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$4,500 rig

Post Date: 2007-12-06
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Bero View Drop Down
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Posts: 9 		  Quote Bero Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Topic: $4,500 rig
    Posted: 06 Dec 2007 at 2:19pm
hello, i have a total of $4,500 and im looking to max a hardcore gaming rig i was wondering if anyone could help me out with this? I have configed rigs but they added up to $5,000 i need something $4,500 or under. I also want SLI cards and water cooling
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OlBull View Drop Down
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Posts: 125 		  Quote OlBull Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 06 Dec 2007 at 2:50pm
I would call DS and have them assist you in your config. That's what I did, and I was very pleased with the end result.  These folks are great to work with.
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Duke View Drop Down
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Posts: 262 		  Quote Duke Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 06 Dec 2007 at 2:54pm
You can definitely build a great gaming system for $4,500. Whats your configuration ticket#? Lets see what you have configured so far.   
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Bigdog View Drop Down
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Posts: 450 		  Quote Bigdog Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 06 Dec 2007 at 2:55pm

I got a system for you.  it's $4.00 more so it comes to $4,504.

 
Copy of Specifications:
Case: Digital Storm Twister EXTREME (Black Anodized Aluminum Finish)
Power Supply: 750W SilverStone Olympia (Dual SLI Compatible) (Model: OP750) (Silent)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad QX6850 Extreme 3.00GHz (1333MHz FSB)
Motherboard: nVidia 680i Core 2 Quad (By: eVGA) (nForce 680i SLI) (A1 Revision)
Memory: 4GB DDR2 Corsair at 1066MHz Dominator (Dual Channel) (Extreme-Performance)
Floppy / Card: Digital Media Card Reader (Black)
Hard Drive 1: 250GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Hard Drive 2: 250GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Raid Option: - RAID 0  HDD 1 & 2
Hard Drive 3: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD-ROM/CD-ROM (DVD Reader 16x / CD Reader 40x)
Optical Drive 2: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x)
Network Card: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (nVidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB (By: eVGA) (PCI-Express)
TV Tuner: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS (Up to 7.1 Channel) (Includes I/O Unit)
Physics Card: - No Thanks
Cooling: Liquid Chilled CPU Only (Artic Blue Liquid)
Case Lighting: - No Thanks
Round Cables: - No Thanks
User Manual: Personalized Platinum Digital Storm Binder (Includes Paperwork/Benchmarks/CDs/Manuals)
Overclock Processor: Yes, Overclock the processor as much as possible with complete stability
Overclock Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Overclock Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Tweak Windows: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Dual Boot (Windows XP Home & Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Pre-Install Game: - No Thanks
LCD Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty
Support: Lifetime Toll-Free Platinum Care Technical Support


Edited by Bigdog - 06 Dec 2007 at 3:27pm
Processor: QX6850 (3.3Ghz)
RAM: 4GB 1066 Dominators
Graphics: 2x 8800GTX 768MB
Sound Card: Fatal1ty
HDD 1: 2x 150GB raptor (RAID 0)
HDD 2: 1x 150GB raptor
HDD 3: 320GB western
Liquid cooling (red)
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Bero View Drop Down
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Posts: 9 		  Quote Bero Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 06 Dec 2007 at 3:11pm
this is what i have so far, my concern is that the SLI ultra will produce alot of heat and noise from the fans... this is a theory so im not sure if it is true. Should i go with liquid cooling the Video cards also? If i do that it will cost alot, what should  i cut for the cost of liquid cooling the video cards if i go that route

Copy of Specifications:
Case: Digital Storm Twister EXTREME (Black Anodized Aluminum Finish)
Power Supply: 850W SilverStone Decathlon (Dual SLI Compatible) (Model: DA850) (Silent)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz (1066MHz FSB) (8MB Cache)
Motherboard: nVidia 680i Core 2 Quad (By: eVGA) (nForce 680i SLI) (A1 Revision)
Memory: 4GB DDR2 Corsair at 1066MHz Dominator (Dual Channel) (Extreme-Performance)
Floppy / Card: - No Thanks
Hard Drive 1: 320GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Hard Drive 2: - No Thanks
Raid Option: - No Thanks
Hard Drive 3: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD-ROM/CD-ROM (DVD Reader 16x / CD Reader 40x)
Optical Drive 2: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x)
Network Card: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (nVidia GeForce 8800ULTRA 768MB (By: eVGA) (PCI-Express)
TV Tuner: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS (Up to 7.1 Channel) (Includes I/O Unit)
Physics Card: - No Thanks
Cooling: Thermoelectric Liquid Chilled CPU Only
Case Lighting: Blizzard Internal Lighting (Blue Edition) (Cold Cathode Tubes)
Round Cables: Enhanced Interior Air Flow (Optical Drive & Floppy Cables (Blue Edition)
User Manual: Personalized Platinum Digital Storm Binder (Includes Paperwork/Benchmarks/CDs/Manuals)
Overclock Processor: Yes, Overclock the processor as much as possible with complete stability
Overclock Video Card: Yes, Overclock the video card(s) as much as possible with complete stability
Overclock Memory: Yes, Overclock the memory timings (Includes Corsair Dominator Airflow Fan)
Tweak Windows: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (64-Bit Edition) (For Enthusiasts)
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Pre-Install Game: - No Thanks
LCD Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Desktop 2.0 (Multimedia Keyboard + Optical Wheel Mouse)
Mouse: - No Thanks my keyboard comes with a mouse
Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty
Support: Lifetime Toll-Free Platinum Care Technical Support
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gdhart View Drop Down
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Posts: 131 		  Quote gdhart Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 06 Dec 2007 at 3:34pm
A couple of places you can cut back on is by removing one of the optical drives and another would be to remove the Overclock my Video Cards as 8800 Ultras are already overclocked 8800 GTXs.
 
