 Sep 2010 at 11:43am
Budget and Requirements
  • No more than $4,800
  • Do not need a monitor
  • Need basic keyboard/mouse for the old computer
  • Need a new surge protector

Uses

  • 80% Gaming
  • 10% Movie Watching
    • may increase when downstairs becomes a "family room"
  • 10% Desktop publishing
Builds
  1. Air Cooled
  2. Liquid Cooled

Questions

  1. Is Motherboard correct choice to avoid any issues with the Stage 2 Noctua cooling?
  2. What Motherboard is best for such a large cooler?
  3. Is this the best air cooling?

Comments

Feel free to hack up my build(s).  I am not at this time ready for the purchase, but will be purchasing from DSO when I do.  I have a 3 year old Alienware (when they were still truly Alienware).  I was thinking of ordering from Origin but keep coming back to DSO so I have settled on DSO.

Yes, I've selected every bit of the freely offered tweaking.  If I don't HAVE to do it, and DSO will for free, why turn it down?
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Dragoonseal View Drop Down
DS Veteran
DS Veteran

Email address used to purchase matched with forums account email.

Joined: 03 Apr 2009
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2247 		  Quote Dragoonseal Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 15 Sep 2010 at 12:03pm
Originally posted by unDies

Is Motherboard correct choice to avoid any issues with the Stage 2 Noctua cooling?

Actually not so much, it only fits in a horizontal position on that motherboard. Plus its $276 more expensive than necessary.

What Motherboard is best for such a large cooler?

At $276 less than the Classified, but still offering all the same basics, it's hard to go wrong with the new SLI3 from EVGA.

Is this the best air cooling?

Pretty much.

Yes, I've selected every bit of the freely offered tweaking.  If I don't HAVE to do it, and DSO will for free, why turn it down?

Drop the free OS tweak. The disabled services or visual effects are not even a blip on the radar of an overclocked 950 processor and you can easily miss out on helpful or nice looking things by disabling them. Better to just tweak the OS to your preferences on your own.

Perhaps something like this for a better base config to build from:

Ticket #441024, Price: $2408

Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master 942 HAF X
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: EVGA X58 SLI 3 Edition (Intel X58 Chipset) (Features USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s) (Model: 131-GT-E767)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 750W Digital Storm Certified (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition Recommended)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (80GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Model: X25-M MLC Edition) (Extreme Performance)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (1TB Hitachi/Seagate (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache)
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: Blu-Ray Player/DVD Player (Play Blu-Ray and Play DVDs)
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 2: Noctua NH-D14 Extreme Performance (Does NOT fit on the regular EVGA X58 3X SLI)
H20 Tube Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Red)
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: FREE: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Cooling Upgrade Recommended)
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)
Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows 7 CD)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: FREE: Hot-selling game with a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 or above graphics card
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: Logitech Internet 350 USB Desktop (Multimedia Keyboard + RX300 Optical Wheel Mouse)
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: FREE: Digital Storm T-Shirt - Black (Large)
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty

OS/apps and a few games on the SSD, rest of the games/movies/music/media on the HDD.
Lilim
Intel Core i7 920 @4.2GHz
HAF 932 - Dual SLI Nvidia GTX 480s
3x Intel X25-M G2 (80GB) SSD RAID0
R.I.P. Sinbad the cat (November 16, 1996 - April 18, 2011)
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!ender_ View Drop Down
DS Veteran
DS Veteran


Joined: 24 Oct 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4219 		  Quote !ender_ Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 15 Sep 2010 at 12:06pm
im confused about several things in your build, first off, did you have a look at the buying / posting guide? its linked in my signature, i think it will help you choose a little more cost effeciently
 
to point out a few things,
in both builds you chose motherboards that dont offer anything over the evga sli 3, and still chose only 1 video card?
 
in your water cooling build you chose the cpu and chipset but not video when your graphics card will by far be the most limited by heat and noise without water cooling
 
also in your price range for real gaming power you should look into 470 or 480s in SLI


Edited by !ender_ - 15 Sep 2010 at 12:08pm
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