Another thing would be to drop down to 2 Gig of ram as most games will not utilize more then 2 Gig.
850W PSU/Pro Case
Q6600-G0 2.7GHz
nVidia 680i A1 Revision
4GB 800MHz XMS2
1x500 GB WD, 2x500GB WD RAID-1
2x500GB Ext
nVidia GeForce 8800GTX 768MB
ATI TV Wonder 650
Air Cooled Stage 3
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Duke View Drop Down
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Posts: 262 		  Quote Duke Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 06 Dec 2007 at 3:35pm
That configuration above comes out to $4,435, I guess you already made your own changes to bring it down to your budget.

Liquid cooling the GPUs is not necessary, as well as the overclocking videocard option. The Ultras are pretty much pushed to its limits in stock form, and the provided cooling solution is upto par.

EMAIL & MSN:
[email protected]
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Duke View Drop Down
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Posts: 262 		  Quote Duke Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 06 Dec 2007 at 3:38pm
Originally posted by gdhart

A couple of places you can cut back on is by removing one of the optical drives and another would be to remove the Overclock my Video Cards as 8800 Ultras are already overclocked 8800 GTXs.

Another thing would be to drop down to 2 Gig of ram as most games will not utilize more then 2 Gig.


These things are also true if you wanted to cut down your costs some more. Thanks Gdhart.
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Bero View Drop Down
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Posts: 9 		  Quote Bero Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 07 Dec 2007 at 12:50am
so just wondering what is the advantage of liquid cooling video card? Also im trying to somewhat future proof my rig so that's why i picked 4 gigs, should i get 800 mhz speed and just overclock the memory speed or stick with the 1066 and get the timing overclocked?
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sundowner View Drop Down
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Posts: 501 		  Quote sundowner Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 07 Dec 2007 at 4:03am 
http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=100027



If you request a few extra fans you should be able to get an OC to 3.8 possibly 4.0


This rig would last you 3-4 years.
Pro case with extra fan
Quad Q6600 2.4 OC'd 3.1!
Nvidia 8800GT
Asus Maximus Formula Mobo
2xgb 800mhz corsair

xfire - xuntiltheendx
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Cr8ton View Drop Down
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Posts: 96 		  Quote Cr8ton Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 07 Dec 2007 at 12:40pm
Originally posted by Bero

so just wondering what is the advantage of liquid cooling video card? Also im trying to somewhat future proof my rig so that's why i picked 4 gigs, should i get 800 mhz speed and just overclock the memory speed or stick with the 1066 and get the timing overclocked?
 
I got my 1066mhz with the memeory clock speed, was this a bad move? I didn't have any prior knowledge as to which I should get. It's too late now..I'm just curious if it was a waste to get the increase memory speed with a 1066mhz memory chip, or if I should have went with timing instead..?


Edited by Cr8ton - 07 Dec 2007 at 12:41pm
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 3.15 GHz
MB: nVidia 680i Core 2 Quad(A1 revision)
Memory: 2GB DDR2 Corsair at 1333MHz Dominator
Video: nVidia GeForce ULTRA 768MB
Sound: X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS
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Tyler Lowe View Drop Down
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Posts: 0 		  Quote Tyler Lowe Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 07 Dec 2007 at 1:30pm
Past 800MHz, I would have opted for timing tweeks personally.
 
Max theoretical bandwidth on an Intel 1333FSB: 10.664GB/s, so in theory you would see some performance gain up to DDR2 @ 1333MHz (1333 MT/s * 8 bits = 10.664GB/s bandwidth) at a front side bus speed of 1333MHz. This is a true 1:1 ratio, and precludes any bottlenecking, at all, at the RAM aside from latency.
 
Theory is interesting to read about, but when it comes to practical limits, you won't see significant gains in performance past PC6400 (800MHz RAM). What you will see, is gains in performance in lowering the latency of the RAM. The complete answer took me many pages of reading to understand, but the simple version is this: Take the first 3 numbers in your RAM timing. Add them together. Between each request is your command rate, which is normally 2T (2 clock cycles). This is how long in clock cycles the RAM takes to send a cache line to the L2 cache in the CPU. You want that number to be as low as possible.
 
Without going over multipliers, which are covered elsewhere on this forum, exceeding 667MHz should get you enough bandwidth for FSB speeds up to 1333MHz. You're getting a Q6600. Odds are fair that your FSB setting will not exceed 1333MHz by much, and will absolutely not exceed 1600MHz. If I had had 1066 RAM installed, I'd ask for tighter timings rather than more speed.
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Bigdog View Drop Down
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Posts: 450 		  Quote Bigdog Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 07 Dec 2007 at 8:53pm

does RAM past 800Mhz make a difference when using Music Software...such as "SEQUEL"? 

I was told by a few people that it does, also the Processor is a big deal if your recording as well?  Thats just what I heard.   So I am pretty sure anything past 800mhz makes a difference if you have the right software?
Processor: QX6850 (3.3Ghz)
RAM: 4GB 1066 Dominators
Graphics: 2x 8800GTX 768MB
Sound Card: Fatal1ty
HDD 1: 2x 150GB raptor (RAID 0)
HDD 2: 1x 150GB raptor
HDD 3: 320GB western
Liquid cooling (red)
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Tyler Lowe View Drop Down
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Posts: 0 		  Quote Tyler Lowe Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 07 Dec 2007 at 11:30pm

As I am completely unfamiliar with "SEQUEL" I won't even hazard a guess. Tongue.

 If you want to get more quantitative idea of performance gained rather than qualitative and subjective terms such as"not significant" or "substantial" the only way to find out is to install faster RAM, downclock it without tightening the timings up and then test it with a specific application. You can do much the same by disabling 2 cores in a quad in the bios and running the test 2 cores vs 4 if you really want to know the difference.
 
 
I can only speak from my experience when it comes to gaming. I've had my RAM at 1066 and noticed absolutely no difference vs my RAM at 866 other than a need to increase heat and volts, which I would just as soon not do. Not that I put any stock into it whatsoever, but Vista thinks both are an index score of 5.7.  Futuremark thinks they're the same also returning scores within 100 points either way in PCMark05 testing.
 
Synthetics are by no means the last word on anything though. I wouldn't rule out any possibilities. Who's to say there isn't a program out there that would see full benefit of a true 1:1 RAM to FSB ratio? Certainly not me.
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Bigdog View Drop Down
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Posts: 450 		  Quote Bigdog Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 08 Dec 2007 at 10:22pm
Tyler Lowe, I will fill you in on this fine piece of software.   It's basically a studio program for Mixing, loops, recording, multi track purposes, etc etc.  You can do anything and almost everything with this software.   You can basically do anything on this program when it comes to music.
 
SEQUEL is VERY and I mean VERY processor hungry,  It relies heavily on floating point calculations.   Another cool thing is it has full support for multi-processor systems.
 
Nevermind, I guess ram doesn't take full affect of it, but you must have at least 1GB of ram which is the minimum requirement for SEQUEL.
 
So ram speed  I don't think has a huge factor in it I guess.  I could be wrong though :/
 
I hope I'm wrong LOL.


Edited by Bigdog - 08 Dec 2007 at 10:23pm
Processor: QX6850 (3.3Ghz)
RAM: 4GB 1066 Dominators
Graphics: 2x 8800GTX 768MB
Sound Card: Fatal1ty
HDD 1: 2x 150GB raptor (RAID 0)
HDD 2: 1x 150GB raptor
HDD 3: 320GB western
Liquid cooling (red)
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commast View Drop Down
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Posts: 262 		  Quote commast Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 09 Dec 2007 at 3:29am
RAM speed doesn't matter much for Sequel since it required a fast multi-core processor, just like Photoshop. Faster RAM will give you better results in synthetic benchmark (mostly bandwidth tests) but it's hard to say if the results are the same in real life apps. I've already posted the benchmarks results between 800mhz and 1066mhz that Maximum PC did a while back if you can find it.
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Bigdog View Drop Down
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Posts: 450 		  Quote Bigdog Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 09 Dec 2007 at 4:23am
So basically the faster RAM you have, the better overclock you MIGHT have?.   That's all I can think of now for faster RAM. 
 
It's starting to "urk" me now because now I want to know the real purpose of having 1066mhz compared to 800mhz or 1250mhz.  TGAHHHH it's bugging the crap outa me.
Processor: QX6850 (3.3Ghz)
RAM: 4GB 1066 Dominators
Graphics: 2x 8800GTX 768MB
Sound Card: Fatal1ty
HDD 1: 2x 150GB raptor (RAID 0)
HDD 2: 1x 150GB raptor
HDD 3: 320GB western
Liquid cooling (red)
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